I have to finish my six grad school applications. That’s me gmst.
Did some significant revising on my writing sample and filled out as much of the rest of the application form for one of the schools as I can at the moment (need to upload personal statement, resume, and sample). Going to bed early, will wake up early and finish my writing sample so that I can get it uploaded and done.
Week 1 Check-In: I didn’t finish my fiction writing sample when I said I would. I’ve put in a lot of time working on it, and I’m pretty frustrated that it’s at 5000 words but still only 18.5 pages long (when it should be at 20). It still needs a lot of polishing, but I have to walk away and do something else for a while.
All of the easy form-filling parts of the apps are done. I haven’t even tried writing my personal statements yet, and I’m avoiding checking to see if my letters of recommendation have been uploaded.
Found out where the centre is. I also added more stuff to the box.
I looked around in the boxes and have plans to consolidate some of them. I don’t have time/ energy for a major purge, but consolidating will help me ditch a few things.
Go Bag: discussed with my Better Half, he’s agreed we need 2 (one for a day leave, one for overnight/ multiple night leave). Made some lists.
Started a BINGO card and a list of places to visit.
Browsed my favourite waste free website and purchased a meal plan for small children.
Found out where the offices are for new licenses. This is a task for after daycare drop off this week.
Achieved: none
Next week: drivers licence and electronics.
Plan travel and garden budgets for next year Travel plans for 2020 are set. Continued thoughts about garden projects and plans will continue.
Get Goodwill/BN pile out of the house! In progress! Lots of BN stuff pending pickup.
End of year charity donations - talk to mr krmit
Look into making a will Discovered a free will service is offered through my union, so might go with that.
look at transfer options for a no-interest checking account that’s been kicking around for a year Gonna close the account and move it over into our main checking account. On the to do list for Monday.
Update to this update: the county has raised the fee for paying property taxes by card from ~$5 to over $30 since last year. We only have to hit a $1K spend in 90 days. So we’re going to put everything else on that card and go up to the county office next week, checkbook in hand.
wrote out 20 recipes and purchased page protector sheets to store them in a binder for protection from messy cooking but also ease of editing the recipe. My hand writing is so ugly, but if I tried to print them out it would never get done.
Nope - difficult to do when the SO keeps ripping his sim racing stuff apart in there. For my things I want to do will be deferred until I get back.
Went through a few things, can do more when I get back
Almost used up one which was a start! Got a tea and a cookie for a friend that was working really hard and brought it to her as a treat. Still 1.31 to use up but will do that this month.
I guess technically I did this? I found out my company is downsizing and I’m getting laid off at the end of December so unless interest rates are still super low once I’ve gotten a new job, we won’t be refinancing. I should probably substitute updating my resume and applying for jobs for this one.
I’d like to today. This requires my husband’s cooperation and I’m not sure if I can get him to do it.
I technically get severance but it’s not very much. They’re also paying out my PTO balance, which happened to be pretty high so that helps. I think I’m eligible for unemployment but I haven’t looked into it yet because bureaucracy stresses me out and I haven’t gotten my anxiety levels low enough to be able to figure it out. I’ve been working remotely and my company is in a different state so that might complicate things.
We do also have an emergency fund and my husband is gainfully employed, but my inner bag lady doesn’t care about facts.
Sorry about this. Being a remote worker might impact some of the support your corporation would provide - my ex-employer provided some job-searching support for those impacted during big layoffs. But I worked at headquarters, so I am not sure how or if that was offered for someone at a small location where only a few people were let go.
Figure out how to spend the last $40 in my health FSA before the deadline on the 15th
****I haven’t spent this yet, but within the next 7 days I will use this money to buy a replacement pair of frames for my glasses that broke. I think I will still be paying $20 oop. I need old lenses I have put in the new frame —idk if purchasing only the frames disqualifies it? If not I’ll spend the $$ on contact lens solution and I might need to go to a walk in PT clinic to get regular appointments set up?
For the first time ever — create and stick to a legit meal plan for the full month —closely tied in with general eat down the pantry goals
****I did not fully plan out meals, but I didn’t eat out at all this week besides getting one coffee on my lunch break. No grocery shop either. I ate Mac n cheese every single night last week lol. I’ll try to write out some plans or recipes to ight for the coming week.
Decide on a firm budget for christmas gifts for my sisters and decide what to purchase (or make?) for them
****I didn’t really set a budget beforehand, but something I had my eye on beforehand for my sister went on sale on Amazon for $25, and that felt reasonable. I want to contribute a small amount to a college savings fund for her as well (like $50 or less, mostly symbolic — I can’t add much for her over time but I want it to be there) Now I’ll probably aim for under $30 for my other sister to keep things even. Still need to decide. I think I’m going to get her a gift card for a nice lingerie boutique? That sounds bizarre but she’s getting a breast reduction in February so she’ll need new stuff and I think she’d appreciate it? I will get her another gift as well because she won’t need the bras until Feb.
1. Log/File one year’s worth of financial papers (I usually do this in January, but it seemed appropriate for this month’s challenge) - won’t do this until near the end of the month. 2. Get that $*&% IRA rollover done! - didn’t work on this until Friday afternoon, Vanguard help line had a 20-30 min wait and I didn’t have that kind of time, so will try again Monday. Not optimistic I’ll get it done before the end of the year. 3. Minimum spend ($2500) on new CC, to include 2019 charitable giving Did the donations. Still need a few hundred dollars on this card but am prioritizing the next one right now since that spending has to happen in December. 4. Spend on cc with an extra bonus this month ($1200). I’m within $20 of this after paying my home and car insurance bills and buying train tickets for Jan trip and putting general spending on this card this month. 5. Figure out how much capital gains harvesting I can do this year and actually do it. No progress here yet. 6. Cancel cable, which was a condition of me signing up for Hulu during the Black Friday/ Cyber Monday special. No progress here yet.
Added: 7. Continue to track spending on holiday meal food and groceries for houseguests. No spending this week.
Next week: MUST DO IRA ROLLOVER. Finish spending on at least one card.
Started draft of ONE hw assignment on certification
Located email from CPA with the list of things needed for taxes (and remembered why I keep putting it off). Copied that list into a task file on my Evernote.
Emailed web designer to check in and ask for what I owe to get momentum going on it.
Emailed photographer to check in and remind her I exist and need to do stuff.
More significant progress on household de-cluttering and “stuff” goals -
Got rid of one large item
Dropped off smaller items of clutter
Posted 2 larger items for sale & 2 others to gift on BN - will let these percolate for a week & if no response, will downshift each one (the ones posted for sale go to BN, the ones on BN get donated)
Cleaned and tested one small appliance I had received via BN and not attempted to use. Watched youtube video of similar appliance. Searched for manual online (not easily found). Figured out what (simple) accessories I need to use the appliance and decided to keep it.
Opened and charged new item I purchased that I had left in the box for more than a month. Will actually be able to use it now.
Future Planning -
Thought about what to put on my 2020 BINGO and goals.
TV/Movie/Streaming Challenge -
Kept to the challenge as posted with one notable exception. Did a rewatch of a show I’d seen previously (approx. 15 episodes of 43 mins each) to accompany 4 long podcasts about the show. Streamed all episodes during the week - only some while doing clean-up tasks.
Travel plans for 2020 are set. Continued thoughts about garden projects and plans will continue.
1. Log/File one year’s worth of financial papers (I usually do this in January, but it seemed appropriate for this month’s challenge) - won’t do this until near the end of the month.
2. Get that $*&% IRA rollover done! - didn’t work on this until Friday afternoon, Vanguard help line had a 20-30 min wait and I didn’t have that kind of time, so will try again Monday. Not optimistic I’ll get it done before the end of the year.
3. Minimum spend ($2500) on new CC, to include 2019 charitable giving Did the donations. Still need a few hundred dollars on this card but am prioritizing the next one right now since that spending has to happen in December.