I ended the work part of my day more sane than I was in the middle of the day, and felt like I might even want to work on that private message rewrite for the forum (something my "other" project is dependent on, not to mention the future CB). When I sat down and took care of a few bills though, I got into a groove and ended up spending most of the evening on money related stuff.
I paid or scheduled payments for all of my bills for the entire month, which is something I've never done before. I forecast out my balance a few months, and things are looking pretty good. Then I moved on to the business account, paid the contractors, looked at what little is left on the credit card, and I'm generally feeling pretty good about that as well. I realized that there was a lot of income from club memberships (happens this time of year just prior to several events), so I rattled out a huge batch of those to be mailed.
Once that was all done, I started to look at the expenses on the horizon. All of my "low toner" lights are shining bright on my printer. It appears that buying replacement toner carts might actually be more expensive than buying a new printer, which I'd rather not do because I don't want to contribute to e-junk. The paper slippage problem seems to have mostly resolved itself, so I think I'll keep it around for now.
It's time to finally get my shit together and look at replacing my carpeting. My former office, the front bedroom, has been a bare wood floor for a very long time now. Of course, that's actually OK because it has been home to all of the litter boxes. But with varying humidity in the house, the various places that Luna peed over the years start to stink again, and I just don't want to think about it anymore. I can afford it, so now is a good time.
I also have a "major purchase" in the near future to think about. Fortunately the intended recipient is not into giant rocks or three-month salary nonsense. The timing for this isn't bad either.
This is turning out to be such a strange year because for the first time in my adult life I'm not dealing with any significant amount of debt other than my mortgage. I'm even socking away as much as I can. It's like I'm a real grown up or something. Of course, it's all contingent on me continuing to like my job, but it's strange to be so... stable.
And through the magic of comprooders, I can see where the long lingering credit card debt got me. From 1997 to the end of 2007, I pissed away more than $15,000 on interest. If I would've known that'd be the case, I would've been a lot more careful. That's a car or an ample down payment on a first home. Ouch. Makes me feel like a dumb ass.
Lesson learned though. Better now than when I'm trying to retire.