Friday, February 29, 2008

Managing the "Debt"

Oopsie Daisy crops up with budget tracking everyoncenwhile which inspires me to keep an eye on mine, or procrastinate about it, whatev. And one thing we know is that your budget can blow away from you and spiral really really quickly. Because of the high apr's or I don't know, rampant eating out, gym memberships, netflix, buying new workout pants, shoes, gas, dental cleaning, trips to SF... Anyway, I rue the year 2000 when I moved to Chicago and life as I know it aka. free of debt, departed forever. Part of my subconscious desire to clean house is financial. Weirdly. A few months ago I downgraded my cellphone plan and started paying $5 for texts/and multi-media. Saved me $25 a month. Then my eyes blurred and I managed to not depress myself with the enormity of it (surprising), having doled it out in small non-scary digits... but I've spent the last month shuffling my creditcard debt to: citi 0%apr for one year then 10%. amex 5% for the entire time, and finally discover 5.9% until 2010. You can usually call them and ask if they can lower it, or just move it and the offers come pouring in bcs they want your money back- the devils. Wamu sucks the biggest ass. And I don't want to think about the transfer fees bcs I must tell myself that it's going to get lower and better and um, lower. Right? Ugh. Anyway, the last thing I've been hanging onto is my 24f gym membership. My monthly plan of $41.99 for the last 3 years, which I uh, charged to my card when I was $200 from max, and only partly employed. It was optimistic on my part. This rash though health inducing act has apparently wasted me $1600. Awesome. So today I charged $900 to my citi card with the 0%apr and started all over again- I got a new towel, and a new membership card, a tri-tiered box of vitamins and various nutritional bars, drinks and 4 free training sessions... and of course after 3 years @ roughly $25amonth. It goes to $50 annually ever there after. It's like a new day already. Sort of like when I took my ch5 test yesterday in French and true to the procrastinators code, once I faced failure I had only up to go, and it was as the cliche goes a silly refreshing breath of cool minty breeze. I even decided to apply for a fellowship. Sure it's due on the 7th but you already know why I haven't turned it in yet.

7 comments:

Kurt said...

I have a gym down the street that is $99 a year. It actually costs $159 after all the fees they add, but still, can you believe it!

Daniel Bruckner said...

And I just got back from the gym! $41.99 a month!!!?!?!?! What sort of cock-a-mamie plan did they get you to sign up for?!!!? And also, how come I never see you there?

Anonymous said...

Yikes. That's the main reason I don't have a gym membership.

penelope said...

Yowza, that is a lot for a gym plan. But good for you for even posting on debt so honestly. The very idea gives me the willies.

I think it's a matter of spending what we actually have, rather than what we plan to have. Once you get that in your head... But then, how to make enough money to eliminate the damage already done, hmmm.

~sarah said...

i currently, gasp, have no credit card balance. just school loans and car payment. but that means something is die to go wrong with the car - something very expensive - and probably also something with my teeth and maybe that trip to SF myself... someone once told me that as an american, i just have to get used to being in debt of some sort for my whole life. that makes me kind of sad, mainly because he was probably right.

Anonymous said...

The milk is spilt, cry not.


Go work out and forget all your troubles.

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