The Get Your Shit Together Project

This week I embark upon a new project. The summer has been lovely, lazy and carefree. BUT, the school year approaches, with all its attendant requirements of schedule, discipline and vigilance. So in preparation, I take up the "Get Your Shit Together Project."

You may have heard of The Happiness Project, this book that has swept the middle-aged women's reading public. I haven't read it myself, though I've considered it, because I'm leery of another self-help guru who claims to have The Answer. But the upshot, as I understand it, is this woman decides she's going to consciously add more "happiness" to her life by systematically adding more things that make her feel happy, week by week, apparently based on tips for happiness she has gleaned from her research. I'm sure it's better than I make it out to be. It's a bestseller, and the woman is making a mint, so I shouldn't judge. ANYWAY... I am badly in need of ramping up my self-discipline and control before the school year hits, so I thought I would start a project of my own: systematically adding elements of control and structure to my life, one week at a time. Happiness may not be something you can construct, but discipline certainly is.

Here are the elements that need control:

Budget
Booze
Housekeeping
Meals
Television
Exercise
Dogs
Routines
Relationships

There are probably a dozen others, but I thought this was probably all I could handle.

This week, since Friday was payday: the focus is Budget. Mine is a mess. I owe a ton of money, post-divorce, and my spending habits have not quite come into harmony with my reduced circumstances (though I have made great strides in that direction, I have to say, and I think this project will help a lot). I'm also a terrible planner, financially. So yesterday I bought a little notebook ($1.97) and mapped out a plan. When you're budgeting, the key (so I've read) is to write down everything you spend, so you know where your money is going. I went through last month's bank statement and divided everything up into categories. Bills, Books, Booze, Rent, Gas, Groceries and ... Everything Else. Everything Else being things like lunches out, drinks with friends, haircuts, treats for Grayson, the expense of taking the boys to Turner Falls... I suppose you'd call it entertainment. The little luxuries of life.

Not surprisingly, I found that more than half of my income goes to rent and bills. So I sat down and mapped out a payoff plan that will allow me to roll the money I spend on each debt into the next one as it they are paid off. If I'm able to stick to it, I'll pare two years off my payoff time, meaning I could be debt free by this time 2012. Car and everything. Which is a good thing, considering my car has over 100,000 miles on it already.

Okay, so that's done. The next thing I noticed is that my grocery bill is way high. I have no idea why, except that I pay next to no attention to the price of my groceries, and I'm a rotten meal planner. I barely cook these days, and approach each evening meal time with trepidation and confusion. So, I have resolved to plan meals for each week and buy only what we need for those meals. This next week is more or less a wash, though, because I'll be out of town for three days on a media blitz to West Texas. So, meal planning starts NEXT week. I also need to learn what things cost so I can recognize a bargain when I see it. I honestly couldn't tell you right now how much a gallon of milk costs, though I buy one every single week. I have no idea what a good deal on a pound of hamburger meat is. So, a little research is required. Finally, I am going to attempt to clip coupons. Let me say this: I hate clipping coupons. It's tedious, slow and I've never been convinced of its value. My theory is that having coupons encourages you to buy something you wouldn't normally purchase, or to buy a brand name when you would normally spend less on a generic. But I have friends who swear by it, so I'm going to give it a try.

So there's the grocery solution, I hope. I also got fed up with my insurance company. Recently I received notice that my car insurance rate would be going up based on the one speeding ticket I received a year ago and, more annoyingly, on my credit score. That's right, they raised my rate because my debt to income ration is too high. Like that's going to help. This in spite of the fact that I haven't had a claim in seven years. So I gave them the finger and switched to Progressive. Made the purchase online and saved myself $50 a month. Woo hooo! Put that in the savings account.

Today I am going grocery shopping, for the few things I need to get me and Grayson through next week. G is staying with his dad for Tuesday and Wednesday nights, while I'm on the blitz, but he'll be home Tuesday morning and Thursday morning, so I need to be prepared with snacks and lunch items for him. While I'm shopping, I'll have my little notebook, to write down the prices of the staples and the usuals. Research.

Okay, so that's the boring stuff. Sorry to bore you, but I thought it would help my project if I publicize it... sort of hold myself accountable.

Last night Flower got in the pool. It was funny, once she got it, she didn't want to get out. She first swam in circles, and then gradually realized that she could stand. Once she realized that, she was content to just wade around, up to her neck in the pool, biting the water and enjoying the cool. I'll have the devil's own time straining the dog hair out of the pool, but it was fun to swim with her, and to see her smiling, having fun in the water. Roxy came and went: in over the side, swim a couple of laps, out again over the opposite side (Roxy hasn't figured out yet that she doesn't have to swim to keep her head above water. The pool's only about 2 1/2 feet deep). But Flower just stayed, smiling.

It makes me smile, too.