As you can see, according to the calculations on the receipt, $22.40 which comes out to about 11% off of what the price would have been had I not purchased things that were on sale and used that $0.50 coupon that was available at the store. However, that is not everything that I purchased.

As I was loading all of my groceries from the shopping cart into my vehicle, I realized that I had forgotten to buy bread, for whatever reason I just walked right past that isle and didn’t even think of it. So, I went back in to get a couple of loaves of bread.

This completed my shopping trip and I now have food in the house so that I will not be as inclined to eat fast food as often. Perhaps I should buy fewer groceries at a time and go more often, but I think for now I will continue as I have been doing and just go when I need food and can afford to buy a bunch of groceries.

At any rate, I currently have $41.00 in cash in my wallet and a checking account balance of (by my calculations) $316.75. This is after spending some last night and getting some cash.

It was payday this week from both my full-time and part-time job. I received $447.12 from my full-time job and $139.81 from my part-time job. It felt really nice to get that money and not have a stack of bills waiting to be paid, at the same time it was somewhat concerning because I kept thinking that I must have misplaced some bills or something. I checked all my previous statements and check register and it looks like I really am getting on top of things! At this point, I have the bill from my remaining store credit account and also some student loan payments that I need to make.

Last night, I went grocery shopping (that will be discussed separately as I plan to scan in the receipt and share that with you all) and spent $177.93, but according to the receipt I saved like 11% so that’s pretty cool. Also, I put $32.50 worth of gas in my vehicle and took $40.00 cash out of the ATM.

The other thing coming out of my paycheck already is my $25.00 automatic transfer to savings every two-weeks, I’m excited to report that I currently have $404.03 in there so if I need to I can take $100 out to pay a bill without falling below the $300 that will trigger a $3.00 monthly service charge!

Also, coming in as pretty big news is that I have started another part-time job so that I now have a little bit more money coming in to help get these things taken care of.

In other account balance news, I somehow managed to overpay the Store Credit 1 account to the point where not only did I get it paid off before having to pay any interest (remember that one was no interest no payments until November 1) but I now have a $50 credit there….I’m not sure if that will be refunded to me or if it will just stay there until I use the account again, but either way it’s one less line of debt!

Also, I have managed to get my savings account up to $379.03 so I have a little bit of a safety net again!

Time To Pay Some Bills

Well, only three bills to pay today. It’s a good thing too, right now my checking account is at $605.25. At least I have $26.00 cash to get me through till payday!

$400.00 - Credit Card 1 - This is my set monthly payment…for now
$100.00 - Revolving Credit Account - Amount Due $91.00
$100.00 - Electricity - Amount Due $75.44

One bright note that I will mention today is that I had a couple of bills arrive this past week and by using my rounding up method, I don’t have to pay them this month. My internet bill shows a credit of $13.73 and my landline/cable bill shows a credit of $8.94 and both say “Do Not Pay” in the “Payment Due By” space.

Oh, and as for an excuse in regards to my absence, I had an opportunity to travel a small amount right when this site fell dormant, and since then have taken on some additional part-time work that keeps me busy but is helping me get a bit closer to financial freedom. Now that I’ve returned here, though, I’ll get into the habit of posting all of my financial matters as well as reading and commenting on the sites of the people in my “Sites I Like” section of my sidebar!

I suppose it wasn’t too bad as I purchased a few things I actually need….the main reason for writing the post is simply because I want to log everything.

I will be shelling out a bunch more money tomorrow because I need to pay rent yet and also because I am going to be paying car insurance and adding renter’s insurance to my yearly bills because I probably should have gotten it a long time ago and am just finally trying to stop procrastinating and get my life in order…..

Stay tuned!

Supper tonight was Taco John’s and cost me $5.13

Friday
$8.48 (cash) at WalMart
$5.35 (cash) at Burger King

Saturday
$7.00 (cash) at Olive Garden
$13.76 (debit card) at Target

Sunday
$3.85 (cash) at Burger King
$5.15 (cash) at a gas station (bottle of water, Mt. Dew, and sunflower seeds)

It ended up being a fair amount, but I don’t think I did too terrible at any one spot so am fairly happy with my weekend. Also, I don’t feel that any of my spending was terribly frivolous so can be fairly happy with that.

My cell phone statement came showing a credit of $6.40 so I don’t have to pay that one until next month! Yippee, that’s extra money that I can use elsewhere…I had a $90 speeding ticket that I got Sunday. It isn’t due until the 22nd, but there’s no harm in sending it in early…so much for the extra money from not having to pay my cell phone bill.

$225.00 - Revolving Credit Account - Minimum Payment $206.00 (includes past due amount of $102 and I got a $35.00 late fee - yuck!)
$125.00 - Landline/Cable TV - Amount Due $106.74
$100.00 - Internet - Amount Due $79.17
$100.00 - Credit Card 2 - Amount Due $91.00
$ 50.00 - Electricity - Amount Due $49.15
$ 65.00 - Store Credit 2 - Amount Due $10 (my payment also includes a $15 fee because I paid by phone to avoid late fees)
$150.00 - Student Loan 1 - Amount Due $149.91 (includes $61.14 past due and $28.00 late fee)
$200.00 - Student Loan 2 - Amount Due $180.65 (includes $75.68 past due and $28.00 late fee)

I’ve updated my progress counter in the sidebar, and it looks like I’ve actually gone backwards! Yikes, I’m sure this is partly due to my late payments and not getting some of these things taken care of last month. Hopefully next time I update it, I will be making progress…with any luck, I should at least be able to be at less than I started!

Since my last post, I got paid (yay) from both my full time and part time jobs:

Full Time: $431.04
Part Time: $163.93

Then, I turned around and spent most of it before paying bills (shame on me I know)
I had a domain name renewal (automatic withdrawal) that cost me $6.99
I also have an automatic transfer set-up that takes $25 from my checking each time I get paid from my full time job (twice per month) and puts it into my savings account
Also coming out of my checking account was $40.00 that I withdrew from the ATM on the 28th.

I spent $373.71 on car parts (oil, oil filter, air filter, spark plugs, and brake pads) that I used, but also purchased some parts that were not used and I will be taking back so I should get a little bit of money back (estimating around $120 or $125 so I will be sure to report on that.

While on the topic of my vehicle, I spent $55.00 on fuel on the 25th, $20 (cash) on the 27th, and $71.60 on the 30th (of that though, about $24 or $25 of it went into a jet ski that I was borrowing)

In other expenditures, I spent $8.00 at Dairy Queen on either Monday or Tuesday and $4.36 at Wendy’s last night. I also spent $4.55 at the hardware store yesterday because I needed some stuff to do some minor home repairs.

Whew, that was a lot of spending :S

I also did some moving around of money…I took $2.09 worth of loose change out of my pocket and put into my change jar and took $1,000 out of a money market account that I had (that account is now depleted) as my last resort emergency fund. Of that $1,000 I put $251 into my savings (I’m now above $300 which is my bank’s minimum to avoid a $3.00 monthly service fee which I just got nailed with again) and the other $749 into my checking account. I’m going to pay bills now and see how far I get, I’ll likely end up depleting my savings account yet again

I try not to eat out because I know that it is expensive and also very unhealthy, but I still do once in a while. On a brighter note, aside from some sunflower seeds, that was my one meal today which means my food cost for today was $5.89.