january

january is an evil month, because every january i manage to forget that a bunch of "surprise" costs are going to occur.

the homeowners dues i expect now, as well as christmas fallout.

what surprises me every year are the taxes due on my car (almost $300).

last night our furnace decided to not work. there's another bunch of dollars.

this on top of a recent spending spree for gym memberships and flights and a used flatscreen television and a different sattelite provider (and the associated costs) and an insurance deductable and a box of t-shirts means i am back to a kind of broke that i haven't experienced in quite some time. and i put a lot of this on my credit card, which WAS paid off not too long ago. stupid.

the worst part is that my tax return, which is like an extra special excuse to blow money on bicycles, has been spent already.

whatryagonnado.

anyway, not complaining. just reminding for next year.

I was a horrible student

Another option I have in lieu of paying a regular dentist $8000+ for dental work is to use the IU Dental School option. My friendly dental hygentist suggested this option, where the costs will come in at roughly one-fourth the costs I'd pay for someone with a degree to do the work. That's only $2000, which means I won't spend the next two years paying for it, the whole while thinking about how great a bicycle I could have bought for $8000 (probably the best bicycle ever, I'd guess).

But the work would be done by an IU Med School student... Which seems a bit risky. Still.. $6000? Anyone have any experience with the IU Dental School? I know that I can count on half-day appointments - I'm ok with that, we own a PSP and a Nintendo DS and several magazines. Anything else I need to worry about? I mean other than having some kid tear the nerves out of my mouth?

* * * * *

I'm rockin' a cold right now, so no exercise. I'm about to write off the whole year as SUCK.

My soul's a bowl of jokes

Remember several months ago when I wrote about seeing a new dentist? Well I finally made it there today. Here are some notes:

LL Perio scale&root pln-4+per quad
LR Perio scale&root pln-4+per quad
UR Perio scale&root pln-1-3th quad
UL Perio scale&root pln-1-3th quad
Periodontal Maint
2 Resin composite-1s, posterior
3 Crown buildup, includ any pins
3 Crown-porc fuse high noble mtl
12 Resin composite-1s, posterior....

BLAH BLAH BLAH $8,348.00

Let this be a lesson to you - don't have teeth.

I've cancelled this year's vacation plans - and I'm ok with that. I should have had this taken care of a long time ago. And so I will. Not that I have $8000 - That I'll have to figure out.

I guess the only question I have is if I'm going to have $8000 in work done, at least get some diamonds worked in?

everything in its right place

I received my tax return last Friday, and I used the money to finally finish off a loan I took out two years ago to make a second trip to Japan - I'd do it again and would recommend the same to anyone. But it was nice to finally have the weight of the loan off me; I really should have paid it off much earlier, but it wasn't a very large monthly payment, so I let it linger.

The other thing good thing about a tax return is that it allows me to sort out my finances. Sadly enough, I'm not the type of person who saves money. But I'm working on it, using a device I've come up with called "separate temporary undercover pretend imaginary dividers" (STUPID), in which I set up imaginary separate checking accounts in Microsoft Money, and then make undercover imaginary money transfer into these accounts. Currently I've got accounts named Checking, Gina, and John Based Savings, aside from two real life checking accounts and a savings account with Regions.

I try to keep a balance of $1000 in the Gina account, though it's been running a lot closer to $400 as of late. But by eliminating the loan, and using the remainder of my tax return, the balance is back to $998. While this money actually exists in my regular checking account, I pretend it doesn't actually exist. This allows me to constantly overdraw my (once again, sort of imaginary) real checking account, and never really worry about it. Every time I recieve another paycheck the money goes toward paying the arrears overdraw. This served as a pretty good system when I had no money, but now that I'm finally starting to feel pretty stable, I think it's time to simplify.

Sorry if this is sounding like an accounting class. I hate accounting.

Anyway(!) - All this imaginary banking means that I haven't actually balanced my actual checking account in years. And now I'm not sure how I can ever get caught up, unless I just stop using my debit card for a couple weeks (and I use it constantly to pay for everything).

I guess this serves as a message to potential theives - I will be carrying cash soon, and a lot more than I probably should. All in the name of eliminating STUPID.

* * * * *

First person to post something about how I'm giving the government an interest-free loan by getting a tax return gets a black eye.

damn you, internet

As you may have gathered from reading my blog in the past, I'm not exactly the busiest person. This leads to a lot of internet surfing, and a lot of messageboard browsing.

That shouldn't be a problem, except the more messageboard browsing I do, the more money I spend on things I never would have known about had I just found something better to do with my time.

For example, yesterday on bikeforums.net, I came across this thread , where I learned that Lance Armstrong and Team Discovery website The Paceline were having a sale on cycling gear. Normally, I'm not the type of person who rides in a professional cycling team kit; It's sort of laughable, like putting on a full Indiana Pacers team uniform to play pickup basketball. There are advantages to wearing what the pros wear in cycling equipment; you're sure that the clothing will be comfortable and breathable, because these guys put more miles in than anyone.

In any case, suddenly I decided that I needed a full Team Discovery kit. And the reasoning is this: 1) the bibshorts, which go for $200 at Trek's online store, were selling for $45. The jersey was $40, normally $99. 2) If you're going to root for a professional cycling team, you might as well root for the America based cycling team, right? 3) I was in need of new shorts anyway. And I might as well have the jersey to match. 4) It's Christmas time, and I deserve to spend a ton of money on myself. I guess.

The other thing I realized was that to the average person driving in their car while I'm biking by, I look like a dork anyway, regardless of what sort of cycling gear I'm wearing. One of the main reasons to wear the ridiculous clothing is to get noticed (and not run over), and my new kit should do a hell of a job there. I'm a rolling billboard for a television channel, AMD processors, some flooring company, Nike, Subaru... in fact, my ass will read "Discovery Channel".

I think that might be some sort of pun.

Of course all this could have been avoided if the internet wasn't my own "discovery channel" - discovering ways to throw money out the window.