Amanda Stewart 🥉

With $2,900 take home, keep it simple and automate as much as possible. Core monthly plan: $1,100 rent, $150 utilities, $300 groceries, $120 transit, $40 phone, $35 internet if not included, $12 renters insurance, $40 household supplies, and $120 fun. That puts you near $1,917 for living costs. Add a $600 automatic transfer to your emergency fund the day after each payday so it happens before you see the money. Set aside $150 in a sinking fund for irregular stuff like co-pays, gifts, and basic repairs, which brings the plan to about $2,667 and leaves roughly $230 for move-in odds and ends or extra savings. For the emergency fund target, core bills are about $1,757 per month, so three months is around $5,300. You have $3,000 already, so four months of $600 gets you there. If internet is already in that $150 utilities, redirect the $35 line to savings until you confirm the first two bills. With a roommate and agree on a shared staples list and settle up monthly so household items do not blow the groceries line. an example is alternating who buys toilet paper and tracking it in a notes app. Common pitfalls are first month setup costs, seasonal utility spikes, and annual renewals, which the $150 sinking fund should catch if you let it roll over. Do a five minute check each week and a quick month end reset, and if a category runs hot, trim fun or pause extra savings for that month rather than swiping a credit card.

Back when we printed photos and burned mix CDs, we kept a little cash in an envelope for when the car coughed. It was not glamorous, but it saved more than it earned. Every time I skipped it, the alternator heard my hubris and died. Your overtime sounds like those fickle Friday night photo labs that closed early. When the hours dry up, bills still want their close-ups. Keep making the minimum on the car. Throw the extra $300 into an emergency pile until you hit at least one month of expenses or about two to three grand. If you need momentum, toss a tiny tip at the loan here and there so you see the balance shrink. Once the cushion is there, redirect most of the $300 to kill the car, then finish building the fund to two or three months. You will sleep better knowing a flat tire or a slow month does not send you back to the plastic.

I once wallpapered a rental bathroom—just move.

No fee + flat 1.5% cash back + autopay = my spreadsheet sleeps.