a"R"ithmatic

Lets take a walk away from the FUN firsts and into some serious ones.

The first time I moved out of my parents house. FREEDOM, Freedom, freedom! As a college freshman I was excited to be over 5 hours away from home, and without a direct line of transportation back home, my father couldn't jump into my socializing. The problems with my dorm room soon became apparent.
My first roommate that wasn't my sister, was a single child from a rich family. The best way to describe our relationship would have to be through Galinda and Elphaba's song What is this feeling?
While in my home away from home I learned how to do dishes in the bathroom sink, and another college staple coin laundry. For a scholarship student I didn't have to budget much towards tuition and fees.
That began the budgeting trend of my college era. First I'd have to save approximately $5 for laundry each week and then I moved up to food bills when I transferred out off of a food plan.
My next first was an Apartment. I still had a roommate but this time I made the mistake of choosing a friend. We had great time hanging out the only problem was where could we go to get away from eachother?
Filing taxes,
keeping budget,
paying bills,
Quicken...not fun

I left the fun world of calculus and algebra for a new kind of math. I leave simple problems where 2+2=4 and now find myself in a world where $500 a month has to stretch to $800 of bills.
I've gathered many budgeting tips from numerous sources including Quicken (I despise Quicken) to a book entitled "Budgeting made easy".
I've planned budget after budget, allotting money for savings too. But what do i get? a bigger paycheck and an empty bank account.