by Hope
After the last couple of weeks’ craziness, we finally had some down time last week and wow, it was great to breathe. I think my last post The Cluttered Life was truly the fall out of my over-scheduling us. Lesson learned!
I am happy to report that in the last week I’ve made several to do lists and marked lots of things off them – yeah! The best part is that aside from buying 2 gallons of milk I have spent NO MONEY for the past week and a half. (I’m not counting my quick turn trip to pick up my son on Saturday as that was budgeted and planned for months ago.) I know many write about a no spend month, but I am truly having to start with baby steps and while it’s been really hard, we’ve done it.
We are now preparing for another whirlwind with Sea Cadet and History Buff leaving for camp on Sunday and Little Gymnast and Princess attending another VBS here locally next week, all while hosting some family friends for the week….and top off the week with leaving for Texas to see my parents. Wow, I’m out of breathe just writing that, could you follow it?
So I’ve made a financial to do list to get done before we leave for Texas…
1. Plan trip budget – this trip is really open ended as my parents want us to stay a bit longer so they can see Sea Cadet (he will be at a USN camp while we are visiting them.) I’m not sure what will happen but need to spend some time really thinking about it scheduling and finance wise and soon!
2. List my engagement ring for sale – thanks for all your for all your feedback last week on Where to sell jewelry? I am determined to get that process rolling before I leave town.
3. Side jobs – I’ve got 2 side jobs going right now that I need to make some serious progress on.
4. Purge – I’ve listed specific locations in my home that I want to go through and purge…how do we get all this stuff? I feel like I’m constantly purging!
5. Fall plans – I’ve got two small projects in mind to make some money this fall, as well as be school related for my kiddos so I need to spend some time working those out in my head.
I am not idle. I am busy. And I am loving it. Thank you for all your encouragement last week, it was a very tough one for me!
I hope to have a numbers update up next week before we leave town for a while. I keep thinking in my head that if we weren’t taking this trip…but I know this is important for my kids and for me. If you want to know more about that story you can find it on my personal blog – The Village in Abandoning the Children
Hope is a creative, solutions-focused business manager helping clients grow their business and work more efficiently by leveraging expertise in project management, digital marketing, & tech solutions. She’s recently become an empty nester as her 5 foster/adoptive kids have spread their wings. She lives with her 5 dogs in a small town in NE Georgia and prefers the mountains to the beaches any day. She struggles with the travel bug and is doing her best to help each of her kids as their finish schooling and become independent (but it’s hard!) She has run her own consulting company for almost twenty years! Hope began sharing her journey with the BAD community in the Spring of 2015 and feels like she has finally in a place to really focus on making wise financial decisions.
Hope, you are doing great. Everyone makes progress at their own pace. Just keep after it with your baby steps and you will get there for sure!
Glad you’ve had a chance to catch your breath!
One suggestion about the purging of items around the house. Some people are constantly cleaning out closets, setting boxes aside for garage sales, purging, etc….that’s too overwhelming for me and then feels like a constant battle. Instead I go thru and purge once in the spring and once in the fall – and the rest of the year I try and “let it go” so that I don’t feel constantly guilty that my house is too full. Does that make sense?
I think we could all drive ourselves crazy if we feel we have to constantly be on top of the STUFF in our homes. To me, it’s so much better to just enjoy my home and know that I will clear it out twice a year. There’s no law that says an extra sweater in my closet or 5 extra books in my bookshelf have to be taken care of IMMEDIATELY:)
I guess it’s the list maker in me (similar to you?) that if I have “purge” on my to-do list and it’s never ending, it never gets crossed off the list, which will bug me! Much better for my sanity to leave it off the list 95% of the year….add it twice and get it done and crossed off. Great feeling of accomplishment!
Maybe I will try this approach. I’ve been meaning to get around to it, but I feel so defeated every time I think about it, and then I feel bad for feeling bad. I keep putting it off and meanwhile the stuff just piles up and piles up.
A friend of mine has 10 rooms in her house and a garage…..so she purges one room a month (takes off December). This way she isn’t so overwhelmed by the project – works great for her!
I like this idea, except I don’t have 10 rooms lol. When we moved in/as we packed to move, I attacked stuff with a vengeance, so the house was pretty cleaned out from the start.
It’s amazing how fast junk piles up though, I’ve already cleaned out and reorganized the storage closet 3 times in 6 months and need to do so again!
Wow, I can’t imagine doing a No Spend month. I did a week once and it went pretty well. I was half-heartedly trying to do one this week, but I managed to pick up some side hustling cash that made it not as necessary and then my regular work schedule went crazy, so I wound up spending about $35. Could definitely be worse!
Good job on making a to-do list. No matter how busy you are you must take the time to sit down and plan ahead. And not just to think about what you want to do but to write them down. hat way you know where you are going, where you are at right now and what you must prioritize.