More Overtime!

Well, I got a bit of a surprise this past Friday.  I was expecting 10-15 hours of overtime being paid out, and instead, due to a clerical error, I'm getting 53.50 hours paid out!  This translates to about an extra $1,150 this pay day.  This puts a hiccup in vacation plans, but my manager will let me take some unpaid days if I don't earn the hours back (it's likely I will but not a guarantee).

So...that means it's time for snowflakes!

I'm resisting the urge to move the money now and am going to wait until my first pay in the month and do the sweep then.

Vacation or Banked time - Palm Springs

I've been going back and forth between using vacation time or using banked overtime when I take a week off to go to Palm Springs.  Why the back and forth?  Up until now I was planning on using my vacation for camping trips in the summer/Christmas and using my banked time to pay of my student loan debt (I can just request a pay out if i don't want to use it).

I've decided to use some of each.  With all the upheaval at work right now I'm sure I'll bank a few more hours between now and the trip.  So I think that I'll use 2 days of vacation and 3 days of banked time - That way i can still use a lot of those hours for debt and keep some vacation time for Christmas.

perfect.

Speaking of Palm Springs (again).....what do you all think would be a good way to thank my grandfather?  I said thank you on the phone a couple of times - but I don't really feel like that's enough.  He doesn't really have any hobbies....he still works (even though he's technically retired).  He's passionate about his family and about giving (he still tears up from the donation our family did in his name to Free the Children for his birthday).

So....what do you think?

Overtime Project II - Payout Question

In October, I wrote about my Overtime Project II.  My goal was to reach 75 hours of OT before Christmas, which would net me approximately $1,000 to put towards my student loans.

I actually reached 54.00 hours, 72% of my goal.  I'm pleased with my effort - and still have some extra work to do in the office.  I'm going to continue to plug away at work, and if I get some more OT - that's great, if not - I won't beat myself up over it.  It's a lot of work - to put in so much work ;)

Currently, I plan on waiting until April before requesting a payout.  I should get a raise in 4 months, and my OT hours will be worth my new rate (it's an accepted practice at my office).  So currently, those hours are worth $24.10 (I gross 47K annually).  I was told in October '09, that my boss would like to see me making $50-$51K - so let's assume I get a $3K raise to $50K gross - my hours would then be worth $25.64 (based on a 37.50/hour work week).

That would mean my 54 hours of overtime would be worth $1,382 (gross) vs $1,301.40 (gross). Considering taxes (marginal rate of 32%) - I would get $884.95 now or $939.76 later.

Would you wait for April, or should I request my OT payout now?


[Edit]
Thanks for all the great comments so far - here are my interest rates:
Alberta Student Loan Interest Rate - 2.25%
Canada Student Loan Interest Rate - 4.75%

Overtime Update

I’m entering into the ninth hour for my overtime project.

As of the end of today, I have logged 54 hours of overtime, which is 72% of my goal. To actually reach 75 hours, I would need to put in 21 hours between 5:00pm today and noon on Christmas Eve.

Well folks, that’s just not going to happen. I’m going to work normal hours next week (8:00am-4:30pm), and just enjoy the week leading up to Christmas. I’m not going to go home fatigued and with headache from staring at the screen so long.

I’ll just keep plugging away at my project at work, and when I get there I get there. It will likely be in the first couple weeks of January.

Overtime Update

I'm please to say that for the week ending Friday December 18, 2009 I managed to bank 10 hours (which means I worked an extra 12.50).  My OT is coming right along, and I still have a lot of work to do!

That brought my total banked time up to 47.50 hours or 63.33% of my goal which is an approximate value of $665.

I don't know if i'll reach my goal of 75 hours before the end of the month, but I'm still working towards it.

Overtime Update

By the end of today I will have 26.75 hours of banked time - that's 35.67% of my goal of 75 hours before January 1, 2009.  I actually had another 7.50 hours, but I used that when my family was in town.

So.. what does that mean?  Well, to reach my goal - I'll need to bank another 48.25 hours.  I have 4 full weeks left prior to the end of the month, and two short week when Christmas falls & January 1st falls.  As i will be taking a few days off around Christmas, I think that I should try to get the rest of the hours in during the next four weeks - that way, I don't have to worry about it during Christmas.

48.25/4 weeks = 12 hours/week

Remember though - each week i work overtime, I 'give up' 2.5 hours (because of my 37.50 hour work week). That means, I'll actually have to put in 14.5/week, or an extra 3 hours a day. As of late, I've been working 7:30am - 5:30pm and taking 30 minutes for lunch instead of an hour - which gives me 9.50 hours a day (2 extra hours).

To hit the three hour mark, I'll need to work 7:00am to 6:00pm and continue only taking 30 minutes for lunch.


What do you think, is it do-able?  Will I drive myself crazy?

Overtime Update

Last week I was able to accumulate 8 hours of overtime, which was fantastic!

As my family was in town this weekend, I had booked Monday off to spend a little extra time with them.  I used 7.5 hours of last weeks OT (instead of a vacation day) and so only increased my tracking bar by 0.50 hours.  This week, I hope to plug in a few more hours - and should be able to!

Overtime Update

I managed to bank an extra 5.25 hours this past week - slowly but surely I'm getting there.

Overtime Update

Phew - it's been a crazy week, both on the work front and the home front - and it's only Wednesday!

I've just hit the 40 hour mark today (including 7.5 hrs for both Thurs/Friday).  So any time I work above and beyond my normals hours for the last two days of the week will go towards my OT count.  It defn. won't move as much as last week, but I'm hoping for at least 2.5 hours each day.

Slow OT start this week...

When I commit to putting in some serious OT at work, I like to get the first 2.5 hours out of the way on Monday.  That way, the rest of the week is all banked time.  Unfortunatly, Jordan and I slept in this morning and I only worked an extra .50 hours.  So tomorrow, I'm going to go for a loonng day to try to catch up.

Overtime Project II

A few months ago, I embarked on an overtime project.  My goal was to 'make more money' to help pay down my credit card debt.  Another filling project has come up at work (oh joy) and one of my October goals is to start on this project. This time, I would like to use the extra money to go towards paying down my student loan debt, of which I currently have $8,584.94 owing.

Currently, my goal is to reach 75 hours before Christmas.  75 hours would net me an approximate $1,000 to put towards my student debt.

My work week is 37.50 hours.  Due to my professional status at work, I lose any 'time' I put in between 37.50 and 40.00 hours.  Essentially I give the company 2.5 hours each week (if I work extra hours).  As there are 10 weeks until Christmas, I need to put in 7.50 PAYABLE hours per week - which means I actually need to work an extra 10 hours a week or an extra 2 hours every day.

Wish me luck.

Final - Project Overtime Update

As I'm sure a lot of you know (I'll just pretend that I lot of people read this), I've been working to put a lot of overtime in at work.

My original goal was to have 75 hours banked by August 7, 2009. I came pretty darn close. I requested a 30 hour payout on July 24, 2009; and I have requested a payout of 21.75 hours for my next pay period. I was able to bank a total of 51.75 hours in about a months time. That's pretty great I'd say. It helped me put (or will when I get paid out for the second portion) upwards of $600 towards my credit card debt.

Any overtime that I complete now would not be paid out during the next four weeks which is past my debt repayment goal.

That said, I do have some more OT on the horizen.

I was approved for another week or so of OT within my group (I'm thinking maybe 1o - 15 hours tops), and there may be another group that needs some administrative help after hours as well.

This was a fantastic way to move my debt repayment schedule ahead, and I would reccomend it for anyone who is in a position to do so.

Overtime Update

Managed to squeeze in a few more hours over the last few days. Today I got 2.0 rather then 2.5 due to a company function, and yesterday I got 2.5hrs. So not bad. Hopefully tomorrow I can get another 2.5.

Unforutnatly, the main part of my OT project is pretty much over. I'm going to talk to Boss and Boss Jr. about this next week to see if there is anything else I can do, but that could be it.

Right now I have enough hours to net me abooouut $250ish, which would wipe out one of my CC repayments. I'm going to hold off though, and request the payout once this weeks hours have been added to my 'bank' (this weeks hours will be banked by about Wednesday next week). I will requst ALL of my hours so far to be paid out for the following pay period.

After that, I will probably still try to get a few hours in here and there, but there won't be quite the drive for it.

Having a few banked hours is almost like an 'extra' Efund or safety net; as if I were to get laid off - they would have to pay out all remining time.; and if I had overdrawn on Vacation time; that could take care of it (I haven't, but you never know).

We'll see how it all shakes down next week.

Overtime

Wow - I've posted a lot about this lately. oh well.

So, I'm going to request a 30 hour OT payout for the next pay period (July 24, 3009). Then on that pay date, I should have about another 30 that I can request. I'm tired of waiting, and I really want to see some $$ for all of my extra work.

In two weeks, I'll let you know how much extra funds I actually get and update you on my VISA progress.

*edit

I couldn't help myself - I went to the CRA website and looked up their Payroll Deductions Online Calculator.

According to them (which i figure is pretty accurate) I'll get abooout an extra $300 because of the masses of deductions that an extra 30 hours gives me (pushes me into a higher tax bracket).

*sigh.... half, I'm losing half. If taxes and deductions didn't exist I would get $602.

But - $300, is $300 - and it will help. I'll keep putting in OT and hopefully beat this credit card beast down.

OT - Update

woohoo!

I made it half way there (logged three more hours of OT tonight)

Project: Overtime

So far, I feel a little behind on the OT for this week. I've banked another 4.5 hours so far. If I want to meet my target of 10 hours I need another 2.75 for Thursday and Friday. I beleive that I'll be getting up at 5:30, not 6:30 for the rest of the week.

I'm going away again on the Wed/Thurs/Fri of next week - so that one will be a wash as well in terms of banking overtime. But I should be ablet to do another 10 and 10 for the last two weeks of the month - if I can keep myself busy. I don't think I have another 25 hours of OT.

So, perhaps I will request a pay out when I reach 37.5 (half of my goal) - and then slowly work my way up to another 37.5 - if possible.

I think sometimes - I set myself for these perpetual states of not reaching goals....I tend to make them juuust out of reach.

*sigh

Going to go look at another farm tonight - this guy wants $150/month - no matter the season. He is on the other side of the city (on my home town side).

Weekend Update

Well I have found a few options for my horse that are less expensive then I originally anticipated. I THOUGHT that I would find something for around $500/month. I beleive I may be able to find somwhere to board her (with feed included) for about $150/month. I still need to go check out a couple of the farms I called - but we shall see.

Someone came to check out our room for rent on Saturday, he said he would get back to us by Sunday evening and unforutnatly we didn't hear from him. I'm going to call him this afternoon to see if he decided or not.

Jordan had a great birthday yesterday, we were pretty low key - I cooked a lot (including two birthday pies). He wanted ribs and baked potatoe for his bday supper. He loved his presents too!

$$ wise things are going okay - I still owe myself a few hundred bucks on my credit card, and I'm hoping i can put it away soon. I put a few extra $$ on it already because of the GST rebate and other such things.

I just realized it's the 6th of the month - which means I can check online and get all of the utility bills. which means I'll get $$ from my roomates for those within the next couple of days.

hmm... what else

we went to the calgary stampede on saturday. saw a girlfriend of mine and a few of her friends - did some wondering, bought some things, just hung out mostly. it was fine - but it was really the same 'ol, same 'ol. Nothing all to spectactular. Jordan paid for everything and my aunt gave us the tickets so that was pretty excellent (I bought beer for drinking on J's birthday yesterday).

I think that's just about everything for my weekend update.

I'm going to try to bank another 10 hours this week. I think that very soon I'm going to run out of OT tasks I can complete at work. So I may not reach my 75 hours. I will still be happy with myself if I do every thing that is offered/I can come up with, for OT.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Overtime Update

Also - I didn't realize I had carried over some vacation time from last year, so I'm going to take this Friday has a vacation day, not use my banked overtime, so I will add another 7.5 hours today, as well as any other time I put in this week.

That means - I'm very close to my goal. Which is good, because I have already filed my way up to the letter P.

Because I'm taking three days off next week, putting in extra hours on the Thursday/Friday won't do me any good (because I lose 2.5hours/week). So, my goal will be to have 75 hours banked (worth about $1300 after taxes) by August 7, 2009.

There are the 4 pay periods between now and August 7, 2009, which means 4 payments of $250, plus any 'extra' fundsthat i've already allocated ($100 this pay and $135 next pay) to my Visa - the $1300 from the 75 hours banked OT should be enough to pay off my visa in one lump sum.

When I request the time, it can take up to 10 days to receive a payment. So I will request the payment that first week of August (unless I reach 75 hours sooner), which may wind up giving me an extra few hundred dollars because another pay period that goes by means another $250 on the credit card automatically.

I'm pretty thrilled... I just whipped out the calculator and a pencil to see if this would all work, and it TOTALLY can. As long as I can get the OT in, which i'm pretty confident I can do. I've been averaging about 10 hours/week so far.

So I could be consumer debt free in...about 6 weeks!

Cross your fingers for me.

Overtime

Success - I am soo tired today, but clocked another 2.5 hours of OT.

6 am comes very early in the morning....and leaving later in the day means traffic sucks worse then normal. Just sayin'


*reminder to myself - I got into this credit card debt, I'll get myself out*

Overtime

Today is the first day I will 'bank' OT. Yesterday I put in 2.5 extra hours - so my time on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday & Friday - will all go towards my goal of hitting 30 extra hours this month!

+2.25 hours for today.