It is that time of year when people start giving me things I don’t really want or need and in exchange I have to buy them something they probably don’t really want either. The entire gift-buying thing is crazy to me. That is why I’ve opted out of it. I just tell my friends not to buy me anything and in return I will not buy them anything and we’ll come out even. The only person I get a gift for is my mother because she will get me a gift even if I tell her not to. The concept of Christmas without gifts doesn’t work for her. This works ok for me because I still retain a little bit of the gift-giving tradition of Christmas without having to get into the crazy gift-buying thing.
October Income
Here is a breakdown of my income for October.
|
Job Income |
$1879.38 |
|
Surveys |
$20 |
|
Online Income/Ebay |
$15.79 |
|
Interest |
$1.30 |
|
Total |
$1916.47 |
My income was down a little this month. This was due both to fewer hours at my job and less alternative income. Both should be up this month and my overall income should be over $2000 this month.
December Marathon
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
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
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.