Things are looking up

So lots of good news lately. As of June 1 I have a full year long roommate. This should work out well. She's the girlfriend of a friend of mine and she's an undergraduate at WPI. Potentially if things go well she'll be able to stay for more than a year which will leave me in a much more stable position than I've recently had.

Also good news is that I recently got a fairly nice raise. I've recently changed my responsibilities and work-load at work and taken on some fairly mission critical systems. This raise reflected that.

What this translates to is that I should be able to save a down payment for a new car, build up a cash reserve (in addition to the car savings), and actually spend money on a few things that I've been needing/wanting lately. The plan is to adjust my direct deposits so that the difference between my current salary and my salary effective July 1 gets put directly into my savings so that I don't get used to the increase. Additionally I'll be putting most of the rent into savings too.

I'll also be getting a new computer for the first time in about 8 years. I was lucky enough to get my Dad's old one a few years back but the time has come to get a new high end computer. After all, what does it say about an IT professional when his comptuer is almost 6 years old. It's soooo slow and barely keeps up with things any more.

I'm looking forward to being able to spend money as needed now and STILL be able to save a large portion of money.