My sig explained (finally..and it's a fricken' novel)

**jokr** · 04-03-2006, 03:31 PM

Does that .28 ever just **** you off?

**wizardPC** · 04-06-2006, 08:13 PM

SONOFA..... Every single time!

Debt snowball is on hold. As soon as I get about $4000, I am going to buy a running vehicle. The car runs right now, but I dont think I have long until it completely dies. It's been a good car, I've had it for 8 years and ~140,000 miles, but I am not about to spend $1500 to fix my $2000 car. I am going to sell it and catch rides to and from work from my roommates, who happen to work at the same place I do.

*sigh*

**Sidewalksalvage** · 04-27-2006, 12:41 AM

WOW if some of the people i know read this....

Here, just outside of NYC its fun to watch people living in huge houses and with $80,000 dollar cars from mercades S500s to Escalades...
I even had a friend who had to beg their parents for a "lowly" Lexus F45 because they only trusted mercades....

Now you would think these people are rich...think again....I happen to "overhear" a conversation of my friends parents and they are *****ing at eachother because the credit cards are maxed out and they cant pay for the dinner they just took me out too.......

The key word around here is "lease" oh yeah sounds good at the time....until you find you pay 4x the cost of the car and still dont own it

Im so happy i heard these stories now and not after i fell into debt myself (note im only going into college next year) and i already have over $3K in an IRA for later in life.....I hope i can keep up the trend

Keep up the work buddy...good luck on your quest to be debt freee!

**jjh221** · 04-27-2006, 01:06 AM

you stalking him?

**Sidewalksalvage** · 04-27-2006, 01:16 AM

LMFAO

no...we used to be close friends...

**Genesisfactor** · 05-01-2006, 01:48 AM

seriosuly, sidewalk is right. Those who don't act rich are rciher tha those who do. During HS, I visited my firend in one fo thsoe new expensive as hell developments. I played soccer during that time and my friend's dad was a VP of Con Edision. The mother, while driving me from soccer, stated that that house WAS the money. My friend in teh dead end has a new truck (forgot which) and bought a collector's corvettte and a porsche to compete with the neightbor across the street. They live liek there's no tomororw (told me themselves). My family lives like there's next year to worry about and well wihtin our means. What does that mean? only that if something hits the fan, we have the cash to bail ourselves out at a moment's notice, and they need to take out a loan. See the difference? Its living within your means instead of living to what others expect you to.

I mean, when you hear janitors dretiring with 1.4 million or lunchladies donating 2.2 million back to the school, but MC Hammer and Michael Jackson are broke and in debt, you start thinking what the lunch lady and janitor did.

Sidewalk, we had similar lessons that was taught to us very early. Its good stuff that it happened, a blessing.

WizardPC, i beleive i said this before, i know you can do it, and i'm glad thtat this will never happen to you again! Praying ofr ya man!

**wizardPC** · 05-05-2006, 08:11 AM

Originally Posted by wizardPC

Debt as of 4/1/2006: $14,998.28

I just had to get it under $15k

Debt as of 5/5/06: $14,873.10

Emergency Fund has been replenished, bought a Jeep, and put new tires on it.

Figured I'd pay at least something on the debt, albeit very little.

**breaker021** · 05-05-2006, 02:05 PM

Debt is a b1tch, dude... What I do is take out $100 in cash from the bank whenever I need it and use it SLOWLY. like you said, it hurts to fork over a $20.

Things i've done to keep costs low:
- STOPPED modding my car(s)
- I have only 1 credit card (never had more than 1) and I barely use it!
- I stopped eating out so much. Since I converted to being a vegetarian, all I eat for the most part is fruits and veggies.
- I stopped buying computers and computer related equipment. I currently have 14 computers and 3 laptops in my friggin apartment! they're not the fastest things in the world but, regardless, they cost a lot of money if you add it all up.
- I only go to parties and/or clubs with open bar AND free entry. if a place only meets one of those, i don't go
- I eat taco bell (all veggie) a lot since it's not as BAD as other fast foods plus it's cheap
- Do overtime whenever possible. I dont care if you have a hot piece of poon waiting for u @ home
- I only have 3 bills per month: condo maintenence, cellphone bill, cable modem.
- I go to a city college - so I'm only paying ROUGHLY $1,700 per semester (incl. books) - and I pay the tuition via check per semester
- As far as eating out, I only eat: taco bell (3 times a week), starbucks (1ce a week - i had a $20/day addiction a few years back), subway sandwiches (once every 2 weeks)... that's about it. everything else is home cooked or stolen from my parents fridge

I bring in about $4100 (after taxes) per month right now. my maintenece, cable modem + cell phone bill come out to roughly $740 a month. My food, deoderant/tp-the common stuff like that, commuting via trains to work, and ALL THE OTHER day to day expences i'd say comes out to about $300 a month. <- yeah, i know, im a minimalist...

The rest goes into savings. I used to invest it but after losing 35 grand in hard cash at the age of 19 in stocks, I've realized that the only get-rich-quick-scheme is to save like a mother f@cker.

I don't do anything else - no magazines, no television or cable tv (im going on 6 years now w/o a tv and i love it!), no expensive clothes (all i wear is hilfiger from the outlets - and not the regular outlet stuff, the stuff on the 60%-90% rack), etc. Shoes - i have 1 pair of sneakers and 1 pair of boots. boots for daily stuff, sneakers for the gym. no movie rentals, i have a family plan on my cellphone (like $80/mo. for 2 lines)... I'll go to deli's and get sandwiches without meat(cuz im a veg.) and cheese. i'll have a hero with lettuce, tomato, onion, mayo, oil+vinegar - all for about $2.50 or $3 . not bad for a sandwich in the middle of manhattan. my old sandwiches, when i used to eat meat, came out to $6-$9 easily - before drinks, chips, etc.

grocery shopping consists of only hard foods: breads, salad stuff (lettuce, etc), fruits and soy milk. i will stock up on all this stuff until i am good for the week. I make mushroom burgers often and pay about $1.99 for really huge and good brand portobello mushrooms. This makes 4 burgers (or 4 meals) for me. the bread is like $1.29 for an 8-pack of buns.

No more junk food - all that crap is cut out. I buy a 4-pack of redbull like once a month. that's the only real junkfood that i buy on a "consistent" basis....

and before anyone throws the joke in, i have a gorgeous gf that is high maintenence but she knows about saving money and how tough it is. she'll always pay for my cofees, we split bills @ restaurants. when we go out, we round robin through who buys the drinks. she'll do the 1st round, i'll do the 2nd, she'll do the 3rd, and so on until either of us (or both of us) are completely obliterated.

I have a scion xb and it is awesome on gas. although I only drive it (heavily) 3 times a week, i fill up about every two weeks. that's $30 every two weeks.

*EDIT - Another thing - If i am buying something expensive - something that is over $300 and considered a 'luxury' rather than a 'necessity' (things like rims, body kit, headlights, a computer part, etc), I ask myself this question: do i have the cash to back it up?

If i do, then i buy it (assuming that buying the item wont leave me broke!). if i dont have the cash, i dont get the item AT ALL. just throw it out of my brain with a 1 way ticket to hell!

last thing - this post had no direction or structure. just typing as i think.
- sh00k