Young, Fit, and Financially Free: March 2011

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Credit Card Debt - NO MORE!!!!!!!!

Hello world!!!!!!!!!! Great news!!!!!!!! I just paid off the last of my credit card debt. I am officially credit card debt freeeeeeeeee! It's been a couple years coming, the last year frustrating after graduation and not having an excuse to have credit card debt anymore. It seemed so easy to me to get into a better financial situation, but it's not. To finally achieve this goal, I buckled down and have aimed for spending $20 on groceries per week; switched to cash ($100 per paycheck for gas, food, etc); cashed out my stock; stopped living beyond my means; and cut up my credit card so I would STOP using it.

Next steps:

1. Pay off personal loan of $140 (April 2011)

2. Personal loan of $500 (April 2011)

3. Emergency fund of $1000 (May 2011)

3. Private student loan of around $2500 (currently monthly payment $50) (September 2011)

4. Car loan of around $15000 (current monthly payment $275) (October 2013)

5. Government student loan of around $15000 (current monthly payment $250) (October 2014)

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

I think I will!

My horoscope for today: Treat yourself to a leisurely morning as you enjoy the creative, romantic vibes coming in from la luna. If you want to poke around your favorite blogs and gossip sites, so be it. Your brain actually needs to relax before you can shift back into high-productivity mode. When the moon enters your workerbee zone this afternoon, you can double-time it and finish all your tasks with a renewed sense of inspiration.

Sounds like a plan :)

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

A Year in Time

One of my sorority sisters asked for advice on her Facebook page whether she should move 30 hours away to another city for a good paying job or if she should stay in her home state. I recommended that she go for the good paying concrete job and try for a year. Maybe she'll love it there. If not, she can gain experience and get in a better financial situation to move back home.

That's basically what I've been doing. I've heard that it takes a year to adjust to anything. I've been pondering lately if it is better to pursue financial stability and professional career or to pursue happiness and love. Basically brain vs. heart. Logic vs. passion. Logic won last time. After a year, I wonder if heart will win.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Update on $50 Challenge

I ended up spending about $16 last night on groceries...

This is what I came out with:

- whole wheat noodles

- whole grain sandwich rounds (not Nature's Own but another brand that looks more natural ironically)

- 4 apples

- 5 yoplait yogurts

- local newspaper (it's not published online...)

- a whole dozen organic eggs (on sale for 90 cents!)

- Rice milk

- black beans

Rain

I stumbledupon this wonderful image today - Girl with frog umbrella in rain on top of van. It really spoke to me and made me happy for some reason.

I have been listening to rainymood.com alllll day long. It's actually helped me be more productive today. I was productive at school work listening to it as well.

There's just something about the rain that relaxes, calms, and contents me.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

$50 for Two Week Challenge - half way

Update on $16.77 groceries:

- Bag of grapefruits - half gone

- 2 peaches, 2 nectarines - 1/4 gone

- small loaf of bread - gone

- 2 bags of pre-cooked chicken - 1/2 gone

- cottage cheese - 1/2 gone

- bag of cheese - 1/2 gone

- 4 yoplait yogurts- all gone

Spent $20 on gas, and maybe something else so I have exactly $12 and some change left.

I've been eating a lot of beans. I made a whole bag of beans on Monday and have had them for at least 4 meals. Not too bad for like $1.

I'm about to go out tonight, so I may spend all $12 tonight. Ick. The poor diet doesn't quite work though because I end up being hungry and insecure about food so end up eating more, and more of bad things like pizza...

Current Musical Moods

These are the folks that I seem to be hearing a lot of recently:
- Jill Scott
- Lily Allen
- Nicki Minaj
- Ingrid Michaelson
- Ke$ha
- Pitbull
- Lil Wayne
- Jazmine Sullivan
- Kid Cudi
- Alicia Keyes
- India Arie
- The Pierces
- The Duhks
- Beyonce
- Bjork
- Enya

Friday, March 18, 2011

Plans (A, B, C, and D)

"It's never too late - in fiction of in life - to revise."

Nancy Thayer

I'm revising my life plans this weekend. Some of these inter-relate; it's hard to separate areas of your life.

These are the areas that I will focus on:

- Career

- Health - nutrition and exercise

- Happiness Plan

- Finances

- Volunteering

- Social Life

I'm excited to see what areas of improvement and goals I come up with.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

$50 for two week challenge

Faced with yet another paycheck to paycheck month, I have $50 to last the next two weeks after bills. So, can I live on $50 for food, gas, and everything else? We shall see. I'm approaching this as a challenge, a game - making it a choice and opportunity to learn.

So, today is Weds. So far this week, I have spent $16.57 on groceries:

- Bag of grapefruits

- 2 peaches, 2 nectarines

- small loaf of bread

- 2 bags of pre-cooked chicken

- cottage cheese

- bag of cheese

- 4 yoplait yogurts