I thought I'd list out my finances here, just for fun. One of my big problems is that my income varies wildly, depending on how many hours I'm able to work each week. I work for an inventory company, and there are a variable number of jobs available each week, each with a variable number of hours.

Currently, my income varies from $400/month to a little over $700/month. Soon, however, I will be supplementing this with a paid blogging position, which will bring in $250/month plus bonuses. So, my income will range from $650 to $950 per month.

For expenses, since I live with my mom, all I have is my car payment ($270.58), car insurance ($147.16), and school loan payment ($150.52). Lastly, gas is usually about $20/week. This adds up to $648.26 per month.

So, the amount that I have left over each month ranges from almost $0 to over $300.

I know I mentioned money I'd received from the VA for school loans in my previous post, but I'm hoping to either use that as 'extra' - either for paying down my loans faster, or to make the payments from directly if I can't afford to pay from my regular account - or using it directly, and paying extra toward my car loan from my regular account. I haven't quite decided yet.

What I do know, however, is that if I just make the minimum payments on my school loan, the total amount I will wind up paying back will balloon from $23,000 to $35,000. And I *don't* want to pay that much when I know I don't need to!