Project for self-improvement #1: Organization

There are several things that I need to work on. My biggest one? Organization. At work and at home, I am extremely disorganized. I am in charge of filing at work. Both paper and electronic files.

I am a month behind in my paper filing. Electronic filing is up to date, but the paper files is where others look for things in my absence. So I fear calling in sick, because if someone were to need something they probably wouldn't be able to find it without me. Some day, I will get sick. It's just not possible that I will be healthy forever. Therefore, I need to get caught up on my paper filing to serve the office better.

At home, it's not just organization, but general cleanliness that I need to work on. By the way, I live with my boyfriend, who I will be recruiting to help with all of the following problems:
1) Laundry piles up until we are out of clothes. There is no official laundry day.
2) Dishes will pile up in the sink, and we have a dishwasher. That is insanity. Put the dishes in the dishwasher. If the dishwasher is full, run it. If it is full of clean dishes, take two minutes to unload. There should never be dishes in the sink.
3) Bathroom counter is covered with all my toiletries. They need to be put under the sink, in the drawer, or in the medicine cabinet. At the very least, lined up neatly against the mirror.
4) We don't have a vaccuum cleaner or a mop. Gross, but true. I've been borrowing my mom's vaccuum every couple of weeks. We did have a mop, but it broke. Our kitchen floor is sticky and the carpet looks nasty. We need to budget for a vaccuum and a mop.
5) Tables are always cluttered. This includes the dining room table and all coffee and end tables. Most of it is junk mail and uncategorized crap, like my ipod nano and Stacey's paycheck stubs. Time to organize the clutter.

I have a plan. Or rather, an experiement. For all of next week, I will FORCE myself to stick to this. I will use this weekend to prepare.

My work plan:
1) Give myself two 15-minute breaks, just like any other job I've had. Two hours into my day and two hours after lunch (around 10 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.) I will take 15 minutes to surf the net and to update my blogs. Other than that, if I'm online it's work-related.
2) Give myself a schedule every day, and put reminders on Outlook that will pop up to tell me what I should be doing right then.
3) Write down a task list at the beginning of the day, and check off items as they are completed. Add to the list as needed.

My home plan:
1) Clean the house from top to bottom this weekend in preperation for keeping it that way.
2) Buy a vaccuum cleaner and a mop. Use weekly.
3) Do laundry every Friday.
4) Any time I prepare food, immediately clean up after the meal. No excuses on this one.
5) Let Stacey know the new rules and get him on board.

This should be a learning experience. It's beyond time to start improving myself. Wish me luck!

Life on a budget...

Budgeting rules. I just wish that I had figured out how to budget when I was 18 or so. Nope, took me filing for chapter 7 bankruptcy to get my financial act together. But at least I did finally figure it out.

Budgeting is actually pretty simple. Don't spend more money than you have. Here is my budget:

$1300 - Monthly Income (approximate)

$300.00 - savings

$300.00 - rent

$100.00 - gas

$100.00 -utilities

$200.00 - groceries

$100.00 - attorney payment

$35.00 - Curves membership

$17.00 - Weight Watchers online

$50.00 - unforeseen small emergency (or a haircut)

... which leaves about $98 every month for additional fun. Plus in reality, utilities hardly ever cost me $100, since I split them with my live-in boyfriend, and unforeseen small emergencies happen about as often as haircuts.

Notice the first thing on my list of bills? Savings. That's right, I am currently saving $300 every month for my future. I think that everyone should pay themselves first. Paying myself has helped me to save $1750.00 in a little over five months. I have NEVER in my life had that much money to my name.

In less than a year, the attorney payment will go away. Right now I'm still making payments for the bankruptcy. Crazy to spend almost $2000 to tell the court that I had no money. Thank goodness for the payment plan. After that, I will start saving $400 every month. Hurray for good planning!

I hate that I was stupid with money for years. I hate that I got up to my chin in credit card debt. I hate that I saw no way to pay my creditors back. And I hate that I filed bankruptcy.

But I'm done beating myself up over it. It was a great decision for me and for my future. Now I can save money and get the eff out of Memphis.