The other side of the coin. . . .

I'm doing very well with my frugal budgeting; I no longer splurge on nonessential items, and I question each purchase I make. I just started using the Dave Ramsey Cash Envelope system, which I'll write about in a future post.


Anyway, once I began feeling comfortable with my level of frugality, I determined that it was time to attend to the other side of the debt repayment coin: increasing my income.

Last summer, I set a goal for myself to double my take-home income by the end of 2011. At the time, I was bringing home around $2,200 from my full time job (after sending 10% to a retirement plan). I usually bring home about $600 from my long-term part time job, which makes a total of $2,800, which doubled equals an astounding (to me) $5,600!

When I first made this goal for myself, the pessimist in me immediately started thinking: "there is NO way you can do that. Impossible!" In spite of this annoying little voice, I decided to stick with the objective of doubling my take-home pay; after all, why not aim high, right? Since making the goal, I've picked up two additional jobs; although I've not worked long enough at one of them to really have an idea of how much I could make on a monthly basis, I recently created an 'ideal' budget which shows what I could potentially make each month with all of my jobs combined (assuming that part-time job number two works out the way I want it to). Here it is, for your viewing pleasure:

Note that even with Part-Time Job #2 at its maximum, I'm a little short of doubling my take-home pay. But, the good news is that with this budget, I can throw an additional $2,400 at my second mortgage, while continuing to pay $600 toward my student loan each month (which takes care of all the interest and a bit of principle). So for now, I'm happy with this. After all, I did give myself until the end of 2011 to make this happen, and part-time jobs don't just grow on trees; the ones I have took persistence, additional education, and luck to find. I'm still looking, but for now am content with what I've managed to do.