The Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Week

To put things simply, I've had quite a bit of bad news this week that has the grand potential to totally ruin my plans and dash my dreams of moving to Placencia, and all my plans in general. I hope to press on with my preparations in hopes that things will work out for the best, or at least how they are meant to. It's been really tough, and it looks like I might be going it alone to Belize. As we all know, things fall apart. I still hope to move there in two years, but my plans might change if I no longer have my partner in crime by my side. I may not get the chance to move to Placencia. I may move instead to Cayo, or to Belize City for a time to work for an importer if possible and rent a room from my close family friends. There really is no telling at this point, except that I know I want to get out of New Orleans and this stupid beehive apartment where I live, and this hum-drum life that threatens to ruin my sanity. I'm doing everything in my power to make myself a healthy, well balanced, conscious, and a sustainable member of society. But at this point, I really just want to run away.

CSW is coming up in T-minus 47 days. That is really scary. I have not yet purchased my seat for the exam, but 9 slots are still available. $225 is a lot for an exam. I don't want to fail it ever again.

I'm working on cutting back on bills. I cancelled regular cable yesterday, which will go out on February 1. In its place, I've gotten Hulu Plus for $7.99 per month. I have the Roku box with Netflix and Pandora on it already, and my boss has a digital antenna he doesn't need any more that he will let me have. That means I still get the local channels! The total expenses of my TV before the switch were hovering at $116 per month, sometimes more if I'd purchased an On Demand movie. Now, those charges will be $23 per month with Netflix included. My internet is still the same, but depending on how this goes, I may boost my internet speed so I don't have any time-out issues.

All things considered, this should save me at least $90 per month. I also plan on making a very strict food budget for the week, and keep my food costs to around $50 per week. That's $200 in food per month, versus what I'm doing now, which is probably double that.

So now it's time to work up a new budget now that my finances have changed some and expendable income has gone down. Don't forget (and I can't) that we will still be splitting the January utilities that come in to be paid in February.

$2200 - Current Monthly Income
- $764 - Rent
- $55   - Internet
- $23   - Total TV  (Netflix and Hulu Plus)
- $60   - Power
-$200  - Savings
-$100  - Credit Card Payment
-$200  - Federal Tax Payment (only thru June)
-$108  - Car Insurance
-$125  - Sofa Payment (only thru April)
-$55    - Gym Membership

This gives me $510 left over for the month, or $127.50 per week. I can live with this, but I'm hoping to trim more fat where I can to boost my savings, pay off the Credit Cards and the Couch as quickly as possible, and to make things easier to manage.

I'm going to start with purchasing all my veggies and very few proteins as locally as possible. Hollygrove Market and Farm is about one mile from my apartment does a $25 weekly basket full to the brim with local veggies. I plan on going to Cleaver and Co. for any meat products I may use. For instance, this week I plan to go get a pork shank and/or sausage for red beans and rice. Other basic staples I will purchase as usual from Winn Dixie. I think I can eat quite cheaply this way. Again, $50 per week is all I will spend on food! That brings my weekly total down to $77.50 expendable income.

I currently have enough money in savings to pay for the CSW, though I plan to save for the CSW out of my expendable income and not touch my savings.

Basically, all in all, I am living on a shoestring budget, but hoping to do all the things I should do (like work out, eat right, read and not watch TV, study) without any of it that I don't.

Those things aside, I am a really, really sad broken-hearted girl this week.