October Recap

Happy Halloween! Since it's the last day of October, I figured I would post my recap today. It was an interesting month for me, as it was the first full month of being "in the thick of it" with school. I took 5 exams this month and had three group projects and one paper to work on as well. So far I think I'm doing very well. I have an "A" average in my health assessment class, an "A-" in my pharmacology class, and a B+ in my fundamentals of nursing class. I'm not sure about my transcultural nursing class, since the grade is 50% written work and 50% final group project. I handed in my paper, so hopefully I will get an "A" on it...I'm just not sure when I will find out!

Anyways, my freelance work as slow this month. I only made $90 from that side, however I received my $330 payment from my September 30th invoice on October 7th, so I guess I can count that towards October income. Luckily, my coaching and lifeguarding work was good. Here's how it breaks down (money deposited into my checking account):

Lifeguarding: $540
Freelance Work: $420
Swim Meets/caching: $240 deposited

Total Earned: $1,200

I have to be better about saving all the cash I made from coaching and putting it into my checking account or recording what I made that week/month. It's hard when you are handed $30 cash at the beginning of the week...it ends up just being my spending money for that week.

I did pretty well this month, staying under my groceries budget of $200 per month, and eating out less often. I think November will be a good month, because I got some expenses out of the way: I needed to buy new sheepskin boots for wintertime. I chose to buy these boots from L.L. Bean instead of the typical "Uggs" boots I usually wear. I love L.L. Bean because of their lifetime guarantee policy. They cost $100, but will be worth it because I will be able to wear them in the mornings when dropping BF off at the train station and throughout winter time. I also had to spend $75 on all white shoes for my nursing clinical. The shoes were more expensive than some other all white nursing shoes, but they are good quality and should last me the five semesters I need to use them for.

I'm imposing a "shopping ban" on myself for the month of November and BF and I are also trying out a primarily "plant based diet" after watching the movie Forks Over Knives this weekend. Shopping for this kind of diet was much, much cheaper than my usual grocery shopping. I bought what I think will be one week's worth of food, and it only cost me about $40. I usually spend $60 at Trader Joe's for a weeks worth of food. We'll see how long this food will last, as it is my first time trying to cook mostly vegetarian dishes.

Well, that's it for me....Happy Halloween everyone!