$1,500 (Part 2)

This is the second part of the $1,500 (formerly $3,000) project. You can see the first and third parts here: $1,500, $1,500 (Part 3)

July 2019

July 7, 2019

Oberhausen might actually catch up to Stuttgart. We used to be 3.9 times behind, but now we're 3.6. The contest ends in a month so if the other members and I increase our points a bit (and maybe have Stuttgart slow down...lol no, that's too evil) we could get somewhere. I would have 10,000 by now but I was pushed back by our trip to China so... :T

Anyways I just earned 25 cents. Lol nothing special, my mom and I were shopping at Aldi and to get a cart you need a quarter that you get back when you return it. My mom said that if I was the one who returned the cart, I could keep the quarter. And now I've got it. lololololol

(Damn I'm so behind on surveys. I need $67 on iPoll by the end of this month and I have $31. >_<)

Guess what? Sorry this is switching subjects so quickly $86 is coming in soon. Yes, you read that right. 86 fucking dollars. also i don't think swearing is allowed here but who cares it's just me and like five people left so eh

Where the hell did all that come from?

1. $40 of it is the chamber orchestra money I mentioned in the last few posts. It was originally $37.50, but my mom rounded it up to $40 (ty :D)
2. $20 of it is from taking a photo in China. The thing is, I hate being in photos—like, REALLY hate. But it was with all of my relatives and my mom insisted that we'd never get another chance. So after a bit of haggling she said if I took the photo with them, she'd give me $20 USD upon returning to the U.S. And you better believe I was in the photo lol
3. Another $20 of it is from another photo taken. It was with my cousin and his (newly married) wife at the wedding. Same stuff as last time... ;)
4. $3 of it is from washing the dishes 3 times at my grandma's house. Easy win :3
5. The last $3 is kinda fuzzy. I'm not sure where I got some of it. All I know is that from doing the dishes at home more times and giving my mom some back massages or stuff I got $0.50 each time or smth...but I don't think I did it six times (shrugs)

My mom says she'll give me the money when my dad and brother come home and put it directly into my bank account that I don't have yet. The thing is, my brother won $100 as a check due to some piano award and my mom just wants to open our accounts together. She also says that she'll help me look for job applications.

The next time she makes me go to China she better give me $200 because if I stayed there for another week I literally could have died. My body is built for the dry/cold/landlocked Minnesota, not humid/hot/coastal Qingdao. I don't belong to the ocean.

Actually that total could be $81 instead cause my mom said that to get the Mar de Colores (extended) CD, which is $30 rn since it's an EU import, I'd have to chip in $5. But who cares, if she makes me do it I'll do it.

$137.26 saved. $2,862.74 to go.

July 17, 2019

heyyyyyyy guess whaaaaatttt :DDDDDD

I GOT A FANSIGN COMMISSION SJKDKJSKJAS

okay but I think I seriously underpriced them...I made them $2 USD. probably should've done $6-7 USD but yeah I'll change that later. I've just finished the commission and I'm going to have them pay in a sec :D

Also, another thing is, I could sell Procreate brushes or doodle stamps. For example, sometimes people want to draw clouds on fansigns, but they're requested so often that it gets tiring drawing them every single time, so they create/purchase a brush or stamp so they can just get a cloud with a tap. I could sell other ones like stars, leaves, candy, etc. and if I do I'll make them $1-2 USD through Etsy.

Speaking of Etsy, the whole thing is still confusing but I've linked it to my mom's bank account and I might get the hang of it soon and start using it. The policy says that I'm allowed to use Etsy since I'm 14, but only under parent supervision, which works tbh. And who knows, I could start selling on Fiverr too, since I have something worth $5 or more. (ty to Peppycatgaming for that idea :D)

Anyway, the $86 has turned into $88.50...and with the commission, soon $90.50 :3

(P.S. I'm in 12th place in the streaming contest :D)

$137.26 saved. $2,862.74 to go.

July 17, 2019 (2)

yo wassup a double post today cause i need to update on some stuff :)

I got the payment for the sign woohoo LET'S PARTY 🎉🎉🎉 I'm so happy that they like itt 😁

Also yeah, I'm going to revamp my Etsy shop cause it sucks lol. I'm also raising the price of my signs to $5-6 USD. Tomorrow my mom is taking my brother and I to the bank to get our bank accounts FINALLYY!! :D If I can deposit some loose cash into there, I will.

I also remember that I used to collect quarters, one for each state as well as some landmarks and other places like D.C. and Samoa. I have a bunch of landmark ones and almost all 50 states (I think I'm missing three), but I don't exactly need them anymore so maybe I'll just turn it into money...or I can wait until I get all 50 and sell the whole collection off?? XD I'm running out of ideas help.

...and i need to find a job cause at this rate i'm never going to get $3,000 skjjkdskjsasdsjkds

$137.26 saved (not going to count the commission money yet since it's with my mom's account). $2,862.74 to go.

July 19, 2019

AAKJLHWSBKJDNJK

SDBJKLWKHJLAJDKHDSNAK

JKBDWFBJKSIOEPOKALKEQJOKOJWWIWIOHEFDJKOSANKLFXNKKSCDHKJSMDOEOIIJWOETJEPQMLKLNSKWNLKDAZNKLSWOKNWSNKOSOKZMKLQZAKLMWOFKNGSDNOISNIOZAQKMPDWSOKNFNOKWOKWND

I JUST EARNED $100 AND I HAVE A BANK ACCOUNT NOWWWWWWWW

ok yeah i don't know why i didn't update this yesterday but...whatever lol

So about the $90.50 that my mom "owed" me...well uhh she rounded it up to $100. yep. Just like that now I've got $200. More than that, actually. :3 When she opened my bank account (and my bro's, too), she put $100 in it :D

WOOHOOOO

Alright, now, moving on, last month, my dad and I went to "trade" my 3/4 size violin to a full size. I was allowed to keep the shoulder rest and rosin so I did, but the shoulder rest doesn't fit for a full sized violin, only a 1/2 or 3/4 size, so we had to get a new one. But my old one is still in pretty good condition so who knows...I could sell it? The original price was $20 (or at least, that's what the new one was, so I'm assuming other sizes are the same price), I think, so I'll maybe drop it down to $13-$15 because of the condition.

My mom told me I could use her eBay account to sell old stuff. I have a huge pile of old clothes I can't wear anymore (unfortunately my closet is kinda empty now...) as well as books I don't like/read anymore. And remember those 2 issues of National Geographic I smuggled out of art class? :3 :3 :3

Turning to the streaming contest, I have 11k points and I'm in 11th place!! JUST ONE MORE SPOT TO GOOO but it's going to take longer because the person in 10th place has 13.5k points and will probably have 14.5k soon, so if I'm going to pass them, I'll just mark it down as 15k or so.

My mom also had some bills somewhere so I gave her a bunch of coins and she me back a bunch of bills. I used to have tons of pennies/nickels/dimes/quarters/$1 bills, but now I have a quarter, a nickel, and two pennies in coins as well as one $50 bill, one $20 bill, one $10 bill, one $5 bill, and one $1 bill. Things are so much easier to count now :D

And...I don't really want to keep those 4 coins for some reason so maybe I'll just turn 'em into pocket change or something lol

$237.26 saved—

hang on a second,,,, i did some math in my head and things aren't adding up..... lemme recount everything i'll be back in a sec

$48.94 in PayPal...$86.32 in cash...$100 in the bank...

$235.26 saved. hm can someone tell me where i screwed up? ty :P $2.764.74 to go.

July 21, 2019

-$5.81 cause I had to order something on eBay pfft

Anyway, I found yet another thing I could sell: a pair of light pink Sony headphones from first grade. They still work just fine with just a small and minor defect that'll probably go unnoticed. All I need to do is erase my name written on the inside (would be pretty easy) and that's it, I guess. Shipping would be the only issue as well as finding a reasonable price for them...

But yeah, that's all the news I have for today—

WAIT actually

I won a fansigning giveaway on Instagram and a fansigner gave me a huge set of brushes and stamps for procreate and a talented artist drew me a nice lil watermark :D which means I can improve now!! I also found an interesting new style so who knows...stuff's gonna happen... :)

$229.45 saved. $2,770.55 to go.

July 30, 2019

okay so oof

I applied for a job at a McDonald's and the good news is, it's close enough to walk there. But I haven't gotten any reply from them yet so we'll see whether or not I'm hired later.

I said I could work 23 hours a week, but that's just for the rest of the summer. Then I might make 18 hours. They say they pay up to $12/hour so I'll say that I could get $9/hour cause I don't have as much experience. If I work 3 weeks in August 23hrs/week and 10 weeks (break n stuff) for the rest of the year 18hrs/week, then that makes $2,241 by the end of the year. uhhm, k i hope I can get it because then I'd only need 1/3 of 2020 to get $3,000 XD but ya know I'm probably not even going to get the dumb job since I haven't even started high school yet.

Also yeah I need to do more online surveys lol, and I don't know what to do with that SurveyMonkey money since I don't want anything from Amazon rn.

AND GUESS WHO GOT IN THE TOP 10 ON THE STREAMING CONTEST :DDD

Alright yeah, I figure now there's zero chance of Oberhausen winning. But I'm counting on staying in the top 10 for prizes anyway :3

$229.45 saved. $2,770.55 to go.

SUMMARY/OVERVIEW FOR JULY 2019

gon do this later cause i have august shit to talk abt

August 2019

August 10, 2019

GUYS ALVARO FOLLOWED ME ON INSTAGRAM 😭😭😭😭😭

HE ACTUALLY FUCKING FOLLOWED ME ON INSTAGRAM I CAN'T BELIEVE IT ASKJEIOLCFRAWDMAZXNAUT I SAW THE NOTIFICATION RIGHT AFTER SENDING HIM A MESSAGE AND I NEARLY HAD A HEART ATTACK WHEN I SAW THAT HE'D FOLLOWED ME SDJSKJDJJKADKJJKSCJKDJWDJKOWDKONSOKNDEOJNXCREMKOC

ok i need to calm down now (inhale. exhale. inhale. exhale. uffda)

Anyway yeah, the contest ended two days ago and I placed in ninth, meaning I'm getting a festival bag woohoo :DD I emailed Airforce Records with my address so hopefully I'll get it soon 🤧 I wanna wear it to high school so hopefully I don't look like an idiot with it on xd

Also, about that job application, I never received an email about it and today was the day I said I'd start working so...I'm gonna have to find something else. Sucks bc that place was the only close spot around with work. (shrugs)

Google Opinion Rewards also transferred $2.07 to my PayPal, so now I'm up to $231.52. I'm still hoping to get $1,000 by the end of 2019 if I can find a stupid job lol

$231.52 saved. $2,768.48 to go.

September 2019

September 20, 2019

I know I haven't updated this in a month but drama practice (cause I got into my high school's fall musical yeAS) is to 6pm and AP human geography makes me do 1 hour of homework every night and geometry takes up another half an hour so rip no more time for surveys, gonna have to find something else to do :')

anyways why am I really complaining, at some point I'm going to take AP chemistry and AP physics and AP history (all types) and even AP Spanish if I can and plus at least I have food unlike people who can't buy even a pair of shoes :'D Thanks for motivating me, Alvi :D

But hey, I've got some good news.

Sometime earlier this month my iPad uninstalled Qmee cause I don't use it anymore and I was logged out. I figured I'd better retrieve some of my earnings in case I forget the password to my account XD so I redeemed $10 of it through PayPal. That means I'm up another $10 :D (I might as well do the same to iPoll cause I haven't used it at all in the last month...?)

More cash is coming in soon, too:

Since I got into the drama club (which is really unlike me, so I'm surprised I had the courage to do it), my mom agreed to pay me $0.50 for every hour of rehearsal and $5 for every performance. We rehearse from 3:15-6:00 (PM) Monday-Friday and our shows are on October 31 and November 1-3, making four. The last week of rehearsal goes from 3:15-8:30 (PM). We have approximately 3 hours of rehearsal every day, so that's $1.50 per rehearsal (except the last week). We began on Thursday the 12th, and assuming we rehearse regularly until October 28, that's 32 regular rehearsals. $1.50 times 32 is $48. There's three days of extended rehearsal before Halloween, which would make $7.50 ($2.50 per rehearsal). Four shows is $20 ($5 each show). Altogether that's $75.50 from the fall musical alone. yIKES man, and there's the winter children's musical and the spring musical too (no guarantee that I'll get in though).

Also, remember how my mom would pay me to do dishes and random things? I've done it enough times to be at least $15 by now, so that's something.

Another thing: because I want to reduce the use of plastic and my school uses disposable plastic utensils, so I bring my own reusable ones rather than use theirs. My mom says that every day I bring the utensils, she'll put a sticker on my calendar. Every day I make my bed (since I usually don't lol) she'll put another sticker on my calendar. At the end of each month, she'll give me the money for the stickers I got. Each sticker is $0.10, so 10 stickers is $1. I'll just assume by the end of September month I'll have 45 or so stickers, so that would be $4.50. By the end of 2019 I should have about $18 if I'm doing the math right.

And...remember chamber orchestra? That was middle school where anyone could join and just do shit but ehh tough luck this year in high school. Chamber orchestra is auditioned and also only a set amount of people can join (there's only enough room for 4 violins and 2 violas; I play the violin). My mom says she'll pay me $0.50 for auditioning (and I did this morning lol) and probably $0.50 for each rehearsal—if I get in, that is (tight chance that I will so I'm not keeping my hopes up). I'll count the audition money but I won't count rehearsal money since I don't know if I'm in yet.

My school is giving us an opportunity to take part in a voice of Democracy essay, about what makes America great. My mom said she'll let me go to Spain with my Spanish teacher and other students in the summer of 2020 if I enter, and there might be a chance for me to win money prizes if my essay/speech wins. Who knows, I literally have no free time nowadays but I want to go to Spain and I want to have a chance at winning $100 or something so maybe I'll go for it. (shrugs)

So—add all them together and...$109. By the end of 2019. (actually if I get into the winter musical and chamber orchestra it would be more). oookkkk nice

Potential new money sources:

• Orchestra concerts. They're honestly kind of nerve-racking for me especially when the teacher makes me the first chair violinist grr but perhaps I could talk my parents into giving me a certain amount of money per concert? hm
• Quiz Bowl. This is a club that my school has and some kids want me to sign up because they think I'd be good at it, but the main issue is that it's likely to be after school, which I can't do because the drama rehearsals take up all my after school time and are mandatory. However if, by a stroke of luck, it's before school, I might just be able to join. (not wednesdays. please no. if i get into chamber orchestra i mean.)
• AP Human Geography exam. This takes place in May and is the AP test for the course. I'm doing pretty well in class right now so I'm hoping to get a 4 or 5 on the exam so maybe I could talk my parents into giving me a certain amount of money if I score that high.

And that's pretty much it, other than my festival bag prize from the streaming contest 1.5 months ago finally arrived today. omg I love it so much I am in love. i would put an image but then this page would show up on a search engine and no thanks to that. but thanks so much alvarito ilysm 🥺

$241.52 saved. $2,758.48 to go.

September 25, 2019

I'm typing this from school lol. Once a week we have this schedule change and we have about an hour where we can work on our own stuff and i flipping love it aaa

I'm going to Spain in 2020 :D of course there won't be any concert though. I'm just traveling with my teacher and students. But I'm happy cause I still get to go :D

Also, it turns out I can go to Quiz Bowl, but only one of the meets each week which is on Thursday before school.

but...i didn't get into chamber orchestra this year cri :( oh well i'll try again next year if i can

Anyway back into business, I was thinking okay look, this money from the drama club and stuff is not going to earn me $3,000 by 2021. I have to find a job (and do more surveys) if I'm going to get anywhere.

But surveys are no longer much of an option because:

• I have little to no time to complete them
• I would do them during KT (abbreviation for my school's student-time thing I mentioned above), but iPoll doesn't recognize the IP address or something so they won't let me do the surveys ugggghghghh

I was thinking of finding a job in the spring/summer of 2020 but there are possible conflicts:

• Spring musical (takes up March-April)
• 2020 trip to Spain I mentioned earlier (from about 6/22 to 7/2)
• Summer school to complete physical education requirement (possibly not full day but I don't know when that'll be)
• Homework (also the AP test I need to study for)
• Quiz Bowl meets (the other meet is Tuesday after school and in the case I can attend that one, then I will)

Things I could do:

• Drop the spring musical and find a job instead
• Work during January/Feb (performances for the winter musical are in early January)
• Work during May/most of June
• Postpone summer school (I need to do two summers and I have three summers to do them)
• Do more surveys on weekends

Dropping the spring musical or working during May might be my best bet for now because I'll almost be 15 so people are more likely to hire me. I wasn't lucky enough to land a position this year kmrefnjkdsajknsxaasdas

$241.52 saved. $2,758.48 to go.

October 2019

October 2, 2019

its october already? damn time flies...

Typing this from KT. Okay so, I've got some great news.

1. I'm not going to Spain in 2020 but my parents decided to put in $100 per month so I can go to Europe in 2021. I'd still pay for the tickets and merch myself but AaAAAAaaaaAaaaAAAAA
2. I got $60 :D

So where did that $60 come from?

Back in April/May I took the state-wide ELA, math, and science tests and scored on the 97th, 85th, and 99th percentile respectively. I talked my mom into giving me $9.70, $8.50, and $9.90 for those three yassss :D and she decided to pay me for the stickers and the chamber audition ($1 now). Then there was all the money from the drama club and somehow all of that added up to $60 so now I have $300 YESSSSSS

Anyway, I'm thinking about withdrawing all my money from Qmee and iPoll now. Seeing all those savings makes me feel unmotivated suddenly so I think I'll just cash them out tonight.

I guess that's pretty much it for now and yeah, I'm ditching the overviews since I don't really need them anymore.

$301.52 saved. $2,698.48 to go.

November 2019

November 2, 2019

I honestly should have posted this wayy earlier but whatever, I'll do it now.

Sometime back in October (don't remember when LOL that's laughable) I cashed out all the money I had in Qmee, which was $20.32 (close to being 2023 but,,, nevermind). We've had less than 5-day weeks lately at school so there hasn't been any KT, so no time for me to post updates on this project for a while.

Anyways, my mom gave me another $20 which counts as the stickers for October, the first drama performance (yep, we've opened :D), and a $3 bonus. I haven't counted the rehearsal money yet, or the quiz bowl money, but I'll get to that once the performances are over. (BUT GOSH I DON'T WANT THEM TO BE OVER, it's so much more fun than i thought it would be >_<)

That bumps my total saved by about $40 :D I'm not totally sure if I want to cash out the iPoll stuff yet. I'll probably do it tomorrow since I'm going to a late cast party tonight at someone's house.

Also, my parents decided to set $200 aside each month rather than $100 so there'll be enough by 2021.

$341.84 saved; $200 aside. $2,658.16 to go.

November 19, 2019

Bye Bye Birdie is over and I already miss it. Well, you've got to be sincere, no? :')

Last Thursday (November 14), we had a quiz bowl meet. Our team lost 3-1 so that's unfortunate :( I think I'll mark 3-1 or 4-0 as winning, which counts as $1. 2-2, tied, would be $0.50. Anything less than a tie is no money, just to be fair (since I said I'd only get money if we win or tied).

Also, a study about night owls (in particular insomniacs) has opened in my area for teens my age. I'm a full-on insomniac every single day; they said they'll give me some glasses to block certain light every evening for three to four weeks, and if I successfully complete the study, they'll pay me up to $300.

Did you hear that? $300. That's another 1/10 of $3,000. I could almost double my current savings if I participate. My mom already emailed them; of course, there's no guarantee I'll qualify, but if I do... :D

I've also got to figure out the rehearsal money for the fall show, as well as the money for the remaining shows ($5 each). Unfortunately, they cancelled/cut rehearsals and changed things a lot throughout the whole schedule so this is going to be sOmE fUn to figure out, eh...

Anyway, let's start from the top. I counted 27 regular rehearsals (not including weekends), but I remember one of those was cancelled, so that's 26. There were... I'll assume 4 (seems about right from what I remember) weekend rehearsals, so that's 30. If it's $0.50 for every hour, and we rehearsed for three hours each day (give or take a few), that's $45 from regular rehearsals alone.

Now onto the second to last week of rehearsal: five days, from 3:15 to 7pm. That's 1.5 hours more, so the total for those days would be $15 ($0.50 x 6 half hours x 5 days = 15)

The last two days of rehearsal before the opening night were from 3:15 to 8pm. That's 1 hour more than the previous, so the total for those days would be $8 ($0.50 x 8 half hours x 2 days = 8)

When the total for the last three shows are added, the total comes to $83. yeet-

Of course, the ninth of November has already passed, so that means my parents have set aside another $200. My mom hasn't given me the $83 yet since I'm just only figuring it out XD but I'd have $400 (more, actually) when I do. I'm nearing $0.5k asklfjasdlks

One other thing to mention is that I spent $1 because a calligrapher drew me something for an early Christmas. That's down $1, but I guess I can live with that.

Also, since my parents are setting aside $200 per month now, I'm wondering if it's really necessary to actually save up $3,000 myself because that was originally supposed to cover the flight and hotel costs. Of course, even if my parents covered that, I'd still pay for the tickets, upgrade, and merch myself, but I could cut out $1,000 and just save up $2,000 instead, which is more than enough for all that. I still think I'm going to keep my goal at $3,000 because otherwise I'll grow unmotivated and think I'm reaching my goal when I'm not, and besides, an extra $1,000 isn't going to hurt to earn if I can find a flipping job over the spring and summer (I know I said that last year but next summer I'd be 15 and more people would be willing to hire me lol).

I just don't know how much the merch will cost. Because Alvaro doesn't ship to the U.S., my only chance to get something would be buying it directly from the shops, so you better believe I'm going to raid (lol no) it and buy one of every single item. I think I'll figure out how much that'll cost once a new tour rolls around because they'll practically completely update the merch shop.

ALSO!! I finally managed to get enough to cash out of SurveysOnTheGo. God, it was painful but I did it XD Haven't cashed out yet but I probably will soon. My goal is to have $1,000 by the end of December (if possible). I'll probably redeem my stuff out of iPoll (from $43 to $50), SurveyJunkie (from $18.88 to $20 if I can figure out how to redeem it), and SurveysOnTheGo (hopefully $11 by then) on Christmas, just cause. I'll redeem everything I have on Christmas, in fact. I'll probably ask for money as a present, too.

$340.84 saved; $400 aside. $2,659.16 to go.

November 22, 2019

I got some spicy news for y'all. :D

My mom gave me the $83. She was going to make it $85 but because I was the concert master at my orchestra concert last night, she bumped it up to $100. $100. YYYAAASS I'm so close to $500 omfg. Now I have $400. aaaaa

Anyway, about the insomniac survey, it turns out I can't do it because I need to visit a clinic in Rochester a lot of times which is hours from where I live. Ofc it's the Mayo Clinic, even though there's another one right where I live. pfft, there goes $300, so because of this, I'll set my end-of-2019 goal at $700.

Also, I randomly have +$0.25 because I found a quarter lying around in school today. Asked around, nobody wanted it and nobody owned it or knew who owned it so I kept it. Now it's in my cash box. :)

I remember a long time ago I signed up for MyPoints. I've just gone back to check it, and a PayPal $25 is waiting for me if I get 4,000 points. $50 at 8,000. $100 at 16,000. Rough estimate but close enough. I'm gonna keep working towards it. Right now I have a sad 21 points but oh well, by Christmas I should have $100 from the site if I do 6 surveys a day.

$441.09 saved; $400 aside. $2,558.91 to go.

December 2019

December 1, 2019

Only a month till 2020? :')

Yesterday I went to see Frozen 2 with some drama friends and my dad gave me $20 for it. I spent a little over $10 on the tickets and movie snacks and I have $9.58 left. Also, a few days ago, my mom and I went shopping at Aldi and I got $0.25 from returning the cart.

This Saturday is another Quiz Bowl meet, so if we win, then there's some money to get. :) It's also time to count up the November stickers (and change my calendar lol).

About MyPoints, I literally qualify for none of the surveys so that's nice. 🙄 I think I'll just shoot for the PayPal $25 by Christmas cause clearly I can't get the $100.

The thing about YouGov: there is so way I can get the $50 or $100 bank transfer. What I'll do instead is save up points for a $50 Best Buy card and sell it on Cardpool or similar for $40. I'm choosing Best Buy because after checking, it seems to give the most money back from selling the card. Won't be able to get it by Christmas, but that's fine.

I might just ask for some money for Christmas this year. My mom won't give me $200 (I asked lol) but she said maybe $100 is fine. (shrugs) We'll see what happens.

$450.92 saved; $400 aside. $2,549.08 to go.

December 16, 2019

Okay so, this Thursday is another Quiz Bowl meet, so we'll see how that goes. And no I still haven't counted the November stickers yet. Or any money from Frozen Jr. rehearsals. Or any money from Quiz Bowl. But I'll do that at the end of Frozen Jr. and at the end of the school year. Lol

Also, since my parents are already setting $200 aside a month for the trip, is it really necessary for me to save up an entire $3,000? If I cut off the hotel and flight expenses (approx $2,000, assuming that the plane ticket is $1,600 and the hotel fee is $90 a night), then $1,500 is already more than enough, for the tickets and raiding the merch shop (lol not really raiding it but you get what I mean).

But seriously. Should I change my goal? If by 12/25/2020 (that's my deadline, no pushing it back, might draw it forward if things change) I can get $1,500 or even just $1,000, I'm set. That's that. I really have no need for $3,000.

So:

1. I lower my goal to $1,500 OR:
2. I count in the $200 per month as saved and not just some "side" money OR:
3. I keep it at $3,000 even though I don't need the full $3,000

Assuming that concert tickets and upgrade together are $450 USD (because I honestly don't know but this'll work right?? right...) and that to get every single item in the merch shop would be like another $500, $1,500 covers that. The "aside" money is my parents putting aside money for the trip, which'll cover stuff like the flight and hotel fees. All I'd be paying for is the concert tickets/upgrade and any merch I'm going to buy.

I think for the end of this decade I'll call the goal $550-$600 because no I cannot for the life of me get $700. I'm so behind on iPoll though seriously, like $60 behind but that's alright for now. :') Let me know what you think I should do with the goal. Keep it at $3,000, count in the "aside" money (even though it's technically not mine), or lower it to $1,000-$1,500?

$450.92 saved; $600 aside. $2,549.08 to go.

December 25, 2019

Merry Crisisstmasnadfbgamasghdjk welcome to the last Wednesday of the decade :'D I GOT SOME GOOD NEWS

Not really sure how I'll say it so I'll just...say it (lmfao my english)

I got $100 for Christmas. :3 BUT DUDE SERIOUSLY $100 THAT'S A HECK TON

And remember when I said I was going to redeem all of my survey money on Christmas? It's been done. (almost ahahah). $45 from iPoll, $11.85 from SurveysOnTheGo, $20.04 from Survey Junkie.

A note about Survey Junkie though, for some reason it isn't letting me redeem it to my PayPal account so I had no choice but to make a bank transfer? Weird because I'm not sure what I've done wrong, I've verified a bank account and credit card to PayPal so idk what the deal is. They say it'll arrive in my account after 5 business days - so I won't get it until the 31st-ish, which means for now I won't count it as saved.

By the way, what happened during the Quiz Bowl meet last week? ...simply put we lost 0-4 so i'm not gonna talk about that since it's not relevant. :/

Anyways, that means I have $600+ now! Not too bad really, if I can get the same amount plus all the extra drama money in 2020 I'll have enough by 2021. If I can get $80 from doing the spring 2020 and fall 2020 musical (and also the winter musical this year, but it hasn't ended yet) and count out the money from all the stickers and Quiz Bowl meets/practices (we better win some for once or else asljksksba) and get back up on surveys like I should be lol,

Speaking of the clear goal change, here's what's happening. I'm lowering my goal to $1,500. And that's just because I don't need $3,000. I really don't. If I take out the transportation and hotel expenses, which are already being covered by the "aside" money from my parents, $1,500 is more than enough for the tickets, upgrade, and merch. There's no way I'll earn $3,000 by the end of 2020 anyways. I'm not going to edit my old posts to say something like "$1,200.67 to go" just because a post is a post and I'm not changing it, but I'm going to rename all of the project's pages to "$1,500" instead of $3,000.

I was originally just going to keep my goal at $3,000 but count in the "aside" money as saved, but that's honestly unrealistic. My parents put in $200 each month, right? And if I already have $600 saved myself, then I literally wouldn't need to earn another penny for 2020 because I'd have more than $3,000 by the end. I want to do at least half of this myself and $1,500 seems fair enough. >_<

Thinking forwards to 2020 (wow, a new decade? so fast? so soon? and in march 2019 i was thinking 2018 was so long ago yet january 2019 feels like yesterday), here's my list of potential money sources:

old/typical:

• YouGov ($40-ish if I can get that Best Buy card and sell it on CardPool?)
• iPoll (grinding that $20 a month again starting January)
• Orchestra concerts (if I land first chair again...)
• Selling stuff (old national geographic issues, old dollar tree books)
• Make Money (thinking $40-ish for the whole year)
• SurveysOnTheGo (idk though, around $7 of it came from before 2019 so I don't know if it'll work out the same next year)
• Qmee (hoping for $50 total in the year)

new:

• Orchestra Festival (similar to the one that happened earlier this year, read the old page for more info)
• Drama (the winter musical ends in January; the spring musical starts in March; the fall musical starts in September. I'm in the winter musical already, but if I can get into the spring and fall musical - tough chance since I still can't sing - something else is up)
• Quiz Bowl (we haven't won anything so far but once the season ends then I'll count out all the practice meet money)
• AP Human Geography Exam (hoping to get a 5)
• End of semester exams (unlike most schools we have them right after winter break XD if I get a good enough score I might be able to talk my parents into rewarding me with some spicy dollars :3)
• Christmas (another $100?? but that's so close to the end of 2020 so idrk)
• more will come along :)

Besides that, that's pretty much all. I might start a new private blog thing for my AJ goals/news for 2020, but I'm not sure. Merry Christmas - and happy new year/decade :')

$607.77 saved; $600 aside. $892.23 to go.

December 30, 2019

This is just some random drabbly thing for 2020, to see how much money I can get from current sources and how much I'll need to add.

(Also, today we were going to buy T-shirts for drama and my dad gave me $20 to buy a $10 shirt. Guess where the remaining $10 is now. ;))

(Estimated) money from current possible sources:

• $80 from Frozen Jr. (rehearsals + shows)
• $20 from Quiz Bowl (practices + meets)
• $10 from orchestra festival (unspent money)
• $25 a month from iPoll (grinding it hard... $300 for the year?)
• $50 from Make Money (more grinding, they don't seem to be giving me my credits lately though so if the issue continues I'll have to drop this. not wasting my tight time :/)
• $40 from YouGov (selling BestBuy card on CardPool)
• $10 a month from Qmee (grinding again, $120 for the year?)
• $15 from Survey Junkie (more small grinding? the only surveys I can do are the 10-point ones they email me since I don't qualify for the rest so we'll see)

In total that's $635 if I keep up with the grinding. Add that to what I have now ($637, since the SJ money is on its way) and that's $1,262. $300 short, so let's look to below.

(Estimated) money from potential, but not "guaranteed" sources:

• $80 from spring musical (rehearsals + shows? no guarantee I'll get in)
• $80 from fall musical (rehearsals + shows? higher chance I'll probably get in)
• $50 (?) from 5 on the AP Human Geography exam (study...study...study...)
• $80 as a birthday gift (May 29, but idk if I'll ask for something else)
• $80 as a Christmas gift (again, idk if I'll ask for something else because it's a long ways from now)
• $80 from winter musical (that ends in January 2021 which is a little past my deadline, but if we can secure a plan after that then it's fine)
• $10 from chamber orchestra (rehearsals + certain shows? again no guarantee I'll get in)

Together, that's $460. Perfecto. Again, the above things are all not guaranteed, I may or may not get any of them and I'm not sure I'll count in the winter musical stuff since it'll end past my deadline (which I'm considering to be 12/31, 11:59 PM CST sksksk) but it all depends on what happens. I'm not even totally sure there'll be a full 2021 tour, could be 2022 really but to be safe with the deadline I'll assume there is.

$617.77 saved; $600 aside. $882.23 to go.