Moving on up

So I’m moving twice in a little over a month, and moving stuff to three locations. It’s pretty nerve wracking. Or, it is for a likely-to-be stressed person like me. But this blog isn’t about stress (well, sometimes it is)-it’s about saving.

photo by Eden Hensley

I’m planning on saving on boxes by using discarded boxes from work. If you don’t have boxes at work, you can try grocery stores and liquor stores, and sometimes drugs stores, for the boxes shipments come in. Be friendly and willing to accept a no when you ask for boxes, but also try to find out what day they get shipments in since that’s when they’ll have a lot of extra boxes to get rid of.

I am also getting some of the bubble wrap we normally throw away from work. it actually coincides well with my goal of cleaning out my office more-I used to stockpile bubble wrap for mailing things, and then never actually use it. I’m also planning on grabbing a bunch of the free newspapers available at the subway station.

You can always try craigslist and freecycle. I see packing materials listed all the time on craigslist on my free in my neighborhood feed, and if they were nearby I would totally grab some.

I’m also using craigslist to sell the big stuff I don’t need anymore. Even though I just bought some of this recently, it’s almost like free money, which is exciting.

The rest of the stuff I am giving away for free, because, well, I like getting things for free. In fact, I am giving away a couple things I got for free recently, but that’s okay.

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As for my goals, it looks like I will make it and be under $300, but I still have to see how much gas ends up costing me, and am short a gift still. I broke it down into categories to help me not overspend. I’ve spent a bit too much on lunches, but I’ll just cut back on my dinners and/or miscellaneous fund to balance it out. Eating out is always my weakness.

September Goals

First off. I was going to make a goal post (heh, goal post) for August. Then, before I knew it, August was halfway done. And now, magically it is September.

I love September and hate August. August is hot, and sticky, and doesn’t have any holidays. September the weather cools off, the leaves turn. and to kick everything off there’s a 3-day weekend. It starts on a good note and gets better from there. This is also because as a young child I was a huge nerd and loved school, and September meant returning to school. It also meant a clean slate. It didn’t matter how many times I’d been late for class, missed class, failed a test, or forgotten to turn in a homework assignment before. This was a brand new year, and there were no mistakes.

Now that I’m a grown up (allegedly) and am worried about budgeting, every month can be a clean slate. Some people don’t like doing it that way. For some people it is easier to think day to day or week to week. For some budgets are yearly. Of course, many people don’t do any budgeting at all, but if you are going to try, it makes sense to experiment with what works for you.

Which brings me to goal number one, and from there, to the rest 😉 These are only my goals that relate to money or this blog by the way, I do think about and work on other things, I promise.

1. Stick to a weekly budget. Since this is the month my rent just about doubles, I need to get serious about the budgeting. It’s been hard for me to keep track or stick to an amount over the course of a month, I’m giving myself an allowance per week and seeing how it goes. I am starting off with a really strict one and if I can’t do it, I’ll relax it for next month. I feel like I tend to spend the amount I have, so if I make it more lax it will seem like just the right amount no matter what. The plan is to start on Friday since I spend more on weekends, and that way I am less likely to risk running out and being unable to do some fun weekend thing, and more likely to know how much I have to spend when people go out for drinks on Thursdays.

2. Update on a regular schedule. I originally had an idea that I’d try to update three days a week. I haven’t been. I’m going to try harder, but I’m not going to post if I don’t feel I have anything interesting to say. I figure if I do this I am also more likely to stick to goal number one, because I can post how I did on Fridays.

3. Find some extra income. I have a couple leads on some side work I could do in the evenings, and I haven’t been following up. I need to do this.

4. Use what I have. Since I’ll be on a stricter budget, I don’t want to starve, and I don’t want to feel I am depriving myself in regards to food or clothing or whatever. So the plan is to make better use of food by using up ingredients I already have. With clothing, more t-shirt surgeries, more digging through old clothing to find things I like again. With books, swap!

Hopefully writing out the goals will help me try to meet them. The last goal I have is for October: to post an update on how this goes. Then if I fail, you can mock me! Or cheer me on to do better next time.

Feel free to post September goals in the comments, or offer ideas on helping me meet mine. Except for you, free poker guy who has been trying to comment.