Almost Gypsy Soul

"Debt is normal. Be weird" ~Dave Ramsey With the great basement swimming pool installation of 2011, I took out a loan against my finally paid off car to pay for it. This was when I decided it was time to be more responsible, get rid of some debt and get some actual cash in that savings account I'd been nursing for years. Let me preface with I'm not a total Dave Ramsey follower, but I have utilized a few of his principles to help me stay on track and not find myself in this dire situation again. Because I already am doing a few things on the 7 Baby Steps (out of order) I continued what I was doing, but tried to follow the steps to catch up (and I'm still chasing those steps, I never catch up)! I am a big fan of the debt snowball. I had my doubts when I started this whole ordeal, but I can't even tell you how good it felt to say good-bye to a monthly payment, no matter how small the payment or balance was. I am now down to my mortgage and student loans, ...

While the initial thought behind sequestration was to make it so horrible and detrimental to our economy that it would force Democrats and Republicans to work together to come up with a compromise to avoid a fiscal cliff, by decreasing the budget and decreasing our debt. Unfortunately, sequestration isn't bad enough for Congress to be able to work together, not to say that sequestration might not be bad enough for the rest of Americans who aren't in Washington. Click here for a rundown on sequestration. How is sequestration going to affect you and your state? Click here for fact sheets published by the White House on sequestration effects for each state. Click on your state for even more details. CNN has an article that explains sequestration , but to be sure there will be many, many more effects if sequestration is allowed to occur. There will be effects that no one talks about and there will be effects that no one has thought of. Sequestration isn't the only fi...

A beautiful sunny morning we pull up the ski lodge. I jump out chompin' at the bit to jump on the slopes. I decided to take a quick run while people were getting rentals and such lined out. About 3/4 of the way down I come off a 20 foot 360 jump, hit the ground and bust my binding. :( Hey, its my story I'll tell it how I want! Ok so I'm not really sure what exactly happened, but I think cartwheels might have taken place, under the lift, less than 100 yards from the lift house, but the busted binding part.....that is definitely true! My beautiful Burton bindings.....still on my foot, not attached to my board. Oh the shame as I unstrap and head towards the lodge.......walking........on the ski trail. :( Lucky for me no one in my group saw the crash. I envision that it looked something like this, with less snowy fluff because I'm here to tell you the broken binding crash hurt a lot worse than this one pictured below.  Now the best part, I emailed Burton and expla...

Me: "Oh, I haven't told you about my new cash thing have I?" Gypsy Friend : "No" Me: "See, I have it split into categories and at the beginning of the month I take out my budget and when its gone, its gone." Gypsy Friend: " (bahahahaha) You have a filing cabinet in your wallet! You are so lame." Me: (sad face) " I thought you would be proud of me for not spending so much money." Gypsy Friend : "Well I am, but seriously......a filing cabinet in your wallet?" Ok so I wrote this post a couple weeks ago and its been sitting in draft mode waiting for the perfect debut day. I went home for my uncle's funeral on Friday and then stayed for my Dad's best friend, Roy's funeral yesterday (that's why I didn't get a blog posted). Anyway, I drive to Colorado....it snows and it did. Of course I have AWFUL windshield wipers that I never remember to replace when I'm someplace where I could get it d...