Debt Free Alpha

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.

Some of my readers may wonder where I went (all 10 of them lol). Decided to rename my blog to emphasize more of the focus.  The original name ‘No More MBA Debt’ was a bit misleading.  Under 50% of the debt I incurred was from my MBA program.  The rest was from undergraduate studies. Also as much as I would love to meet Joe Mhalic in person and have a beer, the original name always struck me as a cheap knockoff of what he was doing.

Why Debt Free 32?  After giving it some thought, my original plan to be out of debt still stands.  Debt free by April 7, 2015. I will be 32 in August 2015.  So wouldn’t it be nice to celebrate my 32nd birthday without having any consumer debt? Hence the name Debt Free 32.

Apple released a series of new laptop products today.  I’ll be honest I really want a new MacBook, either an Air (1499) or a Pro 15 with the new crisp Retina display (2199).  I can likely pull 1100 on eBay for the model I have now with the SSD upgrade. I keep going back and forth on it though. Something newer and greater will always be on the horizon.  However this behemoth is not very portable and is a pain to type on in my lap since it gets so warm.  I may upgrade only if I find a great deal and I am out of credit card debt at the time.

New computers don’t hold the same appeal to me they once did.  I used to buy the newest model of whatever Apple put out, somehow justifying it subconsciously that I would find a way to pay for it.  It never happened and I slaved away at a low paying job for a month in some cases just to buy this shiny new toy.  I also use computers all day at work.  Granted they’re boring Windows 7 Dell machines but still.  Life is about variety and I can think of far more entertaining things than sitting in front of a computer.

I know I keep harping on it, but in two weeks I’ve worked ~96 hours. In NY I only put in 75hrs on a good week.  Getting more work done, but neglecting exercise and much wind-down time in general. Every hour of it was justified though, my team is somewhat understaffed compared to others and the new-hires are still in training.

Get paid Friday.  Updating again then.  Cheers.

So stoked about moving into the new house, even with all the items to worry about leading up to the final move-in date. Just a couple of pictures before I go to bed. It feels amazing to have a place to call our own.  Especially with this heat building up.  My car read 100° today.  A/C on full blast and I’m not looking forward to that bill.

I have a bunch of low quality pics, but these are the better ones I have. 🙂

Some pictures of the new place

This week coming up is a particularly rough one for me, some unexpected expenses combined with a need to not use my credit cards at all.

I’ve been through tough times before and this is like no other. Come Monday I will have approximately $4 left in my bank account.  Over the past week I did the following things:

• went out with my coworkers for dinner, paid my way to the tune of 27.89
• registered my vehicle for another year at our new address 63.75
• bought some items my partner’s coworkers birthday party 16.08
• spent 50.26 on fuel
• spent almost $70 on eating out, as we have not had ample time to go grocery food shopping, totally exhausted after work (we’re also beginning to move items out of the apartment).

On the plus side I’m really racking up the overtime which will definitely have a positive impact on my next paycheck. Been feeling a little bit stressed and burned out though.

I may be a nerd, but I like to look at the progress I’ve made since moving. My net take-home pay when I lived in New York was between 850 and $900 every 2 weeks. Now it is several hundred dollars higher and for once I feel I am able to make traction in my debt payoff efforts.

Other than that, there’s not a whole lot to report, I’ve been pretty disciplined in my spending habits. Still trying to figure out what to do around here that’s fun and economical. Getting out of debt isn’t sexy and I don’t have any patience…

Oh boy, so much going on.  The last work week I got Down to 2551.90 in credit card debt as of today June 3, 2012.  I’ve paid 500 in the last week.  Making some major headway.  This week I worked crazy hours, almost to the point of burnout.  49 hours in a week, when I typically work 40.  Got to work an hour early, stayed a half hr to an hour late.  On Thursday I worked through my lunch break.

Spent $20 on a VGA cable (yeah, crazy I know) so I can hook up my spare monitor at home. One thing I have noticed about myself is that I can’t watch TV and work at the same time.  I am wired to do single-tasking.  Focusing on too many things at once literally drives me crazy.

Snapshot of my current debt:

Student Loan – 42053.67
Credit Card – 2551.90
Total = 44605.57

I went to a restaurant downtown for a friend’s birthday.  My partner paid for my meal as he often does, had a blast. My car was valeted.  Went to start it up and the only thing it did was click. The windows wouldn’t even roll down. One of the managers at the restaurant was kind enough to give me a jump.  Brought the car to AutoZone since my Duralast Gold battery has a 36 mo free replacement guarantee and 8yr/96m warranty which would be prorated.  There has been no problem with the car starting up since.  Hopefully I don’t have an unpleasant surprise in the morning. I still suspect the attendant left the accessories on while we were eating for 2 hours.  Between my 2 amps, sub, radio and a/c that would kill the battery quickly.

We completed our closing on Thursday!  We’re financing 135k at an interest rate of 3.75%, total est monthly payment is 1020, plus HoA of 99 so 1120.  Our rent is 1285.  Still have a lot of things to do like move everything, setup the electricity, tv / internet, water. Met our neighbors recently, they seem really nice.  One of them is from New York, not too far away from where we used to live.  Small world eh?

I also need 4 new tires in the near future.  Been pricing out some deals, but I really don’t want to go into an extra $500 worth of debt.  You can see the top of Lincoln’s head which isn’t a good sign.  Should be fine in the dry, it’s the wet I’m concerned about. Holding out for a crazy deal before I buy.

Off to bed now, a new week awaits and I need to be refreshed!

I made the realization this week that most of the debt I’ve been carrying on my credit card goes back to 2011, all I have done is shifted it around from a high interest credit card to a low interest one.  The decision to eliminate debt has entered my subconscious and is affecting my behavior.

June 29, 2000 a game called Diablo II was released out into the wild and earned record sales for a computer game at the time.  Almost 12 years later on May 15th, the sequel was released to much fanfare.  The game is $65 with tax if I ordered it through the open beta program and the best deals I’ve seen offer it for $59.99otherwise.  Although I’m excited about the game, for as long as I have credit card debt or it’s not on some crazy sale I will pass. Not to mention the time investment.  Between my new job and a pending move, I don’t think it’s smart to start playing a game that will suck up 8-16 hours of my time to complete then just sit on a shelf and collect dust.

Been continuing to look at side gigs on CraigsList.  One that came to mind was installing printers for a company and getting $40 a pop per printer.  I got no response when I sent a friendly e-mail and my resume.  They wanted what sounded like a single person to travel around the state doing installs and reimbursing them for gas and hotel expenses.  Not the first time I’ve gotten ignored / rejected, but I’m no longer taking it personally.

Still a bit short of making my extra $100/week in OT.  I underestimated how much energy it has been taking out of me.  Need to keep it all together and plan ahead more so I’m not running around like a crazy person in the morning.  I am so looking forward to tomorrow, feeling a lil sensation of burnout.  Dinner out with friends, immediately after my shift ends just outside Downtown Dallas.

In other news, I’m still a bit in shock at the number of musical celebrities who have gone before their time . Donna Summer, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Adam Yauch, Luther Vandross.  People I grew up listening to and are almost part of my identity.  Coming of age moments, as a high school student confused about my identity, dealing with parents divorce and bad breakups.

I still don’t know where my peak is in life.  Things are looking up and getting my finances in order is the first step.  I do crave more and still feel like a bit of an outsider in Dallas.  Building friendships of people with similar interests takes effort and I’m not sure how much I have in me right now.  Just venting….

Maybe I’m in a slight funk right now, but this too shall pass. I want to buy some new clothes too, most of what I own is 2 years old and fading.  Down to $500 left for the downpayment.  It’s all happening quicker than I would’ve imagined.