Just to show yall that I’m not just some all-talk-no-action schmuck, here’s a list of things I’ve been doing to work on that list and better my life.
- Started walking to Hugga’s preschool. Huz and I usually do this when we pick her up because it falls around a reasonable break time for me, even though it’s the hottest time of day. The distance one way is .8 miles, so each weekday we’d get about a mile and a half. This gives me and the husband some sorely needed exercise and sunshine, and it also gives us time every day to talk about whatever and just be a couple. It’s so necessary in a marriage, but it tends to be the first thing you overlook when you’re juggling work and family. It’s been pretty badass so far.
- Reorganized my money and updated my pay day automation. I was saving pretty aggressively in anticipation for our move, but now that our move is out of the way and I somehow managed to pay off a credit card, I don’t need to have immediate access to whatever money I’m able to save. I opened up a Roth IRA, started a fund for Hugga’s future (in addition to the CHET that my mom opened for her), moved Hugga’s birthday money into a high-yield savings account, and increased the amount of money I’m paying on my other credit card. I’m still not entirely sure what I’m doing yet, but I needed to start somewhere!
- Updated my PageOnce information. I started using PageOnce a while back, but forgot about it when I started using Mint. I still use Mint to track my finances, but one of PageOnce’s great features is that it helps you track due dates on your bills, which has been so necessary since we moved to L.A. They even have free iPhone app that puts your bill due dates on a calendar. My one complaint is that there’s no way to add bills manually (for rent or preschool), but I’m hoping they add it soon.
- Set up goals and budgets on Mint. Right now my most immediate goals (outside of just being able to pay the bills on time) are paying off my last credit card, and saving up for a course I really want to take. Cool thing is that it’ll track your progress and show you how long it’ll take to meet your goals if you contribute different amounts each month. Also, as always, Mint is helpful in showing me exactly how much money we waste on eating out each month.
- Outsourced the cleaning. “Outsourcing” seems like a slightly less snobby and less privileged way of saying “we hired a cleaning lady.” I am trying reconcile my feelings about this — it’s a little stretch for us to afford it, and I am constantly checking myself on whether or not we are exploiting cheap labor, but we are paying a reasonable amount for the time she spends here and what she does for us. Also, it makes my life a lot easier, and saves me a lot of stress.
So on my to-do list:
- Well, our dryer broke this morning so I’ll probably have to call somebody to come out here tomorrow. Bleh. I hope it won’t cost us an arm and a leg.
- Call the 401k provider for my hateful former employer and finally have that shit rolled over into an IRA or something.
- Print out a meal plan and start looking for some ideas. For this, I’d really like to commit to learning at least one new recipe a week and bumping that up as I feel more comfortable in the kitchen. I have been trying to do this for years, so I think baby steps are in order here.
- Figure out a daily schedule that works for me. As we fall into a routine here, I’m slowly figuring out which times of day are the best times to get super important work like my paid work and my fiction done. There are also daily/weekly tasks that I can do while Hugga plays close by. Obviously I can’t do anything rigid, but I’d like to be able to at least limit less enjoyable tasks to certain hours of the day, better utilize the tiny blocks of quiet time, and spend more time with the little one.
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