Andy Hough

December Marathon

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I plan to run a marathon next month.  I was going to run a marathon last month but never got on track with training.  I still haven’t started running on a regular basis but I have a month and a half to get ready for the marathon.  This is enough time to get in shape to finish the marathon but not enough time to be able to finish the marathon in a good time.

This will be my fifth marathon and they have all been in different states.  I hope to someday have the 50 states and D.C. completed. I’ll have to pick up the pace eventually because one marathon a year won’t get that done.

The marathon I’m going to run is going to be held on Dec. 30th at 2 pm.  This should work in my favor because the cold weather makes it easier to run.  You get too cold if you stop running.  Also I’m not a morning person so the usual early morning start time of marathons doesn’t work as well for me as this afternoon start should.  I’ll keep you updated as the marathon nears.

October Expenses

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for October.

Household

$521.40

Utilities

$42.50

Food

$123.03

Transportation

$189.89

Entertainment

$364.77

Medical/Dental

$80

Student Loans

$450

Total

$1771.59

Household expenses were a little high because I had one week of overlapping rent. They will go down this month.  Utilities will go up this month because I’ll have the expense of gas heat for the entire month.  Food cost was a little high because I ate way too much fast food and junk food.  I’ll try to eat better and cheaper this month.  Transportation cost will probably go up due to the rising gas prices.  Entertainment costs will go down significantly this month since I won’t repeat the wasteful spending of last month.  Medical/Dental expense will go up some because I’m having some dental work done this month.  I hope to be able to pay the same or more on my student loans.

Overdrafted My Checking Account

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To add to the money mistakes I’ve been making I overdrafted my checking account.  Although they structured my withdrawals from largest to smallest only the last one overdrafted my account resulting in a $20 fee.  This was my own fault because I knew I was getting close to using the total balance in my account but made a withdrawal anyway.  I used to always keep my checking account balanced but now that I do everything online I just check my balance daily and keep tab in my head of any pending withdrawals that aren’t reflected in the online balance.  Until now this method had worked.  It still would have worked if I wouldn’t have intentionally gone below the $50 cushion I keep to make sure I don’t overdraft due to a forgotten charge.

On the plus side I asked the bank if they would remove the charge and they did.  They certainly didn’t have to remove the charge since the overdraft was completely my fault but I was pleased that they did.  I’ve read lots of complaints about Bank of America’s customer service but my experience with them has been very good.

Finally Finished With Law School Paper

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I turned in my paper for law school Thursday night. The paper is going to be a major factor in whether I am re-admitted to law school. I’m not completely pleased with how the paper turned out since I procrastinated and didn’t get the paper exactly like I wanted it to be. I believe it should be good enough though. My professor was going to look over it this weekend but I haven’t received any feedback yet. I’m relieved to finally have this paper done though. I’ve basically done all I can for being re-admitted now. I have to wait until Nov. 20th before I meet with the re-admission committee but I think my prospects look good. Now all I have to do is wait.

Making Up for Money Mistakes

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When I make money mistakes like I did last week I try to make up for them.  What I mean by this is I try to earn extra money or save extra money in the amount of the mistakes I made.  This serves two purposes.  One is I’m able to feel less guilty about wasting the money because I made it back.  The other is any sacrifice I have to make to make up the money will make me less likely to repeat the mistake.

Making up the money mistakes of last week won’t be easy because they are rather large in relation to my income and my budget.  If I had made a small money mistake I could easily make it up by just cutting my food budget or working an extra shift at work.  Making up this money mistake will take a little longer.  Does anyone else try to make up for money mistakes?