So, I have my first assignment. I started working on Tuesday. It's an interesting position. I'm an "accounting assistant" but really... I'm working along side the controller and doing some clerical stuff in the down time. I'm getting some really good experience I think.

But let me just say. So, I have to take care of the petty cash. And of course I get the cash from the bank today and I open up the straps of $20s. The bills were every which way. Ugh! You've got to be kidding me. Shame on that bank. As a former teller, I was taught to have all the bills facing the same direction. It took me twice as long to count the money because I had to sit there and fix the bills, because I'm so use to handling large sums of cash, but facing the same way. I fixed it all, because it was just buggy (even my wallet has all the bills facing the same directions with $1 in the front and larger bills in the back). So now this company has a petty cash drawer that is in organized.

But enough with work.

I'm starting a new project. Last night laying in bed trying to go to sleep, but secretly wishing it was the weekend so I didn't have to go to work in the morning, I started thinking about starting a project. A project purely not based on profit or obligation. I was just thinking that some thing really positive just needs to come out of this year. After having a horrible April with losing my dad and nothing being the same since I just need something good. Because even after everything I still feel incredible lucky. So I've thought about it and I want to take a part of my paycheck each week maybe like $20-30 and buy pet supplies and donate them to the local animal shelter (a no kill one, of course). And hopefully with my new ventures in coupon clipping I can double my donation. And hopefully by the end of the year I can drive up with a car full of goodies. Well I haven't decided how often I plan on making the drop-off yet. Some of the things I don't even have to buy, like newspaper, old towels/blankets so that's something. Actually what I really wanted to do is donate to an animal food bank. I know sounds crazy, food bank are for people not animals. Well, I found one back in my hometown. They just opened a Pet Food Bank to help people feed their animals. Because during hard times like people are more incline to do without to feed their pet instead. And the Pet Food Bank sorta helps both by providing pet food to those who need it so they can use their money to buy food for themselves. I haven't found one around where I live now yet. I haven't really had a chance to look into it. I actually wanted to donate to the American Heart Association, just because of my dad but... I wanted to make sure my donation was actually going to be used for the cause and not to pay some CEO's salary. So since I can't control that I figure I rather do something where I know that my donation is getting to the cause. And I love animals so I'm helping the animals, lol.

Okay, that's pretty much it for now. I can't wait for the weekend. Too bad tomorrow's Friday and not Saturday. lol.

So I have an interview for an assignment. Since the company I work for assigns people to certain projects, it's up to the client company to interview possible candidates to carry out their projects. So, I have to go interview with them today before I can be put on their project. Apparently I'm the 6th person that my company has put into interview. None of them made it so now they are putting me it. Ugh... now that makes me really nervous. I've been on a couple of interviews for assignments so I can actually start working... but nothing. So I'm getting a little discouraged even though my manager said it had nothing to do with me per say more that I didn't have the right kind of experience they were looking for for their project.

So today I have to go through 3 rounds of interviews. One with the supervisor, then I have to interview with the possible co-worker that I could be working with on the project, and last... ah... the assistant controller.

The interview is in 3 hours. I'm trying to relax a bit before I go because when I get nervous I get all antsy and tend to talk fast. So... drinking some tea and just chilling out until then.

I just need to start working again. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I get this assignment so that I can go back to work.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

my money news today is that I haven't spent anything today... yet that is. Well I don't plan on spending any money today, the only thing maybe gas for my car. But I have some to last me until the weekend, so I may just come straight home after the interview and wind down by hanging out and tend to my garden.

So I got a full time permanent job!!! Yay! It's still doing contracting jobs/projects for other companies, but basically I'm representing this one consulting firm and they assignment to work at different clients for various projects and so on. So yay!!!

I'm most excited because I get medical. Which by the way I haven't had medical coverage in over a year, since I left my full-time job at the bank a little over a year ago. Yikes, I know not a very smart thing. But I figured, keeping my fingers crossed that I hardly ever get sick so I never bought an individual plan because of the cost and luckily enough I never got sick, I mean the common cold here and there but not sick enough to warrant a doctors visit. Thank goodness. Now I will have coverage and I get all caught up and get back into the routine visits and so on. So I won't have my first assignment for at least a week, so I have the rest of this week to just hang out I guess.

So anyways my aunt got this blockbuster summer deal, where you pay an extra $10 (one time) and you get two movies out at a time. And if you watch them and bring them back the next day you can get another 2 movies out for free and you can keep doing this for an entire week. So yeah, we paid $20 total for a week worth of rented movies. So far it's the 3rd day and we already rented 6 movies. Yesterday we made this list of movies that we want to see while we are on this promotion. It's been great because we don't feel so bad renting something that is not a good movie at all because we can rent another movie for free essentially. So I have to return the 2 that we currently have today and get 2 more out. Man, talk about a bargain. I calculated that if we watched 2 new movies everyday on this promotion we would only pay $0.70 per movie. So hopefully they will have this same promotion at the end of the summer because once this ends we won't continue it because we probably won't have anymore movies to rent and we'll have to let the movies we want to see stack up again. I mean we could just do netflix or the blockbuster version of netflix, but we usually don't rent movies that often so this other promotions works out really great since we can see all the movies we want to see and pay only 1 time instead of every month, especially if there is no good movies out that month.

And oh yeah, so this weekend I went to B,B & B. And I bought this 3-pack of sponge cleaning things for the grill for my aunt and when I got home I realized that there were only 2 sponges in the package, someone stole a sponge. This makes me so mad, because now I have to go back to the store to get a full 3 pack. Ugh, the nerve of some people. This is not the first time this has happened either because I was at costco and bought a brita water filter 10-pack and it was missing 1 filter, and those things aren't cheap enough to just let it go so I had to go back and I just returned it because I was just annoyed. It's a shame that I now have to 100% check everything I buy.

Okay that's pretty much it.

I know two blog entries in one day. But I couldn't resist.

I landed another contract job this afternoon. So my two interviews tomorrow went down to just 1. And the one is more like a info session on a permanent position with my temp company. The contract job is a temp-to-hire, which is very very good. My staffing manager... she did good. I guess she bragged enough that I got the position and I didn't even need to interview like she originally told me that I would have to. So YAY because I dont like interviews I always freeze up because I'm so nervous. I start on April 9th. So I still get a chance to spend time with my family. Hopefully soon I'll be permanently employed with benefits!

I'm even more excited this go around because I have my credit cards paid off! So... now I have even more money to save, since that is one less payment i have to make. Man, it's so freeing. I'm thinking I'm going to put that extra money to my IRA and student loan... after I cover the $500 for my glasses! Yay! So now savings #3 doesn't have to really take a hit.

Woo hoo my day has gotten so much better.

So tomorrow I have 2 job interviews. Keeping my fingers crossed that I land one of them. One is temp to hire and the other is a direct hire. I mainly need something because I need the benefits. The medical I have right now is really buggy. I don't know if it's even kicked in yet because I didn't see the deductions on my last couple of paychecks. Ugh.

My staffing managers was like if I get both offers then I'll have to choose because I can't do both. Hello? No duh. (I just rolling my eyes when she tells me that over the phone). And if I have to hear one more time that the economy is not doing so well and the job market is tough I'm going to go... it's annoying. I know I keep up with the news.

This week should be a good week because my family is coming to visit from Virginia. The first time I've seen them since I moved in September of last year. Mom, dad and sister. My brother can't come out right now, but he'll be out for two weeks in July. I can't wait. It should be fun. Now since I know my way around the Bay Area a little bit I can take them to all sorts of places. One day we'll probably go up to Sonoma to visit other relatives. And then I know they want to go to Monterrey Bay. So we'll see. Somedays I miss Virginia. So it's sorta like Virginia is coming to me, by my family coming out here. So Yay!

So I've decided that the $500 from my glasses is going to come from Savings #3. Only because it has the lower interest rate. And it's the money that I don't really have a plan for.

But yeah that's pretty much it.

So, I bought new glasses today. $500 total for exam (contacts and glasses), new frames and lenses. But the lenses were 50% off since I bought frames. It would have been cheaper but I had no insurance because lack of constant job. Oh well I need to see better. So my headaches will stop. I can't tell if it's from eye strain or from caffeine withdraw, which it could possibly be from.

Yup. That was my big purchase for the next few months. Luckily my contact prescription didn't need to be changed, and I still have some supply left so I didn't need to reorder yet. I haven't decided where the $500 is coming from yet. Most likely savings #1. Not too concerned yet. Big purchases I like to pay off right away. I usually put it on my credit card and then do a bill pay the next day. That way I get points on my credit card, but save on the interest by paying it right away. I should have my cc paid off though by next week so that will free up one bill for me since I'm not working this week.

I'm still struggling with my staffing manager at the temp agency. She's kinda buggy. Hopefully... something will come up.

today was apparently my last day with this temp position. I was told at 3PM today. My day ends at 5. I guess no big deal. Accept for the fact that I really feel like I'm being played for a fool with the temp agency I'm working for. First they told me that my last day for the contract was March 31st. Ok that's fine. And then when I asked about a month ago the end of February, about my last day since my family is coming to visit from Virginia and I wanted to take like 3 days off... all of a sudden my contract extended to April 9th. Ok fine... I'll deal and just balance the family and work at the same time. And then today. Oh, sorry so-and so is coming back from leave on Monday so today will be your last day. Geez, a little annoyed. And it's not like I actually liked working there but hey... a little earlier notice than 2 hours before I'm checking out for the day would have been nice. And all my temp agency staffing person could say was that this never happens before and that HR probably got it messed up and didn't want to admit they were wrong. Whatever. I'm tired of them playing the blaming game. As far as I'm concerned they are both in the wrong. The company said that I did an awesome job though and that if anything came up if I would be willing to come back. I said yes. I don't know why I said yes. Most likely because of the fear of saying no. I've been there, done that... and unless I'm staying there 20 years there's no sense in going back because I wouldn't really be able to move up and do other things.

I guess I should be more concerned with finding another job. But I'm not. My staffing manager wants to me fill the other temp job with the same company that I was just at if I don't find anything in two weeks. I told her not really interested in going back there. And then everyone under the moon is telling me that I should because it's a job. I don't care if it's a job. That's all it is, is a job. I'm just starting out, I'm looking for something I would be happy making a career out of. My aunt is like "just take whatever you can get". I don't want to settle. Because then I end up just like them, 20 years down the road in a job that is, just that, a job. I didn't move all the way across the nation to settle for just anything. I'm not trying to be ultra picky either. I just know myself and if I'm not enjoying what I'm doing or the place I work at, I just can't relax and I don't work well. I believe that I'll be okay.

But on a lighter note. I met a goal. A financial goal. Savings #2.. I met the $2500 goal and Savings #3 is above $1000 which is 50% to the goal of $2000. And I know I'm jobless right now. But I should be okay without dipping into the savings for now.

I'll update all my numbers later. Sorry for ranting. It seems like these days that I can't actually voice my feelings to anyone because they aren't listening to what I'm saying because apparently I don't know what I'm doing because I'm young, silly, and naiive. Well... it's better than being a know-it-all that likes to put their life on everyone else. People aren't made one-size fits all. Some people just know how to made an already bad day worse.

So I was able to land the contract job. I had a 5 minute over the phone interview. And then they decided to pick me after they did the same with the other candidate that they were interviewing. So Yay! So this one goes until the end of March. I'm covering a maternity leave. I started yesterday actually. It's a lot of work to learn. Like with any job. It's good though because I'm getting good experience. And now that I'm figuring out that I'm able to learn new software rather quickly is even better.

This contract pays a lot more than the other job. So I'll be able to save more which I'm really excited about. I'm planning to use the extra to of course pay on my student loan/cc/ and for my IRA

Also I checked my credit score, the free annual, but I pay for my score, which I shouldn't because it doesn't really matter I just wanna know. It went lower. It's not 795. It said my installation debt was too high. Which is funny because last year it was $2000 more than it was this year. I'm confused. Eh. It's not that much anyways.

Just like I said in my last post. I was going to sit down and figure out how much I have and where I have my moolah.

Savings #1 10,199 ($50 increase)
Savings #2 1,411 ($151 increase)
Savings #3 580 ($205 increase)

Roth IRA: 1,600 ($50 increase)
Rollover IRA (frm. 401k): 1,089

Total Savings Increase since 12/23/08
$456

Debt:
Credit Card: $1,034 (A decrease of $161)
Student Loan: $14,248 (A decrease of $72)

Note: I did get $150 for Christmas money that I deposited into Savings #1. But the rest I saved all on my own by automatically transfering $75 to Savings #2, $25 to Savings #3 and #1. Every paycheck. Automatic savings of $125 each week. For now.

Today was my last day at the contract job. I have an interview on Monday. At least the one on Monday the contract should last until March. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I do well at the interview. I'm going to studying up on the company and the position this weekend.


Oh and the nerve. So I'm doing the temp thing right now. And there were two other temps that I was working with. My recuriter told me to update my resume so she could send it off to new opportunities. So I did. She came back and said that my resume was really well written. She was impressed. And then she had the nerve to ask me if I would be willing to share my resume with the other two temps so they could fix their s. In normal situations I would be okay with sharing.But these are tough times. And frankily those two temps are also my competition. How dare she ask me to share something that makes me stand out of other applicants. I put a lot of effort into putting it together, in fact at one point I had to scrap the entire thing and start over. Maybe I'm being silly, it's just like asking me to show my term paper to someone else so they can get ideas after I had to come up with the original idea with no help and what if they get the better grade. Nope. no can do. They'll have to figure it out on their own. After I get a job I would be more than happy to share, lol.

So being a temp, my contract of course had to end early because apparently the 3 temps that helped out worked too fast. My last day is Friday. But luckily I may have another contract starting on Monday so there is really no lapse. Even though I'm ready to just have a permanent job just for the sake of only having to be the new person one more time, I'm glad that at least I can be working. Plus the best part about temp for the mean time is that I can try out different jobs and without the commitment if I don't like it.

Other than that, I've been able to save a little. I'll find out tomorrow if I have the other temp job on Monday so if there is no lapse in paychecks I'll be able to put more away. I'm really excited to be saving again. I'll update my stats this weekend once everything gets to its destination.

Plus I'm curious about my credit report. When I checked it last year I had a 806 with Equifax. I wonder what it is now since my student loan is lower I had just started paying then, I haven't opened up any credit cards this past year, and my balance on them is relatively the same. I'm waiting until the 11th to pull it again for my 1 free report a year.
But yeah this is on my list of things to do along with filing taxes. eek!