I went and helped a friend of mine (ok, ok, it was $mentor[0]) get his new computer up and running this afternoon. A nice machine, it is. A Dell machine, with a drool-worthy LCD widscreen flat panel monitor. Very nice.

He insisted on paying me for my "consulting time", which was... very nice, as well.

After getting it all setup, we watched Chocolat (pan-and-scan, unfortunately, but a very good movie nonetheless).

Tomorrow, Jaeger, Kiesa and I will be venturing to see Return of the King. I should know, since I made the ticket run for the 3 of us. 1805 at Flatirons Crossing, since the 1845 show was sold out. I intend to arrive in line sufficiently early in hopes of getting a good seat. (Which might also be helpful for my employed friends, since I intend to save seats for those whose "real jobs" might prevent them from arriving earlier.)

On the way back, I couldn't resist stopping into the Temptation Zone. I was considering buying Avalon, but I balked when I saw the price tag ($25.99), and decided against it. (A bit too much for a mere movie, especially on my budget right now.)

I was tempted by many things, none the least of which were the Buffy season 5 set and the Hercules season 2 set (I would have also been tempted by the Firefly set, except I couldn't seem to locate any), but I ultimately walked out with nothing, save the satisfaction of knowing I hadn't screwed myself any further financially.

The article Jaeger linked to today, which I didn't actually see until I got home a few minutes ago, holds, among other information, the following kernel of wisdom:

What is the outflow of your personal consumer unit? Keeping a spending diary of your own would show where your money is going, how much you're saving, and how you can decrease the former to increase the latter.

In other words, gnucash is my friend.

This morning, I was thinking about a possible course of action. After reading a few of the comments on yanthor.net today (to those out there without logins: I'm sure if you ask yanthor nicely, he'll make one for you), I decided to go ahead with my theoretical plan tonight. A few clicks of the mouse, and several keystrokes later, it was done.

I transfered a small sum of money out of my savings, and into my checking (enough to make up the difference, plus a little padding), and went ahead and initiated a payoff of the full balance of the infamous credit card whose interest rate just shot up this month.

It makes absolutely no sense to be sitting on money that earns interest at a fraction of a percentile, while paying nearly 15% annually (compounded monthly) on the other side. If I come into a situation of really needing emergency funds, there are other ways. (And there's still some money in the savings.)

So, technically, I am now out of debt. But not really. Because next month looms the car insurance bill, which sucks. Honestly, I'm not sure how I'm going to pay that. Probably using the other credit card whose interest hasn't yet gone up, and hope to God I find some way to generate revenue by March. (The other option would be to pay the insurance month-to-month, but the difference comes out to a similar sum as what the interest would be on a credit card.)

Well, I guess option #3 would be to sell my car and quit driving, but I'm not ready to do that, as it would significantly reduce my potential employment possibilities, transportation being an issue and all. Nor am I ready to become an uninsured outlaw. So...

Slowly but surely, the moral of the story is getting drilled into my head. There will be no new motherboard for Argo for a while, no dvd sets, no eating out constantly, and no hookers this weekend! Not until I can find a job, or some other consistent and steady way to bring in money. Because, as I well know, these are LUXURIES, and while I may have been able to finance them in the past when I had a real job, it is just that. The past.

(Though I don't deny that it could also be the future, I cannot over-optimistically assume it will automatically be so.)

Thanks to my generous friend, I have got enough cash in my pocket to buy X-mas presents for people, and maybe even a nice thing or two for myself.

But as for the future, I am torn. And uncertain. Blah.

I've rambled enough tonight. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah to all, and a Joyous Festivus for the rest of us!