Net Worth Update: June 2009

From May 2 to June 2, my net worth increased an average of $43.86 per day, or $1,359.78 overall, to -$61,567.04. This is a 2.21% increase, and results in a projected zero net worth on 04/05/2013. Which doesn’t sound right, given my expected debt freedom of 5 years from now, but whatever – I trust my spreadsheet, and have absolutely no interest in trying to debug the formula.

I haven’t done the math, as I’m too tired to do so, but I’m pretty sure I was over budget last week (of my weekly $50 allowance). I am implementing some very simple ways to keep under budget in the future, though:

1. I have a cigarette machine, and a bag of tobacco, and tubes. In the past, I’ve only used this set-up when I was too poor or too lazy to go out and buy a pack. I smoke cheap cigarettes, but thanks to Obama (who promised not to raise taxes on us poor folk) and Congress, my smokes now cost $4.41/pack. I’m a pack a day smoker (damn I wish I wasn’t), so that works out to $30.87 per week, which is more than half of my allowance, or $132 per month, which is a lot. In the same fell swoop by Obama and Congress, a one pound bag of tobacco now costs $25 more than it used to (which more than doubled the price), so it’s not as cheap as it used to be, but it’s still definitely a heck of a lot cheaper than buying packs to make my own. And no, I don’t have the willpower to cut down or quit, so don’t even suggest it.
2. Ride my scooter more. I’ve been driving my truck to work way more than I should have in the past couple of weeks due to the weather. Many of those days that I opted for the truck instead of the scooter instead of the truck due to a 30% chance of rain come quitting time, it never materialized. It really won’t kill me to ride home a whole 6 blocks (taxi cab geometry) in the rain, I won’t get that wet, and I’ve certainly done it many times before. That doesn’t make it any more pleasant, though.

It’s been ages since I’ve gassed up my truck, thanks to the dual tanks, but that makes it all the more expensive to fill up. According to one calculator, I spend a grand total of $2 of gas commuting to work per month (bet you all wish you could say the same thing!) with the scooter.