OCD--Organizing your purse

It's been a while since I've made a post, but I'm still as OCD as ever when it comes to being organized. If there is one thing I can not stand it is having an unorganized purse where I can't find anything I'm looking for. So, I'm going to show you how I organize my purse, and maybe it will help some more of you out. 

First, lay out everything you're going to want in your purse. Mine is lacking a few things that I would normally carry, like an emergency kit, but I have to do some more shopping before the fall semester starts and I'll restock it then. 

So, this is everything I want in my purse;

A notebook (because I'm a writer and you never know when inspiration will strike)

A small memo pad (for making lists)

A planner

A wallet

Sunglasses

Kleenex

Mobile charger (spare)

Pill box

Body Spray

Pens, highlighters, sharpie

Headphones 

Nail kit 

Mini scissors 

Lip balm 

Allergy medication 

Candy

Then, in another small pouch, I have tools for writing, editing, and making plans in my planner:

Tabs

Note tabs

Colored tabs

Whiteout

Paperclips

Binder clips

An eraser

2 magnetic bookmarks

Now, this may seem like a lot, but trust me, once you get it organized into your purse it really wont seem like much. You're going to want to get something like an organizer from the dollar store. I believe you get a small and a large one in the box. It's been a while since I've bought one. This is what mine looks like (turned inside out). 

You're going to want it turned inside out to start with. It makes planning spaces for things much easier, and it's simple to turn it the right side out once you fill it with all of your goodies. So, now that you've got it turned inside out, grab a few things to start with. I chose the pill box, scissors, headphones, nail kit, lip balm, hand sanitizes, and pens. 

The next part is simple, just start placing thing into the pockets. There are some pockets designed for specific purposes, but I hardly pay attention to those. 

You can't really see it, but the pill box is in the middle pouch in front of the colorful pens and the headphones are to the right of that. 

Once you have the small things put into a place, turn the organizer back to right side out. Don't worry, nothing should fall out. 

Next, I went through and put all of my writing tools into the small pouch. Yes, it really all fits. 

Now, the easy part. Take your bigger items and put them in the large empty space inside the organizer. I've added my wallet, sunglasses, candy, writing tools, and body spray. The spray went into the side pouch on the organizer. 

Because they're a little awkward, the Kleenex, allergy medication, and the mobile charger went into the front pocket on my actual purse. 

My purse has three additional pockets on the inside, where I keep my phone (substituted by the iPod) and my cigarettes. (Bad habit I know, I'm trying to quit). The last pocket is where I usually keep my feminine products. My organizer, and the small memo pad I put between the organizer and my purse. There isn't really enough room for it inside the organizer. I also put my notebook there. Believe it or not, but there is room for a small book, should you chose to carry one. 

And viola! A well organized purse with a place for everything and everything in it's place. I usually go through once a month and take everything out and re-organize it. Just to make sure I really need everything, and I'm not letting it get too cluttered. I'm sure once school picks up it will get worse. I'm actually considering getting another one and having one purse for work and one for classes. I would just need to move my wallet and planner from one to the other. 

Hope this helps someone .

Creating a Budget (College Version)

I recently totaled my car, so now comes the daunting task of saving up for a new car. In order to do this, and make sure that I still have enough money to live on, I've been creating a budget for myself. Now, I'm a third year college student who still lives at home, so it's going to be geared towards that, but you can use this template for any stage of your life, just add and remove categories as needed. I know it's not easy to save money, so let's see if we can figure this out.

First of all, you'll need a program like Excell, or a piece of paper, pen, and calculator. (I'll give an example of both).

We're going to start with the paper and pen version first, since this is what I mainly use.

Start with the next upcoming month. I started this in January, so we're going to start with February. I'm not going to use actual figures for this, but I'll put some in to give a better example.

Step 1: Set up your paper.
Now, I'm really OCD, so I have to make sure I have a category for everything I may need in that month. This includes, gas for my car, medical bills, prescriptions, any gifts I may need to buy that month, and an allowance of "blow money" to spend on whatever, as well an an emergency fund. You'll also need categories for income, and what is already in your bank account. So this is a little something of what your paper should look like.

Now comes the task of actually inputting all of the data. This is where the calculator comes in handy. Also, if you're like me and work on an hourly wage, not salary, you may not work the same amount of hours each week, so just make an educated guess of how many hours you'll work to figure out your monthly income. Once you've input the data for income and expenses, it should look something like this. Don't worry about the left over for now, we'll get to that in a minute.

Now we can figure out how much you should have left over at the end of the month. To do this, add up your income and your carry over, and then subtract each expense.

If you're saving up for something, or you just want to make sure you've got some cash put away for any kind of emergency, it's a good idea to take a little bit of money each week and put it into a savings account. Personally, I set up my bank account to automatically transfer $50 each week from my checking account and add it to my savings account, leaving me an extra $200 emergency fund at the end of every month. You never know what you'll need it for and if you don't need to spend any of it, it adds up every month. I have various things I save up throughout the year, so I use what is in my savings account to pay for it. Like in March my sister is turning 18 and wants a tattoo, so everything in my savings is going towards that in March, then I'll start over.

Now that you've got February figured out for your budget, it's time to progress through the year. Don't worry I'll show you step by step how I sort mine out.

For March, set up the categories exactly the same. Since I'm planning on using my savings for tattoos, I make sure that I wait until the very end to deduct that amount of money. So, add and subtract exactly how we did for February. But when I deducted my savings account from what was left over at the end of the month, I then went ahead and deducted how much I wanted to spend on tattoos. In this example, I took out $300, leaving $100 in my savings account for the next month.

This method is a little more time consuming, and a little more frustrating than the computer method. For the next method of creating a monthly expense budget, you'll need Microsoft Excel. This is the easier version, but you may need to tweak some of the categories to better fit your life.

Step one is of course to open up Excel. Go to the File Menu at the top and select New. This will bring up a list of categories. The third category will be Budget. Clicking on this will take you to three new categories. For this example, go to Home budgets. Now you can choose any one you want, but for my personal preference, and this example, we're going to use My College Budget.

Once you've got it up on your screen, it's pretty self explanatory. Just change the information around, so you have the figures fitting what you make and what you need to spend that month.

I generally don't like using the computer version in Excel because the categories are so random sometimes, and it's a pain to tweak them just to fit me. I prefer the paper and pen method, but use whichever you prefer. It's not easy saving money and sticking to a budget, but trust me, if I can do it, so can you. Good luck!

Finance Binder

This binder is my life saver when it comes to keeping track of bills, work, and taxes. My friends and family think I'm crazy because of the multiple categories, but, it works for me, and it's incredibly useful. Inside I've got my time cards (I have to hand write them and turn them in so I keep a copy), any mileage logs, all of my payroll stubs, medical test results, medical bills, tax information, and school information, a must if you're a struggling college student like me.

• First, here's a list of the things you'll need to make this binder. 
• 1 binder, mine is a 2 inch. 
• Duct tape for decorating (optional)
• Tab dividers, 12 for each year. 
• Sheet protectors. 1 for each year.
• Sharpie/Pen
• 3-hole punch

Next, you'll need to figure out what kind of categories you want to make for the binder. Here's a list of mine, in order.

• 2014
• Work
• Time Cards
• Mileage Sheets
• Payroll Stubs
• Medical
• Medical Bills
• Medical Tests
• School
• Finacial Aid
• Disbursement Checks
• 2014 Taxes

Next is the easy part. Putting your binder together. The categories I use the most are in the front, since I get a new time card, and payroll stub every week, work is first. Followed by medical bills because they still need to be paid. Usually with payroll stubs, there is a part you can tear off which will leave you with about 3/4 of a page. Usually there's an empty space, where you can punch the holes. You'll be punching the "hamburger" way so horizontal across the paper, leaving only two holes punched.

Just get your sharpie and write down the category title on the tab divider and you're ready to file.

I keep mine updated by date, the oldest goes in the back. So each week, I put the new time card on top of the previous week's. With the medical bills, I make sure that after I pay them, I write "PAID" on the bill somewhere. It's not always right away, especially for a broke college student. But, when it comes to taxes and you need to figure out how much extra you paid because your insurance didn't cover it, you've got a detailed record.

Now, the sheet protectors are for your taxes. There is virtually no room to punch a hole where you won't be cutting off something important, so just slip your W-2's into a sheet protector and you've got a nice safe place to keep them.

Hopefully this helps some of you the way it helps me.