Doing without and other financial rants

In an earlier post I talked about how there were going to be certain things that I would have to cut off so that I could become debt free. There were some recurring expenses and other things that I have done on a regular basis that I just really don't need to do.

I have stopped my bi-weekly hair appointment at the salon that I have been going to do for 5 years. I am all natural and have been so for about 3 years. Every two weeks I used to go to salon and get my hair wash blow dried and curled. Well since April I have been doing my hair on my own. Now for many this is not a big deal but for me it was major. I have never done my own hair!!! Not once in my whole life, ever since I was a child I always went to the salon to get my hair washed and curled or braided in micro braids. Well No more!!! I found a great website that is helping me take care of my very thick hair. It's called longhaircareforum.com and it has been an amazing resource for me. To get full access to the site you pay a yearly fee of $6.95. Believe me its worth it, there is much information. I am not getting any money for endorsing this website I just think its amazing! If you a natural you need to check it out.

• It cost me $46.00 every 2 weeks to get my hair done for a total of $92.00 a month. Instead of getting my hair done I have been doing a lot of twistouts and braidouts. However, Tuesday I went to the braiding salon and will be rocking 2 french braids and a bun until the end of August
• Another thing that I cut was my gym subscription. I rarely used it and $35.00 a month was coming out of my checking account and being wasted. I plan to begin walking once I move into the new neighborhood, so that will be my exercise.
• My parents are into a business called prepaid legal and got me to sign up for it. It cost 36.00 a month for a memberships. As of August 1, 2008 it is canceled.

Now I need to figure out how to cut my phone/Internet/cable expenses. My boo and I have Sprint's "Simply Everything" plan for our Palms. The bill comes up to over $200.00 a month every month. I want to get a house phone and we need Internet, me for keeping track of my finances, doing lesson plans, and of course blogging, and boo needs it for his PlayStation 3. Cavalier has a bundle with Google called C2 which includes phone and Internet for $50.00 plus tax. I am wondering if it is a good deal and how fast it is.

I will talk to boo today about what we can do about decreasing the cell phone and cable costs. Hopefully I will be able to add $100.00 extra dollars to my cash flow. We shall see!

In other news:

I also have planned our dinner meals for the month of august and we will be sticking by the menu. I have it planned in my Google calender, and hopefully this will stop us from eating out so much and spending extra money on groceries.

and finally... i will be starting my debt snowball in August. I did a budget and I will be able to put $2000.00 a month toward my debt. My first student loan will be paid off in August! I can't wait!

Until next time, think prosperous thoughts

YBP