Gas went down. Which means instead of spending $40 and not even completely filled, I spent $36.85 and filled up my tank completely!

I am happily adding another $3.00 (my change from the $40 I gave to the clerk) to the $20 challenge.

No more gas pump woes! (For now)

Old Balance: $88.00
+ $3.00
New Balance: $91.00

I made $18 in tips today; should have been more but 2 servers forgot to tip me out. Servers.

$3.00 into the $20 Challenge. I've noticed that it's become more of a collection of ones.

Old Balance: $85.00
+ $3.00
New Balance: $88.00

I've decided that I'm going to add any tips in ones to my $20 Challenge.

Over the lunch hour I made $29 in tips, $14 of w hich was ones.

Old Balance: $71.00
+ $14.00
New Balance: $85.00

I've been thinking of buying a CD with ING. I'm pretty sure I'll pick the 48 month term with a 5% APY (APR?).

Has any of you bought a CD with ING? Good? Bad? How about ING in general?

My little brother will be getting his license around December and because my current baby was passed down from my mom, it has to be passed down to my brother.

Which leaves me funding my own car (hence the savings goal of $20,000). I'm going to buy used and I think I found my new baby- a 2001 Honda Insight. It's a hybrid that gets 61 mpg city and 68 mpg highway.

Because we live in an area that gets snow (about 1-2 feet every year) I want a car that does well in the snow. My mom has a Toyota and my dad a Honda and both have come to my rescue when I get stuck in the snow (I drive a Dodge).

The Insight is priced between $10-12,000 (according to the Kelly Blue Book) and I was looking for something that was under 10K. But I think I can make an exception.

The only problem I will have is that it's a manual and I've only driven automatic. I will obviously have to learn how to drive a stick-shift before I test drive one.

I won't be buying a car until my brother gets his license so I still have a few months to research more cars.

My parents bought a lot of bonds in my name about the time I was born. The amount they paid for the bonds was $2,100. I cashed the bonds in today and they were worth $4,730.42

I added that to my savings.

They were all EE bonds so I had 12 years for some of them to mature still. But I needed the money to cover whatever scholarships don't for college, which will be billing me in just over a month.

I want to buy some more bonds at the end of this year but I know absolutely nothing about them. Time to go do some googling!

I didn't get my dad a gift yesterday, but I'm adding the ones I collected from my iPod purchase. 8 ones because the banker gave me 5 ones when I cashed in my checks.

Old Balance: $63.00
+ $8.00
New Balance: $71.00

I'm thinking that I might have to gas up tomorrow rather than wait until Friday. I'll wait as long as I can, but I don't want to run out of gas on the freeway.

Sometimes all you need to do to save money is to open your eyes.

Taking my usual way to work I found a new gas station that I hadn't noticed before. It's about .15$ cheaper than any of the other gas stations in my area and best of all, I don't have to drive outside of my normal route to get there.

Onto the purpose of Monday's post: my week's spending. I didn't buy the new iPod today (woke up late) so I'll be getting that tomorrow along with a father's day present. I want to spend less than $300 tomorrow (it is so incredibly weird to talking about spending that much!). I haven't the vaguest idea what I'll be getting my dad. Possinly a book.

Wednesday, Thrusday, and Sunday are no-spend days. Friday or Saturday I will be gasing up, but I haven't decided which. I've done more driving this past week than I expected and it has thrown me off. I expect $40 will be enough to gas up. Whatever day I don't buy gas on will be a no-spend day.

I filed my taxes late this year (I know, I know!) however I did not owe the government any money so I was not penalized. Not the best habit to get into, filing taxes late, but I'll do better next year, I promise. I just received my return so I'll be taking that to the bank tomorrow. I'll put $75-100 of the return into my checking and the rest will be put into my IRA.

As per advice of someone on here (I can't remember your name, my apologies!), I checked with my state's labor commissioner and according to them: "If you quit, wages and compensation must be paid no later than the day on which you would have been regularly been paid or within 7 days, whichever is earlier."

I should have been paid by today, at the very latest. I will be going in tomorrow to discuss this with my ex-boss. If I do not receive my paycheck within a couple days, I will be making a complaint. This wouldn't be the first trick she's pulled and I'm no longer going to put up with it.

Yesterday I graduated from high school and I have "made" $700 thus far. Of that, I've spent $125. $100 went into my Roth IRA and $25 was spent on summer clothes.

That leaves me $575 left to spend.

Tomorrow I'm going to Costco to buy a new 30 GB iPod. I've had my current iPod for 3 1/2 years and it has survived many, many stunts. From falling onto tiled kitchen floors from my hands to being dropped down a flight of stairs to being dropped onto the concrete sidewalk, my iPod has served me well. But like most gadgets it is time to retire ye olde iPod. The new one will cost about $249.99.

Though it is tempting to spend the rest of the money, I will be putting it into savings. I will withdraw it in a few months when I leave for D.C.

As for my shopping trip today, I spent a total of $21.45. Admittedly, I bought two pairs of khakis at Ross instead of a thrift store, like I planned. But I stuck within my budget. I'm adding $8.00 to my Challenge Box because I ended up with 8 ones at the end of the day. Don't know how that happened, but it did.

Old Balance: $55.00
+ $8.00
New Balance: $63.00

Thanks to everyone who commented on my last entry. The next time I'm in Wellsfargo (which will be in about a month) I'll ask for specifics about the agreement between the bank and the school.

Onto the purpose of this post, I need to amend today's shopping list. Par tof my uniform at the restaurant is wearing khaki pants when I bus. Unfortunetly, I stained my only pair of khaki's and I need to buy another. I also ran out of sunscreen lotion, so I need to pick up some more.

Instead of buying headphones, mystery book, and consumer report I will be buying sunscreen and 1 pair of khakis. I'm keeping to my original budget of $30.

Almost three weeks ago I put in my 2 weeks notice at my previous job (which was in retail). My last day was last Saturday (6/2) and I was promised my last paycheck would be ready today (6/8).

But it wasn't. My ex-boss said she had completely forgotten to send it in. She told me to come back in a week.

I was counting on that paycheck. It would only be about $200, but every little bit helps.

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know the laws regarding the time frame in which you are supposed to receive your last paycheck?

On another note, I have my Roth IRA with Wellsfargo and my savings and checking with a local state bank. I've always been more than happy with my local state bank. The interest rates are good, they've always been helpful and friendly, and there's no ridiculous fees (once I overdrew on my checking account. They called me that day to tell me and said they wouldn't charge any overdraft fees if I deposited money by the end of the next business day). The only reason my Roth IRA is at Wellsfargo is because my state bank offers only traditional and Sep IRAs.

BUT the university I'm attending has an agreement with Wellsfargo. If you have a checking account with Wellsfargo and use their debit card at the university (for games, cafeteria, books, etc.) you receive 5% back, regardless of what you bought.

My question is this: should I transfer banks completely? Or just my checking? Can I open a checking account with Wellsfargo for my purchases at my university and close it once I graduate?

Starting a new checking account at Wellsfargo would be helpful in keeping track of my education expenses. But is it good to open a new account and close it a few years later? Would it make a difference if I closed the account because I moved out of state (or even out of the country)?

Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated!

Today I had my practice for graduatioin (2 more days!) and I had to park in the metered parking lot. Not knowing that the campus police weren't going to be enforcing the meters that day, I put in almost $2.00 in coins into the meter.

That gave me almost 2 hours. The practice lasted barely an hour and a half.

Ah well. I believe that this is the only time I've parked in a metered lot and I doubt I'll do that again.

Got up this morning to discover that all my pants were dirty because I forgot to do laundry the night before. Luckily for me, I found a pair of capris that I haven't worn in a few weeks.

Put them on and fixed the pocket lining to find $10!

ETA to add something else. I tutored or 2 hours today and made $20/hour for a total of $40.

Into the box it goes...

Old Balance: $5.00
+$10.00
+$40.00
New Balance: $55.00

It's Monday and that means one thing: the time to list all of my spend and no-spend days for this week.

Today, Wednesday, Thrusday, Friday, and Saturday are no-spend days.

Tuesday and Sunday are spend days. For tomorrow I plan on spending $5-10 on a celebratory lunch. A group of my friends and myself are celebrating the end of finals and our high school careers.

Sunday I plan on buying a pair of headphones (I've been putting it off for months), a murder mystery book, and one of the used car reviews. I'm expecting to spend $30 on Sunday. If I spend more than $30 I'll put whatever more I spend into my $20 Challenge box.

I watch my account statements very carefully and I must admit I'm borderline obsessive when it comes to balancing my books. (Not always a bad thing, mind you.)

I checked my savings statement today and noticed that I earned almost $12 in interest this month.

I'm now motivated to add even more into my savings just to see how much more interest I can earn. It's like a little game to add money in and watch the interest grow. When I saw how much interest was added, I was very happy. I wanted to add more and more and more to see that interest grow and grow and grow. It's addicting.

I've always known that compounded interest is a powerful force, but it takes seeing your own money grow to make you realize it.

But I bought a box of crayons for $2.14. I paid with a $5 bill, so I received $2.86 back. $2 into my $20 Challenge fund!

I came up with a great way to add more money into my challenge money. Everytime I plan a no-spend day but break it by buying something unnecessary (i.e. box of crayons) I have to put an additional .50C into the box. If I break it by buying something necessary (i.e. box of kitty litter because I forgot to buy some the day before) I have to put in .10C.

I think on Monday of each week I'll plan out my spend days and my no-spend days. I'll also list on each Monday everything I know I'll need to buy so I have a good idea of what I'll be spending.

I'm not going to "penalize" today's purchase because I thought of the penalty after I bought the item.

Old Balance: $3.00
+ $2.00
New Balance: $5.00