Jimmy.Brainflush.com

I’ve been finding the meaning of life over the past few months. Sorry about the delay but it was of utmost importance.
The answer quite simply is love. Find love and you’ll find meaning. If you have to ask yourself if you’ve ever been in love then you haven’t. I won’t go on about this, but it truly is the best anti-whatever drug on the market.
Living and loving the frugal life
I’m trying to save money because I have this weird hunch that we’re heading for a depression. The likelihood of that happening is slim, but my thinking is, Hey the worst that could happen is that I get completely out of debt and have money saved on the side.. How is that a bad thing?
I’ll post my meanderings on this as I see fit.
The Night Crawler
I’m working the midnight shift for the rest of this month, and have been for about a month now. It’s not bad. I’m able to work from home and save more money. Quite honestly, save for Denny’s, or Perkins, what can I spend money on working at this late hour?
Economic Indicators
You know it’s bad when you start hearing the pyramid schemes. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of people have made a lot of money doing things like Amway or door to door selling, but who has the time for that?
Another bad economic indicator, the jobless number, has been insanely high lately. My thought is if you can count the number of people you know who lost their job, and it takes both hands, things are poopy.
ALDI - I must say that my new favorite store is Aldi. I’ve cut 40 bucks off my weekly grocery bill by shopping there. I’ve met a lot of nice people there too, friendly folks just trying to make a go of it. It’s heartening and helping me to focus.
The Library - The fun of Borders without the price tag. Don’t get me wrong, I still shop at Borders.. with a notepad of what books or music I want. Then I go to the library and check it out. Ditto that on Blockbuster. Who’s got 4 bucks to throw at a movie? Add to that the cost of driving there, and it’s nuts. Most libraries rent DVDs now. I’m on a quest to see all of the AFI’s 100 of the Century, and my local library makes it fun and cheap. The librarians are fun analytical people too.
Anorexic Shopping - This was an early budgeting step… In an effort to overcome my need to shop, I’d go to my favorite store, buy what I wanted, get the fulfillment of that experience, and take it all back within 30 days. I didn’t use what I bought. Instead I kept a checklist of the number of times I would have used the item, and found that I wouldn’t have much at all!
The Starbucks Factor - One of the great things about budgeting was keeping a list of all my expenditures. I spent on average, $2.10 a day at Starbucks. Over two years that’s over a thousand dollars. The night shift has convinced me that I don’t need gourmet coffee. So out with that nonsense.
Thermo Stat - Did you know that for every degree less you put your thermostat, you save 2-3% on your gas or electric bill? I threw on a sweater and turned mine down 10 degrees, and am happily saving $10-20 bucks a month.
The cooler air keeps me motivated and less lazy too.
So I’m saving money and actually putting 25% of my income into savings, and an additional 6% into my 401K. I’m still alive to talk about it! Do I still have debt? Yes.. actually about $8630. It was fourteen thousand a year ago.. so I’m making progress. But I finally realized the importance of paying yourself first. I’ve got a tiny emergency fund. Hopefully in another year it’ll be 6 months worth of living capital, that will put me at ease.
Giving it away - You’ve got to give to the less fortunate.. it’s a rule of budgeting.. so I give 10% away to charity too. I think of it as a selfish thing, because it makes me feel really good.
So I’m in love, saving money, and loving my job. What more could a guy ask for? I’ll see you at ALDI, -Jimmy