(cue balloons and confetti)

Right around the time that I was ever so tempted to say “screw it” and go ahead and buy a new computer, Sallie’s Niece had bought one without first saving for it by using the advantage of a 0% interest offer. She was immediately blasted by some of her readers for it, just as you guys had flipped out on me in your ever caring way (remember, that’s why I post such things here before I do anything). Whelp, she just paid off that computer loan, and in just about the same amount of time, I saved my money. Whereas she is celebrating ridding herself of that debt, I am sitting here with a strange bit of savers remorse. That is, I’ve saved up all this money for a purchase that I’ve been terribly desiring and anticipating. Now that I’m here, I don’t want to let that money go, by buying the parts needed for my precious new computer. Almost. I must just come to terms with the truth that I’ve been saving the money for the purposes of spending it, not for saving it forever and ever.

Woops, looks like I’ve come to those terms! I went for the Amazon Prime free trial on this one, which as you know gives you free two-day shipping. This was huge for me, as I am always terribly impatient when it comes to waiting for packages to arrive. Back when I bought my digital camera, I waited out on the porch all day for DHL to deliver it, and one of those times that I went back inside for a bathroom break or somesuch, he drove right by. Luckily I was able to get him to turn around and actually stop and attempt delivery by calling customer service (after seeing a failed delivery attempt online).

Also, getting it on Saturday gives me the weekend to build it, rather than leaving the parts all boxed up until next weekend (as I intend to build it downstairs on the tile floor and in bare feet – less static – but can’t do that in the middle of the night as g-pa sleeps right next to the dining room). On top of that, I’m on very good terms with the UPS man, as he spends a lot of time sleeping in our office at work (seriously), so I know he won’t just drive by with my stuff. Then again, he might not work Saturdays. Eeep. I’ll have to ask him tomorrow.

But OMG holy crap WTF I am so exciiiiiiiiiited!!!!! Now I’ll be checking Amazon 5 times every hour waiting for my stuff to ship, and then checking UPS just as much after that.

P.S. Only just before placing the order did I whip out a yardstick and realize just how big these dual 22 inch screens are going to be. A shelf or two may have to be removed, but it makes me all the more giddy!!! In fact, here’s my giddy face!

No, I am not cross-eyed, I’m just giddy to see you. A video would do more justice.

I expect to have something awesome to say tomorrow, but we’ll just have to see when that time comes.

According to the PA Department of Labor & Industry, such earnings should be reported as they are earned, rather than as they are paid. As such, any decision wouldn’t be based on one lump sum ad revenue payment from the past who-knows-how-long, but rather the weekly earnings from such ad source regardless if enough was earned to qualify for payment from the advertiser. Also, an individual can earn up to 40% of their weekly unemployment benefit rate before those earnings start affecting their benefits. Over that 40% and your benefit would be reduced by the amount of money you made, dollar for dollar.

Even with the very meager unemployment benefits I received back then, my current advertising income wouldn’t affect them – regardless of whether I split it up weekly or as monthly payments. For individuals who like to put themselves in interesting situations, it also means that a fellow Pennsylvanian could get a part-time job that pays 99% of their current weekly unemployment benefit and still technically be on unemployment.

My last paycheck sunk another $300+ in to the emergency fund. This next one will add almost another $300, which is freaking fantastic considering it’s my bill-paying check.

Some moron backed in to my scooter, knocking it over, and then took off. Came out of the grocery store to find the poor thing laying on it’s side. The handlebar end took the impact and associated deep scratches. That’s completely cosmetic, so I’m not worried about it, and it couldn’t be too terribly expensive to get a new one if I wanted to. The real issue is the kickstand – as it went down on the left side, rather than the right. Kickstand spring came off, which results in activation of the killswitch. I tried unsuccessfully several times to reattach the spring while the LPD officer was writing up the report, but it just kept falling off. So, either the spring is stretched out, or the kickstand is bent. Haven’t figured it out yet. Ziptied it up and using the center stand in the meantime.

I changed some things around in my spreadsheets so that my income is taken on an average of the last 4 paychecks, rather than an average ever since I started this job. So far it looks great, speeding everything up like a banshee. I know it won’t last, though, but still think it’s a bit more accurate than the other way, and I’ll keep the progress bars updated accordingly with this version of dates.

One thing I don’t like, though, is sitting on top of all this money and not doing anything with it. Between my two funds, I have over a grand sitting around. I want to pay down debt, or build this computer (which, by the way, I’m becoming more and more tempted every day to jump the gun on), or… something! It just feels like no progress, rather than ridiculously slow progress. I’ve figured out workable ways to drive my truck. It’s not pleasant, but it works, and so I’m tempted to not save up for a new vehicle right off the bat, but rather wait until the time comes… or even get the transmission fixed. Maybe. Either way, I’ll hit the $1,000 mark on the emergency fund with this next paycheck, and want to get back in to gazelle mode, in Dave Ramsey terms.

A few days ago, I wasn’t so sure I was going to break the grand mark for this month. Without trying, I managed to pull it off. I’ll be in very good shape if I can continue to pull the kind of hours I am at work. I got a ton of overtime again last week and this week, and again still have some extra Saturday work to add on to the 12 or so hours I have this week already. Once again, it’ll propel me one month forward in my schedule.

It’s pretty well settled that I’m not fixing my truck, which renders the emergency fund (and probably the secondary savings as well) a vehicle fund. I’ll probably save up at least $3000 before going shopping. I’m not too enthused about this, as not only will I have to save up that much, over that long a time period, before paying anything else down, but then I’ll also have to re-save another thousand for an actual emergency fund afterwards. But, it is what it is. Insert big sigh here.

I’m also exploring the possibility of moving the LFCU loan up to the top of my priority list. It’s the closest interest-bearing loan to payoff, it’s the highest interest loan, I could pay it off in 7 months (probably closer to 5 months), and that $165 would really help my snowball. Unfortunately, transportation comes first.

I sense some situational awareness may be needed here. At my particular place of employment, we don’t have to eat lunch. Let me rephrase… we don’t have to take a lunch break. Generally, on second shift, if you take a lunch during an 8 hour day, you’re not working hard enough. Just like working only 8 hours isn’t working hard enough on our shift. Because we work until the work is done, lunch breaks just serve to make the day even longer, not shorter.

I am one of the few guys on my shift that has regularly taken a lunch break. I’d go home (a whole 5 blocks, remember), eat while I’m watching TV, and hop on over back to work. Sounds great, right? I hardly have to go anywhere, and I’m not spending any money on lunch, because it’s food that I already have at home. And I only lose a couple of hours a week because of it. Overtime hours. Meh, a small price to pay for a nice, relaxing half hour break off of my feet. Right? WRONG!

Two and a half hours in lost overtime every week never seemed like much in itself, but after some helpful reminding from my supervisor last night that I’d be better off financially if I didn’t take lunch breaks, I finally decided to run the numbers.

Note: Yes, I used to do C++, and yes, I had a hard time resisting writing out a function for this exercise

Almost $200 per month I’ve been pissing away by taking lunch breaks. Unbelievable. A quick glance at my snowball spreadsheet shows my current monthly snowball increasing from $300 to $500, my overall interest expenses decreasing by almost $700, and my final payoff moving forward by a staggering NINE MONTHS from August 2014 to November 2013.

Naturally, I took my lunch with me to work today, and ate my shrimp lasagna while picking baseboards.

So there you have it, folks – not only can brown-bagging it at work save you money on lunch, it can actually pay you, too! Big raise style, even!

My next step is to do whatever educational stuff it is that I was supposed to have done a long time ago at orientation time that will supposedly result in a 50 cent raise – another thing I’ve been passing off as too miniscule to bother with, but will actually add another $100 per month. I’ll be rich soon enough, I swear!

The transmission in the truck is gasping it’s final breath. I really, really don’t want to sink another grand into this thing, and I’d much rather get another junker that isn’t quite as junky. I don’t have the money either way, and don’t much know what to do.

As much as I don’t want to, I’m also thinking about selling the scooter. I wouldn’t end up with a big chunk of change from such a sale due to the loan, but I would end up with an extra $106 a month to send in other directions. It’s good to have as a secondary vehicle, and to save bigtime on gas, but I also only live a few blocks away from work. That extra money each month would go a very long way. I’ve run the numbers and it’s oh so tempting, but I know I’d regret the hell out of it, too.

Rawwrrrr. Double rawwrrrr.

This week, we only worked 4 days due to the holiday, and I still got 37 hours. Add 8 hours of regular holiday pay to that for 45 regular hours, and 7.5 hours of overtime pay today, and it makes for a pretty lucrative week. Mandatory overtime next Saturday on top of what looks like will be a busy week… yikes. Sucks to work it, but great results.

I haven’t made any further progress on quitting smoking. Still holding steady at a pack a day. I’ve been cheating too much, and ended up resetting the program because I was lagging way behind.

I’ve also been blowing my budget… a lot. I briefly considered upping my weekly allowance to $100, but didn’t like what I saw. Just need to be more vigilant in controlling my spending, I guess…

P.S. Also took the not-so-fun action of filling up my truck yesterday. $84.79, and it had been since July 6th since I filled up. Two months and five days ain’t bad, but still need to ride the scooter more often.

I don’t recall any major expenses in the past month. Then again, my memory is kind of mehhh. So I was kind of surprised at only $800 (compared to some previous months), but then I remember this is only including two paychecks, not three. And, with health insurance and 401k deductions… yeah. It’s still certainly much better than last month’s $75 gain.

Total debt itself is below the $60k mark, debt payoff is above the $5k mark, so I’m satisfied.

I’m also looking for a part time weekend job, and wondering if I can handle such a thing. If I can, it’d be one hell of a boon.