If it’s 2008 this must be Baby Step 2

Well, right in-line with my obsessive personality I’ve gone and budgeted myself right into boredom. Well, it’s not really THAT bad – but I’ve used up my discretionary money and I still have a week yet to go. It’s not bad really – it just means I won’t get to indulge in my favorite mocha this week. And I’m going to have to be careful over the weekend, too. No eating out. No movies. No more gas for my car. I feel like I’m working minimum wage again.

Last year at about the beginning of the year I started doing the Dave Ramsey baby steps and crashed. When I get into something I tend to go overboard – I kind of become obsessed with it until I decide it’s no longer interesting and then I stop – or until I become overwhelmed. It’s been good for my career – I think employers have appreciated the intensity I bring to my endeavors. The problem is when those things take long-term intensity. Whether weight loss or financial plans, long-term is just difficult for me. I want results immediately, and I’m willing to put in almost superhuman efforts to attain those goals – it’s the daily grind that’s so darned difficult. My best friend thinks I have ADD. I think I’m just American.

So last year I started the baby steps with more than gazelle intensity – it was more like I got on the Space Shuttle and tried to reach the moon – but instead of a rocket I was pedaling – with all my might. I was working a full-time 9-6 job during the day, doing freelance web design projects on the side, and even doing magic shows for children’s birthday parties on the weekends. As if that wasn’t enough, I had decided to take on a 2nd job at Safeway, stocking shelves from 9:00pm – 2:00am. I was able to keep this up for a couple of months before I really just crashed. Two people in my life showed concern over my well-being – my best friend, and my Mom. Together they convinced me to quit my part-time evening job so I could get some sleep and regain my health.

And to add insult to injury I had turned something I love (magic) into something I hated – every time a new request came in for another birthday party I started to hate it. The last show I performed, I realized something was wrong – I snapped at one of the children. Now I started doing magic because I love children – I love seeing their wonder and amazement, and enjoyment. Until I started the baby steps last year I used to perform for Birthday parties – not for the money, but because I loved doing it. When I started losing my passion for it, things started going downhill.

So even though I knew to watch out for it, I allowed myself to go too far again this year. It isn’t even half as bad as it was last year – not by a long shot. But I’m probably not giving myself enough blow money between paychecks. It’s not serious – and certainly not detrimental to my health. In fact, that I noticed and am able to admit this to myself is pretty big actually.

It’s this daily grind that is so difficult! And it’s kind of a downward spiral – when I’m trying so hard not to spend money, I have tended lately to stay home – but staying home is boring. So I either start browsing the web and find cool new gadgets I want, or I start looking at my spreadsheets trying to maximize efficiency – trying to find ways of reducing the amount of time to complete baby step 2 as much as possible. Boredom sucks.

My friend warned me last week, that she thought I was obsessing over this again. That was probably when I started paying attention. It was also right before I ran out of money.

And it’s not like I don’t have hobbies! I love photography, and want to get out and start doing that again. In fact I’ve been thinking a lot about trying to do this new technique – called HDR, or High Dynamic Range. It doesn’t require any new equipment at all – I can basically do it for free with everything I already own.

I also play poker. Yes I know it’s gambling and that’s not good for somebody trying to get out of debt. It’s pretty social. A small group of friends and I play twice monthly, and the buy-in is $10. It’s one of the few scheduled “adult-only” times I get to spend with friends. We’ve talked about the possibility of playing only for chips – in other words no money at all, but that idea wasn’t met with a lot of enthusiasm. It seems harmless enough anyway. I figure it amounts to about the cost of a movie, and I get to spend it with my favorite people. Oh, and it helps that I win occasionally.

Let’s see – aside from various hobbies, I also have several friends.

So it’s not that I have nothing to do. I have plenty to do. But so often I find myself bored to tears – and that’s when I start thinking about shopping or obsessing over my budget.

This time is going to be different. I’m not going to tighten my budget so tight that I have no room. I can still be gazelle intense – and still stay on target!

Progress – and a new accountability partner

So, March is right around the corner. Some really good friends of mine are taking Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University classes, and I promised to babysit for them for the 13 weeks of the class. Each time they come home to relieve me of my babysitting duties, we talk about what they learned. The topic they brought back to me one week had to do with accountability partners. For marriages, two people really have to work together and “be on the same page” so to speak, but when somebody is single, they don’t have to report to anybody really.

But Dave Ramsey recommends having a friend or friends as accountability partners – somebody you do your monthly cash flow planning with. Naturally, I have two people I can do this with, so I prepared for my first budget committee meeting with them. It’s going to be fun. We couldn’t do it before the end of February, so we’re going to do it on Sunday, March 2.

I have some good news – at least for myself anyway. I was able to put $2000 towards the principal on my car in February. I’m really happy about that; although I plan to put $2550 towards the principal – not including the normal monthly payment. At this rate, along with the raise I received and a reduction in rent due to another roommate who is moving in before April, I’m able to get my car paid off by the end of August, 2008. That’s really only a few months away – and I’m really looking forward to it!

My student loan is on track for being paid off by the end of April 2009. Just a little over a year from now. I’ve reduced the time to do Baby Step 2 from a couple of years to just about 14 months, and that doesn’t take into account future raises and/or bonuses we might get in 2009.

I’m pretty happy with where I’m at – I still have a long ways to go, but I’m on-track and that feels pretty darned good.