It seems my math was off, and I missed a day, or skipped a day somewhere along the line.
So….it’s groundhog day all over again. 
First off, for a Monday – let’s start with a bit of housekeeping shall we? I made a very small payment of $650.00 towards my RBC Visa Classic account today, which brings the balance down to $21,787.44. This isn’t really much of a dent, as this payment really just keeps the lights on and we’ll be right back to where we started last again.
Interest was about $200, and my web hosting was $275-ish. Add a few domain renewals and other subscriptions for this site and others and I’ll be right back up to 22k and change again. Which, I’m OK with for now. I’m working on getting my BMO mastercard balance down first as it’s the higher of the two with interest rates. I also paid Rogers $341 and change for my wireless/internet. This was high due to moving and hookup fees and the bastards billed me for the past month, and then the future month too.
Remember when you needed just a land line phone to communicate? I do. Now you have to get a 2nd job almost just to pay for your wireless and internet charges.
So. Time to get rockin’ on my sacrifice of the day then. Sell more stuff, get what you can for it, and toss it towards the credit cards. I think if I hustle, I can sell a whack of stuff and (fingers crossed) just be carrying the Visa balance by July 1, 2010. I should run a contest, and whomever guesses closest to the day I’m debt free – wins something. Also, I’ve been thinking: to make this so I don’t give up the ghost on this little project and keep at it, I think there should be a reward. When I was in school, there was a reward: It was called a diploma. When I had a cushy day job there was a reward: It was called a regular paycheck. I think if I’m going to give up and sell all my stuff, and make an effort to cut back on my discretionary spending (which, I’ve already done a pretty good job at) I think there should be something at the end. I’m thinking travel.. I’m not sure where, and I’ve got 900 plus days to go but I’d like to go away somewhere hot in the dead of winter. It seems so decadent at this stage in the game. Almost inconceivable. I’m not much of a beach guy, but somewhere warm for a week in Jan But not until the evil credit cards are gone. It won’t be this winter, or next probably. And I’m OK with that.
Sacrifice of the Day
Today’s is a goody. I’ve talked about it before and today I have the first of many ( I think I’ve got another one of these somewhere too). It’s a Harmony Remote SST-659 internet powered universal remote. I talked about all the cool features of these things before so I’ll save you the sales pitch yet again. I’m going to miss this in a way, as this was a product that actually worked. Not some crappy universal remote that you have to press hundreds of codes in and hope that your TV or whatever recognizes the code. With this, you tell the website what electronics you have, and answer a few questions about how you’d like to operate volume, etc and you’re set. Up and running easily.
Oh – this just in. I sold my Apple iPod and accessories for $128 and another $4 for some headphones I had kicking around here. The shipping for the headphones will probably be more than the sale, but it’s less stuff to trip over and deal with and I’m way over my $45/day average that I need to meet be debt free in another 980 days. For today anyway, I’m ahead of the game, and that’s all a guy can ask
Stupid Purchase
I’m thinking I might discontinue this feature, as it’s hell going into my past and not very positive at all for me. It’s not the mindset I want to have. I’m a glass is half full guy and if this is going to work, I want to trust in my future self that I’m going to do better. I know I screwed up, and I have the receipts to prove. I made mistakes and I’m taking and making changes to correct them. Me writing about them again isn’t really helping. I blew a lot of money. The end.
One factor I really need to improve on is the meal planning and diet. I’m a single guy and, well, I live on toast and sandwiches and spaghetti and coffee. Add to the fact that the pizzeria is down the street and there’s pretty much my diet. I can do better. I have the looney spoons cookbook, and eating well would be a good challenge for me at the same time as I do this get out of debt thing. Eating out gets expensive and I know I can do some trimming here if I start to plan and cook at home. And once I get past the hump of the first “oh my god – how much?” grocery trips, I’ll have all the ingredients and you can watch me fail or succeed as a chef as well as a financial planner. It’s a thought. I might even take photos, and then after I’ve wrecked the item on the menu, I can order pizza.
More Bad News