- clean off dresser(10min)
- paint(30min)
- go through action box(5min)
- get stains out of stain pile(30min)
- something else but I deleted it and now I can't remember(see why I need to write things down)
Monday, March 12, 2012
people who make lists
I wanna be the kind of grown up who makes lists. Not a ton of lists with categories or anything.I just need to jot down things that I want to do that tend to fall through the cracks of life. I used to post my daily goals on facebook back in the day and it was good for my accountability. Today I was off work and my kids were home for spring break. I put the list in my phone as a note.
Friday, February 10, 2012
Blogging and The Half Project
I haven't blogged in while and I'm ready to get back at it. At first it was because both computers were broken and lately it's been because I take this blog way too seriously. I feel like it has to be a days long perfect drawn out thing. But I am over that now. Also I only think of things to blog about when I am trying to go to sleep. And let me tell you, I write some doosies(in my head).
The Half Project:
I am a lousy housekeeper. No one in our home picks up after themselves including me. I only clean when I am listening to pod casts and when I do that it is fun and easy. I can't live my life with ear buds in and therefore my house is an obnoxious mess.
My solution. We all need to get rid of some stuff. Again. I am going to go through each room, pile items in the floor in groups and get rid of half of the pile. Example: If Carson has 50 books, homeboy is getting rid of 25. I do not have a large quantity of material possessions myself, but my clothes are out of control. I have about a dozen tops that I need undershirts for or don't have the right shoes to match. I want to purge and get down to a small higher end wardrobe. The dream is to have so few clothing items that I can used a laundry service because I am over doing laundry. I have friends who wear jeans over and over between washes and I need to master that. The clothing segment of my room will require a lot of planning but I am game.
So that's my plan. Anyone else on board for a major purge.
The Half Project:
I am a lousy housekeeper. No one in our home picks up after themselves including me. I only clean when I am listening to pod casts and when I do that it is fun and easy. I can't live my life with ear buds in and therefore my house is an obnoxious mess.
My solution. We all need to get rid of some stuff. Again. I am going to go through each room, pile items in the floor in groups and get rid of half of the pile. Example: If Carson has 50 books, homeboy is getting rid of 25. I do not have a large quantity of material possessions myself, but my clothes are out of control. I have about a dozen tops that I need undershirts for or don't have the right shoes to match. I want to purge and get down to a small higher end wardrobe. The dream is to have so few clothing items that I can used a laundry service because I am over doing laundry. I have friends who wear jeans over and over between washes and I need to master that. The clothing segment of my room will require a lot of planning but I am game.
So that's my plan. Anyone else on board for a major purge.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
My Dave Ramsey experience. so far.
You all know I am a personal finance junkie. I am definitely what Dave calls the "nerd" in our marriage. I like making the budget and crunching the numbers. I read Dave's book Financial Peace Revisited in late 2010.I agree with all of his methods for getting out of debt and building wealth. When the opportunity to take Financial Peace University at a church 2 blocks from my house, I jumped at it. The cost of the course :$50. The fee included the envelope system, about a dozen Cd's(audio versions of the DVDs we watched in class)in a leather case, the book:Financial Peace, and the workbook used in class. Some hosts charge up to $150 for the course so this was certainly a bargain. Members of the host church went for free.
I will not go through each class or the 7 baby steps he teaches here. But if you are interested you can learn more here. I will tell you that I was a little nervous not knowing who was teaching the class or who my peers would be. The coordinator is an alum of Financial Peace University who guides you through the workbook. Our coordinator was someone who went to my high school.My classmates were a variety of sweet people:an older couple close to retirement age who weren't sure how they would retire, newlyweds, a struggling single mom on disability, and another couple in a similar situation as ours. What is our situation? We my friends, we are people who make a good living and are not accountable for our spending. We throw our money away while people who make less than us live the life we should be living. We don't use credit cards but have no savings outside of our 401k. Loss of income would financially disable us.
We took about 60 days to get through baby step 1,$1000 in savings. Devin sold a car trailer from his racing days and pushed us into baby step 2,dumping debt. I said we don't do credit cards. Neither of us has had a credit card in about 10 years.BUT I did get one last Christmas when both kids wanted Nintendo ds game consoles. I got a Wal-mart credit card. I used it in December and then again in May to buy a gift card for a family whose home caught fire. I paid the balance in full when I received my statement but I knew that card had to go. So in week 2 of class I cut that sucker up. Wal-mart immediately invited me back with a higher limit. No thanks. Misty-1, retail giant-0.
The best part of his plan for us is the debt snowball. You list all your debts from smallest to largest. Make the minimum payments on everything but the smallest. You work extra, sell stuff, and cut your budget to throw a ton of money at that debt until it is gone. Then you add the amount you were paying on debt 1 to debt number two, continuing the cycle until you are debt free. To not have credit cards we sure have a lot of debt. I was afraid to make the list,fearful of how much my student loans would add up to and if my husband would still love me after seeing how much I owe. Most of the balances are small but the consolidation I did through Sallie Mae is huge thanks to two semesters at a private school.Other than my student loans we have a couple small medical bills and one vehicle payment. The software said we can be debt free by 2013.I can soooo live with that.
I am counting the Wal-mart card as debt one of our snowball payoff. The second was a monthly $66 payment for our fridge that we financed at no interest about 6 months ago at a local home owned furniture and appliance store. So 2 debts down.Woo-hoo. Not touching our baby emergency fund has been less sunshiney. Why do we spend all of our money? I guess 10 years of reckless spending is a hard habit to break. I will be working diligently to pump that account back up so we can keep our snowball rolling.
I have worked hard to resolve some unnecessary expenses. Our electric bill was scheduled to draft 10 days early so I called the company to see if something fishy was going on. It wasn't but while she had me on the line the rep cut our rate from 14 cents per KWH to 9 cents; that ended up saving us $110 last month. I stopped our dish network service because they would not give me the new customer rate,which makes no sense because a loyal customer should be valued more than a new one. That's $75 a month. I bought the kids 4 pairs of pants at a consignment store (that I will NOT share the name of because I get $150 jeans there for $25 and don't want anyone else to beat me to 'em) for $31. I have just generally started questioning wants vs needs. Some DR enthusiasts literally eat beans and rice and avoid vacations during baby step two. While I respect their choice, I have not chosen that route. Mostly because I don't want my kids to think they are poor.
Now for some shocking numbers:
The moral of the story is this-if we didn't have debt we could choose to work about 5 months a year and live a very comfortable life. That is what financial peace is about...FREEDOM!
Anybody else ready to put a stake in the ground and say they are DONE with debt?
I will not go through each class or the 7 baby steps he teaches here. But if you are interested you can learn more here. I will tell you that I was a little nervous not knowing who was teaching the class or who my peers would be. The coordinator is an alum of Financial Peace University who guides you through the workbook. Our coordinator was someone who went to my high school.My classmates were a variety of sweet people:an older couple close to retirement age who weren't sure how they would retire, newlyweds, a struggling single mom on disability, and another couple in a similar situation as ours. What is our situation? We my friends, we are people who make a good living and are not accountable for our spending. We throw our money away while people who make less than us live the life we should be living. We don't use credit cards but have no savings outside of our 401k. Loss of income would financially disable us.
We took about 60 days to get through baby step 1,$1000 in savings. Devin sold a car trailer from his racing days and pushed us into baby step 2,dumping debt. I said we don't do credit cards. Neither of us has had a credit card in about 10 years.BUT I did get one last Christmas when both kids wanted Nintendo ds game consoles. I got a Wal-mart credit card. I used it in December and then again in May to buy a gift card for a family whose home caught fire. I paid the balance in full when I received my statement but I knew that card had to go. So in week 2 of class I cut that sucker up. Wal-mart immediately invited me back with a higher limit. No thanks. Misty-1, retail giant-0.
The best part of his plan for us is the debt snowball. You list all your debts from smallest to largest. Make the minimum payments on everything but the smallest. You work extra, sell stuff, and cut your budget to throw a ton of money at that debt until it is gone. Then you add the amount you were paying on debt 1 to debt number two, continuing the cycle until you are debt free. To not have credit cards we sure have a lot of debt. I was afraid to make the list,fearful of how much my student loans would add up to and if my husband would still love me after seeing how much I owe. Most of the balances are small but the consolidation I did through Sallie Mae is huge thanks to two semesters at a private school.Other than my student loans we have a couple small medical bills and one vehicle payment. The software said we can be debt free by 2013.I can soooo live with that.
I am counting the Wal-mart card as debt one of our snowball payoff. The second was a monthly $66 payment for our fridge that we financed at no interest about 6 months ago at a local home owned furniture and appliance store. So 2 debts down.Woo-hoo. Not touching our baby emergency fund has been less sunshiney. Why do we spend all of our money? I guess 10 years of reckless spending is a hard habit to break. I will be working diligently to pump that account back up so we can keep our snowball rolling.
I have worked hard to resolve some unnecessary expenses. Our electric bill was scheduled to draft 10 days early so I called the company to see if something fishy was going on. It wasn't but while she had me on the line the rep cut our rate from 14 cents per KWH to 9 cents; that ended up saving us $110 last month. I stopped our dish network service because they would not give me the new customer rate,which makes no sense because a loyal customer should be valued more than a new one. That's $75 a month. I bought the kids 4 pairs of pants at a consignment store (that I will NOT share the name of because I get $150 jeans there for $25 and don't want anyone else to beat me to 'em) for $31. I have just generally started questioning wants vs needs. Some DR enthusiasts literally eat beans and rice and avoid vacations during baby step two. While I respect their choice, I have not chosen that route. Mostly because I don't want my kids to think they are poor.
Now for some shocking numbers:
- our monthly debt payments excluding the mortgage:$1329.88
- our monthly payments(utilities, memberships,etc):$551.05
The moral of the story is this-if we didn't have debt we could choose to work about 5 months a year and live a very comfortable life. That is what financial peace is about...FREEDOM!
Anybody else ready to put a stake in the ground and say they are DONE with debt?
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Soda Smackdown
Over the last 18 months I have created this nice pocket of fat on my stomach and lower back. You can call me Betty. I am aware that much of our bodies composition is determined by what we eat(I think it's between 80 and 90%, the remaining part is determined by exercise and genetics). I wish I could just kill it on the treadmill but dietary changes must be made if I want to ever see my abs again.
And no I don't want to hear how tiny I am in comparison to anyone else. This is about MY health and vanity. I wanna take action before I have to replace my wardrobe!
I love soda. It is all I drink. I even look forward to it. Man they are delicious. And the burn. Ah. I love the burn. I also drink sweet tea at work when my morning Sonic drink becomes watered down.But they are full of sugar and apparently my metabolism has slowed down. I tried to cut back once and was crying by 1:45.True story. I called my aunt next door and she brought me a DP. Don't judge me, it's not heroin. I am only addicted to it like it's heroin.
Drum roll please...........I am cutting out sodas for 10 days to see if the aforementioned pooch takes notice.What do people drink besides soda and sweet tea and water? Also, I probably get most of my energy from the caffeine so I need advice on other ways to maintain my energy level.
And no I don't want to hear how tiny I am in comparison to anyone else. This is about MY health and vanity. I wanna take action before I have to replace my wardrobe!
I love soda. It is all I drink. I even look forward to it. Man they are delicious. And the burn. Ah. I love the burn. I also drink sweet tea at work when my morning Sonic drink becomes watered down.But they are full of sugar and apparently my metabolism has slowed down. I tried to cut back once and was crying by 1:45.True story. I called my aunt next door and she brought me a DP. Don't judge me, it's not heroin. I am only addicted to it like it's heroin.
Drum roll please...........I am cutting out sodas for 10 days to see if the aforementioned pooch takes notice.What do people drink besides soda and sweet tea and water? Also, I probably get most of my energy from the caffeine so I need advice on other ways to maintain my energy level.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
San Antonio Vacation and Associated spending
I know most of you, my sweet readers, are not personal finance blog readers so here is the deal. PF bloggers post their spending and analyse it on their site so this is my attempt at being a real PF blogger.
Our vacation spending looked something like this:
Hotel-I had done tons of research to find us a reasonable rate on the riverwalk and finally was able to book El Tropicano for $111.00 a night. It was a nice hotel in a great location. The kids really liked staying somewhere "fancy". The pool lights changed color at night which they enjoyed very much. It was worth the extra to see how much they enjoyed the little luxuries, but I will probably hit up La Quinta for our next outing.
Parking-I hate paying for parking. It just doesn't make sense to small towners like myself. Paying for parking is about as gratifying purchase as hemorrhoid creme. You need it and usually don't have other options but what are you really getting for that money. I did call ahead and ask that our hotel discount our parking and they graciously agreed to let us park for half price. We walked everywhere once we arrived so we didn't have to pay to park anywhere else.
Activities-Ughhh. I cannot justify all of this category. We paid $100 to do three adventures at Ripleys. STUPID. Adventure 1-Guinness Museum, fun for the whole family. Adventure 2-Haunted adventure, stupid and not appropriate for our ubersheltered offspring. Adventure 3-Tomb Rider, a short carnival ride. I should have known better. I had gone on the website beforehand. One hundred dollars worth of shame on me. It would have cost $53 per adult to go into the wax museum. Are these people nuts? Obviously I am for giving them my hard earned money. Fiesta Texas tickets were purchased a while back for $136 at our local mall. The lines there we short and we enjoyed both parks. That's a lie. I thought the water park water was really nasty but whatever it washed off. Also included in this expense was the riverboat tour for $33. We all had fun except for little man who was hot and zoned out for most of the tour.
Gas-I had been sitting on a hundred dollar bill for a few weeks and sent Devin to get us a Wal-mart gas card the night before. We filled up before we left and stopped once on the way home and ended up with a quarter of tank when we parked at home. Not too bad for a V8 engine. I am sure all that walking contributed to savings in this area.
He also needed some Toms shoes to start school. Did I mention this was tax free weekend? The weekend our family usually stays wholed-up at home for the purpose of safety. We went to Whole Foods first. They didn't have kids sizes and referred us to some other natureish place who didn't have his size in the design he wanted. They referred us to a third location; again, they were out of his size. The husband was sick and also sick of Garmin sending him on this footwear quest. Our last possible store was Neiman Marcus. They did not have the design we picked out online but my boy liked the camo shoe with the orange sole. Sold. Notsofast. Did you know Neimanns doesn't take mastercard(my debit card). "Our accepted tender is Amex,NM card, or check," the quiet saleslady informed me, as if I had a third eye. So I wrote a check, judged their company, and left with our treasure. The daughter had a 40% off coupon for Justice so she and I ran in and spent $104 in about 20 minutes getting her some tops for school.
Anybody else take a long weekend that cost a zillion dollars?
Our vacation spending looked something like this:
- food-$280.17
- hotel-$275.58
- parking-$32.00
- activities-$268.43
- gas-$85.00
- shopping-$217.21
Hotel-I had done tons of research to find us a reasonable rate on the riverwalk and finally was able to book El Tropicano for $111.00 a night. It was a nice hotel in a great location. The kids really liked staying somewhere "fancy". The pool lights changed color at night which they enjoyed very much. It was worth the extra to see how much they enjoyed the little luxuries, but I will probably hit up La Quinta for our next outing.
Parking-I hate paying for parking. It just doesn't make sense to small towners like myself. Paying for parking is about as gratifying purchase as hemorrhoid creme. You need it and usually don't have other options but what are you really getting for that money. I did call ahead and ask that our hotel discount our parking and they graciously agreed to let us park for half price. We walked everywhere once we arrived so we didn't have to pay to park anywhere else.
Activities-Ughhh. I cannot justify all of this category. We paid $100 to do three adventures at Ripleys. STUPID. Adventure 1-Guinness Museum, fun for the whole family. Adventure 2-Haunted adventure, stupid and not appropriate for our ubersheltered offspring. Adventure 3-Tomb Rider, a short carnival ride. I should have known better. I had gone on the website beforehand. One hundred dollars worth of shame on me. It would have cost $53 per adult to go into the wax museum. Are these people nuts? Obviously I am for giving them my hard earned money. Fiesta Texas tickets were purchased a while back for $136 at our local mall. The lines there we short and we enjoyed both parks. That's a lie. I thought the water park water was really nasty but whatever it washed off. Also included in this expense was the riverboat tour for $33. We all had fun except for little man who was hot and zoned out for most of the tour.
Gas-I had been sitting on a hundred dollar bill for a few weeks and sent Devin to get us a Wal-mart gas card the night before. We filled up before we left and stopped once on the way home and ended up with a quarter of tank when we parked at home. Not too bad for a V8 engine. I am sure all that walking contributed to savings in this area.
Shopping-I need to EVER go out of town without making shopping part of the fun. This category includes Alamo souvenirs($32.32), souvenir pictures from Ripley's($21.52) and four convenience store stops($38.01). Fourteen dollars worth of the convenience store purchases was EmergenC. We had to buy the souvenir photo at Ripley's because the boys pic came out awesome.It looked like a still from an action film the way they were holding their laser guns. I didn't have the heart to tell my daughter that her covering her ears while I closed my eyes was a less than precious moment so we bought both. My son had been looking forward to going to the Disney store as he was in desperate need of more Phineas and Ferb gear. He found an Agent P that converts into Perry and makes sounds. I am pretty sure I told him that would come out of his own money, but at this point I don't remember who paid.
Anybody else take a long weekend that cost a zillion dollars?
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Trade work
Disclaimer:If you are able and willing to make the sacrifices necessary to earn your degree-DO IT. The numbers don't lie-Education increases income. If you want to go to school and need a degree to make your aspirations a reality-it is possible. That just wasn't my path...
As much as I would have loved to have earned my bachelor's degree, Murphy's law and life choices have left me with a ton of student loan debt and no degree. I used to obsess about and a feel "less than" until about 6 months ago when I just got this huge feeling of peace about my place in life and in this world. There is a saying,"the world needs an a** for every chair." It's intended to make service workers feel better about their chosen occupation, but as I age and grow in my chosen field I finally "get it". I value the young lady who serves me my sonic drink each morning so that I can go dispense meds to a banker and the cycle goes on and we all need each other.
I am a superb pharmacy technician.If there was a pharm tech rodeo-believe I would have all the buckles. My point,aside from glorifying my skill set is this-you can make good money and have a good life without a college education if you work hard and make good choices at appropriate points in your journey.
The secret is finding a TRADE. There are tons of jobs out there that have great hours,flexibility, and pay for those who commit to the industry. Here are a few:
Some of these examples are from personal experience and others are from Internet research.
The key to making money at these jobs is being....wait for it......awesome. For every hairstylist I know who is banking-I know a dozen who struggle because they have not built a clientele or put in the hours to build their business. The service industry is full of broke job hoppers chasing money when they could have showed a little loyalty and perseverance and been valued at job A.
An entrepreneurial spirit doesn't hurt either. A plumber who has a reputation for honesty and quality can stop turning wrenches and push paper by the time he is 35 if he makes the right moves at the right time.
My Story
I chose not to return to college the semester after my mom passed away. I was eighteen and frickin lost. I got a retail job based on my killer work ethic at the fast food place I worked in high school. I quickly moved up to an assistant manager position until the company went bankrupt while I was out on maternity leave at the ripe age of 20! I was desperate for any work I could find to get out of the unemployment line and took a job at a factory,scratch that, sweat shop so that I could afford to buy a birthday gift for my baby daddy(who by the way, just brought me a piece of peanut butter toast-I'm much too excited about this blog and my blood sugar dropped!). My daughter was 4 weeks old when I took this job and my first day was excruciating. It was a sitting job and my body had not recovered from child birth.There was no a/c and everyone else spoke Spanish and ignored me completely. It hurt my little feelings so I took a break, called my ever spoiling father and asked if I quit, would he please make my truck payment next month. He agreed and I left without telling anyone. I have done this twice in my life. The other time was after my 5 hour shift at Burger King when I was 15. My friend Angela came to pick me up. I told the rest of the crew,"look!", pointed to the corner and ran out the back door. I promise when I work anywhere for more than a day I am a quality, dedicated employee.
So I was once again unemployed. I applied everywhere and got several calls for interviews. My ex-step mom said I should apply at Wal-mart Pharmacy. Her sister,whom I had never met, put in a good word for me. I got the interview and met with the person who is still my boss 10 years later. I got the call and started my work there as a cashier on October 22,2001. I went to orientation at 9 and left at 4. I had to get to the courthouse in time to get married that same day! I was a stellar cashier. I was a speedy, problem solving, customer service wizard. Five months later in March one of the technicians was let go. My boss looks at me and says,"do you wanna be a tech?". I heard,"would you like a $4 per hour raise?" Um yes please. There were two other cashiers who had worked there longer, but I was a much better worker than them. Don't ever think your supervisors are oblivious to your strengths and commitment. I paid the $150 dollar test fee and signed up for the soonest test date. Everyone thought it was too soon and that I would not be prepared but I just saw dollar signs and prayed,alot. I passed,duh.
I worked at Wal-mart for 6 1/2 years after that. I grew up at that job. My mentors there were amazing men and women who I still keep in touch with and love dearly. When my dad died, they brought be a stock pile of Dr. pepper and more fried chicken than my fridge could hold. One manager drove to my house just to give me a hug.
I was courted by a competitor for about three years before I ultimately decided it was my time to move on. My dad taught me not to chase money and greener grass. The Lord's timing is so much better than our own. Had I left the first time I got the itch, I would have not been fully vested in my retirement account there and not gotten to open the pharmacy where I am currently employed. I paid my dues at this company, helped recruit my former boss and could not be happier with my career. My current job description:data entry-new patients, prescriptions, insurance. Troubleshooting-insurance billing issues, sales analysis,recalls.Production-checking typing, filling prescriptions, compounding.Customer service-answering phones, ringing up sales.
Anybody have any other secretly awesome jobs(that don't require a bachelor's degree) to add to the list?
As much as I would have loved to have earned my bachelor's degree, Murphy's law and life choices have left me with a ton of student loan debt and no degree. I used to obsess about and a feel "less than" until about 6 months ago when I just got this huge feeling of peace about my place in life and in this world. There is a saying,"the world needs an a** for every chair." It's intended to make service workers feel better about their chosen occupation, but as I age and grow in my chosen field I finally "get it". I value the young lady who serves me my sonic drink each morning so that I can go dispense meds to a banker and the cycle goes on and we all need each other.
I am a superb pharmacy technician.If there was a pharm tech rodeo-believe I would have all the buckles. My point,aside from glorifying my skill set is this-you can make good money and have a good life without a college education if you work hard and make good choices at appropriate points in your journey.
The secret is finding a TRADE. There are tons of jobs out there that have great hours,flexibility, and pay for those who commit to the industry. Here are a few:
- Pharmacy technician
- Automotive technician
- hair stylist
- dental assistant
- plumber
- electrician
- restaurant manager
- retail manager
- bookkeeper
- computer technician
Some of these examples are from personal experience and others are from Internet research.
The key to making money at these jobs is being....wait for it......awesome. For every hairstylist I know who is banking-I know a dozen who struggle because they have not built a clientele or put in the hours to build their business. The service industry is full of broke job hoppers chasing money when they could have showed a little loyalty and perseverance and been valued at job A.
An entrepreneurial spirit doesn't hurt either. A plumber who has a reputation for honesty and quality can stop turning wrenches and push paper by the time he is 35 if he makes the right moves at the right time.
My Story
I chose not to return to college the semester after my mom passed away. I was eighteen and frickin lost. I got a retail job based on my killer work ethic at the fast food place I worked in high school. I quickly moved up to an assistant manager position until the company went bankrupt while I was out on maternity leave at the ripe age of 20! I was desperate for any work I could find to get out of the unemployment line and took a job at a factory,scratch that, sweat shop so that I could afford to buy a birthday gift for my baby daddy(who by the way, just brought me a piece of peanut butter toast-I'm much too excited about this blog and my blood sugar dropped!). My daughter was 4 weeks old when I took this job and my first day was excruciating. It was a sitting job and my body had not recovered from child birth.There was no a/c and everyone else spoke Spanish and ignored me completely. It hurt my little feelings so I took a break, called my ever spoiling father and asked if I quit, would he please make my truck payment next month. He agreed and I left without telling anyone. I have done this twice in my life. The other time was after my 5 hour shift at Burger King when I was 15. My friend Angela came to pick me up. I told the rest of the crew,"look!", pointed to the corner and ran out the back door. I promise when I work anywhere for more than a day I am a quality, dedicated employee.
So I was once again unemployed. I applied everywhere and got several calls for interviews. My ex-step mom said I should apply at Wal-mart Pharmacy. Her sister,whom I had never met, put in a good word for me. I got the interview and met with the person who is still my boss 10 years later. I got the call and started my work there as a cashier on October 22,2001. I went to orientation at 9 and left at 4. I had to get to the courthouse in time to get married that same day! I was a stellar cashier. I was a speedy, problem solving, customer service wizard. Five months later in March one of the technicians was let go. My boss looks at me and says,"do you wanna be a tech?". I heard,"would you like a $4 per hour raise?" Um yes please. There were two other cashiers who had worked there longer, but I was a much better worker than them. Don't ever think your supervisors are oblivious to your strengths and commitment. I paid the $150 dollar test fee and signed up for the soonest test date. Everyone thought it was too soon and that I would not be prepared but I just saw dollar signs and prayed,alot. I passed,duh.
I worked at Wal-mart for 6 1/2 years after that. I grew up at that job. My mentors there were amazing men and women who I still keep in touch with and love dearly. When my dad died, they brought be a stock pile of Dr. pepper and more fried chicken than my fridge could hold. One manager drove to my house just to give me a hug.
I was courted by a competitor for about three years before I ultimately decided it was my time to move on. My dad taught me not to chase money and greener grass. The Lord's timing is so much better than our own. Had I left the first time I got the itch, I would have not been fully vested in my retirement account there and not gotten to open the pharmacy where I am currently employed. I paid my dues at this company, helped recruit my former boss and could not be happier with my career. My current job description:data entry-new patients, prescriptions, insurance. Troubleshooting-insurance billing issues, sales analysis,recalls.Production-checking typing, filling prescriptions, compounding.Customer service-answering phones, ringing up sales.
Anybody have any other secretly awesome jobs(that don't require a bachelor's degree) to add to the list?
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
30 and spoiled rotten
There have been so many blog worthy events lately that I've had no time to blog. I do need to give a shout out to all my peeps for making my 30th birthday so special and memorable. I failed to take pics on my camera and don't know how to get the photos on my phone onto blogger so I'm just gonna bulletin point the heck outta this one(as Tina would say) and hope you all get the point of this post: I am 30 and people love me.
- Charlotte-lunch at whataburger plus her traditional gift to me-fancy towels(this year 1-orange and 1-brown)Reese's cup inspired.
- Amy-homemade peanut butter cup pie+sonic gift card!
- J-brizown,Sierra,Terri, Vickie, and Michele- Reese's eggs, dr pepper, custom cook book
- Terri-sonic dp
- Michele-hugest Reese's cups ever. She made a wrapper out of an orange pillow case, lined 2 pie pans with black tissue and filled them with peanut butter chocolate cupcakes+sonic dp
- Dollie, Tina, and Carson-mini red cooler filled with magazines, dp, Reese's, beef jerkey and lottery tickets
- Christy- I have no idea, but I cannot wait til it comes in the mail!!!
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