save up money

So, I got a raise and despite my intent to put any extra away, I’m actually spending it. I manage to carry over a couple hundred each paycheck, but my check that I mentioned earlier hasn’t been released yet so I don’t have that counted for. Besides that, I’ve got my new car, we’re getting a house as soon as possible, and I’m starting on my 50 states goal next weekend by hitting two of them. Kind of costly to do that, but worth it in my opinion.

So, I got some mail today. A retirement plan was opened for me at my old job that I didn’t know about. My company ended up placing almost $800 in the account. I pulled it out of there for a few reasons. One, I don’t work there any more. Two, if I left it in there it would automatically be invested in that company’s stock and I really don’t want that. My only other option was to have them cut me a check. Now I have to resist spending it and save it for an emergency. I’m not even using it to help pay off by bills, I’m going to budget the rest of my money for that and put this in a savings account that I’m not going to touch. I want to see how much money I can save in six months, starting with that and taking $100 from each paycheck and adding it to the total.

I remember a few years ago I only had $150 to spread out over the month and cover all of my expenses. I made that work. Now I have a great job that pays me good money and I have had a similar good paying job. Am I any more ahead than I was back then? No. It seems the more money I make, the more money I spend. When I got my new job, instead of building up my savings, I bought a new car. Yeah, it is kind of an investment. I won’t have to worry about repairs for a while and with gas prices the way they are, this is an extremely fuel efficient car and would save on gas money if I’d just stop using it all. But now I’ve gone from no car payment to a $450/month payment and the extra burden of carrying full coverage insurance. Plus we’re trying to get a house and go on our first family vacation and we’re supposed to be saving up for that. Instead I blow all my money on things I don’t really need and I’m stretching it to the limit. I’ve got over $40,000 dollars worth of loans our right now and three credit card bills that should have been for emergencies only and should have been paid off by now. Maybe one of my goals should be self control.