My Financial Situation Update: Wednesday, June 8th, 2011.

Well, I did it, the last major hurdle I needed to jump to be debt-free has been jumped. No more vehicle loan.

That's right, on May 28th I strutted through those bank doors, looked the teller right in the eye and said, "You feelin' lucky punk?", to which the teller replied with a pathetic whimper and immediately proceeded to wet himself. This caused the cute girl behind the "Loan Officer" desk to swoon with immediate feelings of immense attraction towards me and my anti-debt attitude, which is what prompted her to ride off with me into the sunset… in my paid-off truck, of course.

Okay, I know that didn't make sense, nor did that actually happen, but it sounds slightly more dramatic than, "Hi, I'm here to pay off my loan, can I get the entire payoff amount please?"

Although I gotta admit, it was kind of exciting to write a $6,178.10 check. That's by far the largest check I've ever written. Below is my updated budget, with the parts that have changed highlighted in yellow.

Okay, so the first obvious change: no Dodge Dakota Payment, as indicated by the Rest In Peace. There have been some other budgetary changes however, that have nothing to do with me paying off any debt. The first one is the return of the internet bill. I inadvertently paid off about 6 month's worth of payments to my telecommunications company, and for a while there I had forgot that I actually would have to ever start paying it again. I was reminded pretty quick when a bill came in the mail (it's ironic that a company that provides internet service doesn't have an option to pay online).

The next change is in the Entertainment category. for a few months I had been coming very close to, or going a bit over, my old limit of $250.00, so I've increased it to $350.00 a month. Plus it's kind of hard to keep entertainment costs way down when you decide to break up with a girlfriend who likes to stay at home, rent redbox movies, and generally not spend money. Being on the prowl again isn't cheap (no, i'm not the kind of guy that actually talks like that. Really). Besides, I started to feel a little… cut off from the world, due to all of the events and gossip that my circle of friends engage in that I would choose to opt out of.

Seriously thinking about cancelling the YMCA membership, considering I haven't been there in about a month. It's just far to convenient to work out at work for free, and now that I'm back on second shift it'll be even easier to work out at work, considering I won't have to try and motivate myself to do so in the middle of the night anymore (like I had to do while on third shift).

After all these budget changes, I went from requiring 59.50% of my income to live to 57.41%. It's only a drop of 2.09%, but that extra $100 a month towards entertainment is worth to me, and there's not much I can do about that internet bill. I suppose I could get the cheapest plan they have and drop it down to only $30 a month, but that really is barebones internet service, and considering I have a blog and do so much else on the internet, that would just be too slow for me.

The Future Budget

The only thing left now to pay off is the credit card, which should be more than possible within 2 months. Then I will officially be 100% debt free. Between that and ending my YMCA membership, I have about $90 to trim from my budget. I could cut out the supplements and save a total of $240, but I'm not ready to do that yet. Everything else in my budget I'm pretty happy with. Now, if I could only find a way to eliminate that rent payment…

Jake Evans