What Am I Doing?

Well, I signed up for a free Quicken account to get a visual idea of where my money is going. Seeing where all my money is going in a pie chart is a little scary, especially when I see how big my 'dining' and 'entertainment' chunks are. So I know right off where I need to do some chopping. To be completely honest, I already knew I was spending too much on these things.

They also have a goal feature, and I set a specific amount to each category, allowing myself only specific amounts for certain categories. I started doing this in the middle of the month, so I wound up having to adjust certain levels (entertainment, dining) as I went along.

I also created a quick little Excel spreadsheet, mapping out my bills, how much I plan on each check to put into savings, how much I have left over, and how much of that I have to spend on crap like dining and entertainment per week. I'm thinking of taking that amount out of the bank every pay period, and going straight cash for the frivolous things. If I run out of money early, tough cookies. I have this spreadsheet set up to go to the end of the year.

I'm also trying to find a second job, or maybe even one that pays more than I make now. I was close, oh so close, to getting an old job back with a good company I used to work for with good pay, but I somehow blew the second phone interview, because it was right after that I got the email denying me the job. That one hurt. Hopefully a second job will come along soon. I know with the holidays coming soon, something should open up. Hopefully something not to hard on my body.

Time to get ready for work. First day back after being gone for two weeks due to the surgery. They'll have me doing probably nothing but register since I'm on lifting restriction. But I can't take any more time off. This surgery break cost me all my sick time and almost all my vacation pay. After that I would be on FMLA pay, which is only 60% of my normal pay, and there's no way I can live on that.