I finally have a day off today, the sun is actually out (although not for long) and I’m trying hard to come up with a plan for the day.  My house is a mess, Gavin the wonder dog is drooling to get outside and play, but my little home is in desperate need of some TLC and a deep clean.  I don’t know if it’s the change in weather or not but I’ve got a fly problem at the moment.  Something hatched somewhere and I’ve had to kill off a whole swarm of these creatures.  I need to find out where they are coming from today because they are driving me NUTS!  So, I think today I might try and go for a hike and take some pictures of the fall colors (which I’ve largely missed this year due to my work schedule) and then spend the rest of the day cleaning.

Good news is on the horizon though for me in regards to my finances.  I’ve decided to go CABLE FREE and I’m in the process of getting myself set up to return my cable box and cancel my over priced subscription services to cable TV.  I have successfully hooked up a computer to my big screen TV and I am now able to watch all of the shows that I would normally watch on TV for free via multiple web sites that stream television shows for free.  One such site is Hulu.com and it is fast becoming a worthy alternative to paid TV service.  Granted, nothing there can be seen live (all the shows I watch are available one day later than the day they air on TV networks) but I’m OK with that since 99% of the time, I am not around to watch live TV anyhow.  The only aspect of going Cable Free that I am going to miss is the High-Def aspect.  Everything on the Internet is in good quality but it’s not truly a High-Definition experience.  That’s OK though, I’ll just save that for my movies where it actually matters.  The most exciting thing about doing this is that it will save me over $100 a month which is a tremendous savings considering that at best, the value I got out of my cable subscription was worth at best about $20.

I’ve been pretty impressed with myself in regards to my finances.  I’ve been able to find ways to cut costs this year by being creative and as a result, I’ve been able to spend my extra money on things that actually have meaning to me, like electronics and other fun toys.  I’ll be the first to admit that my expenses have not gone down at all but I have managed to re-prioritize my spending habits to better suit my lifestyle.  The next goal for me is to re-evaluate my credit reports and finally start to repair the damage I did to it years ago when I was young and stupid with my money.  Fortunately, I’ve had several years now of positive impact on my credit score, nearly every dumb thing I did in my early 20′s has dropped off my report, and I’ve been able to stay on track with debts and bills for several years now.  All of this is in an effort to eventually purchase a home at a good rate.  I’m most proud of the fact that I’ve not had a credit card now in several years and I have no intentions of trying to get one in the near future.  Credit cards are simply bad for me.  They work for some people but they don’t for me and I’m OK with that.  If I don’t have cash, I don’t spend money and right now, that is an appropriate rule for me.

Hopefully I’ll write a bit more in the coming days and weeks.  Just about a month now until Black Friday and things are going to be crazy at work leading up to that.  I have 2 more vacation days that I have to take before December 5 (or I lose them) and I’m thinking I might take a couple of day trips around the area to take pictures in places I’ve not been before.  We’ll see, most of that will depend on the weather which has not been very good lately.  Well, off now to motivate myself to take a hike.