Wednesday, June 25, 2008

He shoots. He scores.


In the midst of everything that has been going on lately in my life I've forgotten about a GUE a bit. Not so much forgotten as delat with a mixture of lack of time and procrastination, as I usually do.

One thing I'd like to mention as it had been most definitely mentioned before is my gigantic black hole of debt. The vaccum which sucks away over half of my paycheck each period. Well. NO MORE! Finally one of those long-term goals people talk about. I've met one!

That's right. The long list of debts depicted and reflected in my credit report are now completely gone. This has been a long, treacherous path. A hard goal to accomplish, as it has been something I've been somewhat dealing and respectively not dealing with for years. As of last week, all debts have been paid and all accounts have been brough up to date. My credit report is able to do nothing more but to repair itself and regenrate from here on out.

Granted there are a few things that need paying such as some IRS payments (which at this point aren't that much) and the $800 I owe (to mom) to finish paying off my machine of destruction. These are not liabilities as they do not affect my credit report.

The only other acquired debt now is the Sallie Mae student loans, which consequently are not required to be paid until I'm out of school, and thankfully only a small portion of them are subsidized.

Time to start turning the cash into more cash continuing to plant it inside the ING accounts, which with a 3% return I hope by this time next year I'll have a good chunk of cash. I can't wait. I've also slightly been trying to gain control of my finances by cutting down on my eating out for lunch and dinners.

I've started to buy food to keep at my desk at work, easily prepared meals, and making use of the office resources (fridge, microwave, toaster). I went this last pay period from spending $250 in lunches alone, to $78 in desk groceries. Add onto that the $200+ in take out dinners, which have been replaced by a mere $100 in home groceries. Healthier and cheaper.

Even now that I'm at my last dime before next paycheck, all the leftover ingredients bought throughout the past two weeks have been suffient to keep me from starvation and excessive spending.

I've ranged in at home meals as such [All while applying and practicing my knife skills for school]:

viva mexico!
[Bean and Cheese Tostadas]

Very Berry Salad
[Very Berry Salad]

Greek Vegetable Lemon Rice Soup
[Greek Vegetable Lemon Rice Soup]

All in all small efforts which have in the end had a major result in my daily life. I think I'm doing pretty well, if I do say so myself.