MaraRayanne

A few months ago I stated that I wanted to travel more. I kept that thought in my head, put it out into the universe, and within a week I had 3 trips planned over the next year.

My friend invited me to Brazil for a week, where she is from. My other friend invited me to Costa Rica where she manages a bed and breakfast. And lastly, I planned a solo voluntourism trip to Peru for volunteering and to hike the Inca Trail.

That goes to show what a little positive thinking can do.

I have only a few math classes left to take and then I’m off to apply for big girl college!

I have paid off my major credit card that I have been chipping away at for years. It seems like every time I would get down to the last few payments my car would break down or I had tuition to pay. Murphy’s law, right?! Well I finally paid the last payment! All I have left is a few hundred dollars on my department store cards that I don’t plan on closing, so they will probably always carry a small balance, but I still work towards paying them off by paying more than the minimum when the bill comes.
To help me see how much I was spending I made a budget in excel. I split my bills into two sections, one for my 1st of the month paycheck and one for the mid-month paycheck. It helped to split major bills into two, like rent. I would put 1/2 of my rent into savings as an automatic transfer through my bank on payday. Then it would transfer it back on the next payday when I mailed my rent check. This helps spread out those major expenses so you don’t have to stretch one paycheck more than the other. I would keep track of my credit card balance in the same document and each time I made a payment I would subtract it and check that it balanced with the online statement. When I had to enter a purchase, it made me really think about what I bought and how I set myself back from my goal.