Crafty Kitty

Yesterday was the last straw.  I bounced a check.  This is like the 4th check I’ve bounced since I moved to Madison.  I never, ever, ever bounced a check before moving here.  In Oshkosh I always had money coming out the wazoo.  I thought it would be the same in Madison, so I’ve sort of been neglecting my finances and have not really been paying attention to where my money goes for months.  But that bounced check made me sit down and get everything straightened out.

Luckily for me, I had a free copy of MS Money lying around that my boss had given me.  Granted it was the 2005 version and not the latest, greatest 2006 version, but it will serve its purpose.  I took an hour or two last night, loaded it up on my laptop and got to entering all my account information.  I had used Money when I first moved out 4 years ago and had a free version on the computer I had at the time.  I kept up with it for a while but it was kind of a pain in the ass because it was not nearly as automated as it is now.  This time around I just had to enter user names and passwords and through the magic of the interweb it pulls all the transaction info in for me!  All I have to do is assign it to an expense category (or an income category as the case may be).

Once I had everything pulled in and categorized I was faced with the cold hard facts of my financial situation.  Let me tell you it was not pretty.  It’s not horrible, but it could be (SHOULD BE) so much better.  I’m not accumulating an insane amount of debt or anything, but I’m not really saving anything either.  I’m one of those kinds of people who thinks that I should have at least two months rent in savings just in case for some strange reason I would lose my job (and of course still need to pay rent).  Right now, I can’t say that I would be able to do that.  Fuck, I can’t even cover a month right now, which I think might give me an ulcer if I keep thinking about it.

I am taking proactive steps to correct this whole mess.  The first thing I did was cut up my best friend – the Amazon Visa.  I was never a big credit card user before.  I would use one if I had to buy something online or if I didn’t have my check book with me.  Then the Amazon Visa was introduced into my life, and what a havoc wreaker he was.  I used him left and right, everywhere I went, because HECK YES, I was going to be getting free money to use on Amazon.  And I did – right around every 3 months I got a $25 gift certificate to spend on Amazon.  The problem was that because I was using the card instead of my checking book (or check card), in which I could see the money coming out left and right, I was using the card and not paying attention to how much I spent ,or where I was spending it or what I was spending it on.  Then I would get this amazingly huge statement at the end of the month and I would ask myself, “Self, where did we spend all this money in such a short amount of time?”  Stupid self just pushed that nagging question to the back of my mind and here we are months later and I’ve screwed myself financially.

Secondly, I’ve allowed myself about $80 spending cash a month.  That means no more going out for lunch every day at work.  It also means not going out on the town as much – for dinner and to the bars.  It also means NO MORE YARN, FABRIC or other CRAFT RELATED supplies until I get back on my feet.  I’m actually quite okay with this.  If ya’ll saw the stash of fabric under my bed you might just be a little scared that I’ve accumulated as much as I have.  Plus, I have enough yarn stashed away to keep me knitting for a year so I really don’t need anymore.  Can you tell I’m trying to rationalize this all to myself?

I’ve also come up with the goal to get my savings up to $5,000 in a year.  Once I get to that point, that doesn’t mean I can go out and start spending irrationally again.  It means that I can spend a little more but still SAVE a lot.  I’m going to be going to graduate school in a couple of years, and though I know I’ll undoubtedly need some student loans, I would also like to be able to pay for at least some of it up front.

According to my Money budget, and once I get Mr. Amazon Visa paid off after this next cycle, I should have around $500 a month to plop into savings.  By that math, I should be able to get $5,000 into my savings account in a year.  This is something I need to do.  This is something I will do.  This blog entry will hold me to it.