Part-Time Job

I started working at my local Hallmark Store when I graduated high school in 1999.  I was heading to college and needed a car with which to commute back and forth since I was going to live at home.  My dad signed for it, as I had no credit or job history to my name, and he agreed to pay for my car insurance as long as I was able to make the monthly payment on the car itself.  Through the years I have had a love-hate relationship with that job. 

I love most of the people I work with and helping customers find just the right gift for a family member or friend.  There is something very fulfilling about helping someone design their social invitations and being an authority on the subject.  However, I also hate the amount of free-time the job eats.  I have been working there for over a decade, officially, and the management has come to rely very heavily upon me.  I've always been willing to pick up extra hours, stay late, or come in early simply because I have always needed the money.  But I am getting to a point in my actual day-time career that I don't need to work as much as I used to. 

I have put a plan in motion that will hopefully allow me to quit my part-time job once and for all.  I will be paying off all of my credit cards in the next month and that should free up a lot of my income.  My storage unit will also be closed by the end of the month and I should be caught up on all the back utility money I owe my roommate.  The only thing I really need to be careful about is saving money for the big Ireland vacation I want to take in June.  So the second job will be necessary until that time.  I won't really know how much wiggle room I have until the cards are paid off and I adjust to the higher 401(k) contribution rate.  Then there is the question of will I be able to save money with a single job and how much?  These are not the best of financial times we are living in, but they are definitely getting better.