Financial Struggles With Stella

Okay, I think we kinda get the gist. Lets talk money... My goal is to save up and move down to OK with my boyfriend, and start building our lives together. In July of this year I made the decision to finance a newer used vehicle and between the car payment itself, and the insurance on it, I am now starting to regret my decision. My car payment is about $400 a month and insurance about $330. That’s like a LOT of monthly outflow already. I also pay my mom $300 a month in rent. We are currently at about $1,030 just in my three primary bills. That doesn’t include, gas, food and phone, but I’ve estimated those to be about $300. $1,330 outflow with $2,000 monthly income. Plus some smaller bills and subscriptions that I still have to add up but we’ll save those for another time. Now that I’m doing all this math I think my estimates for the gas and food were off because there is no way I should have about $600 left. 

Over the next few weeks I will closely monitor my spending and get everything down to some exact numbers but maybe I am just truly that horrible with my money. 

Starting Numbers:

Car Loan Balance: $19,903.87

Credit Card Balance: $935.08

Since we last spoke I have been able to start a nice chunk of my savings, and I’ve been looking into either getting a better job, or even moving up in my current job. I’ve been trying to brainstorm on what I would like to do as a long term career, and honestly, I’ve been struggling quite a lot. I know one thing I’ve loved about all my jobs so far, has been the human interaction, and helping customers, the things I dislike specifically about my current place of work, is my management. I cannot stand who my upper management is, both my store manager and sales manager have made their way onto my shit list. The way that both of them talk to people is so demeaning and condescending, and it really grinds my gears. Another thing I dislike about my current position is how temporary it feels, I feel like this is just the filler chapter of my life, which I guess it kind of is, but I would love to still feel like my life has some meaning, ya know? 

I’ve been working really hard to try and focus on my goals, and make sure I don’t over spend. I have a few things I need to spend on this month that are necessary but unbudgeted for, such as new sneakers to work in (my old ones were worn out and my feet have been killing me), and I also need an oil change and tire rotation for my car. Both of these are just parts of life, however I had not budgeted them in necessarily, since I barely started budgeting to begin with. 

I am going to try to start putting away at least $50 from each paycheck, now that I get payed weekly, that will be $200 a month, which hopefully will be achievable. That will end up being a little over 2K saved this year just from that. I would also love to start Door-Dashing again to bump up how much I can afford to stash away each month. Even if that doesn’t happen though, I hope I will at least be able to keep up with the minimum of $200 a month. 

I also think I am going to start doing a weekly spending log at the bottom here, instead of doing it as daily, so I will update it every time to adjust the amount per week, including bills and everything. But I will start that this week, since I have also fallen back on not tracking my spending as I was previously. 

Finance Tracker:

One of my more personal goals for this upcoming week is to get at least something put into my savings. Another goal is to try and get my sleep schedule back on track. As some of you may know, I had a week off last week, and my sleep schedule has been all sorts of out of line. 

One thing I would love to do to wrap up the end of the year is tidy up my space, and try to just really finish the year off strong, and therefore starting the new year off fresh. I definitely need to super deep clean my room and declutter a ton of stuff, maybe I’ll actually sell some of it and put that money into my savings as well, but if I don't get to it I plan on at least donating what I can. 

Alright, I think that’s all for today. definitely feel free to DM me suggestions or hit the “Ask me anything” button on my profile if you have questions or feedback! I’d love to hear from you!

Finance Tracker:

Savings: $0

I currently just work as a head cashier, and although I love interacting with customers, this job is not something I can see being something long term. I mean honestly, even if I moved up to supervisor or manager, it still would not feel like a real, long term job. 

Okay, now onto the daily update. Today I didn’t do much, other than go to work and watch my little sisters middle school band concert, exciting, I know. I will say, that since I’ve started this Tumblr blog, I’ve been thinking a lot more about my spending habits and my current financial status, which has been quite enlightening, I suppose. Just trying to think about all the places of which I needlessly spend, or how to stop being so careless with my money. I need to focus on not just telling myself that just because I have that money does not mean I can/should/need to spend that money. I need to start making sure I remind myself of my long term goals. Which is mainly trying to figure out a long-term living situation with my long-distance boyfriend, but to achieve that I must focus on being super tight with my money and only spending on absolute necessities. “Do I really need to go out and buy my sister and I dinner?” “Do I really need this shirt?” “Can I live without this thing?” The answer is NO, you do not need it! I’ve really been trying to make sure I stick with this very minimal spending, however its very difficult to break a habit that you’ve pretty much always done. Today, the only thing I spent money on was my lunch, because I skipped breakfast and was starving. But, this is not unusual for me to buy my lunches, in-fact, it’s part of what I’ve budgeted in for. However, for both my wallets sake and my own, another goal I have is to start prepping some simple, easy to throw together meals to take with me to work. My biggest issue with that, is that I’m kind of a picky eater and I get really bored of the same meals everyday, but I am still going to give it a shot. I will try to start implementing this after I go grocery shopping again, so I can make sure I have everything I need for my meals.

Financial Tracker:

Savings:$0

Today, I did buy my sister and I some food as well as we went Christmas shopping, so that’s why I spent such a high amount today. But, I am now all done with Christmas shopping so I no longer have to worry about that. I do normally get lots of gift cards from my family members for Christmas, and they’re typically those Visa gift cards that you can use anywhere. So I have decided I will either only use those for the next few months for my purchases other than my auto bills, or I will put those into my savings. I haven’t quite decided on which yet but either one will pretty much have the same outcome; money going into my savings 

I don’t want this all to just be me ranting about my financial struggles, as I would love to make this a little more personal than that. So I will also try to include funny details about my day, or anything I feel interesting enough to share with you all. If anyone has any questions or comments, I’d love to hear them! You can DM me or even hit the ask button on my profile!

 Financial Tracker:

Savings: $0