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Home > Archive: August, 2014

Archive for August, 2014

Got my car back (and a couple of NSDs)!

August 15th, 2014 at 06:33 pm

My car is all better. I did a show last weekend which ended up paying double since it was further away and 2 hours. I just used that as the deductible so I wouldn't have to do any more shifting. Other than the deductible, yesterday and today were NSDs (and actually even before that). I now have Snafu's words in my head whenever I'm tempted to spend unnecessarily. Tomorrow we either have a game or practice and then an evening with SO doing who knows what. Hopefully it doesn't involve spending money and I can keep this streak going through the weekend. Sunday is the zoo (free!) and maybe bowling (I'm going to try and convince him of something less spendy like walking around Georgetown and some fro-yo!).

Life Happens

August 14th, 2014 at 03:08 pm

In my last post, I alluded to the two most recent events I've thankfully been in a position to cover without additional debt. Here's the nitty-gritty.

While I was away at camp, my mom called. Apparently, my grandmother's doctors told my aunts to start calling in the family if anyone wanted to say goodbye. My mom and aunt that live here wanted to fly out and see her. Since most of you know by now that my mom is terrible with money, she of course asked me if I could help. Once again, it means shifting things around, but I'm fortunate to be able to give her the chance to say goodbye to her mom.

The night I got back from camp, my wonderful boyfriend made me dinner. When he walked me out to my car afterwards, I noticed debris on the ground. When I got to my car, I noticed said debris was my driver's side mirror. It was turned in and the mirror was completely shattered. SO's dad was outside at the time, but he didn't hear anything since he was vacuuming. He did notice that one of the neighborhood boys was riding his motorcycle up and down the street. We tracked the kid down, but he never got back to us, and it's likely he'd just deny it anyway. The cops said if he didn't admit to it, there was nothing they could do, as there were no witnesses. My deductible is only $200, so I will be picking up my car today.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the 'bad things happen in 3s' rule skips me this time...

Feeling both discouraged and proud

August 13th, 2014 at 06:06 pm

I just reran the numbers. It looks like I'm going to be lucky just to get my car paid off this year. While I've made a lot of progress over the past year, I feel like I got sidetracked a couple of times and now I'm paying for it. If I hustle and am very discerning, I should have the car paid by December. My moving fund will only be the equivalent of one month's rent, so I will have to wait a month or two longer to build that to two months rent.

One thing I am thankful for is the ability to cash flow many unexpected things without contributing more to my debt pile. I'm so glad that I'm going to be able to treat my family to a great vacation for so little out of pocket. I was able to do necessary car maintenance without putting it on credit. And most recently...

I was able to pay for my mom's flight to see her mom one last time before she passes AND cover the deductible for fixing my car after some punk demolished the driver's side mirror and didn't bother to leave a note. (Both stories to be explained in an upcoming post.)

Just popping in

August 12th, 2014 at 03:10 pm

It's been awhile. Cheer camp was crazy and then spent a wonderful weekend with SO. I've got lots of debt-related stuff to share (some good, most not so much), but I'll start with pre-camp and camp spending.

Before camp, I got my car serviced. I was expecting it to be around $250, but it came in just about $200. While I should have put the overage right back towards something productive, I ended up treating SO to some yummy (expensive) Mexican. He'd been away at camp and hadn't had a really good meal in days. I very rarely splurge on good meals out these days, so I feel comfortable with the decision. (Bonus - he made me chicken parm the day I got home from my camp...delish!)

I bought $30 worth of snacks/food for the trip. I came home with a good amount left, so I'm set on work snacks for awhile. I bought $100 to camp with me. I did splurge on one meal, but I came home with over $50, so I didn't do too bad considering I had to cover all my breakfasts and lunch the first and last days.