Post 2334
- 8 years and 242 days since I started this blog -
Daily Comment
I have a streak going of more than three-weeks of studying Spanish with the language game website Duolingo.
I have another streek of 15 days going with 750words.com (where you write three pages - 250 words is the standard count for a page - every day.
I am not certain why I fall into this discipline so easily, while the rest of my life is discipline-free.
Well, not entirely. Even as I wrote that last sentence, I realize there is one discipline I have mastered, to the point that it doesn't seem like work, it doesn't require much effort, I do it every day, invariably, and have for more than forty years. Can I get an exclamation point for that?
! Forty years!
That long-time habit is budgeting.
I like to think that I'm good with money, and if there's any reason for it, is that, after getting ripped off for a little money in a drug deal in the late seventies, I found myself unable to pay rent.
I freaked out, had an anxiety attack (I was able to pay it a few days late, and nobody really even noticed).
But it bothered me to the point where I decided to get a handle on my personal finances.
Now this is around 1976. No computers.
I made a budget on a piece of paper. It wasn't that difficult then, Income wasn't reliably steady, but it was estimable. I believe the total of my expenses were food, rent, entertainment, auto insurance and gas.
So I tracked all my expenses in a notebook. I was, kind of, fascinated by it. In point of fact, when I started, it was somewhat the reverse of what it is now. I looked at my expenses, and that drove my income needs. Back then, the way I made up for the deficiencies of my income from music (always deficient), was to sell pot.
So, I had to sell x amount of pot to cover my living expenses. Which I successfully did, until, a short while after the anxiety attack and beginning budgeting, I got a job, which led to going back to school for electronics technology, which meant income from Unemployment on a training program special, as well as supplemental income from Grandma Hannah.
Which changed my budget from how much income do I need for my expenses, to what expenses I could afford with my income.
Eventually, successfully navigating my personal finance issues, I went to work for IBM, which led to owning a personal computer and the first budgeting program, Dollar$ and $en$e. Which, to this day, is my best memory, my favorite computer program I ever used. But with major competition from Quicken, the company that made it folded, they didn't make the leap into graphics, and Quicken came into my life, where it has remained ever since.
I get a great sense of ease by budgeting. It is the way I've negotiated some very, very hard times (the end of two marriages). Ultimately, it was a major factor in my financial recovery that was complete within three years of moving to Syracuse, and has set me up nicely in retirement.
I am grateful for that one bit of bad break that made budgeting and expense tracking work so well for me.
Food and Diet
I have another streek of 15 days going with 750words.com (where you write three pages - 250 words is the standard count for a page - every day.
I am not certain why I fall into this discipline so easily, while the rest of my life is discipline-free.
Well, not entirely. Even as I wrote that last sentence, I realize there is one discipline I have mastered, to the point that it doesn't seem like work, it doesn't require much effort, I do it every day, invariably, and have for more than forty years. Can I get an exclamation point for that?
! Forty years!
That long-time habit is budgeting.
I like to think that I'm good with money, and if there's any reason for it, is that, after getting ripped off for a little money in a drug deal in the late seventies, I found myself unable to pay rent.
I freaked out, had an anxiety attack (I was able to pay it a few days late, and nobody really even noticed).
But it bothered me to the point where I decided to get a handle on my personal finances.
Now this is around 1976. No computers.
I made a budget on a piece of paper. It wasn't that difficult then, Income wasn't reliably steady, but it was estimable. I believe the total of my expenses were food, rent, entertainment, auto insurance and gas.
So I tracked all my expenses in a notebook. I was, kind of, fascinated by it. In point of fact, when I started, it was somewhat the reverse of what it is now. I looked at my expenses, and that drove my income needs. Back then, the way I made up for the deficiencies of my income from music (always deficient), was to sell pot.
So, I had to sell x amount of pot to cover my living expenses. Which I successfully did, until, a short while after the anxiety attack and beginning budgeting, I got a job, which led to going back to school for electronics technology, which meant income from Unemployment on a training program special, as well as supplemental income from Grandma Hannah.
Which changed my budget from how much income do I need for my expenses, to what expenses I could afford with my income.
Eventually, successfully navigating my personal finance issues, I went to work for IBM, which led to owning a personal computer and the first budgeting program, Dollar$ and $en$e. Which, to this day, is my best memory, my favorite computer program I ever used. But with major competition from Quicken, the company that made it folded, they didn't make the leap into graphics, and Quicken came into my life, where it has remained ever since.
I get a great sense of ease by budgeting. It is the way I've negotiated some very, very hard times (the end of two marriages). Ultimately, it was a major factor in my financial recovery that was complete within three years of moving to Syracuse, and has set me up nicely in retirement.
I am grateful for that one bit of bad break that made budgeting and expense tracking work so well for me.
Today's Weight: 199.9 lbs.
Previous Weight (8/29/19): 200.0 lbs.
Net Loss/Gain: - 0.1 lbs.
Diet Comment
Food Log
Breakfast
3:35pm: A brownie.
Lunch
7:20pm: Two strips of uncured bacon, three large, free-range eggs, and brussel sprouts.
Dinner
11:45pm: A burger (1/2 lb. grass-fed organic beef 80/20) with sauteed onions and peppers on a slice of SuperGrains bread, carrots and homemade mayonnaise, walnuts with Greek yogurt, and a Quest bar.
Liquid Intake
3:35pm: A brownie.
Lunch
7:20pm: Two strips of uncured bacon, three large, free-range eggs, and brussel sprouts.
Dinner
11:45pm: A burger (1/2 lb. grass-fed organic beef 80/20) with sauteed onions and peppers on a slice of SuperGrains bread, carrots and homemade mayonnaise, walnuts with Greek yogurt, and a Quest bar.
Liquid Intake
Espressos: 2; Coffee: 0 oz.; Water: 104+ oz.; Jim Beam bourbon on the rocks.
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