Everyday I’m shufflin’
A few weeks ago with some help I emptied my storage unit in Momstown, shuffled some items and opened a new unit up here. The price is better up here, the unit is a little smaller (still much bigger than I truly need) AND most importantly I can access it. Now my children have a dresser they can use and I have a place remove more clutter from my apartment. Please note I did say SHUFFLE here.
Goal: 1 box of shredded papers by Saturday
This shuffling is not clearing out clutter per say, it’s moving it out of view. I have lots of boxes to go through and things to remove. I discovered there was more in that storage unit than I remembered. There were at least 3 boxes of pictures and 2 boxes of figurines for the brother and I to go through. I’m going to need a scanning party to go through most of this stuff. I will have to set that up on a weekend just to do what I have in my apartment then I can begin on the storage unit. I see some projects in my future.
It is time to pull out the timer and do this in 15 minute chunks of time. Oh and then remember to shred the important docs and remove the recycling from my place. Ok, here’s my plan this week, clear part of my craft table, pull out the printer and scan while I watch TV and veg in the evenings after work. I can do this. Goal: 1 box of shredded papers by Saturday. I can do this!
To Walk or not to Walk
I decided a very long time ago that one can only really support one charity well. You can’t support them all or you’ll go broke. It feels good to give and it feels good to support a cause. My charity choice is the fight against breast cancer. If it sounds as if I’m coming up on a dilemma you would be right. Its time to decide if I should walk the Susan G. Koman 3-Day this year.
One might ask what the dilemma is and I would reply there are a number of small ones that lead to the final answer. I’ve done this walk before in 2007 – Seattle. I learned a good number of things from doing it. I became the fittest I ever have been since having children. I walked more that summer than I ever thought I could. I had a small support group that included a friend or two to walk with me and a husband that made sure I had time away from the kids to get my walk time in. This time would be a little different.
I learned that you can raise $2,200 through hard work and the help of friends. Walking in the rain is necessary and wet. Good friends will help you through thick and thin. After raising the money to be able to walk, walking or not walking isn’t an issue. Pacing yourself during the walk to preserve your own health and well being is not a crime. Being tired at the end of your day is not an excuse to skip an awesome dance party on Saturday night.
I walked as a single walker with no team. I think I would change that this time around. Because I am short and have very short little legs, I walk slower than most people. I’m slow and steady. I walked with people as my pace and their pace came in sync. I would want to find a group with which to walk should I do it again. A team is better equipped to fund raise.
My dilemmas. I thought about doing this walk last year while I wasn’t working. I wasn’t feeling it. Part of me doesn’t feel quite right raising money for a charity when I am in debt or not working. It might appear that I would pocket money for my own expenses. I’m working now so that perception has essentially gone away. Fund raising is hard. I wasn’t in the frame of mind to get fit. This is an undertaking not to be taken lightly. Either you decide to do it and DO IT or you do not.
The final dilemma I had over this walk, especially last year, was the stance Susan G. Komen took with Planned Parenthood. It was a complete deal breaker for me last year. I may make a post of its own on this dilemma another time to explain in depth my feelings. I came to a conclusion that the only real player in the world for the cure for breast cancer IS Susan G. Komen. If I want to support research for a cure for this particular kind of cancer then I need to get over my own politics and get behind SGK. Its the right thing to do.
Pondering all sides. I will make a decision by March 1st.
This is quite useful
Today’s post is cross category, it’s both debt and clutter. I’ll explain in a moment.
I’ve been trying to figure out how to get a bit of traffic here. I’ve been posting for over a year. I fell down a bit last year when my mother passed away and did some random posting over the next few months (early 2012) and back filling where it seemed right to follow the timeline on some of my debt. The past 2 months I finally sat down and attempted to write more often.
In updating over the past 2 weeks I reviewed a few things. My weight has gone down, up and now a few more pounds down. My clutter, um my clutter has gotten worse despite feeble attempts. I keep trying and I don’t post much because I don’t feel there has been any real accomplishment. The debt portion, well that seems to be real measurable success. I’m not going to stop any distinct part of this blog because for me, they are truly tied together. It fits for me.
This is where I need to work on traffic here. I believe there is a sense of success when one is actually being read and possibly encouraged. I found this gem Monetize Your Blog, part 4: 13 Great ways to build your traffic. Most of these I already knew about only I haven’t taken advantage. Well here we go, this is my first non commercial blog/website link. Nothing in it for me folks, just sending traffic to a nicely written concise “How To” article.
It fits for me.
There are some things I have done, some I didn’t think of and others I won’t do. Because I choose to blog anonymously I am not using my “home” Facebook account to publish things. I want full disclosure on the numbers and my “dirty little secrets” here so I’d just rather they didn’t know the REAL me. I hope that makes sense. Due to this fact I can’t really advertise via Facebook. I do have a Twitter account connected to the blog and an Etsy account. I’ll just have to comment on other blogs with a link back here.
So, why is this a cross post? I’m cleaning up my blog clutter! The debt part is actually in the title of the link, “Monitize Your Blog.” It will be a long time before this blog generates any sort of money and when it does, it will either pay down the debt, pay for the website hosting or start saving for the future.
I went to work
… and it was wonderful! I was tired all day, it was boring, the laptop needed to be re-imaged and the day was slow. It is a job and it was wonderful.
To FitBit or Not to FitBit?
While out Christmas shopping I saw a FitBit. I have owned many pedometers in the past, mostly the little cheap ones. The problem I have with most pedometers is that they do not gauge my stride correctly. This is what happens when you have short little child like legs. Because of this little problem, they do not count mileage properly. The step count may be correct as most seem to run on hip motion but if it thinks my stride is 2.5 ft/30in (the average) then I’m in trouble. My stride is something more like 18 inches or about half of average. Can you imagine when I walk with tall people….. I’m practically running.
Anyhow, the newer, more expensive FitBits will also track your sleeping. I know I have apnea (haven’t been able to get into the doc for a long time to be re-examined) so I’d like to see what it says. It looks interesting and also a small investment. It also tracks in wirelessly with SparkPeople which is kinda cool. No more guessing on calories or mileage.
I guess I need to do a little research on it. No matter what, it will have to wait until after my first paycheck and my actual bills (not debt) are all caught up. That includes child support. I’ll get back to this in about a month.
Why can’t I just stop spending?
This next month is going to be tight. I will be getting paid twice a month with the first paycheck coming at the end of January. Without unemployment during that time I will be scraping the bottom of the barrel so to speak. I’m sure I’ll make it just fine however I really need to reexamine my spending habits in general.
Because I’ve had “back up money” I haven’t been nearly as careful as I should have been in the past few months in my spending habits. If I ever plan to get completely out of debt I really need to curb my spending. Drastically. Yesterday I spent $50 buying clothes. I needed a new pair of blue jeans as I wore a nice sized hole in the old ones. I only have colored ones. So, I bought new jeans, new colored jeans and of course a few shirts that were on a really decent sale. I couldn’t resist.
… I haven’t been nearly as careful as I should have been in the past few months in my spending habits.
I ended up spending more on miscellaneous Christmas items than I planned. I went to the movies. I got coffees while out with the kids. I hate “showing” that I don’t have money. It really needs to slow down, at least until I get a few more debts paid off. I plan to have my braces, medical debt and one of the credit cards paid off by July. I also want to have $5000 in savings. I need to hunker down.
On other points, I really should put the rest of my items on Etsy. I have hats & scarves. I also have half finished other projects that need to be completed. I’m really hoping I can get some things sold from Etsy so I can earn some extra cash. My pay rate will make the above goals reachable, the extra cash from my crafts should make it even easier.
Help reduce my Debt?
