Thursday, June 11, 2009

Fiscal Fast: Year 2

I will be going on a road trip with Andrew to New Mexico and West Texas, and the week after I get back I will be going on a fiscal fast. For those of you who dont know what this entails, please click on the label fiscal fast on the right side of the screen. I will pretty much go one full week without spending any money. Right before the fast I will buy approximately $20 worth of groceries and fill my gas tank in my car. Unless it is a dire emergency I will refuse to spend money on anything.

Some random thoughts:
- I am already thinking of unique recipes I will make using ingredients that I already have at home.

- In hindsight my finances this time of year are much better then they were last June.

- I have some interesting thoughts on spending money on people I care about which will be explained in another post.

- I have been buying about 90% of my purchases via cash. The only times I will not use cash is when I am splitting the bill with someone and dont want to get change, or when the bill is like $9.03 or something. I refuse to carry change. It feels pretty good going to UFCU with about $8 in change every month anyways.

- I just paid off a $4000 credit card that I had waited on due to a significant other. When that fell through I felt really good paying off a credit card with a high balance without even flinching.

- My laptop is joining my mom in Florida. aka retirement. Im likely going to buy a macbook, but if I do I need to use it for at least 3 years for it to be financially worth it for me.

- My car is still going strong after hitting 160000 miles. After going 6 months without a car loan I dont see why I would ever get a car loan again (unless my car breaks down in a big way by next year, knock on metal)

- Long term, assuming lots of things most notably a lack of a significant other, I feel like once I build an emergency fund I might just want to invest fully in the Roth IRA then put more in a Roth 403B rather than save up for a house. Just a thought, and if a significant other comes around that changes everything. Thats another reason why a look at money as security in terms of having more options in life.

Ok, enough blabbering at 6 AM