Milestones

July was an incredible month. Let's recap:

1. We moved into our new house.
2. We went on vacation with dear friends, beating the heat and hanging out on various lakes for 2 solid weeks.
3. We paid off Kim's credit card.
4. I started losing weight again.

1: Now, it might be odd that someone looking to get out of debt may be buying a house, but let's check out the bare facts:
Wherever you are (unless you're rich, retired, or living with your parents), you've got to pay to live there. I was paying rent--$790--which included all utilities, basic cable and internet. And all that money was leaving. No equity was built. Now, I pay $590 for the house and, so far, 100-ish for the utilities. I'm still waiting on the first cable bill and the water/sewer/trash/recycling bill. Either way, it's either the same price or cheaper.

How can I do this? I moved to a small city, where housing prices are a fraction of the cost of a comparable neighborhood in a major metropolitan area.

2: The vacation is self-explanatory, but I'll drop some details: We went to a lake in Upstate Vermont, rented a house and split it with two other couples. If you pay for hotels when you travel, you are missing out. For a full week, it cost each couple $530. How much would that have been for hotel rooms? And we had our own kitchen, beach, and BBQ, so we saved money on food and travel, too.

3: Kim's credit card was the low-hanging fruit of the debt-snowball tree. It was only about $2400, and my August 1 bonus covered it with lots to spare. The next-lowest debt is my own credit card, some $8000. That ain't nothin' to sniff at. I'm hoping that will be paid off by this time next year. Then comes the car and the big debt ($9100 and $13500, respectively), and we're clear of consumer debt.

Of course, there's still student loans, some $100,000 worth, and the $71500 worth of mortgage. But we've engaged the debt snowball, and it will only roll large and faster as we go along.

4: Now, I'm not a huge guy, but a certain svelteness has always eluded me. Plus, I've been influenced by the movie Fat Head and the book Good Calories, Bad Calories, about the science behind the Fat/Carbohydrate debate, and how fats are actually good for me. As a result, I've started a high-fat, no-carb diet, with the exception of Saturdays, during which I eat whatever I want. I've lost 4 pounds in 2 weeks, with my goal being to lose 20 pounds, ending up at 160.

This diet that I'm on is far from gospel, and many people poo-poo the science behind it, mocking the "Atkins Diet" and whatnot. I'm not going to preach to you, but I eat exactly what I want (except sweets, bread, and pasta), in as much quantity that I want, and I work out no more than I did previously (1-3 hours per week, plus household building projects on the weekends), and I'm losing weight.

I'm conducting an experiment on myself. If you view the results as compelling, well, perhaps you should experiment more yourself. Science is fun.

Thanks for reading.