I was watching TV this morning on my huge HD flat screen TV that I purchased with my credit card and a commercial came on about a guy buying a huge HD flat screen TV. The sales guy was giving him the hard sell about football season coming and how amazing it would be to watch it on this TV. The guy says "I'll take it" when suddenly another guy with a pig face reaches out and smacks his hand. The TV buying guy looks stunned, then says, "You're right, I don't need it" while the sales guy glares at the pig-guy. It was a commercial for http://www.feedthepig.org which is apparently a "national public service campaign from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and The Advertising Council." I'm not sure what the angle of the CPA's is, if any other than altruistic but the site looks like it has some good info and tools. Anyways, the commercial made me feel stupid for buying my TV so it worked. Oh well. I do like my TV though.

Anyways, I was playing around with this website's debt payoff calculator and was pleased to discover that, after plugging in my own numbers, their calculations for my debt free day matched the ones I created in my budget spreadsheet down to the month. :-) That's cool. Now I know my budget calculations work.



So, what is my debt free day? Well, if I put 1/4 of my credit card payments towards my emergency fund like I said I was going to and follow my budget religiously, I will make my final credit card payment on August 10, 2009.

If I don't put any money towards my emergency fund and give it all to my credit cards my debt free day is Feb. 10, 2009.

If I move out of my rental and live in my car, I'll pay off my credit cards on August 10 this year. Heh heh. Not gonna happen. Interesting thought though. I've known some people who have done this to save money. There was this guy in college who paid my neighbors $20 a month to park his pickup and trailer on the side of their house all year and the right of bathroom/shower privileges. With rents around $400 a room, my guess is he saved about about $3,420.

I heard stories about an engineer at one of my old high tech companies who lived in a motor home that he moved around every couple of days. With 2 bedroom apartments going for around $1,200, That's a savings of $14,400 a year.

Well, time to head out a fun filed day of not spending any money. I think I'll go for a hike.

I think I'll put 1/4 of my unspent cash towards my emergency fund and the rest towards my debt. I don't want to have to rely on my credit cards in case of emergency so I'd rather slow down my debt payments and build up my efund for now.

I didn't spend any money Thursday. Yesterday I spend some cash on a couple veggie drinks but that's it. They're good for me and I wouldn't save very much even if I made them myself plus I hate doing it. Juicing takes a long time and the clean up sucks.

Today I have to drive 150 miles round trip. That'll cost some gas money but as of right now I'm still breaking even on my budget.

I've been doing some brain storming on ways to cut my expenses. Here are a few big ones:

1) Cell phone -$60 a month

I'm in IT and I'm on call so I'm getting a company phone and ditching my own cell phone.

2) Internet access -$35 a month

I do a lot of work remotely after hours so I asked the company if I could expense my internet connectivity. They said yes.

3) Food -$200 maybe?

I work at a startup and they bring in food, lots of it. I'm going to extend my work hours to include breakfast and dinner hours. That way they'll get more work from me and I'll get breakfast, lunch and dinner from them. A fair trade I think. ;-)

4) Car pool -$70 a month

I have to drive 25 miles each way to get to and from work. That's about $7 a day, $120 a month in gas for me. I'm going to carpool with someone else from work and split it.

These couple of things will save me $365 a month! That's $4,380 a year less I'll be spending! Dang. That'll move up my debt free day quite a bit.

I've also been working on changing my hobbies and recreational activities to things that cost less and take up less space. I've sold the 4x4. It was hard to do but if you want to save money, a 4 wheel drive is not the toy to have, trust me. Now I mostly mountain bike so I'm still getting out on the trails. ;-)

My first goal is to be debt free.

My second goal is to have a 6 month emergency fund.

My third goal is to put 25% of my income towards my retirement.

I look at my car loan the same as I view rent or my mortgage payment. I know nobody else does but that's how I see it.

I've got a pretty extensive home made excel spreadsheet budget I've been developing so I have a solid handle on where my money goes. I just have to get control of my spending habits and live a more frugal life. My girlfriend makes less then me so I'm trying to fit my lifestyle into her budget constraints. So far it's not working. I like margaritas and too much. ;-)

Even though I've been tracking my spending in this budget I've never actually met my budget goals. This is the first month I've made a serious effort. I've finally ditched my credit cards and don't carry them around for "emergency" purposes anymore. All the money in my accounts has been allocated and/or sent where it needs to go (bills, extra credit card payments, etc) so I just don't have any extra cash left to spend. Kinda dangerous I think. I mean, something might happen and I might need cash quick but I really want to meet my budget goals for once and I think this is required for me to do this. so far so good. I'm 7 days into the month and I'm in line with my spending goals.

Ok, time to go earn more money for Chase and American Express!