Dwindling Debt

So, a bit of background info before getting into this post. I used to have a lot more credit card debt than I do now -- a LOT more. One of my credit cards that had a crazy high balance ($5000+ I think) kept going over the limit, which just made matters worse. Even when I wasnt using the damn card, interest charges and fees kept me from getting caught up on it. So, they offered me a deal. They closed my account and dropped the interest rate to 0% in exchange for automatically withdrawing payments from my checking account every month for 5 years. Not too bad, since I couldnt use that card anyway.

Anyway, I just got off the phone with the guy from the credit card company. Each year, I have to call and set up a years worth of payments. At the end of things, he told me that I had 10 payments of $131 and an 11th payment of $90.50 and that with the payment on March 5, 2011, the balance would be paid in full.

WOO HOO!

Granted, this is only one account among several. But it is a great step in the right direction. Plus, that $131/month can now go to paying more on another account. And that will help get other debt to go away faster. So, the light at the end of the tunnel is visible. It isnt bright or very close, but it is definitely there.

Holy CRAP! It HAS been a long time.

So yeah. Things in real life get in the way of the internet, and I really have been neglecting my blog for way too long.

Anyway, I was just poking my head out to say that I have FINALLY made my last payment for my 2008 State Taxes. OMG that took a long time to take care of. I still have the Federal taxes to deal with, but now I can add the amount I was paying to state to the amount that I am paying the Feds each month. And hopefully, that will be finished that much sooner.

Other things have been pretty much status quo in the financial department of the DelMoniq house. And I guess that is okay. I am still slowly paying things off and trying my hardest not to accumulate more debt.

UGH. Procrastination SUX!

It's the 11th. August has totally been a huge suck on the motivation department, and I was late paying bills this month. Along with that, I have yet to balance my checkbook or enter any of said bills into my Quicken. I'm sitting here tonight sweating on my couch with the Quicken open on my PC, but I have yet to do it.

What's dragging me down? Why can't I just do it? I think that part of me is worried about what the balance will be at the end. But I really shouldn't.

UGH. I need to find some motivation. I'm dying to turn on the air conditioning, but I don't think I should.

It's just too damn hot!!

Okay. So, I caved.

Mother nature had it in for me today. It is so frakking hot today; I feel like I'm going to die.

Everything was fine at work and in the car on the way home. Of course, those places have air conditioning. I got home and opened the door of my apartment to be hit with balls deep heat, right in the face. I looked at the thermostat... 90oF! And that's a minimum, because the little red needle was pegged all the way up! I laid down on the bed for a while in front of the fan, but that didn't help. So, I tried my old college remedy for when we had that heat wave/black out and the temps were over 110oF in the shade. I took a hot shower, which (in theory) would cool me off when I got out of the steam by evaporating the water off my body. Well, it worked... for about five minutes. Then, I was just sweaty again.

So, I did what I had sworn never to do. I turned on the central air conditioning. I closed the windows and made sure that the vents were uncovered (meaning, I had to move my bed). I positioned my two window fans over the vents in the living room to help move the cooler air around more. But damn! It is just too damn hot!

I'm hoping that this doesn't kill my electric bill for August, and I'm hoping that this doesn't become a regular thing. My plan is to run the air conditioning just long enough to get the heat out of here and have it cooler outside. Then, I can go back to normal box-fan only mode at night. But I'm worried that the heat will just continue, and I'll have to run the a/c all the time so the cat won't melt to death during the day.

I've been a bad boy.

I should feel bad, and I kinda do. But I didn't realize it was the end of the month until Friday. I did realize that I got paid (thank goodness for emails from the bank when I get direct deposits). This reminded me to go get a money order for rent. I bad been thinking of trying the bill pay thing, but I didn't want to risk it cutting it this close. Anyway, I ended up watching Heroes on Hulu (the episodes expired on Aug 1, so I had to finish the season) and chatting online with friends. So, no bills got paid. Saturday, I went to work, and then I had dinner and Lost night with friends. I got home too late to worry about the bills. So today, I had to go to work again, but I took all my bill stuff with me so I could pay them and mail them and not have to worry about it. Well, as I was leaving work this afternoon, I realized that I left all the bill stuff in my desk and didn't pay a goddammed thing! UGH.

I've not been this late with my bills in a long time. So, I'm going to have to remember to pay them all in the morning with my coffee at work. I've just been feeling so lost and weird all week, so I'm not entirely surprised that the end of month caught me by surprise. But damn. I was trying to be so good.

To top this off, I had plans to write several new blog posts about things that have been going on, but I never actually got around to it. I'm not exactly tired tonight, so I may try to get some things written out tonight. But ugh. I'm annoyed with myself.

It's hot as BALLS in here!

Summer has "officially" (finally?) arrived in the shitty state of Connecticut. And it is balls-sticking-to-your-thigh HOT. I'd complain about the humidity too, but growing up in the south has pretty much desensitized me to humidity.

So, I'm having a crisis and a battle of wills with myself (myselves?). My apartment has central air conditioning. I've never had an apartment with central air before, so I know that I don't need it. I also know that running the bloody thing will drive my electric bill through the roof. These two things are what's keeping me from turning it on. I've promised myself that I wouldn't ever turn it on, because I know how horrible my bills could get (or I fear how high they would be).

But still, sitting here at dusk in a pool of my own sweat, I'm tempted to turn the frakker on. Last night, I rearranged my bedroom furniture so that my bed could be by the window with the fan blowing directly on me. It helped some, but I still yearned for the dry frostiness of the central air.

I think I may need to break down and turn it on when Dr. Faith comes to visit. But I fear that I won't be able to make myself turn it off when she leaves.

Oh but it would be so nice not to be sweaty and gross all the time I'm at home.

**sigh**

One day, I'll be financially stable enough that I won't have to worry about spiking my electric bill in the summer and my gas bill in the winter.