Not for me personally since I didn’t pay, but for us, meaning my partner and I.  We went to an art gallery crawl with some friends, then went out to dinner.  For lunch we easily spent around $40 and dinner at another expensive place came out to over $120.  We both agree that is a lot of money to spend on food.  It’s more than our entire grocery budget for a week.  I think we need to screen out places our friend picks out. Just because he has a six figure income and is single, doesn’t mean he should invite his friends places where an entree is $30-40, not including appetizers or any alcohol.

He has expensive taste and detests eating at the more affordable chain restaurants someone on my income would frequent.  I’m thinking we should start screening the places he wants to go to for dinner before agreeing to attend. Not sure what excuses are considered socially acceptable.  Could just be honest.  ‘Sorry but I owe thousands in credit card debt and my bf has over 40k in loans, we can’t afford to drop $100 on a meal tonight’ I would totally say that, but my bf probably not.

In other news, it’s my first time exercising before work since starting February. I’ve been up since 630, stayed an hour late at work and have an energy reserve.  Hopefully I’m not jinxing myself, but I didn’t have the spaced out low blood sugar crash that would always hit several times throughout the each day. Wrote down my goals for the day the night before and it helped me stay on track.

Too much debt is a burden and for many it takes a toll on their health.  It’s good to focus on other areas of life and really enjoy all the wonderful things that exist in your reality.

Lastly, I applied to a string of jobs for 6 months last year and for a month this year.  Noticed the position I interviewed for at a startup was eliminated, even though it was a seasoned Project Manager who held it. This points out one of the inherent downsides to working for smaller companies.  Lack of funding or job security. One week all is rosey and the next you’re on the chopping block.  On the flip side, people don’t stay at companies for a very long time anymore.  Jump from one to the next after a few years to move up the corporate ladder.   Thoughts?

Just saw someone I chatted with many moons ago on a dating website on the Suze Orman show.  Mike, who went to Embry Riddle Aeronautical University has 166k of debt and went to school to become a pilot.  He’s presently a customer service rep making 12.50/hr. I have a lot of respect for him for taking his story public.  I’m still not sure if he will get out of it anytime soon.  Like myself, he has taken advantage of the Income Based Repayment program to postpone making payments for a year.

I’m very grateful to have a job right now and my salary though not my ideal, it is far far from the worst and there is a lot of upside potential. I can also use the experience I’m gaining to go into a number of different companies in my industry. I viewed this page on Employee Benefits and it really gave me perspective on how much benefits are really adding to my gross salary.  6-10k easily versus being a contracted worker that has no benefits or working for myself and paying small business taxes.  Just something to think about.

Also thinking about holding myself publicly accountable on health and exercise as I have with my money.  So far 217 visits to the blog since April.  It is a big paradigm shift when there are other people reading what you have written, ready to call you out when you are full of it. I’ve been going to the gym on and off since 2003 and my weight has been pretty much the same with a 10 pound swing. 5’9, 212 now, have been dreaming of the days when I was 185 and 22.  Is it possible? Yes I know my blog is about paying off debt, but larger picture it’s about feeling great and in control. Maybe bodybuilding.com forums or somewhere with lots of people o encourage me, hmm.

$140 – AT&T Bill, they overcharged me and are supposed to be giving me a refund in the next 5 days or so. I’m thinking around $50 back since having service for about 2 weeks.
$300 – Verizon bills. 6/16 to 8/3, approximately a month and a half worth of service and some installation / activation type fees. 
$100 – Water Bill, includes a 75.00 deposit that wil be refunded to me at one point.
Big question right now is the electricity bill. I predict around 140, hopefully it’s never as bad as it was last month at the apartment..

Total: $540, not including whatever leftover amounts from having the A/C running during our move.

On the plus side despite this temp influx of bills, I’m still making progress. At $1995 on my credit card balance, I’m beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel. I really am looking forward to the day when it’s 0.  Been working myself extra hard.  Not including this weekend I’m up to 44 hours. Holding off any large luxury type purchases 

There may be new opportunities coming at my company in the not too distant future. I’ve heard it from multiple sources, so I legitimately think there will be chances to add value and earn a higher salary.  I’m thinking a 15% increase in the next 6-9 months. Kinda miffed that one of the guys who started the same day I did is leaving. If it’s a better fit, I really can’t blame him.

I hear people at work talk about getting better with their money.  Some have shopping addictions, others are spoiled by eating out constantly. We are a savvy bunch, using tools like Mint to assess / establish budgets and see how reality compares.

Been a little burned out lately.  Gotta recharge my batteries and remember to have fun.  On the flip side I am a little more sociable at work and with the few friends I hang out with. The less I analyze and just embracthe the moment, the more comfortable I am in my own skin. As a gay black / native american former New Yorker living in Texas. Over the years I realize we as people attach a lot of labels on who and what we are.  We’re a lot more the same than we think once those labels and ideologies attached to them fall by the wayside.

Just paid off one of my credit cards.  Hooray!  Sort of at least. 1600 that was mostly the purchase of my new laptop. Extra motivated now to put in some more overtime.  $2455 left on the other one at 0% and I’m sure I can crank out 4 hours at some point in the next 18 hours to help accelerate my payoff. I’m kinda done with credit cards.  No desire to have them looming over my shoulder.  Been sitting on this balance for the better part of a year now.  Enough is enough… Leaves me with a couple hundred left for the week. Less than I would like, but having a stack of money in an account at 1% interest vs a credit card at 13 or 0 now that can go up to 20% is kinda silly.

Just a quick update on the whole car situation… 

This morning I took my car into a muffler shop that was somewhat out of the way (8 mile drive) all in the hopes of getting my exhaust system fixed without spending a fortune. I’ve gone and thinking I’ll be paying a few hundred dollars but was pleasantly surprised when the service representative said I only owe them $40. They welded a pipe within a matter of minutes.

After that I went to a Firestone shop with the hopes of getting an inspection done, the guy says a 2 hour wait. To me time equals money and who the heck wants to spend 2 hours waiting on a Saturday for a simple inspection? Drove a few minutes more and found a local shop, the guy seemed friendly enough, clearly a foreigner and said it took 7 min. for inspection. 39.75 later I was out there on my way.

 My exhaust is much quieter and is not making annoying rattle noise  I would hear while cruising around town.  between the tires and exhaust, it almost feels as though it’s new and not 54 months old.

Total cost = 79.75 vs what easily could have been 300, 1000 or 1200.

The moral of the story is when your gut says a product or service is overpriced, most likely it is. Always get a 2nd opinion and shop around.

No student loan payments and my credit card debt is up to 4056.11. Student loan total is 42154.04.  Combined that’s 46210.15.  On the plus side, I have 4 new tires on my car that are good for another 3 years at least, a new 2.96lb computer I don’t mind at all blogging on that will easily last me 2 years, and I am a homeowner. Depending on how many bones I rack up and the pending car repair, my credit card will be paid off around the end of the month and at the latest, by the time I get paid after that. Clarification: I also have 2k in savings right now, something I didn’t have in April. So assuming I put aside all my cash toward debt today I’d be at $44210.

OT, I did something stupid a few days ago.  Dropped my iPhone onto concrete, face down and the screen cracked.  Almost 2 years without any big problems.  A young chinese man in Dallas fixed it for $81.00 and had it done in about 20 minutes.  I thought it was $35 originally, but that was only for the 3G/3Gs models. For me it was worth it. Way cheaper than an Apple Store and supporting the little guy.

Eating out less this week than last. It helps to have a functional kitchen.  $20 a pop at Panera, etc and $5-15 between breakfast and lunch was starting to get to me. Really need to integrate the gym back into my routine.  The workout room in our complex is a minute walk from our front door and I’m pretty sure there is at least one track nearby. Biggest obstacle for me has been inflammation in my knees (tendonitis).  Started taking Flax Seed Oil, Vitamin C and orthotics (yeah I’m old) a day ago and it seems to be getting better.

Go figure the #1 item listed on Things I Wish I Knew in my 30s pertains to Joint Health. 🙂

Just got payment for my 3 year old laptop.  Have it all boxed and ready to ship out tomorrow. Had to put in a claim with eBay before the seller sent payment.  Took 5 days altogether and numerous I’ll do it soon type e-mails.

This blog is having a positive effect overall on my spending habits.  I’m shopping around way more than I used to.  I previously would throw down a grand on my car easily without asking too many questions about whether the price I was quoted was reasonable. Today I don’t want to spend money unless I really need to.

Had a neighbor pop up on us unexpectedly asking to walk through our house.  She seems really nice so we agreed.  She asked what our place was appraised at (144k) and what we bought it at (142k).  I’m pretty sure the woman said she wants her place to be appraised at 150k. For this area and not having much work done to the place in a decade, including foundation work I think her hopes are a bit far-fetched. Basically she wants to refinance, take advantage of the low interest rates and presumably take out some of the equity on the home.

Looks like I will be getting a bonus at my job come the end of the month.  Don’t want to get too hyped up, but every dollar helps. Overall our company has been doing great.  Even with some temporary hiccups along the way with workloads / staff, most of our sales team and our customers are happy.

I was watching a video earlier that reminded me of my past.  What drove me to go to college and eventually pursue an MBA. I need to start doing more things that excite me in life.  Not to say things are boring now, but I think much variety can be added.  Mostly a home body right now and have frequent bouts of social anxiety. I want to ask my friends to do things, but often feel like I’m being annoying since I don’t really know them very well yet. Maybe I need to make new friends or just stop obsessing.

I sold my laptop a few days ago for $1035, the new was 1550.  This is about in-line with what I wanted and almost what PowerMax was going to give me for the unit with a trade-in. I was all excited to do business with PowerMax, but they took too long to get back to me and I bought from B&H with overnight shipping instead.  I also won’t have to wait 3-5 weeks to get my money.  Taking a hit with shipping and fees, but sometimes it’s worth it.

I got 4 Nexus 5000 215/55/R17 tires installed, mounted and balanced for $396, but during inspection another issue came up with my car.  Hole in my exhaust system, went to a Midas and two different Nissan dealerships to see if it would pass inspection.  The answer each time was no.  I tried going the extended warranty route but it wasn’t covered.  There is a lot of rust in the  system and I’m thinking replacing the catback system and front catalytic converter might be the best route.  Slightly more power on the high end and better exhaust note.  Also from what I’ve been reading an upgrade to stainless steel will last for the life of my vehicle. If I stay in the south where the roads aren’t salted, I shouldn’t have to worry about this going forward.

A new Standard Front Catalytic Converter will run 360.00 and 735.44 for a Stillen Cat Back Exhaust system  =1095.44  plus a couple hundred in labor. I really don’t want to spend that much, but if I buy parts from a junkyard I will still have to pay labor and no guarantee the parts will be reliable long-term.

Still pricing out my options and going to try a muffler place that has been around for 30 years. Inspection is due in 2 weeks so I need to act quickly… I see some other rust on the chassis that could be a growing concern in the coming years. Took a video and posted it to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A0otlcpjHE

Went to a dentist for the first time in about a year.  Had a hole in my tooth where my filling was since December 2011. Need 4 fillings, and after insurance I’m shelling out ~$145. Not bad at all but still money out of my pocket…

Think I’ve been busier this week than I have the entire year.  Working a 9-6 shift, couple days on my lunch break, coming home to eat, then moving tubs and small pieces of furniture, for almost 2 weeks.  Rinse, repeat..Then squeezing social functions in with friends.

Just got the electricity bill for the last month.  As expected, it was a doosey, 242.98 and the summer just started 3 days ago.  For the larger furniture pieces we will be using a moving company that charges around $77/hr.  Clearly I’m in the wrong business.  Then again they have a lot of overhead and I would not want to move anything in this intense Texas heat.

Got my MacBook Air.  I totally love it.  Powerful, great battery life (with brightness turned down and doing some light browsing it reads over 8hrs!), light as a feather and best of all it produces far less heat than my old laptop. With Turbo Boost, the 1.8GHz Intel Core i5 is comparable to a lot of faster CPUs.  Still trying to sell it on Craigslist for $1200, had quite a few scam artists try to say something along the lines of hey I’m out of town on business in another country but really want to buy.  Send me your PayPal e-mail right away!!!  Thanks but no thanks…  I’d much rather return it back to stock and see what I could get for it that way.  So yeah a pain in the ass, but I’m hoping it will payoff soon.  If I can’t get it sold on Craigslist by the end of the week, off to eBay and taking a hit with the fees / shipping costs.

Have absolutely no buyer’s remorse in my purchase.  I no longer feel like my legs and nether region is burning when I use my laptop and a cat is curled up next to me.  That my friends is worth the price of admission.

Started doing The Paleo Diet and have been losing some more weight.  Lightest I’ve been since I got laid off in February.  At this rate I will have a six pack by my birthday.  Or at the very least be back to where I was in 2008.  The great thing about this diet is I can eat a lot and still lose weight.  Eliminating most of the starchy carbs that make me feel all bloated and miserable is key.  I will have protein and a vegetable for breakfast, a salad for lunch typically and a pretty much eat whatever I want for dinner within moderation.

We booked tickets to return to New York for a wedding in October.  Boyfriend paid half since it’s for his friend and he’s an overall sweetheart. Really looking forward to seeing my family, friends and taking part in some new experiences.  That means an obligatory trip to some posh NYC restaurant with a week+ long waiting list. 🙂

In my haste, I completely forgot about a three week pay period in my semi-monthly pay.  My paycheck was much larger than it normally is, 120 hours of work, 9.5hrs of overtime and 8 hours of holiday pay.  It would be great if I got that amount of money every two weeks.  Thinking big picture, people take home more than that all over.  I want to figure out how to make that a reality for myself.

Moving is ongoing, a major pain in the ass still carrying tubs of clothes, shoes and miscellaneous belongings down 3 flights of stairs.  We have made significant progress, with over 50% of the non-furniture items moved already. Found some movers online and the rest of our stuff is being shipped out Monday for about $77/hour.

My car needs new tires.  Hankook Ventus V4s have a 40k warranty from PepBoys, and I have 31k on mine.  Only thing is if I get a pro-rated replacement, I can’t use their Buy 3 get 1 free offer.  I also never take my car to PepBoys… Visited Discount Tire and the guy said it would just barely pass inspection.  Did some comparison shopping and decided to take advantage of my regular dealer’s buy 3 get 1 free coupon.  I get Road Hazard coverage and Free Lifetime rotations.  Might as well do it since the car is under warranty for another 2 1/2 years / 60k and the tire warranty is for 50k. It’ll set me back 4 and change once it’s all done, but safety is important…  Also need an inspection, new in-cabin micro filter.

Decided that I’m over my Mac laptop.  3 years old, 17″, 6.6 pounds and gets crazy warm in my lap.  It’s annoyingly heavy to carry around. It was great when I watched movies on my system and didn’t have a TV in my room. The 15″ Retina display model is 4.46 pounds for 2199 (a bit outside my budget, but then again I have held onto this one for so long) and the Air is 2.96lb.  I’m confident I can get a good $1100 for this model after the upgrades to it between 8 GB RAM and a 128 GB SSD. so my upgrade would be 4-500 for a system that is fast, light and actually comfortable to use. I use my computer everyday so while it seems like a lot of money on the surface I’d gain a lot from it.

My bf and I got a $140 skillet for 49.99.  Had to drive 20 min out of the way to get it, but totally worth it once you look at the long-term value of a purchase.