I hear a lot of talk about how a blog will not be successful if you aren’t blogging about something you are passionate about. I’ve struggled to find a niche that I would feel comfortable in, as well as be motivated enough to keep doing it.

I think I’ve found that niche.

I’ve just set up my new blog, The Magic Gatherer – a Collector’s Blog. Yes, I know it’s nerdy to play Magic: the Gathering, but I just don’t care. I love the game. It’s my favorite game ever.

Come check it out and tell me what you think. I have big plans for it, and it’s still in the early stages.

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I’m getting ready to launch a new website/blog dedicated to my favorite game, Magic: the Gathering. I’m hoping that I can make it awesome.

We’ve been told over and over again to write about our passions, because that will lead to a great blog. Well, MtG is one of mine. I’ve been playing it since I was a sophomore in high school, and even after a hiatus I’ve returned to my geek roots.

That’s right. Nerd street cred. Represent.

On second thought, I should never say that again…

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I started a blog simply because it just made sense. I have had several different versions of my own site online since about 1996, when I first started spending time on the internet. Over the years, I learned a lot about how to build websites, how not to build websites, and what I should expect to encounter during the ‘running a site’ process.

Back in the day, I would code all of my own websites in pure HTML using the best website building tool ever, Notepad. Was it a lot of work? Sure. Was it worth it? Well, yes. I was able to set up a place where I could post my own thoughts and ideas (even though nobody ever saw it). The format was pretty cool, as well. I’d have date stamped updates whenever I would post a new thought…it was great.

And it was a blog before blogging as we know it.

So fast forward to today. I don’t hand code my HTML anymore. I’m just too lazy for that, and I really don’t remember a lot of it, since I don’t use it. Now I just run WordPress. Really, it’s faster and easier (although since I can’t make my own themes and I don’t have the cash on hand to buy a custom theme it doesn’t always look how I envision it).

Getting started in blogging, for me, was just a logical progression from what I was already doing.

Why did you get into blogging? Leave your comments below!

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I decided that I should give something a try, just to see if I could make it work. With my plan to try to save money by cutting excess spending in effect, it is forcing me to take a step back and look to see where all of the excess money is leaking from the bucket.

Part of saving money is finding (and plugging) the leaks. Once you do that, you will begin to notice a difference in your bank account.

After a bit of thought, I found that a lot of my extra spending is due to the fact that I like to eat out a lot. Most of the time, it isn’t even necessary, but I’m just too lazy to cook my own stuff. It’s just so much nicer to pull up to a window, hand the cashier some cash, and then they hand you whatever you order (most of the time). It’s good food, it’s fast, and it’s just convenient. The problem is that it is also expensive.

Using myself as an example, we can see how it adds up quickly. If I eat out once per day, and I spend about $5 on it, and if I do this every day that I have to work (which is 5 days per week), that’s $25 per week. The truth is that most of us don’t limit eating out to just once per day. If we go grab dinner at a decently priced restaurant, you’re looking at an additional $12 (or so). Do that just twice a week in addition to the lunches, and that’s $49. If you take a date with you on any of those dinner nights, expect that to be at least twice the amount.

I’ve found a solution that, while not as pleasant, may just do the trick.

Normally, I buy groceries but eat out most of the time. My average grocery bill is about $25/week which does not include fast food. What I did this week was decide to go ahead and spend $37 (which is about what it came to at Kroger) and get enough stuff for light meals for two weeks at once. This has two benefits – first, I have stuff at home, and this includes things that I can take to work with me for lunch, so I will be saving A TON of cash. Second, I will be eating less (this is where the sacrifice and self-control come in), so hopefully I can lose a few pounds as well.

So with all of the money I saved, I picked up some gear for tennis. I figured that if I was going to eat less, I should probably exercise more. I’m tired of being the fat guy that doesn’t ever have enough money. With this plan, eventually I’ll be the not-so-fat guy with a comfortable life. :D

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Wow, it’s been a busy weekend for me. Hanging out in north Texas, rocking out at the Wildflower Festival in Richardson, feeling they pain of the day after a Cowboy Mouth concert (it’s an awesome workout, but geez…the pain is definitely worth it), and eating good food.

There’s this place in Dallas called Cafe Brazil. They have awesome crepes (and I’m sure they have lots of other good stuff as well). Lots of different types of coffee, and they’re open 24 hours. You really can’t beat them.

No, this isn’t a paid post. I just wanted to tell you how much that place rules. If you are in the Dallas area, check it out.

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Since starting my new job, I’ve been slowly looking for my pathway to awesome. By that, I mean I’m finally tired of being broke all of the time. There have been many times lately that I have to decide between necessities like auto insurance and rent. Fortunately, I’ve been able to almost make things work except for this past week, where my check was two days short (due to circumstances beyond my control). Because of that, I managed to pay about half of my bi-weekly rent payment and had to forgo the car insurance and getting the brakes worked on (which is a pretty nasty combination…heh).

One of the fundamental problems with my income is that I pay 25% of my bring-home pay in child support. I earn $12 per hour at my job, so that pretty much puts me on a $9 per hour level from the start. Here’s a little rundown of my expenses:

-Child Support: Aprox. $400/month
-Rent: $400/month
-Auto Insurance: $45/month
-Fuel: $120/month (if I cruise around a bit)

My grocery bill fluctuates depending on how I want to do things. I give myself a little bit of flexibility there.

So, here’s how this works:

Total estimated bring-home: $1600
Total estimated expenses: $965

That tells me that I *should* have around $635 left at the end of the month. Somehow, it doesn’t work out that way very often, and I’m panicking about being short on money. Like this week, when my paycheck was about 17 hours short.

I really haven’t done a lot to track my expenses, honestly. I have very few bills and want to put myself in a position where I can feel a bit more comfortable about spending a little bit once in a while. With the recent divorce, I’ve been stressed out a lot. And when I get stressed out, I blow money like a madman. Don’t even ask how fast I blew threw my income tax return…

So how do I make myself save money? Well for starters, I need to cut back a bit on the social life. One would think that for someone who suffers from severe depression and hasn’t gone out with friends in about ten years would need to get out there, and I do. I enjoy going places with my friends, but the problem is that whenever I go out, I spend money. Granted I might not blow a metric buttload of cash in one night, but it does tend to add up. Ten bucks here, twenty there…do that three or four times per week and the well will run dry awful soon. By cutting back to maybe once per week, I will be able to keep a lot of cash in my pocket.

Another thing I’ve started doing lately may seem a bit silly, but many people have done this successfully: putting loose change in a jar. I have an older plastic glass that I use to toss my change in whenever I think about it. Well, I usually keep the quarters in my pocket, but anything else goes in the cup. What does this do for me? Other than giving me a small break from all of the crap I haul around in my pockets on a daily basis, it’s one of those little self-disciplines that I never did learn. But now, I’m getting there. Not to mention, once the glass fills up I’ll have a nice little pile of change. I haven’t decided what I’m going to spend it on, but we will see about that when the time comes.

The third thing I’m trying to do is to stop eating out so often. I like fast food. I’m a fan of the McDouble. But for a while, the only thing I was eating was take out. I’ve noticed that it really puts the hurt on my pocketbook. Not to mention, I’m huge. If I ever want to lose some weight, I had really better start eating better. The solution? Go shopping! I’ve learned that cooking at home lets me eat better food for less money. I mean, why spend $3 for ONE chorizo and egg burrito at Jack In The Box, when I can go to Kroger (with my Kroger card…which I love), spend a little more, but make about 6-8 of them? There is a savings there, and lets face it: my breakfast burritos are freaking awesome.

One day I would like to be able to take a real vacation. I have never done that. I’m 31 now, and the one time that I did take a week off from work, I stayed home and did nothing. I would also like to be able to afford to buy the things I like. Most of what I have was given to me (or I paid for during the course of the divorce), so my bills are relatively low. There’s really no reason that I shouldn’t be able to get a foothold on beating my financial woes.

That is my new goal.

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So, I know it’s been almost a month since my last post, but I’ve been busy trying to get things going for a new musical project.

That’s right. I’m starting a band.

You can keep track of us if you are on Facebook by checking out the Karaoke Superstars Fan Page on Facebook.

You know you wanna rock to this…

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