Tag Archives: money

My 2021 Goals (or Preparing For A Year With Lots Of Unknowns)

Posted on January 1, 2021 | Comments Off on My 2021 Goals (or Preparing For A Year With Lots Of Unknowns)

Happy New Year! I hope that you all had a great New Year’s Eve, even if you were home alone like I was. I’ll be writing more about my New Year’s, but for now, I wanted to kick off the year with my 2021 goals.

Setting goals for this year was a little different from what I normally do. I have no clue when things will be more normal and we won’t have to be isolating ourselves. I hope that by the summer, things will start reopening again, but we have no clue. So I had to create goals that wouldn’t be affected if a majority of the year is spent at home and isolating myself from others.

The first goal shouldn’t be a surprise since it’s one that I’ve had a lot. I want to do at least 200 workouts in 2021. My plan is for these workouts to mainly be Orangetheory workouts, whether it’s in the studio or at home. Once I can go work out with others, I plan on the workouts all being at Orangetheory. But at home, I’m a bit more open to trying other workouts that are available online. I do love the Orangetheory at Home videos, but I also want to allow for some flexibility in case I feel in a rut or that I need a bit of a change. It’s still not easy for me to work out at home by myself. But I know I can do it and I feel confident that I will be able to do at least 200 workouts again this year.

My next goal is another repeat and one I’ve talked about recently. I want to work on my budget this year. I know that this won’t be easy because my job situation isn’t as stable as it’s been in the past, but I cannot let that be an excuse anymore. My hours with my new job are going to be pretty stable starting next week. And I should know soon about my hours with my data entry job, and once those are figured out they should be stable as well. The only big unknown for my income is my box office job. I don’t know when I’ll be asked back or how many hours I might get. But I still need to budget with what I do know and start making a plan so that I have things in order when I do have more steady income and I have things I want to use my money on.

Next is something that I’ve been doing a lot since I’ve had to isolate myself at home. I want to keep my house organized and continue to find the best way to maximize the space that I have. 2020 was a year that I discovered that I have a lot of things I don’t use or don’t have in the best spot to make sure I use them. I have things in my kitchen that I know I don’t use, and they are taking up space. And I have gotten new things for my kitchen and nowhere to put them. I’m looking at storage solutions for inside my house, but with space being limited I have to be careful what I bring in. The same goes for my bathroom. I don’t have any counter space, so I have to keep things on a shelf I have and in my medicine cabinet. The space is limited and I know I have things there that I don’t use or need. Organizing my house will be an ongoing project throughout the entire year, but I’m excited to see what my house will look like as I continue to work on this.

The next goal is a combination of a few ideas. I want to try more, take more risks, and be ok with accepting possible failure. Now, this doesn’t include my health or safety so I will not be taking risks by going out until it is safe to do so. But this is more about not limiting myself to things that only make me comfortable. If I want to take a chance in my acting career, I should go for it so I don’t wonder “what if?”. If I want to take a chance with online dating and say how I really feel to a guy, then I should do it without worrying that I might scare him off. If I want to try cooking something new, I don’t want to be afraid that I will ruin it because that might happen and that’s ok. It’s not easy to accept failure, but it’s a part of life and I want to be better at dealing with it.

And my last goal is a bit more about whatever time we are still isolating at home. I want to be ok with asking for help and support. There is no question that 2020 was a difficult year for me in so many ways. Being lonely and isolated is something that I’ve never dealt with to this degree. And I wasn’t as open about how much I was struggling as I could have been. I never reached out to a friend saying I needed a phone call or video call instead of just texts. It’s not easy for me to do this for a few reasons. One is that I don’t want to feel like a burden, even though I know that isn’t how my friends feel about me. But the bigger problem is that I haven’t been good at recognizing when I need to ask for support. Sometimes I don’t realize I could have used the help until I get over that feeling. I need to be a bit more aware and mindful about this and make sure I reach out when I need it.

I feel like these are some good goals for 2021. I feel confident that I should be able to make progress on all of them. I might not end this year saying I was successful in all of them, but I don’t think that I will be a total failure in them either. Hopefully, these goals help me to make 2021 a good year for me. Whether the entire year is spent in isolation or if I am able to go out and be social for a part of the year. I feel like I’m prepared for almost any possibility of what this year might look like, and that I will find ways to continue to better myself and grow as a person.

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Default ThumbnailOne More Mid-Year Check-In (or Preparing For The Second Half Of The Year At Orangetheory) Default ThumbnailAn Almost End Of The Year Review (or Looking Back At My Goals) Default ThumbnailMy 2017 Goals (or I Know This Year Will Be Amazing!) Default ThumbnailMy 2016 Goals (or I’ve Got Some Big Ideas This Year) Default ThumbnailHow Is This Year Almost Over? (or Doing A Check In On My Goals) Default ThumbnailLooking Back At My 2020 Goals (or Some Wins and Some Not Wins)

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Starting Over Again (or I Can’t Ignore My Budget Anymore)

Posted on December 30, 2020 | Comments Off on Starting Over Again (or I Can’t Ignore My Budget Anymore)

For a long time, I was doing really great with keeping a budget and staying on top of things. I knew that I wasn’t doing financially great, but I at least knew exactly what was going on with my money and I was very aware of it all. I was using YNAB for tracking money and it made me feel much better about my money situation.

Of course, there were times that I wasn’t as on top of budgeting as I could be, but I was still aware of a general idea about money. But I always seemed to find my way back and continued to make progress in tracking money and planning ahead.

And then the pandemic hit.

For a little while, my life wasn’t that different and I was still tracking money. But then I stopped working and making money and there didn’t seem to be a reason for me to track. I know that is not the truth and I probably needed to track my spending even more, but it’s hard when all you see is money coming out and nothing coming in. And I have been ignoring my budget for most of this year now.

But now, I’m starting to have steady money coming in again. It’s still not quite steady, but it should be in the next few weeks. I’m getting out of survival mode and starting to be in a position to plan for life again. Not like there is much to life right now with things shut down, but that almost might be exactly why I should start up with my budget again. When I only have limited expenses, it won’t be as crazy as it would be when I have so many different categories of spending.

So I am trying to get back to budgeting again. And because I’ve been ignoring my budget for almost a year, I just need to start over in YNAB. It’s not too weird to do a fresh start in that system, and I’ve done it before. So it will be something I’m familiar with. However, this time I’m also going to be starting over with my budgeting education. I still remember some of the basics of how to use the system, but there is so much that I have forgotten. And I want to start over doing things correctly and not have to do another fresh start in a month or two.

I need to be on top of what I’m spending money on and make sure that I’m not overspending in the few categories that I am spending money in. I know there’s a chance since delivery food tends to be more expensive than when you actually go out to eat with different fees and charges. I also have different bills now than I did earlier this year, so budgeting for those is really important. And I want to know how much money it will be ok to dedicate to things when I can finally go out again.

I know the timing of this makes it sound like a resolution or goal, but I’m actually writing about this now because I don’t know if I want it to be a goal. I don’t want there to be pressure to start my budgeting before I feel comfortable with the system again. If it takes me a week or two to get things back up and running, that’s fine. I don’t have to start a new budget on the 1st. Whenever I start it will be fine.

And hopefully before I know it, I’ll be back to using YNAB regularly and feeling much more secure with my money and how I can manage in the future for other expenses.

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Default ThumbnailA Fresh Budget (or Starting Over With YNAB) Default ThumbnailFinding New Money Issues (or Looking At Doing A Fresh Budget) Default ThumbnailGoing Back To An Old Habit (or Finding Control With Budgeting) Default ThumbnailBudgeting and Spending (or Sharing YNAB With A Cashier) Default ThumbnailWorking on Budgeting (or Spending Money To Save Money) Default ThumbnailGetting Back On Track (or Happiness and Budgeting)

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Getting Back On Track (or Happiness and Budgeting)

Posted on March 3, 2020 | Comments Off on Getting Back On Track (or Happiness and Budgeting)

My challenge for February was to work on the happiness checklist that I’ve been using for quite a while now. The happiness checklist was originally something that my therapist suggested that I use and I really liked having it. Even though I have a new therapist, I still use it. I think there were even times where my old therapist told me that I didn’t have to keep using it, but I still did. There’s something about reminding myself every day that I did so some things that made me happy that I like having as a part of my day.

I have made a few changes to the things I have on the checklist, but it had been a long time since the last time I had re-evaluated what was on it and if they really were things that did make me happy if I did them. So last month, I worked on seeing what things I wanted to remove, what things I wanted to add, and what might just need to be reworded or changed a bit. It wasn’t a huge challenge or something that would take a ton of work, but I knew if I didn’t focus on it that I wouldn’t do it.

I used some scrap paper to write up some ideas for what I might want on my list and played around with those ideas. I had some ideas about doing a major change, but I realized that I was really just overthinking things and tried to spend a few days focusing on each thing on the list.

And by the end of the month, I really only made 2 changes. I took one thing off the list and replaced it with another and I reworded one other thing to make it feel like it makes more sense and covers more of the things that make me happy in that category. It was such a minor change, but it really felt like it refreshed the list and made a huge difference. It’s silly how those small changes feel so big, but I guess having one thing on the list that I didn’t feel belonged on there affected me more than I realized.

Going along with the idea that small changes can make a big impact on my life, I found another tracking thing that I want to work on for this month. I used to be really good about budgeting and was having a lot of success with YNAB. I started to slack off a bit toward the end of the year for a few different reasons and I told myself that I would get back to it in the new year. But I also did an upgrade on my computer and I had to upgrade to the new YNAB system, which is significantly different from the old one. I did set things up with the new system, but I really haven’t been using it.

I also skipped over some of the online tutorials that I probably should have done before setting it up. I know that I need to learn about the new changes so I can use it properly and I want to get back into budgeting. I have the potential to really do better with budgeting and planning with my money and I don’t want to miss that chance by screwing things up. So this month, I want to work on going through some of the online tutorials and getting my budget set up again. I know this will be a challenge that will require a lot of work this month and will likely require work for a while, but the reward I will get from doing it will be worth it.

I want to know where my money is going and where I can possibly cut back. I want to see what things that feel like splurges are actually within my budget and I don’t have to feel guilty about. And I need to know what everyday things I am probably wasting money on and shouldn’t be indulging on. And the only way to accomplish this is to get back to my budgeting work and have everything set up the way I had it set up in the past.

I hope that I don’t get too frustrated working on the budgeting work. I was dealing with a bit of that when I set up the new system, but I also know I wasn’t giving it a fair shot. So this month is my chance to really try and see if I can make it work again. And if I can’t, then I need to find another way to work on budgeting because this is not something I can avoid doing.

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Default ThumbnailAdjusting Monthly Challenges (or Books And Happiness) Default ThumbnailAnother Therapist Check In (or Showing Off My Happiness Checklist) Default ThumbnailJust A Little Bit More Reflection (or Evaluating My Happiness Checklist) Default ThumbnailBudgeting and Spending (or Sharing YNAB With A Cashier) Default ThumbnailFood And Budgeting (or Combining The Two Things I Often Struggle With) Default ThumbnailGoing Back To An Old Habit (or Finding Control With Budgeting)

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Not Quite Winning At Taxes This Year (or Owing Money And Seeing Car Accidents)

Posted on February 26, 2020 | Comments Off on Not Quite Winning At Taxes This Year (or Owing Money And Seeing Car Accidents)

I try to get my taxes done by the end of February each year. First, I want to get them done so I know what happened with all my crazy tax situations so I don’t have to stress out about them. But also, the place I go to for my taxes has cheaper rates if you do your taxes before March. I’ve been pretty lucky with my tax situation since I have started getting them done locally instead of having my parents’ tax guy do them. There are several weird things about my taxes and what I can deduct so it’s good that I go to someone who specializes in situations like mine. Plus, my tax preparer, Daphne, has become a friend so going in to see her is always fun!

I had my appointment on Monday evening, so I gave myself plenty of time to drive there in traffic. Traffic is always bad and people are always driving crazy, but this time it was just so much worse than normal. I saw 4 car accidents happen right in front of me! Most of them were from dumb mistakes like not looking at their blind spot when changing lanes or turning on an unprotected left when a car was coming straight. I was lucky that nobody hit me, but it made me even more cautious than normal while driving there.

I got to my appointment early because of how much time I gave myself to get there, so I had some time to relax before the stress of seeing what will happen with my taxes. I have been very lucky with getting money back when I pay my estimated payments correctly and with the deductions that I am allowed to take because all my jobs are independent contractor work. But this time, when I was preparing for my appointment I felt like I didn’t have as many deductions as I normally do. So as I prepared my forms I thought that perhaps this time I would owe money instead of getting money back. Fortunately, I still had some money saved from what I set aside with each paycheck, so I had money to pay if I did owe.

I try my best to be super organized with my taxes and paperwork when going into my appointment, and I know that Daphne really appreciates that I do that. It makes her job a bit easier when everything is ready for her to enter it into the system and she doesn’t have to search for something or ask me what I meant by something I filled out. I will also say, the packet that everyone who goes to the office I go to needs to fill out before an appointment helps too. And I have started to organize my things throughout the year in a similar system so when I fill the packet out I can do it quickly.

Because things were so organized, Daphne was able to see quickly that I would owe money. And she and I decided to investigate a bit because it said I owed about $1000 and in the past, it was so different even if I did owe. I thought maybe I didn’t have enough deductions because there were a few things that I usually spend money on that I didn’t in 2019. But when we compared my deductions, I was very close to the same amount in 2018. But then we realized there was a significant difference in my income and how much I paid in estimated taxes.

I made a lot more with both of my jobs in 2019. I had gotten a small raise with my customer service job and I had more hours on my contract with my data entry job. Obviously, both of those things are good and making more money is a good thing. And my estimated payments this past year were the lowest I paid since I started doing them correctly because of my lower income in 2018. So I made a lot more and pre-paid a lot less. Those combined meant I owed the $1000 form said I did. It all made sense once we figured that out.

And I do appreciate that Daphne took the time with me to figure out why I owed this year. Because entering my information was so quick, there was extra time in my appointment to do that investigating work. I’m sure that I could have figured it out on my own eventually, but it was nice to not have that question in my head when I left and feel more confident knowing what happened while I was still sitting there with someone who could explain it to me.

I will be paying the money I owe soon (I’ve got almost 2 months to pay it and I want to work on a few budgeting things first) and then I’ll be done with all my 2019 taxes. But I start paying my estimated taxes for 2020 in 2 months, so I’ll be doing that and working on making sure that I do everything I can to bring down how much I owe.

I left my appointment feeling good even though I do owe money. It’s something I expected and it didn’t upset me. But just like on my drive to getting my taxes done, my drive home was filled with seeing car accidents happen in front of me! I saw 2 very small fender benders that didn’t seem to have much damage. But when I was on the freeway close to my house, traffic stopped and the car in front of me didn’t see that. They hit the car in front of them at full speed and I was very lucky that I was able to slam on my brakes and avoid the cars. I guess it’s a good thing that I don’t follow other cars that closely. Both of the cars in that accident looked like they were totaled and there were pieces of the cars all over the freeway.

I have no idea how to connect the car accidents with getting my taxes done but seeing that many accidents made me think about how sometimes we might get a bit lazy with following the rules you should follow when driving. Sometimes we follow too close, don’t look in our mirrors enough, speed, or think that we have the right of way when we don’t. It was a good reminder to be a cautious driver just like I am cautious with so many other aspects of my life.

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Finally Being Debt-Free (or Reaching A Goal Can Be Scary)

Posted on December 13, 2019 | Comments Off on Finally Being Debt-Free (or Reaching A Goal Can Be Scary)

One of the first posts I wrote on this blog was about having credit card debt. I was so embarrassed to share that I had debt, but it was a relief to no longer have to keep it a secret or hide it. And because I was so open about the debt, I had friends share with me different things that helped them pay their debt off. I also discovered tricks on my own that I had been using to work on paying it off. And while I had made dents in it, I still had a lot of debt left.

I knew that I needed to pay this off because I was wasting money having to pay interest each month. But I just didn’t have the money to pay it as quickly as I would have liked to. Even though I had been getting things more in control, I always wished I could do more. But I had to just be ok with what I was able to do and know that one day I would be able to be debt-free.

And my intention was to work on paying it off as long as I needed to. I knew my plan would take a lot of time, but it was a plan which is better than I had been doing years ago. And then things changed for me not too long ago.

Without going into a lot of details, I was given the money I needed to pay off my credit card debt. Being able to pay it all off was an amazing gift and I’m so grateful for it. This was something that I have wanted to accomplish for so long and I still can’t believe it finally happened. But I have to say that making that payment online was a very scary moment for me.

I’m not sure why it was so scary, but I think because the debt has been a part of my life for so long it was about letting go of something that felt like a part of my personality. Or maybe it was because I felt like I was doing something that I didn’t earn. While I had been working hard to work on this, the majority of it wasn’t due to my work or effort. It was easy to do and I didn’t have to sacrifice for it. I think that the idea of not earning it comes from some past experiences with weight loss that I’ve had. When I have lost weight due to extreme circumstances, I’m so happy that I lost the weight but it doesn’t feel like I have ownership over it. And from my past experiences losing weight that way, it doesn’t last. And I really don’t want that to happen with my debt.

I know that I’m probably in a better place to be able to maintain my debt-free life than I am with weight loss since I don’t have a medical issue behind it. But it’s still scary that this could happen to me again. So I’m already taking a lot of steps to make sure that I stay on top of things.

Of course, I’m already in the habit of doing a budget and tracking my income and spending. This is something I wasn’t doing when I got into debt. I’m also in a much more stable job, and even though I still need to make more money I have guaranteed money coming in. I’m looking for something better, but I don’t have to lose all my income while I do that which is helpful. And I think I’m just in a different place in my life where I value my money differently and don’t spend the same way that I used to. I don’t stress about getting the best or nicest of things and I work on saving money when I can. I also don’t feel the same need to have immediate gratification with buying stuff so I can wait until it’s on sale or I find a better deal. All those things should be helping me stay debt-free now.

I’m trying to focus only on the positives and be excited that this burden is no longer something I have to worry about. And I’m sure that soon I will be feeling that a lot more. I’m still feeling a bit scared about how this was just finished like it was no big deal when it really is a big deal. But I’m excited to move forward with this new chapter in my life without having to worry about debt and hopefully that will allow me to manage my money better for the things I want to spend it on as well as have a better and less stressed mindset.

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Time Flies (or I Didn’t Realize I Would Be Here So Soon)

Posted on June 18, 2019 | Comments Off on Time Flies (or I Didn’t Realize I Would Be Here So Soon)

I’ve written about time moving quickly multiple times. I know that’s part of getting older. Someone once said that it happens because each year you get old a single year represents a smaller portion of your overall life. That makes so much sense to me even though it doesn’t help with making time go by slower. I try to be mindful every day so time doesn’t slip away, but it seems like that still doesn’t help all the time.

Sometimes it’s almost embarrassing when I realize how long it’s been since I’ve seen a friend or talked to them in person or on the phone. Texting and social media do help me stay in touch with people, but I know I need more than that to maintain my relationships. I recently texted a friend to say happy birthday and mentioned how we were very overdue for a catchup phone call. Then I realized that it might have been almost a year since we talked on the phone! We’ve texted and messaged in the past year, but I should be better about having more regular phone call routines.

Another place where time has just flown by has been with the temporary job I have been doing for my old boss. This has flown by in a few ways. First, I can’t believe that I’m in my last 2 weeks with the job. I have been working very hard since it started because there was so much work that I had to do. I think being that busy has made things fly by and I didn’t really focus on more than just getting the work done that day. I didn’t think about how it’s been a few weeks or a month. I knew that it was going to go quickly because it was a temporary job, but I guess I didn’t think it would feel this quickly.

And because the time flew by, I made a mistake that I said I wasn’t going to do again. I stopped focusing as hard as I should have on my job hunting. Fortunately, I am in a better spot than I was before because the money I made with the temporary job will hold me over for a little bit. But it won’t last forever. And I told myself I wouldn’t wait until the job ended to work on job hunting. But that’s exactly what happened. And now I’ve got only a few more days of work without a clear plan on what to do next.

I am grateful that I have a lot of job hunting sites that I was using before so I don’t have to worry about finding where to look for work. That doesn’t make finding a new job easier, but at least the prep time won’t be needed again. I just have to find the time to really focus on job hunting so I can find something soon.

But the other problem with time flying by with this job is going to affect my ability to job hunt. I knew how many hours my contract was when I started it. I obviously want to do every hour in my contract so I earn all the money I can. And I thought I had a good plan with how to split up the hours each week so that I would be able to finish them all. I know there were a few days where I couldn’t work due to how I was feeling, but I honestly thought I had made up for what I had missed. But when I looked at the hours I have to do for this final paycheck, it’s significantly more than I expected. I will be able to get them all done, but I need to work more hours than I have ever done for this job and I may also need to work on the weekend. It’s not what I expected to have to do, but it’s what I would do.

Because of all the hours I need to work, I know that I won’t be doing the job searching like I should be doing (and should have been doing this entire time). I guess I can’t be too upset since I haven’t really been doing what I said I’d do. So missing another week or so it’s going to ruin too much. But I am upset that I didn’t do it this entire time and now I know I’ll be worried about work again. I’m putting my feelers out again and I also hope that maybe there will be another temporary job I can do. I’m trying to stay optimistic that I won’t have a huge gap in work, but I also know I can’t depend on my optimism and that I have to put in the work.

With time going so quickly, I just have to hope that it won’t be a long time before I do find that new job. I don’t want months to fly by and I realize I’m out of money. I don’t have as much control in this situation as I would like, but I know that I have more control than what I have been doing so far.

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Posted in Tough Stuff, Work

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Saving Money and Trying To Be Green (or Revamping Some Things)

Posted on May 22, 2019 | Comments Off on Saving Money and Trying To Be Green (or Revamping Some Things)

This post is a bit of a mishmash about a few different things, but it weirdly all is about one purchase I made on Amazon. I recently purchased reusable cotton rounds to replace the single use cotton rounds I use twice a day for my face toner. And that purchase inspired a few changes that I’ve been trying to make.

The original reason I bought these reusable cotton rounds was that I realized how many I went through in a day. My bathroom trash can was usually at least half full with them because that’s one of the few disposable things I use in my skin care routine. It’s not that they are super expensive, but it does add up when you go through over 50 in a month. And I had read a few stories online about how they can have different chemicals in them and that they aren’t the most environmentally friendly because of how they are made. It seemed like an easy purchase to make so I did it. They weren’t that expensive, although since cotton rounds aren’t that expensive to begin with it might be a bit of time before I break even. But it wasn’t just about money, so that’s not that important.

So that single purchase got me thinking about what other disposable things I use in my day to day life. I’m proud that there aren’t that many things, but there are enough to look at what options I have to replace them. There are a few things I had already done like getting nicer straws so I didn’t use disposable ones (although when I did use those, I used them for a while before throwing them out). And I’ve looked at paper towel alternatives, but I haven’t found any that I like and I still like to use regular paper towels. But it has gotten me to look at what I buy and what I have stored in my house.

As I have been replacing things, I have been able to clear out what I have been storing in my little storage area in my house. It’s been a slow process because I do try to finish out what I have already purchased, but it’s getting there. I am not buying things in bulk and trying to find a place to put them. And I don’t have to think about repurchasing something because I am running out. It’s been a nice feeling when I don’t have to make a trip to CVS in the middle of the night because I desperately need something.

The few purchases that I have made that are more environmentally friendly haven’t always been because of that reason. The cotton rounds were more about being aware of what I am using on my face and I was tired of feeling like I was just throwing out so much every day. I also hated that even the premium rounds I purchased left fuzz on my face and hands. The fact that they were better for the environment was a bonus after I looked into them more. But I guess it doesn’t matter what the motivation was for the purchase, if they are more environmentally friendly that is a good thing. I know we all need to be more aware of the single use things we have in our lives, and I’m slowly doing that and seeing what I can replace.

Just like so many other parts of my life, it’s hard to make the changes until I really become aware of what the problem is. I can’t just look at my house and see what I need to change to save money or have greener options. But once I’ve discovered where the issue is, I have been quick to look into what I can do. I know that not every green option is the best for my financial situation, but not all of them are that expensive if you take the time to shop around online. For example, some of the cotton rounds I found were over $20 and that seemed too much. But I looked around and found them for about $5. I have to be picky right now on what I buy so I don’t just spend money, but again, it will save me money in the long run.

I’d love to hear what other inexpensive changes I can make to be more environmentally friendly. I know there are so many things I don’t know about yet that would be easy swaps. And obviously if they also save me money that would be amazing.

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Default ThumbnailFinding New Money Issues (or Looking At Doing A Fresh Budget) Default ThumbnailTax Time (or Happy To Owe The Government Some Money) Default ThumbnailWorking On Not Spending (or Trying To Not Get Sucked Into Sales) Default ThumbnailWorking On Money Priorities (or What’s Worth The Splurge) Default ThumbnailWorking On Money (or A Prosperous Heart Update) Default ThumbnailFinding Ways To Treat Myself (or I Wish Money Wasn’t An Issue)

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Posted in Beauty, Fun Stuff, Saving, Shopping

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Doing More Tracking (or Finding Out Some Data Is Just Too Emotional)

Posted on May 1, 2019 | Comments Off on Doing More Tracking (or Finding Out Some Data Is Just Too Emotional)

Last month, I had a goal to work on tracking a few things in my life. I knew that things were getting a bit out of control and tracking is a way to gain control again. All of the things I was planning on tracking were things I have tracked before so I figured it should be a relatively easy challenge. And of course, since I thought it would be easy it wasn’t.

It was easy for me to track my spending and income. This was a habit that I had been doing for a while and it was pretty easy to get back into it. There were a few moments where I forgot to track something or had to spend more time than I would have liked double checking things, but it’s been relatively easy. It helps that right now I have more money coming in than I’m used to so I’m not seeing everything in red. But I want to get this habit back to where it was so I’m ready when things aren’t as great.

I also wanted to do accurate tracking of my weight and food. And this is where I struggled last month. Tracking my weight wasn’t too horrible, but I’ve realized that it’s not something I want to keep up as regularly as I was. I have some big weight fluctuations due to hormones and even when I know that my weight gain isn’t real it feels that way. It’s not easy when the scale says you are up 10 pounds overnight and all your clothes don’t fit. I know that it’s due to swelling and water weight, but I still hate seeing that. I need to figure out a better way to track weight because I need to do it, but I can’t do it as often right now. I’m not sure if weekly would be right and mostly doesn’t seem often enough, so this is something I will have to play with.

And tracking my food was kind of a disaster. Food tracking is such an emotional thing for me and I thought doing tracking would help take that away a bit. But instead, it made it more emotional and I could sense my moods being affected if I had a good day or bad day. I know I do need to do some tracking, but I’m not sure how to do it without the emotional tug I was feeling. It may have just been harder for me this time because of where I am in my life and outside factors, but whatever it was I know I failed at tracking food last month.

And for this month, I have another tracking related challenge. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I am not sleeping enough. I have had several days of only getting 4 hours of sleep. Part of this problem is how well I have trained myself to get up at the same time every day. Even if I go to bed really late, I’m still up at 7. If I sleep in, it’s only until 7:30 or 8 and that’s not that late if I get to bed at 2 or 3 in the morning. It’s not always that I am out late, sometimes I am in bed at a reasonable time and I stay up reading. Before I know it, it’s 2am and I’m still awake.

I know in a perfect world I would be asleep by 11pm so that I will get at least 7 hours of sleep even if I wake up in the middle of the night. That’s not totally realistic since there are some times that I’m just getting home at 11. But I think setting a goal to be in bed by midnight on those late nights and by 11:30 on not late nights isn’t too hard. And I need to set a limit on my nighttime reading to make sure that my lights are being turned off by midnight. It probably sounds weird to have to limit how much I read at night, but sometimes I just get so into a book that I forget that I need to put it down.

I think working on having a set bedtime also relates to better time management in general. I don’t have to get everything done in the evenings that I make myself do. I can save some for the next day or if I was better with how I use my time I could probably get them done during the day. Procrastination is my enemy when trying to get better about when I go to sleep.

I know that some people have alarms to remind them to go to sleep, and I’m going to look into those options. I might just add something to my daily reminders to remind me that I need to start winding down. I already have my phone and computer set to reduce the blue light I see in the evening, but I don’t have that for my tv. I know that they have blue light blocking glasses so those might be a good investment for me (I just don’t know how they would work if I was also wearing my regular glasses if I took my contacts out). I also am going to look at what parts of my evening routine I can do earlier so that it’s not a lot of self-care work at the end of the day and I’m tired.

I’m ready to not feel as tired anymore. This has been a problem I’ve been dealing with for a while but it has gotten significantly worse in the past few months. I know that getting more sleep will benefit so many aspects of my life and I can’t wait to see those benefits. And hopefully it will have some benefits I’m not expecting and my life will be even better when I’m well-rested a majority of the time.

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Default ThumbnailFinding My Way Back On Track (or A New Balance) Default ThumbnailMy Monthly Challenge To Finish Out The First Half Of The Year (or Sleeping And More Organizing) Default ThumbnailFinding A Work/Life Balance (or Preparing to Not Be Unemployed) Default ThumbnailIt’s Tax Time (or Seeing My Tracking And Organizing Pay Off) Default ThumbnailI Guess This Makes Me Feel A Bit Better (or A Physical Explanation For My Emotional Symptoms) Default ThumbnailGetting Back To Better Food (or Finding My Own Balance)

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Failing And Succeeding In One Monthly Challenge (or Another Repeat Challenge This Month)

Posted on April 2, 2019 | Comments Off on Failing And Succeeding In One Monthly Challenge (or Another Repeat Challenge This Month)

Last month, I decided my monthly challenge would be all about skin care. While I have been good about taking care of the skin on my face, I knew I could be doing a lot more work with the skin on my body. The idea was to discover some new things that I could do to help my skin, but the main thing I wanted to do was to work on dry brushing.

Well, I totally failed at dry brushing. I did it a few times, but it just didn’t really work for me. So many times when I’m taking a shower it’s right after a workout. My skin is still damp with sweat and I don’t want to have to dry off the sweat before jumping into the shower. I tried to do it the times I shower when it’s not immediately after a workout, but I didn’t see a benefit from it. I’m not giving up on it, but I know that this part of my skincare plan was a total fail.

But I wouldn’t consider this past challenge a fail because I did discover a few amazing things that have been helping me a lot with skincare. And the new things I figured out have been things that I’ve been doing every day.

First, I stopped using a regular loofah. I’ve been using a loofah poof for as long as I can remember for my body wash. I don’t like using a washcloth or my hands for body soap. A loofah was the best option I knew of. But then when I was in Catalina, my aunt was telling me about exfoliating bath sheets. I had never heard of these before but they seemed like a great upgrade. First, they dry so much faster than a loofah poof which helps to make them not as gross. But you can also scrub your back much easier since it’s a long rectangle. As soon as I got home I got one and I’ve been using it ever since! I feel like I’m getting my skin so much cleaner.

Another thing I discovered was wet skin lotion. I’ve tried in-shower lotions before, but I never liked them. You washed them off your skin so I felt like they were just being wasted. And they always made my shower or tub so slippery. But wet skin lotions are different. You do put them on while in the shower, but after the water is turned off. You apply it just like regular lotion but your skin doesn’t have to be dry. I have found this makes my skin feel much more moisturized and I dry off so much faster! I still use my regular lotion other times during the day, but I know putting this one on right after my shower is the best option for keeping my skin feeling soft.

So while I didn’t succeed at what I planned to do with my skincare, I still succeeded. And I want to take the idea into this month’s challenge. This month, I am challenging myself to be much more accurate in tracking various things in my life. And all of those things are things I’ve had as previous monthly challenges.

This is a combination of a few things. As I mentioned recently, I restarted my budget and I’m working on getting everything set up. It’s pretty much there, but I have to get back into my habit of tracking my money the way I used to. I was getting lazy before and I need to be accurate again in order to make budgeting work. I also have been slacking on tracking my weight and food intake. Both of these things can be an act of defiance, but I see them as more avoiding things. And I’m not always avoiding bad things. I wasn’t tracking my weight when I knew it was going down because I was scared how I would react if I lost more or less than I expected. And with food intake, when I have a very low calorie day for whatever reason, I don’t want to see that and get scared that either I need to force myself to eat or that this is going to cause me to binge later.

I’m not as worried about tracking my money because I feel much less emotion with that. But tracking my weight and food intake will be tough challenges for me to do. I already know I failed at being perfect because yesterday I wasn’t accurate (I was having a horrible nausea day and food was more about trying to see what would make me feel better and not thinking about what I’m eating).

But as I learned last month, just because I started as a fail doesn’t mean I can’t end as a success.

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Default ThumbnailA New/Old Challenge (or Using An Idea From Therapy This Month) Default ThumbnailNot Perfect This Month (or Challenged With The Monthly Challenge) Default ThumbnailMonthly Challenge Check-In (or Doing My Own Version Of An OTF Challenge This Month) Default ThumbnailTaking A Month To Reset (or This Doesn’t Really Feel Like A Monthly Challenge) Default ThumbnailI Feel Like Every Monthly Challenge Is The Same (or Will This Be The Month I Get Back On Track?) Default ThumbnailTime For Some Planning (or Trying A Challenge Again This Month)

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Posted in Beauty, Food, Fun Stuff, Health, Weight Loss

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A Job Hunting Update (or Making Sure I Don’t Repeat My Financial Year Again)

Posted on March 29, 2019 | Comments Off on A Job Hunting Update (or Making Sure I Don’t Repeat My Financial Year Again)

Even though I haven’t been writing about looking for a job lately, I’ve still been doing that on almost a daily basis. My job hunt isn’t quite as intense as it was before because I do have the temporary job with my old work. And through that temporary job I will actually be making more money than I did all of last year with that job, so I should be ok for a while as long as I budget correctly (which is why budgeting again is so important for me).

I would love for there to be more temporary jobs for me to do with this old job throughout the year because it really is a great job for me. I can do it between my customers at my box office job (both bosses at both jobs are aware that I do this) and it’s easy enough for me to do. It does take a bit of time because of the work I have to do to confirm the data, but it’s not difficult. I feel very confident that I can do the work well and quickly and that always helps me feel better about work.

And of course, I love that this temporary job as well as my main job are remote. There are lots of benefits for me to work from home and I will admit that I have gotten spoiled by being able to do so. It allows me to work from another location if I’m out of town so I don’t have to miss as much work as I would when I leave LA to be with my family for Thanksgiving. I don’t have to worry about a commute or the cost of gas and wear and tear on my car. I don’t have to worry about planning for lunches because I’m home and can make whatever I have in my fridge. And of course, I can work when I’m not feeling well.

Working while sick isn’t always fun, but I’m grateful that I can do it. I don’t get sick that often, but when I do get sick it’s usually pretty bad. And I know that I shouldn’t be around other people. So working while sick is a benefit to me. But it’s not just when I’m sick with a cold or bug of some type, it’s also a benefit when I’m nauseous.

I honestly don’t know what I would do if I had to work at an office while nauseous. I’m sure that I would find some way to deal with it, but with how I feel now I just don’t want to think about it. I like having all my medications and remedies nearby when I need them. I don’t have to worry about using a public bathroom when I’m sick or that there isn’t an empty bathroom near me. And I don’t have to explain myself to anyone who sees me at my worst.

Just for the benefit of being able to work without worrying about others when nauseous makes me really focus my job searching on remote positions. I’m aware that finding a remote job is not as easy as finding a job working in an office. But it does feel like it is an important thing for me to find so that I don’t have to worry about what will happen when I’m not feeling my best.

And for right now, I can be a little bit picky. I am good for at least the next few months. Of course, making more money is better because I can put it toward things like paying off my credit card or building some savings. So while I’m being choosy, I’m still looking for a new job every day. It’s something I spend time doing each day, but I don’t stress about it the same way. I’m probably spending 10-15 minutes a day searching on various job hunting sites and applying for anything that seems right for me. I do still look at non-remote jobs, but I don’t apply to them as often as I do with remote jobs.

I’m hoping I find something before my temporary job ends so that I don’t have to stress about things. I’m trying to remind myself that even if I don’t find a new job by then, I should be ok as long as I am careful with my money. I don’t want to be in the same position as I was at the end of last year, and I know there are things I can do to make sure of that no matter my job situation. But it will take a lot of hard work and staying on top of things. And if I find a new job before I have to worry about it, then all this detail work will just benefit me with budgeting the new job.

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Default ThumbnailTime Flies (or I Didn’t Realize I Would Be Here So Soon) Default ThumbnailAsking For Help Again (or Trying Not To Feel Desperate) Default ThumbnailFeeling A Bit More Luck (or Hopefully This Was Just A Bad Phase) Default ThumbnailWork Begets Work (Old Bosses Possible New Jobs) Default ThumbnailJob Hunting (or You Never Know Unless You Ask) Default ThumbnailTime To Make A Game Plan (or Guess I’ll Be Doing Some Job Hunting)

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Posted in Work

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