Fiance and I have been pretty good about our fun spending. We went to the movies once ($18) and that's about it.

But school... omg.

Fiance and I bought our parking permits today. $200 for two permits for the entire school year. We went from a $200 permit to a $100 permit each. More walking but less money.

$200 for all of fiance's textbooks. $100 on my textbooks so far and I will spend another $3-400 on textbooks tomorrow. One textbook I might be able to split with a friend because we are taking the same class. We'll see.

Fiance has prepaid tuition so his scholarships are extra money. That will cover the cost of textbooks and part of my tuition (which is about as much as textbooks!).

I'm still in shock over how much my textbooks cost. In the past I have been able to get the textbooks for so much less. Guess I chose an expensive major and minor. :P

I sold another book today. I made $4.14 pre-shipping. Shipping will cost about $3. I'm going to apply this month's half.com money to textbooks/tuition and next month's money will go towards fiance's IRA. He didn't contribute to it last month. After we will probably use the half.com money for spending money. Every little bit counts.

Tomorrow I have to be at work at 5:30 in the morning! That means I have to get up at 4:30! Ugh. I like mornings but that is a little too early for me. This week I am working several days which is very good. My last paycheck was for $428 so this next one should be at least that.

I went grocery shopping today. I spent $26.48. Last week I spent $22.96. I have budgeted about $50/week on groceries so we are coming in way under budget. Next week's grocery shopping is going to be more expensive because I have to buy food for our party. I think it will add another $15-20 to our grocery bill, leaving us still under budget.

I have to do laundry at my dad's and I need to do a little bit of cleaning there today too. But it hurts to move! Fiance says the sunburn looks better today but I don't believe him.

Today was payday. My paycheck was for $371.65.

I put $185.83 into savings, $111.49 into my IRA, and I kept $74.33 for spending. $30 of the spending money is going to my Kindle, but the rest I can do whatever I want with.

This brings my new totals to:

Savings: $3,792.89
IRA: $1,991.52

Yay!

Everybody, jump for joy!

Jump! Jump!

The kitchen is done! It took 6 weeks, but it is DONE! Yay! The countertops were put in today and we have a working sink and everything is all good.

Now comes the fun part: putting everything back in place and cleaning. Actually that won't be so bad. I put everything into boxes labelled with where the stuff goes so it should go by quickly (me? organized? who would have thunk it?).

Boyfriend's 21st birthday is a week from tomorrow (we are exactly two weeks apart). I still don't know what to get him. He's not telling me what he wants so I haven't got a clue. I am going to head to Walmart sometime this week (probably Monday because it is spring break. Yay!) to look for ideas. He likes video games and Dungeons & Dragons but he says he has all the D&D stuff and video games he wants. Until, of course, the next game comes out.

The interest on my IRA is accumulating so slowly. It is March 13th, I have more in my IRA now than in January, and yet I have only earned 3 cents in interest so far. It is frustrating. Not much i can do about it though. (I'm pretty sure I said the same thing last month. Hmm.)

We heard from the Social Security Administration. My brother will be getting about $500/month from SS. My brother wants to save most of it but we'll probably give him $100/month to spend as he pleases. Not that he has much to spend his money on. I'm trying to convince him he should give me the money and I'll "take care of it". He's too smart though.

Yep, tomorrow I turn 20! Yay!

Today my boyfriend and I went shopping as I needed more work clothes. Didn't find what I was looking for so sometime next week I'll go to a couple different stores.

My boyfriend gave me my present today, which was a really pretty red cardigan, a pink leather wallet, and some perfume. We also went out for lunch today and got some chocolate cake.

The floor guy is coming on Monday to replace the dining room carpet and to put in the linoleum in the pantry. I have no idea how long it will take, but I am keeping my fingers crossed that it is only a day or two. The company that is doing the countertops is having trouble finding the same color granite as our existing counters, so that might take an extra few days.

The interest on my IRA is still coming in very slow. But at least I am making some money, right?

I looked over my older posts and figured out something interesting. It took me nearly 17 months to save the first $1,000 in my IRA. However, since then it has only taken me 5 months to save another $700, and I'll probably be able to save the other $300 (and giving me my second $1,000 in my IRA) in the next few months. I'm getting better at this.

I don't know if I mentioned this in my previous post, but tomorrow I am working. And the banquet that I am working is a 90th birthday party. It highly amused me that on my birthday I am working a birthday party.

I can't remember if I wrote about this or not (and I am too lazy to look) but I will go ahead:

I finally convinced my boyfriend to open a Roth IRA. He opened it awhile ago (not that long, less than one month) and today made another contribution to it. I am very proud of him.

I have been thinking a lot lately about what I wanted to do after I finished my undergrad. I know I want to go onto graduate school and I always thought I would get my masters in Math. Then I would go to work for the FBI or NSA or even CIA. But I have been rethinking that plan, partly thanks to this wonderful forum (I have learned so much from this forum!) and the economic situation I have learned a lot about finances and have become very interested in the financial world. So I have been thinking that instead of getting my masters in Math, I get it in finances or accounting (if it is even offered... I haven't checked yet) and go into that field.

I'll look into it but I haven't made any decisions yet. Still thinking.

I deposited some money into my savings and IRA today- after I switched banks.

It took longer than I expected to close my accounts and then open new ones. Because I had to open the checking with at least $100, I had to take about $70 from my savings to open the checking. But once my online banking is up and running (should be but I haven't checked it yet), I will transfer that money back to my savings.

One thing I noticed is that every time I make a contribution to my IRA, the bankers have to relearn how to do it. They actually have to ask me what the next step is. It is amusing, but I think a little sad too. Hopefully more people will contribute to IRAs and it will become second nature to the bankers.

I have about $2,600 left until I meet my savings goal for the year. I think I'll be able to make the goal by the end of summer.

Another eyeglass store was having a sale, 2 glasses for $99, but again no luck in finding glasses. I found one pair I liked, it was $110 for frames. I was considering getting especially since I found out I could get another pair for free but I couldn't find any other glasses I liked. Oh well.

The interest I have earned on my IRA has skyrocketed to 4 cents.

Woohoo! :P

Today was a pretty good day. My boyfriend and I slept in until 11 am (it is really rare for me to sleep that late) and then went on a bike ride. Afterwards, we went to a local diner for brunch. There was a surprisingly large amount of people exchanging gifts there. Our waitress even asked us why we weren't exchanging gifts.

Then we went to Walmart to look for a couple things. Boyfriend was looking for a game that the thinks has been discontinued and I was looking for a carpet cleaner and a shoe rack. I wanted one that stood on the floor and was tall but all I could find were ones that went over the door or were longer than tall. I found a carpet cleaner, a small one, for $37. My dad has given me the green light on buying it so tomorrow when I do some grocery shopping I will buy it.

I recently dropped my most time consuming class and had to repeal to get the money back. Instead of a 100% refund, I will be getting a 50% refund. That is still a couple hundred dollars, so I will take it.

Tomorrow I need to go to the mall to pick up my gold chain. Then I want to go to a few craft stores and look into sewing lessons. Then I need to hit the gym and I am hoping I drag my boyfriend along. He made plans to play Dungeons and Dragons with his friends tomorrow so I doubt I will succeed. But I can try.

Overall it was a good day.

I have most of my IRA money in a MMA right now. I do plan on getting some CDs and putting money in the stock market in a few years when I have a higher balance.

Anyway, last month I earned 23 cents in interest. So far for this month, I have earned 3 cents in interest.

I knew with Feb. being so short I would make less interest, but why so little when Feb. is almost half over?

One the 10th of January I had already made about 7 cents in interest. Big difference between that and 3 cents as of today.

I suppose it doesn't really matter. But it is weird and it is bugging me.

The leak was fixed yesterday. So I will be hanging out today at home waiting for the other repair men to come and fix the drywall and put my appliances back. I like how they assume I will be available all week without actually confirming what day they are coming. Tricky buggers.

I will be going to the bank today. I have a check to deposit and I want to ask them about the fee changes they sent a letter regarding. I want to make sure that none of the accounts I have will be charged any fees.

Half.com paid me today so I will also be transferring $30 from my checking to savings (the payment was for $40.39).

I convinced my boyfriend to open an IRA. He will be opening one next paycheck (in two weeks). I don't know how much he plans on contributing to it each month. I think he will be putting between $20-40/month into it (he makes around $300/month).

I sold a whopping $201.18 on half.com this month.

I never expected that I would make that much! I am very pleased.

I have another rant about a buyer. A buyer bought a textbook from me on Saturday and even though I do not offer expedited shipping, asked if I would be able to ship the book faster than Media Mail because of a test.

I found a Priority Class flat rate envelope for $4.95 and since it was only a couple dollars more than what half.com reimbursed me for, I shipped the book in the flat rate envelope. I still made about $20 on the sale.

I got the book to the buyer within two days, before the buyer's test (test was on Friday). It is now Saturday and no word from the buyer! It drives me nuts that buyers/sellers do not leave feedback! Especially in this case because I did not have to ship it in the flat rate envelope but I did so anyway.

I sent a message to the buyer asking if she has received the book and if she has, to let me know. I hope that is a big enough hint to leave feedback but I didn't want to come outright and ask her to leave me any.

I have not received any mysurvey.com surveys in the past week. It is so frustrating because I am only 70 points away from cashing out! I'll hopefully get a few more this upcoming week.

ETA: I have been thinking about what I will do with the $200 from the pet deposit that I will be getting back. I have decided that I will put it into my IRA- even though work knows that I am able to work again, there are few banquets with construction going on and it being winter. My birthday is coming up so I really don't need to be buying myself anything right now.

Textbook shopping.

I need four textbooks this semester. Seems oddly low as the past semesters I've needed 6 or more.

I have bought two so far: one for French Culture, one for Data Structures. If I had bought these two at my school, it would have cost $103. I paid $47 and that includes shipping for the books.

I am looking at a Linear Algebra book that costs $65. I am waiting for a reply to a question I had for the seller before I buy it.

The Diff. Equ. book is selling for $225 at my school! I can't believe how much it costs! I haven't found it on half.com, but I will check out other sites for the book. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it is available elsewhere (and for a lot less!).

I went to the bank today. I deposited about $350 into my IRA! I am very excited!

It's taken me a loooong time, but my Roth IRA now has over $1,000 in it!

I must say, four digits look SO much better than three!

I can't wait to hit the five digit mark, but it will be a few more years.

I opened up an Roth IRA today. I put in a $100 as my initial deposit. I plan on depositing $100 a month for the next couple years and then increasing my depsits until I max it out.

I'm very excited about this. I'm looking forward to seeing my statements and seeing how the money grows!