First!

I'm hoping I can do two things with this idea I ran across when looking for blog ideas. First, I'm hoping I can entertain you with the sometimes absurd, sometimes interesting ways that I spend my money. Secondly, I'm hoping by making my spending habits more transparent, I can go from paycheck-to-paycheck living all the way to financial stability, and you get to watch. I expect to start out updating this regularly about once a week, preferably by midnight on Sunday, so each week starts off with a new post.
My annual income is no secret. A quick Google search for "Military pay chart 2011" will get you about all the "personal" info I give you. So this is the story of the ebb and flow of my money each month. But first, a little bit of background on me, and why you should even care what I have to say.

I am 25 years old. Before joining the military I did the college thing. I was enrolled at East Tennessee State University for the better part of 4 years. For about 2.5 of those years I was a business major with a focus in accounting. I'm actually pretty damn good with other people's money, but the numerous budgets I've put together for myself just never stand up. After college I worked in IT for a while, and for seven years I was front man for the band Stand Your Ground. I mention these things so that you'll have some idea of why most of my money goes to musical and nerdy things. The best things happen of course when nerdy things are musical (or vice versa).

At this point I'm thinking a typical update will include pictures and explanations of the things I buy, why I bought them, and a breakout of my general spending habits for the past week. So enough about me, here we go:

Overview:
$300 - Bills
$035 - Misc/Food
$010 - Alcohol
$002 - Charity
$223.99 - Interesting buys

This week's interesting buys include the following:

Nady SP-4C Microphone - $11.99

This was one of Musician's Friend's Stupid Deals, and I could always use more microphones. Plus, it comes with an XLR-1/4" cable, which may come in handy at some point.










Crate CA-60 2 Channel Acoustic Amp (no link, since I bought it on ebay) - $183

The pic isn't the exact one I bought, but it'll give you an idea. This was my first ebay experience overseas. So far it has been a fairly simple process. No serious issues. Still waiting to receive my amp, but it will probably take a while, stupid APO shipping. *le sigh*
I'm hoping to use this to make my stomp box a reality. I have all the parts I need (for now anyway), and I just needed some kind of amplification to play around with. This will provide that.



xkcd merchandise - $29

When I saw this shirt I couldn't help myself. I absolutely had to buy it. I also picked up some of the "Actual Size!" stickers, which will probably come in handy for some good old fashioned mischief, or "illicit hilarity" as I like to call it.










I suppose that concludes my first post. If you enjoyed it, check back again next week to see what interesting things I've gotten into. Hopefully you'll be back. In any case, thanks for stopping by.