Posts tagged money money money!!

…you find out you’re getting almost 21 hours of overtime on your next paycheck, and despite a desperate attempt to maintain your composure you start hallucinating talking dollar signs, inviting you to dance with them in the money fountain like the opening of “Friends.”

Yeah…I love that moment.

I don’t ask for much, I really don’t. I can’t really complain about what I have. I have a roof over my head, food in my stomach, and a respectable collection of hats.

All I ask, is that you give me just enough money to have a shopping spree at this store.

Pleasethankskbai!

I’m considering submitting some designs to Threadless for some extra cash. I have two pre-established designs in mind, and then a couple of ideas in the old noggin. Let me know what you think, I’d appreciate your input…

Option 1: “I am the Night”

Option 2: “From Where I Sit”

Recently I’ve discovered just how old I’m getting. It really kinda snuck up on me you know? I’m not really sure how I feel about it. On the one hand, it’s a good thing, I know it is for reasons that will become apparent to you soon…but on the other hand. I look around at my friends and everyone else around me having fun, and I find myself wishing I could be like them again.

But…I just can’t…

Why?

It all comes down to money. Yep…the grand equalizer. The thing that made me discover how old I am, is that I find that I am no longer spending my money with reckless abandon like I used to. Like, I was out of control…seriously.

DVDs, Video Games, 3rd Part Transformer Figures…you name it. I bought it.

But now…DVDs are a process of heavily interrogating myself as to how much I’ll actually watch it, Video Games are SEVERELY limited to Christmas Wish-lists and Tax Refund purchases, and 3rd Party Transformer figures…well, let’s just say I no longer find it at all justifiable to spend a ton of money on a single figure unless under very special circumstances.

And yet…whenever I go to a friend’s house and watch them play SKYRIM, or watch a YouTube Video of Peaugh fiddling with the latest Hercules release…I find myself yearning for those days of reckless abandon. I actually have to calm myself down and remind myself that I have bills to pay, food to buy, a gas tank to fill, and next year’s Vacation to save for.

That doesn’t mean I’m not enjoying my old hobbies like I used to, quite the contrary. I’ve got $100 saved up for the new Transformers: Prime retail releases, and I’ve been spending a fair amount of time with Professor Layton while everything under the sun reminds him of some obscure and delightful puzzle…I’m just making sure every purchase counts I suppose.

I dunno…

Like I said, I’m sure it’s a good thing that this is happening. But damn do I feel old…and besides. SKYRIM looks badass…

Usually I try to anticipate my paychecks each bi-week as a way to help plan for things I know are coming up; Tax payments, my mother’s birthday, setting money aside for christmas, etc.

Last week when calculating I figured that after all my expenses, bills, and allotted bi-weekly budget for both spending and necessities, I would have about $140 extra for the extra things mentioned above as well as a few things I’ve been wanting but haven’t had the money for…

Did the actual calculation with my deposited paycheck this morning…

have $271 extra…yeah, I’m just a tad bit off. Not complaining one bit tho…

As of tomorrow…I will have officially paid off my entire entertainment center, and more importantly, made my last Credit Card Payment. What does this mean? How does a spare $100 a month hit ya?

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww yeah!

I already know how I’m going to spend the first $100…

…shit…well I did know what I was going to spend it on, but apparently they’ve upped the price again. Ugh…how annoying.

Perhaps I’ll pull the trigger on it anyways, it’s only an extra $25 plus shipping. We’ll see if I can’t find a better price.

So I got over $1800 for tax returns this year, I am more than ecstatic. Please enjoy an itemized list of what I’ll be doing with my bitching windfall…

• Full Fund Botcon 2011 Iacon Package
• $500 in savings account
• Pay off Best Buy Card
• 2 New Tires
• $$ towards Kohls Card
• Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood Collector’s Edition
• Fan’s Project Protector Set with Sidearm
• $100 toward Trip to Cigar’s International

…there’s also one tentative, it wholly depends on the circumstances, and that’s a freezer order from SALEM PRIME CUTS. Basically, for $100 they fill your freezer. However, I’m not sure what that includes. I’m hoping it’s based on poundage and you get to pick and choose what you get. If it is, I’m all over that, if not, I’ll probably pass.

Regardless, I’m beyond stoked about what I’ll be able to do with the money. Today went from starting off on a REALLY BAD FOOT (yet another inexplicable dream about my ex) to being effing amazing! YEEAAAAAAAAAH

Electric bill is killing me legit. Seriously, I don’t know how the hell I racked up $186 last month and $136 this month. Personally, I call “BULLSHIT” on CL&P. It’s just me and three cats in one house…and unless they’re secretly running the air conditioner full blast every day while I’m at work while running the drier and roasting a thanksgiving turkey…it seriously should not be up that high. It wasn’t even that much when there were two humans living here, one who played his XBOX pretty much every day.

At least I’ll be saving money on phone. Called AT&T today and found out that whoever told my mom she needed a phone plan to have internet was just trying to con more money out of her. Nice…anyways, that’s going to be fixed right quick if I’m the only one in the house. I’m no pushover. Saving nearly $27 a month by doing some “HSI Direct” thing, I dunno, all I know is that it saves me money, and that’s all I really care about.

Starting to get paranoid about the car thing. I’m like 99.9% posetive it’s the starter that needs to get replaced but then my pre-investment paranoia sets in. No matter how much it needs to get done, I get this terrifying question nagging me in the back of my head “what if it turns out to be a waste?” In this case, “what if it’s not the starter?” So, before I ended up forking the dough over for a new starter I’m gonna double check with the grandfather and get a second opinion. I guess I COULD take it to a mechanic, but frankly, I don’t like getting teh buttsecks…especially not the metaphorical equivalent of such via being overcharged for labor. If I can do it myself, why would I pay someone else to do it?

Maybe I’m just incredibly cheap…I dunno. Frankly I see myself as practical.

So, after a month of tearing my hear out over various emergencies, crisis, and other bitch-assness things are finally starting to look up. Thank god, I was starting to turn into a whiny loser.

Next week is Stew’s wedding so that means I have to get going and make some comics ahead of time for the following week, otherwise I’ll be racing to get it all done when I get done Sunday, and that’s never fun. Unless my friends come over or something, I’ll likely try and get some of that work done tonight alongside more Halloween Special work that DESPERATELY needs to get done. But, I’ll save that update for the next ZOMBICAST episode going up soon.

I’ve also come to a decision on making a rather expensive investment…those of you who have known me long enough know that I’ve really been itching to buy myself one of the new CINTIQ 21UX. At least I think that’s the model number. Either way, it’s the brand spanking new one that’s super awesome with over 2,000 levels of pressure sensetivity, exchangeable nibs to simulate different media drag (felt tip, painbrushes, etc), and more programmable function buttons. The thing is friggin goddly.

The problem is, that it’s $2,000. BEST BUY has a great financing deal where if you pay it off in 18 months there’s no interest. Now, I’ve been hesitating on this for obvious reasons. HOWEVER…by the end of the year, I’ll have an extra $200 a month freed up from where my two credit card payments would be. So, that being the case I have decided that it is indeed an investment worth making. And that this year for christmas, I Santa Dubzor will be buying himself a CINTIQ 21UX for being such a good little boy this year.

WOOOOT!! I can’t friggin wait to get this thing. It’ll make my artistic life that much easier, not to mention save me money on pencils and artist pads, which are effing expensive let me tell you. Pencils alone are $3 a piece, and artist pads…well, good ones go for $14-$18 for 150 sheets, which doesn’t really go as far as you might think.

Now I just need to scrape enough money together to get me a new intel and updated Adobe software…still working off CS2 at the moment.