Ok this is going to be a fun one. I’m emergency searching for a new job to start immediately in 2022 so I can leave current job. I am GOING to get this sticker.
Every single paper/notebook from college years has to be scanned or just thrown away if useless.
I am not letting a single perishable food item in my fridge go to waste. I have so much gluten free flour on hand I will be surviving off home made pastries (could be fun)
I am going to earn at least $250 dollars on bike deliveries. This is the remaining amount before I hit the $600 taxable limit for 2021 for delivery contractors
I am going to sell as many useless to me items as I possibly can and moving into 2022 I’m becoming a minimalist.
Spending freeze. There’s nothing I have to buy between now and 2022 besides small gifts for Christmas and maybe food or bus pass (I can eat my pantry and ride my bike)
Okay, I keep meaning to get back to this and either getting sidetracked or just falling asleep while catching up on other threads, but since it’s now Dec. 4 for me I’m both adding the list and updating it (the update part being currently uninspiring, but whatever).
Sometime this month:
Finish painting that damn green room (down to the finicky edging bits which is why it keeps getting put off)
Hang new shelves in bathroom
Get final layer of stain on cabinet doors
Put together new shoe rack for back door
Add more insulation to top of door in from garage
Hang new(ish) art
Finish remaining shelves for bookshelf (need one more layer of sanding+stain)
Soon:
Confirm all presents for relatives I’m visiting at Christmas will fit in suitcase or get them shipped (must happen this week)
Wrap and drop off gifts for nursing home through work program
Figure out where they hid the not-actually-Angel Trees this year and pick 2-3 ornaments
Decide if dishwasher offered by friend 1) fits and 2) is something I actually want
ETA: Accidentally posted while not quite finished and formatted weirdly, so fixing that
Put out the items on the curb and they were GONE IN 30 MINUTES. I was in the backyard and didn’t hear one peep! Incredible. When I first moved I did a Big clean out of this house into a dumpster in the driveway, the next day any scrap metal in it was picked clean and I also didn’t hear a peep. Some sort of magical scavenger fairies…
This room currently contains our own two GPs, plus a pair of fosters. We almost always have a foster pair, our shortest turnaround was when one pair left at 2pm and the next pair arrived at 4:30 that evening.
All the children’s books are on the shelves in the closet, and both Kid1 and I use it as an office for evening zoom meetings (Scouts, Cadets, etc).
Wednesday I went to start purging and was quickly followed by Kid1. After booting him out many times (it’s not a big room, no one else was home and he just wanted to be where I was) I gave up and got the couch and background clean enough for his zoom cadet meeting. Thursday was a repeat of Wednesday. Friday, I had a day off and he did not so I was able to make progress and purge the extra GP gear. Because we take in fosters they often get surrendered with all their gear, so I have purged extra and broken water bottles, food dishes, etc.
Tidied the books on the shelf, but didn’t really sort or purge. Then the kids cleaned their rooms and re-stuffed the shelves with the extra books that were stashed in their rooms.
Didn’t have time to get into the second closet yet.
To break down the full list, rather than ‘clean GP room’
clean out extra GP gear (done)
Clean and purge bookshelves. This is hard, we love books.
Clean second closet. This currently contains… Years of kids schoolwork, and will be a huge task.
put up a desk-height shelf in the second closet for the laptop to sit on. Wall-mount the extra monitor in the closet. The goal is to move the workstation into the closet and get the table out of there.
Cancelled subscriptions = +31.17/mo
Spotify, Hulu, and Prime cancelled or paused. $13.77 refund pending. The only thing I pay for is $1.99/mo for Google storage.
Rescheduled a haircut this month to February to put off the $50 expense.
Switched to save $100 on renter’s insurance in 2022.
Finally resolved a medical claim from last annual physical down to $0 from $144 after a few calls between the insurance and the doctor’s office.
Photos and shipping weights for 40 items I’m planning to sell (mostly media stuff). I still have more!
Listed all the sewing pattern collection and books on eBay.
Going across the city tonight and I’ll bike not bus.
Visiting another neighborhood tomorrow and again I’ll try to bike not bus.
I am removing “hang quilt” from my list, since I looked at the package again and it says to purchase drywall screws separately. We don’t have drywall screws and I don’t want to try to buy them. Maybe it will happen next year.
UPDATE: We made time last night to go over the estate planning questionnaire and met with the attorney this morning. Super productive.
Remaining tasks:
Talk to family members to make sure everyone is comfy with their assigned roles (does my mom mind being the money person; is my 22-year-old married-teacher-and-homeowner niece cool with being the backup guardian [after her mom, my sister] for our Hypothetical Child C)
Think about what we want done with our house in the event of our tragic demise- would we want to make it available to my ex in the event of our untimely demise, so that my 2 existing children could have a stable home? (He currently lives with his wife and stepkids in her grandma’s basement.)
Consider appropriate percentages to divide our estate should we both perish- how much to BB and LB, how much to Hypothetical Child C, how much to provide for the care of the Boy’s mom (who lives comfortably but is not wealthy, and we’d like to leave money to cover things that we wouldn’t be there to do in person, should she become ill in the future)
Contemplate what to do with our money in the extremely unlikely event of a cataclysmic event that takes out me, the Boy, our existing children, and Hypothetical Child C. We need to name some charities and think of a reasonable percentage to sprinkle on our nieces and nephews.
NEW TASK: I realized that I haven’t paid my life insurance, or gotten a bill, since 2018. This could be a pricey mistake as they have probably long since cancelled it. I am required by the terms of my divorce to have a term life policy that names my ex as a beneficiary to the tune of $50K. So, INVESTIGATE my life insurance and ALSO INVESTIGATE my ex’s life insurance, because if my company can’t find me to bill me, then I bet his can’t find me to tell me that he stopped paying (as they are supposed to do).
That’s so annoying. Why wouldn’t they update you address automatically like so many things do? You’d think they’d want to keep track of you to keep getting your money.
If you need a new policy AAA has cheap term life insurance. I pay $17 a month for 50k, I think.
Well, I kind of have an easy month this month. I do have a few things I’d like to finish up though.
A quilt I started decades ago at 17 years old. My oldest work in progress. Mostly Hand pieced and hand quilted. Need I say more?
review and signing of wills and power of attorneys.
a decent haircut in a new style.
mail Christmas cards and, possibly, one package.
host a cookie exchange.
baking for said cookie exchange. Most of it is already done and in the freezer. But I have my signature Danish butter cookies to make yet.
sort through old journals and burn the not so good ones…IE. most of them!
finish purchasing and sending Christmas gifts. We often do e-gift cards for extended family. My family is large and spread across Canada from coast to coast. I limit gifts to those who want to exchange or have gone out of their way to make our life easier since our move. Otherwise I’d go broke over Christmas.
