Money Mondays: April 2015 Budget Verdict

April was an unpredictably spendy month. We took a small vacation. I decided to finally purchase a new camera to replace the one that I had lost on the plane ride back from Hawaii. I decided to splurge on a present for the significant other. I've just finished tallying everything up and man oh man O_O. Looks like I went a tad crazy this month. Luckily, we have 3 paychecks in May! Hooray!

One of the things I haven't been so good about doing is analyzing my spending. Sure it's great to track and see what I'm actually purchasing and the bills I'm paying but what about doing something to attack what's sucking all your money? For this month, one of the major money suckers was eating out. It's something that has definitely been difficult to control. We've moved to an area that has high walkability and every day that I get out early is an opportunity to go to happy hour. For the month of May, we definitely need to start cooking more at home as well as packing a lunch. I think that will be the thing that will help us decrease our spending the most.

Here's to getting shit together in May! Happy Monday!

Money Mondays: April Check-Up

April is just flying by! Can you believe almost half the month is already gone?! Seriously where is the time going. So far it looks like April will be another spendy month. March was a month for splurging on myself but it looks like April is the time for some much needed r&r. If you can spare the time and money, I think it's nice to take a little vacation every quarter. It gives you a chance to recharge. Work has been pretty crazy so we booked a little mini-vacay to get away (think back to those Southwest "Want to Get Away" commercials.) The way this month is headed, I'm really looking forward to getting 3 paychecks in May!

Hope your April isn't turning out as spendy as mine! 

Still got another 17 days to go O_O lol. 

Let's tackle this week and Happy Monday!

Money Mondays: March 2015 Budget Verdict

March has come and gone and it's time to tally up my expenses for the month. I spent a little more this month because I did receive a check from Uncle Sam and I also got my bonus this month. In February I spent $1919.52. April may either be a super frugal month or a super spendy month so we'll see. We're either trying to save up for a trip or actually go on a trip.

Hope everyone had a great Easter!

Money Mondays: February Check-up

It's that time of the month again when we take a look at how we're doing in terms of spending. Looking at the total, it's a tad more than I'd like to have spent. I have to prepare for some high spending events at the end of February so I'd like to have a good chunk saved up. However, around this time last month I was already past $1,000 so this month is a bit of a improvement but we'll have to see how the entire month comes out. Until then, how is your February budget panning out?

Less than 15 days to go until the end of the month! Let's make it under $1200 this month!

Debt Free by 33: Extreme Couponing

I usually buy my drugstore beauty products at CVS/pharmacy since I get a ton of coupons and I have my employee discount. Their prices are definitely pricier than say Target but the coupons make up for it. Here's how to make the most bang for your buck.

1. Join their Beauty Club. For every $50 you spend in beauty products, you get a $5 coupon. Now I don't really buy much stuff from CVS and I was still able to get the whopping $15 coupon so it's definitely worth it. 
2. Make sure you check the weekly ad and buy at the right time. There are a lot of things you can buy where you can get ExtraBucks. Wait for those times to buy those specific items. Another thing I like are the Buy 1 Get 1 50% off. Don't buy things when they are not on sale. That's just asking to pay an arm and a leg.
3. Always go to the coupon center and print out your coupons before you shop. A lot of times there are random coupons that have been picked out just for you! 
4. Pay attention to the expiration dates. There are usually different expiration dates for each type of coupon depending on whether it's a store coupon, manufacturer's coupon or just ExtraBucks you've earned. Easiest way to lose out is to let those expiration dates come and go. Especially when you earn ExtraBucks, don't let those go to waste! You wouldn't throw money in the trash now would you?

Now let's look at how I made a killing last week. I had the following coupons:

• $3 extrabucks for buying Almay products (coupon I got for buying a $5.99 eyeliner)
• $4 off cosmetics purchase of $12 or more (coupon I got from the coupon center)
• $1 off any Maybelline Face Product (coupon I got from the coupon center)
• $15 Beauty Club ExtraBucks Rewards (coupon I got for spending apparently $150 in Beauty products?? O_O)
• $5 off $30 purchase (coupon that was emailed to me)

Products I bought:

• Physicians Formula Organic Wear Mascara in Black 1063 (Bonus 2 pack) - $4.79 (on sale; $6 off all Physicians Formula products $6.49 and up)
• Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in 025 Sweetheart Valentine and 045 Romantic - $9.99, $4.99 (BOGO 50% off Revlon products)
• Revlon Colorburst Lip Butters in 050 Berry Smoothie and 053 Sorbet (New) - $8.49, 4.24 (BOGO 50% off Revlon products)
• Maybelline Baby Lips Limited Edition Lip Balms in Coral Crush and Twinkle - $8.49 (regular price)
• CVS Hand Sanitizer - $1.99
• Ice Breakers Spearmint Mints - $2.49
• Nice and Clean Wipes - $1.19
• 2 packs of CVS brand tissues - $0.99

Total that I should have paid: $47.65

Total that I actually paid before taxes: $19.65 (including my employee discount it dropped to $16.31)

I saved: $28.00 (w/ my discount I saved $31.34)

That's mostly how I'm able to buy (and accumulate) my beauty products! Hope this helps you stay not only money savvy but also beauty savvy!

Debt Free by 33: Fun Money

When it comes to saving money, I've always been the type to eliminate all the fun out of life to save those few extra dollars. However, I've recently come to the conclusion that although that works for some people, that just doesn't work for me. I remember awhile back reading an article about some dude that paid off all his school loans in a few years after graduation by not going out, not buying drinks, etc etc. I was rather motivated to try that route but when you worked as hard as I did to get through all this schooling and you're finally making good money, it's really hard to give up the little things that keep you going. This is why it's important to budget out some fun money every month for nice things to keep you sane.

For instance, one of my biggest "luxuries" (at least it is to me lol) is to get Starbucks every day. I only get it on the days I work (4-5 days a week depending on my mood) but it makes me happy and I don't feel like I'm depriving myself. The worst feeling is when you feel bitter towards yourself for putting every cent you earn towards that loan. You earned your money! Live a little! So I budget $71 ($3.55 x 5 days per week x 4 weeks in a month) every month towards my Starbucks fund. And it's actually a little less since I get a free drink for every 12 drinks with my gold card. Some people might be thinking that it's $71 that could be going towards my loan but that $71 per month is keeping me sane at work! And let me just say my sanity is worth every penny! lol.

So whatever that little luxury might be, budget so that you can splurge on yourself; because you're worth it!

Debt Free By 33: The Breakdown

With the tax season in full effect, finances are definitely on the top of the list in terms of priority. Keeping my finances in check has always been one of my top priorities but this year, I really want to tackle the debt head on. I was really inspired by this article (link). In a nutshell, this couple was able to pay off $157k in 3 years which is pretty darn crazy. Not really sure if I'll be able to do it by the time I'm 33 but it has a nice ring to it ;).

Since this year has started, I have already completed one of my goals of paying off one of my loans completely. This was of course the smallest of 3 loans (the loan I had from undergrad). I pretty much wiped out my savings to do so (not including my emergency fund) but it felt absolutely amazing to be just be completely dunzo with something and best part is that I can now use the money that I had been using to pay of the undergrad loan towards my other two loans!

I'm going to start blogging a little more about my finances and hopefully these posts will help some of you out. It definitely keeps me in check to blog about my finances so it might be helpful to start a financial diary so to speak. So here's how my financials have looked for the past couple of years and what it looks like today. You may remember a different version from here. My goal is to eliminate $200,000 of debt before I reach 33. It's definitely a huge goal but the only one reaping the benefits will be me lol.

(click on the image for a larger picture)

Right now, I'm currently on the 25 year plan to pay off my loans. Here's the monthly breakdown of what goes where. 

If you owe as much money as I do, it's very important to know how much money is going towards the principal vs. the interest. This is because in order to pay down your debt faster, you want more of the money you're contributing to go towards the principal. For each payment you make, the amount of money going towards the principal should be increasing and the amount applied to the interest decreasing. It's almost like climbing a mountain. The top of the mountain would be when you reach the point where you start paying more money towards the principal vs. interest. So, in order to reduce the time I have left on my loan, let's say in half so 12.5 yrs instead of 25, I would basically double the amount that's being applied to the principal. Therefore, if I start paying approx $173 and $130 extra per month to each one of those loans respectively I could finish paying off the loans in 12.5 yrs instead of 25 yrs.

It's also important to note that it is crucial to do this as soon as possible as your interest can also accumulate more interest and who likes paying back money you didn't actually borrow?! Definitely not me and as you can see, I'm mostly paying back money I didn't borrow :/. But I guess that's the price of education these days...

Welps, here's to the start of this great feat! Wish me luck and check back for more financial tips! I've made a  new tab up top for all my financial posts. Enjoy!

Yearly Finance Evaluation: 2012

One of the biggest worries of being in the real working world is dealing with bills. As soon as you graduate, you are pretty much inundated with bills. Testing fees, licensing fees, insurance fees, living costs, and most of all... loans. Without a job, trying to juggle paying for all these can be extremely stressful. Even with a job, the amount of money that grad students owe today can be daunting.

Last August, after I became a licensed professional and was actually bringing home some cash, I took a good hard look at my finances and tried to decide which direction I would be going, especially with paying off my loans. Obviously paying them off faster would help me avoid having to pay more in interest over time. I'm a hater of interest (I mean who likes interest? lol) and not paying things off in full every month so owing this much money bothers the crap out of me. I'm by no means a financial expert but I had to figure something out that would work for me. Here are some things I took into account when I evaluated my financial situation last year.

1. Family Financial Stability - By family stability I mean if I suddenly lost my job, would my parents be able to support themselves financially? In my case the answer to that question was a definite no. My mom is the only one working and she barely brings home enough to pay the mortgage and put food on the table. I have taken over paying for all other bills (trash, utilities, cell phone, etc). If I lost my job, we'd be struggling to keep afloat financially. In this case, I feel the best bet is to save up a good chunk of money in an emergency fund. An emergency fund is really dependent on your own spending habits so one person's emergency fund might only be $5,000 whereas another person's emergency fund might be $30,000. You want your emergency fund to be able to cover your expenses for at least 3-6 months. Of course, you don't have to save all of it up front. It's always nice to keep contributing a small amount of your paycheck to this fund so when that rainy day does come, you'll have yourself a nice umbrella. For me,  it was easier to just save it up front so I could concentrate fully on paying off my loans. Some friends of mine posted an article about this Harvard graduate that paid off all or most of his student loans in the first year he was out out of school by putting all of his income towards paying off his loans. For me, it just wouldn't be the smartest plan. If it was just my life, I would go ahead and do the exact same thing. But with my parents also thrown into the mix, the safest option is to save.  


2. Interest Rates - The first thing I considered when deciding which loan to tackle first was the interest rates. Even though the interest rates for my loans don't vary that much, I decided to tackle the ones with the larger interest rates first. For me, I wanted to start small so I went for the smallest loan amount with the largest interest rate (that would be Direct Loan - E in my chart below). My goal for this year is to finish paying off that entire loan. Just a couple more paychecks to go!


3. Know Your Limits and Be Realistic - Basically don't bite off more than you can chew and don't over or underestimate. After saving some emergency cash, I split my income into thirds. One third goes towards living expenses and credit cards, the second third goes to paying off loans and the last third goes towards savings. It's a good thing to audit yourself each month. How much of my paycheck went to credit cards and other bills? How much did I pay on my loans? How much actually went into my savings? When you do this every month, you can see whether those goals you set out are realistic. Maybe one-third towards living expenses just isn't enough and that's ok. Just adjust your budget accordingly. Maybe it was just the holidays that made you go over your living expenses budget for the month; in that case, spend a little less the following month and save a little extra to make up for the outlier event. It's a system of checks and balances that takes a lot of work to get started but once you set up a nice little spreadsheet, you just need to input the numbers and you're good to go!

Here's how the loan situation is looking a year later. I didn't knock out as much as I had wanted but considering I didn't start paying my loans until January of this year (since I spent a good chunk of last year saving up), I think I'm doing ok. Hopefully I can continue and keep paying that principal down!

nothing to wear!

I think every female faces that moment where they stare at their open closet and think "Gosh, why can't I find a single thing I want to wear?!" I find it especially frustrating because when I look at my spending habits, a good chunk of my money goes towards clothes/shoes/bags (it's a weakness!) yet I still can't find anything to wear :(. Recently I've had a tad more time to actually read the blog posts instead of just looking through pictures and I came across a great post from Jean of ExtraPetite called Keeping a Streamlined Wardrobe. It was so helpful that I thought I'd share it with ya'lls!

As I've stated in my previous posts, I've been trying to curb my spending in an attempt to not only pay off my loans but also save up for an emergency fund. The funny thing is I haven't even gotten my first official paycheck yet! lol. CVS recently went from weekly paychecks to biweekly paychecks and it really feels like forever before you get paid :/. I just really wanted to have all my spreadsheets prepared so that I wouldn't be bombarded when I get that first paycheck. But I made a similar spreadsheet to Jean's and I'm finding it so useful to organize my clothes that I've started going through my old receipts just to see what I bought, what I actually wear and what I shouldn't have bought to begin with. Here's what my spreadsheet looks like for the month of September so far. (ps. Don't judge me for all the spending that I've already done and the first week of September isn't even over yet! I couldn't resist all the Labor Day sales!!).

Hope you guys find this useful! Happy Hump Day! Almost to the weekend folks! Let's keep chugging along!

entering the working world & figuring out finances

Thursday, August 25th marked the first day of my life as a working pharmacist. It was all around pretty horrible but in the words of Judy, at least I survived. I've been working the last 4 days and it's been a great first week at work besides that first day. I strongly believe that the staff you work with really determines whether you'll have a good or bad day. There was this one technician on my first day of work that was seriously typing random jibberish. Every single prescription I was checking literally had 3 mistakes: drug strength, date written, doctor. There was a prescription for Neurontin that CLEARLY stated 300 and this technician typed it for 600. AND he was off in his corner talking to the other technician while the phone just continued to ring. I had to pick up the phone and then delegate him to answer the call. Honestly, hearing "one pharmacy call" over and over again is not the most pleasant thing on earth. To top it off, I seriously had 5 or more instances where during my final quality assurance, I was checking the drug against the drug image and they did not match AT ALL. The ones I remember from that day were the rx's for Bactrim but the technician put Bactrim DS in the bottle... another one was filled with Vicodin when the prescription was for Vicodin ES. Then I caught a prescription that was written for a completely different patient! The date of birth didn't even match! *le sigh* Makes me appreciate those really good technicians so much more.

I haven't gotten my first paycheck as a pharmacist yet but I've been thinking a lot about the amount that I owe and how I'll be paying it off. I've been using Mint.com to track my finances ever since Judy and Sophie introduced me to it. It's quite useful especially since I don't have that many accounts (well... technically I have around 28 accounts according to my last credit report but I don't use all of them). I know the initial setting up of all your accounts is long and tedious but it is worth it!

My loan totals for grad school and undergrad are posted to the left. I also owe $6,000 for my Federal Perkins Loan from UCLA. I've been trying to figure out how much of the interest of my student loans could be used as a tax deduction since this might be the only year I can use the tax deduction. Anyways, I was talking to Sophie and she sent me a link to a site that was pretty helpful.

So if you're trying to figure out what tax bracket you're in here's the link:
http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/federal-income-irs-tax-brackets.html

From the looks of it, I'll either be in the 15% or the 25%, which is a pretty large difference so I'm counting on my deductions to put me in the 15% tax bracket. 

So I looked into it a little more and found the IRS Page regarding Student Loan Interest Deductions. It's actually quite useful. Here's the jist of it which I updated from this article because the numbers have changed. Basically, if you make less than $75,000 (single filer, post-tax and other adjustments), then you can get a deduction of $2500. If you make between $75,000 and $120,000, then you get a partial deduction which can be calculated by going to the IRS page up to $2500. If you make more than $120,000 then you don't get any deductions for the interest you pay on your student loans. Once again, this is for single filers since most of my friends are not married.

Hopefully this answers some questions you may be having regarding repaying all our debt and how to attempt to not get taxed a crap load.

In an attempt to streamline my expenses vs. income, I came up with a spreadsheet of my bi-weekly income, how much is used to pay each one of my bills and/or loans, how much I will transfer to my savings account, and what is left over. I guess we'll have to see how well this system will work.

Anywhos, I'm working on some catch-up posts for the past month so you'll hear from me soon! Hope this post helps!