Another week gone!

The cold I was dreading hit me full on yesterday evening, but I gamely dragged myself to the play with my friend (SORRY EVERYONE!). I was running on Dayquil, which I realize is just a bandaid solution at the best of times, but it served its purpose and my sniffling and nose blowing was minimal. Too bad it does nothing for a foggy head! :(

Anyhow, the play was simply wonderful! Although it was too dark to take notes during the course of the show, I did manage a few during intermission, but I will really have to think and work on the notes to create a worthy review. My friend and I - actually the whole audience - were mesmerised by the performance. It was balletic, poetic, operatic, original, funny...The sets were relatively simple and they let the words and the performers tell the story instead. There is a review in Friday's paper, which I am going to ignore for the present, as I don't want to be influenced by someone else's view of the same play. I will, however, find a few other play reviews and read them so I get an idea of what I need to create.

I spent yesterday packing up most of my food (dry goods) and taking it over to the new apartment. I did my recycling and also stopped to pick up several items that I needed (they're in my Gail Planner on my wish list, so they're legit! :P ) A 16' cord for the plug-ins when the temperature drops again (and it will). My 6' cord isn't nearly long enough for the new place. Two drying racks, cat litter and a filtered water jug (like the Brita). My budget for all of these was $100.00. It went on my debit card, however, but I like the fact that I was dead-on, so I'm not going to beat myself up over my slip.

Costs
Two drying racks @8.49 ea: $17.00 (original budget: $40)
16' cord: $24.99 (original budget: $20.00)
Water pitcher/3 filters: $51.98 (original budget $40)
Cat litter: $6.49
Total spent: $100.73

Granted, the cat litter wasn't on my list, but as it's always a necessity, I picked up a container because it was cheap.

I also watched a few TDDUP episodes online (Season 6) and decided that I need to seriously re-commit to the Magic Jars. To that end, I am going to work on budget over the next two weeks. Until I move and get myself settled, there are going to be a couple of estimated costs, but my plan is to start with a $500 p/mth budget and trim it from there. That should be more than sufficient for a single person to live on.

According to the "What You Owe" spreadsheet on Gail's website, I need to dedicate $670.02 to my debt to be clear in a year. That will clear my full debt of $7585.16. One option is to pay the minimum on the LOC and throw the $670.02 at the student loan. And if I did that, according to MY calculations, that would make me student loan free in just under 4.5 months! That's not counting the fact that tax time falls in there and if my tax return is anything like last year's, then I'll actually be able to apply some extra $$ to those debts and get them paid down sooner.

Hmmm. I may need to get that 3rd job I've been contemplating after all...