New Update

The mystery shopping thing fell through--half-way through my week-long free trial, I still hadn't even looked into any shops, so I called them and asked that the thing be cancelled.

This week marks the first week at my new job where we are not allowed to have over-time. We got done a lot of huge orders last week, and apparently that marks the end of the fall/winter rush, since some of my co-workers are telling me that it'll be pretty slow until at least the end of February. Looks like I'll have to budget really carefully, but at least this upcoming paycheck will be pretty good.

I'm hoping that all three companies I've worked for this year get their W-2 forms sent out to me by the end of the second week of January. That way, I can do my taxes before February 1st, and the money will come sooner too. I'm hoping that my tax returns will be enough to pay what's left on the Bug so that I won't have to budget as carefully as I do right now. (At $277.07 per month, the Bug currently represents my largest monthly bill--not including my portion of the rent--with the combined total of my credit card bills coming in 2nd.)

If the tax return doesn't cover all of what's left on the Bug, then I'm hoping it at least covers half--that way, my last six payments (January through June) will be less than usual.

Once the car is paid off, then I can focus on paying off my credit cards (Two Visa cards, one Discover, and one JCPenney card--I only use the last two, and only for emergencies--like needing all-new underwear because all of the old ones have holes or stretched-out elastic. The two Visa cards are very old and maxed out.) But that's a plan for next year's tax returns (and probably for a few years after that), and I have no idea what my money situation is going to be by then.