I know! Long time, no write!  You can stop sending me hate mail for keeping you waiting for details of my exciting and glamorous life…  Not!   🙂

In reality, I have the most boring life on the planet right now. Ugh. Work, sleep, work.

HEALTH UPDATE

I am feeling much better than I was the the time of my last post. My acute symptoms were mostly caused by something new in my diet (dairy, esp. ice cream) which tasted heavenly, but was highly inflammatory to my body. So I had to cut that back out and add it to the long list of things that I can’t eat anymore. 😦   Why can’t I just be normal?  If you can eat anything you want and don’t have food allergies and intolerances, be thankful for that. Seriously…

My credit card payoff will be a bit slower now, because I need to save and prepare for medical expenses. I may likely have to have surgery next year.  I’ve finally decided to max out my HSA (Health Savings Account) starting this year (~$3,000 /yr). Because I’ll need the money for medical expenses anyway, it’s better to save it and use it tax-free.  Better late than never. At this rate it is unlikely that I’ll pay off my credit card debt this year 😦 , but hopefully by February 2015…   Did I mention yet how much I hate debt?

HOUSING UPDATE

I’ve been in my new place for over 2 months now. I am renting a bedroom in a house that I found via Craigslist.   I have three roommates. We are all females in our 30s, 40s, or 50s. I never thought I’d say this about having roommates, but so far… it’s not bad at all. The mood of the house is calm and mellow, which suits me. They don’t have random visitors hanging out in the house all the time like my last roommate did. They are clean and are early birds like me, unlike my last roommate. We aren’t going to be BFF’s, but we get along well enough.  I could definitely do this long term. I hope I won’t have to move again anytime soon. I don’t want to lose this rent (only $500/mo for my room), dirt cheap in this region.

BUDGET UPDATE

The small bit of good news is that I was able to lower my phone bill from $110/mo to $60/mo while keeping pretty much the same service.  Yay. However, the $50 difference has been spent on food.

I’ve been failing pretty badly at staying within my $400 /mo food budget. I know that seems high to most people, but with all my food allergies and intolerances, etc. I can’t just slap together a bologna sandwich or a pack of ramen to eat cheaply.  Recently I tried cooking a couple of meals myself. By the time I bought all the ingredients and spices for one simple-looking recipe, it cost most of my weekly food budget. It also took hours in the kitchen to make and didn’t taste all that great. I’m not giving up, but it’s not going to be easy.

I’ve decided not to join a gym for now and will keep that money. The downside being that I’m truthfully not exercising at all now.  At least I’m walking more now, though.  Public transit to work is costing more than I thought now that i’m father away. I’ve raised my transit budget from $100/mo to $125/mo.  Hopefully, it won’t have to go higher than that.

MINI-RANT

Time for a mini-rant. Who / what am I ranting about now?

Bus-riders who pay with coins. I’m not in any way putting down people who pay a bus fare with coins, per se. Those of us who ride the bus have all paid with coins sometimes when we forget our transit pass, or when money has been tight, etc. I’m annoyed with people who run and push to get on the bus FIRST, and then proceed to pay the fare with a bag full of nickels while blocking anyone else from getting on. A bag full of nickels is what it sounds like to the rest of us waiting outside the bus in line.

Clink, clink, clink, clink….clink…clink, clink…….clink, clink, clink, clink……clink, clink, clink….clink…clink, clink…….clink, clink, clink, clink……clink, clink, clink….clink…clink, clink…….clink, clink, clink, clink……clink, clink, clink….clink…clink, clink…….clink, clink, clink, clink……clink, clink, clink….clink…clink, clink…….clink, clink, clink, clink……clink, clink, clink….clink…clink, clink…….clink, clink, clink, clink……clink, clink, clink….clink…clink, clink…….clink, clink, clink, clink….. .

“OMG. Seriously?!”  (My thought bubble while in line outside.)

…clink, clink, clink….clink…clink, clink…….clink, clink, clink, clink……clink, clink, clink….clink…clink, clink…….clink, clink, clink, clink……clink, clink, clink….clink…clink, clink…….clink, clink, clink, clink……clink, clink, clink….clink…clink, clink…….clink, clink, clink, clink……

Really…  If you have THAT many coins, you should let other people get on first and then pay while the bus is on route to the next stop.

This has happened twice in the last month, with the most recent occurrence happening a couple of days ago, so it’s just been on my mind.

Ok, mini-rant over.

*******

Can anyone relate? Let me know in the comments!

.

“Debtor’s prison is real, and opportunity cost is a bitch.” (DDSW)

.