goals

Everything I spent money on last week (2/11)

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I’m on a money-saving journey this year since I want to take some time off of work next year. I burned out last year, feel like I have lost every ounce of creativity, and want to make a life pivot (more on that in another post).

I made a strict budget for myself at the beginning of the year and did okay sticking to it in January, but haven’t done a great job in February so far (oops). Here’s everything out of my budget this week that I need to reign in for the rest of the month/in March along with some strategies for the future.

  1. Eating Out: This is always a big one but in the last week (actually the last few days), I spent $110 eating out. I still want to go out and enjoy spending time with my friends, but I think I can cut back.
    • Suggest cheaper places to eat out. For me, the point of eating out is to spend time with my friends and to occasionally try new restaurants. I can suggest cheaper places to eat so I’m not feeling guilty about going over budget.
    • Don’t order drinks. Even sodas! One of the ways to make things cheaper is to only spend money on food and not order any add ons. I did order a coke this weekend because I was so tired and needed extra caffiene.
    • Suggest going for a walk or hike or coffee. All of these are way cheaper than eating out and a walk can help with my exercise goals too!
  2. Nail polish: Not sure why, but I’ve suddenly gotten very into nail polish and so spent $26 buying some new colors.
    • Add items I want to my wishlist. Whenever I want something new I’ve started adding it to the back of my journal with the price, the date, and a terribly drawn picture. It’s fun and also keeps track of all the items I want (but hopefully don’t want in the future)
  3. New jeans: Okay, so I actually only have one pair of jeans and am looking to get a new pair. I saved about half of this in my budget, but the ones I wanted were on sale, so I just bought them. $70
    • Same as above! Add to my wishlist.

In total, that’s $206 dollars I wasn’t really planning on spending, but did. I’m not going to beat myself up about it, but just learn from this and move forward with my next steps.

How are you feeling about your budget so far this year?

Until next time!

How to Try New Things as an Adult

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Being an adult is hard. We get stuck in our own little bubbles and just work, cook, and clean…and clean some more. (Seriously though…so much cleaning…) Sometimes we have hobbies beyond watching Netflix or HBO, but it’s hard to do things after work – even if we’ve been sitting for eight hours a day.

BUT….isn’t there that one thing you’ve always wanted to try or do. Maybe you want to learn how to play the piano, or you want to get back into playing the sport you loved when you were a kid. Maybe you want to learn a new language and then go visit a new country to practice. Whatever it is, it can be kind of scary to start as an adult and especially to start alone!

As adults, we’re not used to trying new things unless we get a new job or move to a new city. Even then there’s some guidelines in place for what we should and shouldn’t do. Starting something new when you know no one and you’ll (most definitely) be bad at it is scary! We’re not used to being bad at things once we reach a certain age. But it’s also exciting. You can be terrible and get better! Here are three tips to just start.

  1. Do your research: Find a class that’s beginner friendly. I started going to ballet class as an adult without any foundation and did some in-depth research on beginner classes. Some classes claim to be for beginners, but you need a base level of knowledge to take it. In the end, I found a 6 week beginner class that claimed to be for people with no dance background and it was! It was great to be with people and learn with adults who had no background in dance. We could all fumble along together.
  2. Try it out: If you can’t determine if it’s a beginner class, you can call and find out. If you’re still not sure then, take a deep breath, and just go. If you hate it and feel out of your depth you don’t have to go back! You’ll never see those people again so be as terrible as you can be. But at least you’re trying.
  3. Keep going: Maybe you enjoyed the class. Go back! Maybe you felt foolish. Go back! Or if you didn’t like it at all (like one dance class I tried where the teacher was rather rude), then don’t go back. Find something else! We have the freedom to choose what we do and don’t do and where we spend our money, so spend your time and money on things you enjoy. 🙂

I hope to get back into ballet now that the studio is open again. And I want to try a few other things – some recipes, go to some new museums, and just generally get out of my apartment again. What do you want to try?

Until next time.

One way to set goals

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Have you heard of SMART goals? It’s a way to set goals or take larger goals and break them down into actionable steps. I like this system because it really helps me think about my goals and break them down into steps I’m actually able to accomplish.

I have written a book before – a middle grade novel. I’m very proud of that accomplishment because writing really is hard, but when I sent out to a few agents I didn’t get any bites. Maybe I should have tried more agents, but I got discouraged and got new ideas in my head (those beautiful new ideas). I really believe in this currently story I’m trying to write and I do want to get it out of my head and into the world, but life gets in the way and work gets busy so I need to set serious goals for myself!

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Relevant

Time-based

Write a book

  • Specific: I would like to finish editing my book by the end of the year.
  • Measurable: I will edit 2 pages per day.
  • Attainable: I will cut back on my social media time and try to get out of bed earlier (instead of just laying in bed and scrolling through TikTok.)
  • Relevant: I need to write my book because this is something I’ve always dreamed about and think about on a daily basis.
  • Time-based: End of the year!

I’ll try to do regular updates on my goals because I really need accountability partners and you’re it!

How to get the life I want

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The short answer is I don’t know, and the long answer is you have to work for it. The past year and half has been hard for everyone, and while I am certainly more privileged than most, I’m still not happy. It’s due to a number of reasons that I’m still digging into and my unravel with time, but at the moment I have three goals:

  • Take a sabbatical in the next few years
  • Find what makes me happy and do more of that
  • Finish the novel I’m writing and try to get it published

That’s it really.

I do want to acknowledge that part of starting this blog again is to try to cultivate a small source of income for when I do decide to take my sabbatical. There’s a fair chance I would have to quit my job and I would feel much better knowing there’s a small amount of money coming in.

In the coming weeks I’ll be figuring out content I want to share, updating by 18 in 2018 (clearly), and generally stumbling around in the dark and trying things. What fun!

2020 Focus

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I’m sooooo late on the New Year’s Resolution post, but the thing I like about New Year’s Resolutions is that you should really be working on them all year! So even though it’s well into February, I’m still focusing on myself and trying to complete some goals.

  1. Tidiness – I am not a tidy person, so am trying to get rid of things and tidy for at least 15 minutes every day. Marie Kondo didn’t really do it for me, but this Clutterbug book did.
  2. Fitness – I really stopped exercising last year because work got CRAZY, but I’ve come to realize that I’m happier and have less achey pain when I exercise. (Ummm…obviously…)
  3. French! – I’ve always wanted to be proficient in a second language, so I started taking French class last year. But I’m not devoting enough time outside of the one and a half hour class each week. If future me wants to know two languages, then now me better be working on it!
  4. Write – Pretty self explanatory. I want to get a book deal this year, so I better get cracking.

So I’m late to the party, but at least I came to the party! And I’ll try to keep this whole thing-a-ma-jig more consistent, because why not.

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