Off Track

Off Track!

Following last week, I have gotten lots of texts and calls from friends and family reconnecting with me which I must admit, has felt pretty good! I feel like I am more connected than ever to those who I love and clearly, this means that lots of people are reading my blog and they love me. I already knew that they loved me, but this just goes to show the power of the internet to bring people together.

I am always surprised by how many people are actually reading all my financial rants! Not only that, their friends and family (especially the moms - hello all of my friends' moms) are reading my blog. What a wonderful thing to know that others are just as interested in getting their debt back on track and that I am not alone in this crazy pursuit. When I started this process, I never imagined that I would get my debt paid off as rapidly as I am today. I was just gunning through all this debt at the beginning  but this year I really have not been as good as I wanted to. The truth behind me not posting as much is that I have kind of been effing up my finances these past couple weeks and I have been a little embarrassed to admit that I have been dipping into my savings account to go out for beers with friends. I guess it's better than taking out money from my line of credit, or even worse, my evil MasterCard!

I ♥ your mom. 

But these are the sorts of things that happen, right? It's tough to always put your social life on hold because you have debt to pay off and the general attitude out there is "everyone is in debt anyway, so why worry?" which I totally get, but I also know what the stress feels like when you have $40,000 of consumer debt and you don't even have a permanent job so I sometimes feel the need to shake some sense into these people. What it really takes is a culture and attitude change to start convincing others to stop spending and finding other ways to find joy in things that require no spending. In one of the exercises that we did at my yoga "off the mat" challenge, we talked about the ability to give up buying "stuff". I have several kryptonites such as music (the latest thing is records), clothing, home decor, and all sorts of other "stuff". What makes my need to shop so stupid is the fact that I don't even need any of this stuff. If one of the things that I mentioned is resonating with you, let me break it down for you:

Music

LOVE THE BALCONIES!

As a firm supporter of artists/musicians I have a hard time just downloading something I love for free and never sending a penny to the artists themselves, but I also was buying 2-3 albums per week, which translates to about $60 which is more than $3,000 each year on music. That doesn't even include the concerts that I go to! What makes this so stupid is that I have albums where I only listen to one or two tracks that I love and never get through the whole thing. To add to it all, I have a record player, but it's not portable so I only get to listen to one of the 100+ albums I have per week  on average. So it's clear to me that this is a habit that I need to get under control. So what I have decided to do is dedicate at least a week to listening to the whole album online before deciding to purchase it. If I really feel that the album is something that is mindblowingly amazing, then I will buy it, but otherwise, I will move on and listen to something else. Don't worry the Balconies, I will ALWAYS buy your music! Oh and you even have an amazing new EP on iTunes? Well I better put a link to that then!

Clothing

This is an underwear ad, a very sexy underwear ad. 

By far one of the most unnecessary things that I buy. I have dozens of t-shirts, dress shirts, pants, shoes, jackets, underwear, and the list goes on. I have zero need for more clothes but yet I still see things that I like and purchase them anyway. I found the best way to kick this habit was to avoid malls and my favourite stores altogether. If I do wander into a store, I look at the item on the rack and then I think about how many other articles of clothing just like it that I have and that usually convinces me to not buy it. If I still feel the urge to buy it, I leave the store and come back in 2 weeks if I am still thinking about buying it. That way if I forget about it, it's clearly not something that I wanted all that bad in the first place. This rule usually applies to everything that I want and it has proven to be pretty darn effective!

Home Decor

Are you cluttering your home with too much stuff?

Now I know that we all like to  have the coolest and most comfortable place on the block, but how comfortable is a place that is filled to the rafters with stuff? There comes a point when all the home decor stuff we buy creates discomfort because it is all just so overwhelming. When you want to create a space that is homey, stick to the principle that less truly is more. When you're more concerned with whether someone is going to break that new knick-knack that you bought than whether they feel safe enough to fart without getting thrown out the window, you may need to evaluate your need obsession with stuff.

Phew, that feels good to get out. It's much easier to get back to practicing what I preach when I have it all down on paper. Now I'm not saying you shouldn't shop at all, but I'm say that you should focus on smarter shopping. Buy things that you need first and then get one of the things that you want afterward. If you don't know what a need is, ask yourself if you will die if you don't have it. I think I can survive without the latest record or spandex yoga shorts. One more thing, as I have said a bazillion times before, leave your credit behind and pay with YOUR money, not someone else's!

All in all though, my spending has not been in check and I am feeling the effects! Last week I had to do some major dipping into my savings more than once for things like eating out, birthday presents, medicine (don't panic, I had a cold), and other things that I feel that I should be a little more prepared for. It's not like it's a big deal or anything, but there really is no excuse since most of the things that I had show up were things that I could have planned for so I guess it gets on my nerves a little bit that I am not as aggressive with my debt as I want to be. Not to say that all this socializing is negative, I'm spending money on things that I enjoy such as hanging out with friends for their birthdays or farewell parties which I feel are important things to do because you can't really put a price tag on friendships (unless they're an escort). But I am really going to try to get it together again and set a goal to get my line of credit completely paid off by the 15th of May!

Lots of love!

John

Random Acts of Kindness Week

I have so much to tell you guys! This week I have hit some major milestones in my debt repayment process and I am so overjoyed that I may actually wet my snuggy as I write this! Before I get to all my amazing achievements, I want to take a moment to talk about a special project that I have been up to this week. I received a cool calendar from my friend Angie, and in that calendar this week is marked off as “Random Acts of Kindness Week”. Now I don’t know if this is strictly an American thing or what, but I still thought it would be a good opportunity to stop being such a selfish a$$hole and start reconnecting with my fellow man. February has always been a rough month for me and this one has been no different so I decided to change my misfortune and spread some positivity throughout the week instead.

I guess you’re wondering why February is a rough month for me. Well, it’s mainly because I get to thinking about loved ones that I have lost who have a connection to this month. My Grandmother, who was born on Valentines Day, passed away a couple years ago, so when I see the 14^th on my calendar, it always makes me think about my family. The day serves as a reminder to my roots and where I came from, and I can’t forget how my Grandparents worked so hard to make a better life for all of us. Now we have a family full of successful and talented people who are doing amazing things all across the country. My Grandfather (on the other side of the family) passed away a couple days after Valentines Day. He didn’t have everything handed to him either. I know that he worked incredibly hard up until his retirement and made sure to be able to leave this world knowing that my Grandmother would be taken care of financially. My grandparents were great examples of how to live within your means and they have certainly inspired me to strive to have their kind of comfort when I retire.

I really feel that through kindness week I could share the love that my grandparents gave me with others and at the same time, leave me with feelings of happiness and not those so-called “winter blues”. To start out my kindness week, I spent my Saturday perusing through thrift stores and stopping by an art gallery to look into acquiring some artwork and afterward I stopped by my partner’s job to visit him at the end of his shift at the diner. I saw that he had one table left in his section so I asked my partner to give me their bill so that I could pay it. He asked me if I knew the people, but I had no clue who they were, after all, it wouldn’t be “random” if I did, now would it? I also told my partner that he couldn’t tell them that I paid for it. It was incredibly heartwarming to see their smiles when they were told that their meal was paid for. Not only were they smiling, but the staff at the restaurant were so happy to see that someone would just randomly do something like that for their fellow man without expecting anything in return.

Fight hobophobia!

I really wanted to continue on with the kindness week so on Monday I decided that I would do give some money to a homeless person (which is something I don’t ever do because I don’t believe it solves anything etc. etc.). Yes, it seems super cliché but I decided that I would give some money with a bit of a twist. I told myself that the person had to ask me for change and if they did, I would give, sort of. On my way to the grocery store, I saw a man asking for change and I decided that he would be the next random person that would receive another random act of kindness. When he asked me for some change I stopped and said, “I’m sorry, I don’t have any change, so I hope that this works instead” and I dropped a $20 bill in his cup. He had an expression of shock on his face as I walked away and heard him shout out “thank you” as I continued down the street. I don’t care how he spent the money; I just know that that would be enough for him to really enjoy his evening which is something that so few of us do for $20.

Yesterday I wanted to do something kind for my coworkers. Most of them are single and hate the idea of Valentines Day (rightfully so because it’s kind of a bull$hit commercial spendathon) so I wanted to lift their spirits. I decided that the best way to do that would be to buy some gourmet cupcakes and share them with my coworkers. The cupcakes were so incredibly delicious and the smiles and thank-yous I got from my coworkers made me feel like a million bucks.

Tonight I am going to write an email to someone who inspired me in my life as a way to say thank you for the impact that they had on my life today. I hope that my random email really lifts their spirits knowing what a profound impact they have had on me!

What I really am beginning to remember again is that it doesn’t take much to make someone smile and make a difference in someone’s life. Money can’t really buy happiness, but it can certainly be used to create magic little moments in someone’s life. There are still a few days left in this “Random Acts of Kindness Week” so see if you can come up with something to help your fellow man. As an added bonus, since I am feeling so kind, I would be happy to sit down with anyone of you to help you with your debt management, just give me a shout!

Ok, now to end on a super, awesome note. Today I finished paying off my MasterCard! I am so freaking excited about it! I cannot believe that in a little as 1 year and 4 months that I have paid this off! I remember feeling so overwhelmed by how much debt I had on that card so to get this back down to zero feels amazing. So what happens now that I have it all paid off? Well if you follow the rule of Gail, you start paying the debt with the next highest interest rate which is my regular line of credit, and it only has $3,400 left on it! It pales in comparison to the beast that my MasterCard was!

  

But wait, there’s more! I have now paid off more that 50% of my debt!!! Isn’t that nucking futs!? That means that if I can keep going at this pace, I will be debt free well before 3 years have passed! It’s time to crack open the booze and celebrate the best February I’ve had in a very long time! I think my Grandparents are definitely looking down and smiling on me this month. 

Lost and Found

Whoo! Saskatoon!

My past 2 weeks of vacation in Saskatoon were phenomenal. Finally I think I can say that I was able to almost completely remove myself from thinking about work and really taking some much deserved time for myself. While I was away, I think I ate (with the exception of Christmas dinners) all of my meals in restaurants and the bills averaged out to around $50 per meal (adding in the booze and everything else). What really blew me away was the generosity of my family and friends during the holiday season. I think that almost all of my meals were paid for, in fact I went to one restaurant 4 times and only paid once after insisting on covering the bill for my friends. In the end I spent on average what I normally would in a week on expenses. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I got home and had over ¾ of my paycheck still in my bank account AND today was payday which is always an added bonus.

When I was back in Saskatoon, I got to be reminded of the way that I used to spend every day. It really woke me up again and lit a new fire under my a$$ to get back in financial shape. Not only does it serve as a reminder of how I used to spend, it gives me something to look forward to when I am debt free. It’s not going to be hard to get by once I have no debt to pay for and I’m really looking forward to being liberal with my money again.  It’s incredible how much simply removing yourself from temptation can affect your spending. Being back here in my apartment typing this entry I can’t help but feel incredibly optimistic about my upcoming year. In a month from now I will have completely paid off my MasterCard and that feels incredible. Not only that, my other debt balances have each dropped by more than $1,000.

I love me some Gail time!

This month will be just what I need to get me back on track again. As of now, I am on full-time French training (yes I am procrastinating on my “devoirs”) so I am back into a manageable routine. Believe me, routines are the best thing for staying on a budget because it reduces the amount of surprise expenses such as meals with colleagues and I don’t have to always worry about bringing a lunch. Now I am able to leave school for lunch at the same time every day and the school is really close to where I work which means that I can eat all of my meals at home and catch a few minutes of Gail time! Today I got to eat delicious leftover lasagna and tomorrow I am going to make myself a scrumptious sandwich. What makes me even happier is that I finally have some time to go to yoga classes again. I’m telling you, all this wonderful routine time has definitely got my gears going toward having a schedule like this in the future. If I can manage to get my French levels for work and not have to do anymore after work classes, I am going to be so very happy.

Now for some random, but exciting news! While I was away, I received a package from Canada Post with a letter attached that reads as follows:

Dear Customer:

The enclosed item containing your identification was found loose in the mail stream. It may not have been intended for the mail, but merely dropped in a street mail box without a wrapper or postage.

As a courtesy, Canada Post Corporation is returning this item to you free of charge.

Found! So amazing!

The attached item was my lost wallet! How lovely is that? Thank you to the person who took the time to drop my wallet off for me. I never imagined that I would see this thing again since it has been several months since someone stole it from me. The best part is that the person who took my wallet only took the cash and my MasterCard, leaving me with all of my ID cards so I can rest a little better knowing that someone isn’t out there trying to steal my identity. The $hitty part is that my wallet is a little, well, disgusting and looks like it has been run over by a car. But that’s not what the focus is on here, it’s the fact that someone, somewhere decided to be kind and return something to its rightful owner, me. I feel great starting a new year with a feeling of hope in my fellow man and I can’t wait to yet another fantastic learning experience.

Happy New Year everyone!

xoxo

The Return of Mr. Français

Another memorable trip to Ikea!

Things have gotten, well, interesting again now that I am back in French classes 3 times every week. I fell like my brain is slowly turning into a croissant. Normally, I am quite good at managing stress levels, but being back in school while working full time is certainly elevating my stress. It’s taking me back to the time in my life when I was a full-time student and full-time worker. I was always strung out (which I’m now realizing probably had something to do with why I was single most of the time while I was in school). Lately I have gotten used to being able to do yoga whenever I wanted and when I left work, and the part that I loved is that I was actually leaving work instead of going to do 3 hours of even more work. Yes, yes, I know this is all for the greater good in the long haul and one day I’ll be completely bisexual bilingual, but I sure have my doubts about whether or not I can manage this all the time. I suppose that as long as I continue to work hard at this, there shouldn’t be any problem getting my French up to par and then sailing through my career and onward toward more money. Honestly though, I think that because I am unable to go and do yoga as much as I want, I’m truly depriving myself of the one thing that I have been using to manage my stress levels.

Delicious Pad Thai by John! 

The time is quickly approaching for day 21 of my 30 day challenge and I must say that it is going really well for the financial part, the yoga on the other hand; well let’s just say I have cancelled my class tonight in order to write you this blog entry. Anyone who reads my blog knows that when I put my mind to something I can achieve anything, so why wouldn’t I be able to not buy any food outside of the grocery store? Certainly I have had a little helping hand along the way from my friends who will grab me a cup of coffee (which I haven’t asked for) or share some of their Ikea meatballs (thanks Jess), but if I really don’t want something, then I can say no. The main thing I am learning is that I can make myself meals everyday that taste effing delicious and don’t cost me more than $5 per serving. For example, last week I made an amazing vegetable curry with lemon-ginger rice. It cost me about $40 for the ingredients, but since I didn’t use all of them (i.e. the spices) it worked out to about $20 for 8 servings! That’s right, only $2.50 per serving. A couple nights ago I made myself a roast (to my vegetarian roommate’s horror – “is that cooked? Do people actually eat that?”) for about $2.00 a serving and today I made a tofu Pad Thai (to my vegetarian roommate’s delight “mmm, I love tofu”) for about $2.25 per serving. It’s really incredible how far you can stretch your money when you cook at home!

Amazing Veggie Curry! 

Really though; I know that cooking isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but once you get the hang of it, it’s really not that difficult and you do save a lot of money. The biggest key to making it successful is to keep it interesting! If you try a dish that you really enjoy, go home and look up the recipe and challenge yourself to make it one night. If you don’t do it properly, or it tastes like congealed donkey testicles, then try something different. Don’t be afraid to ask friends for their recipes either (unless it’s Dana’s lasagna recipe) or better yet, get together and cook with them. In no time you will accumulate a cornucopia of deliciousness. There are other way to find good recipes other than through friends, check out some food blogs, or buy a new cookbook full of recipes of foods you actually enjoy eating. I just bought (with gift cards) a book for my partner’s birthday called “Jamie’s Food Revolution” by Jamie Oliver; it is full of recipes that are just as cheap and easy as he is. 

Great cook book!

Now that I’m on the topic of my partner’s birthday, I should probably mention that my savings account has taken a little bit of a hit and it’s not quite at $2,000 anymore, but what I loved the most about that how I was able to use my savings instead of credit to purchase the present for him. I was a little generous (I got him a new guitar) but it was on sale so I felt it was justified and since we’ve been together for 3 ½ years, it seemed like an okay thing to spend money on. The problem with spending in stores for me though, is that I get the taste for shopping again and I have started to spend when I shouldn’t be. I think I’ll just take the money that I have spent already out of my “prize” at the end of the 30-day challenge. Yesterday I managed to blow through $82.50 at Ikea on 3 new pots, a rug for the foyer, and some candles. A little excessive, yes, but I did say no to a bunch of other stuff (a frame for my art print, a $40 drying rack, a drawer organizer, even more pots, a giant picture in the ‘as is’ section, and even our adorable shopping mascot, Peanut) so that made me feel good that I was actually able to leave Ikea without spending more than $100 (which used to be a huge challenge for me).

  

Ok, that’s the gist of it today. The only other thing that I want to mention is that I have officially paid my MasterCard down to under $5,000 from an original $14,581.45 to a mere $4,684.98! And there’s more to come this month! MasterCard better start getting ready to say good-bye because this cash cow is beginning to run dry!

My 30-Day Challenge!!

Aren't pearl necklaces wonderful?

Where do I begin? I just finished an amazing weekend of debauchery and now I am a sleepy boy who is not feeling like this blog entry will be the crème de la crème which it usually is because I went crazy and killed a few brain cells! Regardless, I will persevere to write you something both captivating and informative and you will come back to me wanting more and more blog entries and more pearl necklaces of wisdom.

Before I started on this entry, I spent a few minutes with Gail, listening to her shoot the $hit with some 40-year-old Prince$$ about how she had no savings and no plan for her future. It was a scary idea to me to think that if I hadn’t done anything about my debt now that I would have been right in the same place that that woman was. The idea of retiring in my 60s sounds awful. I mean how often do we hear about people dying shortly after retirement; for me, it’s more often than I would like and that keeps me motivated to try and retire in my 50s. Yes, I realize that I will probably be paying off the debt of the baby boomer generation until I am rolling in my grave, but I certainly don’t want to be paying off anything stupid like a mortgage well into my 70s. But anyway, I feel like my retirement savings will be taking a seat on the backburner for another couple years until I have this ridiculous debt paid off in full. Although, the icing on the cake is that I am beginning to become really confident that I will be able to say “I have no debt” even sooner than I had planned.

There are a couple of things that I wanted to talk to you about in this blog. The first is that a friend of mine has hit the milestone of paying off all of their consumer debt. You can see how happy he is talking about how he has gotten it all paid off and it really inspires me to continue on this journey and get to that point too. He tells me that he even has coworkers asking him to do up a budget for them so that they can also get onto the road to financial recovery! Which brings me to my first point; if you don’t think that you can make a budget and get out of debt, you’re wrong.

It is not completely hopeless and it’s actually much more rewarding than just having no debt. Since I have started this process, it’s not just my finances that have improved, but my relationship seems simpler, my stress is lower, my health is improving, I’m making and saving more money, I make smarter decisions, and list goes on. I guess what it boils down to is that I have learned to take control of my life again. I’m not lying when I say that I couldn’t sleep at night knowing that I had $14,581.45 in debt and that was ONLY ON MY MASTERCARD! Not only was that balance ridiculous, but the interest rate was 19.5% and at the rate I was going, there was absolutely no possible way that I would have had that all paid off anytime soon (MasterCard told me it would take more than 30 years if I only made minimum payments). Now, it’s been almost 11 full months since I started this process and I have paid that card down to an astonishing balance of $5,814.57! I am a couple checks away from being under $5,000 on that card. I think I will probably break down and cry tears of joy when that balance is gone. Not only did I get this paid down rapidly, I did it without taking out a consolidation loan. I see people on Gail’s show making double my total income (they’re couples after all) and not paying this off as quickly as me – and it makes me feel overjoyed to know that I am doing this all by myself; well, all by myself in terms of payment, but with a lot of social and emotional support from my loved ones.

30 Days and I could have that sexy mustache!

Now the other and less sappy part of my blog entry; my major 30 day challenge! As I have mentioned in past issues of my blog, I do volunteer work at a yoga studio in exchange for unlimited free yoga (and the savings are substantial). The studio is challenging its volunteers, yogis, and yoginis, to eliminate one bad habit from their life and add a new positive activity in their lives. I know that I have an incredible amount of willpower because I have quit everything from coffee, alcohol, and biting my nails just for the heck of it, so I wanted to challenge myself to do something that I know will push me to a new limit – not eating out for 30 days! That means NO coffee, NO desserts, NO dinners, well, you get the point. There were other things I had thought about doing like, cutting out drinking, or caffeine, but as I said before, I’ve done that before and for much much longer than 30 days, so I figured it would be a smart idea to do something that will not only get me saving money, but living healthier as well, and not to mention how freaking delicious homemade meals are! If you haven’t cooked yourself something at home in while, you really should, it’s the stuff that health is made of! 

AKA Sex in a pan

So, in addition to cutting out a bad habit, I also have to add something positive into my life. Luckily for me, this really is the challenge because I feel really good about where I’m at in my life right now! I figured that in keeping up with the no eating out theme, that I would add cooking one delicious (and not too complicated) meal for myself each week. Last night I made this amazing RosemaryChicken Skillet (thanks Gojee) and I got inspired to stop making the same old bland $hit and get creative in the kitchen again. What I enjoyed most about my delicious dish was that it cost a mere $15 to feed two people with completely fresh ingredients. It would have been good for two meals, but we were really hungry, and it was effing mouthgasmic!

There you have it, my challenge for the next 30 days. I will try to come up with some sort of “Gail-themed” chart again so that you can all follow along with my progress! I feel like I need to reward myself somehow though so my deal will be, if I can go 30 days without spending money on eating out, I will give myself $300 to go shopping! I really need new work shoes because they’re looking pretty ghetto – they have freaking holes in them! Also, I’ve wanted to (finally) get some sewing supplies and start working on some sewing projects! For every day that I screw up, I will take away $10 from my shopping budget! I’m really hoping I can save the whole $300 though!

Wish me luck everyone!

Oh yeah, and one more thing, I have to do 5 yoga classes per week and 10 minutes of meditation on the other two days for the entire challenge! Oh boy… 

Surviving the Summer!

DFA made all my dreams come true

This entry is going to be a bit all over the place, and I apologize in advance if you lose track of what’s going on, but I just have so much to update you on! The first thing worth mentioning is that I survived Bluesfest. No, not because the main stage collapsed and nearly killed some people, but because I made it through financially! Normally, I easily spend about $500 on this summer music festival and this year I spent well under $100 total. The festival is a 2 week affair and I managed to only go on two days (the best 2 of course) and only buy 2 beers and one bag of the best freaking popcorn EVER.  The tickets are normally $40 each if you don’t buy them in advance, but I was so lucky to have some friends who kept their ears open for me and I got each ticket for $20 and $25 dollars respectively! It was practically two for the price of one! The beers on the other hand, well they were a bit pricey at $6.50 each (I think, I honestly don’t really remember since I was drinking before the show too) and the popcorn was a steal of a deal at $5 for a bag (I’m telling you, this popcorn is un-freaking-believable) – total comparable savings (this year to last year): $437 – WOW! I realize that I did pretty darn well in saving this money, but I think that it’s safe to say that the one thing I miss most from my past spending habits is the amount of concerts I used to go to. I really love music and I especially like to support independent artists so I really try to stay out of the loop when bands come into town. The major aspect I miss about not going to shows is that now I see some of my friends a little less as a result, but they understand and now that I have proven myself with my frugality, they seem to get it. I did get to see the Black Keys, DFA 1979, and Mother Mother with my friends, so I think I got a heck of a deal for what I ended up paying overall!

Apparently this is what a cakewalk is...

In other exciting news, I just got back from my first day at my new job and let me tell you – I think I’m going to do really well! I’m definitely feeling optimistic about how this new job is going to work out for me. I’m extra excited to see what my new paycheck is going to look like, i.e. how much faster can I get this debt paid off! There are always so many deductions and now I’ll be in a new income tax bracket, so I’ll just have to wait and see what happens I guess. Truth be told, the money is nice, but I will miss my old job; the team that I worked with really got my sarcastic sense of humour and they were just all around smart, friendly, and attractive group of people. It’s tough when you find a job you love but you plateau because there are no other opportunities available in your office; but I definitely feel lucky to have opportunities present themselves to me instead of having to go out and look for a job like so many others in this $hitty economy. Although, right now is just the honeymoon phase of my new job, so I am still a bit apprehensive about getting into the mindset that it will be a cakewalk. If it doesn’t go well, you know you will hear me bit¢h about it on this blog!

In case you have been wondering what has been happening with my whole lost/stolen wallet fiasco, I am happy to report that I finally have all my cards back. The police called me last week to tell me that since the amount of money that was actually stolen from my wallet and the actual cost of the contents of my wallet was so insignificant that they were closing my case – which I totally agree with. There really was no reason to keep the case going and waste police resources, but I’m still glad I filed a report in the event that someone did eventually get caught with my precious deer wallet and $2 bill! I learned a couple more interesting things about the loss of my credit card though. The first was that it takes forever for them to send a replacement card. I got my credit card weeks later than my health card and drivers license. The second thing I learned was that you can still make payments to your MasterCard using the number of the old account; they just keep a linkage to all of your past numbers and the payments go through like magic. However, there is no way to purchase anything with your credit card until you receive a physical copy in the mail. This is obviously a smart idea otherwise some jacka$$ could call in and jot down your number and start spending away all willy nilly. Oh, and remember that special ‘limited time offer’ that they gave me to increase my credit limit? Well they made the same offer again. It was really annoying! I can’t wait for when I get to call them back and have the amount lowered to $5,000!

My debt doesn't wear pants.

Now there’s a bit of crappy news. My savings account has been decimated! Since I was unable to access my credit and it took forever for my boss to approve my vacation, I had to spend over $700 on a return flight for my brother’s wedding. Let’s just say the service better be excellent and freaking sexy. My savings has plummeted down to a pathetic $400, but my new action plan to boost it back up seems to be right on track. Instead of the measly 10% I contributed before, I now have 15% to play around with, and it certainly makes a difference. I also forgot to mention that I still haven’t even filed for my medical costs and I have three paychecks coming in August! That could really be a kick in the pants for both my savings and my debt repayment. Alright, I am now sitting at 26.83% of my debt paid off and I only have 6.17% to go before I have 33% paid off! My goal was to be at that percentage by the end of October, but I think I am about ready to blow that figure out of the water! Wish me luck!