I heard back from The Good School. The one I was really hoping to go to. Oh but it turns out they didn’t like me so I can’t go there. So the only option is The Far Away/Expensive School. I’m contemplating doing it, but just don’t know. I mean the amount of money it’s going to cost coupled with the fact I’m not sure I’ll be able to find work when I graduate just makes going back to school seem not so desirable right now. Let’s be honest. I already have 2 useless degrees. Do I really want/need a third one?

Barring some monumental scholarship from these people I think I’m gonna at least defer for a year. Hopefully they allow that? I also plan to meet with the folks at The Good School and find out what in the world they were looking for in a candidate. I really thought I was qualified. Oh well. Maybe I’ll reapply at some point in the future.

On a related note, if I don’t go back to school I need to find another part-time job. Preferably in my field, preferably paid (Yep, that’s how useless my degrees are!). Anyone wanna hire me?

Well I interviewed at the Expensive School and was accepted on the spot.

I would start in a few months.

So now I’m in a bind. I will get some tuition help from my job, but I’m also going to have to cut my hours. Sooooooo this leaves me with a bit of tuition and at least half a year of lost wages. I don’t have tons extra cash right now, but even if I did, I’m starting to question the value of this investment. Seriously, the prospects of me finding a job after I graduate are pretty bleak. Things may shape up as the state budget improves, or as the economy in general improves. But that’s not guaranteed, and I don’t want to graduate a year from now only to find out that I’ve wasted multiple thousands of dollars.

I think maybe I should just get a full time job, stop going to school, and start saving money. I mean, I have goals in life, like having kids and buying a house one day. I certainly can’t do that the way things are going right now!

Am I too old to go back to school? I don’t want to be 40 before I start having kids.

Hi, my name is Caro, and I’m having a quarter- to mid-life crisis.

Clearly I’ll be bringing my running shoes. I plan to get new ones, but hadn’t had the funds to do so just yet. On the bright side my procrastination paid off – Asics just came out with the latest generation of the shoe I was planning to buy. So here it is: the Asics Nimbus 12!

The perfect cushion shoe for my over-pronating foot

So onto the other shoes. I have a pair of Puma’s that are perfectly fantastic, but it’s kind of challenging to keep my orthotics in them (yes, I am an old lady with orthotics! lol). I just bought these 4 with the intention of returning 3. If I hate all 4, I have like 20 other choices. So here’s the list of potential new sneakers for my collection:

1. Asics Gel-fieri

2. Onitsuka Tiger by Asics Ultimate 81

3. Onitsuka Tiger by Asics Mexico 66 (downside is that Zappos reviews say these have 0 arch support. Hopefully the orthotic will at least fit inside…)

4. Puma Street Kosmo (these also come in brown. I couldn’t decide. I can always change my mind!)

So there you have it. I can’t wait for this package to arrive in the mail so I can give a full review of these shoes!

I currently have 22 items listed and am making a small fortune (well like $47). I have several more things to list, but am going to put those off for about a week. Really, I’m just having a great time watching all the bids come in. I’ve never had such a great eBay experience, and it’s a pretty awesome feeling!!

So check me out and buy my shiz!!

Option B: wipe this computer and reinstall Windows. Start fresh. I mean this plan is free after all, so I can definitely get behind this one. Problem: I have TONS of music and a good amount of pics on this computer. I’m not about to try and back all this shiz up on a DVD. Not to mention that all of my computer-savvy friends have drilled it into my head that DVDs are basically stupid.

So I’m sucking it up and buying this: A 2 TB external hard drive. 2 TB should last me forever right? And I *promise* I’ll regularly back up my stuff so that if when I get another virus, I can just wipe the laptop clean and start fresh. I’m totally stoked about my new purchase!!

The post was both refreshing and kind of saddening. I took the Schwab Financial Fitness Test, and like Michele, my score is definitely lower than I would have though or hoped it would be. I scored a 68.

It was definitely awesome to see all the things I’m doing correctly: have health insurance, contribute at least 12% of my income to my retirement account, etc. But seeing the things I don’t do well made me sad. Do I have enough money to cover me if I become unemployed for several months? Nope. I haven’t quite rebounded from my “I finished grad school but still can’t find a job and have to start paying back loans” blow to my savings account. I mean can I get partial credit for knowing that I should have something like that?? lol

But seriously, it’s never too early or too late to get started on managing your finances. These are some easy tips I can recommend:

• Make a budget and stick to it. I was introduced to mint.com a while back and I LOVE it. It tracks your spending for you, reminds you of upcoming bill payments, and makes charts and graphs of your spending trends. And it lets you know instantly if you’ve overspent in any of your budget categories.
• A book I really enjoy is Get a Financial Life by Beth Kobliner. My first boss gave me this as a graduation gift when I finished undergrad. It was truly eye-opening, especially since I was literally scraping by on the salary I was making at that job.
• Contribute to your retirement account starting the day you get your first job. Even if you can only afford $100 a month, the amount that you’ll make off that is better than nothing!! And if your employer matches contributions, take full advantage of that. Seriously – it’s FREE MONEY. And it has your name on it. Take it!
• Don’t carry a balance on your credit card. NEVER. You’re giving away money, and right now interest rates on those things are abysmal.

And that’s all. Thanks Michele for the awesome financial quiz!

Let’s talk about my student loans for a minute. (To anyone considering borrowing money – don’t do it. If you absolutely HAVE to, seriously consider the repayment amount BEFORE you borrow. Then borrow the bare minimum you have to.)

Anyway, I’ve already bored you with a portion of the consolidation drama. What a pain in the ass. Now that I’m in repayment and everything is “set”, this should be easy right? Nope.

I went to school at a bad time. Interest rates were HIGH. So now that I’m in repayment my interest rate is like double what any current going rate is, and you can’t refinance this type of loan. Awesome. Thankfully my lender offers incentives: 0.25% reduction if you enroll in auto-debit. 0.8% reduction once you make your first 12 payments, on time and in-full.

That’s over 1% off my rate. YES PLEASE.

So I signed up for auto-debit. Apparently it takes them “60ish” days to get that set up. There’s a very clear disclaimer once you submit your info: You are not enrolled in auto debit until you receive something in the mail. Continue paying as usual until you get this notice.

So I don’t get a notice. It’s been over 60 days, but there’s nothing in the ‘scheduled payments’ section. And no mail has come to me saying I’m enrolled. 2 days before the due date, I freak out. I can’t miss this due date or I lose out on a 0.8% interest rate reduction. And over 30 years, we’re talking about a substantial amount of money saved. So I scheduled a payment.

The payment posted.

I went to my parents house and saw that I had mail. SHIT. My loan paperwork gets sent to their house. I open the letter. FUCK. I’m enrolled in auto-debit. FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK. They auto-debited my account the day after I made a manual payment.

Yep. I’m retarded, and I paid my loans TWICE this month. TWO LARGE PAYMENTS!

Because I borrowed so freaking much, I paid more on my loans in June than I did on my rent. So now what? I’m already broke, this was NOT a good time for this to happen. (I’ve checked – auto-debit will still collect my money on the next due date.)

Basically there’s nothing else that can be done but sell a kidney.

Maybe that’s drastic. But I am selling TONS of stuff on eBay right now in the hopes of recouping some of that cash so I can pay my July rent.

THIS, ladies and gentlemen, just proves that you should never borrow money. The end.

Now before I lay this all on him, I need to take some of the credit. I had been working to get in shape, drop a few pounds, and tone up a bit before Rhianna’s and Jessica’s weddings. Did I succeed? No. Not really. And this was my own damn fault, because I skimped on the gym about 1/3 times that I should have gone, I ate a TON of chocolate (please refer to the title of this blog – that’s my life motto, which unfortunately allows me to eat any and all things chocolate), and with stress comes less than stellar willpower to snack on salads and fruits and veggies instead of chips and cookies.

But while I’m not overjoyed with where I ended up, I’m OK with it. Because I did lose a few pounds, I am in way better shape (yay being able to run for longer than 2 minutes at a time!), and I see the slightest bit of definition in my muscles. Score.

So why this angry blog you ask?

Because I had reached a happy equilibrium where I was eating the foods that I wanted to in moderation (aka no deprivation!) and working out somewhat regularly, and not gaining or losing weight. A nice happy balance between food, exercise, and my clothes fitting nicely. Again, score!

And then my boss ruined things. With bagels.

The man eats two bagels every morning. Two. Gigantic. Bagels. Toasted, with cream cheese. We share tight quarters – if I were to stick my arm all the way out to my right, I could probably touch him. So yeah, I smell them, and boy do they smell delicious!

So I’ve started indulging in bagels. It started as once every week or two, then once a week, and now I’m eating one – in addition to breakfast and lunch – every morning at work. The bagels in the cafeteria are gigantic so of course they require 2 little packets of delicious cream cheese. So if I were to start tracking POINTS! with Weight Watchers again, I would be fucked. Because this bagel + 2 cream cheese is at least 10 points, and I only get 19 per day.

My clothes are getting tight. As previously noted, I can’t afford to buy a whole new wardrobe. Back to the gym I go. And for the love of god, if you see me eating a bagel slap it out of my hand!

I’ve previously posted about my dire financial situation. I know I shouldn’t spend money. And honestly, I’ve actually been pretty good about containing myself.

And then it happened. The stars collided.

I entered my closet yesterday after doing a bit of a spring cleaning. It seems that I have ditched a substantial portion of my clothes. Anything that a) doesn’t fit b) was worn out or c) caused me to wonder what I was thinking when I purchased it in the first place was tossed. And now there aren’t many things in there.

So add to that this flier I received in the mail for 30% off this weekend at the Gap, and I’m having a bit of a situation over here.

I mean I can’t go to work naked. And I can’t go looking like a schlub either. And the clothes are on sale….

What do I do?

I’m leaning toward the idea of “I’m going to buy new clothes at some point soon anyway. They might as well be on sale.”

Thoughts?

It’s my own fault and was bound to happen at some point. After all, I’m the one who decided it would be a GREAT idea to go back to school, borrow a boat load of money to finance said education, and now am stuck in a profession where I can’t find a job that pays. Seriously. My “job” in my field – yeah it’s unpaid. I work full time on the side for income so I can work for free.

Why did I think this was a good idea again? I can’t for the life of me recall what I was thinking.

Anyway enough whining. I made my bed. Now I have to lay in it. I need help cutting costs. So far this is what I’ve thought of:

*Bring lunch to work Monday, Wednesday, Friday (easy). I probably already do this 1-2 days.
*Bring lunch Tuesday/Thursday – trickier because of a lack of refrigeration/microwave. I’ll have to work on this one.
*STOP the starbucks trips. This was a bad habit. Although I have had a gift card so I’m not sure how much I’ll actually save.
*No more dinners out. Those are expensive and probably not good for my waistline anyway
*No trips to the mall. None. I should probably avoid Target while I’m at it.

Where else can I save a few bucks here and there? I guess I can take the bus to work 2-3 days a week. That will save a minimal amount of gas. Might actually help Marla too. I need ideas from all my other recessionista friends!!