With the recent purchase of my car, I have been looking at my budgeting concerns. The new car payment should have opened a gap in my budget of two hundred plus per month, yet it turned out as one hundred. Then at the same time, my mortgage shot up by over a hundred, nullifying that reward. 

My problem area is due to an excessive entertainment and food budget. You can practically combine those two categories, since I often eat for pleasure. Whether it is honey buns or super salads from Whole Foods – the goal is pleasure. Both are unnecessary and wasteful, considering the alternative. While the salad bar with multitudes of options is wonderful, delicious, and convenient, it also runs $12 normally. And that goes for honey buns; when in honeybun mode, I want 4 or 5 – an easy ten bucks. 

I am wanting to get back into a cooking lifestyle, where I mostly eat at home. But this is no simple feat when you live in a half-built home. I have no kitchen sink for dish washing. The automatic dishwasher never worked. And regardless, the ends of all my copper tubing – outside of one shower – are all capped. Sinks run $100+ and the hardware another $100+ and the plumber another bit. That’s a large investment for a broke bastard. 

I could get a microwave and some containers for 100 bucks. Cook at Mom’s house and save a lot of cash compared to my current situation. 

But then, I don’t see that working out for long – requiring the steady diet of microwaved leftovers. Not to mention the spike of misunderstandings between my dad. He won’t like or accept the fact that this is my only real option to cook. Tension will grow over a few weeks time and then one day I’ll snap with frustration and leave thirty bucks worth of vegetables to rot away in his fridge. Only to be asked about it three months later with no clue of my frustration. 

It’s happened three times in the past – should I risk dignity and sanity again to help improve my credit score? Is it really worth it?

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