Sometimes I just get into a debt paying mood. You see, I've had this cable bill that has been lingering around since Christmas of 2008. Yes, you have read that correctly. I guess because I don't get cable bills in the mail, they don't tell me when I've missed a payment. Apparently that Christmas I did. So the past couple of years, I never paid the double bill, only the month that had just passed. I know, I've been a bad Natalie. Tonight, just so that I'm not dragging it around in the new year, I paid it. All 189.45 of it (that's for 2 months). I'm still thinking about reducing the cable. It's already pretty bare bones, no cable box, no tevo, nothing. But if we aren't watching it, and we mostly watch movies anyway, we might as well. I'm jealous of people with cable boxes that tell them what they're watching. We just have to guess. Half the reason I don't watch the cool tv shows is that I don't know when they're on or what channel.

Another debt I'm paying tonight is a medical bill from February. I had thought my insurance took care of it when instead they sent me a check which I had no idea what it was for. I didn't get this bill until july or august. I'm just getting around to paying it; it's $124. It will get sent off tonight.

And since I'm giving all my money away, why not send some to the student loans? After I write this blog I'll send $20 to the biggest one and $10 to the smaller one.

I'm a little scared about being so generous though; my hours at work have been cut from 40 to 30, just the bare minimum to keep insurance.

I don't know if this was a dumb move or not, but I am stopping my fsa contributions. I didn't like it from the start, and now I feel forced to send in forms just to get my own money back. I know it's pretaxed and saves me money and all that, but the hassle it causes me just isn't worth it. Not to mention OTC meds won't be covered w/out an rx. I know that's a government thing but that's just stupid. On top of that, I tried to print the forms at work and they wouldn't print. Good riddance to that mess.

Hope everyone has a great new year! Maybe I'll post some goals on the side. Everyone needs a few goals in life.

Since I got such a wonderful dog from an animal shelter, this Christmas I decided that it would be my special charity. Of course the animals don't know that it's Christmas, but they do feel cold and loneliness.

Instead of giving the shelter some cash (which of course they could use for whatever they wanted), I thought that my money could go further by shopping around. I had a $5 off coupon at Walgreens and with my employee discount, a $10 dog bed became less than $4. I bought 3 blankets and 3 towels at Goodwill, which came up for less than $10. I also had 2 old blankets with a few holes in them laying around the house. I had a brand new collar that I didn't end up using a while back (I could have returned it I guess, but really not worth the energy) and a toy that Jackie couldn't play with because it's too big. So for 5 blankets, 3 towels, a brand new dog bed, a new collar, and a tennis ball: total was approx $13 to $14 dollars.

So the next time ya'll have old blankets, towels, pet related things, or just a great deal on something that a dog or cat would like, I hope you will consider donating it to your local animal shelter. The websites for shelters will usually have a list. Oh, and one more thing: Adopt, don't shop!