Burning the evening oil.

I just discovered yesterday that I could potentially be earning up to 15 hours of overtime per month - 20 hours even, if I'm really busting butt. This has me grinning.

I've always been very careful to either not accrue any overtime or to get as little of it as possible - no more than two hours per paycheck if I can help it. This is because over the years I've seen other people get warnings about their overtime and on the rare occasion recieved a warning or two about it myself. Our company doesn't like parting with money unless it absolutely positively has to. However, about six months ago I had a streak of staying late that lasted about three or four months, wherein I accrued two-and-a-half to three hours of overtime check after check after check, and no one said anything. Mildly encouraged but still fearful of some stern warning which could come at any time, I decided not to press my luck and stopped staying late unless I really had to to catch up on something I couldn't get to during my normal hours (previously I had been staying late to catch up on long-term projects which had no real deadline and weren't terribly important, just terribly helpful). For months now I've been either right at 80 hours or a few hours short. In fact I've been short anywhere from three to eight hours on many of my checks since then, what with school and doctor/surgery/physical therapy appointments and such.

With Matt not working and receiving a disability check for roughly half of what he made while he was working, finances have been just a bit worrisome. We always come out on top easily enough, but my savings has been steadily dwindling because once we've taken from that to pay a bill on time instead of paying late and paying more with late fees, when one or the other of us gets our pay check mere days later we don't pay back that savings withdrawal. We do things instead like going out to dinner, which adds up pretty quickly. In short, if we pull our heads out and stop doing luxury things like that, we will be just fine. Hell, we might even be able to slowly build that savings back up to more than it was before Matt's injury.

We've actually been talking about this lately - ways to save money, and even turn things back around to where we're putting some into savings rather than taking it out or just letting our savings sit and build on the interest alone. Having recently googled "money saving tips" I came a cross a good many sites - blogs, some of them - chock full of little everyday, easy things to do to save money. Some of them we're already doing, some of them we're working on, and some we will be implementing as soon as possible.

I just hung a clothesline in our yard for drying most of our clothes, since the washer and dryer we got from friends with this last move has increased our energy bill by a quick and painfull $50 a month, and according to our energy provider's website, it's the dryer that usually accounts for most (more than half) of such increases. So the dryer will be used only for unmentionables, and when it's time to wash and dry sheets and blankets, we're packing those into the jeep and taking them to the laundromat down the street, which has the biggest washers and dryers I've ever seen ever, all operated for about the same as, if not less than, the regular small, crappy ones at the apartment we lived in before. For probably around $5, we could wash and dry two comforters, our sheets, and our pillow cases - possibly even all in one ginormous load. That beats the at-least-four loads of washing and at-least-six loads of drying (because our dryer just isn't up to drying comforters fully the first time) we'd have to do at home to get them done.

Many of the money-saving tips are simple discipline things, like remembering to turn off lights and appliances (and not even using lights until and unless you really actually need them). Unplug the nightlights as soon as you get up in the morning. Don't leave the T.V. on when you leave the couch for a sit in the throneroom for a bit. Turn off things like DVD players, printers, etc., completely when you're done using them. You know - simple things that usually go untended.

Other tips are of a different kind of discipline. Leave your credit cards at home when you go out, so that you can only rely on the cash you have on you rather than being able to make spur-of-the-moment big purchases you don't really need, but that you suddenly decide you want. Make shopping lists and stick to them, buying nothing that isn't on the list no matter how tempting, because you probably don't actually need it (like we didn't need the pie and ice cream we got the other day ... but my gods is it tasty!) If you're out and something catches our eye, go with the "ten minute rule:" wait ten minutes before putting it in your cart. In that time you'll be able to think about why you really want it, or if you even do want it at all. You'll probably not get it in the end, most of the time. I can attest to this, sorta - I can't tell you how many times I've found something just absolutely wonderful and then about ten or fifteen minutes later, while still looking around, changed my mind and put it back. If I had bought it right away instead of continuing shopping, I'd be stuck with it, unsatisfied and with less money.

Another good tip is to not save your credit card information on your internet accounts (except for bills), for the same reason. As you're digging out your wallet and card and typing in the info all over again each time, you're giving yourself the chance to rethink the purchase. Sure, a pair of uber-comfy, gel-insole slippers with headlights on them so you can see where your'e walking at night and prevent stubbed toes and bruised shins is a fantastic and wonderful invention - but do you really need them? No. Do you really wanna spend $45 for that novelty luxury? I wouldn't, if I really thought about it.

So now, along with all these great tips - most of which we should be able to implement fairly easily - I've been given the official go-ahead by my boss to rack up some overtime to help out our finances. The only catch of course is that I have to be doing actual real, needed work, not the long-term, deadline-free, not so important projects (although some work on those is ok).

No problem. With so few people in so many departments now, I can always find something to do that will greatly help out with the daily goings-on. And the real kicker is I don't even need to stay too terribly late to do it. I've gotten used to eating my lunch at my desk, which means I stay clocked in during my lunch because I'm actually still working, so there's an extra hour a day right there. If I then stay only one hour later than usual, I can get an extra two hours a day, four days a week (Sundays are my odd days, where due to the workload I actually lose an hour, but I can stay an hour later that day too and just get a full eight hours.) So just with those simple changes right there I'll be getting eight hours of overtime per paycheck - 16 hours per month - if I so choose.

And it's all good. No warnings. No raised eyebrows. Only a pat on the back for being such a good little worker and some much needed extra money.

Yeah, I'm grinning.