Sat down and did the budget thing, since I got a raise a couple of months ago and also this week had to choose a new health plan at work since the insurance people decided that the three we had already just wasn't good enough so they created four entirely new plans.

Found out that I owe the cellphone people three months worth of payments because my automagic payments on my bank account had mysteriously failed. Ouch. Presumably the bank emailed me to let me know, but they're fond of sending me emails titled mysterious things like "You have documents waiting for you" that are usually my statements or other routine missives. And those of you who look at every piece of paper the bank sends you and are always up-to-date on your account can just not say anything. I am an Artist and we are above such mundanities. *swans around in exotic paint-stained garb* At any rate, have sent in a payment for half of the amount owed (I love automatic payments) and will pay the rest off next month. I have also just fully paid off the power bill that I had a similar mishap on two months ago. ("Similar" in the sense of "I lost the bill and forgot about it until the deadline had passed so I was hit with two months' power from the hot time of summer unexpectedly.") I am luckily in a paycheck bracket where my usual forgetfulness involving bills is merely a minor inconvenience causing me to cut back on manga buying for a month and not a serious problem.

The good news about the health plan mentioned above is that it forced me to look at my usage of it, and I realized I could switch to another one and save about $50 a month. I was on the "they pay as much as possible" one before, which kept my doctor's-visit copay to $20, but my new one makes it $30. My mom worriedly mentioned that I go to the doctor a lot - I went a total of five times this year, which illustrates my parents' attitude of "If it turns green and falls off we might make a doctor's appointment for you" that I expereinced growing up - and thought that I might be making a bad choice. Until I pointed out that my copay would go up by $50 total for the year, but my total payments would be going down by $600 a year. The main differences in the plans involve things like hospital stays and major surgeries, for which I'd pay total, after all the weird percentages and stuff, $7500 with the new plan as compared to $1200 with the plan-comparable-to-old-plan. The only surgery/hospital stuff I forsee possibly having is emergency type stuff, and we're well-off enough to be able to pull the money together if necessary. And inexplicably the new plan would allow me to go to out-of-network doctors and hospitals and emergency rooms with much less penalty than the one where they take more money out of my paycheck. I don't really get that bit.

At any rate, 2007 is my Get Out of Debt year, referring to the credit card and not, say, the student loans or car payments which shall be fixtures of my life for much time to come, so I hope hope hope to be able to put the excess money from the raise and the health savings towards the credit card. It requires paying more attention to what I'm spending money on and Not Buying Lunch Every Damn Day, which is where I suspect most of it goes.

I've blithered enough. I am going to reward my facing my budget by going out and spending more. :) A trip to the bookstore, with a small figure in mind from the money I have left this month because if I don't factor in book/manga money, I spend it anyway.

ETA: Or not. It seems my stomach had other plans. Bleh. :P