Looking Back

Don't be a sucker!

I am still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that I will finally get a chance to speak to the one and only Gail Vaz-Oxlade on September 10th! It still feels a bit surreal to me. My last post had the highest readership of all time and in the past month I have gotten well over 1000 views on my blog which means that a lot of people are reading what I have to say and are watching my progress.

Even better are all the in-person conversations I am beginning to have with friends and strangers about how to get their finances on track. The yoga studio has really brought me into the spotlight to a whole new audience. It is so important to have a dialogue going about debt. Once others realize that they are not alone in paying down their debt, they can begin to see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, no matter how dire the situation may seem. Even though I am doing very well in my repayment, I still learn so much from the people I talk to about how I can cut corners and stay on track. Sometimes I need reminders that what I have accomplished is really quite incredible.

When I began this process, I really had no idea where it was going to take me. Part of me was scared that I would fail and stay stuck in the hole that I had dug, another part of me was excited to take control of something that had completely derailed me. When my friends had left for a trip around the world using the savings they had, I realized that my spending was awful and my savings were nonexistent because they were both making the same salary as I, but they had so much more to show for it. I needed to come to terms with the fact that I wasn't as good with money as I had always believed. More importantly, I needed to see that I had become everything that banks and retailers wanted - a sucker.

Do you remember that when I started this process I was paying $314.06 PER MONTH on interest payments? Now that figure has been reduced to under $40 , which is still $hitty, but it's a massive improvement. Can you see now why paying things off rapidly is so important? Think about all the money that you could be saving if you can pay off your debt in under 3 years. The banks take enough from you in fees, so why let them take your money in interest as well? What is the point in having savings at less than 2% if you are going to pay interest at 19.98%? There are so few things that you actually need to pay for on your credit card, and using your own money is so much more rewarding.

If you take control, kill the debt and build your savings, the banks will start paying you! You could be the one collecting $314.06 in interest per month, and you SHOULD be in that situation eventually. Few of us want to work for the rest of our lives, so we need to plan ahead and be realistic with where we see ourselves in the future. We are expected to live longer and longer, so we need to have savings that last longer and longer as well. Pension plans are great, but they won't keep you living at the high standards that you may be accustomed to, so start now, try to live with less, and you will gain so much more happiness for the rest of your life. 

Finally, Another Post

Lucky for you, it's a rainy day!

While I may not be writing on here as often as I had initially set out to do, I am still able to report a level of progress in my debt repayment. When the seasons take a change for the better, it gets difficult for me to sit down in front of a computer and write something meaningful for my readers when I could be sitting outside in the sun and enjoying the weather. Fortunately for you guys, it's a rainy day so I am much more inclined to write something today!

There is a lot that has been going on in the past few months that I feel like I should be sharing with everyone so I hope you have a bit of time to read another long blog entry. The last time I wrote on here, I had just finished paying of my 2nd source of debt - my line of credit. I'm really starting to notice how good it feels to only have two debtors left to pay. Imagine if all of a sudden you didn't have a rent or mortgage payment, that's what it has been like for me! My debts are going to disappear rapidly since I am no longer spreading all of my payments across 4 different debts. The best part is, I have tackled my highest interest (or most expensive) debt first which is really freeing up more money for me to put toward the principal of my other debts.

Where I am beginning to struggle however, is that I am more inclined to spend money on myself to go out, eat dinners, have drinks, do trips, etc. and I feel that I am becoming less focussed on what it is that I set out to achieve which was to not have to worry about money and whether or not I was paying all my bills on time. Lately, I am making my budget so tight that I don't have a lot of flexibility if something comes up that I need at the last minute, such as contact lens solution, massage therapy, a birthday present, and so on, so now I get down to $8 left in my chequing account and I end up taking money out of my savings to pay for drinks at the bar or something that I used to easily be able to say no to. Now it's fair to say that none of those things I mentioned really are 'needs' because I could simply wear my glasses and lower my spending when it comes to gifts and save the money, but because I have progressed so quickly with my debt repayment, I have found that I am telling myself the story that it's ok to spoil myself with lavish trips to Montreal, or expensive meals out, $80 at the bar, and so on.  Yes, I deserve a break; yes, I am doing incredibly well with my payments; but yet I still feel stuck because of my debt. There is nothing I want more than to be able to say that I am debt free, so I guess that's where I need to check in and remind myself that this is something important for me to do.

Can you picture me and Gail hanging out at the office?
*Dreams*

Speaking of overspending, I had an amazing time in Montreal with my boyfriend, but we definitely spent way too much money for only one weekend! I finally got all the bills in for the car rental, hotel, and all that other stuff and the numbers are nuts! I'm sure that we spent well over $1,000 on 2 days of celebrating. It was worth every penny, but now I have less than $100 in my savings account! I completely understand why Gail talks about the importance of a savings account and I am happy that I didn't have to use credit to pay for everything, but it is certainly disappointing when I look at my horrendous balance in savings.

Even with dismal savings, I will continue to try to put enough away to get my savings back up for a trip to Saskatoon to see my family sometime this year, but it could be a challenge since my sister and her boyfriend are coming for a visit in less than 2 weeks and I will be on another spending binge. This is the problem I have; when something fun is coming up, I really neglect savings in favour of having fun. So we'll see how I fare when they're in town. If I can stay focussed and try to make sure we eat the majority of our meals  here at home, I think we'll be just fine. I'm just really excited to see her again and finally get a chance to show her around town.

Now I have some more news that may affect my savings and debt repayment! My employment status is changing. I am currently acting in a job where I get paid a little more than I used to, but now that is changing in July when the person I am replacing comes back. This means that I am going to go back to my old job (most likely).  It's kind of a good thing in the sense that I will get to go back and work with the people that I enjoy working with, but I will lose some pay and may end up bored out of my mind. But what is more exciting is that I found a second job working at the yoga studio that I volunteer at! I will be a front desk person a couple times a month and I will still get all the free yoga I want while getting put on the payroll! I am super pumped that I will now have another source of money and I will be able to put all that into my savings account. I can now save for vacations and other fun things that I really want to do!

Lots of hearts for Kelly Clarkson! ♥♥

Ok, I just listened to a little Kelly Clarkson to spark a bit of "I'm down on myself but shouldn't be because I am doing pretty darn awesome", so with all that being said, I am still doing incredibly well with my debt repayment. I'm over 60% paid off now and if I can somehow manage to pay $1,500 every month from this point forward, I will be debt free in about 9 months!! Can you believe this? If any of you have been doing the math along the way with my progression, that means that I will have paid almost $40,000 worth of debt off (on my own) in 2 years and 3 months! I cannot believe that I have been able to progress this quickly through this process.

I really want to reemphasise to all my readers that debt keeps you limited. When you can't get out of it, you can get really stressed and frustrated which can leave you feeling helpless. By taking control of your situation, everything from your health to your relationships can be improve by removing the pressure that debt adds. Financial planning can set you up for a life of freedom to do all the things that you want to do in the most optimal way. If you have a good plan, then you don't have to stress about what you are going to do in the future. The whole point of this blog is to tell you about how I am freeing myself from the burden of debt. In the future I may want to move to another apartment or even another city, I might want to buy a home or a car (I'm still trying to figure out the "what next") but as long as I have debt, it makes it difficult to imagine what the next chapter will be.

At this point, I am proud of my accomplishments but I still am dying to meet Gail Vaz-Oxlade and I'm not talking about shaking her hand at a book signing, I'm talking about actually sitting down and having coffee to really and truly thank her for helping me get my life back. One day I hope that I can be that inspiration for someone else in this kind of situation.

There's Been a Murder!

Savings Murdered!

Everyone, it is with a heavy heart that I have share this tragic news here on my blog. There has been a murder, yes, it's true, my savings account has been murdered. It happened Friday night around 8:00 pm and it was a slow and agonizing process, that caught me completely off guard. I sat down at my computer just like any other day and began planning an upcoming trip to Montreal for my 4 year anniversary. I searched for hours for the best deals on car rentals, hotels, and things to do in "the most European city in North America" and the next thing I knew, like water oozing out of a freshly cut watermelon, my savings were depleted and my bank account laid lifeless and cold out there in cyberspace.  I went into my trip planning with the intention to keep things as cheap as I could, but then I remembered that my partner and I have been together for 4 freaking years and this is something to truly celebrate, so I caved and stabbed my savings right in the heart! It looks like Montreal officially brings out my alter ego - Spendy Spenderson.  

NEMESIS!

Without giving away all the details here on my blog (I'm trying to keep things a little bit of a surprise) I really did a pretty good job on keeping the costs down for the car rental and that's about it. I picked a hotel that has a location that cannot be beat, but I am getting what I'm paying for which is what I think should be the point when spoiling someone you love (which is not something I get to do as often as I used to). The good thing about the hotel though is that I have a friend who used to work for that hotel chain (Derek) who pulled a few strings for me and got me the hook-up! In addition to that, I found a show to take my partner to that will knock his socks off and that will guarantee me kisses for weeks! I cannot help but feel a little guilty devastating my savings account, but at the same time I'm kind of proud to say that I am not having to rely on credit to bail me out and pay for everything again like I would have done in the past and then told myself some lie that I would pay it back as soon as I got my next paycheck (bull$hit).  Lately I really have been starting to get a taste of what financial freedom is all about - the freedom to make choices that won't leave you broke and scrambling to pay the bills!

I don't know how often everyone looks at my saving statistics when they read my blog, but  I do try pretty hard to keep putting 10-15% of my income into savings every paycheck. The main thinking behind this is not that I am trying to save for anything in particular at the moment, but I really want to be able to have money to spend on emergency trips home or when I have a burning desire to spend on myself or others, I don't have to pull out the credit card and smack it down on the counter with a 12.9% interest charge every time. Admittedly, this recent dipping into my savings has also made me a little bit annoyed at myself for taking away from my ultimate goal of hitting $5,000 in savings by November. I am not the kind of guy who can completely neglect my goals so when I do things that are counterproductive, the frustration begins to mount (and usually from behind).

Looks like Greece will have to wait!

There are going to be other things that will hinder that in the future as well. I have planned to take 2 more trips to Saskatchewan this year and my sisters are coming to visit me in May and June. Not only that, there is a chance that I may have to come up with an extra $200 per month to cover rent this summer which is essentially how much money I am putting away into my savings account every month. Now I have also been making some wise decisions such as turning down a vacation to Greece and a trip to Halifax, but I still really would love to go and do both of those things. These types of situations motivate me even more to get on track with getting my debt paid off and having a vacation fund as well as a fund for a purchasing a home and increasing my net worth.

Now the big challenge is going to be trying to get that savings number boosted back up for October when I will be planning my next trip back to Saskatchewan! I think it's going to be possible since after May, I will have only 2 debts left to pay! I think I am proving a lot of people wrong and I can get my debt under control while still making sure to enjoy myself and live a full and happy life!

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

Halloween Havoc

I love Halloween!

Don’t panic everyone, I’m still alive and well. Yes, I know it has been over a week since my last amazing and awe inspiring blog entry, but I here I am starting of year number 2 with a poor rapport with blog writing so it’s time for me to jump back on the bandwagon. Well, it’s not just the blog writing I’m struggling with, but there are couple other things as well that I’ve fallen behind on. Do you every have those days when a number of stupid little things grind your gears and everything just seems frustrating? Well that was certainly me yesterday. I really wanted to write my blog entry but I was in no mood to do anything other than eat and sleep (in that order).

Those who know me in real life and not just on this blog, know that I am generally a very lighthearted person and when you want to be around someone positive, normally I am the guy to go to. However, there are some days where I just want to say “eff it” and just go home and crawl into bed. Those kinds of days are pretty rare, but every now and then, I really need to step back and not put anyone ahead of me but myself. Truth be told, that still is one of the life lessons that I struggle to wrap my head around. Where I find the most difficulty is just being completely selfish. There’s a tendency for me to put others first but sometimes those people don’t reciprocate and I get frustrated. It’s also a huge source of why I (and others) get into debt.

In any case, I’m feeling better today and a little less strung out so I think that everything is going to work out just fine. What is at the core of my stress is my bank account. I love Halloween so much, but I went overboard on my spending again this year. I had a Halloween party at my place on the weekend and it was lots of fun and well decorated, but I certainly blew the budget. To top it off, with Christmas around the corner, my savings account got a swift kick to the chestnuts and it’s drained back down to under $500. Not really impressive in my opinion, but what’s done is done and I cannot wait to see my family again in less than 2 months! The best part is that I finally (FINALLY) get a paid Christmas vacation. Do you know how hard it is to pay bills, fly home, and buy gifts when you lose 2 weeks of salary? It’s a lot like listening to U2’s music – awful.

But there’s no point in complaining right? With all the knowledge I have, I can certainly get back up and rebuild my savings and get the debt repayment back on track. In a lot of ways, I’m really starting out year two with the same kind of problems that I had before. I have been eating like garbage, I’m not getting as much exercise as I was before, and my meal plan and fallen deep into the toilet and I have to find some extra long rubber gloves to fish it out.

Last month I finished my 30 day challenge with flying colours. I didn’t spend any money outside of the grocery store, but I think that made me go a little crazy with my spending at Halloween. My new challenge over the next couple months is going to be to save up some spending money while I am in Saskatoon, get better at making a meal plan, and find ways to stay as positive as possible while surviving the holiday season somehow - wish me luck!

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… 

Back to the Drawing Board

Gail's Newest Book! 

You know, I have been really kind of silly these past few weeks. Instead of writing my blog on a Sunday, I use my Monday nights to write my blog instead of tuning in a watching my idol, Gail Vaz-Oxlade’s show Til Debt Do Us Part. She now apparently has 4 different shows, one for homes, one for babies, one for “Princesses” and the last is the original. Let me tell you, girlfriend has been busy! It just goes to show, that when you work hard at something, you can achieve a lot and Gail seems to be the shining example of that. Not only is she shooting all these different shows, she also manages her own blog and gives her own musings on a variety of financial subjects and she does so more than once a week. Add in all the books she's written and this woman is out of control! That being said, I am seriously going to start committing to writing my blog on the weekend so that I can start tuning in to Gail on Monday nights!

I like to believe that my blog is a bit more on the ‘real’ side than hers since I am the one who is actually still paying off their debt, whereas Gail is really getting far ahead and doesn’t really have anything new to say that I haven’t heard her say on her shows, but maybe that’s because I can’t go more than a couple of days without talking about her. Who knows, maybe one day Gail and I will be partners in crime, helping people everywhere pay off their debt – and there seems to be more and more of these people everyday. Can you imagine having your debt get so out of control that you need to take another mortgage on your home, or having to sell your home just to stay afloat, or even worse - move back in with your parents? None of those options sound like something that I want to have happen in my life! These sorts of thoughts help keep me in check and on track to paying off my debt, for sure (more so the idea of getting to work with Gail).

It was definitely the worst of times. 

It’s hard to say lately, but although I have been able to maintain my goal of having 33% of my debt paid off within a year, I am letting a number of other things slip between the cracks. For example, I am in a book club and I have had more that 6 weeks to read one simple book, A Tale of Two Cities. Sure it’s a classic and it’s a bit heavy, but really, there is no excuse for me to be on page 20 out of 386 pages and the book club meets in 2 days! Maybe it’s because it got rotten plums all over it, or perhaps the fact that I put some of my commitments to the wayside in order for me to just spend money and ignore commitments. Sure, this isn’t the end of the world, but the reality is, that I feel like I am letting myself fall short on things that I actually get quite a bit of enjoyment from. If I would have just allowed myself 30 minutes a day from the moment that I bought this book up until now, I would not be in this situation.

You know when you live paycheck to paycheck and by the time you get to the day before your next check you don’t even have enough money leftover to make a withdrawal from your account? Well, that’s been me for the past two paychecks. Mind you, I have been dumping a lot of money into my savings account and I have been keeping all my bills paid, but I think that I am putting myself into this situation simply because I am getting way to lax on my planning. Truth be told, I am very happy that I have not yet had to resort to using my credit card or transferring any of my money out of my savings account, but it’s a hard pill to swallow when I look into my checking account and only see $22.02! However, I do know that that’s how much money I have in my account without even having to look it up, so at least I am somewhat responsible, right?

Yes, even KFC's picture of it looks gross. 

With the risk of writing another blog with no point looming, I’ve decided to take on a challenge, and no, I’m not talking about KFC’s Double-down; I’m talking about a financial challenge. I start my weekly budget on Wednesdays (because that’s the day I get paid) so I want to make sure that I have a solid plan to make my weekly budget of $140 actually last until the next Wednesday. I figure that the best way to do this is to use resources that I already have, as well as throwing in a little bit of something different to spice things up a bit. I recently discovered a website called Gojee.com and let me tell you, I am in love with it so much, that if I spend any more time with it, it could get pregnant. The concept is really simple, you login, tell the website what you are craving, and it gives you a cornucopia of recipes for your perusing pleasure. What is even better, you can tell the website what ingredients you have, and it will find you all sorts of recipes that use ingredients you currently have. Even better, if you have allergies or hate certain types of food (i.e. ketchup or raw apples – disgusting) you can tell Gojee and they’ll leave those ingredients out! Yes Caitlin, there are other websites that do this, but this one is effing sweetest, so in yo’ face! My hope is that this website will really give me a leg up when it comes to planning my grocery list and I can buy items that complement the items I already have and let me shop for things with common ingredients in order to save a fortune!

Gojee!
Even their new logo is awesome!

Another way that I am going to get more organized is to actually start using my agenda in my phone. I have so many different events and things that to do (I know, I know, shut up Mr. Popular) but sometimes I find myself wearing thin both mentally and financially. This way, I am going to check my agenda every week and see what I have committed myself to and how much money I plan on spending there. For example, if I am going to be going to book club, I will probably need to buy some kind of barbecuable (I know that’s not a word) item which I will need to budget for, so let’s say $7.50. Now I know how much more money have left to spend for the rest of the week and that will cover me off for that day. I think what is most important is that I figure out a way to average the same kinds of costs each day and not go overboard when I don’t have to. Now that I think about it, it might be even smarter if I were to look at the month ahead to figure out where I will be spending extra in order to really plan ahead and save up the money for those special events. I have a cooking class coming up on the 21^st with my aunt which will be lots of fun, but it will cost me $60 (I think) so it would be in my best interest to take $20 from the next three weeks and put that aside in order to keep my budget in line.

Oh boy, budgeting can be both so challenging and both so boring at the same time! I don’t know how you guys can continue to read all the stuff that I ramble about sometimes. Alright, I am going to take a page out from the book of one of my subscribers. Starting on Wednesday, for each day that I do well and stay on budget, I am going to give myself a gold star, or better yet, a golden Gail face, and put it into a chart at the end of the week. If I do well, I should see nothing but shining happy Gail faces across the board! Wish me lots of luck, because I think I really will need it to re-break my bad habits and get back on my budget track!

p.s. This post is specially dedicated to my blogging friend Caitlin who is going to be “jumping the pond” for a year to study in the UK. All the best Caitlin!

If you are looking for delicious recipes, be sure to check out her blog (with a banner designed by yours truly)!

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! 

Hold on to Your Butts…

Going off the rails!

There’s a storm a-brewing and it’s headed right for me. Many debt distractions are making their way to throw me off the rails of this crazy train. Although I am doing incredibly well with my debt repayment I am going to be encountering some may-jah changes to my regular schedule. The key over the next few weeks will be to focus, focus, and focus. What in the world is all this excitement John? What, oh what, could be your kryptonite? How is it possible that the latest and greatest debt detonator could ever face such perils that he will be taken so far off course from his debt repayments? Now that you’re on the edge of your seats with excitement, I encourage you to sit back, relax, and read along as to what variables are going to attack my spending. Oh boy, it looks like I may need to redo my budget again.

Do you remember a little while ago, back in March when I told y’all that I got a permanent job? The great news about all this is that I have benefits coming my way starting at the end of June. I’m talking about the whole shebang; dental, optical, rectal, you name it, I got it. Where the challenge begins is that now I have to pay things like death insurance, medical insurance, union dues, pension, and all that wonderful stuff that I’ll probably be stuck with paying until I’m 65. Yes, you heard it here first kids, I don’t think my generation is going to get that “freedom 55” ticket that our parents are getting. With added (but wonderfully exciting) expenses such as these, my gross pay is going down. Only by about $100 mind you, and since I got a raise anyway, the effects of this should all be minor.

If it’s so minor John, why even mention it? I’m getting to that part you guys, geez Louise! Because I worked for 7 years through various contracts with my current employer, I am now able to purchase back all that time that I put in. In other words, I can buy back all that pensionable time in order for me to get out of the workforce sooner, much much sooner. I have calculated how much time I can purchase and it works out to be about 723 working days or the equivalent of 3 years! These years come with a price tag of about $4,000-5,000 (or so I estimate) in order for me to purchase them back. Now I’m no fool, I am all over buying this time back, and it’s cheaper to do so now rather than when you’re making more money in the future. The added bonus is that I can retire 3 years earlier when I’m approaching retirement. Now with buybacks, you can opt to have this amount slowly paid for through deductions from your paychecks, and that’s what I’m going to do. The pickle that I’m in is that my gross pay is going to go down while I’m doing this, and those of you who have been reading along in the blog know that I am not one to run away from paying off debt anymore. I think the best approach will be to find out what the interest rate is on this repayment and then squeeze it in accordingly to my debt repayment process.

My kick-a$$ new helmet!!

There’s so much more to this storm of spending other than this new buyback option. Like a fool, I assumed that I was getting about $600 back in income tax from the Government. However, like Mom always said, when you assume, you make and A$$ out of U and ME (get it? – yes I know it’s a lame joke). Anyway, with this assumption in mind, I’ve been a little more liberal in my spending – not crazy, but a little bit of my alter ego, Spendy Spenderson came out. The things I did buy were justifiable though. Finally, after years of bike riding, I caved and bought myself a helmet (on sale!). My luck has certainly been pushed on this, so I think it was a smart move. My helmet is pretty freaking bad-a$$ too, if you saw it you’d agree. It has little skulls on it which totally means that I am hardcore. While getting my helmet though, I decided to get some new handlebar tape, and that set me back another 25 bones. Add to that my 3-year anniversary with my partner and the $120 meal I bought for us which I thought my refund would cover as well. Needless to say, my Government windfall never came through. In fact I owe them $79.40. All the more reason I should be putting my money into a tax-free savings account. So that little curve ball is nothing to sneeze at, but either way, it did throw off my game a little bit, however I think my “crazy” purchases were totally worth it.

Big change is coming its way for my schedule. I’m not going to lie, having a boring and routine schedule has really made it easy for me to stay on track with my spending. Every day I get to come home and prepare myself a fresh home cooked meal. I recommend this to everyone – not just for your budget, but for your health. Did you know that I can almost see my abs through my former beer belly? Talk about exciting; now I’ll even have a washboard to do my laundry for cheap! The curveball is that I’m going back to school. Yes, I’m going back to school yet again. It’s not university or college though, it’s French language training. Every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I’ll be spending 3 hours after work learning how to parler en Français. This is an incredible gift from my employer to spruce up my language competency; however it does throw off my schedule. After work, I usually enjoy an hour and a half of hot yoga and then I come home for dinner around 7:30. Now, I’m going to be doing French until 7:00, yoga until 9:00 and dinner around 9:30. I don’t think this is really sustainable, so I’m going to see if I can bring dinner to my French classes. I really hate making lunches in advance. I find that nothing ever tastes the same when it’s been sitting in a bag for 24 hours until the next time you eat it. I gets all soggy and tastes like plastic wrap, and then there’s that mess of lugging along those dirty containers – ew. I guess this will challenge me to go the distance on how I spend my food budget and we’ll see if I can resist the temptation to buy takeout.

Worst Place to go when you're in debt!!

Alright, now here comes the doozie - Vegas. Yes, in a mere 3 weeks I will be living it large and in charge in Las Vegas. I think that at this point, if I were on one of Gail Vaz-Oxlade’s shows she would slap me across the back of my head.  Why the H-E-double hockey sticks are I going to Vegas when I’m trying to pay down $38,000 worth of debt? Well, it’s for my brother’s stag party and I am in his wedding party, so I do feel obligated to go and I do have a bit of a game plan. Have you been watching my savings account climb ever higher? Have you also noticed that I have now paid of $5,000 on my credit card?! I’m so excited about that I could pee myself. I have made an executive decision to reward myself by taking $1,000 from my savings for spending to Vegas to cover me for the 3 days that I’m there. I don’t think it’s completely unreasonable for me to live on $1,000 for 3 days in Vegas. The real question is how much of the rest of my savings I can hold onto to pay for my trip to his Wedding in August!

So as you can clearly see, there is a storm a-brewing which will push my limits to crazy new levels. Will I survive the storm? Will I burn out from French and cave in to take out? Can any man only live on $1,000 for 3 days in Vegas? Stay tuned until next time kids on the next episode of John’s Fight for Financial Freedom!

The Mother of All Days

If you’re able to read this, odds are that you are a human being and you have a mother. This may come as a surprise to some of you but, I too, have a mother. It’s true; I am a human being and not just some internet wunderkind blog-writing machine. The year was 1982 when I arrived in this world with a mission to become the incredible blogging wizard that I am today, little did I know that it would be due to the fact that I had managed to accumulate nearly $40,000 worth of debt at the tender age of 28. Did you know that my Mom is actually a writer as well? The big difference though is that she writes plays and novels and I write a sassy blog on the internets for nerds to read. Check out her first novel The Preacher. If you want a copy, let me know and I’ll hook you up!

My mom's first published book!

In case you forgot or haven’t got the hint from all the mom references, today is Mother’s Day (call your mom!), so what better day to talk about my Mom and how she has helped me over the past 28 ½ years! My Mom has always been a great teacher when it comes to money. I grew up in a small town with my Mom and Dad and 4 siblings. It was a busy house with lots of mouths to feed and a frenzy of activity happening all the time. To this day I don’t know how they managed to keep us all fed, pay the bills, and cover all of our school trips and other activities while on a single income. I had a great childhood, but I certainly remember the days when we really were scraping by and eating lots of macaroni and cheese (or sometimes macaroni and bread crumbs). What was most important is that we never went to bed hungry and we always had a roof over our heads. My parents also have a great sense of humour, which made life back home all the more fun for 5 children. Growing up with little really taught me a lot and I can go on for days with stories about how we scraped by, but the point is that you can still have a great life with little cash and a good budget.

I guess one of the most memorable ways that my mom helped save money was with our garden. Every year we would plant rows of delicious vegetables and the savings were incredible. Yes we all really hated weeding the garden. I think that of all the stupid chores that my mom would make us do weeding was one of the worst. The garden wasn’t always a source of frustration (because sometimes you just wanted to dump a gallon of herbicide on the thing and watch them all go!), my Mom would make things fun and loved to do silly things like plant a petunia in the onion patch just so that she could sing that stupid song that went along with it. The amazing thing about the garden was the amount of delicious vegetables that you could get from it and how inexpensive it is. There is nothing like grabbing a fresh carrot out of the ground and tasting how freaking yummy it is! We didn’t just benefit from our garden either, my mom voluntold us to go and pick apples at neighbor’s yards but the pay-off was totally worth it! At the end of the year Mom would make apple juice, pickles, and other preserves and have delicious food to eat for the entire winter. It was amazing. You don’t realize how much work goes into it and how awesome it was until you grow up and leave home! If you’re one of those lucky people who have a yard, you should consider starting a garden. It’s really easy and the rewards are fantastic!

My Mom is not like other Moms – she does not like shopping. I think my mom would rather weed the garden than have to spend more than 30 minutes in a mall. Yes, my mom is a country girl through and through. She liked to get into the store and get out of there as soon as possible. She and I were quite the team when we would go grocery shopping. The important lessons that she taught me were to read the flyers to see what the best deals were. She showed me how certain brands would go on sale and the sales would rotate every week. We almost never paid full price for anything. If the name brand stuff wasn’t on sale, we would buy the store brand. I learned quickly that when you’re cooking things from scratch anyway, it didn’t matter if you used name brand baking ingredients because the no-name stuff produced the same result anyway. We also never went shopping without a grocery list. When you’re trying to feed a family of seven, you always need to plan ahead for what you need and you have to assess what you already have so that you don’t run out of the staples like milk, eggs, flour, butter, and so on. I remember that we used to buy 5-6 4-litre jugs of milk every time that we went into the city for groceries. It was nuts!

Mom and Me!

I don’t remember my Mom ever talking about using her credit card, but I do remember that we had a line of credit. She taught me that the interest rates were much lower and when I needed to borrow money, Mom would use her line of credit and then outline the amount of money that I would have to give her in order to pay more than the minimum payment and get the debt paid off quickly. I was always the best with money in the family so I paid off a $3,000 loan with my mom in a matter of months. I think that actually boosted her credit rating thanks to me – you’re welcome Mom! Now my Mom is the co-signer for the Student-Line-of-Credit that I have, and I am definitely grateful for that since my interest rate on that is actually lower than the federal government’s student loan program. She’s saving me tons of money on interest!  

Creativity is a wonderful weapon when it comes to enjoying your life and living on the cheap. There is nothing that my Mom couldn’t think up that wouldn’t entertain the heck out of us! My mom used to make play-dough out of flour, salt, and water with a few pinches of food colouring – fun for hours! We even had oomalik which was just corn starch and water. If you haven’t tried this yet, you really should – it’s tons of fun! She sacrificed having her own fancy yard and instead filled half of our backyard with sand so that we could dig it up and make dinosaur trails or build sandcastles with the neighbourhood kids. Our yard quickly became the best place for kids to come play and have a blast because my Mom would rather us have a fun place to play rather than a pristine lawn. My Mom did all sorts of creative cost-saving things like sew our Halloween costumes. I remember one year a friend of mine didn’t have a costume so she literally took a couple garbage bags and shredded them up to make him into the “swamp thing.” It really is amazing all the great things she would do with her creative mind to save money.

Mom - just hanging out in the clouds! 

So my message to you all is this, instead of looking to your Mom (or Dad) to pay for things for you, look for advice from you Mother. Usually the women of the house are the ones balancing the books at the end of the month, so when you talk to your mom, see if she has some ideas to help support your journey to financial freedom without it being monetary. Thank you Mom for all the love and support over the years and for reminding me that a creative mind can achieve anything – as long as you’re a little patient along the way!

Happy Mother’s Day!

Love,

John

From Spendy Weekend to Savey Weekend

C'mon Irene!!!

Where have I been all week? Oh yeah, I was enjoying an amazingly laid-back long weekend and then got wrapped up in watching the Biggest Loser last night which made me completely skip my blog writing for the evening! Yes, it’s true, I am one of those skinny ba$tards that sits around and eats pizza and cupcakes while watching people who can’t eat those kinds of foods try to lose 50% or more of their body weight. Don’t get me wrong, those people are inspiring me to not become a lazy sack of $hit for sure, but something about that show makes me want to binge on junk food – perhaps part of me wants to be a contestant on that show. It didn’t help that the episode was super short, but thank goodness they got rid of that annoying Kaylee! And Rulon, do we really need an Olympic gold medalist to win a weight-loss competition – adios! Irene for the win!! After that I got wrapped up in TWO hours of “The Voice” which was “meh”. But c’mon, another singing show? Meanwhile my friends are travelling the world and I am contemplating the fate of reality TV losers.  Anyway, I am getting completely off topic here. The point of this blog is kind of about redemption from my spending fiasco that was last weekend.

My seductive debit card!!

I’ve got to say it, I loved my time in Halifax, but it definitely distracted me from keeping my eyes on the prize – which is getting all this stupid debt paid off.  This weekend was a great time for me to buckle down and get my budget back on track; start saving up my pennies again; and get my repayments back in line. Since I knew I was going to be away for the weekend in Halifax, I never bothered to stock up on groceries, which left me eating lunches out for the past 2 days. I know you’re thinking, big whoop. But it is a big whoop! When I eat out for lunch, I get reminded of all my bad habits, like going to the delicious Thai restaurant across the street, or getting some delicious Indian food from the cafeteria downstairs – that’s about $20 for 2 lunches out of my $60 per week that I have allocated toward food.  Worst of all, I have been using my dastardly debt card which makes me completely lose sight of how quickly my budget disappears from my wallet. I think I have that seven-month itch and my debit card is calling to me from the pocket on my right butt-cheek: “Joooooohn, why don’t you hold me like you used to? Remember all the good times we had at all those stores? Or the way you would swipe me, firm and fast, in those interac machines and I would give you all your heart’s desires?”

That stupid debit card, seducing me with its lies! Luckily, I set a trap for myself in the event that something like this would happen. I’ve been using TD bank since I was 5 years old. Some days I really question why it is that I am still with them, but I digress. TD has this great feature on my debit card that whenever I use my debit card, money is automatically taken from my chequing account and placed into my savings account. You can set this amount from 50 cents up to $5.00. Being the reformed conservative spender that I am, I set this amount to $5.00  so that for every time I am tempted to whip it out and slap it down on the counter – um, my debit card that is, I get dinged for it. In the course of ONE week, I automatically moved $100 into my savings account – that’s TWENTY debit transactions for those of you who are mathematically challenged - ridiculous. Not to mention that I put $150 every 2 weeks into my savings account already. So, if you remember, back in January, I pi$$ed away all of my savings when I went without a paycheck. I am happy to say that now my savings account is at a wonderful $1,741.08! That’s more than 10 times what my savings was back in October of last year! Holy moley guacamole!

The long weekend really helped me reflect about my poor spending habits (both past and present). I realize that I think about my debt way more that any sane person should, however, in order for this process to work, it is imperative that I keep my mind on the money (and my money on my mind) – and maintain a positive attitude about it too. So what do you do when you’re in a situation like mine and you want to keep the spending to a minimum? Let me tell you. I was faced with a number of choices this past weekend, I could have gone out to the bar on more than one occasion, but instead I would buy a case of beer and share it with friends. It’s quite a simple decision for me nowadays. Heck, I even had some left over to take to “the crack park” and drink on the bench, yeah, I’m classy like that. On Thursday night, I had a friend over for some wine, made my own delicious and impressive veggie tray (if you thought I was going to say make my own wine, you are grossly mistaken – yuck) that was not only beautiful, but so healthy too! I even had plenty of leftovers to take to my volunteer job at the yoga studio the next day!

Which leads me to my next thrifty weekend point – find a way to do something you love that doesn’t cost you a thing! All the free hot yoga I am getting is certainly helping me (h)eat my time and lets me exercise for free, but since we don’t all have the time to volunteer and get free yoga, think about doing some other free physical activity. Spring is full of ways to get out and have fun without spending a dime and now’s the time to start searching the internet for local festivals, pack a lunch, and go have a great time in your hometown.

LOL, Google image search for "sexy brownie"
Not at all what I was implying! 

It’s no secret that I am a big fan of coffee shops, and there’s nothing I love more than to grab a book and get lost in it while sipping on a delicious latte at my local caffeination station, however, now that I’m a saver and not a spender, I have learned to avoid coffee shops like the plague. I know that I will easily spend $5 on coffee and probably buy that sexy brownie flashing its fudgy frosting like a 2-bit hooker on nickel night in a heartbeat.  To reduce the temptation and save my money, I got my own little reading nook that I can escape to with a cup of coffee and spend a wonderful rainy afternoon with my book. I don’t care if I look like a nerd or seem antisocial, part of this process is to learn that you can do things that you love without always going out and spending on yet another dinner out that really loses it luster when it becomes routine. I really challenge you to have a friend over for dinner, cook for them, and see how fun it actually is! Even if it turns out to resemble dog $hit on a plate, you’ll end up with a memory between friends that will last for a long time.

Oh, just one more thing, I got my credit card paid down to $9,972.84 today! I know that balance still sounds insane, but you have no idea how much this debt repayment journey is changing my life. I can finally look my debt in the face and tell it to go straight to hell! If you ever need someone to help you get on track with your debt repayment, I would be so happy to help you. That’s it for this week ladies and gentlemen. Thanks for reading!

xoxo