Pay Off Credit Cards 2007
Archived from January 20, 2007
Titling my years helps me. I hope.
2007 is exactly as it claims. I hope to pay off my credit cards which thanks to joining AFTRA and making some other deductible purchases are at an all time high.
Last night I caught an episode of 20/20 all about debt and how it's destroying the middle class. Apparently Americans are 80 billion in debt (the people, not the government, which gives its people a fantastic example of debt in the trillions). Allegedly Americans have less savings than during the depression, or before the depression or after the depression. Something like that. The point is I'm tired of being one of those indebted Americans. So I'm going to use this year to work extra hard to pay off my debt. The ways in which I hope to accomplish this goal this year are as follows:
1. Work full time. I currently work 80% which allows me extra days for "doing my own thing". Since this year "my own thing" is making money to pay off my debt, it serves me well to work full time.
2. House-sitting and dog walking. House-sitting is by no means sure fire. House-sitting season is over (Thxgvg/xmas) so it's anyone's guess if there will be some house-sitting gigs to be had. Dog walking is also occasional and sort of at the whim of my friend Scott, so we'll see.
3. Odd jobs for people I know. If you're a person I know and you have an odd job that needs done, I'm the gal to cal.
4. Tax related activities. This could go under the odd job category, but basically, it's a two parter: 1. See if anyone needs me to help them with their taxes 2. Expertly do my own taxes so I'm getting maximum deductions/refund.
5. Bike to work. For some reason I did not bike to work much at all in 2006. Which to me is pathetic, but instead of beating myself up, I'm going to channel that energy into biking to work every day this year, starting in February. The money saved from biking to work instead of driving is pretty significant. Even though my car gets about 30mpg, a monthly bus pass is only $22 at my work and biking is free. I would save myself as much as $70 by not driving to work at all.
I was reminded again how imperative it is to NOT drive to work when my car was impounded because I forgot to move it at 4pm. I was very careful the past 2 years to only get about 3 parking tickets total, and then right at the top of the year, what do I get? $184.15 at the impound plus a $70 parking ticket. All for not moving my car at 4:00pm. That's a lot of money for parking.
6. Make food at home. This is something I've gotten out of the habit of doing, and that is just sad for 2 reasons. 1. It saves money 2. It's healthier
7. Stop going out to eat. Going out to eat sucks up so much cash it's unreal. It's not that I can't go out, I just can't buy anything when I go out, or if I do it needs to be tea or a salad.
8. Only get movies from the library. In June of 2006 I switched from Netflix ($20) to The-Library-flix (free), thinking I might switch back in '07. I won't. I still like to go out to movies sometimes, and I probably will continue to do so occasionally because there's the new $3 cinema that's just a mere train and bike ride away.
9. Don't travel. This is a sad one, and we'll see if it even works out, but one of the top suckers of Starr-cash is traveling. So, my compromise is to either see if I can work something out w/ my parents for visiting, or else buy the ticket in cash, rather than on a card, and more than anything: budget budget budget.
10. Extra work. This is a weird situation because by joining the unions I'm getting myself into more credit card debt, but once I'm in the union my pay rate for extra work is literally three times what it is as non-union, so it presumably makes it worthwhile.
11. Use cash. I find that I'm far more prone to impulse buying when I've got my debt card, oops, I mean debit. If I allow myself $60/week cash for all food and 'other' I could really reign in my spending. The nice thing about cash is that it's real, you can count it and it adds up, so if one week I only spend $40 then I have an extra $20 the next week for activities.
I have other goals as well. I think 2 of the other goals harmonize well with Pay Off Credit Cards 2007 (or POCC '07. Like 'pox' as in "Credit cards are a pox on my people".)
My other goals are more traditional New Year's resolutions; you know, eating well and getting fit. But I like to be more specific about them. So, my lesser goals of 2007 are:
1. Exercise. I plan to do this by:
A.) Biking to work
B.) Swimming when it gets a little warmer out (April or so).
C.) Jogging. I just got a new cell phone with an MP3 player in it, so I'm going to put some "move that body" style music on it and jog.
D.) Dancing. I intend on going out dancing more often. My favorite dancing establishment of yesteryear opened back up, so I will take advantage of that. Additionally, I'm going to try and do more dancing in my own home - then I can practice my moves with no one watching.
E.) Stretching - I'm ashamed at how stiff I am these days. I used to be remarkably limber for my height. I would like to make stretching a lifelong habit. It's so good for ye olde body.
2. Get down to the weight I was before the car accident. When I was in the accident my orthopedic surgeon for my knee told me that one of my only weapons against developing arthritis in my knees is to not gain any weight at all, neither fat and nor muscle weight. He used the analogy of a semi trailer's tires having the same stress if it's carrying a ton of bricks or a ton of bubble wrap, it's still a ton. So what did I promptly do? (Over a year +) I gained 14 lbs. I've been the same weight since I was 17, so gaining 14 lbs is really significant for me. I need to drop those pounds for legitimate health reasons. I need to do so in a way that I can maintain for the rest of my life, because I simply cannot just go around gaining weight all the time. I intend on getting back to my pre-accident weight with the following course of action...
A.) Eat a natural foods diet. I have pretty decent habits already, but I've been reading about detoxing, raw foods and what Bruce Fife dubbed "The natural foods diet" as described in The Detox Book by Bruce Fife. This seems reasonable and fits well with my save money plan of cooking at home. The basic tenants of this diet are:
1.Eliminate processed foods from your diet
2.Eat only organic foods
3.Drink a lot of water
4.Only enjoy unrefined sugars which still have all their vitamins and minerals.
5.Use ancient grains and no bleached or processed grains/flours etc.
6.Eat raw milk and free-range/organic meat if you consume any animal products at all.
Other books that I've found inspiring in the detox/raw/natural foods department are Food is Your Best Medicine by Henry Beiler M.D. Rawsome! By Brigitte Mars, and The Raw Food Detox Diet by Natalia Rose (which is slightly misleading but has some great ideas and recipes).
B.) Explore salads. I really want to ingest more raw foods and a great way to do that is through salads. Besides, I'm good at making salad dressings it seems. Here's a great new salad dressing I made up, but don't have measurements for: apple cider vinegar, olive oil, pepper, salt, dried basil, dried tarragon. That's right, it's delicious.
C.) Occasionally fast. I've been reading a lot about this and it seems natural to me. A good book to explore on this topic is: Fasting and Eating for Health By Joel Fuhrman. Some people fast for a few days per month or less than that. Some people do a long fast once or twice a year. Some really extreme people fast for 40 days. I'm no Jesus, but I think it would be very cleansing, healthful and meditative to experience occasional fasts.
D.) Decrease my caloric intake. If you want to get down to brass tacks, weight loss is simply a matter of making the ratio between calories you ingest and the calories you burn closer. I believe I need to decrease my caloric intake, but that said I want the calories I DO take in to be worthwhile, hence the organic and raw etc. And of course I need to increase the amount of calorie burning that I do.
E.) Enjoy life and finish projects. It seems one of the best ways to be fit and healthy is to surround myself with positive and/or new experiences that make me feel good about myself and my environment. By completing goals and projects I'll feel more accomplished and thus better about myself. Essentially I want to be excited about life and keep doing new things. It also seems wise to attempt positive mantras, so maybe I'll throw that in too.
The one "lesser" goal of 2007 (by "lesser" I really mean ongoing or lifestyle change) which is not going to save me any money, and in fact will cost me money is:
BECOME PAIN FREE. Ever since my car accident in 2005 I've been in constant or "chronic" neck pain. It's strange because when you have constant pain, you forget that you once had a life w/o pain. I need to actively remind myself and work on not having pain. I plan to do this in this way...
A. Be consistant about my pain management/Dr appointments
B. Get acupuncture
C. Get monthly massage
D. Make swimming a priority
E. Meditate and/or do yoga and/or breathing exercises next to my plants.
F. Think positive thoughts
All of my goals are interconnected. I know that if I stick with them I will ultimately feel better and the others will follow suit. I will save money and meet my goal weight by cooking at home. I will meet my goal weight and experience less pain if I make swimming a priority. I will feel less pain and improve my circulation which in turn will help my physical ability and attitude if I do deep breathing next to my plants. If I feel less pain I'll be more apt to do physical activities. If I'm out doing physical activities I won't have the time to go out and spend money.
We'll see what happens, but I hope you'll send me positive vibes, particularly in the pain department.
I welcome your comments, spelling/grammar corrections and views.
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