It's been a little while since I've updated the progress on my endeavor to pay off my current debt. I haven't put anything more toward the credit card balance (I have a mortgage to pay) but I can talk a little about the lifestyle changes I've been trying to make to reach my goal.
1. Getting rid of cable: This is a semi-fail. I wanted to totally give up my cable service so that I could put that money towards my debt. I actually have been without it for this whole week but I decided to turn it back on because 1) I'm really bored at home without it and 2) I couldn't find anywhere to watch my regular shows online. I got the free trial with Netflix but I think I'm going to cancel that. I enjoyed watching the two available seasons of RuPaul's Drag Race earlier this week, but among their huge selection of movies, television programs and independent films, I found myself uninterested in much of their offering. I'm just not much of a movie girl. I like talk shows, court shows and reality TV and Netflix doesn't offer any of that.
So yeah, I just turned my cable back on tonight--but the good news is that I changed my programming package to the least expensive. But you know what's even better? I worried about missing out on the few shows I watch on the higher channels, but I checked and saw that the basic plan DOES include those few channels I watch occasionally. So I think that's so awesome because even though I reduced my plan, I'm not missing out on the channels I watched before as I expected. But it also means that I've been paying to have channels I don't watch for a long time.
2. Grocery Shopping and Eating In: Everyday last week I took my lunch to work. I made three casseroles. Between snacking on them after work and my family partaking when they visited, I had nothing for this past week--the second week. In other words, I ran out of food to cook and I did eat in the cafeteria at work. Yeah I could've gone hard and popped open some canned beets and tuna to take to work, but I guess I didn't wanna. At least I only spent half of what I normally would have in the cafeteria.
But now I know that I need to increase my grocery budget if I want to eat in house between paychecks. And also the more I build up my cupboards, I won't have to repurchase some things like flour or rice.
I have to say that I'm really excited about learning to cook and eating the product of my work. I was so proud of myself this week because my lunch was better than anything available in the cafeteria I'd have been paying $5 to eat. I may have said before that my culinary confidence has been pretty low because everything I cook usually turns out to be inedible, which is why I stopped wasting money on such attempts.
But I am so amped to grocery shop tomorrow and cook up the batch of recipes I have planned for the next two weeks. Hopefully now I am getting a better idea of how much I really need and what will last.
3. Selling on Ebay: I put up my Insanity workout DVD set for sale on Ebay. The auction ends tomorrow and the price is up to $31. I think I'll get around $40 for it. So yay!
4. Hobbies-The Waiting Money Pit: I almost did something totally counterproductive to what I'm trying to accomplish here. In one of my previous posts I mentioned how flighty I can be when it comes to new interests.
So while on Ebay I came across handmade beads. That led me to research how people actually make them. Hmm. If I can learn to do the same thing I can make beads too and sell them and make money to pay off my debts. Good idea, right? So I watched a few lampwork videos and read through some glass art discussion boards over the past couple days. I decided I would read and gather information until my next pay day when I'd go ahead and buy the necessary equipment to do this. Today I decided that I won't dip my toe into this one. Lampwork doesn't require a whole lot, but the essentials are expensive if you want to have quality things that you won't grow out of too soon. I really did want to try my hand at it, but I can see myself being unable to get the hang of this and putting it to the side and wasting money. And then, what if I learn, but don't get good enough to sell? Again, a waste.
This was definitely a near-miss but I'm glad I took the time to research, evaluate things and refocus on my goal before acting impulsively.
Well, till next time. I'll take the little money I get from Ebay and put it on this debt. Every little bit helps.
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