It's the last day of January and I'm here to check in about my January Goals. January has been a tough month for me. Unfortunately, it's been a series of blarghs and blahs and blechs.

Goal 1
Exercise 500 minutes this month. 500 minutes is better then nothing!

Right this minute I am sitting at 200 minutes of exercise. I am going walking with my friend this afternoon and I expect we will be on the move for about 2 hours today -- so 120 minutes. Still quite short of my goal.

Goal 2
Pay Hydro Bill off completely for this month and previous months.

Negatory on this one. our last bill was for 390 bucks and that is about 1/5th of our monthly income...so it's just not gonna happen. I did pay off the previous months bill completely though--not that that is anything to be proud of. :P

Goal 3
Set Up bill paying system as per Gail's Instructions

This one didn't happen either. In fact I've been doing probably the worst thing possible with the bills--ignoring them.

Goal 4
Eliminate stash by 2 boxes. Crochet stuff!

I have not eliminated 2 boxes. I still have all 4 boxes sitting in the basement and my large bag and my storage unit upstairs full of yarn. The Post Christmas Crochet Blues have really hit me hard this year. I have been plugging at my Round Ripple but progress is slow.

Goal 5
Not make any Crafty purchases.

Hurrah! Success! I have not purchased any thread, cotton, sweaters, buttons, hooks or other miscellaneous craft stuff.

I'm thinking about what I should have for my February Goals.

I'm having a shitty week. Please excuse the lack of posts. I hope to be back to our regularily scheduled programming by next week.

um...oops...I mean Round Ripple Progress. *Tee Hee* Naughty Dinah.

I've been working on the De-stashing Round Ripple for ages now. I'm in no hurry to finish it and right now I don't have any desire to work on anything else (I've got the Post-Christmas-Crochet-Blues). So far it's 26 rows...and each row takes longer and longer to finish. The next color I'm going to introduce is like a dusty rose. i've just got a little of the red, grey, and purple left...After the dusty rose I have a lot of black (but I'm not too sure about the black).

I really like the randomness of how I've been interchanging the colors. I don't want there to be any rhyme or reason to the color scheme.

I cannot wait until we are lounging in our hotel suite, watching cable, taking long HOT showers, relaxing, taking leisurely walks, swimming in the pool, enjoying the small town, reflecting, snuggling, and having the biggest decision be whether we have supper at 5 PM or 6 PM. Two whole days of that (possibly 3)--sans child as well!

Cannot Wait. Bring on the Weekend Getaway!

The Good - I've been on task and keeping up with my work load very well this week. Things are not piling up and less questions are being posed regarding stuff I've worked on.

The Bad - I've not been keeping up with my January 2009 goals at all this month. I think the only one I am really on top of is not purchasing any new crafty stuff. We are not going to have the Hydro bill paid off, I have not exercised 500 minutes, I have not created the bill paying system...however, I still have 11 days to pull everything all together.

The Ugly - The Ugly? Well, the Ugly has been Ugly. & yes, that is Ugly with a Capital U. The Ugly has been realizing how quickly debt has re-accumulated in the past year and realizing how easily I have ignored the state of our finances. I think we are going back to the jars STAT and we need to recommit ourselves to living frugally.

I updated my side bars.

I'm pleased to report that our EF is continuing to grow--albeit slowly. We are at 296.32 or 29% of our initial goal of 1K. The more I hear about job losses and the poor economy the more I am glad that we have this little fund and the more I want to work at growing it.

I'm also excited to report that we are halfway towards our goal for our Mini Holiday Trip!!!!! (okay--not quite halfway--only 49.8% but I'm taking it as halfway!). I looked online at the MyBonds site and they have not logged the deduction from yesterday's pay yet so I haven't included that 15 bucks which would put us at 51.8%. We still have 1 month to save for the trip and while I am not entirely sure we will reach the $740 dollars I am confident that we will be able to work with whatever amount we have saved.

I am seriously contemplating opening a second savings account with PC Financial. It was a wash transferring money into the Credit Union Savings account and I am already finding it difficult trying manage the money that is in the EF.

I am also going to add another side bar. This one represents our LOC. It somehow just keeps growing...and growing...and growing. I might have some cc debt from my VISA and MC to add...I will have to check later...but I am just putting this embarrassing number out there for public humiliation and as motivation to pay it down faster.

I am perplexed though. I know that some advocate for paying down the highest interest debt first-to avoide interest payments-and others advocate for paying down your smallest debt first-for the reward of feeling something is accomplished--but I'm not sure which strategy I should pick. Our car loan does have a higher interest then the LOC... But I do know that I hear Gail's voice in my head saying, "It doesn't matter how you do it--Just do something! Pay Down Debt!"

With that I am just going to do just that...SOMETHING!

PS. I re-read Wednesdays Post and I apologize. My writing was quite sub-standard and repetitive. I am actually contemplating going back and editing it quite a bit...

PPS. I have this BIG idea that I want to Blog about...but I can't seem to find the words. I hope they come soon.

This scarf was my first foray into upcycling. I remember reading about unraveling sweaters on the internet and becoming instantly intrigued. It all seemed so....incredibly earthy. The excitement of transforming an object back to it's original state also seemed incredibly earthy and spiritual.

In some ways unraveling a sweater also seemed sad in a way....especially if it was a handmade sweater. All those many hours creating the object only to have someone else rip it apart? But if you think about it there is also joy in unraveling a sweater. Bringing new life to a forgotten object is always joyful.

I remember purchasing the sweater from value village and being quite excited, yet unsure that it would actually work. I remember painstakingly snipping each individual stitch in each panel. That first sweater took me FOREVER to get into panels. I remember being so proud that I took the panels to my grandmothers to show her. My grandma, mother, and myself ended up unraveling the panels and winding the yarn back up again together.

I remember crocheting the scarf from the upcycled yarn and enjoying the knowledge that doing this had been an act of green and that I was really keeping with the 3 R's (reduce, reuse, and recycle). I was amazed (and addicted!) with the knowledge that I could take an object that had been discarded and was unwanted and turn it into something beautiful and appreciated. I was even more pleased when a co-worker purchased the scarf this past December as I had not found it a home yet.

1. We have Phosphate Free Dish Detergent. I'm not entirely sure why this is good, but I've heard it is. Probably something do with the fact that it just washes away and leaves nothing behind...or something like that.

2. We compost. We started doing this last Spring and it seems to be going well. We had some smell issues briefly...but it seemed to resolve itself quite nicely. We've even continued composting during the winter. I don't know if the quality of our mud is great, but I'm mainly just pleased because we are keeping compostable food out of landfills.

3. We changed all our light bulbs to the Earth Friendly Light Bulbs last year. My husband actually took the initiative on this one. He even changed our outside lights. Contrary to what people are saying they do work outside...they have trudged on through -50!

4. I take used plastic bags and make plarn. I take the plarn and make lovely and strong re-usable bags.

5. We use only re-usable cotton dishcloths or old towels cut up into squares to do our dishes and general cleaning. In fact, I am still have 2 dishcloths that my mother got for me about 5 years ago. They are faded, but wonderful and trusty. They always get the job done.

Because the arrival of our fridge was so delayed Sears has promised to compensate us by refunding the delivery charges! Delivery was 60 bucks and we still owed 50 bucks on the credit card from when we bought the fridge...so if everything works out according to plan then we will actually be 10 bucks ahead!


PS. I have 3 followers now. :) & I've been trying to write about the serious stuff going on in my head but it's just not working....yet. Maybe I'll try tomorrow at work.

Our fridge arrive today! Finally. We bought it Boxing Day and I was beginning to think that it would never arrive. But it's here now. :) I love it!