Some strange thoughts have been shooting thru my head the past few weeks. I bounce between a newfound dedication to my job and complete apathy towards my current life path. Normally, I’d find myself doing some retail therapy, but my credit cards somehow found themselves at their limits. I couldn’t explain this phenomena either, so at the suggestion of Tom, a dangerous influence on my fiscal responsibilities, I took out a small loan to consolidate my debt into one easy payment, closed down my credit accounts and took a huge pile of stress off my life.

I’ve been down this path before, only last time; it was much worse before I realized I’d made some horrible spending decisions. I was over $45,000 in debt on my credit cards alone (Damn the lending institutions). This time it was much more reasonable and I should be able to pay of the entire amount in 4-5 months, less if my tax return is anything like it was last year. The funny thing, when I called the lending establishments to close my accounts, I was asked by each of them “Why are you closing your account with us?” to which I replied, “The president said that Americans should be better with credit and that the lending institutions were behind him, so I am being fiscally responsible.” Each card I tried to close, took at least 10 minutes of convincing that no, I didn’t want a lower rate, higher limit, special perks, etc. If the lending institutions wanted the bankruptcy laws changed to protect their business, why would they be so against me doing my best to prevent my own slide to bankruptcy?

My first attempt at TurboTax, it didn’t look so good. Taxes confuse me. I made slightly less income this year than last, I had more taxes withheld from my paychecks, I had a 401(k) account this year, unlike last year, and upon first run of the TurboTax, my return was half of my return from the year before. Explain this so called “tax cut” that went into place.

To pick myself up, I decided to go to the Bloomingdales sale this last weekend and see what kind of bargains I could find. I had a credit on my account, so I needed to use that up anyway. I found a fantastic pair of Ted Baker dress pants (for work) marked down from $225.00 to $95.00 and a Ted Baker shirt marked down from $80.00 to $30. That’s a pretty good deal.

Hmmmm, a lot about money today and I was always told you shouldn’t talk about money cause it’s tacky.

Oooh a shiny nickel…