More on finances

I have been on a financial downswing ever since Christmas. It seems like every time the wind blows, it's costing me money. Let's review:

• Water heater on the brink
  
• Heat pump burnt up
  
• New tires
  
• Brock Lesner & Tim Sylvia are pussies :)
  
• Getting stacked 5 times after flopping a set
  

The top 3 items aren't cheap. They are just the highlights of my financial woes. It's every day something seems to be costing me money. I haven't been to the grocery store in 2 weeks because...fuck who can afford food?

In all fairness, my personal financial life is a mess. I haven't balanced a checkbook since Clinton was in office. I just wing it. I do have my onilne banking email me when my account gets so low. I have been getting more of these emails lately than ever before. It seems like I'm always shuffling money around between accounts to make it until payday. This sucks and I'm not used to it.

I have set up MS Money on my PC at home and have actually been using it for the past few days. Every purchase has gone into that piece of software and has been categorized (right down to the nicotine). I need to know where the money is going before I can figure out where to fix it. At the end of the month, I'll know exactly how much gas I bought, how much I spent on snuff, and also how much I spent dining out. I'm willing to bet that gas and dining out are my biggest expenses.

Also, it's easier to save money when you are results oriented like myself. Now that I have MS Money in front of me, I can keep a constant eye on my account balance. Maybe that will help the next time I go for that impulse purchase.