I’ve spent about six-nine months paying down debt with windfalls (consulting checks, freelance writing, teaching, etc). Both cars are paid off, the credit cards are now paid off and so forth. The only large monthly credit I’m paying is now the mortgage and $80/month for our new laptops.
Beyond that…
Converting the attic into a modern, high tech home office.
Purchasing the house next door (about $100K value for $40K. It’s an estate sale.)
Launching a new business in this town that serves locals.
Launching a new business that will market nationally.
Trying to get an economic development (long-term, low interest) loan out of the state next door that will:
Allow me to acquire a woman’s magazine that’s failing
Allow me to acquire a senior’s magazine following the owners death.
Expand the local business up there into a new market.
Hire four more people
If it all works we’ll eat like kings!
Get me:
Reduce personal debt
Expand corporate debt to expand business and marketing during a downtown.
Damn! Looking for a freelance proofreader/copyeditor, by any chance?
I’m writing a grant for the NIH, so I think that puts me in the category of “looking for government handouts”. But I’ve bought some very cute dolls on Etsy!
Oh, and I hit a deer a while back, so the collision center is very happy with me, indeed.
I bought this last weekend. Not that exact one, but like it.
I’ve been a struggling single mother for several years, and my thing was to buy cheap, “disposable” cars every couple years. My last car was a 20-year-old Honda Accord, all faded and dented and scratched, whose AC went out at the beginning of last summer, which almost killed me (check location). However, the recession hasn’t been hurting me- in fact, I make more money and spend less on bills right now than I have in a long time. I used to live paycheck to paycheck until I quit smoking and didn’t need daycare anymore for my youngest. Now I start to panic a little if my bank account drops below 500, not including my savings. Savings! Yes, I finally have savings. So to congratulate myself on sacrificing all these years and driving Pieces Of Shit and quitting smoking and basically moving up in the world, I bought myself a nice car. I now not only have AC up the wazoo, I even have heated leather seats. Among many other conveniences. And the payments are low and for only 2 years, cuz I put a lot down. And it goes. I’m so happy about it I could just shit!
It’s Pureology Root Lift, which, in addition to working so well, sprays on in a thin stream directly onto your hair. You don’t have to get it all over your hands. My stylist introduced me to it and I love it.
I haven’t yet, but in May I’ll be spending a stupefying amount of money moving to a new city (and possibly starting grad school), so I feel justified in my current penny-pinching.
Unfortunately for the economy, the sprog chose a Nerf gun that was much less expensive than the one he initially wanted. We also didn’t eat lunch at the mall, nor did we get him new clothes. So, thanks to my six-year-old, our bank account is still fat, but the economy is no better off.
He’s weird that way. When I’m prepared to spend more, he’ll choose something less expensive. When I don’t have as much to spend, or I don’t have it at all, he chooses the most expensive thing there is, then whines when he doesn’t get it.
Anyway, we are now discussing buying a laptop for Airman. So there’s hope.
Only through buying groceries and paying my bills, currently. I used my stimulus check last year for a down payment on a used car (which doesn’t stimulate it as much as a NEW car, but it sure stimulated my personal economy to have a more reliable vehicle!)
I’m expecting about 5 grand back in taxes this year, and I will be spending some of that (pay down the car loan, catch up on a few bills, new clothes etc…for the kids, maybe a few dinners out or day trips, but nothing huge…want to keep most of it in the bank since I’m currently unemployed and planning on going back to school. Want that cushion.)
If I had a job, I’d sure be stimulating a hell of a lot more. :rolleyes:
I’m so happy about it I could just shit!
Same as above, we saved up and paid cash.
