A Small Extra Paycheck

I am teaching a new class this year.

 It’s not only a new-to-me class but also a new-to-our school class.

It’s a ton of work!!! I am having to create all the curriculum. (I’m not gonna lie; the internet is a life saver here!) I’ve found lots of lessons that can work, which has made my life easier. As my old mentor used to say “you don’t have to reinvent the wheel”. I have found so many lessons that I have been able to adapt and use in my classroom!

So, why am I telling you this? What does it have to do with me being a brunette getting out of debt?

At the end of the school year last year, I asked my principal to pay me for some planning time. I actually sent her an email the week after school got out and didn’t check my email again until we came back to school 8 weeks later.

And she said yes!

I tried to phrase it in a way that would be difficult to tell me no. I asked her “how many hours of planning time would she be willing to pay me for?”… Not if she would be willing or not. Her response was “we don’t usually pay for planning time, but because you are creating a whole new curriculum, I will pay for a day’s worth of planning.”

I was so excited! And it was so unexpected! But I figured if I didn’t ask, I wouldn’t get.

I submitted a time sheet with 7.5 hours to my secretary and (hopefully) I will get reimbursed on the 10^th of next month. It could be the 10^th of October if my time sheet wasn’t turned in on time. But, either way, the extra money is going towards my debt!

After all is said and done, it will only be about $175 extra, but I’ll take it. That’s $175 more than it could have been for the same amount of work! I was going to do planning over the summer either way, but now I’m getting a little bit of money for my efforts.

According to my credit card statement, in order to get out of debt in 3 years, I would need to pay $738 per month and not make any more charges. My average monthly payments are right about $730 so I am on track on that side, but we do continue to charge so I would actually need to pay more. This extra $175 is a little more.

Every little bit helps and I will send the entire extra small paycheck towards debt!