New Specs!

Today was an exciting day!

After two and a half years with my favorite red specs, I headed to Lens Crafters to purchase a new pair. While I do love the red ones, they were getting pretty worn out and the coating was starting to wear off, leaving me with some blurry spots.

While I could have kept the same pair and just purchased new lenses, I decided it was time for a change. After trying on a few different pairs, I settled on a cute pair of tortoiseshell frames. Check them out!

The tortoiseshell isn't too bold, and the frames are super lightweight and fit my face well. They are also significantly cleaner than my current pair, so I can actually see. Love em!

Nine Months Later...

So apparently I need to do better about keeping up with my blogging. It's amazing how both work and life in general take over. I'm now 27 years old, and still trying to figure out what this whole grown up thing is all about.

One of my current goals is to eliminate the clutter from my life and to live more simply. I had the opportunity to go on a service trip about a month ago that was really impactful for me. Our group traveled to Jonesville, Virginia to assist in repairing homes for low-income families through the Appalachia Service Project (ASP). ASP focuses on making families homes warmer, safer and drier. Unlike Habitat for Humanity, the organization does not build or rebuild new homes for the families, but rather improves the exisiting structures. This can provide unique challenges where you never know what you might find after pulling up a floor - the boards underneath could be rotten, the joists could be uneven (in our the walls also uneven, which made cutting new floor pieces a challenge as each was a custom fit). Our group certainly ran into obstacles along the way, but in the end, we did some meaningful work for some really great families.

Through the trip, I reflected on the way that I live, and was inspired to find opportunities to live a rich, but more simple life. I have found that to be much harder to do back in my own environment, surrounded by chaos. I don't work regular hours, which contributes to some bad habits like eating out more often and leaving my apartment looking like a hurricane blew through. I'm not the most frugal person, and I live in a sea of clutter - both things that I want to change. I am generally not a neat person, and have struggled for some time to find new methods of organization that work for me and that I can maintain. I am committed to clearing out the physical, mental, and emotional clutter from my life so that I can be a happier and healthier person.

One resource that I've found to help with the physical clutter is The Clutter Diet. I found it at some point last year through Real Simple or another similar magazine. It is this great organizational web site that treats eliminating clutter like losing weight. You get a newsletter each week with different action items that break down organizing into specific areas of focus each week. You weigh in each week, with "weight loss" measured in putting time towards the different action items and eliminating bags of trash, or boxes of items to be donated. There are additional online tutorials and trainings for different types of organization methods and for specific areas of the house, as well as cleaning manuals and other helpful items. I first utilized the site for a period last spring and found it to be really helpful. Not everything applies to me (i.e. I don't have a garage), but I've committed that time towards other areas. I just re-registered (for $14.95/mo), and am excited to begin making progress on my apartment.

As a side note, I had an unexpected major purchase this past month when I had a tire blow out one night. Note to self: Don't hit the median. It's expensive. I ended up having to buy two new tires, which certainly isn't cheap. The reality is that my car really needed all four replaced, and so I'll likely be getting two more before next winter. Ahh, the expenses of being a grown up.

I'm thankful for springtime the beautiful weather that we are having, and I look forward to the pool opening at my apartment complex in just over a month. There's no better way to spend a weekend afternoon than laying out by the pool with a good book to read.

I Own a Big Girl TV

Today I made my first major purchase in quite some time - a 32 inch LCD HDTV. My roommate bought the current tv in our apartment, and it will be moving out at the end of the week. My options were to buy a new one or to go back to using my 16 incher from college. I decided that I'd been made fun of enough for it in the past, it was time to upgrade.

I find purchasing technology especially stressful. I intentionally avoided Best Buy, because I feel like their salespeople complicate the process, trying to get you to buy all sorts of add ons. While I can appreciate their expertise, it's overwhelming. I just need a tv, to watch regular tv shows. No video games, nothing fancy. I don't even know what half the features mean.

I went to Walmart, where I new they had the tv I wanted. It had been sold out the past few times I checked with the store, so I was very excited to see three when I got there today. I knew that Target also had it, but it would be $40 more. I did purchase the two-year service plan from Walmart, just in case. Let's hope that I don't need it.

I haven't set it up yet, but I feel like my single girl apartment just got an upgrade. Now I just need to work on the rest of the decorating.

I also signed up for a AAA membership today. With all of the driving that I do, I was convinced by my boyfriend that it's a good option in the event that I need to be towed or something. Next step in the "becoming a big girl tour"...renter's insurance. A good friend had his apartment broken into a few weeks ago. They stole is laptop and tv, luckily nothing else. I've always been under the assumption that I don't have anything of value, but then when I think about if I had to replace everything I own...that would be awful. I'm planning to call the insurance company tomorrow. Being a grown up requires so many non-fun things.

Unexpected Expenses and Major Updates

I haven't posted in awhile due to an unfortunate event....the loss of my laptop. It first started having problems in September, and after several attempts to repair, the blue screen of death (complete with the "fatal error" message), showed up on my screen just after Thanksgiving. This has been a difficult loss, and I'm still debating what I am going to do. I will definitely need to purchase a new one, but I'm going to see who has the best post holiday sales before making any quick purchases. I would love to get a Mac Book, rather than another Dell. I have heard that Apple will sell their older computer models at a discount, even though they only advertise the newest ones. I'm going ot look into it, but I think that the price tag might be a little too steep no matter what. For what I'm using it for, probably better to stick with the cheaper options.


One major purchase that I made (prior to the laptop disaster), was an iPhone. You are probably thinking...if you don't have any money, why would you buy an iPhone, that's crazy! I've been wanting one for over a year, and had been weighing the pros and cons for quite some time. After consistently getting the free phones that come with the plan. I decided to treat myself to a really nice phone, with the understanding that Grandma and Santa would be covering that credit card bill. I was able to pay for the entire phone with my Christmas money. Although my monthly plan has gone up quite a bit, I have already found that the phone helps me to be more functional. Plus, it is also an iPod, something that I didn't have and was hoping to purchase. I do believe in treating myself every once in awhile, and this was certainly my big treat for the year.



Two major updates:



First, I got a roommate.



After living by myself for the past three and a half years, a friend moved in with me in September. It has been great having someone else around, and it certainly helps with the monthly expenses when you can split everything. It's amazing the other things that I've been able to focus my money towards because I have that much more income available each month...I've actually been able to save some! Living with a roommate can be challenging, and it's a decision that I thought about quite a bit beforehand, but it has been a great experience so far.



My roomie is also financially conscious, and so she and I have been trying one technique together to be more thrifty - our "End of the Month" list. This is the list of all the things we'd like to buy at the end of the month, should we be able to save our money until then. We don't entirely limit spending, but we try not to make any big purchases until after the 15th of the month. We have found that it is really easy to spend most of your paycheck within the first weekend, which can make for an awful end of the month. By waiting on the big things, it also makes for a fun challenge to see how much you can save until the end. In November, I was able to buy all new bedding, something I'd been waiting to get for the past year. Sadly, December required a payment of personal property tax for my car, so there wasn't a whole lot leftover, but I already have my list started for January.



The other big decision that I made was to register for classes at the university where I work. As an employee, we are able to take a certain number of classes as part of our benefits package each year. With the turn that the economy has taken, I don't think, that there is a better benefit than free education right now. With tuition costs continuing to rise, I'm going to take advantage of every free class I can take right now. If it means achieving another degree, I will be able to be that much further ahead when I take my next step in my career. It will be several years before I'll even be close to the PhD, but Dr. K does have a nice ring to it!

That's what I've been up to for the last few months. With this holiday break, I have all sorts of post ideas saved up from the last few months that I just might get to now!

K