#mysstella

[mysstella]

Life Update 1/14/23

Hey guys! So sorry it’s been so long, my pc needed parts and I had a bunch of other stuff going on as well, and then I proceeded to procrastinate on posting here, of course. All is well now though, so I would love to continue with daily updates again. 

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:

Savings: $500

[mysstella]

Day Two-Dec. 14, 22

Hey guys! So yesterday and today I have been tracking all my expenses down in my notes, so I can see exactly how much I spend, when and where. I think this in depth break down of my cash flow will really help me see where my issues are occurring, to hopefully help me break this terrible habit of spending I have. I will also start including the log of outflow at the bottom along with my debt balances and my saving balance. Obviously the outflow one is going to be really the only one that will change daily, as I am not going to be paying towards my debt every single day. So I have decided to only update the debt sections once a month to reduce redundancy.  

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

Spent today: $72.04

[mysstella]

Day One- Dec. 13, 22

Hello, I’m Stella. I believe day 1 should start with an introduction, so here’s some things about me!

I have a cat named Pepper, he is my pride and joy.

I live in New York, but not the big city (there’s more to NY than just the city guys).

I have a boyfriend of pretty much 2 years, who lives in Oklahoma. 

I have spending problems.

Oh, and I’m 20.  

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

Savings: $0