Financial juggling

After FC and switching cars (see my last post), I'll be scrutinizing my finances more closely. I've taken a calculated risk in the amount I've spent the past couple of weeks since I now need to give my finances time to recover. But I've also taken steps to save up for next year's FC.

Right now I have enough to comfortably survive financially, but I don't have the financial cushion I used to have since my combined spending and lending (mostly to one person) was greater than my income. But I'm going to have to cut back, which means...

- No trips this year unless they're work-related (i.e., someone else pays). Unfortunately that means not going to AC or MFF (I had been considering MFF but it's too cost prohibitive to go this year).

- No major spending. I had been looking at getting the bathtub resurfaced with some kind of liner (cheaper than buying a new tub), but I'm going to hold off for now.

- Staying home more, going out less. Two friends that I go out with regularly borrow enough to easily double, triple or even quadruple the amount I would otherwise normally spend if I went out myself. Plus, neither of them have enough (or any) cash to pay me back right away, so they effectively have been running up a tab with me for some time. In the past, I didn't mind so much since I could afford it, but not any more.

- Cutting back on food. Actually, I'm not doing this so much to save $$$ as I am to try to drop some tonnage. When I was going to UCLA, I tried cutting back on food to economize and that didn't work.

I've already also set up a separate bank account that will be strictly for me to save up for FC 2010. That won't be touched by kitty paws come hell or high water until the trip.

(no subject)

Almost got through FC without getting the con crud. Today, though, I woke up to some fairly persistent coughing. It hasn't developed into a fever yet, though, so I think I'm okay to go to work tonight. If it gets worse, or I run any kind of fever, I'll stay home.

I don't know if the coughing is con crud, airplane crud, or some weird hybrid of both. Near the end of the con I thought I was coming down with something, but that turned out to be a canker sore near the back of my tongue that I mistook for a sore throat.

The ironic part is that I read a friend's post (a sociable, outgoing fur) that said they'd rather have their health and skip the con and its associated crud (you know who you are), but me, the antisocial doom kitty, actually wouldn't have missed FC's last year at the Doubletree for anything... not even con crud.