My (lack of) budget and Christmas presents!
2001-12-26 - 6:36 p.m.
Okay, I've seriously got to start learning how to create a budget. Or hire a financial planner. Or just plain figure out where the hell I'm putting all my money.
Here's the thing. I make plenty of moolah in my job. At this point, I'm just a couple grand shy of 60 grand a year, and I should clear that in April after my annual review. So here I am, making well over 4 grand a month, and yet I have almost nothing to show for it.
Every two weeks, after the government's grubby paws take $800 from me, I'm left with about $1300. So that leaves me somewhere between $2500 and 3 grand a month, right?
Okay, rent is $540, we'll say utilities are $200 (including phone bills to Canada), my car payment is $411 (with an extra $100 for insurance), and I usually pay about $500 toward my credit card, which I still owe about $3500 on.
$2700 - $540 - $200 - $411 - $100 - $500 = $949
So after all the bills are said and done, I've got about a grand left. I know I spend an exorbitant amount on food, at least $10 a day, so we'll round that off at $300. Throw in the recurring charges, like the gym ($35) and the tanning salon ($30), neither of which are getting used right now, and that still leaves me with quite a bit. Yet, somehow I find a way to blow through it all since I tend to live from month to month.
I've had the same $1500 sitting in my savings account for quite a while, without any additions being made to it.
To be fair, though, I have nearly 4 grand in stock, not to mention 6% of each paycheck goes into a 401(k). So hopefully I'll be all set for retirement. I'm just wondering why I don't have more NOW.
It still boggles my mind how I made it from month to month when I was in college and only had a fraction of the money I have now. I mean, besides the much bigger car payment, my situation isn't THAT much different. How people afford houses is beyond me.
Oh well, maybe my chick can figure out how to keep my budget in check when she moves down this summer. Lord knows I'm not putting a dent into fixing it.
Now that I've pissed off all the people who can't believe I'm complaining about my monetary situation (though technically I'm just perplexed, no complaining), I figure I'm gonna do my good deed of the season.
Who likes the game The Sims? Who has seen it but has never had a chance to play it? Well, I was cleaning up my room last night (in anticipation of the chick's visit here next Monday), and I realized I have a bunch of shit I neither want nor need. As such, I'm either going to throw it out or better yet, give it to someone who could use it. There's probably going to be a bunch of stuff before I'm through, but the things that stand out right now are the two computer games The Sims and Rollercoaster Tycoon.
Now here's the thing, I'm a huge PC and video gamer, so I've been playing all matters of games for damn near 20 years now (back to my Atari 2600). I picked up both these game, with reservations, knowing that they were games created for mainstream users, and not so much for a hardcore gamer such as myself. They were able to keep my attention for a couple of hours, but then both quickly bored me senseless, and I moved on to bigger and better things (that may very well explain the budget problems above). :)
Anywho, I have no plans on playing either game ever again, so my options are to throw the games away, sell them on Ebay, or just give them away to a friend. The first choice seems like such a waste, the second choice is out since I can't stand Ebay and will only deal with it as a last resort, and the third isn't terribly feasible since none of the people I know here in Atlanta are into computer games.
As such, I've decided to see if any of my regulars out there are interested in either of these titles. If you are, drop me a line in my guestbook or e-mail me (click the link on the left side for that) and I'll see what I can do. Unless the shipping costs are extreme (I can't imagine it being over a couple of bucks each), I'll just give you the thing for free.
One word of note, I'd like to give these to someone on limited finances versus someone who just wants to try it on a lark, so if you notice someone has already asked for it, and you make more than me, let's let them have it, yah?
Other than that, I guess the most fair way to do this is wait until, say, Friday and then if there are multiple names, just pick one out of a hat for each game and that's who gets it. Sound fair? Great.
Just call me a slightly slimmer Santa. If I find any other equally worthless items (to me) in my cleanings, I'll let y'all know.
Until next time...