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Here comes the weekend!

May 26th, 2017 at 10:40 am

I love the long summer days...got up around 4:30 a.m., unable to sleep. (Of course I konked out last night at 10 pm).

Happy to be wrapping up week 3 of the new job today, although I want to ask if I can stay til 5 today (I'm sure others will be leaving early for the long holiday weekend) since I am already losing pay for the holiday itself and a half day the following Wednesday for a doctor's appointment.

This is what sucks about being a contractor. You don't get paid for holidays, or time out for doctor's appointments.

They had another happy hour (with alcohol) yesterday at the office around 4. I guess it's a weekly event! I chose not to go on either day because I don't think it's appropriate for someone getting paid on an hourly basis to be drinking while doing so.

I think I have a buyer for a nice miter box my mother used to make frames. The price is $25 and it's heavy duty metal; everything new now is plastic. I thought I sold it a year ago and drove 20 minutes to meet another guy, who then offered less than I'd asked for in the ad. So he was counting on me caving to the lower price becus I had driven all that way. Wrong. That pissed me off; didn't appreciate the less-than-honest tactics.

Anyway, this is my first attempt using Facebook Marketplace.

I did get my first paycheck and so after grossing $4166, I only netted $2841. The biggest deduction was for federal taxes, at $784!!

Still, this one check (for 2 weeks) pretty much covers my monthly expenses.

I want to revisit my witholdings. That little table on the back of the W4 is not very precise, IMO. Based on using that table, I am claiming 2 deductions, but I think I should be claiming 3 to have less money withheld from my paycheck. I know there's a way to fine-tune it (a calculator, maybe?) but I'm not sure. I'm very sure I'll remain in the 25% tax bracket.

This has happened to me before with higher paying contract jobs; too much is withheld, resulting in a large refund at year's end, when I would much prefer to get that money now.

The one big goal for the long weekend (heavenly) is to finish priming and then painting my new bookshelves. I primed about a third of it before using up the quarter of primer I had. And yes, it's going to take a lot of time. I would also like to ENJOY my holiday weekend and I need to hit Trader Joe's, BJs, Aldis, the dump and the gas station.

I found tiny butterfly eggs on my parsley (now that I know what they look like). Wow, that's early! I have released about 4 emergent black swallowtails this month that had overwintered from last year. Truly amazing that life inside those tiny cocoons somehow survived the cold of winter.

The idea behind raising them in an aquarium is that you are boosting their survival rate compared to the predation they'd face from birds and parasitic wasps if left to fend for themselves.

5 Responses to “Here comes the weekend!”

  1. jokeabee Says:
    1495793761

    Here's the 2017 IRS Witholding Calculator- https://apps.irs.gov/app/withholdingcalculator/

    It does make you project your yearly income so it's not 100% precise, but it might be a better estimator than the table you were using.

  2. PatientSaver Says:
    1495794885

    Thank you, Jokeabee!

  3. Dido Says:
    1495803219

    Jokabee beat me to it! You have several jobs, so the usual simple table doesn't work--that's meant for a full year of that salary. Definitely adjust. Good luck finishing the bookshelves, and enjoy the long weekend. I took today as well, to have more time for home projects and studying for my CFP. Hope you get some decent weather--we have rain off and on in the forecast.

  4. My English Castle Says:
    1495830709

    We're now on the flip side of the contractor life--and my DH has a paid holiday for the first time in years. Your butterflies sound so interesting.

  5. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1495985040

    My DH has lots of empty aquariums ... hmmm ... I might look into raising butterflies too.

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