nehallennia

Goes up and down, and last week (thanks Christmas dinner!) mostly up. I gained 0.3 kgs and am back at 92.2. I suppose I better get used to little setbacks if I want to make some real progress.

My first priority lay with trying to save as much money as possible. Earlier this year, I had depleted my savings because of move-related expenses. These expenses were investments as I needed to move to take up a new, reasonably well-paid position. A decent income combined with relatively few outgoings (low rent and an aversion to clubbing make for a healthy surplus) made for a quick repair of the savings account. I am going to continue saving, but will split my surpluses and devote half to paying back my loans early. I`m also going to set up a separate savings account for car-related expenses. I`m going to have to set aside money every month for a new car. My current ride might last for another ten years, but that doesn`t mean I won`t be facing a serious expense in ten years time! Save money now, no bother later.

Anyway, debt.

I have racked up a pretty serious amount of debt in my time, luckily though most of it is student loan and I`m in no trouble whatsoever paying the requisite monthly installments on my loans. Nonetheless the total sum of money involved is … quite serious and I`ll be glad to see the last of it. It’ll take at least another 14 or so years to repay everything – and I`m so not going to wait until I`m mid-forties to become debt-free!

I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of money what was put in my checking account earlier today. Very pleasantly surprised. Earlier in the year I let the NIBUD (Dutch National Budgeting Institute) website figure out how much I need in savings considering my age, state of employment and other personal details. They came up with the advice of setting aside a hefty sum of money.

With the wad of cash I could now zap into my savings account, that goal has been reached. I no longer have to channel every spare € into my savings account and can begin to use any surplus cash to start paying back some of my debts!

Considering the culinary nature of the season I was actually somewhat amazed I didn`t gain anything this week. I`m still exactly 91.9 kilograms / 202.6 pounds. I`m glad to be looking at an (imperial, admittedly) psychological line there. Busting through the 200 pound line would make me feel good, even though I`m metricised eurotrash.

I sent off the meter readings earlier, but now the Utility Company is moaning they didn`t get it, that or I may have missed the water meter readings. Anyway I now just gave them the requisite readings on-line and now it will be only six more weeks until I get to claw back some of my hard earned €s…

Also, apparently, the Utility Company does not allow monthly charges to go down by more than 15%, so even if I am paid back a slew of money, I still won`t face a major decrease of monthly charges. €25 a month tops. Still I`m very curious how much money I actually saved through having the place thoroughly isolated.

I was approached by a colleague. He suggested taking up carpooling as we both live in the same village. Best case scenario we might share rides 4 days a week, with each of us saving a good €50 a month!

I rather look forward to having a bit more cash in pocket. Even on a half-decent salary it’s amazing how little is left at the end of the month.