So far I’m doing alright with the Flylady system. I’ve shined my sink two nights in a row, and two nights in a row H has put a dirty bowl into it within minutes of my shining it. It’s okay, though. It’s a new system and I try not to sigh or comment maliciously.
Yesterday I took a few minutes to dust the dustbunnies off the ceiling fan. Formerly this fan would run 24-7, but I’ve been turning it off when we leave the house lately to save on energy. Meaning when we walk into the house we see this bunny-encrusted ceiling fan just sitting there taunting us. So I dusted it. I realize now that the bunnies were a crucial part of the balancing mechanism for the fan, because now it’s making little ‘tick-tick-tick’ noises every couple of minutes.
Next week my focus will be on laying out my clothes the night before. We do this with E, as she has a hanger with compartments and we fill it up with a weeks worth of clothes at a time. This helps her get up and dressed a lot faster without worrying about whether she has clean socks. This week I’ve had to worry about socks, and more importantly pants for work, and it has not helped us get out of the house quickly in the mornings.
I’m feeling a little more centered about the process of getting my act together, as I’m realizing it is a process and will not happen overnight, or even in a week. As long as I’m making progress I think I’ll be okay.
Financially we are still right on the edge and still waiting for our stimulus check, but it comes when it comes.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Beginning Again
Lately, I’ve fallen off the financial planning wagon as several things have clumped up to make things rather tight for us as well as very busy and I’ve fallen off the blogging wagon as well. For some reason, I feel as if I shouldn’t blog if I’m not doing well in my financial goals. But if this is truly going to be a record of my progress, in this and any other goals I’m trying to accomplish, I need to record the good and the bad. So I’m calling a mulligan and starting over.
I did a bad thing. I had planned to use our stimulus check to pay some credit cards off and buy some camping equipment we needed for a trip we were planning. Originally we thought the check would be direct deposited, but that didn’t happen. So we were looking at the payment schedule and figured the check would be here mid June, so we used our regular paycheck to pay for the camping equipment and trip and figured the check would be here by the time our trip was over and we needed to pay our regular bills. But somehow we managed to read the schedule wrong. So our 2nd check for the month covered the bills for the 1st half of the month, and the 2nd half bills will be covered by the check when it gets here.
Moral: Never count your chickens before they hatch.
Meanwhile, I will be starting a new job in 2 weeks. This won’t make much difference in our financial picture, but the commute will be a bit shorter and I will hopefully be less stressed. The new job situation looks to have a much saner boss and work schedule.
And I’ve decided that I need to make some major organizational changes in our household… in that we need a little. So I’m looking into flylady.net. I’ve been on Flylady’s program before, but more in the ‘I read the emails and don’t really follow the advice’ kind of way. This time I’m going to read the emails and follow along as best I can. I’ll try to keep an update here on my progress in that department.
Also, I’m going to try to follow along with the Going Green group that ’Burban Mom is starting up.
So a lot of changes here at Trifling Occasions. Let’s hope I can keep up.
I did a bad thing. I had planned to use our stimulus check to pay some credit cards off and buy some camping equipment we needed for a trip we were planning. Originally we thought the check would be direct deposited, but that didn’t happen. So we were looking at the payment schedule and figured the check would be here mid June, so we used our regular paycheck to pay for the camping equipment and trip and figured the check would be here by the time our trip was over and we needed to pay our regular bills. But somehow we managed to read the schedule wrong. So our 2nd check for the month covered the bills for the 1st half of the month, and the 2nd half bills will be covered by the check when it gets here.
Moral: Never count your chickens before they hatch.
Meanwhile, I will be starting a new job in 2 weeks. This won’t make much difference in our financial picture, but the commute will be a bit shorter and I will hopefully be less stressed. The new job situation looks to have a much saner boss and work schedule.
And I’ve decided that I need to make some major organizational changes in our household… in that we need a little. So I’m looking into flylady.net. I’ve been on Flylady’s program before, but more in the ‘I read the emails and don’t really follow the advice’ kind of way. This time I’m going to read the emails and follow along as best I can. I’ll try to keep an update here on my progress in that department.
Also, I’m going to try to follow along with the Going Green group that ’Burban Mom is starting up.
So a lot of changes here at Trifling Occasions. Let’s hope I can keep up.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Tuesday Update
The garden survived the storm for the most part... our sunflowers are now leaning a bit to one side, but hopefully they'll straighten up here pretty soon. With warm weather this last week, the soil's dried out and we've been able to get out there and weed. I saw a tiny little tomato on one of our tomato plants. I hope it's the first of many.
Last year our garden really only produced green beans and cucumbers. Squash bugs got our zucchini plants and the lettuces and spinach never sprouted at all. We're not sure if it was an overabundance of water (last spring was extremely rainy) or if an animal scratched up the seeds. We tried to plant a little earlier this year, but since we were expanding the beds things went in the ground about the same time.
We're calling it the year of experimental gardening. Planting things we haven't planted before, filling in with more and different seeds if certain plants don't sprout. So far it's looking really promising.
The only problem we've really had so far this year has been with dirt. Last year we had a very small box garden which we filled with dirt from the home center. Since we're in the suburbs, our dirt is mainly fill, which has plenty of fun stuff like nails, broken glass, and rocks in it. So we tilled it up a little, put a raised box on top, and filled it with the good dirt.
This year, since we've added a bigger box, we decided to get a load of dirt from the dirt/gravel place down the road. We specifically said we were gardening in raised beds, and the foreman pointed us towards a mix of soil he called 'pro mix'. Said it was really good stuff. It looked good as we were loading it into the box, but it's really fine stuff, and the first time it rained it locked together like it was cement. Drains about as well too.
A third bed that was planted into the fill dirt, rocks and all, is turning out to be better soil. But the plants that are planted in this pro mix are growing, just slowly. I figure now that we have the quantity of dirt we need, we can add to it with our compost pile and mix it together. Next year should be much better all around.
But for now, we'll do the best with what we have.
Last year our garden really only produced green beans and cucumbers. Squash bugs got our zucchini plants and the lettuces and spinach never sprouted at all. We're not sure if it was an overabundance of water (last spring was extremely rainy) or if an animal scratched up the seeds. We tried to plant a little earlier this year, but since we were expanding the beds things went in the ground about the same time.
We're calling it the year of experimental gardening. Planting things we haven't planted before, filling in with more and different seeds if certain plants don't sprout. So far it's looking really promising.
The only problem we've really had so far this year has been with dirt. Last year we had a very small box garden which we filled with dirt from the home center. Since we're in the suburbs, our dirt is mainly fill, which has plenty of fun stuff like nails, broken glass, and rocks in it. So we tilled it up a little, put a raised box on top, and filled it with the good dirt.
This year, since we've added a bigger box, we decided to get a load of dirt from the dirt/gravel place down the road. We specifically said we were gardening in raised beds, and the foreman pointed us towards a mix of soil he called 'pro mix'. Said it was really good stuff. It looked good as we were loading it into the box, but it's really fine stuff, and the first time it rained it locked together like it was cement. Drains about as well too.
A third bed that was planted into the fill dirt, rocks and all, is turning out to be better soil. But the plants that are planted in this pro mix are growing, just slowly. I figure now that we have the quantity of dirt we need, we can add to it with our compost pile and mix it together. Next year should be much better all around.
But for now, we'll do the best with what we have.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Rain
Last night we had a tornado warning. It ended up being just a lot of wind and rain and no actual tornado, so that was good. But we had already decided that since our garden beds and boxes weren’t draining as well as we’d hoped, we didn’t need to water them for a few days. We’ll go out tonight to see if our plants have completely drowned or are still holding on to the life raft with all their might.
It’s supposed to rain all week. Hang in there, little plants!
It’s supposed to rain all week. Hang in there, little plants!
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Returning from AWOL
I've been missing in action for a while now, and lest you think I've given up blogging altogether, I'm popping in to ask for your input.
Due to allergies and general spring-ness, we've all been a little sick, sniffly, generally miserable. Not only that, but this is prime time to get the garden up and running, which contributes to our food budget lowering significantly in the summer months, so we've been busy.
Unfortunately, this has meant fast food breakfasts and take-out dinners for the most part, and even a few lunches out on days I didn't have time/energy to pack lunches for the crew. Meaning I definitely need a better plan for days like these.
Any suggestions? How do you handle it when time is tight and energy is fleeting? Any tips that could be shared so I can handle the next time without blowing the budget would be greatly appreciated!
Due to allergies and general spring-ness, we've all been a little sick, sniffly, generally miserable. Not only that, but this is prime time to get the garden up and running, which contributes to our food budget lowering significantly in the summer months, so we've been busy.
Unfortunately, this has meant fast food breakfasts and take-out dinners for the most part, and even a few lunches out on days I didn't have time/energy to pack lunches for the crew. Meaning I definitely need a better plan for days like these.
Any suggestions? How do you handle it when time is tight and energy is fleeting? Any tips that could be shared so I can handle the next time without blowing the budget would be greatly appreciated!
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Two Month Challenge
DH has been in an unacceptable job situation for a while now, and while I've encouraged him to quit and look into going back to school, so far he's resisted. Mainly because he makes the majority of our income. But I've run the numbers and with a part-time job that he actually enjoys we could certainly survive, although it would be pretty tight in our current situation (low savings, credit card debt).
Today he's reached the end of his rope. He has three potential job openings on the horizon he would be qualified for, and will apply for. But if he does not get hired for one of them, he will be quitting his job as of June 1st.
So now I start planning... I have a little over 2 months to work on the Personal Finance Trifecta. Build an emergency fund, Reduce our debt, Build our stockpile.
We've done fairly well with staying within our budget in the past, but the last month or so, we've gotten lax about eating out for lunch (when we didn't want to pack our lunches) and overspending at Costco. Starting April 1st, this won't be an option as we prepare for our income to drop by 60%. If he does get one of the jobs he's applying for, it'll be great that we won't have to cut our budget that much, but we'll be prepared for it if necessary.
If anyone has tips, suggestions, success stories that will give us confidence, etc... we'd greatly appreciate any and all help.
Today he's reached the end of his rope. He has three potential job openings on the horizon he would be qualified for, and will apply for. But if he does not get hired for one of them, he will be quitting his job as of June 1st.
So now I start planning... I have a little over 2 months to work on the Personal Finance Trifecta. Build an emergency fund, Reduce our debt, Build our stockpile.
We've done fairly well with staying within our budget in the past, but the last month or so, we've gotten lax about eating out for lunch (when we didn't want to pack our lunches) and overspending at Costco. Starting April 1st, this won't be an option as we prepare for our income to drop by 60%. If he does get one of the jobs he's applying for, it'll be great that we won't have to cut our budget that much, but we'll be prepared for it if necessary.
If anyone has tips, suggestions, success stories that will give us confidence, etc... we'd greatly appreciate any and all help.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Why Stockpile?
Food storage can be a marvelous asset when money is short, especially if the money that is available needs to be spent on other things. When a shortfall in your budget keeps your grocery list short, a healthy food stockpile in your home rounds out the meal plan nicely. Hardships are much easier to bear knowing that food will continue to be on the table.
Sharon at Casaubon's Book has recently started an online course on beginning food storage. The article "Eating out of your pantry" details what would be stored for a three month supply for 4 people, and is a great place to start. So far, I've been purchasing an extra can or box of a few things on my grocery list as a haphazard beginning food stockpile, but Sharon gives me an idea of quantities to shoot for, additional foods I should be stockpiling and suggesting recipes for those foods.
This weekend we cleaned out half of our garage, throwing out some useless junk that's been cluttering up our lives. We used the extra room to set up some metal shelves that will be the basis for our bulk food storage. Our small stockpile is being kept in our pantry, but with this extra room we can store bulky items like buckets of grains and beans. This keeps our pantry from becoming too cluttered to use effectively.
I plan on visiting our neighborhood food coop to see what they have available and if larger quantities can be ordered. Sharon plans on posting weekly on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so I encourage you to check it out.
Sharon at Casaubon's Book has recently started an online course on beginning food storage. The article "Eating out of your pantry" details what would be stored for a three month supply for 4 people, and is a great place to start. So far, I've been purchasing an extra can or box of a few things on my grocery list as a haphazard beginning food stockpile, but Sharon gives me an idea of quantities to shoot for, additional foods I should be stockpiling and suggesting recipes for those foods.
This weekend we cleaned out half of our garage, throwing out some useless junk that's been cluttering up our lives. We used the extra room to set up some metal shelves that will be the basis for our bulk food storage. Our small stockpile is being kept in our pantry, but with this extra room we can store bulky items like buckets of grains and beans. This keeps our pantry from becoming too cluttered to use effectively.
I plan on visiting our neighborhood food coop to see what they have available and if larger quantities can be ordered. Sharon plans on posting weekly on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so I encourage you to check it out.
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