Monday, May 10, 2010

My E-ffidavit

A lot of things are happening these days that require me to spend more money than I’m used to. Below is a list of my recent spending habits:

• Taking friends out to dinner for their birthdays ($$)
• Fixing my Car ($$$$)
• Eating out with friends ($$)
• Drinks with friends ($$)
• Taking co-workers / boss out to lunch for their birthdays ($$)
• Donating to charitable causes ($)
• Going to Disneyland with my brother ($$$)
• Seeing people off (and buying them drinks) before they leave town ($$)
• Moving from one apartment to another ($????)

The “$” signs indicate how expensive these things are.


And to make matters worse, I just registered for Camp Hollywood! (What was I thinking?)


But the $119.00 competitor’s rate for the Amateur Jack & Jill contest + parking for 3 days < $185.00 full weekend pass + $200 plus Hotel room.

While I’m not on my way to the poor house just yet, I look at this list (and my bank statement) and can’t help but think “I’ve been too free with my monies lately when I should be saving it for a rainy day."
Last month alone, I took out two friends for their birthday....TWICE.
(2 friends x 2 dinners = 4 dinners total).

So the below is an E-Affidavit (E-ffidavit?) I’ve written up pledging to save money. I know it won’t be legally binding - I haven’t signed it in the presence of any of you, never mind if you’re a notaryt – but hopefully you, the good readers of my blog, will help remind me why I wrote this whenever you see me spending / withdrawing money from an ATM.

Now behold – The E-ffidavit!

THE E-FFIDAVIT OF STOODERT
(for realz)

Monday, May 10th, 2010.
State of California
County of Los Angeles

BEFORE ME
(the reader), the undersigned Notary, on this Monday, May 10th, 2010, personally read the weblog post of Stoodert, known to me to be a credible person and of lawful age, who being by me first duty sworn, on his oath, deposes and says he will:

1) Stop spending money on things that are not necessary – necessary being defined as all things related to:
- Travel
- Work
- Repairing / replacement of broken / lost items,
- Payment of current debts, bills, loans, etc.
- meals (to be cooked at home, unless at work)
- swing-dancing (it’s necessary)
2) Conserve money whenever possible on the above listed necessary things by looking for cheap alternatives to otherwise regularly priced expenses.
3) Keep a better record of his spendings.

Subscribed and sworn to (or affirmed) before me on this
Monday, May 10th, 2010 by Stoodert, provided to me on the basis of satisfactory evidence to be the person(s) who appeared before me.

(To sign this E-ffidavit, please write “notarized” in the comments section of this blog)


To make your own E-ffidavit

3 comments:

Muddy a said...

A money planning that supposedly work(and I'm thinking of trying) is "envelope spending". You just decide how much you want to spend for a category (food, transportation, etc) per week or per month and put the amount in the envelope and spend it from there. Label the envelope like "food 5/1-5/7 $40" and you will know how much you are spending on what in how many days. If you get left over, you can either move it to next cycle or get a drink with that money as a treat! We'll see if it works. I'm gonna do it this month.

R.E.M. Borja said...

I shall audit and hold you to this.

Anonymous said...

Duly notarized. Though I must say I like Muddy A's idea. Now, to find some envelopes!