My summer vacation is officially over 🙁 I had a really relaxing couple of weeks, and now I’m actually pretty happy to be back in the swing of the school routine. I went back to school on Tuesday, and, in between sitting through some really boring meetings, I was busy setting up my classroom, writing syllabi, and planning lessons. I’m teaching four different classes this year, which is a planning nightmare. But I am happy to have the variety in my schedule, and I really like the classes I’m teaching. Some of my old students stopped in to visit, too. I love that, because it really reminds me why I teach.
I added a new section to my blog, a tracker for my savings. My Pretty Pennies posted a really nice set of directions about how to add the tracking bars to a blog, but in the end I went with a simpler version. I wanted to be able to visualize how my savings are stacking up, and this seemed like the easiest way to show it (for me and everyone else). I decided not to include my debt repayment in this section because I’m on a pretty steady schedule with my student loans and my car payment. Nothing too interesting going on there. But I also added a new savings account to the mix: a travel fund. The budget I created a few weeks ago didn’t reflect savings for a travel fund, so I need to re-work it to include a $50 per month deposit into that account. I did some hard thinking about my personal goals, and I really want travel to be a significant part of my life. So I’m planning for it, slowly but surely.
Also, I’m going to be making a scheduled $50 per month deposit into my emergency fund, as well as some larger, more irregular deposits from the additional income that I earn from tutoring. Actually, I need some advice about my additional income. I’m not really sure what to do with this money this year. Last school year, I threw all of it at my personal loan. Now that that’s paid in full (yah! yah!) I’m not sure what my biggest financial priority is. I know what I want. I want to travel and buy a house. But I have this nagging feeling that what I need is to beef up my emergency fund first. Eh. What do you think?!
So, I need to re-post a re-worked budget. I’ve also been thinking about a few other post topics, including one about wedding costs and one about job security. I think the job security post will be up first, because, as of Tuesday, I’m tenured. I’m interested in what job security means in today’s world, and exploring what it means in my particular situation. So those are the posts that are in the works. I’m planning on posting a lot more frequently in the upcoming weeks and months, and I’m pumped about it!
Enjoy the weekend everyone!
