Julie's Progress Report II

Finance: Spend less, save more, pay off credit card. Week's focus: Don't spend all my mad money.

I have $7.32 left from my $20 mad money this week. Thursday we went to my niece's 8th grade graduation and I got suckered into buying Sonic for Tim, Lily and I. Tim was just talking about how his friend had paid back some money he owed and he suggested the Sonic stop. It wasn't until after we ordered that he looked at me to pay. I was more than a little annoyed by this unplanned expense. Which brings me to a major finance and adultiness thing I need to work on: keeping score. I am a big scorekeeper, especially in the area of money. No matter how I try to "not keep score" I always get irritated by little things like Tim spending his Christmas movie gift card on movies with his friends while I spend my Christmas Old Navy gift card on summer clothes for Lily. It doesn't matter how much I remind myself that it is my choice to try to save as much money as possible, I get super Hulk-level pissed when Tim decides to use the money his friend repaid him to save for a new Xbox instead of paying off his credit card. (Note: he is pretty responsible about using the extra money he makes to pay his credit card. I should cut him some slack if he wants to set aside 10% of his income in the past month to save for a new Xbox.)

In other spending news, coming into the last week of the month, we're looking pretty good. Other than a trip to Chipotle (for which we had a BOGO gift card. I counted this not from my "mad money" but from my "dining" budget line item.) and a couple trips to Hobby Lobby for school project supplies (We probably could have completed this school project cheaper, but when it comes to books and school projects, I'd rather not tell the kid no.) we didn't really have any excess expense.

So my goals for next week are to again, save my mad money and to figure out how to overcome my emotional money score keeping. I'm thinking that telling myself not to keep score only makes me feel guilty when I get upset. I think instead something along the lines of "even-ing" the score (allowing myself to put aside equal amounts of money for whatever I want) will be a better solution. I'm going to work on this one.  
 
Fitness: Train for marathon. Week's goals: Go the distance, walk less, explore soft surface trails.

If you count today, I'm three for three on this week's goals. Today we went to the Weston Bluffs Trail to walk. From the state park to Weston it's asphalt and from the park to Beverly it's gravel.

My back was sore on Monday and Tuesday so I waited to run until Wednesday. That meant four days of runs with no rests but that was ok. Good thing my mileage is still low. I ran all my short runs and cut my pace from about 13 minutes/mile to 10:45. I took two walk breaks during my 5-miles so I was clipping along pretty fast (for me) when I was running.

I figured out on Sunday that the reason my back was sore was because of my long run. I ran both long runs on a trail and my short runs on the road. My legs are sometimes a little different length because my lower spine gets out of alignment sometimes. I'm going to try a few different things before I go to the chiropractor.

Goals for next week: I was going to try to switch my running time to morning but that was before I cut half my fingernail and a bit of my finger off. Now washing my hair will be too difficult to accomplish after a morning run. That will have to wait until I'm healed up. So I'll just repeat my goals again and try to figure out some core/back exercises to try to get things straightened up with my legs.

Career: Have a better attitude. Week's goals: Focus on progress.

I have to say that I did a little bit better this week. I assume that is only because I have an intern setting in my cubicle with me now.

Goal for next week: I'm going in the deep end and shooting for a week of extreme nice toward my boss.

Adultiness: Accomplish home repair, waste time better, don't focus on bad feelings. Week's goals: Streamline upstairs storage, weed gardens, avoid sudoku and crosswords. 

I managed to do all of these things this week, just not all the time. I cleared out my closet and the clothing storage under my bed. I moved almost everything downstairs and if I haven't worn my summer clothes by the end of September, they shall not be spared from the garage sale pile.I also weeded gardens. This is a never-ending task in my house. Also, I noticed this week that weeding gardens is a good way to get my mind off bad feelings. Bonus!

I mostly avoided sudoku and crosswords. After I sliced off part of my finger and had already read as much Appalachian Trail thru-hiker blogging as I could take, I had to do something while sitting quietly with one finger in the air--so sudoku it was. Can you really blame me?

Goal for next week: Straighten kitchen cabinets, read the books I've started, do a chore when I feel moody.