Goal 53. Get securities to meet current needs

Let's talk about...... money!

So far on One Neurotic Egghead I haven't talked about money at all. Which is interesting since an entire section of my goals is based on money and I really really like playing with my budget! Oh yeah, you heard me, I actually enjoy it (most of the time). I think playing with a budget is the poor man's way to play in piles of money like Uncle Scrooge. 

One of the reasons I think money is fun is because I really hate shopping and to me when you are deciding where you get to spend your money it's like shopping in your mind. You know where you go into one store, find the perfect item, it happens to be on sale and you buy it? Yeah.... fantasy. So some parts of budgeting is fantasy based. But this post is supposed to be about reality. The reality of some non-"fun" parts of the budget....... Insurance.

Goal 74. Walk somewhere you would normally drive

Source

Since I clearly have lots of time to spend, I decided that Tuesday was a great day for a walk. It was a lovely day, and very warm. In fact, I dressed far too warmly, thinking it was a warm Fall day, when it was actually a warm Indian Summer day. As I walked I thought about the last book I took out of the library, Organized Simplicity, and the main thing that struck me is how complicated simplicity can be.

Goal 80. Streamline cleaners

The best part of moving house means that you also get to do a huge junk removal process. Before moving we got rid of tons of stuff (boxes of books, huge bags of clothes, furniture and kitchen gadgets) and we are still continuing this process. I have already taken a box to Value Village and have started a second!

While simplifying and minimalism are great ideas it is important not to just focus on reducing but the reasons why we simplify. It is not enough just to get rid of things, but a lot goes into deciding what to keep and what to toss. It's like editing a paper. (Prince Charming has gone back to school so academia is on my mind!)

One of my goals has been to streamline my cleaning products for a long time. I also wanted to keep the most effective and green products I could. Here's how I decided to finish up this goal.

Goal 35. Design a Grown-up, Cozy Living Room

The goal that has been overtaking my life! taking my time this week has been sewing curtains. Since I am still fun-employed I have been working on getting my house set-up and gorgeous during this time.

As part of my goals I had written down the feelings I wanted in each of my rooms, and then to further this intentional decorating I wrote down the functions I wanted each room to play. In my living room I wanted it to be a room to share with others, so I decided to move some things out of it (read: ugly textbooks), and move other things in, such as the board games and DVD's that we would want to share with others. I also am going to be using this room as my "office" space. I haven't figured out how to do this yet, so right now I am just stashing my stuff on a shelf behind doors. Right now it would also be a guest room, as we wait for me to find a job! It is doing a great job of holding all these functions.

Last week I found a great series of posts on the Nesting Place called 31 Days to a Better Dressed Nest. I have been devouring these posts, and trying to use them in my own house. In particular, 2 of her suggestions: Incorporate fabric, and Group it. I decided to hang my curtains and made a grouping of pictures as my focal point. You can see both in the video below and see how I made these curtains.

New Year, New Look!

Today marks the 365th day for my goals!! Which means I am more than a third of the way through my time to complete all these goals, and I am definitely not one-third of the way through the goals. I need to get to work!

In the past few months I have been posting, which has really made me focus on completing my goals more.  That is the primary intention of this blog. However, another intention of the blog was also so that I could communicate the going's-on of my life with friends and family that do not live close enough to actually see what we are doing. One thing I have realized is that since I never post on any type of schedule it would be frustrating to try to follow this blog. So... I have a new plan! Each week I am going to post on Thursday nights the round-up of all goals I have completed that week. This way people can read the posts as they like and don't have to waste time checking to see if a new post is up. Let's see how it goes!

In other news, we made progress on a goal!