A Year in Review - Time to get HAPPNIN!

Wow . . . it's been FAR too long since I've last posted. There are good reasons for it, really. Work has been nutty for me, I went on family vacation, and I was spending a LOT of free time trying to solve the issue of air conditioning in my car. It gets rather hot here for the summer, and I had some creative ideas for discreetly rigging the innards of a window unit to my car, but after, oh, six units that burst and sprayed me with coolant, I've given up for now and decided to find somewhere else to sleep in the meantime.

It's been over a year. July 19th was officially my anniversary with this whole homelessness escapade. I had intended to post to commemorate that day, but I was on vacation visiting family during that time, so it didn't really work out. I'm finally getting some down-time to write, and I wanted to share a few things. I know that my last post (over a month ago - eek!) talked about how this isn't all about money for me. However, this does have to do partially with how I want to be out of debt so I am free to finally do things in life. Therefore, I wanted to share some of what I've been able to do financially in the past year.

The area I live in is pretty inexpensive. Rent for me was $475 for a townhouse, water and city payments were roughly $55, and electric payments (on average, depending on the time of year) were about $80. That's $610 a month, or $7,320 I've saved in the past year. Worth it? Well, let's consider a few other things. Previously, I was making just over minimum payments to my loans, but the minimum amounts to $6,849.48 a year. By redirecting my living expenses to debts, that means I could pay at least $14,169.48 toward my loans - DOUBLE the minimum payment of my loans.

In reality, I've saved more than just living expenses. I'm not driving near as much, so I don't spend as much on gas. My food expenses are lower because I'm eating far more basic food. Lots of things have added up, and in total, I've been able to pay off $23,181.83 of my loans. Did I mention that I make $56k a year (pre-tax)? Yeah - I think this has been worth it.

I hoped to be done with my debt by July 19th, but because of a few issues along the way, it hasn't quite worked out. However, I'm almost done - I have about $1,500 left, and that's just a little more than a paycheck for me. I'll be done by the end of the month. I'll be free by the end of the month.

So, what next? Will I be getting an apartment and stopping this crazy adventure? I don't see why, honestly. There's nothing compelling me to do so, and I've gotten this down to . . . well, an art, in a way. I suppose I'll keep moving forward until I have a good reason to stop. What's more, I want to buckle down and focus on this blog. A few people in my life have found out, and I want more people to know what I'm doing - not for the sake of me, really, but so people can see what they really need and don't need in life. I want people in this materialistic world we live in to be able to focus on the more important things. I want people to be able to be able to dream BIG!!!

Time to get HAPPNIN on this blog!