Sunday, Dec. 05, 2004
Second job thoughts, posted at 8:48 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com Today was another Sunday brunch. Right now, I'm tired of the restaurant. I need it, because of the holidays and because I can't make my student loan payments without a second job, but right now I'm sick of it. I'm sick of having one day off a month and sick of never seeing my friends and sick of enjoying my Saturday mornings so much because they're the only time when I'm not working when there's daylight.Today was a good day and I really enjoy the people I work with, and I'm looking so forward to the Christmas party that I'm considering taking the day after off, and I know the money will start to get really good really soon. Last New Year's Eve, I made $300. At this time last year, it was rare to work a shift and make less than $100. This is the busy time for the restaurant, and even though it hasn't hit yet, I'm pretty confident it will.
However, I've pretty much decided that I'm going to quit on March 1. That's the first day of baseball season and I don't want to juggle teaching, coaching, and waiting tables at once again. And once baseball is over, I'll have to start thinking about finding summer work, and I probably want to find summer work at a different restaurant that has more of a tourist crowd. I'll have almost two years of fine dining experience at that point, and should be able to be hired anywhere. The Cheesecake Factory? Maybe. I like talking to tourists. I can't imagine trying to park down in the inner harbor every day, though.
Anyhow, just a few more months and I think I'm out. Unless, of course, we open up the expansion next door and the place becomes the hot night spot that they hope it becomes. But I've been hearing it's going to open now for years, and the date keeps getting pushed back, so I'm not confident. As of now, I think I'm done on that date.
I took on the second job to help get myself out of horrible credit card debt. It worked; I now live debt free except for student loans and car loans. Those are both significant, but it's nice not to have any "bad debts" out there. Here are my monthly bills:
Rent: $375
Car: $396 (I know... stupid, stupid... but almost paid off. And I do love my car.)
Student Loans: $352 (This kills me)
Car Insurance: App. $125 (And this is without a moving violation in my eleven years of driving. Insurance rates suck in the city, especially if you're under 30 and male and have something they consider a sports car even though it has 4 doors.)
Parent Loan from helping to bail me out of credit card debt a couple of years ago: $100
Heat/Electricity: app. $100
Renter's Insurance: $15
Cell Phone: $40
Phone/Internet: $35
Gym: $40
That's about $1500/month of stuff, mostly of what I can't choose to eliminate. The last three are "optional," I guess, but I wouldn't want to live without any of them. I don't live with cable already.
I take home about $2100/month teaching, for ten months of the year. That leaves $600 a month for groceries, gas, and living expensives. But remember that I don't get paid in the summer, so I have to think about saving. If I were to save enough so I can live like I live during the school year in the summer, I'd have to save $420/month. I don't. In fact, I don't think I could. That would leave me $180/month for spending money. Not even close. So that's why I have a second job.
The thing is, I don't pay close enough attention to my money at all, and I think the second job actually hurts that. Yeah, it's nice to know that my rent is easily paid off every month by my waiting tables. But I also tend to be an idiot about money, and that is increased when I'm really busy and dont' have the time/energy to track my spending. I honestly don't really know what to do when I quit. I'd need a financial advisor or something to help me live if I were to dump the second job.
And I start grad school in January. Not sure how that's going to work.