A Time For Everything

Buc-cee's Here We Come!

Image is mine from last year's trip to Alabama.

Since I'm working a no-spend challenge, I already knew I wanted to pre-fund the road trip DD and I want to make during her spring break mid-March. I mentioned that a week or two ago.

So...I borrowed an idea from another dear friend who loves and uses the Happy Planner system for all aspects of her life.

When we meet, those of us who keep meticulous track of our lives via paper and stickers usually share our progress since last we met...

So this dear friend had some new things going on in her planner and that was the tracking of the funding of trips and projects and even her new home.

Her visuals are much cuter than mine, which I won't share, because those are hers-- but I thought if I had a visual, it would help keep me focused and motivated to make this happen.

So I put together a collage, basically, and asked DD to make me some stickers specifically for this project.

Here's the "collage" and the stickers... Each sticker is worth $5. So when I save or earn $5 from somewhere I can apply it toward the trip. I put a sticker on the collage, and when I've applied all 60 stickers, I'll have funded the trip. It'll get easier and more exciting as I get rolling, I think. More stickers means more money found.

This may seem rather child-like, but so what?

If this is what it takes to help me pre-fund a trip, to help me keep my eye on the target, and add a little excitement and fun to my everyday life, then who cares?

I'll probably make some more of these as needed, but this is it for now.

What about you? Do you pre-fund larger purchases or work hard to pay them off after-the-fact?

Have a super day. Catch you next time.

I missed a few topics in my January edition of Miscellaneous Monday...so here's a bit of a catch up as well as some new random bits.

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My oldest is coming for a visit on the 15th for a few days. I haven't seen her since Christmas 2021, although we chat via text a lot along with her soul mate and her sister. She's been living the good life, mostly, since taking up residence in the Centennial State, and it'll be good to see her again.

Her birthday is at the beginning of March, so we'll probably do a small b-day celebration while she's here. (Note to self: better put cake mix on the grocery list.)

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We had a snow (ice) "week" last week. Everyone went home early on Monday, came in for a few hours early on Tuesday--for me to create and them to pick-up paychecks--before heading back home to work from home. Bad timing there, Mother Nature! And then worked from home Wednesday and half of Thursday, before returning to the office mid-day Thursday and all of Friday.

I used to be super excited about snow days, but when they go on for too long (what's too long? three days) then they muck up schedules and routines and aren't really worth it.

And also--the dogs, especially the little one, had a hard time navigating the ice rink that was our back yard. He just didn't have the weight to get any traction. Even Rayna's 50-ish pounds had a hard time with it.

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Speaking of Rayna, she's still alive and kicking around. Although in the couple of weeks, she's had some rough days, and I'm wondering if this is the beginning of the end. If you remember, she was diagnosed October 10th, and I thought we'd have had to put her down by now.

Rest assured, I'm always on the watch for her mental and physical well-being. I don't want to put her down prematurely, but I don't want her to suffer unnecessarily either. So we're being vigilant to her indications of "okay-ness" vs pain / miserableness. I don't believe she's quite there yet, but it may be looming. If you're a pet owner who's faced this kind of thing, you know what I'm talking about. The animal will tell you when it's time to go.

Most of the time she's back to sleeping on Sonshine's old bed that became Mom's bed, with a mattress upgrade from futon mattress to regular mattress. It's no doubt way more comfortable for her.

Now instead of having run of the kitchen and my home office while I'm at work, we've given her the run of the back of the house with access to that bedroom. It has a big window and faces south, so lots of bright light during the day to help keep her mentally peppy as well.

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In very belated news, Mom's house ended up not selling. Due to an issue of their own making (probably inadvertently, but nevertheless), the sellers were unable to come up with the full, agreed upon price. That was after they'd asked for two discounts. Which I had agreed to since I'd wanted to have that one major "thing" off my plate.

After realizing what they'd caused for themselves, they came back and asked for another drop in price. I just couldn't agree to that. It's cheaper for me to pay the bills for three or four months than to give up the amount of money they wanted me to.

But ugh.

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I'd fallen off the de-cluttering wagon... but I'm trying to climb back on. I think I just forgot, what with the busyness of the holidays, but I want to keep going, keep simplifying, keep reducing the number of things I have to clean or keep track of.

I've penciled into my chore chart twice a week that I have to go in search of something to give away or throw away. I have a list and I keep it updated. I'm at 50-ish items for this go-round, which started October 2nd.

The goal is 100 items out of my house by the end of the first quarter. :0)

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January was a tough month for me. As a business owner, there are all kinds of "end of year" things to do as well as "beginning of year" things to do. All of that on top regular monthly tasks. Add in the end of a fireworks season and the things that have to happen with that.

I was already pooped from the excitement and work of the holidays. And then there's me trying to wrangle plans for fresh start goals into submission as well as dealing with three fur babies, between whom I have to juggle time and attention.

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Remember my no-spend challenge? I have several events on the books that I want to fund in advance, so there's another chain of tasks I've penciled in -- listing stuff Facebook Marketplace and eventually eBay and then shipping or delivering said items.

FB Marketplace has not been kind to me this go round. I've successfully bought two dryers for cheap that I've been extremely pleased with, but my foray as a seller rather than a buyer has been frustrating.

First, they rejected my listing of mom's walker--that she never used--because it falls under the "medical device" umbrella despite the fact that it doesn't diagnose nor treat nor attempt to cure any sort of condition.

Then I got duped into a Zelle scam. Stupid me. But here...

And then people keep offering me less money for my stuff. If I were willing to take less money (right now), I would have asked for less money. Grrrr...

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Well, that's a decent list of randomness, wouldn't you say? I've revisited this post-in-progress several times hoping to remember any other bits and pieces I've wanted to share or document, but I'm tapped out for the time being.

Here's to a great week and a February as equally abundant as January. Take care.

A few weeks ago, I listened to a TED podcast that posited that our spending habits can reveal things about us. They can tell others how we were raised, they can uncover uncomfortable truths about our inner-selves, or, at the very least, they can show the ups and downs of our lives.

The presenter of this particular TED Business episode, a woman I'll refer to as MA, was raised by parents who were always dressed to the nines. She picked up the habit. But then she read an article about how a year of no-shopping changed the article author's life. MA started thinking about her own shopping habits, specifically in regards to clothes, and how it affected her life.

After hemming and hawing, MA decided to take a one-year break from buying clothes. She says it was transformational. What she gained was money, of course, but also time and some clarity. She realized there were some emotional issues she'd been suppressing behind her shopping habit.

I couldn't really relate to the clothes shopping habit, but I am in favor of the no spending, so I dug up that article she mentioned. Here it is, if you'd like to read it as well.

Side note: My quest to reduce spending has more to do with looking ahead to retirement and trying to find extra dollars here and there to add to the investments portfolio than any need or desire to probe my psyche. :0) Although I'm open to discovering some insights along the way.

Anyway, the article struck a cord. It wasn't so much why the author decided to do it, but the rules she made for herself about what was okay to buy, what wasn't, and when she was allowed to buy even certain basics. (It was the lip balm part that really resonated.)

One rule was that she had to use up what she had before she could buy even everyday products. As an example, she'd bought and then quit using a bunch of different hair care products...so, now, before she could buy new, she had to use up what she'd stockpiled. Makes sense if you're trying save money or reduce spending.

I took that sentiment to heart.

I have to say, however, there are very few areas where I operate that way. But there is one. I'll give you one guess...

If you said hot tea, you'd be correct.

As I mentioned in last Thursday's post, I'm a sucker for a certain Brand / Flavor. But I do occasionally drink other flavors. Of late I've been trying to alternate caffeinated with non-caffeinated, which means I've been drinking a lot more store brand herbal peppermint tea than usual. But then I ran out. Of course I put peppermint tea on the grocery list.

And then I looked in the cabinet where the tea lives.

And I had a lot of tea in there.

I decided to drink through all / most of the other flavors of herbal tea I've accumulated before I buy more peppermint.

Another vice I have is reading. I'm still a huge fan of fan fiction, but I'd gotten back into the commercially published book habit over the years.

I spent over $130 on books last year! That was a surprise to me, quite frankly. And that's $130 that I could have invested into my retirement. One of those books was how to do just that and was money well spent. We've started that plan--hence the need to evaluate my spending habits and squeeze every penny out of out budget for the future. A comfort and ease with less spending and less stuff will also benefit my future self. (Don't look now--that might have been an insight...)

Back to the books--

A lot of the books I bought I might have been able to get at the library. On the other hand, libraries don't tend to carry a lot of MM romance and at least a quarter of my purchases were books from two of my favorite authors. I'm going to have to figure out how to fund the purchase of any new titles they publish this year if they don't end up in libraries.

Oh, wait, I have an Amazon gift card!!

I did take the time to renew my library card and got my OverDrive/Libby accounts activated so that I can check out e-books from OverDrive. OverDrive, if you don't know is the online e-book library. But you have to have a library card with your local branch to utilize it. And then it will only allow you to check out e-materials that your library or library system has available.

I can also search Amazon's free book listings and utilize Prime Reading as well.

So I'm well on my way to potential savings, but now how do I calculate and save that money? I guess whenever I have the desire to make a purchase and opt not to, I transfer the funds into my savings account...? I'm not sure. I'll have to ponder a solution to that dilemma.

That leaves one last vice. And here's where maybe the psychology aspect comes into play.

I like "stuff." And these days, I'm very susceptible to impulse purchases on certain things. Maybe that comes from the fact that for many years, especially when the kids were younger, we just didn't have the money for much of anything extra. So now that money has been less tight, I've been less frugal/strict/careful.

I have a lot of stuff now. More stuff than I need and, honestly, I'd like to get rid of some of my stuff. And sometimes I do. But then I see other stuff that's really cute and the temptation gets the better of me.

But it's time to downsize, get back to the decluttering, and quit with the impulse buys. I'm doing better. I suppose some rules might also help me make better choices. Perhaps a target to keep my eye on might help as well.

 It looks as though I have some work to do in regards to this challenge.

Take care and have a good weekend.

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Here are a few of the articles I read regarding a no-spend challenge--what it is, why people did it, how thy did it...

https://mint.intuit.com/blog/saving/no-spend-challenge/

https://www.insider.com/no-spend-month-saving-money-experiment-2018-7#5-i-expected-to-fail-so-i-did-10

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/15/opinion/sunday/shopping-consumerism.html

https://www.gobankingrates.com/saving-money/budgeting/plan-a-no-spend-year-according-to-financial-experts/

https://www.motherhoodonadime.com/living/what-i-learned-from-a-no-spend-month/

https://www.moneyforthemamas.com/no-spend-month/