my saving difficulties

whenever i pictured the "after school" life i never pictured myself sitting at home doing nothing. in fact, i was quite excited to be finished school so that i could put in more hours at work, which would equals me making more money. if only it went that way.

thankfully ive been getting more hours lately, so the money is starting to come in. however, its also heading out. im having such a hard time saving up that well earned cash. my mom is right- its like the money burns a hole in my pocket and i just have to spend it.

a few weeks ago dan took me and my car to mr. lube to get an oil change and to get my anti-freeze system flushed. fine. what i wasnt expecting was a $160 bill. throw that on top of the $640 amount i owe my parents for last time my car needed a good repair. (i do have to say im thankful thats about the extent of my car problems. for the rest, my good old bill is treating me greatly!)

i tried paying my mr. lube bill with my debit but the good old insuffient funds showed up on the debit machine. joy! the girl didnt look all that shocked. maybe i look poor. or perhaps shes use to that happening. whatever the case, dans debit card ended up being used. we headed off to my bank right after that to cash in my pay cheque. then i paid him back. i was left with $70 in my account, $40 cash. i ended up using $20 of it to pay for a book we had ordered over a month prior and the rest was spent on gas. at the end of the month i had a grand total of $10 left to my name! :) yipee! im rich! (this isnt counting my savings account. although i wont lie about that.. there isnt much in there either! where is it all going to!?!? ahhh!)

i have this to say about my two weeks of hardly spending anything. it felt wonderful!! so now, despite the fact that i just put three beautiful cheques into my account, i think ill stick with just paying for gas.

.... although i suppose ive said that before!

so how is a girl suppose to save money? my mom thinks im pathetic cuz me and dan are all talks about getting married next year. but i have $10? yea.. so not going to happen. not if this keeps up. so seriously, i need to get down and save, save, save! no joke.

ive tried multiple times to come up with ways to save my money. or even just ways to make money. my lists usually consisted of things like

1. babysit more often
2. pick bottles out of ditches and bring to bottle depots. pick bottles up from ppl and bring to bottle depots. (but seriously, im really not up for walking between four lanes of fast traffic picking up people's used bottles. not to mention the whole truckers rocket things or whatever they're called. yea, no thank-you!)
3. do a paper route (i could. although the ones in the paper are advertising for lethbridge and coaldale area. which is anywhere from 20-40 minutes away. not as close as my last paper route!)

and then there was my wine bottle- which really was working! every time i had cash (i mean like $5, $10 and $20 dollar bills) id stuff it into my wine bottle. and of course, the idea was that i wouldnt be able to get it back out without smashing the bottle.) i managed to save $140 or so in that which i ended up giving to dan to add to his jar so that i wouldnt spend it.

i guess it all just boils down to this: i really, really need to learn some self-discipline. and i also need to learn the value of cash. asap!!!