Hope for the best, plan for the worst

Ever hear that age-old wisdom? Well, it's definitely a good saying, because it's true!

I found out some of the real details of my upcoming jobs, and on one hand, it's great! On the other hand, I am silly to think I could make over $1,000 a month.

So, here's the real deal:

Lifeguarding - pretty much holding true to what my boss told me. I'm on the schedule and signed up for 45 hours this month, which breaks down to about 10 hours/week with a few extra this upcoming week because I will be overseeing the pool while a movie is filmed there!

Coaching - I don't have the free time I thought I did, so I can only coach on Tuesday and Friday nights. And the pay is much less than I was told: $20 per practice (not $60...) I'm on for twice a week practices and still twenty bucks an hour is great! Maybe next semester I will be more available if it's doable.

Freelancing - I should have expected this would be completely unreliable. Haven't heard anything from my old job about doing this for them, so I am going to just wait it out and see what happens. And not count on that money.

So where do I stand?

For the month of September I will make $400 after taxes lifeguarding and $100 cash coaching. If I play my cards right, I will make the same amount lifeguarding in October and $160 cash coaching.

This makes my monthly income $560, which is a little less than my "worst case scenario" but....the really good news: BF got a new job! With an over 35% raise! So He can take some of the burden off of me, such as the money for groceries I was going to cover, he can now split with me.

I also finally figured out my health insurance. Because I live in NY I get kind of screwed over, so I will be paying $90 a month for health insurance that is decent. All of my primary care is free from the college, so it's mostly for accidents and other stuff. I'm satisfied with this price.

If I play my cards right, with my $560/month salary I can cover all my personal bills and have almost $300 for food/entertainment/savings. It will be a little tight, but with BF helping, I should be okay.

Finally, classes are finally done for the week! I can't believe I'm really in nursing school. It's already a lot of work and overwhelming, but I am so happy I finally made it here. Now the real work begins :) The challenge will be to see if I can work 10+ hours a week and still get very good grades. A "failing" grade here is less than a C+, which were sometimes my average grades the first time around in college! I've matured a lot since then, so here's to hoping I will be able to excel rather than just squeak by!