Nooo mooooore LASIK payments!

Tonight I paid off my LASIK bill. Just a few clicks, and that $2,560 beast is GONE FOREVER.

So now, just my car payments left until I'm debt-free. 14K to go.

I'm going to Oakland, CA tomorrow for 5 days for a work/play trip, and am allowing myself some pleasure spending (ie, really good food) as a reward for paying off my LASIK a few days before the end of the month. Then on November 1, it's back to the spending diet. And I'm not sad about going back to it. It's been good for me. I've enjoyed being less social (even though I don't have to be- there's plenty of free stuff to do, but I love coming home from work and decompressing alone with Petri).

I feel awesome. And happy-tired (you know that feeling. The one when you smile and your eyes are kind of droopy and you feel like a big weight has been lifted off your chest). One debt left.

A recent frugal thing that I did: The toe tops of my brown boots (that I bought in a thrift store in NYC about 8 years ago, btw) were getting faded, so I took a brown wood/furniture marker and colored in the faded part. Worked like a charm. Why get new boots when these ones have been kicking ass for 8+ years now?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Freedooooom

Image
Yesterday morning I paid off the rest of my car. I am now debt free . Over the past 20 months I've paid off about $33K of debt in the form of medical bills, a car loan, and a wee bit of credit card debt. Here are some tips and things I did that were the most helpful during this time: I made a Needs and Wants list. I deviated from this now and then, but I always had it to reference. I used Mint.com to set my monthly budgets, and I logged in 6 days a week, first thing in the morning. I posted a bit about it on Facebook, for accountability. This accomplished two things- It gave a way for people to see me and support me, and it also set expectations and sent a message to friends and family that said "Please don't put me in a position right now to spend money- don't charm me into expensive trips/meals/gifts- I'm trying to take care of myself right now." I went from working five days a week to opening up a sixth day on my calendar. I bartered for free/fresh ...
Read more

Generosity at work

Here's what I bought yesterday, on my day-after-the-Freeze: iTunes movie rental in standard definition ( The Edge of Seventeen - I liked it): $2.99. 2 pairs of underwear A pairs of arch support inserts for my sneakity-sneaks. A bag of dog food that will last 4 months, with Petri's small appetite. Yesterday at the end of my organizing session (with a client who knows about my Spending Fast), I stretched and said, "Now I can go buy chapstick !" in a sincerely triumphant voice. "Are you kidding?!" She said. Then we ran around to 3 different spots in her home, and she found SEVEN  unopened tubes of chapstick and gave them to me. Then she sat on the kitchen floor and went through her wine fridge and gave me FIVE  bottles of wine. Then on top of that she handed me two bags of healthy snacks, because she had bought the wrong size.   I was touched by her generosity.
Read more

Tribute to 2017, and 2018 resolutions

Hello from NYC! Inspired by my friend Mindy Hart, I've decided to start blogging again. 2017 was... The year my closest KC friends and I bought forested land that we have a 5-10 year plan to turn into an Ecovillage (ie, cluster of tiny houses). The year I attended my first ever destination wedding abroad where I made friends, and learned that having a whole week with the bride and groom is the most wonderful. The year I turned 32 and saw my 32nd country, Jamaica. The year I saw my first octopus on a night dive, logged my 50th dive (in Cozumel), and logged my first freshwater dive, at the cenotes/caverns in Playa del Carmen. The year I went to my first Burn! Interfuse 2017 was a huge new experience. The year I moved in with great friends to start living more affordably. The year I went to LA on a room escape crawl with beloved friends from both coasts. The year I took control of an awful medical situation by having surgery. Here's to a much better quality of life! Th...
Read more

Sewing old blankets and brewing up soups

Image
Just paid off another $2,056 on my car loan. (The $56 was this month's interest... cringe). So now I have $12,000 of debt left to pay. If I pay $2,400/month for the next 5 months I can be debt-free by my 32nd birthday in early May. A few spending diet wins since my last post: My beloved blanket started coming apart so I hand sewed it up. I don't think I've picked up a needle and thread since college. I loved it... Sewing is so peaceful. A client gave me one of her Southwest drink tickets, and I enjoyed a coffee with Baileys on my flight to Oakland at the end of October. So lovely to enjoy that over the crossword puzzle (Southwest magazine always has good crosswords). The same client gave me an almost full HUGE jar of organic paleo chocolate protein powder, and I use it in my breakfast shakes. She didn't dig it, but I do. Probably saved $30 on groceries right there. Another client gave me an AMC gift card that she found when we cleaned out her desk. How kind was ...
Read more

Fo FREE.

Hello from the homeland of Lawrenceville, NJ! I'm at my parents' house- last night we drove back from Vermont, where my cousin got married. I've decided that Vermont weddings might be the most beautiful things ever. Today I'll be getting some work done (I have a speaking gig next weekend all about closet decluttering/organization tips, so I'm updating and fine-tuning some of my go-to stuff for that), and running some errands for my folks as a thank you for flying me out here for the wedding, which was very nice of them. Then tomorrow my dad and I hit the road on a two day drive to Kansas City- Dad and my stepmom Rachel are attending a Wyoming wedding this weekend, and Rachel will be flying out to meet him- Dad is a sucker for road trips in the western United States, so he prefers to drive. Also he is retired, and Rachel still works, so she needs to fly. I'm delighted to report that I've spent NO money on Wants on this trip so far. I did buy some grocer...
Read more