If Truth Be Told

If truth be told, I do miss him. I miss talking and I miss hearing his opinions. I'm glad I got my space but I've come to so many conclusions on my own about what we were that I just want to talk because I feel like we might finally be at a point where we can talk without the drama resurfacing. 

New Comic!

I'm cracking myself up with this one. I probably look like GiGi LaFleur when I made it up #noshame

CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES

COME ON!

I didn't even realize it but since I posted that blog earlier today, I have now officially made at least one post for a year! Every month in 2013 has at least one post! This is the first year that this has happened! I'm so excited!

Well, I Don't Care too Much for Money...

Money can't by me love :)

I was perusing Pinterest one day and I stumbled upon this picture, claiming to save SO much money over one year!



See, they wow you by the simplicity of starting out, saying that first month you have to put back only ONE DOLLAR and then shows you how much you'd save if you just increase that by one dollar each week for the year! That's almost $1400 dollars wow isn't this easy?!

Well...good question. In the grand scheme of things, is $52 that much? That's the most their asking you to set back!

Well here's my question: If that's not too much to set back, why aren't you setting it back every week? Let's talk if you get paid once every two weeks. That first paycheck you only have to set back $3. That last paycheck you have to set back $103. I'm very curious as to where that extra $100 is going to come from...I don't know about you but I don't make enough to set $100 back with any paycheck.

Call me crazy but if you have $100 that you can set back each paycheck, you should be setting that back, not only $3 because some challenge told you that's all you need to set back. Think about it this way: Would you rather have $1400 in savings or $5200 in savings?

I win ^_^

Here are MY tips (translate: the tips my mother is begging to drill into my head) for saving money:

1) If your goal is just to build a savings, set back 10% of each paycheck. Put it in an account that you can't/won't touch. I make approximately $1600 a month currently. If I set 10% back for a year, I would have $1560 in savings. Not only is that more than this 52 week challenge, but it's a fixed rate. Fixed things are easier to get used to, we like those.

2) Know what needs to get paid each month and WHEN. If you have a rent payment, a car payment, cell phone bills, insurance, know when each thing is due and what paycheck needs to be allocated for it. Knowing what you need to have money for will help curb your desire to spend recklessly. If you need to, write it down. Keep it on your fridge, on your car visor, in your phone, wherever you need to in order to make your spending a conscious action.

3) A late/missing a payment is not worth bad credit. period. end of story.

4) It is a lot easier to consciously spend by paying in cash rather than with a debit/credit card. First, paying in cash means you have to get cash, meaning to have to make the conscious effort to go to your bank or ATM. Then when spending, you physically see how much money you started with and how much you have after your spending. It might make you think twice about if you really need that candy bar at the check out or not.

5) Have a coin collect jar. The good thing about paying in cash is that you get change back. Have a bowl or jar where you put all your change to collect, and then come up with a fixed time (i.e.: twice a year, on your birthday, only when it's full, etc) to cash it in. My mom always said use this money on something nice/fun for yourself. If you think about it, this is your savings (well, hopefully not all of it). While the big savings can be for those big important purchases, this savings can be for you.

6) Don't be discouraged if it takes time for everything to mesh well together. There will be months where you can't put 10% into savings because your car broke down or you needed a new dishwasher. Don't let those bad months stop you from saving all together.

7) Put back what you can, when you can. Even if it's just $15, in the grand scheme of things, every dollar counts.

Hopefully you'll find these to be more practical and a better use of your paycheck.

Plus ou Moins

So this past month with both teaching 40+ hours and working 20+ hours a week, I have noticed some interesting things about my body, both good and bad. 

On the negative side, I have noticed that my body no longer recognizes different levels of fatigue. Either I'm tired or I'm not. You'd think this would be a good thing...except for if I get 7 hours of sleep, I'm just as tired as if I had only gotten 3 hours of sleep. Man that's four hours I could have been grading or lesson planning or working for money...but no, I had to sleep for apparently no reason since my body can't tell the difference. 

However on the positive side, I no longer have to take sleeping pills to get to sleep. As it is, the last time I did take sleeping pills it actually took me longer to get to sleep than naturally sleeping. Can't say I'm complaining about that!

When we evaluated my workload, we were sure that my immune system was going to crash. As it is, I'm extremely lucky that it hasn't. For the past week or so, I have been on the verge of getting sick. My nose hasn't been affected, but I've been achy, headache, sneezing, sore throat, etc. well, whenever this has occurred, I have taken a multi-vitamin and some ibuprofen, and gone to sleep. And when I've woken up, although tired, I don't feel sick. Now granted, this is obviously a temporary fix since this is almost every night where I'm taking the pills to avoid sickness the next day. But hey! If it's working, I'm going with it!

Stream of Consciousness P.2

If someone wanted to ruin my life forever, all they would have to do is render my nose useless. I'd go insane breathing only through my mouth. 

I wish it were socially acceptable to hang out with some of my students on a friends basis. 

The most annoying things you can do: leave the hallway light on or leave the exhaust fan in the bathroom on. I'll get angry 0-60 in .2 seconds. 

I'm pretty sure that the more I think about how I can't get to sleep, the less likely I am to sleep. 

I'll barely post on social media for a while, and then all of a sudden make a bajillion posts. Overcompensating?

There are still common English words that I don't know how to pronounce. Bravado, bossum, canapes, definitively, nasalization, accompanist, and photographer to name a few. 

I already know I'm going to get judged for my above list. Don't get me wrong: I know what each word means, and once I spend time thinking about each word I can say them out loud. But if I'm reading blank in a sentence without reading ahead I'm guaranteed to mispronounce them. 

There are times where I don't know if my students are laughing at me or with me. 

I'm not afraid of what my friends think about me dating Chris again. But I might be a little anxious to hear what they say of we get engaged...

Never in my life have I craved wine this much. 

Teaching is hard work. The physical amount of effort I put into teaching six classes worth of students is exhausting. Worth it, but exhausting. 

Don't Go To Bed Angry

Wen I was younger my sister and I used to fight all the time. It was typical sister fights...nothing too bad or worse than anything else. My dad always said "don't go to bed angry". My mother was a little bit more morbid, cornering us when we were silently pushing each other out of the way to see the mirror while we were brushing our teeth, and she'd say "you wake up tomorrow after having fought the night before and find your sister dead. How do you feel now?" Both parents found ways to get us to resolve our issues before they got more out of hand. It's definitely a good lesson to have in my back pocket whenever I need it, be it with my current family or the one I start in the future.