The I.T. Life

So, Instead of making you all wait for me to build a site based on this, here is a example spreadsheet of what the site will do, and also a working template for you to play with.

Template
Example

Well, not quite that bad, but almost. Today seems like a horrible day, financially, even health wise. I’m not going to the gym because I feel so sore from yesterday, and I ate McDonald’s for breakfast because my usual English muffins have gone moldy. So, that is a double negative. I spent money and I ate pure crap. I am going to have to buy lunch today because there was no bread in the house, this will be a financial hit, but I will pick something healthy, probably subway something with chicken in it. As far as money goes this month, its been up and down. I have spent pretty much all my budget. I did get a extra $40 in the middle of the month, but I gave that to the heart and stroke. I don’t feel bad about this, easy come easy go I suppose. It is a good cause, and every little bit helps. Either way, I joined the gym, and got the personal trainer. I met with him and this seems like it will definitively work out. Work is reimbursing me some of it, and also because of where I work, I get there corporate rate so I can save eve more money. I bought expensive new Sony headphones because my old, expensive Sony headphones are either a)lost or b) broker, maybe both. Either way, I also ordered a few movies from amazon, and some shirts from jinx this month. I know I spent alot, but I think in the big picture, compared to most moths, this was a very big improvement for my average spendings. Next month I am going to save very little, and go to Moncton for a few nights and just relax, and forget about stuff. It should be a good weekend, and a relaxing one. After that I might start saving for a HDTV, I know it is less money to get myself out of debt, but at least I am not buying the TV on credit. Either way, today just seems blah.

I keep track of my financial ups and downs with networthiq.com, this is where I log my monthly debt/cash situation, and also keep a journal on how I am managing this, and anything else similar. I am going to double post all my entries on this page, and on networthiq so nobody will miss out. Also, I will post a monthly snapshot of what is going on.

Well, this month started out a bit rough. I set my goals, I set my budget, and I took all extra cash, and put it towards my debt. Then, within a week, I spent over 1/3 my gas budget, and over half my spending money. On the bright side a lot of that money went towards food, so I can stop eating out a lot, and start eating healthier. The good news is, getting close to half way into this Month, I should be able to make it through, without blowing my budget. I brought my credit card out today so that I can join a gym, this is another expense, but my health is probably #1. Also, I realized I need to start relaxing more, because my stress is causing anger, and this is hurting the people I love. Next month, I am going to take Beth away from reality. We usually go to a nice hotel in Moncton, but this time we are going to stay in Halifax, and just go to a nice hotel, and relax. It is bad for my cash flow, but good for my happiness and health. Also, I am going to start saving a bit of cash for a new TV and Monitor. I am planing on $1000 budget, and a 32″ LCD HDTV, and a 24″ LCD monitor. These also will not help my cash, but provide a balance to my life. I get too stressed about health and money, I forget to do something good for myself.

I recently stopped contributing to my RRSP. I was contributing $50/mo and have invested $300 so far. With the recent downfall in the market and my financial situations I taking the money out of this and adding it to my debt. I am also going to put the extra $50 a month to good use. My plan is to move out of my parents house in the next few months, and that money will go to good use.

Well, if you are buying a new macbook air, its not worth jack. The guys are Ars Technica got there hands on a SSD macbook air, and a regular one.  And what were there results? The money you spend is all thin air (sorry for the pun). There tests proved that there is no real benefit. They gained very little performance and battery life improvments. This does’t make much sence to me, but, at least it proves the macbook air is full of hot air.

I’ve given myself a budget of $50/week. All extra money is either going into savings, or to pay off debt. My goal is by Fall to be under $5000 in debt. Since my main source of debt is my credit cards, I have locked them away in a safe. My problem now is just not remembering the numbers so I don’t buy stuff online.

This month I have paid off almost $1000 of debt. Next month I hope to do the same. My big excitement is that my car is over half paid for! With any luck, next month I can have my credit card below $4000, which will give me $1000+ in credit. I will take out $500-$1000 in cash from that card and add that to my bank loan. Currently my credit card is well under 5% interest, and my bank loan is almost 15%.

This morning I was just miserable. I was mad about work, and just over tired. I managed to get some more energy as the day went on and right now I’m doing a bit better. I’m not that upset about work right now and to be honest, for the most part, I think its going pretty good. I think over the next month or two I will have made some more ground in my finances. I have what I think is a considerable amount of debt. Right now it is spread across 3 loans and 1 credit card. To sum it up shortly, I have paid off 2 credit cards with 1 personal loan, this will save me money and also give me some more money during the week. I am now going to take 1 of my loans (with Dell actually) and pay it off on my credit card to lower the interest rate. This will give me 2 loans and 1 credit card. I loan has about 18 months, the second is a brand new 3 year loan. Both have very good interest rates and pretty reasonable payments. I am going to be buying a engagement ring over the next few months, I’m just waiting to see if things at work even out a bit more before I jump into something. My plan is that as soon as I have that ring paid off, I will start saving a bit of money each pay and try to accumulate a months pay in my savings account, just in case something happens. I believe, me and beth are going to start saving as of January, a few bucks a month, so that as soon as we move in together, we can buy a big screen high definition TV. I think its a great idea and I love it. We don’t really have a date to move in, and we probably wont be able to actually buy the TV when we move in, but, we will still be able to save hopefully. I’m thinking I might try to start selling some of my photography. I don’t know if I can anyone to buy a photograph, but I figure if I get $30 a year thats a case of beer right? Anyways, Im gonna be getting going for the day now, have a good one!

So,

Friday night after work I was just going crazy. I was burnt out from work, and stressed out about money and my future. With mom’s help I was able to forget about work, money, and everything related to life for the weekend. I am getting a nice bonus next pay so I took some of my savings saturday morning and bought myself a new lens for my D40X. I bought a sigma 10-20mm wide angel lens. Its amazing. I have a few comparison photos of it and my Nikon 18-55mm that will be on flickr soon. Beth and I went to Moncton to a really nice hotel for our 1 year anniversary. We had a amazing time. We both want to go back so badly. I don’t know whats gonna happen with us in the next 6 months cause it seems that every weekend we both want to live together more and more. I went to Just for Laughs last night with Jon and had a great time. It is nothing like on TV, it is 100% better, and I live the TV show. I’m really not awake today but considering yesterday I was on the go non stop, I think thats understandable lol. I should get back to my real job lol, but Ill try to write again tonight.