No Swag for Teacher

The swag bag will have to remain a mystery. I figured that there would be a required amount that I would need to spend to get the Staples gift bag, and I was right--it was $25. Much of the stuff I'd need from office stores, I already ordered through the money that was budgeted to me for the upcoming year. I suppose that I could have rounded up $25 bucks worth of stuff to get the gift bag, but it's that tough part of the summer when most of the money I'd put aside in two dedicated "summer survival" bank accounts is down pretty low. As it is, the rent will have to wait until the first paycheck on the 11th, ten days late. So many people think that teachers get paid all year, but why would we, we only work 10 months. Some teachers have their paychecks re-budgeted so that they get a large lump sum at the end of June, I decided to have money taken out of each paycheck automatically, and I did pretty well with that. Next year, I'll have more money for the summer since I only had two survival accounts going since November, and did not increase the amount taken out for the credit union account until March. This year, they will both be up and running from the first paycheck on. I'll also be making a good amount more this year, having reached 30 post master's credits. So, it's all good, it's just hard and annoying watching every buck like a miser. Good for the character, I guess, and all in all, it beats those bad years of unemployment by far. So I'll be ok, swag bag or not.