I'm checking in 3 months after my first entry. I rounded all of the values to the nearest $100.

Savings: Total of $5,900 (-1,500)
General: $2,800 (includes $900 auto insurance premium due in December and $530 monthly auto loan payment, both automatically pulled from that sub-account)
Emergency Funds: $3,100 (CDs ranging from 1.5% to 2.5%)

Retirement: Total of $47,800 (-200)
Taxable: $8,700
Roth IRA: $19,900 ($3,250 invested this year)
401k: $19,200 (40% of match vested; need to roll over this month as I am leaving my job in a week)

Debt: Total of $24,700 (-6,600)
School Loans: $6,600 (6.8% Fixed/ $90 minimum payment)
Auto Loan: $18,100 (0.01% Fixed / $530.36 minimum payment)

Net Worth (from spreadsheet): $47,439.83 (+98.21, +0.21% from June)

Overall I'm a little disappointed in the bottom line number. I worked a three months and I only kept $98?! Oh well. I did go on vacation and knocked $6,600 off my debt. And invested money for retirement. I'm going to call this a win. My goal for the November check-in should be +0.50% or above.

I went on a last minute vacation in August that probably cost around $1,200. Definitely not the greatest move financially, but it will be the last time I’m able to go on vacation until around June of 2012. It was the only one I’ve taken since June 2009.

Savings decreased by about 1,500. I moved into a new apartment and had to pay a new security deposit of $900, and I should get my security deposit back from the old apartment son for $1,200. I’m going to throw that money back into my emergency funds. Those are looking kind of low. I had to liquidate a bit to cover the difference.

The markets have been pretty bad lately, but I’ve stayed the course and kept on investing. I put $750 into my Roth IRA and set up a schedule to take out $250 additional twice a month so that I’m fully funded at the end of the year. My 401k has been taking out a steady 6% per paycheck, and with the employer match I should have put in about $1,600 over the past 3 months. So I put in a lot of money and the total balance went down. I’m not stressed because I know I still have the same number of shares. Things will go up eventually. And I don’t have to withdraw this money for over 40 years. Wait, I have to work that long?

I got a tuition reimbursement check for $5,000 from my employer in August. I was going to put $3,500 into loans and use the remainder to pay for the vacation, but I wasn’t paying attention. I forgot how long it takes other banks to cash checks, so I wound up thinking I had more money in my checking account than I did and sent an extra student loan payment. So I wound up putting the entire $5,000 to student loans. I guess that’s a mistake in my favor.

My new apartment rent is now $300 cheaper. I also now split all utilities in half with the roommate, so it should greatly help my budget. My goal for September is to write down everything I spend and analyze it at month end. I've never been able to track spending for a whole month, so I'm going to try my best. I'll post it for you all to critique!

I wanted to see if I could blog to keep myself motivated to stay on top of tracking my spending and paying off my debt quickly. I just graduated with a masters degree and I have been working full-time for the past two years (while going to school). I'll be starting a new job later this year and that will give me a slight raise (6.6%).

Here are the basics (all rounded down to nearest $100):
Savings: Total of $7,400
General: $2,300 (includes $900 auto insurance premium due this month and $530 monthly auto loan payment, both automatically pulled from that sub-account)
Emergency Funds: $5,100 (CDs ranging from 1.5% to 2.5%)

Retirement: Total of $48,000
Taxable: $9,700
Roth IRA: $19,600 (Max annually)
401k: $18,700 (Currently contributing 6% with 6% match, only 40% will be vested when I quit later this year.)

Debt: Total of $31,300
School Loans: $11,600 (6.8% Fixed/ $130 minimum payment)
Auto Loan: $19,700 (0.01% Fixed / $530.36 minimum payment)

Not too bad. The auto loan has a high minimum payment, but I made the mistake of buying a car that was too expensive. I bought it knowing I'd have to keep it for 8-10 years, it gets ~45 miles to the gallon, and it's relatively inexpensive to maintain. I do a lot of driving to client offices, so I get a good use out of it. It's comfortable and I'm alright with having to pay a little more for the nicer model. Plus, I can't go back now.

I'm getting a $5,000 tuition reimbursement at the end of August and I'll sink 100% of that into the school loans. I am also expecting another $5,000 bonus in September or October when I start my new job, as well as another $950 reimbursement, so that will get sunk into the school loans as well. So that leaves about $650 ignoring interest for now. I'll throw any surprise graduation gifts and extra money at the loans to pay that off asap.

I'm undecided about how to handle the car loan. I want to get rid of it, but the interest rate is basically zero. Right now I have a subaccount at ING Direct that pulls $375 from my checking account twice a month ($750 monthly). Out of that, the loan auto-debits $530 monthly; my PenFed Rewards credit card (5% back on gas) pulls automatically each month (~$110). The remaining $110 monthly that's saved up in there comes out to $1,320. That goes towards any maintenance, insurance payments, or anything else involving the car. Actually, that needs to be increased. It seems low.

I need to go through my monthly budget (i.e. make one) and figure out how much money I can save each month.

Thanks for reading! Comments are appreciated, even if its just a "you can do it!"