30 Things

Since today is the 30th (yikes), I thought it would make sense to wrap up the 30 Things today. Like last year, there’s only about a 50% success rate, but this year there are other things that I’m proud of that cancel out not buying home furnishings or going to restaurants:
– I found a house to buy.
– I didn’t drunk-dial or drunk-email or drunk-text any ex-boyfriends. (I am inordinately proud of that.)

But on to the list I put up at the beginning on the year–green is accomplished, yellow is a sort-of accomplished, and red is a no. Commentary is in italics.

1. Put the money that I was using to pay off debt into savings for a down payment on some sort of house, townhouse, or condo. DONE! I just dipped into the down payment fund for earnest money and a construction deposit. Hooray for a year of saving!
2. Learn about real estate and home buying through the Utah State Extension classes. Done! Real Estate for Dummies worked for me!
3. Stop buying non-essentials (ready-made clothes, really expensive fabric, shoes, magazines, etc.) for three months (months TBD) I made it a month and then set some limits, and then I fell for J. Crew again.
4. Buy that Eames desk chair. I’ll use the money I’ll be saving from not buying any non-essentials. I do have a new desk, which I needed more than a chair, so I’m calling this done. (On most home furnishings, I just decided to wait and see what happened with the house hunt.)
5. Buy that damn garbage can already. See above.
6. Buy a living room chair–armless, small-ish, but comfy. This will help with seating to accomplish #22. Done!
7. Sew new pillow covers for the living room. Done!
8. Buy a vacuum. Done!
9. Refresh my yoga skills and then…
10. Start doing yoga once or twice a week. Kind of done. I started in June and then slacked off in the late fall and winter, but at least I went enough to realize that I need to go more.
11. Get recycling at the apartment. I haven’t had it for three years and I’m tired of feeling guilty every time I throw away some junk mail. Not done. Sorry, Earth–but soon I should have my own recycling!
12. Similarly, bring in some actual flatware for the break room at work to cut down on waste. Also not done. Apparently I’d rather feel guilty than go to a thrift store…
13. November-March, walk or ride to work at least twice a month. April-September, up it to at least four times a month. Fail on this one. I guess this was the year of Looking At Houses On The Internet Instead Of Exercising.
14. Eat at one new restaurant a month–any meal, but it has to be somewhere I haven’t been before. I kind of lost count, but I know I didn’t go where I planned. I think I’d have a better success rate if I could go to restaurants alone…
15. Eat at Red Iguana. Never mind. I’m over you, Red Iguana.
16. Go to Bonneville Speed Week. No. It seemed like too much of an insider’s club to just drive out to, and the lack of info about it didn’t help.
17. Go to a roller derby game. Done–but demolition derbies are better.
18. Stop biting my fingernails (I mean it this year). DONE! DONE! DONE! All it took was some color…
19. Wear more colors of lipstick than “pink” and “darker pink.” I bought red lipstick…
20. Find a perfume I want to wear regularly. Done!
21. Stock and maintain a home bar and keep it stocked. No drinking it up and not replacing it. Done! Yay, booze!
22. Have more people over to the apartment–not huge parties, but a few people for dinner, or drinks before a restaurant, etc. I was being really social (for me) at the beginning of the year but petered out in spring and summer. I am planning on my New Year’s party, though.
23. Learn more about wine. The wine class in January will have to count.
24. Learn and retain the difference between whisk(e)y, bourbon, and scotch. They’re all whiskey. Bourbon and scotch are just variations of it. (Thanks, Jason!)
25. Learn and retain the difference between brandy and cognac. Likewise, cognac is just a particular type of brandy (from the Cognac region, AOC.)
26. Get my eyes checked again, update my prescription, and start wearing glasses in front of the computer. Not yet, but they haven’t been bothering me as much.
27. Find a dermatologist to look at a couple of moles, if only so I can stop worrying about skin cancer. Um, no. But on the medical front I will schedule a visit with ENT before the end of the year (hello, tonsillectomy 2012!)
28. Learn how to can fruits, veggies, or jam. Done! I canned all sorts of things!
29. Get a better camera. I’ve picked out a replacement but I just haven’t bought it yet.
30. Go to Moab and/or Zion. No. Again, I’d have a better success rate if I went alone, but going on vacation alone when you have a roommate is fun and exciting; going when you live alone is just more of the same, minus your darling cat.

It’s about time for the third quarter report on my 30 Things, but I don’t feel as if I’ve made a lot of progress (in fact, I’ve regressed on riding my bike). But I do have two things done that I’m proud of:

That’s #18 [Stop biting my fingernails] and #2 [Learn more about real estate].

Honestly, I feel that #18 can be up there with paying off debt as a supreme achievement. All it took was noticeable fingernail polish–because then people would notice all my chewed cuticles and hangnails, too–and I stopped.

Simple solutions, books for dummies….who knew?

Now that it’s July, I realized it’s been six months since I put up my list of 30 Things To Do Before 31. Halfway through the year, I’m not really halfway done but I think the progress has been steadier than last year. The full list is below, with commentary–green is done, red is not, and pending or in progress things are orange.

1. Put the money that I was using to pay off debt into savings for a down payment on some sort of house, townhouse, or condo. Still saving!
2. Learn about real estate and home buying through the Utah State Extension classes. I made it through the first few chapters, ran aground on the “choosing a realtor” unit (there was an icky video) and then gave up. But I need to learn about earnest money and closing costs.
3. Stop buying non-essentials (ready-made clothes, really expensive fabric, shoes, magazines, etc.) for three months (months TBD) I made it a month, and now I’m limiting personal spending to $100 or less a month–so far, so good.
4. Buy that Eames desk chair. I’ll use the money I’ll be saving from not buying any non-essentials. I’ve actually found a different desk chair and have plans to get a whole new desk set-up involving an IKEA desk top, filing cabinets, and decoupage. I’ll let you know how it goes.
5. Buy that damn garbage can already. Um…
6. Buy a living room chair–armless, small-ish, but comfy. This will help with seating to accomplish #22. Done!
7. Sew new pillow covers for the living room. Done!
8. Buy a vacuum. Done! (How did I live so long without one?!)
9. Refresh my yoga skills and then…
10. Start doing yoga once or twice a week. In progress. I finally started going to beginning yoga in June and I’ve mostly kept it up.
11. Get recycling at the apartment. I haven’t had it for three years and I’m tired of feeling guilty every time I throw away some junk mail. Not done. Sorry, Earth.
12. Similarly, bring in some actual flatware for the breakroom at work to cut down on waste. Also not done. But I feel guilty every time I throw away a plastic fork.
13. November-March, walk or ride to work at least twice a month. April-September, up it to at least four times a month. Summer is going pretty well.
14. Eat at one new restaurant a month–any meal, but it has to be somewhere I haven’t been before. I’ve been doing ok with this, if you count Sampan takeout in June as a restaurant experience. (And I do.)
15. Eat at Red Iguana. Why is this so hard? I’ve been trying for two years now!
16. Go to Bonneville Speed Week. It’s in August. Or in October. They need a better website.
17. Go to a roller derby game. Planned for this Saturday, so I say it’s green!
18. Stop biting my fingernails (I mean it this year). Things were bad, then I got a manicure, then I did some home manicures, and then crazy a week at work did me in again. I think I can keep up the manicures at home.
19. Wear more colors of lipstick than “pink” and “darker pink.” Um…
20. Find a perfume I want to wear regularly. Done!
21. Stock and maintain a home bar and keep it stocked. No drinking it up and not replacing it. I still haven’t done this–for some reason it seems SO decadent to go spend $150 on booze all at once.
22. Have more people over to the apartment–not huge parties, but a few people for dinner, or drinks before a restaurant, etc. I was being really social (for me) at the beginning of the year but no one has been over all spring. I’d better plan something.
23. Learn more about wine. Does a wine class in January count?
24. Learn and retain the difference between whisk(e)y, bourbon, and scotch. “Retain” is the key word here…
25. Learn and retain the difference between brandy and cognac. Cognac is more expensive? Does that count?
26. Get my eyes checked again, update my prescription, and start wearing glasses in front of the computer. Not yet.
27. Find a dermatologist to look at a couple of moles, if only so I can stop worrying about skin cancer. Ha, I’ve been too busy sunbathing to look up a doctor…
28. Learn how to can fruits, veggies, or jam. Done! Oh, the feeling of accomplishment. What can I can next?
29. Get a better camera. Every time I get a blurry or overly dark shot (which is ALL the time with the Target closeout toy camera I use), I mean to really do the research and just buy one. Not yet, though…
30. Go to Moab and/or Zion. Planned for the fall, hooray!

My month of not buying non-essentials was pretty successful: I did buy a manicure last month but that was from my list so I’m not being too hard on myself for it. I also went to Starbucks a few times.

But overall, it wasn’t so bad to get back in the non-spending habit–much easier than when I first went on a budget four years ago and had to approach not spending the way an alcoholic approaches not drinking (one day at a time). I’m glad I proved to myself I can still do it, because once I get a house I think not spending is going to become the new normal (again).

I am FINALLY instituting my spending freeze…it’s a little sad that I meant to do it for three months at the beginning of the year, and here I am a week into May hoping I can make it a month. (Why a week into May? The local fabric store had an anniversary sale and, um, so did J. Crew.)

So from now until June 6, I will not buy shoes, ready-made clothing, or ANY fabric*, nor things for the house that I want but aren’t essential (a desk chair is the exception, if I find one, since it’s on the list.)

I hope I can do it!

And that is definitely a first-world worry…

*I had originally said “no really expensive fabric” but I have enough yardage stacked up to be sewing through July without buying any more, expensive or not.

Thing #20 on the 30 Things is done, and the winner is L’Heure Bleue, by Guerlain. Created in 1912, this is described by Guerlain “a bouquet of roses softened with iris, violet and vanilla,” but you have to go read some of the reviews on Basenotes: “An old woman sobbing softly in a church” (?), “a mixture of White Diamonds and baby powder” (!), “thawing earth and sulking, hardy blossoms.” Apparently, it is a love it or hate it sort of smell.

To me it smells mostly like violets (I’m no perfume expert), but expensive violets–kind of how I imagine someone’s apartment in Paris would smell. It seems calm, and kind, and confident, and those are all good things to be when you’re 30.

It’s been three months since I put up my list for this year, so I thought I’d report on it. Seven things are done or going well, I’ve already had to modify a couple other, and the rest are pending. Commentary on successes, modifications, and challenges below:

1. Put the money that I was using to pay off debt into savings for a down payment on some sort of house, townhouse, or condo.
Yes, I am doing this every month–Toby needs a yard to play in. I’d like to start channeling some extra money in there in addition to the main savings.

3. Stop buying non-essentials (ready-made clothes, really expensive fabric, shoes, magazines, etc.) for three months (months TBD)
I’m cutting this back to a month at a time with the option to extend it to the full 3 if I can get back into the frugal habit. (I think that May and June will be the months–I want to start after I get my tax return, which is getting spent on things like vacuums and desk chairs and end tables.)

6. Buy a living room chair–armless, small-ish, but comfy. This will help with seating to accomplish #22.
Done!

7. Sew new pillow covers for the living room.
Done!

8. Buy a vacuum.
As soon as I get my tax return.

9. Refresh my yoga skills and then…
10. Start doing yoga once or twice a week.
I’m going to try to get to the intro class this month, then get into the habit of an evening class in May.

13. November-March, walk or ride to work at least twice a month. April-September, up it to at least four times a month.
I get a resounding FAIL on walking from November to March–I think it only happened once. And my 4 times/month goal in April isn’t going to happen, but I will try to ride at least once. Fortunately, I have a bike buddy who works across the street from me to get me going.

14. Eat at one new restaurant a month–any meal, but it has to be somewhere I haven’t been before.
So far, so good! Between Vegas and fun work lunches with my bike buddy, I’m doing just fine. And I’m counting the bar at Bambara as a restaurant for this month.

18. Stop biting my fingernails (I mean it this year).
Really, how hard should this be? It’s not so much the nail as the skin around the nail that I destroy, and the more stressed I get the more that happens. Maybe I will try a manicure next week.

19. Wear more colors of lipstick than “pink” and “darker pink.”
Um, not only have I not been wearing new colors, I’ve pretty much stopped re-applying it after all the morning coffee at work.

20. Find a perfume I want to wear regularly.
Samples of some classic Guerlain and a new Chanel scent are on their way!

21. Stock and maintain a home bar and keep it stocked. No drinking it up and not replacing it. TAX RETURN = BOOZE. Hooray!

22. Have more people over to the apartment–not huge parties, but a few people for dinner, or drinks before a restaurant, etc.
Yes! Between a wine class (see below) and the three attempts to see Sherlock Holmes, Toby has had lots of after-work visitors.

23. Learn more about wine.
I learned about value wines of Italy in January and that was really fun. I really want to take one of the classes on French wine later this year.

I am really going to push myself this year to be more social–not only to get out more, but to have more people come to the apartment. Last year there were hardly any visitors, and if I’m not going to turn into a crazy cat lady hermit, I need to change that.

So I bought a chair (Thing #6) and rearranged the living room. Now guests can make their way to the seating area easily and we won’t have to sit side-by-side and try to talk.

I “cheated” on this, too, in that I picked it out online when I was making my 30 Things list, but I was going to wait to order it–until Target had a sale plus free shipping after Christmas. I do love that Target furniture.
Toby does, too.