Debt Hater

Saturday of My Peculiar, Expensive and Ultimately Satisfying Weekend -- Part II

  (This is an updated version of the post. The previous version somehow omitted the entire second half. I apologize for the confusion. The complete post is now up).

    Saturday.

    After Friday's frustrations, I was looking forward to a fun-filled Saturday. But first, there some things I wanted to do around the apartment and an errand or two I wanted to take care of before I went on my way.

    Famous last words...

 

A Peculiar, Expensive, but Ultimately Satisfying Weekend Part I

    Whew!

    That's my weekend summed up in a word.

    It all started on Friday. It was a beautiful day, albeit very hot first thing in the morning. My guy is out of town and I planned a fun, active weekend for myself. I just needed to get some errands straightened out first thing in the morning, live through work until 5 p.m. until a Happy Hour with co-workers and then I was going to take myself out dancing.

    So I got up, got dressed in a very cute outfit with my new pair of kelly green ballet flats, a yellow top from Banana Republic and my high-waisted, wide leg jeans from H&M. I finished the look with my white headwrap and these yellow dangly earrings from Target.
    Before I went to work, I was going to take the paperwork from my auto loan lien holder to get a clear title. This was my moment to make my car, my own OFFICIALLY!

    Sound good? It all went sliding downhill before I even got to my office.

Seriously, somebody stop me!

     Co-worker told me about a shoe sale at Steve Madden online, free shipping. I bought three pairs of shoes.

    SCREEEECH! Huh?

    Yeah, I'm bugging the heck out.

    So tonight, I sat down at my laptop and started doing some cakalations (that's how my gram says it. It's Cack-a-lator, not Cal-cu-lator). I went to my spending record spreadsheet and added up every penny I've spent in every category for the last six months and worked out the average for each month.
    Next, I am going into my budget and actually budget for all these "miscellaneous" items that I don't actually budget for, but wind up spending money on. I will also make adjustment to things I do spend money on so that my budget for the month is more realistic.
    But most importantly, I am going to set up some automatic deposits -- straight outta my paycheck. Single Ma recommended to me that I make a lot of this automatic. If it's gone before I see it, I can't spend it.
    That's kind of like, well of course, but understanding something and actually doing it are two different things.
    It's been such a relief to see money in my checking account and know that it's not already spent in the coming month. But having that knowledge has woken up that little devil that used to sit on my shoulder, back when I didn't know any better. "You don't have to spent that $950 a month on debt payment anymore! What's a pair of shoes? Come on!"
    Get thee behind me Satan!

    Seriously, I'm not in trouble. I am not building debt. But I ain't building wealth either, so I still have a problem.

    Anyway, my task for the end of this month is to figure out the next steps I need to take with my cash. I need to put that money to work so I'm not blowing it. Don't get me wrong, I plan to have a fun summer and enjoy some things, but I am not going to just blow my was every month and say, "It's ok, because I'm not in the red!" Uh, no.

    And PS -- for those wondering -- I did send back those pants from Anthropologie, not because I felt guilty, but because they didn't fit, like I knew they wouldn't. So, really, I'm out $5 because of the folly.

    Lord help me.

    :-)

    DH   

Somebody... Stop... Me... From... Shopping!

   

When Bruce Banner gets angry, he turns into the Hulk, a big, green super steroid monster that smashes and destroys until he's spent.

    When I'm debt free and the sun is shining and my money is, for the most part, my own, I turn into Shopper Girl who checks in on stores, looks at bargains online and buys new little trinkets until her money is spent.

    Yesterday I bought a cute pair of green flats (they were on sale!) to go with my cute kelly green shirt I bought at Banana Republic over the weekend. And then wore the little yellow earrings I got from Target (they were just $5, come on!), which also happened to look fabulous with my purple shrunken cardigan (also from BR and also on sale) that I wore with my yellow tank top and wide leg jeans. I'm the stunna I tells ya! Oh yeah, and the other day I ordered some hot to death seersucker pants from Anthropologie, even though they didn't have my size in tall. I figured the size down could still fit... and they were on SALE!

    HELP! I think I've been invaded by body snatchers! Those are NOT words that could be coming out of my mouth. On Sale? Since when do I give a crap!? I'm always going off on people who justify their unnecessary purchases because they were "on sale." If you buy an antique, ivory back scratcher for 50 cents when it's normally $1,000, you still lost 50 cents because what the heck do you need that for anyway?!

    The thing that kills me is that I never was a shopper. I used to tell people that I hated shopping and when I did shop, I shopped like a man: "Need this. Right size. Right color. I take it. *Grunt* No more need for clothes." Then I'd scratch myself.

    I don't think I need an intervention just yet, but who wants to get to the point where they need any intervention!? That's about two minutes to too damn late in my book. I don't ever want to get to too damn late again in my life.
    I'm fine now. I'm not going in the red. I don't owe anybody and won't even after I get my Anthropologie pants, but I just don't want to undo in a matter of months all the discipline I spent two years building up.
    Maybe I just need to get it out of my system.
    Maybe I need to stop dilly dallying and set up some S.M.A.R.T. goals so that my money is going where it needs to automatically and, thus, not available for me to just spend on whatever.
    Lord, I need counseling :-)
   
    Happy Friday!

    DH

   

Oops, I dun spent all my cash

    So, uh, I paid off my car.

    Fine.

    Then I went grocery shopping (can't seem to spend less than $50 a week no matter what I do). I also bought some umbrellas since I managed to lose two on the Metro. I bought a big one to keep in my car and a green Totes to use in my purse.
    Then I bought a pillow since my pillow was all flat, mushy and icky.
    Then there was my $300 weekend as I previously described. And then there was some checks I had written previously, and accounted for, but folks didn't cash until, like, just now.

    So, um, all that pretty much wiped out my checking account. I mean, it's not at $0.00 or anything, but, um, if I need to spend any money on anything else, I shouldn't. It'll be a whole week before my next paycheck comes in. I am still on track to finish the month in the black, but dang, talk about frontloading!

    DH

Singing, Eating and Drinking

    Went to the Alicia Keys concert in town with my buddy and blogger BK Diva.
It was so much fun! We ate dinner at Rosa Mexicano (where I had this funky and fantastic pineapple and cinnamon cocktail), chatted, chilled and looked fabulous. We missed Jordin Sparks (which disappointed neither of us), we saw NeYo, whose songs I like, but whose performance was ho hum.
    Then Ms. Keys, who impressed me! First of all, I didn't think she could move from behind the piano, but she proved me wrong on that. She did up her hits big and did justice to her more intimate pieces on the piano. I was a satisfied customer.

    Friday night's damage: $97.83, including $15 on parking, which sucks, but it also includes a cool apricot cocktail I had after the concert. Lovely evening.

    Saturday, my guy went to catch up with some buddies for the day and I went to run errands. Saturday errands always seem to cost a fortune. You can spend hundreds of dollars in no time.
    First, I went to get  an oil change. Sat at the Jiffy Lube for over an hour (because everyone else in Christendom decided to get their oil changed at the same time) but I was on the phone catching up with my girl on the West Coast so it was ok.
    Then, I went window shopping, then trying-on-clothes shopping, then buying-clothes shopping. I got some much needed khaki slacks, then much lesser needed tops (I had a $25 off coupon at Banana Republic, but, still).
Spent $10 on parking that day, which SUCKS.
    Then I met up with some old co-worker buddies from Virginia who moved up to D.C. It was great! We had dinner at an Ethiopian place (and one of my buds paid for dinner for all of us! Sweet!) then dessert and cocktails at live music lounge, just talking and cracking jokes. Lovely.

    Saturday's damage: $224.87. YIKES! The oil change was a little over $60 and then I spent over $100 on clothes.

    Still under budget on all the categories involved here, but I might want to keep the $300 weekends to a minimum!

    DH

Days Away From DEBT FREEDOM

    This week, my last car payment will go to the lien holder.

    After this week, I will officially own my car.

    After this week, I will have NO MORE debt repayment payments to make anymore.

    I called the lien holder to let them know I was paying off the car this month (because of the foolishness that my bank tried to pull when I paid off my card, but then they were still trying to get $5 outta me for finance charges).
    The payment has to go to a different address and be labeled PAYOFF DEPARTMENT. I had set up automatic recurring payments with my bank for the car note back in 2004, so I called the bank, rather than fuss with it online. I don't want any mishaps.

    The bank will still sent the money via electronic transfer, but I just wanted every i dotted and every t crossed.

    And that, ladies and gentlemen, will be the last of my debt!

    Now, in the interest of full disclosure, technically,  I won't be completely debt free. I still have a school loan that is about $3,600 right now, but, as I've mentioned in previous posts, a close friend of my family has insisted on paying that off as he did for my brother's school loans.
    So, I will still have that debt, but I won't be making any payments (unless, God forbid, he changes his mind!).

    I am so excited!

    DH
   

I went buck wild

    There are still a few days left in the month and few days before my May monthly report, but I may was well be honest now: I went buck wild this month.

    I was so happy to pay off the credit card, I felt so free. Like Mary Mary sang, "Take the shackles off my feet so I can dance..."
    But, then I started acting up.

    I just busted out the debit card whenever. I didn't shop for groceries, I didn't cook, but Lord knows I was eating! $40 in one sitting a few times. Went to dinner with some buddies; took myself to dinner after a long day at work; just didn't feel like eating whatever I had in the fridge. I was over my dining out budget halfway through May, and kept spending.

    Had a wonderful Saturday afternoon with my homegirls to celebrate one's birthday. I had the money for that, but, maybe I didn't quite have the money to add that special "glycolic" treatment to the facial -- but I did anyway. Shoooot, glycolize my face!

    Yeah, I'll buy this CD and that book, never mind that I got a pile of books from the library I ain't read yet, movies On Demand AND from Netflix I ain't watched yet and music I just bought on iTunes.

    Anyway, I was feeling a little too free this month... you'll see when I do my monthly report. I'm going out of town this weekend, so don't be mad at me if I don't have it right on June 1... you know I be slow on them sometimes.

    DH

    PS -- In case you're wondering, I PROMISE I'm not spending any more money for the duration of this month (3 whole days. I should be able to make it!)

My Next Priority: Being Completely Debt Free

    So, I've got one more week left in May and I really just need t make sure I finish the month in the black (shoot, the way I've been spending, 50 cents in the black would be okay!).

    But I've been thinking and thinking about it and I think I've made a decision:

    I'm just going to go ahead and pay off the car.

    I've got roughly $1,300 left on my car.
    May is a 3-paycheck month for me.

    I think I'll just use that third paycheck to pay off the car.

    Then I will be totally debt free!

    I decided to do this because I hate debt (as you all know) and, frankly, the car payment felt like a obstacle in the way of my future budget/saving planning.
    So, I'm going to get rid of the car note.

    I'm also going to call my insurance company and talk about how we can lower my premium. The car is five years old. It's got its share of dings and scratches. It's got more than 85,000 miles on it... there's no reason I'm paying an insurance premium that applies to a new, $20,000 car.

    That's what I decided to do. Now, yall know me and I could write my next post like "I decided not to do that because, I just did."
    But I think I'm going to stick with this plan.

    DH

I won't need to choke somebody

    I called Bank of America after sending a hostile e-mail (it was civil, but clear I wasn't playing around).

    The representative pulled up the notes from my previous call and my e-mail. She paused. Then she said, "Ok. As a courtesy, I can waive the finance charge..." yada yada, I stopped listening. All I was thinking was, "Damn right you will."

    Residual Finance charges. That's what cost me $5.26.
    Now that my balance is at zero, I won't be charged that anymore, so long as I pay by balance in full every month. They won't have to worry about that because there WON'T BE a balance on there ever again!

    Get this, she told me that if I had called ahead of time and told them that I intended to pay off the full balance of the account, then they wouldn't have assessed the fee. Huh? Whatever chick, just send me in writing confirmation that you're waiving that fee and you chuckle heads won't have to ever hear from me again.

    Punks.

    So my balance will be zero again. Dang right.

    DH