So I had class this morning... rather I was incredibly late for class this morning. Ergh. I cant wait until next semester... but at any rate, it's a no-spend day. Yay! I've got my free easy mac in the microwave cooking for lunch. By free, I mean BF's Gram purchased a boatload at Sam's Club for us.

My Emigrant account is now all set up! Woo! I've only got $25 in there right now, but every little bit helps! My total debt is down to $8491.09, which is a step from the $8698.50 it was originally. I'm making progress! Still trying to make my groceries last until the 28th... not looking so hot, but I'm still going. All I can say is thank goodness I get free food at work. Thursday I get lunch with my friend at the cafeteria... buffet. I was thinking about sneaking in a tupperware container... hehehe. The thought of it makes me giggle. No reason to buy sweets if I can load up at the cafeteria and take them home with me. ha! I'm beating the system! Maybe snag a banana or something too... hmm. We'll see. I've seen people fill up water bottles with milk and juice, or grab and icecream cone and walk out with it. I've gotten coffee "to go" before. I pay way too much for a school cafeteria. I need to get my money's worth!

So I went to the same site all the cool kids have been going to and calculated my net worth. *cry* My current net worth as of today is -$6002. I'm sure that has a lot to do with the fact that I'm still in school, but it'll go down even further after next semester. grr. I guess it motivates me to save more? hehe. I also dont have any vehicles or property. The only real "personal property" included was in my guitars. I'd say that's about $550 in itself. I added on an extra couple hundred for textbooks I have a variable life insurance policy, which is more or less a mutual fund, but really I couldn't say how much I have on that. I just pay a bill 4 times a year. They send me stuff, but it's really hard to understand, even after an accounting course :/ Maybe I'll look for a website to go to that may have the value of it listed... hmm. There's an idea!

At any rate, work tonight. Last night wasn't too great, but I made the most- $67. I wont complain. It was slow. I'm not putting any more money into my savings until I've got my $450 for rent/elec/phone sitting in the checking account. Gotta cover all my bases! Hopefully I'll still have a little leftover to add to my newly acquired savings account... hmm.

Alright. So it's the midpoint of my financial month (which always starts the 28th, as far as I'm concerned). I sat down and tracked my progress in spending/savings. I have to say, I'm doing pretty good! Last month at my midpoint I was $47.55 OVER the budget. This month, I'm $141.51 UNDER the budget, so happy dance! The only area where I'm over budget is groceries... big surprise. hehe. The good news is I'm only over by 2 cents. woohoo! Let's just hope I can keep myself from buying groceries for the rest of the month. heh. We really have plenty of food. And that shopping trip to the market district was a bit pricey, but always is But the good news is that we only ate out once this month, twice if you count the money I spent at the coffee shop with my french buddies. Dining out is my one big flaw, but I did really good this month. Yay for me! Aside from that, I've put $175 toward my loan this month, and put $146.75 into savings. That totals $321.75 towards my $20 challenge thus far, which is more money than I've spent! Of course, I haven't paid rent or anything so it's a little skewed... At any rate, being a hermit is paying off! hehe.

So last night me and BF actually went out. My neighbor is a comic, and he took us to the club he plays. We got in for free-saving each of us $30. I did end up spending $16 on food and drinks, but I took it out of my entertainment allowance. Next time I'm just going to buy drinks. $6 for 2 cokes isn't cheap, but when you get into the club for free, I think it's worth it.

Today I went to class, and then scheduled for next semester. A big fiasco, but I'm happy to say that I have NO 8am classes. Yay! Not sure how my boss is going to like the schedule, but he's good at working around it. Which reminds me, I've decided to stay in Ohio for black friday. I need a little more time with my friends and family this month. Now is homework time, and then work at 5:30. Let's hope I make some money! I didn't do too well on saturday. I want tonight to turn it around!

I did have to stop at the store on the way home to buy some needed *feminine supplies*, but aside from that I'm not spending any money today. I'm still in the process of getting my emigrant account set up, but I did finally take care of setting up my online banking as well yesterday. That'll be convenient from now on. Either way, this is getting long... I better go!

p.s. That comedian last night had all sorts of jokes about shopping at costco and sam's club. It was pretty funny! I thought of you all...

So last night regular customers had a birthday celebration going down. Free booze galore. I have to say, me and my boss, along with a coworker ended up going back to my apartment and indulging more with BF. I'm feeling pretty rough this morning. Had to stop at the COGO's last night to pick up munchies and mixers. So I spent $5. That is being made up today because I'm not studying with my french buddies again this week. One of them had to work.

As far as today goes, I'm not sure what's going on. BF is still asleep, but he needed to go to get some prints done for our neighbor, the comic, who is taking us to one of his shows tonight. How fun! I'm not sure if I'm gonna have to pay for anything... we'll see.

My boss was being incredibly friendly last night(this was before all the drinking...), and incredibly sympathetic. I'm not sure if it was that desparate tone of voice when I told him I was really torn about working black friday... I made CRAP money last night, like next to nothing for a saturday night. Everyone else made at least $100. I made $50- which is less than I budget for a normal weeknight. At any rate, I asked him, "hey, am I working on black friday or not? I just need to know." and he said, "work if you CAN." Basically, he put the ball in my court. And I straight up told him that I want to work because I REALLY need the money, but it's so important to me to spend time in Ohio, especially considering my grandfather is going to pass away here soon and I already made plans with my best friend for black friday itself. I told him not to let me decide. haha. After all this fighting, and I dont want to be responsible for the decision. grr. He wasn't gonna go for that, but I'm still not sure what I'm going to do. I'm working next friday, light-up night here, that'll be busy. And I already promised him I'd work new years. Those are both really busy nights, but I really dont mind working them. Lightup night was fun last year, but I'm saving money not going. New years is usually spend at OSU, but it's a party holiday, and I'm not going to get all bent out of shape about it. I can drink in pittsburgh. At any rate. I think I may still take black friday off, I'm not sure. We'll see how things go...

Sooo... today was a no-spend day, so let's have a "yippee!" I had class a la 8am... but we're watching a great movie in psych-"Ordinary People," I'd reccomend it. That class got me thinking... I'm currently majoring in psych. I plan to go to med school, but after reading this article that my prof gave us and talking with a couple different psychologists, I kind of feel I'm moving in the wrong direction. I LOVE psychology. I like biology too, but when I think about the kind of therapy I want to be giving when I'm practicing, it's TALK therapy, not DRUG therapy that I want to do. Like I said, I've talked with a couple different psychologists, and it seems that they have psychiatrists that they refer thier patients to if they absolutely need medication, and they seem to be doing fine without perscription writing themselves. Not to mention, if I pursued my phd in psych instead of going to med school, I think I'd learn how to be a better therapist rather than learning about my last resort... so I may drop the whole med school bit and just focus on psych, and grad school instead. Any thoughts?

But moving on from there, I was TIRED today. Grr. Incredibly rude customers kept me at work an hour and a half after closing time last night and I got very little sleep. BF made us late for class this morning, no good, and I had a rough afternoon. Work was more than just a little stressful. My boss actually let me leave early tonight, though, and I was thankful for that. Yes, I abandoned the possibility of making more $, but I met my estimated and budgeted total for the day, so I dont feel guilty taking a little personal time.

As for other news, my friend actually has things to do tomorrow and was planning on calling off our lunch, so tomorrow will be another no-spend day unless I decide to go to the grocery store. Yes, I said I was going to wait until the 16th, but honestly, if I dont go then it'll end up costing me more in the long run. I have no mid-morning snacks left! When I dont bring things to school, I buy them on campus out of necessity. So a very carefully planned shopping trip is in store. But still, that's $7 saved by not eating in the cafeteria tomorrow! I've got a little money to work with.

I think I'll cut it short here, well, not really short, but shorter... hehe. Oh! I almost forgot! I found a penny on the floor in the girl's locker room at work today. Woo! AND I got a free sample in the mail! Gotta love those little frugal triumphs!

Go Democrats!!!

Alright. So I've got class here in about an hour. I'm trying to make today a no-spend day. That'll put me at the 3 I was shooting for this month. Perhaps I'll go above and beyond! We'll see...

I double today. Grr. That means a 12 hour workday, boo. Even further in the lack of enthusiasm here is the fact that we have a 40 person party of highschool kids coming in. I guess it's a japanese class of sorts. At any rate, should be alright. I'm pretty sure it's a one plate meal, so it shouldn't be too hard to get all that out to em. Crazy day, I'm sure...

Aside from that, I just have french to study. We've got an exam tomorrow, and I hate to say it, but i'm not prepared at all. I've been incredibly unimpressed with this clas thus far, and unless my prof makes drastic changes in her teaching methods, I dont see any more progress to come :/ At any rate, the kids in my class have been meeting together outside of class on the weekends to study, so maybe she'll cut us a little slack for that. Either way, better get going. All of you have a wonderful day!

Alright. It's been a few days as I have been mondo busy this week. Wednesday about kicked my butt... what with class and working a double. I collapsed when I got home. haha. Made pretty good money that day, though.

French class is proving to be a pain at this point. We have an exam, and my professor is quite a joke. I'm very critical of my professors (as I should be!) and this is an awful case... she has little to no structure during class, expects us to speak french perfectly if it is a concept we have already covered, and furthermore, when we ask her for extra material to practice with (us few in my class have a study group on sundays) she doesn't give us any because she feels we should move on rather than practice the things that we've already covered (my foot!). Needless to say, with this exam coming up, I'm cracking down, along with my classmates. There are only 5 of us in the class... we should be getting a far better education than we are currently recieving. But I'll stop the ranting.

With all this said, I'm going to attempt to work a little less next semester. Perhaps pare it down to 3 nights. My mom thinks I should find a bartending job, which would be great because I'd only really have to work on the weekends and I'd make good money, but then again I wouldn't have weekends to go back home to visit. Erg. That would be great, though, otherwise. I'd study, and perhaps pick up a tutoring job through the university during the week, then work 2 nights on the weekends and be set. I dont go out anyway. haha. We'll see. I could always be a "dancer," haha. I'd only have to work ONE night a week. Just kidding...

This weekend should be both fun and productive. Today, me and BF are going to our favorite restaurant for lunch, then going to see a movie. Neither of us have really gotten out in the last few weeks, and I think we deserve it. After that, my friend may be coming over to study french. I have no idea when we'll be grocery shopping, but it is needed dearly! We really, for all intents and purposes, have NO food in our apartment. We have ramen. That's about it. No milk, no bread, no juice, nothin. So either today or tomorrow we'll be off to the grocery store...

I work tomorrow night, but I'm off again sunday. I've got my study group at the coffee shop, which should be a good time, though stressfull as this exam is going to be. The point is, I CANNOT get anything lower than an A. Ordinarily, B's didn't bother me, but now that I'm planning on applying to med school, every thing counts.

Which reminds me, the club is coming along great. My professor talked to the dept and it seems that everyone is not only good with the idea, but more or less super-excited as well. I know they're trying to establish a grad program for psych in my university, so I'm sure it will attract some more people, or give the dept an edge. At any rate, I'M excited and glad that things are moving so smoothly. There's much more planning to come, but so far so good!

It's been cold. boo. I'm hoping it doesn't rain, though the forecast calls for it. We'll be doing a bit of walking to the movie theatre, and I dont want to be soaked! Ugh. Alrighty, talk to y'all later!

... Unfortunately, it was loaded with spending. poo. 8am class, then studying with a friend of mine. Bought food. Then Bio, then met with my psych professor to talk for an hour or two... he's awesome, I must admit. The best professor I've ever had, and the only one I can visit and talk to intelligently for lengthy periods of time! Not to mention, I'm starting the psych/philosophy club at my university, and he offered to be the faculty adviser. Sweet! I wanted to join an extracurricular activity, but there was nothing that interested me. Instead I decided to devise my own student organization! I figured it would look good to be a leader on my med school apps anyway... hehe.

At any rate. Post Bob's office, I bought lunch. Saved half my wrap for later. Hit the library, got 2 more DVD's to rent. Printed out the power point lectures for bio, ran off copies of journal articles. I also had to stop by the mass comm department to make up a quiz I missed last week. After that, I just studied until I went into work... which was SLOW. I made a grand total of $17... not so good. But anyhoo... I've got so much to do! I figured I have about 2 years until I take my MCAT and apply for med schools. I bought a couple books the other day that have been incredibly helpful in informing me of the steps I need to take to prep for the MCAT and applying. Also, I looked through the complete list of American Med Schools, and decided I may just have to return to Ohio. haha. I always thought I hated it, but I miss my family and friends. I'm pretty set on going to Ohio State's med school. I've got family in Colombus. All my friends at OSU will probably have graduated by the time I get there, but it'll still be nice to be close. At any rate, I better get going. I've got class in the morning!

I just didn't win tonight. Not one break. Zilch. Let me expain:

I work at a japanese restaurant. It's pretty upscale. We get fairly busy on saturday nights. Tonight's recap...

The first table of the night: 5 highschool girls. Not only do they take a half an hour to decide what they want, but they all (as predicted) only ordered one sushi roll each. This is like going to an applebees or fridays and only ordering a small cup of soup. So okay, not a huge check, but to top it all off, they tipped me far less than %10. It gets better.

Customers who I happen to like came in. They had a big intricate order that seemed okay when I put it in, until the kid's, along with the dad's sushi had wasabi in it (very spicy, I would never feed it to a child...) When I took it back to the sushibar to get it fixed, I realized where the communication error had occured (we just got a new POS system), but my flustered coworker instead decided to get an ultra-attitude with me and I had to bite my tounge-hard- to keep myself from saying things forbidden to be said in front of customers. Oh, it gets better.

While serving shabu shabu (a very complicated setup involving a portable stove burner, a pot of stock, plates of veggies and beef, various sauces), my hostess and close japanese friend hands me a check for a new table and explains to me that the 2 people are a bit strange and she decided to give me the table because she thought I, as an american, was better suited to deal with the weirdos. WHAT?? It wasn't even supposed to be my table, and I was already swamped.

So a little more than peeved, I went smiling to deal with the crazies. She wasn't kidding. For an upscale restaurant, these people looked WAY out of place. Not to mention, the woman had serious OCD. Not like I'm speculating and making fun of the situation. She really had obsessive compulsive disorder. The repetition, the germ-phobia, the meticulous routine. The whole nine. Now, if I was in my school state of mind, as a psych major, this would have been cool. But you can only tell a person so many times that thier sushi cannot be cooked before you want to jab your eyes out. And the man she was with seemed to not get the concept that the japanese restaurant he was sitting in did not indeed serve chicken sandwiches OR fish sandwiches. On top of it all, they tipped me $1. I had to remind myself to breathe a few times tonight.

Aside from all that, my blood sugar started acting up mid-shift... I felt weak and shaky, but didn't really have time to stop and eat anything. I really need to get those shoes, too. My feet are still killing me. And to top it all off, I made on average $60 less than everyone else in my shift. And I was there the longest. Whew!

Needless to say, I stopped by the convenience store to buy some orange juice... I had some peach absolut just calling my name. I'm enjoying my well-deserved cocktail for the evening and looking forward to my day off tomorrow...

Today was a lazy day... woke up and blogged for a bit. Went to the post office to ship the book I sold on amazon, then finished BF's Gram's scarf, which means I made my goal of taking care of 2 people on my xmas list. I'm trying to make it a stress free xmas. Last year I put off all my shopping to the last minute, and ended up spending too much money and going crazy. haha. Cant say the scarf was cheap to make. Circa $40, but it's NICE. Very plushy and warm, thick. I think she'll really like it. Finished up with my little sis's present too, between the gift card and the book I bought her, I spent around $18. I'm buying my mom a shirt or a hoodie with my university's name/logo on it. And I got her this cutesy calendar, so that'll take care of that. I already decided to get BF a gift card to World Market. We love that place, and I know he'll like it. He's just the worst to shop for. Everything he wants is super expensive, like an iPod, or a car. Not quite in the budget. We've talked about xmas already though, I think he's gonna get me a fold-up treadmill. He'll use it too, so it'll be a good purchase. As for the rest of my siblings and my stepfather, I'm lost. I'll figure it out later though. I've got a little time.

I've got to work in a couple hours. Not really in the mood, but my checkbook tells me I better be. hehe. Yesterday's spending made a considerable dent. At any rate, better get going!

So yesterday I made a ridiculous amount of money at work. It was nice for the financial aspect, but a bit stressful, and I didn't get a chance to study for my bio exam. I did end up skipping my first class to study, though, and I think I did a good job. So let's cross our fingers... as for that money, $50 of it went to my savings account, the rest went to my checking, but then I put another $50 on my loan. That puts my principle under what it was originally, so there's a step forward! I also sold one of the books I listed on amazon, so there's $2 I wouldn't have had. I picked up some coin rolls at the bank, so I'm gonna start attacking my coin jar soon. I cant believe october is almost over! Tomorrow is a shopping day. I really need to buy new work shoes, and the yarn I need to finish BF's gram's scarf for Xmas. Then a build-a-bear gift certificate for my sister, and a book I got a 40% off coupon for at Borders (I was going to buy it either way, so it was a pleasant surprise when they sent me a coupon via email). At any rate, that's all I have for today! Just trying to save up for next semester and pay some of my loan off now... And yay for doing well on my exam! In case anyone wanted to know, I got a 98% on my psych exam on monday! Woo!

That's right, I said it, a 12 hour workday. No fun... I've had a lot going on, and there's been a lot of transaction-ing this weekend. Yesterday was my study day, and I'm happy to say I got much done. I commend myself on the great amount of time management I've done. Budget-wise I've let go a bit... it's my happy week and I did a little impulse grocery shopping- which ended up in a bar of chocolate and about 5 cans of soup, for some reason. hehe. Today was a bit different, though the sweets cravings raged on and I gave into a delicious starbucks applestreudel cake. I also took a visit to the bargain bookstore in the mall I work in. I found a couple things I can give away at Christmas time. A cutesy calendar about "bad dogs" that I think my mom will like, and a book I know my sister will like. They both totalled to $8 so it was no huge splurge. And I made really good money today. $45 at lunch, which was surprising because we were so slow... we had a highroller at the sushibar. And $100 at dinner. It was overall a steady night too. The only downside is that I have this awful cold. Which means salsa is out tomorrow night. But my coworkers instead are coming over to the apartment and cooking dinner, then we're going to relax and watch a movie. I like that. Relaxing day... just have some more homework to do before relaxation time. 2 big tests this week. Gotta love midterms! Well, better get going. Later guys!

So I've got good news and bad news... we'll start with the bad. Ugh. Last night was awful. Customers stayed 45 minutes after we closed and tipped me under 10%!! Japanese people dont have to tip in Japan, therefore they know not how to tip in the US. Slightly frustrated... stayed up until 2:30 last night because I didn't get home until after 11 and I had things to do. 3 quizzes today. grr. Now the good news...
I'm going to visit my family and friends in my hometown this weekend, which is great because I haven't seen anyone in a month and a half. Also, yesterday I had my first no-spend day of the month, only 3 more to go to reach my goal! I got out of class at 9:20, and instead of buying coffee on campus, I went into work an hour early, put on a pot of coffee, and studied an hour before I had to clock in. Saved me $1.39. The other good news is that I made $40 more than I estimated yesterday, which I guess makes up for being under for the last couple days. But I've been saving money on campus all week, so I'm proud of myself. Immensely! Today should be alright, though I'm going to lunch with a friend... weekly ritual. Either way, must get going!