Arrangements I made Before the BIG Adventure Or Arrangements I made to save money Part 1

So to pick up where I left off, I made a goal to save enough money to finance one semester of school.  According to the school website, it is $7,750 per semester at the Anguilla campus where I want to attend.  So this would be the first instance in my life where I needed a budget.

My family is not good with money which meant I needed to become my own expert.  So of course I used Google to educate myself on methods of making a budget.  I do remember from researching that a site suggested we should stop making budgets on napkins and notepads.  This idea is not feasible because one would be very likely to only look over it once and then later throw it away.  They suggested using something that you can read over periodically.  And I will mention that I was a notepad budgeter.

So, I made a spreadsheet.  Using the spreadsheet allowed me to predict my balance if I followed it correctly and as planned.  I inputted all the average amounts of my bills and spending habits and it calculated the balance of all my accounts.  I will be honest in saying that a lot of the time; I didn’t save as much as I could because I deserved to have little fun.  Right?

First thing I did after starting my budget was……..

MOVE!  I had an apartment that was 16 miles from my job.  To individuals that live in a city, that is far away opposed to those who live out in the country who wouldn’t think it was far at all.  Before moving to Atlanta, GA for my job, I lived in a town called Micro so I think you can picture the difference.  Plus you can see how I ended up living where I did.  So after looking over my bank statements and realizing I spent over $250 a month on gas alone, it really added to the thought of moving closer to work.  And when I found a place closer to work, it was 1.6 miles to work.

During the time of my budget, I saved up to $650 a month while having some hiccups here and there including car repairs, my job changing the pay schedule and a promotion.  My parents had some hiccups in the finances and I helped them out quite a bit including having to input them into my budget.  I started realizing in February that I would have to start learning to say the word no if I wanted to have enough money to go to school.

Overall, I am pleased at the arrangements over things I did to make school happen for me.  I think that this experience taught me better money management for when I will theoretically not have any money.  Inspiration for today:

If you plan and work hard,
    you will have plenty;
    if you get in a hurry,
    you will end up poor.

-Proverbs 21:5, CEV