"Mo' money, mo' problems" - Notorious B.I.G.

Hey guys,
I know it's been awhile, but March has been a non-stop month for me.  I've been working and traveling and dealing with exciting future issues (which I will write about soon).  Every spare moment I've had has basically been put towards day-to-day living and my happiness project, neither of which include blogging at the moment.  The only reason I'm doing this post right now is that I accidentally took a nap this afternoon after work, which is permitting me to stay up a little later to write this.  So here you go!  An update on my happiness project!

I suppose I should spend some time talking about my Finances month.  All in all, I'm not too happy with my performance this month on my resolutions.  Most of the resolutions weren't day-to-day, but more one-off, which meant I procrastinated.  I didn't finish all my ideas, and some of the ones I did were half-assed.
1. Create a detailed monthly budget:  this one I did partially.  I discovered the budgeting section of my online banking and was even able to link my outside accounts into it.  So I've got all my financial information in one place.  But Bank of America labels my stuff pretty stupidly, so I have to go through and relabel everything before I can get a realistic outlook.  I did about one month back before I got bored and stopped.  And I haven't returned.  But I did spend a couple hours on slow days at work budgeting in my handy-dandy notebook.  I've got general outlines, but it's hard to be specific with so many financial things changing in my life.
2. Start building my savings on a monthly basis:  This I actually have done this month.  I set up a monthly transfer from my checking to savings, and used my debit card a bit more to get my "Keep the Change" savings.  It's still a really small step, but it's on its way.
3. Give myself a monthly allowance:  This one was harder.  I've always kind of considered whatever money I have left after paying all my bills as a monthly allowance.  But now that I'm budgeting, I want to put a definite number on it.  And I don't know what that number should be, but I know I've probably gone over it.  It's easy for me to set a budget and stick to it, if I don't have a life.  But spontaneous eating out with friends, and shopping trips or movies with friends in town, always push me over the edge of a nice, restrained allowance.  I'll definitely need to work more on my commitment to staying within my fun-money budget!
4. Start balancing my checkbook weekly:  This one I've pretty much kept on top of.  I chose to balance my checkbook on Mondays, because I'm always off on those days and have the time to do it.  I don't always do it exactly a week apart, but it always gets done within a calendar week.
5. Make a plan for paying off my car:  This one I haven't done at all.  Well, that's not true.  I got a much bigger than expected refund this year, and I put about 60% of this refund towards my car as additional principal.  I don't know how this is going to affect the amount of or expected end date of my payments.  So I'm waiting until I get my next bill to see what damage I did to it.  From there, I'll be able to make a plan, which will also help with some holes I currently have in my budget plans as well.
6. Start looking into my own car insurance: This one I also half-assed.  I talked to my dad about the car insurance, and I got more of an understanding of what it will cost.  I still have more questions about it.  I also need to just get a quote from a website as well.  And I still need to talk to my mom about my cell phone, which I haven't done at all...

I feel like this month hasn't really helped my happiness at all.  I've become much more aware of my money issues, which has seemed to drop that silent, heavy weight even further on my shoulders.
I've got a bunch of unanswered questions about grad school funding that are plaguing me.  I need to fill out a FAFSA, and they want me to fill out a Work-Study form.  I've been told I'm eligible for tuition and fee waivers, but I can't even find a definitive source on how much tuition is to begin with.  I have no idea how I'm going to be able to live on such a small living stipend, as well as dealing with tuition, fees, textbooks, possible conferences, and future digs.  I need to have a long chat with a financial aid rep from Tech, which is just begging for a headache.
Also, I've found out that the international train service from Greece to Macedonia has been indefinitely cancelled do to budget issues.  This means I'll likely have to fly into the tiny Macedonia airport, which will add an additional $600 or so dollars on to my travel costs.  I had planned to spend a couple days afterwards traveling to Crete, but now there's no chance of that happening.  I can't justify the spending on it when my plane ticket just skyrocketed.
I'm also trying to get my apartment sublet while I'm gone, so I can save about $1800.  Melaina's been helping me with that a bit, asking around with her friends.  I hope something positive comes of it, because everyone I know is leaving Austin, too!  I can ask around at work as a last-ditch effort, but I don't know how likely that'd be.  But it'd be AWESOME if I didn't have to pay that rent...

In other words, this month has not made me happy.  I know a great part of it is that dealing with the problems and issues of money ISN'T fun.  But all these questions and variables are making it difficult, and my inability to solve this is making my resolutions unrewarding.  Unfun + unrewarding = unhappy.  I hoping that over the next couple months, as things get resolved and settled into place, my financial future will become clearer.  So it probably won't ever be fun to deal with this, but at least it could be rewarding to solve these problems and get them squared away.

Phew...  Man, it's really taken it out of me this month.  As far as February's resolutions of energy, I'm still going strong, and doing slightly better than last month.
- My resolution to wake up early: 52% of the time, up from 36% last month
- My running resolution: 43% of the time, up from 31% last month
- No caffeine: 95% of the time, up from 72% last month
- Going to bed early: 65% of the time, down a bit from 68% last month

Next month is health!  I've already made some progress on those resolutions, which you'll find out next post!