Mission Accomplished?

Though I am cleared of a great deal of debt, there are some things that must be said. Maybe I cheated a bit. Maybe I applied some creative accounting, but in the end, my hustle and creativity knocked my debt way down and I will close this blog a richer person.

Some of my readers have noticed my absence. The reason is simple. I haven't been living by the code of the Gotham Frugal. In fact you might make the argument that I haven't done so for a long time. And only due to the intervention of a particularly generous visit from Santa, have I been able to pay off the remainder of the $4500 credit card bill that was the impetus for this blog.

About mid November I realized that I wouldn't be making my goal of paying off the credit card balance of $4500 in the time I had chosen. I suppose there were lots of things I could've done or not done to have made the goal possible without begging for some deus ex machina. There were trips I could've skipped, nights out I could've sat out and a few purchases I should've left on the shelf.

Let's take a look at some not so frugal things I've done. During the course of the blog the primary savings could have come from reducing my "entertainment" costs. I subscribe to Netflix, I also have cable, which for reasons I'll explain jumped from $90 to about $130. I also buy comic books. I never included these in my usual daily spending because they were pre-built into my budget. Some people consider a weekly bottle of wine part of their food budget, others might write up a trip to the salon, the shoe store or the spa for some body hair management as part of their budgets. These are things that some people consider luxuries, others consider them absolute necessities. It all depends on where your priorities lie. I always thought that $20 for Netflix was helping me stay indoors and save money, otherwise I might be tempted to go out and run around New York like the crazed antithesis of Scrooge McDuck. Cable is partly justifiable in that along with a pre-blog Sopranos fix, I was using it for high speed internet access, a vital component of the blogger's life.

So if I dropped six months of Netflix that would be $120 I'd have. If I dropped my $35-a-month comic book habit for the last six months I figure that would be $210. Then there is the jump in cable bill, knocking that out would yield me another $120. So $45o in savings and 6 months worth of boredom could be mine today and I would be $450 closer my goal. Big whoop. And if I did get this close I would end it all with a quick cash infusion from my savings account and worry about making it up later. All of which is rather moot, now that I've hit the mark.

But this doesn't change the fact that during the course of this blog I made one very large purchase that I will now reveal. For a long time I've wanted the complete home theater experience. Dolby sound, high definition television and the video player to go with it. Well along comes Sony with a special on a blu-ray player that happens to play games. Some people call it a Play Station 3. There was a $150 rebate being offered on Sony products for anyone who signed up for a credit card. This little offer was somewhat anathema to the whole Gotham Frugal getting rid of credit card debt thing, but it coincided with a 3 year no interest offer from Best Buy on HDTVs. Also I didn't have to pay interest on the new card for a year. When I pay off the balance, I'll probably cancel the card. I had been waiting for an event like this, and all the budget planets aligned, so I had to take the plunge.

Of course with the high definition TV, and the high definition dvd player, one needs to combine it with a high def sound system. This was tacked on to the credit card bill. I tried to combine it with the the Best Buy purchase because it too would fall under the 3-year no interest thing. But that didn't work out. And I have unfortunately discovered that 3 year, no-interest financing doesn't mean that you can buy something at price and pay it off gradually with out incurring extra charges. It was my vision to buy $3600 of equipment and just pay off $100 a month. This isn't how it works. Firstly, I didn't spend that much money. Secondly every month I get charged something called a debt cancellation fee. Last month Best Buy charged me $20 for upholding their promise of not charging me interest. This is somewhat disheartening considering that I've been paying off $50 a month towards that balance. It's something I need to call them about.

To top off all this spending, I had to get some high definition cable to go along with the whole thing. That ended up tacking on another $30 or $40. Right now I'm watching Frenchmen discuss their high-definition whale watching video. The show is soft, and introspective, and entirely self absorbed, much like the French themselves. Everything is full of beautiful moments. And looking at it on high def all of these expenses are totally worth it. Even if I had to be somewhat misleading with my blog.

So while I'm not totally credit card or debt free, I'm much closer to it. I've taken big steps forward and a couple of small steps back, and out of it I've gotten a blog that many like and a nice entertainment center. I know that I'm not done with living on a budget and curbing my spending. The days of expensive living are still far away but I'm pretty certain that I'll have everything squared away very soon. So maybe one more month of Frugal living to make everything work, but I can't say when that month will be.

Anyway, I hope you don't feel too let down or cheated by my adventures. If you do then I suggest you try living like I did and write your own truer, better blog. Good luck. I can't do this forever. So win or loose, you can judge. Let's just hope I never have to do it for so long again.