April's Budget

April means a few things that could be budget busters for me...

*Easter-I'm most likely having family over the day of, which I can work into my grocery budget and my cushion if need be. The other temptation is that BF's family celebrates on the Saturday before, which I am invited to. This will involve meeting a bunch more of his extended family...so of course I want to buy a new dress.

*Wedding reception-A friend of BF's got married in Alaska and is having a reception the second weekend of April. Again, my temptation is to buy a new dress. Or even justify, "I'll buy one dress and wear it to both Easter and the reception."

*Boyfriend's birthday present-There's no getting around this one. His birthday is in May, but I want to get it figured out this month and then budget for whatever activity we're going to do on his actual bday. He went and bought himself a GPS watch, which is what I was planning on getting him. :/ I'm not sure what I'm getting him now, but he's a good gift-giver so I gotta step it up.

*Spring Break-I'm not going away, but having a whole week off usually makes for some more spending on going out to eat and other social activities. I talked to BF about doing something fun in LA one day that week, hopefully taking the Metro. I still want to try to keep it cheap though.

Here are my solutions:

-->No new clothes. I can't really afford it with the other expenses and I came up with a solution. First, a friend gave me an old dress of hers, and since I've been losing weight it should fit for the reception. This also gives me motivation to stick with my diet since it's a size smaller than I was wearing before. It will feel new since I've never worn it. Second, for the Easter outfit I have a skirt that has been a bit snug but should work for me in the next few weeks. It's floral and colorful and it's also on of BF's favorites. :)

-->Spring Break-I'm going to budget an extra $50 into my fun category and look for some fun, free things to do that week. I'd like to not budget extra, but I know myself...I'm going to spend something. I figure it's better to budget a smallish amount rather than not plan and then spend whatever I want.

-->Boyfriend's present-this one's still up in the air. I budgeted for it and I just have to figure out what to get him. 

I am still waiting for some back pay from work, which would allow me to make an extra car payment of around $400. If it doesn't come in AGAIN it's going to be rough to get an extra payment in on my car. Part of the crunch is definitely that my rent is higher now that I live alone...which I am thoroughly enjoying. But it does make it a little tighter budget-wise some months. Nothing I can't handle, but it does mean reminding myself that I can't get everything I want. (Duh.)

Updated Sidebars and a Little Reflecting...

The car is below $2,700! I'm getting so close!

The student loan is updated, though my payments are so small it doesn't even move a percent each month. I am still deciding how to handle my student loan once my car is paid off.

I made another $12 selling books on Amazon...this one has slowed way down, but I'm still ahead of schedule to make $500 this year be selling items online.

I filled up my gas tank, spending $50. Yuck. But again, I'm still on track to stay in my budget for the year. I should be able to make it through this month on only two tanks of gas, which is not too shabby.

I'm sort of coasting in my finances right now...all extra is going to my car, I have my budget pretty solid, things are on track. Which is a good feeling, but also sort of feels like I should be challenging or pushing myself to do something different or interesting financially. That's the hazard of reading a lot of PF blogs I guess. I feel like I have to be struggling or doing something more all the time. That can be good, because it pushes me to do better, but I also think it's okay to relax and let things happen. We'll see if I come up with some sort of challenge or idea to spice things up...

If I Had a Million Dollars...

I've seen this on various blogs lately and thought I'd join in. Here's what I'd do with a million dollars:

Pay off all debt: $15,000
Buy a house on the beach, in my current neighborhood: $450,000
Renovations and furnishings for said house: $100,000
Buy my mom a condo: $250,000 (we live in Southern California...this crap is expensive)
Give to a charity (this would take some serious research!): $100,000
Invest in retirement: $85,000

Yes, I'd want to go on a trip...but I figure with no debt and no rent I could save up for trips pretty quickly. And I know other bloggers included "pay taxes" on their list, but I am treating this as a fantasy and in my fantasy there are no taxes on my million dollars. Go with it.

I'm surprised how fast I came up with ways to spend that money...sigh. If only, if only.

What would you do with a million dollars?

Teaching Personal Finance

I am the yearbook adviser at my school, which is a job and half. It's a lot of hard work...until Spring Break. At that point the book is done and we have about a month and half to kill before distribution. To be honest, I always have high hopes of doing a newsletter or something else, but I usually just have study hall and show movies.

This year though, I'd like to do a series of lessons on finances. I mentioned this idea to a few kids and they seemed really interested. This is something that kids just don't learn in school and I wish that I had. I teach middle school, so some of the application will be far in the future, but I'd still like to give it a go. My ideas include lessons on budgeting, credit cards, savings, how to balance a checkbook, playing "Spent" online, talking about going to college and financial aid.

I don't have a curriculum for this and I'm not really willing to buy one right now. It's going to have to come out of searching the internet and my own head. And hopefully yours. I'd love suggestions on topics to cover, lesson ideas, resources, ANYTHING would help me out. Once I have it planned, I'll report back on how it goes. I think it will be really interesting to teach, and of course I'll blog about it. :)

Get to Giving-March

I am now budgeting $100 per month for charitable giving. I am going to give in different ways each month and write about it in my "Get to Giving" posts, hoping it will inspire you to give back.

I've sort of talked about Pennies for Patients and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in another post, but that's where my March giving budget went, so here's a more detailed post.

Every year my middle school does a campaign called Pennies for Patients. Basically, each homeroom has a box where the kids donate money to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. We have an assembly where they learn about blood cancers and we explain the campaign. Each kid gets a small box for collecting change at home, which they seem to like. We also make it a contest, where the winning homeroom gets a pizza party. This year, we had a dance and all the proceeds went to the campaign as well.

I don't work in a wealthy area. 76% of my students receive free or reduced-lunch. Many are in foster homes. There is some gang activity (though not a lot). 

My school raised $5,826.14!!! Yes, you read that correctly. I would say about a thousand of that was teachers and the rest was kids being generous. I had kids give $5, kids who emptied out their change compartments in their wallets, kids who brought in baggies of pennies that their parents let them take from the change stash at home. Kids gave up their daily Gatorade or vending machine snack to give a dollar. I love this campaign because it's my whole school teaming up to make a difference, and literally every little bit counts. Our school has about 1,100 kids and together we did something that I'm really proud of. 

So, if you're a teacher or work at a school in any capacity, I would recommend that you get involved in this incredible charity. It teaches kids about the value of helping others and I think it brings our school together in a pretty incredible way. So, as you may have guessed, my $100 for March went to Pennies for Patients. This one was easy.

Weekend Update

Wow, I've been a bad blogger. Blame parent conferences, grading essays, and (let's be honest) laziness. Here's a quick update and then I'll schedule some legit posts this week. Promise!

*I've lost eight pounds in the two weeks that I've been on Weight Watchers! I really like the points system and I've been on it as far as sticking with it, so I'm going to vote that it was worth the money. I'd like to lose around twenty pounds total, but even fifteen would be great, so I'm well on my way.

*BF decided to make a budget for his paycheck that he just got on Friday! I didn't pester him or anything, he just told me he decided to do it. :) I asked how it went and he said, "It feels good to have a plan and to know where it's all going." YES! I know it's hardest to stick with it as first, so hopefully this lasts. I have no details about what his budget entails, but I'm glad he's giving it a go.

*I used my Get to Giving money for both March and April already. Posts coming about that, but I feel good about being able to help people while I pursue my goals.

*I'm still on my first tank of gas for the month (though I'll need to get some more this week). With gas prices over $4 in my area, I definitely need to keep it at two tanks per month to stay in my yearly gas budget. Sigh.

*Selling books on Amazon has slowed way down, which makes me want to go through my bookshelves and purge again.

*I am now what I describe as "veganish." I eat eggs and fish, but still no regular meat or dairy. I feel great and now I get to have sushi, so I'm a happy camper.

White & Black Bean Salad

I adapted this from a Weight Watchers Recipe. It's easy and delicious. And it is 3 points per one cup serving, for those who do Weight Watchers.

*1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
*1 can white beans, rinsed and drained
*1 cucumber, quartered and sliced
*2 large tomatoes
*2 stalks celery, diced
*1 red onion, diced
*Cilantro (add it to your heart's content. I like a lot and I didn't measure it)
*2 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
*salt and pepper, to taste

The directions are to mix everything together. And then eat it. That's about it. Super easy and delicious!