Holiday Cheer (and Drear)!

Happy Holidays, everyone!

I wish I could say yesterday I got home after a long weekend of enjoying delicious holiday dinners and desserts. But alas, I have been battling a stomach virus since Thursday night/Friday morning. This may be the only holiday I have not touched a single dessert (okay, except for one tiny slice of raspberry almond tart that made me ill immediately) and have not had a single cocktail or sinfully decadent dinner. Such a waste!

Anyways I was able to suck it up and go to my family's holiday party on Sunday afternoon and I am really glad I went. My cousins and I are all grown and the older ones are starting to have kids....my parents and uncles and aunts are getting older....and we're all coming together more than ever. It made me really happy and made me want to renew my same old New Year's resolution of spending more time with my family.

I cleaned up pretty good from the Christmas holiday, getting cash gifts of almost $500 from various family members. I am going to be putting that money straight into my savings.

Last week I did really well work-wise, making $250 in cash from helping run swim meets and $330 from freelance projects with my old company. I'll be starting 2012 in a "good place" financially and have successfully completely my first semester back at college without accumulating any debt!

I had final exams all the way up until the 23rd of December, which was really annoying, but now I have off until January 23rd, which gives me some time to relax, read non-nursing books, work on my internship applications and hopefully make some good money working at the campus pool.

I paid my bill for next semester - it came in just under $4,000. I put the amount on my MasterCard which will not be due until February, so if I am lucky and file my taxes early enough, I may be able to use some of my refund to pay off this semester bill. I still haven't seen my back-pay or my money I am owed for agreeing to work as the college swim team's assistant coach, and they are so slow on these matters (this is back pay owed to me since September), I am not going to count on that money to pay this semester's bill. If anything maybe I will get it midway through and will be able to use it to replenish my savings account since it will be depleted quite a bit.

I'm still on track to be "okay" through two more semesters, but my final and last semester may have to be paid out in all cash by me. This means I have to step it up financially and try to save every dime that I can. Being sick over this holiday has really taught me that eating yummy, take-out food is really just a momentary convenience and enjoyment. It is over practically before it starts. I still spend too much (I think) on take out and feel like I could save more if I just cooked at home every night. Hopefully this stomach bug will help me turn that corner for good!

Until the New Year, happy holidays to all!