Sunday, August 28, 2011

What's in the Cards?


If I could sell $hit to pigs, I'd be a millionaire! 

Everyone, I must admit, I am really not bringing my ‘A’ game these days - in both my debt repayment and my blogging skills (and the $hitty readership on my blog is indicative of this). Things keep popping up that I am not prepared for which are preventing me from putting more money into my debt repayment than I would have wanted this month and since I am in intensive French training it’s quickly killing my ambition to write anything these days, well that and that fact that I don’t have much good news to share in the debt repayment situation. Ok, that’s not the only reason that I am effing this up, it’s because I am spending like pig at a $hit sale. Just like the last time that I had a month with 3 paychecks, I used the third check to have fun and pi$$ my money away on crap. I think a big part of me wants to spend because I really need to do take breaks from my debt repayment plan, but I do acknowledge that this way of thinking is completely counterproductive to how I will get ahead and pay off the big bills.

Drunk Penguin!
This week I didn’t stick to the plan at all! I took a day off to go to a water park which involved renting a car, paying for gas, park admission, and food, so the total came to about $100 for one *SUPER AWESOME FUN* day (kind of killed my budget there). The second big purchase I made were some repairs on my bike. The old beast was in desperate need of repairs. The back tire was so bent out of shape and my gears and chain were shot, causing my bike to wobble like an alcoholic penguin and my chain to slip like a cow wearing roller skates on ice every time that I pedaled – it was frustrating and hazardous, but kind of cute and hilarious (just picture that drunken penguin)! The bike problems had been going on for weeks so I decided it was about time to get it tuned up, which is usually $35 but it turns out that my chain, gears, and tire had to be replaced so I ended up with $95 worth of repair work to be done. I understand that this is all a part of bicycle ownership, and I should be happy that this isn’t car repairs, because that would cost me a lot more money! Heck, you can barely buy gas for a few weeks with $95! So just like that, almost $200 was gone. And while I’m on the subject of spending, I want to say that I behaved in bringing a lunch to work, but I really didn’t. I did manage for one day though, so I guess that’s kind of an improvement, right?

This month has really not been terrible for killing off the debt though to be honest, and I think that overall I have put more money toward debt this month than I have ever before. I am proud of that accomplishment and everyone I talk to is incredibly impressed with my conviction to get this paid down so quickly, but I am really starting to miss spending money on myself. The trip to the water park reminded me of all the fun things that I used to do with my money. It’s really hard to keep this up sometimes, but I know that I can keep this up if I buckle down and focus.

For example, recently I was walking through the mall and saw all the awesome sales on, I wanted so bad to buy myself some new clothes, but I was able to use some restraint and avoided the situation by telling myself I had not 1, but 2 wardrobes FULL of clothes at home. So instead of going out and buying more clothes, I went back home and tossed all of the clothes that I never wear into a gigantic pile on my floor to give away to charity, and it felt really good! There in front of me was a stack of coats, shirts, pants, and all sorts of stuff that I never wore and I had to really say to myself, how badly do I really need to go out shopping? Why did I have this desire to live with so much excess? For those of you who are struggling with a need to spend, try doing this exercise and make a pile of all the things that you don’t use to motivate you to stop adding to the pile of excess. Once you realize how much you have that goes unused, you have an easier time deciding to buy things that are truly going to beneficial in you life which wont just be added to the pile!

Crazy lady.
Now on a side note/tangent, I was at the local Pride festival today and they had free tarot card readings at one of these booths so I thought, what the heck, this could be worth a laugh, and it was in some ways as the cracked-out gypsy-looking lady started both me and my friend’s reading with some sort of line about our mothers, which must have been her “thing”, especially when she thought that my mother was dead! Some fortune… Anyway, she said that I seemed to have a good life going for me, but I was going to go through a fundamental change, that either I was going to change careers completely, or move away from here. The ‘reading’ was super vague and it could apply to any of us really, but her little BS story did get me thinking that I really feel like I am already going through that fundamental change in my life with this process. Never in my life have I felt that I am getting so ahead and goal oriented, it really feels pretty incredible!

I have a milestone birthday coming up this week and I will turn the coveted age of 29, so it really has me looking back at the past 28 years and thinking about what I’ve accomplished and where I am going to go next. Overall, I have to say that my 20s are going amazingly and I know that I will finish off this debt repayment very soon and be proud to one day soon say, I, John, have NO Debt! Thanks for reading all you diehard fans! I promise to get this blog and my spending back on track and continue to blow your minds! 


p.s. RIP Jack, you inspired me more than you know. 

3 comments:

  1. Happy Birthday Week, John! Its your birthday soon!

    I definitely think you should combine your french lessons with this blog, and write a blog in French!!! woohoo!

    Also, stop bitching about how little you're paying off your debt. You haven't ADDED to your debt, now have you? And how many months ahead of schedule are you? Perhaps, just for one month, you can take some time off and go on a spending spree with me when I get back.

    Anyways, I'll be back to kick your butt soon.

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  2. Happy Birthday! I stumbled upon your blog while cyber-stalking some others, and I'm happy that I did. I've enjoyed reading what you've written so far, and I look forward to reading more...

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  3. Thank you BTHappyHomeowner! I'm always happy to hear others are enjoying my blog! I'll be checking out your posts soon too!

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