I just wanted to send a huge thank you to all the wonderful comments I've received since I joined. You're all too kind!

To answer one's question, I do remember the lawyer mentioning survivor's benefits. He showed me some paperwork, and we went over things, though it's all a bit fuzzy. I think he said I might end up getting about 75% of the income my Dad was receiving before? That might change now that I'm employed part-time, and I haven't heard anything new so I'll probably give him a call today or tomorrow.

I start my job tomorrow. I basically work a full-time shift Fri, Sat, and Sun with 30-min lunch breaks. That way, I won't have to change my schedule around a lot when school starts next month. It's only 5.20/hour but I think he's going to automatically give me a raise after 3 months, maybe even a raise to 5.50 after one month there.

And I've totaled up how much my friends owe me...$500. I had no idea I'd spent that much just on my friends' food while we were out and DVDs and things! But after checking through my old bank statements and receipts, I totaled it all up and it came out to about $200 each for my two best friends and $100 for another close friend. All three said they'd pay me back so here's hoping.

I just posted my first journal entry in Blurty, DearDiary.net, and EasyJournal. Blurty is alright. I deleted the DearDiary.net account because I could not stand it. EasyJournal looks the best and I think I'm going to stick with it...but I'm going to give Blurty a chance too so for now I'm keeping them both.

First Post! I currently have a checking account at a local bank and a shiny new credit card with said bank. I've recently lost a lot of money, first on silly things I felt were "necessities" at the time (yeah, collecting Johnny Depp movies is such a necessity now!), and lastly on grave affairs...literally.

My financial goal for this year is to keep record of all that my "friends" owe me from earlier in the year, keep an account of my cash and not just my checking account (a major thing for me - I can never keep up with my cash), and get back to the amount of money I had at the beginning of 2006.

At this moment, I'm keeping up with my cash better than I ever have but it's still not good enough. I have tabs on who owes what and how much (now I just need to *get* that money, heh..). As for making up my money...I've made up about 400 of the 4000. *sighs* I'll be getting about 2000 in will money by Thanksgiving if everything goes through with the lawyer and I can get it put in a trust fund for when I turn 18 (hence getting it at Thanksgiving). I've got a minimum-wage job I can walk to (don't have a car) and that's about all I can do at the moment, save donating plasma (starting to consider that option these days). Will be busting my butt all this year to get some scholarships.

That's about it financially. Money coming in: minimum-wage job, ~2000 in Nov.; money going out: groceries about every 3 weeks, $60 cell phone bill each month (the one thing I refuse to give up), ~50 otherwise each month

For more personal info, I've started 3 new online journals/diaries to see which one I like the most.