Busy Week in Review

It's been a few weeks since my last post, but I'm sure you'll understand why from my week in review. Boy have I been a busy bee!

Monday: During the early morning I was barely able to sleep, maybe 1.5 hrs at most; therefore, I didn't make it to the lovely first day of school (well, work for me)... I spent the day wallowing in the bed :-(

Tuesday: Still not much sleep, but it was a full force day anyway. Everything moved so fast. Work from 8-11a. Left work at EXACTLY 11a to make it next door to Biology 240 by 11:30a. Class over at 12:45p. Back at my desk by 1p. Left work again for Equity Accounting starting at 6:10p. Somewhere inbetween chatted it up with my bff and had a quick snack (which constituted breakfast, lunch and dinner). Crashed as soon as I made it home.

Wednesday: Caught up on some much-needed rest. Work 10-6:30p. Home for reading and more sleep. At least that's what I thought. My boyfriend surprised me with flowers, and they add so much color to my dull room!

Thursday: Back to work at 8a. Same routine as Tuesday, except for the fact that my Biology Lab starts at 5:10p. Between 4:30p and 5:10p, boyfriend stopped by to bring me "bruncher", my new term for a combination of breakfast, lunch and dinner. Bio lab is scheduled to last 3 hours and 50 minutes. Good thing we were only examining cell structures, membranes, cytoplasm and bacteria until 6:45p. Left class, printed out homework and other course material, headed to Walmart for a digital camera (which I failed to purchase... being frivolous!) and home for bed.

My prettiful mug that I finally used from my friend's trip to Viva Las Vegas in '09

Friday: Just like every Friday of my life, wake at 6am. Drive grandma to work by 7:20a. Make it to my job by 8a. Inbetween, touch 4 cities (Detroit, Redford, Southfield, Dearborn) during my commute. Waste a few minutes before the windows open browsing the news online. Processed student account adjustments and removed some folks from collections... currently awaiting lunch :-)

Enough about my crazy life though! I spent about 30 minutes of my workday last week reconstructing a budget worksheet that I use myself. The concept behind this spreadsheet is that we must learn to allocate our money efficiently in order to budget correctly, something I learned from Manisha Thakor's book, On My Own Two Feet. The most interesting thing is that this system of budgeting is easily adaptable. To accurately use the spreadsheet, all it takes is you typing in the amount of your paycheck and/or miscellaneous cash received from things like babysitting, monetary gifts, etc.

Example: Last week you earned $545.00 from XYZ Bank. You would like to know how much of your check you should save, apply to bills, and use for having dinner with your friends. Based off of your income, the following amounts will be displayed on the chart.

• Foundation 45% = $245.25
• Future 25% = $136.25
• Fun 15% = $81.75
• Miscellaneous 15% = $81.75

Using this fool-proof system will keep you from carrying unnecessary cash with you, and will allow you to save a reasonable amount every time you receive money. Your bank account will thank me later...

Enjoy your 3-day weekend! Happy MLK Day- Volunteer in your community!