My first BLACK FRIDAY

A co-worker convinced me to go out for black friday. I was hoping that she would forget, but yesterday around 8 pm she called trying to map out a plan of attack for midnight shopping. So I stayed up and left and went to Old Navy at midnight. I didn't go in because my co-worker didn't answer her phone, so then I went to our next destination...Target.

Once I got to Target, I immediately got in line and waited in line to pick up a Nikon digital camera. After waiting in line for an hour, I got some sense and decided to look at the camera and my new friend in line stated that she would save my place because she was interested in the same camera. So I go up to look at the camera and much to both of our disappointment, the camera operated on 4 AA batteries. I ended up spending an hour in line and did not purchase a thing.

I did not experience any crazy people fighting for items, but I did experience plenty of crazy people on the streets! There were so many accidents that night and I am so thankful that I made it home safely. I have come to the conclusion that Black Friday shopping is truly not worth it, unless I am shopping online. I can say that I went through the experience, but I will not be out next year.

30 Days to Declutter My Life...Day 1

I have been so tied up with work that I have neglected my personal and financial obligations. I have decided that I would make it a priority to straighten up my life and get organized in order to take care of business. I am going to try to leave work early and spend time on a certain section/area a night.

Tonight was my laundry basket full of papers. I wish I would have taken a picture of it but I'm not sure where my camera is at the moment. It's somewhere among the junk I know.

But anyways...my laundry basket has been full of papers since before I even moved. And when something was too much for me to handle at the time, into the basket it went. So that was priority for the night because it was one of the most depressing points in my room.

It took around an hour to get it all cleaned out and I made sure to put everything in its proper place instead of stashing it in another pile somewhere.

As a result of me cleaning out my laundry basket, here is what I accomplished tonight...

• I updated my ancient and unused eBay account and listed some computer games for sale.
• I found the list of books I issued this summer to my AP students.
• I found a paper that reminded me to contact someone about my reimbursement from the summer workshop.
• I found a parent contact number and entered it into my iPad for safe keeping.
• I found my secret pal info sheet for work and entered the information into evernote.
• I found a literacy book that I had been looking for since I moved!!! (So happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
• I found a copy of our new evaluation rubric, so now I have one copy at work and one at home.
• I found a whole lot of change, pens, lip balm, and glossy print paper.

It is amazing what you can find when you get rid of the clutter. I still have a long way to go and I may have a pic for you tomorrow when I attack the area where I think my camera is.

My goal is to get rid of my papers, have an organized room, and sell some clothes in order to make a little change and get rid of unused items. I started selling my games on eBay first to get my feet wet, and I will eventually get to my clothes before the month is up.

Does anyone have any tips regarding decluttering?

Getting it Together

A NEW PLACE

This weekend I will be moving to a new place!  I am renting a room out of a house that I used to live in many, many years ago.  The rent is $450 and includes utilities, cable, and internet.  I needed to move because my student loan consolidation should be complete soon and I need to make room to pay it.  I could have moved home, but I know that will not work.

CLOSER TO MY SIDE HUSTLE

A while back I mentioned working at home rating classroom videos.  I could not complete this task from my old apartment due to the internet connection being slow.  I slept in my new place last night and completed the certification for that job and passed!  Now I just have to wait on my schedule and I can start work.  :)

A NEW JOB?

I have been really unhappy with my job lately.  I had some time off this week due to me having emergency surgery, but I go back on Monday.  I was trying to wait five years so I can receive student loan forgiveness ($17,500 gone!), but now I'm thinking that I won't make it.  So I'm thinking of maybe applying to grad school now instead of next year.

On another note...why does student loan consolidation take so long?  I started the process back in July and it's still not done.  I need to request a forbearance on my loans again because I cannot pay $800 a month.

Student loan consolidation...

My student loans will be coming out of forbearance soon (with the exception of one that I've started paying) and I wanted to consolidate before they were due. Consolidating my student loans was and still is a very tiresome process. Definitely not as simple as I would have liked it to be.

To start, I had to determine who all my lenders were. This alone made me glad to be consolidating! Then I went to each lenders website and obtained the current balance on every single loan. I think I had like from 14-17 in all with 5 lenders.

To start my application, I had to visit the student loan consolidation website and enter each loan one by one. After verifying a bunch of information, I was prompted to sign and mail in some forms. I thought I was done after this, but I received a letter in the mail asking to submit another form. I had to submit my pay stubs as well because I'm applying for the ICR repayment plan. I chose that plan because I will qualify for student loan forgiveness in two more years.

One thing I like about the process is that you are provided with an estimated payment amount for each plan. The amounts for me are listed below...

I will only have $17,500 forgiven, and the ICR will allow me to pay less interest with fewer payments.

As of this moment, my application status is in certification. This means that they are still contacting all the lenders to verify the amounts, and will then send me an updated payment schedule. I submitted my application on July 6th, so I guess that gives you some kind of idea of how long this takes. My student loans are part of the main reason I'm moving home because I'm sure I would not be able to afford it any other way at this time.

Advice for those with a MacBook...

To make your battery last longer, leave it plugged in as much as possible.

I always thought that would drain your battery, but according to my Apple Genius that helped me today that is not true.  Leave it plugged in.

My battery cost me $99, so as you can guess I'm going to try to make this bad boy last as long as possible.

Friday Checkup #5 (late)

Yesterday was a REALLY good day!  My paycheck was more than what I make in a month due to funds from tutoring being paid.  I still haven't gotten paid for mentoring which is about to make me very angry - but anyway...

The first thing I did was to put $500 in savings to FINALLY start my BABY EF.  I hope I don't get stupid and spend it foolishly.
Then I paid off the two cards I used when I was on my trip in addition to my JcPenney card, which had a balance of $553 and some change.
I gave myself a little allowance and purchased some books, a much needed handbag, and some other items from Wal-Mart totaling around $150.
I paid all my upcoming bills as well.

Going back to budget I posted a while back, the only thing left on the yellow sticker now is Best Buy, which has a balance pretty close to $2000.  With me starting my last side hustle, which I heard can go on to October, that card should be paid off by year end.  Then I can focus on getting rid of my big boy truck...

Last side hustle for the summer

After waiting for over two months, I have finally heard something back from my last summer side hustle - the one where I get to work from home.  I received an email today asking for my shift request and with training information.  I'm so glad that I heard something because I was really losing hope.

Training is self-paced for two weeks and the pay is a little over $200.  Once I am certified, the pay will be $18/hour.  We can only work 4-hour shifts a day, so I requested to work every single day.  I'm not quite sure how long we will be needed, but I hope it is at least two months.

The only negative is that I will be chaperoning a field trip out-of-town for a week.  We will be traveling by bus and once we settle in the cities, we will be gone from 8 am - 9 pm.  I'm pretty sure I will be exhausted by the end of the day and I wasn't planning on bringing my laptop with me, but now I guess I will so I can get some work done.