Better at Biking

This morning I made the forty-five minute ride to the clinic only to realize at the bike rack that my lock was back home. Unwilling to leave my friend's bike unchained for hours while waiting for my appointment, I re-scheduled and rode right back home.

I originally misheard the date of my appointment and thought it was on the 21st, so this was the second time I've made that trip in ten days. That day I headed out of the house without breakfast and was completely famished on the return trip. Having money in my pocket to cover the deductible, I stopped at Spiderhouse Cafe to have a vegetarian frito pie on the way home. This morning I had a big bowl of oatmeal and made it to the clinic and back without a break (aside from a short chat with the receptionist). Unlike the very first time I made this trip last month, I didn't walk my bike at all or rest before attempting big hills, and there was much less huffing and puffing over all. Improvement!

Lazy Day, Busy Thoughts

Today was spent almost entirely in bed. Woke up with a headache and a cough and no shifts until this evening. It would have been a good day to research jobs and tidy my resume, but I didn't even turn on the computer until after five in the evening. I have croissant dough chilling in the fridge from yesterday, starting to dry. I answered the phone but didn't catch up on correspondence. I didn't return library books or pick up my paycheck. The clean clothes need folding, craft projects need finishing. Instead I read, glancing at the clock every hour or so, counting down the hours before getting up and readying myself for work.

I took some medication and drank lots of orange juice and listened to Darling and other house mates remodel our pantry. The mice have inspired a near-complete overhaul of every room they have infested, which is kind of a good thing. A better thing is that the mice have been neither seen nor heard from in a couple of days...maybe we chased them out?

As of the first of next month I will have new employers at my second job. There is a chance that business will improve dramatically, which would be a relief. My search for an office job has been put on tentative hold for this and a number of other reasons, and I am weary of the limbo.

I really want to give up house cleaning, which I honestly detest, but it is the best paying employment I have and takes less than four hours a week. I took on the extra work to catch up on rent, which we have finally managed, but I'm thinking of carrying on for a while more.

Yesterday I used a calculator to determine what it would take to be out of debt by May of 2012, in the hopes of paying my debt within the first five years of my Challenge. $650 a month. It's such a large, depressing number. Could I devote $650 a month to debt payment every month for eighteen months? It seems ridiculous, but the years seem to flow by so quickly in retrospect, and it would be nice to chart our progress in such concrete terms.

It seems that whatever our income, Darling and I scrape by, even in absurdly unusual months. And in easy months as much as $200 can slip through the cracks of our personal economy. Maybe if Darling and I were really determined, we could find a way to devote $650 to my student loans. Maybe the excitement of watching that huge number melt away like a candle would make up for the scraping by. Maybe we'd find ourselves pre-disposed to higher paying jobs to sooth the inevitable bruise to our lifestyle.

I'm thinking of experimenting in February. We'll pay rent on the third and then, the moment it's earned, send a $650 payment to that company and force ourselves to make up the difference. The first month will be hard, the second equally challenging, but it seems like we can adjust to anything in twelve weeks or so.

These are the things I think about, moments before heading to work, on such cold lazy days.

One Good Day After Another

Yesterday I...

* worked an enjoyable lunch shift
* Enjoyed a lunch of sautéed parsnips, mashed potatoes, and black eyed peas courtesy of Darling
* went on a walk with Darling to the Herb Bar
* baked bread with sesame, poppy, sunflower, and flax seeds (the poppy seeds are harvested from our own garden)
* ate a curry vegetable soup with my house mates
* made vegan chocolate coconut pudding

This morning I...

* slept in
* had a long, hot bath
* meditated
* did some yoga stretches with Darling
* spent time with my Raja and Xy
* rode ten miles on the bike (to and from Xy's house)

How awesome is life? Way awesome.

A "New" Bike

Twenty-five days in a row I've ridden a bike, in the rain and the cold and the dark, up hills and very nearly into creeks. I don't feel any stronger, but my mileage is improving. Seven miles the first week, fourteen the second, eighteen the third. Most days I just go to work, but every once in a while I run a longer errand. The only downside was that I have grown increasingly annoyed at the huge cruiser I'm borrowing. It is so heavy. I envy the sportier bikes that speed past me on the road and slip effortlessly up hills that leave me huffing and puffing.

Yesterday my already good luck took a turn for the better. Someone pointed out the small road bike my freind Agni left when he moved to India. I accepted the responsibility of dealing with his abandoned belongings, but forgot about the bike he never rode. Besides an incredibly uncomfortable seat and flat tires, the ride looks to be in perfect condition and a good size for me!

ACC and Baby O

Last week Darling was supposed to start school, but an on-line administration error dropped him from all of his classes - for which he registered in October - the weekend before his first day. He stood in line for hours and even tried to make his case to the dean, but at least so far the verdict is that the ACC computers don't make mistakes (HA!), except for the inexplicable withdrawal from our bank account the day we claim to have registered...A week later, and I am still too furious to really write about this...

(Also, we have been given quite a bit of good advice on this, but Darling can not just "sit in" on these classes as the technical lectures are usually very computer heavy and require signing on and completing work via Blackboard, an online education website. There are also no distance learning versions of these classes. These classes are in very high demand and are taught once a year in a single time slot by a single professor...that's why it is so frustrating to miss an entire semester).

Today is my last day sitting for BabyO, my brother's daughter. She is on the verge of learning to walk, and her parents believe that their childproof home is safer than the co-op. That's fair, but I'm not up to the 3-4 hour commute to and from their house every Monday, so I'm bowing out of the weekly rotation.

I'm not abandoning the baby game altogether, though. My friend Raja is due on the 27th of February. This is her first baby and she and her husband, Xy, are going to need lots of support. I'm going to make myself extra-available to them for several months, starting the week before she's due. Because they intend to work like crazy up to the absolute last minute, I'm going to arrange my schedule so that I'll be nearby Raja when Xy is at work. Eventually, when the baby has made himself comfortable in the world and his Mom goes back to work, I'll be babysitting him on Fridays. Darling says I'm basically trading O in for a younger model.

I refuse to call this post, "A Sticky Situation"

Our house has a rodent problem. For a long time it was a rodent "issue:" it was occasionally heard scratching around in the pantry walls, witnessed once or twice racing from between the kitchen and pantry, but basically keeping to itself. We set snap traps and a live trap every once in a while, caught one, and set it free by the creek.

Realizing what pansies we were, the mouse returned with friends. Suddenly brazen, despite the cat we started letting into the house, the mice started chewing through cardboard containers of food previously left alone. We had been advised by an exterminator to stuff the many holes in the wall with steel wool and cover them with metal plates, but we started finding bits of chewed up steel wool about the pantry! Bits of insulation, too. They ventured into other rooms, and the last straw was when teeny holes started showing up in our clothing.

I was the one to suggest sticky traps, and then went so far as to buy them and give them to the house as a gift. Despite bordering on veganism, I have no problem killing an animal that annoys me and is risking the health of my friends and family. Killing an animal for food or sport? Barbaric. Killing an animal eating my food? Perfectly reasonable.

I put the traps out last week and waited for the dark day we'd catch one and have to put it out of its misery. Days passed without incident. Fast forward to yesterday at six a.m. I dragged myself out of bed and to the dresser to discover that the clean clothes were still in the dryer. Putting on mismatched socks and my glasses, I groggily stumbled down the stairs and into the pantry. As has become my habit, I flipped on the light with an eye towards the traps. Crossing the room, I could see that one of the traps had been moved.

Weird. Someone mentioned hearing something in the attic, did they...

At that point, I became aware of two things: the first was a consistent, quiet, shrill shrieking noise. The second was that something was on my foot.

IT was on my FOOT. The mouse was on my FOOT. It was GLUED TO MY FOOT. The mouse was on a glue trap, and my foot was on a glue trap, and we were both screaming bloody murder. I kicked and screamed, and screamed, and screamed some more. I would still be screaming if I hadn't narrowly decided to wear mismatched socks for that two minute trek downstairs, if that glue trap were still attached to the ball of my foot. Instead my sock, the trap, and the mouse suddenly flew across the room and into the wall, and I raced upstairs to crawl back into bed with Darling and tell him to get up, get our laundry, make coffee, and make the mouse disappear so I could regain my sanity in order to catch the train up to north Austin for babysitting.

The moral of the story? Always wear socks. And if you put a glue trap in your home, don't expect karma to go easy on you.

Having Purchased Happiness

Because money can't necessarily buy happiness, it is assumed that the two bear little relation to each other. Some people believe that money and happiness are contradictory forces in life, that "simplicity" trumps "wealth" to such a degree that a fat wallet dooms one to misery and dissatisfaction. I have one friend, an artist, who insists that to find herself suddenly a millionaire would be an unfortunate state, because to have money in this world directly correlates with corruption and exploitation. I agree with her up to a point.

A lot of us have forgotten that we spend money every moment of every day, not necessarily at the store or cafe, but sitting in our very homes. We spend money to heat our houses and boil water for tea, and every second the computer hums is a fraction of a penny converted into electricity. The taxes we pay support our troops, public education, roads, libraries, prisons, and scientific grants. Because these costs are so subtly hidden, revealed once a month or year in an obscurely written bill, we shake our fists and think not of the hours spent snuggling up in warm beds reading late into the night, but of evil bureaucrats skimming the cream off our hard-earned paychecks. We consider such pleasures not happiness purchased but entitlements earned by being members of a developed civilization.

Many of us earn and spend tens of thousands of dollars a year without hesitation, and worse, without appreciation. We live carelessly and thanklessly. Agrarian cultures grew food and thanked the soil and the sky, the seeds and animals. We live in absurd luxury and complain bitterly about the rising cost of gas and electricity, our lengthy commutes and the poor quality of practically free entertainment wired to our homes. Anything expensive and luxurious enough to require recognition, such as cell phones and cars, is redefined as a "need" so we can justify our resentment.

So the majority of our time is spent working 4-12 hour shifts at jobs that can rarely be described as labor. The time converts to money, most of which is lost to taxes that keep our communities operating (you want to close prisons? schools? animal shelters?), and then another huge percentage covers food, rent or mortgage, and utilities that keep our homes from deteriorating. Many of us have barely enough left to cover perceived needs - the aforementioned cars and telecommunication systems that we insist are necessary to maintain employment - as well as clothing, personal care, medical attention, and enough entertainment to keep the kids from putting themselves up for adoption.

If not for the credit industry, many of us would stop here. After all, these preliminary expenses are expensive. But credit enables us to go to college regardless of financial (or scholastic) ability, as well as buy a house, get married, and have children before reaching anything looking like financial security. Emergencies ranging from a medical catastrophe to a late night snack attack loom behind every corner. We swipe our cards, make minimum payments, and work like crazy to keep our jobs. All the while, few of us recognize our incredible good fortune to have been born in this place and time. Our minor plights and obstacles make the wealth and it's pursuit fairly interesting, sometimes scary and hopeless, despite the fact that the vast majority of us will never face homelessness or hunger, and almost none of us could starve or freeze to death if we tried.

The recession is depressing. Many Americans have lost homes and jobs, but these losses are almost symbolic when considered from a historical perspective. When someone "loses" a home in America, they are actually leaving a building they never actually owned and could not afford. It is sad and horrible and ruins lifestyles, but it hardly ever kills anyone. This is one of the worse things that can possibly happen to you...and it's not that bad. Granted, I've never lost a home to foreclosure, and probably never will. Not because I'm smarter than the average American but because my standards are substantially lower.

My point is not to be cold-hearted or even to suggest that Americans who are going through the hell of bankruptcy look on the bright side. My point is that a lot of us are spending thousands of dollars on happiness, and squandering it. Most of us are pursuing happiness on credit, happiness we'll never actually pay for, and blindly wondering when our boat will come in. And worse, many of us are anxiously fingering bills, avoiding the bank, and praying for a raise, because we don't know how long we'll be able to continue our cycle of financial abuse.

Someday we'll have to turn down the thermostat, we grimace, tugging our sweaters tighter, someday we'll have to sell the car, move somewhere cheaper, pull the kids out of private school... And in the meantime, the kids are happily munching on mac 'n cheese while hubby flips through hundreds of televisions stations and we play solitaire on the computer because who could find a deck of cards in all our junk?

In the meantime, we're happy. We've not only bought happiness, but we've been coerced into buying happiness by our friends and neighbors. We're jaded by happiness, numb to it's effects, occasionally guilty for our affluence. We try and buy more and fail, because we've forgotten the joy of the perfect sweater at a good price, we're bored by the relentless affordable car hunt and the endless questions and labels of quality: organic, locally grown, all-natural, non-pasteurized...

The good news? There's nothing but good news! The time has come to acknowledge it, to experience the beauty of life and freedom. Financially, it's dangerous to be happy - at least that's what we've been told since communism reared its red head. But why not try it out for a bit? Turn off the television and computer and count your blessings. Sit with your husband and take a stroll down memory lane. What is his favorite memory? What was your favorite day? What have you done right without meaning to? Does he still find you attractive? If you're single, get with your friends. If you are too busy working, why? Do you actually like your awful, thankless work? I love my dumb job.

Not being happy in this day and age is like owning a sports car you don't drive. You already shelled out the cash, you're paying more at this very moment. Why not enjoy this happiness you work so hard to purchase?

Resolution Update

I rode eight miles today! It's a friend's birthday and a few of us got together to play games and eat the cake I baked. No one was incredibly happy to see me saddle up for the ride home in the dark, but I left them to their "safe" cars and enjoyed a few minutes of my city streets to myself.

My resolutions have been going well. I think a good goal is something that can bend without breaking. I didn't want to ride in a car all year, but I did borrow a vehicle to go grocery shopping for the house. I've been about 90% vegan so far this year, but wasn't quite ready to offer my friend a vegan birthday cake. At this stage, compromise is to be applauded. I can accept my shortcomings without indulging in them.

Two resolutions have been kept sacred, though. I am proud to have ridden every single day of 2011, despite the cold and rain and darkness. I am also quite pleased to have kept track of every cent earned and spent this year.

I can't say that I am 100% happy with how much we have spent. It seems like for every dollar I bring home, two go out for some need or other. Darling had to renew his drivers license, which we've put off since moving from Virginia, and that cost $25. We had to buy text books for his classes. And today I looked at his glasses and noticed that the anti-scratch coating is peeling off! He thinks you can get the coating repaired (replaced?), but I'm not sure about that. I asked him to hold tight for a few weeks while we meet our other immediate needs. If nothing else, I think his frames are at least in good enough shape that only the lenses will need replacing.

Work is great. I'm feeling comfortable cleaning my two houses and appreciate the extra easy income. Tomorrow I work at both the restaurant and the coffee shop, which should cover the rest of January's rent, and then I just need to start saving for February rent and Darling's tuition payment. It will feel good to be ahead again.

Feat Turned Fail

I have successfully ridden a bike every day this year, despite a handful of near-misses. Last week, for instance, I found myself waiting until the last minute on my days off work. I only rode seven miles in seven days.

I didn't get too down on myself though, because a) riding every day is pretty good, even when it's just a trip around the block, and b) I expected to definitely increase mileage with this week's supreme WIN.

I had an amazing plan, a feat of strength and heroics that would launch me directly into Godhood. My plan was to shop for the co-op groceries by bike. No doubt you think this is foolish, but it is highly unlikely you guess the extent of my foolishness. Shopping for our nine person household is generally a matter of two hours, two people, and a vehicle with a generous trunk.

Last year we purchased a custom bike trailer so that the shopping could be done by the cyclists, but only one of my house mates has ever used it for this purpose. She caught me trying to attach the hitch and insisted that, at the very least, I give the unloaded trailer a test ride before committing to a full trip.

Soon I was cruising downtown, enjoying myself immensely, lightweight trailer in tow. But it didn't take me long to notice that even that small weight made hills exponentially more challenging, and a load of groceries would not improve matters. And then my leg suddenly hurt, and I decided to head back to the house

Moments later it came to my attention that I live on a hill. A tall hill, not steep by anyone's measurement, but steady enough to affect at least a mile of my route. I barely got to the top alive, gasping for hair, and thanking Jesus that I hadn't hundreds of pounds of groceries in tow.

I imagined myself making a four mile ride, buying $350 worth of vegetables and dried goods, and riding four miles back. Instead I rode a total of three miles and nearly passed out on a neighbor's lawn. FAIL.

Okay, not a total fail. I committed to practicing this trip regularly until this dream becomes a reality. How many people launch directly into Godhood anyway? I also took the time to think about how my shopping will change when I'm doing it by bike. I borrowed a car to do the house's shopping and was very careful to note how many pounds of bulk foods we purchase, arranging the shopping trip by weight and considering the perishable nature of foods (come Summer, dairy might be an issue on a bike ride home).

I'm hoping someday to look back on this post, having ridden thousands of miles and hauled countless pounds of groceries, and smile indulgently to myself. In the meantime, feel free to laugh out loud.

The Job Hunt On-line

I recently realized that a lot of my online job hunting was falling short not only of getting a job, but even applying properly. In my mind, I had sent out dozens of queries, while in reality, I have spent several evenings reaching new peaks of technological frustration.

Here is the On-line Job Hunting Process, as experienced by me:

1. Find an interesting, or even excellent, looking company that is looking to hire. Check out the amazing array of positions I am totally qualified for. Notice all but "janitor" require a college degree. And "janitor" requires fluency in Spanish.

2. Find a similar looking company with lower standards that is also hiring. Find a position, and then edit my resume to match that position to a "T," as instructed by HR mentor.

3. Go back to the website and click "apply on-line." Spend twenty minutes creating an online account which is denied because of incompatability with the Firefox web browser. Move to PC in office which has Internet Explorer.

4. Repeat step 3 and discover that the PC in the office is actually, in the eyes of this website, a glorified Abacus. Move back onto laptop, this time boot up Windows 7 instead of Ubuntu.

5. Repeat step 3 and start filling out on-line application. Suddenly realize that my updated resume is on this laptop, but saved on the Ubuntu system, not Windows. Can't get to it from here, or even open the copy sent by e-mail for some reason.

6. Click the button that says "save and finish later," restart computer using different boot menu, and spend some time transporting a beautiful but useless resume from the Ubuntu Word program to a more compatible system.

7. Eventually make my way back to website and log-in to find that my half-finished application was not saved, as was expected, but SENT. Half-finished, lacking any useful information.

8. Freak out and decide to download Adobe version of application. Thoughtlessly download to laptop, which makes filling out all those little fields very difficult due to finicky tiny keyboard and over-sensitive mouse-pad. E-mail half-finished, tediously typed copy to self so as to finish on the PC.

9. Oh yeah. You can't save, much less e-mail, information on this Godforsaken form. Save under a different name...why can't you do that with this form? Why are there only two choices: print or save blank copy?

10. Save it as a text document, and discover that all the fields are wonky. Half the typed information won't show up, would have to totally re-create the form for this to work...

11. Realize it is 1 in the morning and I have been at this since noon. Go to sleep.

12. As I sleep, convince myself I actually accomplished something. Then feel frustrated when employer never calls.

...I did finally fax an application (downloaded, filled out, and printed) the day before yesterday, and intend to do so on a regular basis in the future. I'll consider all this hassle practice for a future in bureaucratic paper shuffling!

If Money is Time...

Where does mine go?

Lizzie and Anonymous had questions and comments about my financial tabulations, so I decided to post exactly how many hours I work to earn the money for my financial categories:

Co-op rent (covers the majority of our basic living expenses): 56.42
Phone Bill: 4.05
Snacks: .79
Groceries (personal food not covered by the co-op): 1.38
Eating Out: 4
Hygiene (soap, shampoo, floss, etc.): 1.72
Transport: 1.74
Clothing: .97
Medical: 51.72
Gifts: 5.46
Office Supplies: .39
Booze: 2.25

There are several important notes to keep in mind while reviewing these numbers. To start, December absolutely crawls with holidays, including my wedding anniversary. While no month is normal, this month was extra special. The majority of the gift money was not Christmas presents but baby shower gifts to my best friend. The "booze" category in now way represents casual drinking by any means, but two six packs of cider shared with friends, a single bottle of mead that was enjoyed Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Years Eve, and an as of yet unfinished bottle of sherry. Likewise, the "groceries" category is unlikely to be seen every month, most of this was food purchased to prepare at home and take to holiday gatherings. Transport was very high primarily because I put gas in a friend's car as a "thank you" for loaning it to me to travel into the arctic circle to the only place in town I can find to get decent carving supplies for Darling's ($10.89) Christmas/Anniversary present (A trip that would have taken approximately 12 years by bus, during a torrential downpour no less).

Another important note that I worked an average of 32 hours/week this month, which is far less than I would have expected, but also drew a much higher hourly wage than I might have guessed. My hours were on the low side because one of my employers closed down for the holidays, my income was high thanks to a Christmas check from Mom. So December earnings are as atypical as December spendings.

Debt isn't on this list because, for the first time in a goodly long while, it just didn't rank high enough a priority. This wasn't a decision made lightly, normally I pay above the minimum and have in fact done so for so long that the company has been sending me bills for "$0" since last April. A month's worth of interest on my debt, however, amounts to 2.47 hours of work on my part. With that in mind, it is foolish not to devote at least as much time paying for debt as I do for alcohol...or eating out.

Believe it or not, however, I don't regret a a penny spent or an hour worked this month. Lizzie thinks that perhaps eating out, giving gifts, and booze should be taboo in my life right now - at least the months we don't have rent. Perhaps I should have been more clear that Darling and I did in fact pay December's rent. We had it saved just in time to find out Darling's tooth could not wait another month for care. With the permission of our house mates (with whom we own our house as well as a savings fund for just this sort of emergency), we went ahead and used half of the money set aside for rent on dental bills. Later that week a contact lens deteriorated in my eye, which resulted in my trusted eye doctor advising me to switch to glasses, for which I needed a new prescription. Regardless of such surprises, we were able to pay the rest of our rent a few weeks late as well as save most of January's.

Truth be told, had we abstained from all social eating, drinking, and gift giving, we could have (barely) saved January's rent, rather than paying a couple of weeks late. Which would have been pretty epic, financially speaking. It also would have also been our second month of not spending in a row. It might also have driven me into an emotional breakdown. Some days I just need a sandwich.

Step Four of the YMOYL plan involved reflecting on each category of spending and determining if the amounts spent were satisfying, reflect core principles, and something that will increase or decrease after retirement. For some reason this step scares me, and it will no doubt result in some long-term changes in how I earn and spend my money. Maybe I'll find cutting down to a co-op expenses only budget the most satisfying course of action, but I doubt it.

January 2011 Net Worth

Darling and I hung out with friends last night and took the opportunity to declare my resolution not to accept rides in 2011. Reactions were mixed: some were downright horrified, others were totally nonplussed. We spent the night in North Austin and hopped a bus home this morning.

When we got home I made scrambled tofu and vegan French toast using recipes from a library copy of How It All Vegan. It was the yummiest breakfast I've had in ages, and I look forward to bidding permanent farewell to all things dairy.

After cleaning up the breakfast dishes and preparing baked beans for dinner, I hopped on the computer to finish my monthly financial tabulation. If you haven't already, go read Your Money Or Your Life. Meet me here when you're done, and we'll continue...

...okay, good. So this is what I did: First, I added up all the money earned this month at all three jobs, to the absolute penny. Then I divided the amount of money earned by the amount of time spent working and traveling to work. My longest commute, by the way, is less than fifteen minutes on foot. This gives me my real hourly wage. Because I work for tips, I had to record my take-home every single day or else this project would have been mostly guesswork and therefore useless.

I also recorded every single expense to the penny. I took the time to create several specific categories for my spending, including "booze," "gifts," and of course "medical." "Food" as a category did not accurately reflect what I was doing with my money, so I created three related categories: "Snacks" for empty calories eaten out of boredom or as a treat, "Meals Out," and "Groceries," which will tally the money spent on food we keep at home but don't want to share with housemates.

Once I categorized my spending, I used my real hourly wage to determine how much time I worked this month to meet those expenses. For example, we spent $860.01 on medical related expenses this month! That translates into nearly 52 hours of of my life! We only have so much time on this planet, I don't relish the thought of having traded that much time for the extraction of one lousy tooth. Thank goodness we have health insurance now!

I took a break before tackling the next step and took a short ride around the block. Now I'm ready to look at our Net Worth.

Our Assets chime in at $2,367.20. That sounds better than it should be because I'm not subtracting this month's rent as of yet. I've always done so in the past because I prefer to have the money set aside by the first even when it's due on the third. But last month I covered rent with two separate payments out of necessity, and it looks like the same will go for January. So from now on I won't be monkeying with dates: what's in the bank is what I'm totaling.

We paid absolutely no debt this month whatsoever. Thankfully we won't owe the school a payment until February 2011. I still owe my brother and sister-in-law a small chunk of change, and thanks to interest earned on my student loan my debt increased to $11,854.38

This brings our Net Worth to -$9487.18...but remember, $930 of that is rent due in two days.

In January I intend to keep up my pace at work and also to find a higher-paying job that offers benefits. I'd really like for us to regain our balance and have February's rent set aside by the third of next month, which might be enough to knock our net worth above the -$9,000 mark. I also need to pay for school books and have that tuition payment set aside before February. All in all, it looks like we have our work cut out for us in the next few months.