I've been AWOL. You know why?
eBay.
Damn that infernal auction site. This month, it has managed to relieve me of over $300 and I'm not even finished with what I'm trying to win on that site. I've pledged to stop after the 28th of the month.
So much for my new financial plan...I can't stick with anything. I'm surprised I've been in the relationship I'm in for this long. Seriously.
It all started when I decided to get an ipod to help my time in the gym pass by more quickly. Note: I haven't been to the gym since my car messed up (it was fixed 3 days later). I resolved to find a $40 ipod somewhere and I turned to my old standby eBay. I seemed to have forgotten that once I start, it's extremely hard for me to stop.
My search for the elusive $40 ipod was unfruitful, so I decided to pay whatever I thought was fair given the condition of the piece. I found one - barely used and in a kick-ass color and made it mine - for $130 with shipping. Everything after that is really a blur. I clicked on a random American Apparel ad and discovered that they had an eBay store that sold vintage clothes (I have a "thing" for them). I also found a rare bartending book that my dude HAD to have. Then I found a pair of shoes...
*sigh*
I caught myself mid-spree and added up all the money I've spent on eBay and for the whole month. It's shameful. Extremely shameful. And I call myself trying to go to Jamaica in October.
I'm going cold turkey in August. I hope I don't "forget" about my addiction come Christmastime.
Showing posts with label Money Issues. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Money Issues. Show all posts
Friday, July 25, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
About that car of mine...
It's in the shop...again.
They told me it's the rack and pinion something or other. All I heard was $600.
This isn't much motivation to stay with my much loved high end hoopty. I've been mulling over whether or not to sell it and get a Scion xA/Nissan Versa/Honda Fit/anything that won't break down on me every 4 months, but whenever I get like this, I make sure to talk to a couple of people so that I get my head together and keep my car. I went to work today and did just that.
Around lunch, I told a colleague of mine that my car was back in the shop for the third time this year.
"Why haven't you bought a new one?"
"I'm too used to not having a car payment. "
"When was the last time you had a car payment to make?"
"Never."
"You need to come on over to the adult world."
BINGO. Never in life should a $400/month paycheck deduction in the name of a newer whip qualify me to be an adult.
I'll be waiting on my mechanic to call me so I can hand him a chunk of my Jamaica Fund money. Yeah, it sucks, but it's better than having to do it little by little every month.
Word.
They told me it's the rack and pinion something or other. All I heard was $600.
This isn't much motivation to stay with my much loved high end hoopty. I've been mulling over whether or not to sell it and get a Scion xA/Nissan Versa/Honda Fit/anything that won't break down on me every 4 months, but whenever I get like this, I make sure to talk to a couple of people so that I get my head together and keep my car. I went to work today and did just that.
Around lunch, I told a colleague of mine that my car was back in the shop for the third time this year.
"Why haven't you bought a new one?"
"I'm too used to not having a car payment. "
"When was the last time you had a car payment to make?"
"Never."
"You need to come on over to the adult world."
BINGO. Never in life should a $400/month paycheck deduction in the name of a newer whip qualify me to be an adult.
I'll be waiting on my mechanic to call me so I can hand him a chunk of my Jamaica Fund money. Yeah, it sucks, but it's better than having to do it little by little every month.
Word.
Monday, June 30, 2008
End of the Month Tally
As promised a few posts ago, I'm going to keep track of my debt pay-down activity to keep me motivated and to get some of y'all motivated. I think I'm doing fairly well considering that I haven't been on a binge shopping spree. I am, however, using my credit cards way too much - they're supposed to be for bills and gas only. Or maybe gas is that expensive that I'm not noticing???
Either way, I'll be giving regular end of the month updates and posting any new and interesting money management articles/tips/tricks I come across.
I'm using Dave Ramsey's snowball method coupled with the lazy snowflaking method I learned from Florida Chic over at Debt Smack and I think I'm off to a fairly good start:
Starting Balance
CC1 - $0
CC2 - $0
CC3 - $0
Student Loan 1 - $3500
Student Loan 2 - $12204.79
Student Loan 3 - $27000
Current Balance
CC1 - $12.99
CC2 - $79.06
CC3 - $124.05
Student Loan 1 - $3106.91
Student Loan 2 - $12122.69
Student Loan 3 - $27000 (still in deferment)
Since I'm in the habit of paying the cards off every month, my snowballing goes toward my student loans. I'm expecting the first one to be paid off by May '09 or earlier with the added snowflakes. The expected payoff date for the second one is April 2021, but that's going to change very soon. It seems very daunting now to be paying all of this money back, but I keep reading that little by little, it will become more and more manageable.
Looking at all those numbers makes me happy that I don't have a car payment. YAY for 13 year old cars that are still running!
On to new business. I'm hoping to more serious with my writing, so I'll be posting more regularly. I don't know if I'm going to go the schedule route, but hopefully I can give you something twice a week. I'll try and redecorate too. =)
Word.
Either way, I'll be giving regular end of the month updates and posting any new and interesting money management articles/tips/tricks I come across.
I'm using Dave Ramsey's snowball method coupled with the lazy snowflaking method I learned from Florida Chic over at Debt Smack and I think I'm off to a fairly good start:
Starting Balance
CC1 - $0
CC2 - $0
CC3 - $0
Student Loan 1 - $3500
Student Loan 2 - $12204.79
Student Loan 3 - $27000
Current Balance
CC1 - $12.99
CC2 - $79.06
CC3 - $124.05
Student Loan 1 - $3106.91
Student Loan 2 - $12122.69
Student Loan 3 - $27000 (still in deferment)
Since I'm in the habit of paying the cards off every month, my snowballing goes toward my student loans. I'm expecting the first one to be paid off by May '09 or earlier with the added snowflakes. The expected payoff date for the second one is April 2021, but that's going to change very soon. It seems very daunting now to be paying all of this money back, but I keep reading that little by little, it will become more and more manageable.
Looking at all those numbers makes me happy that I don't have a car payment. YAY for 13 year old cars that are still running!
On to new business. I'm hoping to more serious with my writing, so I'll be posting more regularly. I don't know if I'm going to go the schedule route, but hopefully I can give you something twice a week. I'll try and redecorate too. =)
Word.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Contest Time!
While browsing my "kill your debt" blogs like I like to do, I came upon this great giveaway at John Chow - apparently Market Leverage wants to give away a bag full of stuff to someone who either comments at the John Chow blog or links back to the contest post. Simple enough, right?
Almost forgot - the "stuff" is...
*drumroll*
Good luck and hurry up! Contest is over on June 20th.
Almost forgot - the "stuff" is...
*drumroll*
- Flip video camera
- Market Leverage clothing (shirts, a jacket and cap)
- $200 Market Leverage Amex Rewards card
- USB drive that is also a pen
- iPod Nano.
Good luck and hurry up! Contest is over on June 20th.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Perspective
I was browsing a blog dealing with debt (because I'm manically obsessive about it) and other issues, and I saw this in one of the entries:
"And I think the BIG issue here is that I am not requiring enough of myself. I have let myslef take the easy way out for a couple years. I have not set a major goal for myself. I have not been working toward anything substantial."
I stopped reading and really thought about that for about 48 seconds. I'm extremely guilty of the same. I make all these plans and goals and then don't stick with them. Then I wallow and cry about why I don't have the money to move to San Francisco like I want to. Or why I'm $41K in the hole because of student loans.
Well, and here's hoping, that's the end of that. I'm going to make a plan and stick to it. I'm going to be snowballing and snowflaking my way out of student loan hell which is scheduled to have me trapped until 2021. It's a big goal to start with, but if I don't focus, I'm going to be paying out the ass forever. I at least want to tackle it while my rent in L.A. is $350 a month (I got EXTREMELY lucky). In addition, I'm going to try and chart my progress here and blog more regularly overall. Yes, they will be even more random than they are now, but it'll be something new and fresh for the good folks who stop by to see my ranting (THANKS btw).
Wish me luck...
"And I think the BIG issue here is that I am not requiring enough of myself. I have let myslef take the easy way out for a couple years. I have not set a major goal for myself. I have not been working toward anything substantial."
I stopped reading and really thought about that for about 48 seconds. I'm extremely guilty of the same. I make all these plans and goals and then don't stick with them. Then I wallow and cry about why I don't have the money to move to San Francisco like I want to. Or why I'm $41K in the hole because of student loans.
Well, and here's hoping, that's the end of that. I'm going to make a plan and stick to it. I'm going to be snowballing and snowflaking my way out of student loan hell which is scheduled to have me trapped until 2021. It's a big goal to start with, but if I don't focus, I'm going to be paying out the ass forever. I at least want to tackle it while my rent in L.A. is $350 a month (I got EXTREMELY lucky). In addition, I'm going to try and chart my progress here and blog more regularly overall. Yes, they will be even more random than they are now, but it'll be something new and fresh for the good folks who stop by to see my ranting (THANKS btw).
Wish me luck...
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