Author Archives: thirtydaysofnew

Mowing

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This might not seem like a huge milestone or something that should be new to anyone who is (cough) 30 years old.  But it’s new to me, so shut your mouth.

My mom was nice enough to gift me her old electric lawn mower which is perfect because filling a gas can and doing that whole thing seems really lame.  Mowing a lawn with an electric mower is kinda like vacuuming.  You gotta take care to not run over your cord and the you can never seem to get close enough to the wall.

I might’ve waited to long and the grass was crazy high.  So high, it wasn’t getting sucked into the bag.  Just laying damp in grass-stainy clumps on the ground which may or may not have ruined my Nike Cortez’s.

mowing

July – Backyarding

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Okay.  Okay.  I know I haven’t updated you folk for a while.  Here’s the rundown of my last few months.  I bought a house, moved into it, and, uh… well that’s pretty much it.  It’s pretty freaking time consuming, ya know.

So, this month is all about getting my backyard furnished and learning how to care for the slew of greenery that the previous owners were kind enough to cultivate for me.  I have mowed a lawn maybe once in my life and have killed more plants than I’ve saved.  So, I should probably learn how to, at the very least, keep these things from dying.

Goals this month:  Make a daybed for my patio.  Mow the lawn and keep it from dying.  Plant an herb garden.  Get my outdoor fireplace working.  Get table and chairs for the fire pit.  Buy a grill and use it.  Figure out outdoor speaker system and lighting.

Week 1 Recap

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So, most of my bills are the same every month.  The one thing I’m really focused on controlling is food and beverages.  Here’s the breakdown of what I spent in Week 1:

Drinks and a burger at Bar Bar – $25

Grocery purchase – $20.51 (bananas, creamer, toilet paper, eggs, turkey)

Then, I returned a pair of jeans I bought last month – $49.99

So, one week in, and I made $4.48!  I am so good at this!

April – Budgeting

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So, I’ve already said I’m trying to buy a house.  I’m pre-approved and seriously shopping.  It’s probably a good idea to figure out how much money I’m spending each month on what and how I can be better at saving.  It’s also starting to get nice outside so there are more options for cheap and free activities.  My goal is to save enough money this month to buy and iPad Mini and get some plans in place to monitor food costs.  I’m pretty sure I spend a ton of money on food.

Minty Fresh Finances

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A friend recommends Mint.  It’s an app you can tie to all your accounts to track your finances.  Money coming in, money going out, savings, blah blah blah.  He says he has been using it for about a year and it took him that long to really get in the habit of using it everyday and not feeling guilty or bad about it.

I download it and link it to all my accounts immediately.  It’s super easy to set up and only takes seconds before it lists your cash, credit debt, budgets, cash flow, investments, and advice.  Suckers be using Quicken, yo!  I can quick add cash payments so everything I spend gets documented.  Best of all, it was FREE!  Sweet, sweet responsibility.

Extreme Cheapskates

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While looking at my finances even closer, I noticed a show on TLC called Extreme Cheapskates.  It follows people who suffer the namesake affliction.  I watched in hopes of learning some tips.  Remember this is from a network called The Learning Channel.

Good news, it’s a marathon!!  I watch a girl in New York who lives in a tiny condo and finds all her furniture in the garbage.  Hmm… I could handle this.  Goodwill really is one step up from the garbage.  Then, the camera followed her into the bathroom where she described the way she cleans herself without using toilet paper.  I’m out.  You lost me at no toilet paper.

Next was a millionaire who wants to live off her money forever so she budgets down to the penny.  She dumpster dives, forages for herbs and mushrooms, and has her own garden.  Okay.  Seems reasonable.  Then, she explains how she pees in a jar to put in the garden to save money on flushing toilets.  Then, she turned the hot water heater off when she thought her boyfriend was in the shower too long.  WTF!  No hot showers?  Peeing in jars?  Why don’t you just not flush the toilet??  That solution seems much easier.  Every time she explained something she did, she calculated how much money it was saving her.  Collecting her urine and not flushing it saved her $10 a year.  That is $10 I would be more than happy to fork over MONTHLY for the convenience of modern plumbing!!

Take a Closer Look

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Okay, so first thing is first.  What do I usually spend?  What did I spend last month?  What’s a good target?  Good thing I use my debit card everywhere and can track how much I usually spend on everyday things.  Time to sit down and figure this stuff out.

Holy shitballs! I went to concerts, got lunch out at work, got coffee a couple times a week, shopped very promiscuously at Whole Foods, enjoyed happy hour a several times a week, and spent a total of $942.63 on food, drinks and entertainment last month.  WHAT!?! This is going to be a good place to start Budgeting Month.  I am going to put myself on a goal of $200 for the whole month of April for groceries and going out.  It will be a lot easier because my fridge and pantry are already filled with tons of crap I haven’t even looked at since I bought it.

In Retrospect of Guitar Month

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Okay, so the sideways looks I was getting from people when I said I was going to teach myself guitar in one month were well warranted.  I’m not a guitar god.  I didn’t learn a full song.  I can’t quite “rock out” the way I had envisioned.  So, I decided to break down guitar month into two months, the latter to be used at a future time.  This month was all about guitar fundamentals… procuring said guitar and figuring it out took a bit longer than anticipated.  The next guitar month will be about learning a song.  Maybe by then, I will pay for the ability to post videos on this site… but probably not.  I’m trying to save money.  Hey, wait a minute.  That’s a good idea…

Practice – Chord Changes

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Apparently the hardest part for beginners is changing between chords.  I can assure you, this rumor is correct.  The callused fingers are nothing compared to trying to get your left hand moving quick enough to catch up to your right hand.  Justin guitar has an exercise called One Minute Change where you set a timer for one minute and see how many times you can go between two chords.  The goal is to switch chords 60 times in 60 seconds.  This takes time and practice to get to; most people start with about 15 changes in a minute.

I start off with D and A, set the timer on my phone and start counting.  It doesn’t sound quite as pretty, but I get through 29 changes in a minute.  Nice for the first try!  I switch to D and E and then E and A and get through a similar amount of changes.  Now I can switch between chords!  Now it’s time to learn a song… but wait!  It’s almost the end of the month!!  Nooooooo!

Practice – Anchor Fingers

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So, I really haven’t been spending as much time as I should practicing chords and moving through the beginner program at http://www.justinguitar.com, but have I mentioned I’m trying to buy a house, and I worked 6 days this week, and I’m very busy and important??  Oh.  I’ve mentioned that already?  Well, it’s true. 🙂

Today, I took 15 minutes out of my aforementioned very busy schedule to learn anchor fingers.  If you keep your first finger on the string, it’s easier to move your other finger to their positions when you change chords.  I practice the 3 chords I know while keeping my first finger down instead of picking all my fingers up and trying to find the right strings again.  It does make it much easier.