Mo' Money, Mo' Problems ...

... you should understand that better than anyone, Stanley.

So I've come up with a couple of projects I need to take care of over winter break. The first is the usual one- practice at least 3-4 times a week and regain my chops, since oddly enough they usually get worse as the semester goes on. Apparently playing twice a week for a total of 3 hours is not enough to keep you sounding good in the long-term. Who knew?

My second project is to continue work on the Martindale Thesis. It's going to be a push to get this first draft out the door by the end of the semester, and the more work I can devote to it over winter break the easier time I'll have in the Spring. I'm not overly behind, but I just need to find 10-20 hours this month to really sit down and crank this bad boy out. The problem is that, since this assignment is due in over a month, I always focus on everything else first. By the time that's all done, is between 12 and 1 AM and I just want to go to bed. Oh well ... I'll get it done for this semester and then push forward into January. It just might not be a pretty sight for the next few weeks.

Lastly, my third project is to put my BIS 111 knowledge to good use. For some reason I've been spending a much larger amount of money this semester than in previous ones, and only recently have I sat down and tried to actually figure out where it all went. The answer, as best as I can estimate, is as follows:

1. Food- Since most of my friends are off the meal plan, I'm less inclined to use it myself. This means that my "free" meals (paid for by Gryphoning) are going to waste and I'm spending about $6-7 on individual meals a couple times a week. That adds up, especially when the meals involve off-campus group or team meetings.

2. Alcohol- The amount of alcohol I'm consuming this semester has definitely stepped up considerably, probably between 100 and 200% from the Spring. It's been a fun little hobby, although in the last few weeks I've backed off it somewhat due to illness. The downside of this increased consumption, though, is that I find I'm often supplying alcohol for events or keeping my own personal stock higher. I'd estimate I've put in maybe $150 for alcohol this semester, or even $200. That's not necessarily money I'd like to be putting into this type of expense ... so I need to pay more attention to that in the future.

3. Projects- I have a bad habit of not getting reimbursed for things fast enough, and that means that they quickly fall off my radar and I might lose out on them. That's no biggie except for the fact that the purchases I'm making are much larger this semester, namely in the way of software and hardware for IBE. So far I'm about $200 in the hole for that project alone. It's time to get on the ball and get my money back.

4. Gas- This is only about $40 a month, or about two stops at the station every 4-5 weeks. All in all it's a small expense, but I'm certainly driving a lot more than last semester due to visits home, visits to TCNJ, and IBE trips. Maybe I can get reimbursed for the IBE travel, as well?

The major result of this analysis, however, is that I've discovered that I don't take very good care of monitoring my finances. You don't need to monitor every penny that comes through your checking account, necessarily, but you should definitely by able to determine how much you're spending on various things every month, how much income you're receiving (zero, anyone?), and specifically if you should change your spending habits to maintain financial stability. So here's my idea for winter break to fix this: design an MS Access database for all of my finances. My end goal is for the database to have the following features:

-Revenue and Expense entry forms that include the amount of a transaction, the type of transaction, the type of item/service purchased, etc.
-Each entry, depending on the data given, will be recorded onto different lists and statements organized by type. A $20 purchase of beer, for example, will be logged onto the total alcohol expense sheet (by month and year), the expenses for the given month, the expenses for the account from which it was taken (cash, checking, savings, credit), and the cash flow for the given month by type.
-Overall documents will therefore be able to reproduce all of my purchases and expenditures over the course of the month and year.

And before you say it ... yes, I know i just described what the "Quicken" software does. But hey, over the break I've got lots of time and my database knowledge definitely needs a booster shot, so what the hell.

Here's to being fiscally responsible in 2008!

Happy Saturday.