Raise, Bonus, and Available Overtime
Whew, snow days are finally over! Back to normal schedule at work, except for 1 more major holiday this week: New Year’s!
I’ve been lucky enough to become a manager at work this past summer (which included a big raise). I close my building at work once a week, and due to another new manager, I took over for him and closed twice a week for extra OT. That usually gave me about 4-5 hours of OT every week, with as much as 11 hours on occasion (if a job went late and crew didn’t return until 7 or so).
I just found out that starting January 1st, I’m not going to be doing that closing twice a week any longer, so I’ll be loosing 1 day of OT a week.
Outside of the economic woes (which has impacted us), we had some major reparations we had to pay out to vendors and clients. My department was really close to making plan, but due to missing 3+ days due to snow closures, we have officially not done as expected. This means my department (and I) will not be getting bonuses. We were *so* close! Others will, but not mine. Bummer. It wouldn’t have been very much, but it would have been nice, between $800-$1500 I think.
Finally, raises are coming up. I won’t know until I have my performance review, but I am pretty hopeful that I’ll get a $.50/hr raise. Luckily, I’m able to look at my department and allocate raises to people, so I know the general ballpark of what people are getting, and thus can make a comparison to myself. That’s only about $500 a year (not including overtime), but hey! Anything is gravy. Not expecting to increase my standard of living or anything, but nice! At least I hope I get one.. we’ll see.
December Results
I finally got my paycheck deposited and caught up on keeping tally of my expenses. I looked to be in good shape this month, with a 1 very low initial paycheck and a 2nd very large (due to mega-overtime) check. I’m just going to squeak by on meeting my food expenses, and I’m under in every other category, though I did go over significantly for coffee (I blame snow days, being housebound and getting stir crazy). I didn’t budget for gifts, so that will be a new item to add for future months.
I had $116 in snowflakes.
I just paid $500 towards my Personal Line of Credit principal. I’ve decided to focus entirely on paying down this debt – it has the highest rate of anything I owe. The SBA is low enough that I will pay the minimum only – which is simply the interest only. They do not require payment on the principal, which lets me pay even more towards the higher percentage Personal Line which is at 10%.
This month saw me have a big expected expense, my laptop. I’ll have to pay that off next month, when it hits my citibank statement. I may not be able to make any extra Personal Line payments next month, and if I don’t have enough to cover the laptop payment, then I’ll dip into my EF to pay the full balance.
I’ve also decided to put $255 towards my emergency fund, which will bring the balance up to $500! This will put me halfway there!
Totals are now updated on the right side of the page, and I’ll post a budget spreadsheet after the end of the month.
How many of you are saving or budgetting, and how did you fare this month with the economy and holiday shopping?
New Computer, No Work, More Snow
Beware of shopping! My neighbor has helped me show for a new laptop, giving me some insights on some other brands besides Dell (my original) that would work, and for cheaper! I found a few good ones, then bf dragged me to office depot 3 days ago and they had a great deal on a better version. I had them put it on hold, went home to comparison shop and check reviews, and found it even cheaper online! The store said they’d extend me the same price, so I got a brand new Toshiba Satellite L355 wide-screen laptop for $580+tax. That’s a bunch cheaper than the $900 I expected to pay.
I put the whole thing on my credit card, but I can pay it off this month I think if I dip into my EF a little (after all, I was planning on this purchase and I’d rather not have the credit card rate apply). So I’m happily playing on my new computer, putting it through its paces. I’ll try and load the various software that I have and see if I can still use it, or if I have to buck up and buy software. For right now i’ll do without. At least I now having a working CD drive (and I can even burn DVDs now, hoorah!).
The bad news is that we had even MORE snow this weekend, and work is closed yet again (3rd day running). I have almost no vacation left to make this up. It will be a really bad paycheck in early January. Will have to make sure I’m really really lean on my budget.
I haven’t driven anywhere since Thursday, other than a mile down the street and back, maximum. I have been going to cofffee shops to use the internet, which means $4 a visit for the last few days, but I get a little stir crazy being stuck in 1 room (the only one with heat) at my studio, no bf (he’s housesitting and stuck elsewhere), and no netflix videos to watch, I ran out of my library books and can’t make it to a branch (there are lots of hills on the way there). Add no internet, and you’ve got one bored chicklet!
One of the few upsides – I haven’t bought much food. I’ve been going through what’s at home, other than a last-minute trip to costco (they are just down the street). I’m a bit behind on keeping up with my budget, but all of my expenses have been minimal, though I would love to stop for food for lunch since they’ll be warm, unlike my 30-40 degree kitchen.
One bright spot – my manager went in to work to get client names and numbers to call to cancel work. We got paid on Friday but no one could make it in. Today he called and offered to take paychecks around town for everyone. So he stopped outside my building (I’m on his way home) to give me mine! Yeah!!! I already brought it to the bank, they were closed, probably because of the weather, and I have a big bill due tomorrow.
The Paycheck News Just Gets Worse
Well, I’m here to report snow day #2. Seattle just isn’t use to snow and with the temp in the twenties and the 4 or so inches of snow and ice on every side street, I’m not going anywhere. J is housesitting over in West Seattle and managed to come over today but I was solo yesterday because the bridge was closed and it was too dangerous to drive.
So my next paycheck is going to be abysmally small, unless I use my last 2 vacation days to pump it up. Even my 1 hour overtime and 3 hours of doubletime on Monday at midnight won’t help too much. And they are predicting a big snow storm again this weekend.
On top of that, today is payday. The company I work for doesn’t have direct deposit (I’m not entirely sure why), and I can’t get my check today. So my funds are super low and it’s the last weekend before christmas. I hope I don’t have to dip into savings or use the credit card for groceries/gifts! One further black mark for this coming paycheck: Due to some not understood arcane payrole reasoning, our pay period will end on 12/30 and the last day of the month (and year) will be applied to NEXT year’s first pay period. So I’ll miss 2 days and be short a day. Lovely.
Stay warm everyone!
*$!# Gas Company
I *just* found out that my gas bills of $25+ in the summer months is for the privilege of HAVING gas! I only use gas for heat and only in November through winter!
I can’t believe I’ve been paying essentially $25 x 6 months to have gas available. My most recent bill of $45 has a $30 base charge. UGH, the waste!
I am definitely going to cancel service in April – I won’t use it again until November, and with a $30-$35 hookup fee, that’s essentially 5 months of no bills. UGH. I am so very upset right now. Grrrrrrrrrrr. Well, at least today is a snow day! We have 4 inches of snow, so no work today.
No Heat! Goal progress!
Our heat stopped working on Sunday. It’s below freezing. I had to stay home from work today so that the gas tech could come, somewhere “between 8 AM and midnight.” Ugh, a 16-hour window?!?! So I used this as an opportunity to get rolling on one of my 2009 goals: selling art by having shows.
The past few days I’ve been making a list of the places around town that I’d like to show work. I wrote my submission letter and spent today figuring out who to send it to, and calling to find out the submission process if it wasn’t listed on the website.
I’ve sent several out so far, and I’ll keep track on a spreadsheet for their responses or lack thereof. That way, I’ll have an idea if it went into a black hole, or if they nibbled, or they never want to hear from me again. I know artists can frequently not have their s$!t together, so just reminding people that I’m available to show can often be all the opportunity I need (what? Can you do it this weekend? Our scheduled artist bailed!).
I spent the day keeping warm at a local coffee shop that has free internet, while I was waiting. And I cleaned the house (visitors always make me clean!). And the heat now works and I’ve been luxuriating in my nose being warm and being able to take off my hat indoors!
Stay warm!
Stock Up!
No, this doesn’t have anything to do with xmas stockings! It has to do with maximizing your savings on items you regularly consume. See something you use on sale for a really good price? Buy a ton – as much as you can stand to have on hand. If it’s a food item with an expiration date, buy as much as you would normally use by the expiration date. Initially, it will cost more in your budget, but once you have an on-hand stockpile of foodstuffs, you’ll find yourself buying less when you do go to the store.
A few tips:
- Shop for ingredients after big holidays. If it’s non-perishable, buy for the next holiday (ornaments, lights, etc)
- Comparison shop! Pay attention to what the stores you frequent charge. I have a head for remembering useless data, like prices. If you can’t remember them, write them down! Wait for the best prices, then buy in quantity.
- Always take advantage of the opportunity to save. It may seem counter-intuitive, but sometimes to save money (in the long run) you have to spend money (in the short run).
After Thanksgiving, we were on the lookout for canned pumpkin. We make pumpkin bread, and canned works just fine! I started seeing them on sale immediately after, but it varied greatly. $2.69 ea, 2 for $5, then eventually we found 2 for $4. Score! We bought 5 or 6 cans. There’s only so much pumpkin bread I’ll want to eat, but you can get the idea.
Most recently, shopping at Metropolitan Market (which is great for free-range chicken, but is hideously expensive on most all other items), they had a big sale on bush’s baked beans. I’d been on the lookout for the past month, and at 3 for $5 on the large cans, instead of about $2.69 to over $3 each, that was a steal. We bought 12 cans, a good 3-4 month supply.
Some other tips: pay attention to the aisle ends. Stores will have specials and “after” sales posted here. Not always, but you’ll start to see the patterns.
Make a habit of cruising the aisles. You don’t have to linger; go quickly and scan the sale tags. Eventually you’ll notice brands and items you like, and eventually spot your own jackpot.
Good luck saving!
Selling art
A lot of people that follow Dave Ramsey or that are aware of the snowflake revolution talk about selling their excess stuff to make money to put towards savings. I’m not much of a hoarder. Most of the stuff that I have I want to keep. I have moved a few times in the last few years and everytime I get rid of extra stuff by donating it to Good Will. So I do have some stuff, and I could sell it, but I realized that I haven’t been pushing my art lately.
I do fine art photography, have been in some galleries (I have an art degree, for what it’s worth), but I haven’t been pushing the, what I call, the coffee-house circuit. I have a ton of framed work, ready to go, and it’s taking up valuable real estate in my studio (we built an entire art storage area for it and it’s overflowing).
So today I gave out a few cards at shops I went to, and I need to send emails with my web portfolios. I don’t have anything set up for 2009! I usually sell 1 work on average at these, and that’s $350-$450. Need to get back on the ball on this!!!
I’m going to email a bunch of local shops and see if I can get some shows scheduled. For next year I’m going to have to make sure I have lots of prints available, matted and in polybags. Our building is having open studios for the holidays, and I just do not have my act together. Most of my stuff is larger, framed, limited edition, and higher priced. I need to start doing more uneditioned cheaper stuff. Especially in this economy!
I’m going to add this to my 2009 budget goals – getting on the art show circuit again and scheduling at least 3-4 shows for the year, more if I can get them.
My first Snowflake
The economy has not been great for the company I work for. Imaging my pleased suprise to get a little holiday bonus from work. It’s only $100, but hey, it’s still nice! Still not sure if we’ll get a bonus this year. We had a big unexpected $70,000 expense (damage) that has definitely cut into our profits, so we may not have much profit share to go around once the economy’s impact is said and done (we usually get that after our reviews and by February’s paychecks).
So this is the first test for my debt resolve. Do I go out and have a nice sushi dinner? Do I go buy myself something? Do I put it towards my upcoming computer purchase, or do I put it straight towards debt? Why debt of course!
Any unexpected income is to go 100% towards debt. As soon as I make the transfer, I’ll update my totals!
DebtMaven 