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Sep 2, 2014    |       12 comments

This Doesn’t Happen In Real Life!

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I have been having a particularly stressful day. Lots of “blah” stuff not worth going into.

And I open my email and see THIS in my inbox:

 

Screen Shot 2014-09-02 at 2.38.15 PM

 

Can I just reiterate how much I love working with “University A” (teaching based job)!!! Not only are they saying that I’m getting a raise (totally unheard of for adjunct faculty! Who’s even heard of this?!?), but they are retroactively dating it so that, even though I’ve already signed a contract agreement for the semester, they’re going to go ahead and start the raise effective immediately!!

I teach two classes, so this is a raise of $1,000 for the semester (approximately an extra $250/month). Not too shabby! If I continue teaching at a rate of 2 classes per semester (3 semesters: Fall, Summer, Spring), then this equates to an extra $3,000 per year. I’ll take it! : )

I needed this little ray of sunshine today!

Hope you’re all having a good Tuesday!

Seriously, though (I know many readers are in academia) – has anyone even heard of raises being given to adjuncts??? I’ve been teaching for 7 years (4 different institutions) and never once received a raise! This does not happen!!

Sep 2, 2014    |       9 comments

September Planned Budget

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As I mentioned yesterday, August was a bit of a dud income-wise.

Everything said and done, we ended up earning (after taxes) $5728. To that figure, I’ve added the $589 we had leftover from last month. This brings us to a total income of $6317 to budget for the month of September.

Here’s the plan:

PlaceAmount
Rent1055
Electricity260
Water65
Natural gas20
Sprint (2 lines)115
Cable/Internet100
Car Insurance104
Health Insurance350
Trash35
Debt2009
Miscellaneous300
Groceries400
Baby Purchases1200
Gasoline100
Savings445
.6558

 

You may notice instantly that the amount planned ($6558) exceeds the amount we actually have to budget ($6317). I’m not quite sure how to handle this difference. I can strive to spend less in the miscellaneous and grocery categories, but its unlikely I’ll be able to save a full $200. Other options include putting less toward savings (which would solve the immediate problem, but causes a longer-term problem when we don’t have money to cover things like dental & vision or car maintenance expenses), or use some of our income from September on September purchases (instead of putting it all aside for October, since we’re living on last month’s income). We’re not talking about a huge difference here ($6558-$6317 = $241). I could try to cut back here and there and just wait to see how short we fall at the end of the month (hoping to make up the difference), and then use some September income to cover the difference only if needed.

What do you think? What would you do to make up the difference?

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