Savvy Budget

The Gazelle Is Up But Still a Little Wobbly

Ok, the gazelle was wounded but she is not out.

In light of the fact that I have taken some hard hits in the last month, I am working on some new strategies. They include:

• Skipping a sweet little (unannounced to all of you) trip this weekend. I had planned on visiting a dear person in NYC. The plane ticket was covered so it was going to be of very little expense to me.
• Instead of visiting him, I am going to visit my sister and help out the yard sale. I took several things over there to put in the sale. I will now get home from work and load up even more items, spend the weekend with her and try to earn some money. All of this will be earmarked to SD.
• I went to the grocery store to pick up one item. I found 12 packs of cheese slices on sale for $.69. Call me insane, I bought 10. The scary part is that one of the factors for picking up so many is the expiration date. July 2007. Cheese product that can last a whole year ? In addition to the cheese, I picked up two bags of mixed raw vegetables. The same brand I use in my stir fry. These were a different mix. I really like them and they stay fresh a long time. Stir fry for lunch and dinner next week. Might even use one bag for snacking at work. Gotta be healthy.
• Unloading several items from my car. Less weight = better gas mileage= less $ spent on gas= more money toward retiring SD.
• Be even more diligent about caring for my clothes. Loosing even one piece from my wardrobe at this point could cause serious problems. (My sneakers are getting threadbare as it is. Stains could put them out of commision entirely. I have key blouses that go with several pairs of pants and skirts. The loss of a pair of pants would be especially bad right now. As I wear them with several different blouses and they truly stretch my wardrobe.
• Focus, Focus, Focus on work. This is my source of income and what keeps me afloat.
• Eating out is no longer optional. I will be cutting out dinner with the ladies from church once a month if I do not make dramatic improvements in my cash flow.
• Continue adding a quarter to my EF jar and making regular deposits. The EF needs to be fully funded with no deviation.
• Sodas are now totally off the shopping list.
• I need to focus on losing the weight. I have a closet full of clothes in much smaller sizes. The clothes I have now are shabby in my opinion but they will have to do. I have priorities that need addressing before this one. I can move into better clothes by practicing discipline.

posted by Casper @ 7:47 PM