25 Jul, 2007
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“All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income.”
— Samuel Butler
Let’s hear it for regressing… 
Sorry for the lack of activity! We’ve just been enjoying the month of July having a little frugal (There. PF was mentioned! 
) fun. Despite what you city slickers may feel, I think it’s a wonderful thing to own a few acres in the middle of nowhere. Lots and lots of outdoor time just to enjoy some beautiful weather. And what precisely have we been spending our time doing?
- Collecting fireflies with my three-year-old.
- Going on evening walks to clear the ol’ mind.
- Pulling up a few lawn chairs and talking. About nothing, and everything.
- Taking time to catch the sunset almost every day.
- Firing up the grill. Just to roast some marshmallows.
- Feeding a few hundred mosquitoes.
- Even mowing way too much lawn (OK, maybe I am getting a bit too much sun!).
I’ll see what I can do about getting back to complaining about the backhanded practices of credit card companies or my general malaise about the ol’ state of the debt in day or two. But for right now, I think I’m just going to continue enjoying. Maybe go have another marshmallow or two. Mmmm….
10 Jul, 2007
Apparently, primarily for two-and-a-half hours a day of mind numbing TV.
Having just completed another quick read through Joe Dominguez’s excellent Your Money or Your Life and contemplating the exchange of life for money that we all do, I stumbled (via LifeHack) upon a bunch of interesting stats from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: the American Time Use Survey.
And looking through the results all I can think is “my, what boring lives we are living…”
One-third of life working away in order to afford the rest.
One-third of life sleeping away.
Not even one-third of that remaining one-third spent on ‘leisure time’.
And with that pittance of leisure that we do afford ourselves, I’m sure we make great use of it:
Well, I guess not. Half spent rotting in front of the idiot box! Well, at least we’re getting our money’s worth from the cable bill… 
No Impact Man shared a few infinitely better ways to spend that leisure time. Maybe it’s time to make TV Turnoff Week a permanent thing…
3 Jul, 2007
That time has arrived again: time for the monthly State of the Debt report. Numbers first, thoughts second…
| |
June 1′07 |
July 1′07 |
Change |
| EVERYTHING We Owe |
| Credit Card Debts |
| Chase |
$18,936.70 |
$22,219.09 |
$3,282.39 |
| Other Debts |
| Home Mortgage |
39,217.94 |
39,164.74 |
(53.20) |
| Low Energy Loan |
16,119.72 |
16,002.18 |
(117.54) |
| Line of Credit |
32,742.76 |
28,656.43 |
(4,086.33) |
| TOTAL Liabilities |
$107,017.12 |
$106,042.44 |
($974.68) |
You may have noticed a big jump in the credit card balance, but nothing to worry about here. I just took advantage of another 4.99%-for-life balance transfer offer. Somehow, no balance transfer fee was attached to this particular offer or I wouldn’t have taken advantage of it. And, as always, if Chase decides to misbehave, I’ll just transfer it back to the line of credit. In the meantime, I’ll take advantage of the cheaper debt.
Hey, whaddya know, for the first time in a three months, a smaller final total makes an appearance — to the tune of almost a cool thousand bucks less! Too bad the true progress is actually poorer than those months where the overall total was on the way up. May and June’s bottom line may have increased, but only because pre-existing renovation bills were arriving; the true balance dropped over $1,800 each month. No bills arrived this months, so the $975 reduction is pretty anemic by comparison. I’m going to have to go over our budget, see what slowed us down this month.
But at least we’re continuing in the right direction…
