January 1, 2013
Just like that, the New Year’s slipped in the door, all kinds of Bowls are on the telly while Doggle sighs and flops dramatically while PiC and I tap away at our keyboards.
I’ve been working since we returned from a pretty stressful Christmas trip back home so any recap or reflection posts will come later. Right now, I’m taking a quick look at things we’ve decided. Backwards? Sure. But it’s what works for me right now! 🙂
Things to Do
1. New-to-us furniture in, some old furniture and possessions out:
Even at the slow-mo rate that I collect books and comics, PiC wanted another bookcase. We’ve talk-imagined how to fit this in because I’m getting Possessions Claustrophia. We agreed that if we’re adding furniture, we have to get rid of some things because it’s getting crowded in here!
To make this work, we both committed to:
A) clearing out enough shoes to eliminate a small shoe rack
B) selling his extra never-used bike and moving the remaining bike
C) reorganizing the current storage system in the existing book shelf, perhaps with nice containers for the non book items.
*PiC has always been in charge of the furniture and decor by default, I don’t tend to care about those details as long as we’re not spending or collecting too much. It’s nice to be able to participate in this discussion without feeling frustrated and come out with an agreed plan.
2. Tackling the second closet. We have very limited storage here and we’re not making the most of the space.
A) We’ve collected too many coolers, big and small, and I’m pretty sure that at least one can be returned. Perhaps one can be regifted or sold. It’s a novelty item.
B) We have an unwielding shelving system that came with the place. Time to rethink!
3. There’s at least one bit of paperwork left to sort from leaving my ex-employer.
DO THAT.
Moving towards more simplicity and focus, J. Money and I are on the same wavelength there!
Actual Goals
Money: We’re almost ready to review the last year’s spending and create this year’s budget. If we’re going to talk about a house property, then we need to get serious about money allocation.
A) Create budget based on more realistic savings and spending needs for 2013. Lots of big travel anticipated this year and if we’re doing it, we need to be careful how the cash flows. Our first year of shared but not combined expenses (lack of action, courtesy of my health difficulties) really could have been better and I hate wasting time and opportunity. Allowances, here we come!
B) Refinance this place.
C) Save at least $35k toward new house stuff.
** I’ve not posted any monthly reports since last year because I didn’t know how to present the numbers coming from just mine to both of ours. Still haven’t figured that out yet.
Fitness: PiC has insane-to-me fitness goals but I’m supporting him. From the sofa.
Haha yes and no .. I have been adding some careful gymming to my life lately in 15-20 minute increments and I am going to try and add a little bit more exercise at a time. Maybe I can even work up to running short distances? I would love a buddy who works at my level because at the moment, PiC and I are at the opposite ends of the fitness spectrum and I enjoy working out w/others. Then again, I can just go to a happy place to work out too – I love solo time.
The active/competitive spirit in me was slowly waking up in the last couple weeks and I just want to be able to do some things I used to: run a mile in good time, go for long walks and feel refreshed – not depleted, regain flexibility and stamina.
Not all of that is under my control: I don’t know how my body will react on any given day, much less to any of the pie in the sky fitness hopes, but I think it’s realistic to have a fitness plan menu from which I can slowly work on weak areas as and when I’m feeling up to it or just thinking I can.
I have to start somewhere!
I’m both a touch envious of but also proud of my IRL and online friends taking on new fitness challenges this year (@patti_v in her August race!) and will join them in my own small way.
Career: This new job requires a lot of stretching, some of which I simply don’t feel ready for, and others of which are brainmeldingly frustrating but sort of fun because I’m learning new things again.
It’s time to get back on the horse with regard to balancing the time I spend on the full time job, which could turn into 20 hrs a day, 7 days a week if I let it, and exploring what other projects are out there just waiting to be kicked around. One idea that’s been floating for a long time has to do with my management experience. I spend a fair amount of time helping out a few fellow bloggers with hiring, career and other related advice. Perhaps it’s worth exploring that as a real side job?
Happy New Year, everyone, what’s on your mind for this coming year?
July 2, 2012
On a recent trip, my scheduled program was so boring that I ditched class. With nothing else to do in the immediate area but eat or shop, and armed with a 30% coupon for one of the nearby stores, I decided to try dowsing for a sale sweater or a jacket.
I came up empty for outerwear but found a cheerful top with decoration along the neckline, and an interesting billowy, elasticized bottom.
One problem. Â Armholes were too big, the neckline was too low and the sides were too big around my ribcage. Ok, three problems. Normally, I’d just put it back but experimentally, tried to pretend I had a tailor looking at it. What would they do?
My theory: Take the straps just came up a couple inches. That should take up the neckline, tends to reduce the armholes and brings the sides up so that they appear slimmer. I might be able to solve all the fit problems in one go.
With the coupon, the top came to $21 – a bargain if I managed a successful home tailoring job. Less so if it cost $5-10 at the tailor.
The sides were questionable. On a different shirt, just taking up the straps alone might not be enough to slim the sides and I wasn’t sure I’d the skill to hand-slim them, but because it was sort of tulip shaped, it might just fly.
With encouragement and a bit of advice from Kelly of Alterations Needed, I set to work. The decorations were a little tricky – the beads were actually strung on thread together before they were tacked down so I had to be even more careful about how I pulled them out, and preserve enough thread to tie off so the loose end didn’t let loose a torrent of unintended consequences.
Result? Â Snug!
But as PiC still can’t quite comprehend, I have a fear of commitment and can’t quite bring myself to cut away the taken up material. Not because I might need to let it out again. Just because.
I forgot to take a Before picture and the After picture is nothing to brag about. Awkward self portraits don’t really do justice to the tailoring job.
The first success emboldened me to take on a $5 final sale H&M tank top I’d never worn because the V neck was too revealing. Unfortunately, these alterations weren’t an unmitigated success.
The neckline is now just moderately appropriate but not great. It can’t come up any higher because there’s no more wiggle room in the armholes; any more and I’ll cut off circulation to my arms, and go beyond the acceptable stretch limits of the fabric as indicated by the blue circles. Â Ah well, win some, sort of do ok with some.
While I certainly won’t be hiring myself out as a tailor any time soon, I can save myself the cost of the odd  (very little) job.
Do you do your own alterations or does everything go to the tailor? Â Do you get everything tailored a la Clinton and Stacy’s advice?Â
More on Alterations:
My recent purchases that mostly went back because they were big tailoring jobs
The Economics of Being Oddly Shaped
February 16, 2010
I absolutely love the reduction of paperwork and the mostly empty file drawers in my desk. One of my main goals of decluttering was to eliminate loads of bulk and excess that creep into all the corners of your life until one day, you fear that it might claim you in your sleep.
Or is that a creeping feeling that only I get?
It does take some upkeep, but with a bit of dedication to scanning in paperwork as you receive it, even if you don’t immediately name and deal with the file in question until later, you can eliminate those Leaning Towers of Recyclables from your life.
The one major problem I’ve run into is that when some record goes missing, my heart goes KER-PLOP. No matter how hard I look, if something isn’t in my electronic files, I probably didn’t scan it but definitely proceeded to discard the hard copy too long ago to retrieve.
I discovered this flaw in the Master Plan a few weeks ago when reviewing documents for tax returns. I always use the previous year’s return as a guide but for the life of me, I cannot find my tax return paperwork for 2008! I triple checked to make sure I wasn’t just thinking of the wrong tax year, but no love.
The Master Plan needs tweaking, I see.
March 26, 2009
I’m steaming over the loss of the entire post that should have gone up yesterday, but didn’t. Instead, I tried to post it from my phone’s web browser, had to edit the title, and somehow lost the entire post!
Oh well. Y’all probably didn’t need the long version anyway. Here’s the summary:
Professional
1. Attended another (wait listed) class for my Certificate program this week. Would have missed this opportunity if I hadn’t called and asked for it; you’re supposed to sit and wait for them to contact you when there are openings but I couldn’t afford to be passive. (Never mind I was late thanks to the take-many-detours shuttle driver. Have I ever mentioned how much I HATE being late?)
2. Requested permission to “crash” another course two weeks ago. We’re down to the wire here, so I absolutely have to hit every class if I want to take my Certificates of Supervision and Management before the layoff. This means my assertiveness is getting a major workout.
Financial
1. +40: check received from the Airborne class action settlement.
2. +10: my first payout from MySurvey.com
3. +226: this is really a refund, not a plus sign. My dad peeved me because he had over 30 days to return the Dish Network equipment but didn’t so they charged my card. Now I have to wait for them to acknowledge and process receipt of the equipment, process a manual return, and then request a manual refund from the credit card. Bleh.
4. +153: Still waiting for the credit card to send a check from the second insurance refund. Meh.
Fun/Consumerism
1. LOVED MoneyFunk’s latest project: a turtle Amigurumi! I’m a total sucker for cute turtles.
2. Have plans for a $22 prix fixe dinner with a friend next week; a treat is usually a $4 cheeseburger or a couple of chicken soft tacos, but occasionally I have a hankerin’. And it’s at a restaurant I can’t ever afford, normally.
October 30, 2008
On days when I can’t shake a massive headache, like every day this week, or when aches and pains of any other sort are plaguing me, wee little steps are enough.
The following companies will no longer be sending me paper statements:
Wamu/J.P. Morgan Chase (2)
Citibank (6, plus the 5 linked credit card accounts)
AT&T
Emigrant Direct (4)
ING Direct (4)
I was thwarted again by American Express – they want some number that I gave them at the time of opening my account — 7 years ago. I haven’t a clue what they’re talking about so that’ll require a phone call.
Happily, my Vanguard accounts were switched to paperless some time ago, saving me $10/year on my Roth IRA. I need to rollover my really old Rollover IRA from Wamu, it once cost $15/year, but now it’s shot up to $25.
October 28, 2008
Now this is satisfying! That’s a 1000+ page book placed for scale next to the full-to-bursting bag of paperwork I shredded in my first go-’round.
This is the second stack that I was working on this weekend:
And lest anyone mistakenly believe that I’m totally dedicated to this project, it’s 97% escapism. As long as I’m still being productive, I can justify not working on other, more important but much more depressing projects like thinking about my future. *tsk*
Then again, getting rid of that much junk so far is keeping the spirits up and inspiration on how to creatively re-locate stuff. That’s not bad, either.
December 16, 2007
I’d say “around the house” but I’m not going to exaggerate: it doesn’t go further than the front door right now. Since the latest big brother debacle, I’ve decided to proceed with changing the locks on the doors. However, it turns out that the door is old enough that the locks used are not the standard size, and so I returned the two sets of Kwikset locks that BoyDucky and I purchased a few days ago. That was silly, I’m not going to be able to find smaller, non-standard locks from Home Depot or Lowe’s.
My only real option is to sink more money into this project than I wanted to, and enlarge the existing holes. This does mean that I’ll have to leave our lovely new locks behind when we move. (I don’t know when that is, but things are so bad in the family that I’ve been seriously considering moving.)
On the bright side, I can now learn how to use a door lock installation kit to drill a larger hole into the doors and replace those locks. I’ll be one home-improvement project point closer to being ready to own my home someday. After all, the intimidating thing about owning a home for me is all the possible repairs that inevitably pop up.
I’ve wasted a couple trips to Home Depot thanks to poor planning, but will be able to save a bit on the locks.
First, I’ve used a $20 gift card at Home Depot to purchase an Irwin-brand bimetal door lock kit, and paid $2 out of pocket.
Next stop will be Lowe’s tomorrow night where my best friend’s lil brother works. He can double check the installation kit for me, help pick out some good locks, and rekey them so that all three locks use the same key. Also, I should get it all at a ten percent discount, as he’s an employee. Most convenience packs only sell a lock and deadbolt together, not two locks and deadbolts, so I’ll need to pick up an extra lock for the steel outer door.
I’ll let you know how this goes.
