Today I cleaned up the room (at home) a little bit. Emphasis on a little bit. But I did manage to sort through the last few months of mail and get all my paper bank and CC statements in order. I also rounded up all my pay stubs and filed them away. I had about a large box full of mail that had built up over the course of just 4 months. 90% of it was "pre-approved" credit offers.

While cleaning, I also found some pieces of paper I had scribbled on while at work over the summer. Looks like I formulated two plans for saving on the back of receipts. One plan had me saving $50/month; the other plan was a bit more ambitious with me saving $75/month. It's nice to look back on those now, when I'm saving $200+ every month.

I almost forgot- I found the old passbook for my CD at a local savings & loan. I found out the CD was opened for a 2-year term in 1993 with an initial deposit of $2500 at 5.65% (a much higher amount than I originally thought.) Nice. My parents took the initiative to take the $2500 out of my regular savings and put it in a CD while the rates were high. Thanks Mom & Dad. :) It's been renewed every year or two years since then, with obvious fluctuations in the rate. I'm sure now I could get a higher rate with more liquidity with an online savings account. There's now some doubt that this CD will actually mature in February 2006. I might have to wait until 2007. There is some good news, however:

1. I believe I can meet my $3000 savings goal without the money from this CD
2. I found out my bank now has online account access. I registered and they're sending me my login info in the mail. Hopefully I can verify how much is in there and when it matures.

So if/when I find out more info, I'll update everything.