Month 1: Results are in

As today is the end of January, it seems appropriate that I review my first month's goal. To review, my goals were:

1. Tracking all of the money I spend
2. Analyzing the results to see whether I could/should continue for the rest of the year


For the first part of the goal, I successfully tracked every penny I spent for the month of January. As one would expect, the simple act of writing everything down makes you reassess whether or not you want to buy something, because you don't want to write it down!

I figured out that once all of my "fixed" bills were paid, I spent about 2/3 of the money that was left over. Frankly, I was hoping that I'd do better than that, but there weren't a whole lot of areas where I could have shaved down. I did buy some coffees in the morning, and bought some yarn I probably could have lived without, but those expenses weren't high enough that they would have made THAT big a difference in the overall percentage of "extra" money spent.

Still, I do think that the exercise was worthwhile, and I do intend to continue for the rest of the year. I assume that there will be months where I spend 100% of the extra, and maybe there might even be some months that I do better than I think I could. We'll see!

I haven't even decided yet what February's goal will be. I figure I have another 24 hours to figure that one out.

TGIF!

I haven't been in this good a mood in quite a while. It's Friday, I slept for 7 hours in a row last night, I didn't realize it had snowed until I stepped out the door to go to work (and it looked so pretty), I have dinner plans with friends tonight, I stopped at Brew'd Awakening this morning and have a GOOD cup of coffee at the ready...

all seems right with the world.

Halfway Through January

So, it's halfway through January, and I figured I'd provide an update thus far. Good news- I have stuck to resolution #1! I have indeed been writing down every penny spent, and it's been interesting thus far. I find that I naturally curb my spending more if I'm paying close, daily attention than otherwise. It is what you'd expect, naturally! Of course, it does take a little time and attention every day, going through receipts, quickly jotting down expenses when there are no receipts, and tallying things up at the end of the month... that part I haven't gotten to yet this month, of course.

Anyway, I am glad that I've started back up with this habit. Only a couple more weeks until I unveil Resolution #2! Stay tuned!

12 in 12 in 2012

I've never had much luck with resolutions. The only one I ever got to stick was the resolution to start using reusable shopping bags... that resolution went quite well, to the point that I didn't have any plastic bags left in the house to use for garbage bags! I also did quite well with my "five year plan" to pay down a bunch of debt. *pats self on back*

2011 was an all right year for me, but looking back, nothing really stellar stands out for me. I'd like for 2012 to be a little different. To that end, I'm going to try to make 12 changes over 12 months. I'm going to start with what I consider to be a "gimme", because I want to start with a success. For me, making financial changes seems to be easy in comparison to, say, going to bed early. So, we start with that.

For the month of January, I will improve my financial health by doing the following:

1. Tracking all of the money I spend
2. Analyzing the results to see whether I could/should continue for the rest of the year

Folks, I have done this for years at a time. I fell off the wagon in 2011, but it should be easy enough to start back up. I can do this one!

I haven't actually figured out goals 2-11 yet. I am thinking about the following:

Improve my sleep habits
Exercise regularly
Track my eating habits (I have gained a lot of weight over the last 1 1/2 years, and am not feeling my best)
Rekindle my enjoyment of my camera
Spend less time mindlessly surfing internet
Learn to meditate
Blog more often
Read more (I love to read - why don't I read more???)
Keep home in a tidier state

Part of the problem, as I see it: We all want to do better on most of these things. But why don't we? Why is it so hard to get it together? For me, it's certainly not a lack of time or finances. I work very close to home, don't work long hours, don't have a family. None of these tasks will cost much money, if any at all. In fact, #1 will hopefully have me SAVING money. I guess we get tired, distracted, or the to-do list just looks too long for us to actually believe that we can ever make a dent in it.

At any rate, I'm going to give this a try. For what it's worth, it's already January 9 and I've been tracking my spending all month, and have set up a nifty little spreadsheet and everything.

Heartwarming

I was in an unusually good mood when I left work today. I have a cold, had to stay late and STILL didn't get all of my work finished, and had more than one reason to be crabby, but for some reason, I wasn't. Because of this good mood, I stopped for some teenagers to jaywalk downtown... I think part of it was the good mood, and part of it was because they were waiting politely rather than just blasting into traffic.

Anyway, I thought I recognized one of the students, so I said his name out of the window of my car, but then decided I was wrong; it wasn't who I thought it was. A moment later, after I had parked in the parking garage, there he was, standing outside waiting for me. "You were right, it was me... so I figured I'd better come and find out who was saying my name!" I re-introduced myself, and once he remembered who I was, he gave me a big hug and I said I'd walk him to his next destination as we chatted.

I was his counselor almost ten years ago. He had been referred to me after he witnessed a terrible event that left him parentless. He struggled a little in school, but was always such a nice and lovable little kid. A Now, he is a senior in high school, and is looking at colleges he wants to go to next year. He has a nice group of friends, a nice variety of after school activities, and he seems well spoken, sociable, and is as kind as always.

I was just thrilled that he is living a nice life. I was also secretly pleased that he remembered me, and that he was willing to share a little bit about how his life has been going. I hope I run into him again someday; I would love to see him in another ten years and see how he's doing. Here's hoping he crosses the road in front of me one day, when I'm in another good mood!

Fruit Bento

Fruit Bento 9-6-11, a photo by BrickMillStudio on Flickr.

(Click on photo for uncropped version)

Tomorrow's lunch is a major departure from the one I had packed for today... rather than traditional Korean foods, I packed various fresh fruits, some pita slices, cheese, yogurt, and a little quail egg.

In case you were curious, a quail egg is about 1/4 the size of a chicken egg, but tastes the same.

I enjoyed eating my fancy Bento lunch today, but interestingly, I found it to be a bit too much food, and will think about using a smaller container for heavy, meaty meals in the future... but for the fruit plate, I think a bigger container will be fine, as there are a lot fewer calories!

Korean Chicken Bento 9-5-11, a photo by BrickMillStudio on Flickr.

(click on the photo to see an un-awkwardly cropped version)

I love learning new things. This past summer, I took a bartending course, because I've always wanted to. Actually tending a bar for money sounds hellish to me... standing on your feet for hours and hours, dealing with drunk people, trying to remember drinks, ruining your shoes from all that sticky liquor dripping onto them (or so I would imagine), loud environment, late, late hours... but I'm getting away from the point. I really enjoyed learning how to do a counted pour, how to mix drinks, and it was fun to meet new people.

The latest thing I became interested in learning about was how to create a Bento Box meal. I have only ever eaten such meals at Korean or Japanese restaurants, but recently saw cute pictures of Bento style meals online. So, I decided I needed to try it for myself!

I didn't want to invest in any fancy boxes or materials quite yet, in case I didn't really enjoy making or eating meals in this way. I did, however, go to HMart, a giant Korean grocery store in Burlington, to get a few interesting ingredients.

I bought some ready - made items, such as the Korean omelet, Kimchi, spicy anchovies, and marinated (uncooked) chicken. I also cooked up some millet and some brussels sprouts.

I then read up on how to pack the food into a bento box, and tried to make mine look okay. I think it's all right for a first try, but I will try to plan ahead better for more colorful meals and try to get better at packing things neatly.

I don't have the cutesy rice balls with faces, or interestingly molded hard boiled eggs... but I do think it makes the meal look pretty interesting! What do you think?

My adorable nephew!

I can't help it, I think my nephew is sincerely adorable. And luckily for me, my brother indulges me with pictures of him in the things that I knit for him. Evidently, Max loves the sock monkey hat that I made for him, and he gets complimented on it all the time.



I also knitted him an amazing cardigan (if I do say so myself) that Max needed a little time to warm up to, evidently... initially, the phrase, "let's try on your Christmas sweater" struck fear and horror into Max's soul... but now, he asks for it by name, "dozer"! Awwwww!



Sorry, those images are smaller than I'd like, but you get the point. I'm quite pleased with how it came out, and am relieved that Max likes it. I realize that within a couple of years, he's going to think that items knitted by his auntie are 'lame', and a few years after that, he'll be asking for itunes gift cards or a new game for his nintendo ds. But for now, he likes wearing his dozer sweater and his sock monkey hat.

Stay tuned... next month, Mr. Max is visiting the Northeast, and I plan on taking fifty bajillion pictures as usual. I won't lie and say that it is likely that I'll post before then... but who knows - stranger things have happened!

Hair Cut!

All right, might as well try and breathe some new life back into this blog. I have taken loads of pictures over the last six months that I never got to edit, but that endeavor sounds a little overwhelming for bed time on a Thursday night. Boy howdy.

So instead, I will begin this story with a picture:


Yes, that is a giant pile of hair next to my toe! The end result was this:



After two months, it now looks like this:


At first, I was a little dazed - it's a big change, after all! Now, I'm used to it for the most part... but looking at that last picture (yes, I'm wearing my zebra print bathrobe, what of it???), I'm thinking I shouldn't wait a whole month for my next hair cut... although I am going to wait! Shaggy city!

Anyway, that's what's new with me. Or, new-ish. Next, I'll have to start hacking away at those pictures I have been taking of those amazingly wild and exciting adventures I've been having.

A Product That Works!

I know, I know... it has been a REALLY long time since I've posted. I find myself really busy, working a hectic, full time job, two part time jobs, with a languishing jewelry business somewhere in the background. However, I have the day off today, and was so excited by a product that I bought that actually does what it says, that I figured I'd take a minute to post and share.

It's the Thermos Sipp Travel Mug, and just as advertised, it keeps your beverage hot or cold for a long, long time. I brewed some hot tea two hours ago and put it into the mug. I just tried to take a sip, and it was still so hot, I burned my tongue! After two hours! Did I mention that, because I didn't know how the valve worked yet, the mug was actually in the "open" position during those two hours??? Holy moly! This would be an ideal gift for yourself, or for anyone you know who is a sipper of hot or cold beverages. It's so nice and insulatey, that the outside stays room temperature.

Additionally, I was able to determine whether or not I'd be able to buy the mug at my local Target via their website, which I linked to above... just click on the "Find It At A Target Store" button below the product pic, put in your local zip, and it will tell you where it's in stock. Now, an employee at the actual store couldn't tell me whether or not it was in stock, but when I did the search on my smartphone, I was even told what aisle the product was in... I can't seem to find that info on my computer, though. (For locals, it's in aisle E39 of the Lowell Target)

Never again will I have to take a sip of coldish coffee or tea after I've been at work for a couple of hours... huzzah!

Spreadin' the Love

I saw a student today who has two older sisters. I asked him how they were, and told him that they had both been in my after school knitting group a few years ago. He told me that they both still knit "all the time", as he put it - the younger one even made a blanket for her new baby brother!

Naturally, I am thrilled. I know how much I enjoyed being able to knit when I was a kid, and if they are still knitting several years later, I know that it is a skill that they can and will enjoy for the rest of their lives.

Hooray!

WOOOOOO! YEAHHHHH!

I still haven't had much time for blogging lately, have I? I did think I would take a moment to share a funny interaction I just had with a gaggle of teenagers. I was in my building, waiting for the elevator, and when the door opened, about 10 kids were in there, and before they saw me, one of the boys shouted VERY loudly, "WOOOOOOO!" he then saw me, looked embarrassed, so I screamed at the top of my lungs, "YEAHHHHHH!" He then started laughing, and said to his friends several times, "That was awesome!"

Heaven forbid he actually address me directly and tell me that my unexpected action was awesome, but I'll take an indirect affirmation of my awesomeness any day.

Poison Spraying Robots??

About once a week, I walk to the library, hand in the books I had at home, and check out a new book or two. Today was such a day, and it was just so nice out! I even wore my flip flops - a true sign of wonderful weather if ever there was one.

The walk is fairly short, and is usually pretty uneventful... but today, at a main intersection, there was a man holding several posters that he had hand printed, and warned of the dangers that laid in wait JUST a couple of blocks away.

Evidently, Bin Laden is in cahoots with our government, and has disseminated POISON - FILLED MINIATURE ROBOTS in the downtown Lowell area! I had no idea!!! This man was shouting, warning us all not to go downtown, or we would get sprayed by these robots. Several possible conversation starters entered my head:

"What are the signs that you have been poisoned? Is it a rash? LIKE THE ONE I HAVE ON MY ARM RIGHT HEEEEERE???" (waves arm in his face)

"I am from the CDC and I believe you have stumbled upon a very important, covert government conspiracy. We need your valuable information, so that we may disperse HAZMAT vans throughout the city to contain the contamination. Of course, it may ALREADY BE TOO LATE."

In a rare fit of good judgment, I kept my fool mouth shut.

STUR

Yeah, yeah... two posts in one day. But I figured a good meal out deserved its own post. And no, I didn't bring my camera, which I REALLY should have!

I went out to eat last night at the new restaurant, Stur, which is located in downtown Lowell. It serves lovely, fancy Mediterranean food (I always spell Mediterranean wrong the first go-round, I swear) in small portions, Tapas style, I suppose, but not Spanish food... so you are meant to get 2-3 plates per person and share them around the table.

The food was delicious! We got a grilled Romaine salad, which caused my friend Heather to want to go back into the kitchen and lick the grill (ha ha), a wonderful mushroom risotto, perfectly cooked seared scallops (and we all know how easy it is to overcook scallops), and pistachio encrusted lamb lollipops. Each thing was more delicious than the rest, and I definitely recommend checking it out. We left feeling full but not sick to our stomachs, and I cannot WAIT to go again. MMMmmmmMMMmmmmm.

But I deserve to be Comfortable NOW!!!

For a few years now, I have wanted to buy a new mattress. My current one is getting painfully close to being 2 decades old. It is also very firm, which is great for stomach sleeping, but I tend to clench my teeth more when I'm on my stomach, blah blah blah. I will stop myself before telling a boring story.

I have hesitated in buying a new mattress, though, because my current platform bed is Queen sized, and I keep telling myself that if I meet someone and want to live with/ marry this fellow, I will want a KING sized bed... let's face it, I am a King sized gal, and will quite possibly end up with a King sized dude!

But you know what? Rather than waiting for this fictional character to enter my life, I do believe I deserve to be nice and comfy RIGHT ABOUT...... NOWWWW! Plus, in my fictionally glorious home with my fictional husband, we will naturally have a guest room which will require a queen mattress, yes?

My pal Heather got me thinking more about this when we were looking around Jordan's Furniture after an IMAX movie a couple of weeks ago, so this past Friday after work, I drove to Jordan's, spent about an hour narrowing it down to two choices, then going from one to the other about 15 times, and then buying a Simmons with a super smooshy pillow top. I am thrilled! It will be delivered on Good Friday, and I just can't wait!

Huzzah for refusing to wait to be comfy!

PUPPIES!

It is my nephew's birthday soon, so I decided to crochet him a small family of puppies. I got the pattern from the book Amigurumi World , and used a bunch of leftover acrylic yarn scraps. They were fun to make!

I know, I am nuts.

Well, here it is, less than 48 hours after getting a tooth pulled, and I just called the dentist to try and make plans to get rid of the rest of my wisdom teeth!

How in the world did I go from traumatized and whimpering, to excited to have it happen again, in such a short amount of time? Well, for one thing, I already don't need any pain relief - I woke up today not even needing a single Advil, so the unknown is now known to me: feeling better afterward is a much shorter process than I had realized. Second, I can already tell how much EASIER it is going to be to brush all of my teeth - those wisdom teeth have been giving me trouble for two decades... enough is enough!

So, I have made the appointment for about a month from now, to get the other upper wisdom tooth yanked, and at that time, my dentist will analyze the situation for the lower ones, and I guess we'll go from there.

Wish me luck!

My Mouth Has a Sad.

I went to the dentist for a simple cleaning today, and came home with one less tooth in my mouth! It was not exactly what I had expected today to say the least.

Until today, I still had all of my wisdom teeth. However, they are really packed in back there, and have always been hard to brush. So, one of them finally got a cavity today. I asked the dentist, "We're not actually going to put a filling in a wisdom tooth, are we?" I also said something foolish like, "Just pull them all OUT!"

As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I felt my anxiety level skyrocket and my heart started beating a mile a minute. I actually started shaking a little! The last novocaine experience I had was... not so excellent, and since I clench my teeth, they have become sensitive, and tooth cleanings are sometimes accompanied by zings of pain during scraping.

The dentist agreed that it made much more sense to pull the tooth rather than fill it, because I will continue to have difficulty brushing the tooth over time, and more decay will most likely occur. He said cheerfully, "Well, we can do it right now if you like; I have an open chair!" He also noted that if I really did want all four pulled, he would recommend going to an oral surgeon and getting put under anesthesia.

I bit the bullet, and walked over to the "empty chair". Although it was rather icky, I must say it was not as bad as I had feared, and didn't seem to take very long at all. And of course, once the trauma was actually over, I cheerfully requested that I be able to take the tooth home with me. Right now, the tooth looks a bit gross, but I was told that I can spruce it up in a little bleach for a less gruesome show and tell opportunity. (anyone want to see a picture?)

I don't feel so bad right now, but of course, the novocaine hasn't worn off yet... we'll see how things feel in a few hours!

Don't look now...

but I think Spring might be on its way!

Yeah yeah, I am breaking the longest silence this blog has ever seen, but what can I say... I have been very busy, with nothing very noteworthy! Lots and lots of knitting for pay, no knitting for fun, and a few social outings sprinkled in here and there.

I just got back from my first outdoor bike ride of the season. I kept it short, only about 12 miles... I could have gone longer, but I want to ease my butt back into things, rather than having an incredibly sore posterior the next time I go out. My backside has been through enough over the years, and needs to last me a long, long time (or so I hope - gotta make sure not to walk under any dangling pianos), so I might as well treat it reasonably well.

It's lovely out there today! Of course, it's all relative: I follow someone on Twitter who is supposedly all tough and manly and swings really heavy kettlebells for exercise, but was whining about whether or not he could do an outdoor workout... it was warmer than it is here today! (he's in Texas) But around these parts, 50+ Fahrenheit means all kinds of people frolicking outdoors in various states of undress.

When I got back home, one of my neighbors asked me, "where in the WORLD are you coming back from in THAT costume?" Uhhhh, does the bicycle not give it away? Is it too subtle a hint for you??? I managed not to give a snarky response, but I did think it was a very funny question.

Hm, what else has been going on? I turned *cough cough* thirty seven about a month ago, I went down to CT to visit my childhood friend Laura, I've done some knitting, some hibernating from the cold, and have started working out with kettlebells. Now, those are good fun, I tell you.

I make no promises that I will blog any time soon, but who knows... maybe one of these days, I'll have something extra interesting to report! Until then, enjoy the Spring!

A Narrow Escape

I don't know who remembers the enormous car repair bill I got around this time of year last year, but it hurt quite badly. In remembrance of that horrific event, my car decided that the "check engine" light needed to be lit, perhaps as a candlelight vigil of sorts.

When I saw the light, my heart sank. I REALLY want and need this car to last me a couple more years, at least. Perhaps even longer. And I don't want it to keep costing me $3000+ per year in repairs in maintenance, like it did last year! Yuck! The following options ran through my head, in case the bill ended up being painfully astronomical:

1. Push car off cliff; walk everywhere for two years, stick with Master Repayment Plan. *
2. Pay astronomical bill; keep driving the Skittle until the next giant repair comes along; proceed to option 1. Try to stick to Master Repayment Plan.
3. Sell car, (probably to local gang member who will trick it out and shoot people from it, no doubt they will keep the cool leopard print seat covers) lease CHEAPO car for two years, Try to stick to MRP, buy NICE new car at the end of the two year lease.
4. Sell car, (again, probably to local gang member), rewrite MRP to last about 4 years instead of just over 2 years, buy NICE new car now instead of waiting.

It was interesting to mull about these ideas for a few days until I could get the car looked at. I tell you, option 1 was sounding REALLY bad in light of the extra cold weather we've been having lately... trudge to and from the grocery store when it is 11 degrees out and super windy? No, thank you. I'd probably be wearing out friendships asking for rides to the grocery store. However, pushing the car off a cliff might be kind of fun!

Option 2 also felt bad to me... why would I plunk down thousands of dollars for a car that is probably going to start having repairs more and more frequently?

Option 3 was actually sounding pretty good. I was doing some cursory research and found that I could probably get a pretty cheap lease on a Civic for a couple of years... I definitely don't drive a lot of miles every year, and it would be very nice to spend the same amount of money on a NEW car that wouldn't be breaking down all the time, instead of continually fixing the old car. I might also be able to be frugal elsewhere and still stick to the MRP.

Option 4 was tempting. I mean, a shiny, newish new car sounds awfully nice. However, I have been working awfully hard on the MRP to throw it all away now.

Fortunately, I don't have to pick any of the above options. The repair will only be a few hundred dollars. I guess I will revisit the list the next time I need a repair. Cross your fingers for me!


*master repayment plan is the plan to get rid of all debt but main mortgage. The aggressive version has me finished in about 26 months.