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2003-03-02 - 7:07 p.m. I'm feeling a little bit depressed after balancing my checkbook. I am not the greatest with money, but I always pay my bills on time, and have enough to cover my expenses. Lately, though, it feels like I pay my bills and have nothing left. I do have a smaller paycheck due to the budget cuts, but I did sort of a mini budget and was very depressed. My paycheck this month was $1849.00 after taxes (this is with the latest cuts, it used to be a bit more). My bills are: $595.00 rent, $278 student loans, $43 cell phone bill (includes long distance, so I guess it is worth it?), $25 phone bill, $35 electricity bill, $59 car insurance, $20 water/sewer, $26 garbage bill (every two months), and $77 cable/Internet bill. Then I also have credit cards, which I try to pay $300 per month to, and I try to save $200.00 per month. Now with the budget cuts, I can't do that (unless I want to go without food). If I wasn't such an idiot about spending, I wouldn't have the credit card bills. I can't really do anything about the other bills unless I want to go without TV and Internet (you can't get TV here without cable). I also could get rid of the cell phone, but I use it instead of long distance and to talk to Justin, since it is long distance to call him now and he disconnected his cell phone. I wish I didn't have that amount of student loans, but that's what I get for deciding to go to a private college. I guess the biggest plan of action is to pay off my credit cards. I just paid off one completely today, without doing a balance transfer, so I am proud of myself for that. I still have two left, though, and they have pretty big balances. One is $1400 and one is $1300. They are both on the lowest rate I can get, which is 7.9%. I just need to stop spending money on stuff I don't need. The problem is that I can't spend money on anything, really, because of my budget problems, so then I get frustrated and overspend. You would think that someone who makes the amount that I do would have more money to spend, but apparently not. I'm sure there are tons of people that have it way worse than I do, so I guess I shouldn't complain. I grew up without cable TV, but now I act as if The Sopranos is my God-given right.
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