financial stress

i completely freaked out after buying my new car. i knew that my old car would start to cost me more than it was probably worth, but my recent history of temporary work left me a little shaken. the thought of having to pay school loans plus a car payment plus credit card bills was enough to take my breath away. so i decided to focus on a remedy for the problem.
i'm not shy about the money stuff, so i'm just going to lay it all out there... my student loans are $250/month, and my car payment is $262/month. there's $500/month of costs up-front that i can (pardon the pun) bank on. i figured out that i'd need to pay about $250/month on two credit cards to be able to get rid of the debt within a year. i just card-hopped to be able to get 0% interest for a year on two cards. funny story: citibank sent me a note saying that i qualified for a balance transfer, ie: "transfer you high-rate balances!" me: "uh... you ARE my high-rate balance... but thanks." i only applied for one new card to be able to shift my balances around, so that's good. it's still $1000/month of bills that i have to pay, which sucks.i figured that i would feel much better once the debt has been paid off and that i really need to take care of this now, rather than later.
what got me into debt? an automatic deduction from the gym ($50/month), paying for both groceries and my retail therapy when i was in college because i was too embarrassed to tell my mom i was broke, paying for a semester of school on a credit card because it couldn't go on a loan and i didn't have the available cash ($1200)... even when i WAS paying double the minimum balance on my cards (and even though i hadn't charged anything recently, save for the gym membership), i wasn't getting anywhere and they were making way too much money off of me. this is why the card-hopping seemed the most feasible option, and with the economy the way that it is, i'm not giving the banks/credit card companies a cent more than i have to. i refuse to let them keep me in a perpetual cycle of debt.
i have plans. these plans can be carried out once i get rid of this weight on my shoulders... just something else that makes me feel heavy, if only in a figurative sense. i really think this is a good way to take care of it. it makes me feel better knowing that i'm taking care of it, and even though it sucks for now, it's manageable.
the gym called me on thursday about a $200/year membership. i might take advantage of it, since it would be a third of what i was paying previously. i told them that i was moving to get out of my contract though... can i just call and say, "oh sorry, that didn't work out. sorry about that..."? :)

haven't posted for a bit -- sixty-hour work weeks will do that. :)
i bought a new car, photos to come later. it's super awesome. it's a scion xD and since it is big and grey, its name is rambi, like the rhinocerous from 'donkey kong country.' that's a cool word: rhinocerous, rhinocerous, rhinocerous. wow, i'm tired. :)
while working long days, i've been consuming convenience foods that have left me feeling like i'm not eating so healthy. i'm up a few pounds but i noticed the other day that my shoulders are quite muscular and today i pulled off a hilly bike-ride that i figured would probably be impossible. i need to give myself more credit for these things.
there are so many more things to blog about, but the hour is getting late... and i'm beginning to feel quite inarticulate. said things will have to wait. :)
g'night!

CW: 176.0