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Archive for August, 2014

Need career advice

August 20th, 2014 at 06:43 pm

I'm going to try and make this as short and sweet as possible.

2 years ago, I left a job that I loved in the hospital lab to come do infection control. I really enjoy both jobs.

Pros of current job: very flexible, I get to work from home if snowing, kids are sick, etc. Learning a lot, can be very interesting at times. My boss is awesome.

Cons of current job: I don't have enough work to do and I get very bored sometimes. I am in an office by myself and it gets lonely. I thought I would have alot more opportunity for advancement in this field, but I am finding that in my area, hospitals outside of my company only want to hire nurses for this job. My boss will retire in 5-10 years probably, but I'm not sure I want to be in charge - she is extremely overworked.


Pros of new job: Back with the people I love and used to manage, I would love the actual job.

Cons of new job: Although I love them, the people I ued to manage are whiners and some days they drove me nuts Smile Boss doesn't have kids, is very work centered and I feel would be less understanding of my need for work/life balance.


Salary: I would get a 6.4% raise, but would be at the top of the salary range and therefore wouldn't get yearly raises after that, just a bonus in the amount that the raise would have been (so no compounding year over year). I did the math and it would take 5 years of a 1.75% raise in my current job (that's what we got this year) to get me up to what the salary would be in the new job.

Between the raise and what I would save on gas and tolls, new job would net me an extra $250 a month.

I was hoping it would either be so much money that I couldn't say no, or so little money that I couldn't say yes... now I'm not sure what to do.

Any advice?

Paying off 1st credit card Friday!

August 19th, 2014 at 03:50 pm

I have $89 left on it and that will be gone with Fridays paycheck and then on to that Discover card with the highest interest rate! I can't believe I have paid off over $8000 since the beginning of January. According to my debt avalanche spreadsheet, I will have the Discover card paid off next September. A year sounds too long to wait, so I will do everything I can to get it paid off sooner Smile I have been selling a lot on Ebay, and I may be able to cash in some PTO to put towards the card as well. Feels great to make progress!

Feel like I'm hemorrhaging money this weekend!

August 11th, 2014 at 02:22 am

Everything was needed, and everything was a great deal, but it's still more spending than I have done in a LONG time.

In addition to the 3 tops I got at JCP Saturday for $15, I ordered 2 pairs of shoes for myself last night - I needed a new pair of crosstrainers and also a new pair of black work shoes. If the work shoes fit, I'll buy another pair in brown. The shoes I have for work now I bought 2 years ago and they are pretty beaten up.

Today we went to Kohl's - spent another $116 but got 3 pairs of pants for me (I have lost a lot of weight and my old clothes were falling off of me), 4 tops for me, 2 shirts for hubby, and 2 pairs of pajamas and first day of school shirt for my 7 year old. Everything was on sale, plus we had a $10 off coupon and a 30% off coupon. And I got $20 Kohl's cash to use in a couple of weeks.

Then I came home and ordered 3 more pairs of shoes online - sneakers and casual brown shoes for my 7 year old who has outgrown his, and sneakers for my 3 year old who got a hole through his because he "likes to be able to touch his sock".

None of the shoes for the kids were more than $25, which is pretty darn good for shoes! Everything in the stores was $45 and up - I got their 3 pairs on Amazon and 6pm.com. Great places to shoe shop!

Great "low-spend" day

August 10th, 2014 at 03:47 am

Hubby and I split up today - he took our 7 year old out to do a few things, and I took our 3 year old shopping with me.

My 3 year old needed sneakers, but the selection in stores is awful. I found a pair on www.6pm.com for $25 (the same shoes at Stride Rite are $45) and will be ordering those tomorrow. We went to JC Penney, and I had a coupon for $20 off a $50 purchase, and a $25 gift card. I got one sleeveless top, and 2 cardigan sweaters (which makes it cheap and easy to convert my summer work warddrobe to winter - just throw a cardigan on!) for under $15 out of pocket.

Took my munchkin out to lunch using our Kids Dine Free card, cost $10 for both of us. Then went to our local berry farm's market, and got 3 pints of blueberries, 2 pints of strawberries, and 2 cantaloupes (they were free with a $6 purchase) for a total of $8.

Last splurge was frozen yogurt at Sweet Frog, my 3 year old's favorite place on earth. You fill a cup with as much as you want, and you have a ton of toppings to choose from. I'm not crazy about frozen yogurt so I didn't get any, giving us a $2.37 bill for my little one.

Overall a wonderful day with my youngest, for a super cheap amount of money! I do still need to buy a pair or two of pants, as I've lost a good amount of weight and I'm tired of pulling my pants up all day long. That's a good problem to have though Smile

Going to apply for a new job!

August 7th, 2014 at 03:42 am

So I like my job enough, and I make good money (about $69K)but I don't have enough work to do and there are a lot of aspects of it that just don't interest me. I look at my boss and can't imagine ever wanting her job - so much tedious & boring work. She's in her early 60's, so it's extremely likely I could have her job when she retires if I stick around.

I've been with the same hospital system for almost 9 years now, and 2 years ago I left being the lab supervisor to go to infection control. So a few months ago, my old boss resigned from her position. After a lot of thinking, I have decided to apply for her job. The lab director seems really excited that I have shown interest. HR can't talk to me about the salary range until I officially apply, and the job just got posted online, so I will apply and then see what they say!

If it is less than I make now, then I will just stick to what I'm doing. I have a lot of flexibility (good to have with 2 young kids) and I have a big office all to myself where I can do whatever I want to when I don't have a lot of work to do. But I am just not all that stimulated by the work. It's by no means a bad job to have, but microbiology is my first love! Smile

Wish me luck and let's hope the salary is much more!!