Dream about all the things I will be able to do when I am debt free

I took wbmsic’s challenge and have finally made time to sit down and make a list of 100 Things I Can Do When I Am Debt Free. And here it is!! And with this, I will check this goal “done!” even though it never really could be totally finished – because maybe some of them are better under “100 Things I Can Do When I Am Financially Independent.” Oh well! It’s about the dream!

100 Things I Can Do When I Am Debt Free

1. Take as many trips as I want to, whenever I want to
2. Buy an Airstream trailer and a truck and take it around the world
3. Work part time
4. Spend more time volunteering for causes I love
5. Join a gym or a Y or something
6. Join a volleyball league
7. Buy a super-sweet computer and super-sweet software for photos and digital scrapbooking and video
8. Ditch all the weirdo part-time money efforts
9. Buy a book if I want it, right on the spot, without a cost-benefit analysis
10. Go to Australia
11. Go to Siberia
12. Go to Sweden
13. Go to Japan
14. Go to Spain and Portugal
15. Cruise around the world
16. Get a bigger house
17. Fence in the back yard
18. Buy clothes that are new and high quality and that I love and that make me look hot
19. Buy a sweet digital camera
20. Take long weekends to visit my faraway friends
21. Buy stuff for my classroom and not feel guilty about it
22. Fund my wacky ideas like the alternative gift fair
23. Donate more money to different groups
24. Don’t count pennies when buying a gift – when I see something someone would like, get it
25. Invite people for dinner and don’t make it potluck – I pay to feed them all!
26. Have my loved ones out to restaurants and pick up the tab
27. Buy whatever lovely trees and shrubs and plants that I want
28. Have really nice camping gear
29. Take a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon
30. Go to New York and really DO New York
31. Take a trip where I just lay on the beach and eat good food the whole time
32. Save for retirement
33. Build my emergency fund
34. Save for my next car
35. Go to show and plays and even newly released movies!
36. Take as many classes and workshops and community ed stuff as I want
37. Buy the cute scrapbook embellishments and tools that I see and like
38. Save to go back to school for Law
39. Take long weekends up north and ski or hike and not need to do it in a tent
40. Pay a petsitter for my dog
41. Sponsor a doggy from Canine Castaways (even though they don’t have a sponsorship program)
42. Buy the best food
43. Have time and money to grow the best veggies
44. Throw parties and provide all the food and entertainment
45. Start a business, maybe curriculum consulting?
46. Buy high quality goods so they will last a good ol’ long time, like wool bedding or high end kitchen stuff
47. Take a trip to Northern California
48. Drive to Halifax and see all the big and little places along the way and not worry about how long it will take or the cost per mile and do it in hotels, not camping
49. Get an iPod, one that will hold a lot of photos
50. Buy people really nice wedding gifts
51. Take a trip for Christmas instead of buying crapola
52. Host Thanksgiving or at least take everyone out for it
53. Have a gorgeous dining room set
54. Buy nice jewelry
55. Buy Corky a heated dog bed
56. Drive wherever I want and not think of how much money it’s costing me
57. Make lots of digital scrapbooks for people
58. Have legacy furniture (i.e. really nice furniture that would be passed down)
59. Never worry about how much is in the checkbook
60. Have the option to buy as large a house as I would comfortably want (not so big that it’s too much work!!)
61. Pay all home improvements in cash
62. Landscape beautifully and make the outside a comfortable “room”
63. Get a kickin’ cellie with GPS and Internet and all the bells and whistles
64. Throw a debt free party with tons of lovely desserts
65. Ramp up my contributions to the library
66. Pay for my boyfriend’s trips, too
67. Get dessert AND a drink with dinner
68. Have super nice shoes – and more than just a black and a brown pair
69. Go on scrapbooking retreats!
70. Buy a kayak and take it to awesome Arctic and/or Caribbean locations
71. Take yoga with the teacher I love the best and not just where it’s cheapest
72. Have my groceries delivered
73. Create – and not have the cost of the supplies or the time impinge on my creative streak
74. Fight for healthcare reform and have the funds to do it . . .
75. Be willing/able to pay for volunteer opportunities, like those organizations that sponsor overseas volunteering, or Girl Scout events that still need money from the volunteers, or training fees, etc.
76. Get a nice gas grill
77. Go to Concordia Language Villages weekends for adults
78. Take as many language classes as I want with no consideration for cost
79. Frame my degrees
80. Join a church and feel like I can make a fair contribution to it
81. Make my donations in lumps, and generous ones, instead of piece-meal contributions made throughout the year
82. Do more things on a volunteer basis
83. Buy hot swimsuits at full price if necessary. You can’t just always find a hot swimsuit on clearance!
84. Buy organic cotton clothing or other green materials
85. Buy as much as I want at REI
86. Use a credit card that earns points of some kind because I won’t be worried about overspending what’s in the checkbook (this makes sense to me, don’t worry)
87. Feel ok about continuing to be frugal if that’s what I want to do
88. Send my friends care packages, or see them more often!
89. Make political contributions
90. Order high quality scrapbooking supplies
91. Spend my energies on goals and self-improvements and thoughts that are not related to financial discipline
92. Help my loved ones have cool experiences instead of buying them junk
93. Buy nice cheeses and meats
94. Have Café Latte birthday cake – a whole cake!
95. Not track my money so closely
96. Do stuff for school and don’t analyze the cost so closely – like workshops, or my personal portion of a field trip outing, etc.
97. Go to museums whenever I want, with or without coupon!
98. Buy a bitchin’ bike with super comfy seat, ideal baskets, perfect angle for sitting up
99. Feel financially secure with a well-funded emergency fund
100. Become a professional interpreter because I will have enough money – or at least few enough obligations – to make it feasible

If this goal is still valid?

I mean, I”m trying to get it sunk into my head that I’m debt free now and I don’t feel particularly liberated. Now I’ve got the daunting task of the fully funded emergency fund in front of me. And now all the little tasks are all calling for my attention. So I listed them from smallest to largest, then reordered them by time deadlines as well. I feel more organized and focused now that it’s done too.

This is the order that I have them in so far. I don’t know if I really like the idea of having a snowball per say, I just know what order to knock things out in. I want to start with 25$/wk to my TFSA Emergency fund (currently at 500$) to get into the habit. It’s also accumulating 6% interest from now until Dec 31st. Yay!

Oct 30th 100$ Dentist
200$ Wine and Cheese party
250$ Glasses
25$/wk 3000-5000$ TFSA emergency fund (6% until Jan)
700$ Bills padding account
300$ Deposit for IL trip (Feb)
1000$ Apt fund
700$ General Vacation fund

List of 100 Things I Will Be Able To Do When I Am Debt FREEEEE!

1.Plan an all out fantabulous trip to Las Vegas to go and see the Beatles’ musical LOVE show
2.Packback Europe
3.Visit my friend in the NL
4.See my aunts every year in Toronto without worrying about the cost
5.Upgrade my computer sound system
6.Upgrade my laptop
7.Buy one of those palm laptops
8.Install wifi
9.Have one of those “smart” fridges where you can scan the barcodes of things you put in it and it will a) tell you when things are going to go bad b) tell you if you have the ingredients to a recipe (http://www.bornrich.org/entry/smart-fridge-with-rfid-reader-alerts-you-when-you-run-out-of-stock/)
10.Buy one of those newer stoves where the rounds are built in
11.Get a heat lamp for my bathroom
12.Get that Queen sized pillowtop bed
13.Hey if I’m dreaming, make that a King sized bed!
14.Tile the kitchen with a lively tile that lightens up the kitchen
15.Get rid of the 1970s tile in the kitchen
16.Redo the wood floors
17.Save for a downpayment
18.Invest in DRIP ETFs
19.Buy really wicked Xmas gifts
20.Buy myself a new MP3 player
21.Buy that papasan seat
22.Buy that papasan sofa
23.Buy all the throw pillows that go with it
24.Buy a lamb skin throw rug to curl up with
25.Buy a house with a fireplace to curl up on the lamb skin rug
26.Pay for a landline without worrying about the cost
27.Have a cell phone
28.Not budget down to the penny
29.Shop on Ebay more often
30.Update my wardrobe more often
31.Window shop and actually buy clothes at Reitmans
32.Buy pretty ball gowns because I feel like it
33.Walk into the expensive shoe stores and not worry about the price tag
34.Go and see the Vancouver Olympics
35.Randomly pay for a family’s grocery visit
36.Give tokens to kids in video arcades
37.Go to the movies more often
38.Buy a record player that works
39.Own the entire Beatles collection on LP
40.Throw a dart at a map and travel there
41.Have a maid to clean up after me
42.A dishwasher
43.A liquor cabinet
44.The liquor to go in the cabinet
45.The glasswear to go with the liquor in the cabinet
46.The friends to drink from the glasswear with the liquor in the cabinets
47.More parties
48.More drinking nights out
49.More Stand and Model outfits and the parties that go along with them
50.More workshops
51.A library to drool over
52.Every Leasley Pearce book
53.Wall to wall bookshelves
54.A glass desk
55.A highback leather spendy chair
56.A personal masseuse
57.A wireless mouse
58.A wireless printer
59.A scanner
60.Wireless speakers
61.Frilly makeup
62.Spending money on manicures and pedicures
63.Spending money without feeling guility
64.Feeling free
65.Magazine subscriptions
66.Real curtain rods
67.A custom made, rich wood finish four poster bed with a sun and moon carved theme
68.A bathtub I can be comfortable in
69.A steam shower
70.My own home
71.A networth that is measured in hundreds of thousands instead of hundreds
72.Give away candy to random kids in the store
73.Fly first class
74.Have the money to fix things when they break
75.A Meisterstuck Mont Blanc pen
76.The stand that goes with it that costs as much as the pen itself
77.An interior decorator
78.A walk in closet
79.All kinds of organizing boxes and the stuff that you see in magazines
80.Down pillows
81.Be able to frame all the pictures that go on my wall of memories
82.Take Hebrew classes
83.Live in Israel for a few years
84.Go back to school without worrying about the cost (did I mention, without student loans)
85.Take the time to discover what I want to do in school
86.Have a life coach
87.Have a personal assistant
88.Have a custom made ball gown
89.Wear more jewellery
90.Own things that are frilly, not practical
91.Have opportunities to wear the frilly
92.See interest work in my favor, instead of against me
93.Go and see Abraham-Hicks in multiple cities
94.Own gaming systems, which ever ones I care to play with at the moment
95.Not be so uptight about money
96.Feel secure
97.Feel free
98.Help others
99.Do silly things without worrying about the cost
100.Go to the ballet to see Nutcracker every year with good tickets.

So I challenged fidgiegirl to come up with a list of 100 things I will do when I am debt free. And I figured that it was only fair to take part in my own meme-y-type-thingy-thing.

So I’m going to sit down tonight (after I get home from work) and hammer out my own List of 100 Things I Will Be Able To Do When I Am Debt FREEEEE!

and take it around the US, and have it shipped overseas and do trips with it like Airstream people did in the 50s.

Actually sat down and made a list of some of the stuff that I would like to buy for my new place.

Even started buying some of it.

I’ll get around to posting the list here eventually.

Okay my last entry was very depressive. I was walking around downtown and though I wasn’t interested in anything in the stores there I was reminded that there is a lot of GOOD stuff that you can buy with money. I started dreaming about this four poster bed that I’d like to get a woodworking student to make for me.

So I think I’ll have to sit down and write out a List of 100 things that I want/could/dream of doing after I’m done being responsible with money (IE after the emergency fund as well)

Since I love the list of 100 so much, I think I’ll sit down on of these days and dream and dream BIG and pour my heart into a list of 100 things.

This is such a great idea fidgiegirl that I’m just going to have to jump on board…

Really, I took a peek at what it would be like to be debt free when I wrote out my series of goals. But they still feel very responsible and mature and well… boring. I like goals, I like structure, yes, but I do envy the types who jump on a plane to (insert sunny destination here) and let MasterCard worry about the details.

Because I know what I’ll be doing after I’m debt free… I’ll be saving for an emergency fund. Yes there are little steps before that, but essentially it still involves: being frugal, being responsible and more saving. I’m doubly frustrated because I’ll be losing my subsized (SUPER) cheap rent and curtailing my super saving abillities. Granted, finishing up my debt will free up some room in my budget, but the numbers still look very slow compared with the past year.

After the Emergency fund, comes Baby Step 3b… Save for MY house.

I think I need to go and remind myself of the fun I’ve had with money that I’ve saved

When I get to the point when I pay off all my debt, I am going to have a debt free party, and invite all my friends and family who give a crap about my debt free status and let them all witness my push the “I’ve done this” button on 43T and eat cake, pie, or cookies, depending on which is my #1 favorite type of dessert at the time.

shows and plays and stuff that costs money.