4 Weeks To Get It Together

If you’ve been reading this summer you know that I have been all over the place. I have been in Phoenix, New York, London, all over Northern Ireland, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, and still have two more weddings (in one trip, thank God) and I am feeling very frazzled.

I made a TikTok on Monday going over how much I spent to travel down to my friend’s wedding over last weekend and it was to draw attention to some of the additional costs of living in a small, remote town, but what it called out for me is how much time I also have to devote to leaving town. Like, if I had never moved, I could have easily Ubered to the venue and back, for probably like $100 (or taken the Go train in for like $20 and then Ubered out) and it would have only required an evening of my time, rather than needing to take a vacation day, drive four hours each way, pay for the gas for that, spend 8 total hours in the airport over the weekend thanks to delays, pay for parking at the airport, flights, hotels, eating out, etc. And I am grateful for the excuse to take a city weekend, I didn’t need to take the $30 Pilates class, but moving away comes with a lot more costs than just the uHaul you put your shit in.

Anyways, that was a whole tangent I wasn’t anticipating going on. But it may just illustrate the state my brain is in. So I have 4 weeks before my next wedding (technically 5, but it’s already Wednesday and then I will have a work trip immediately before I leave for the wedding so, 4.5 for argument’s sake). And I’m not sure if it is summer coming to an unfortunately rapid end or just how chaotic my life has felt lately but I feel the need to get it together. This is despite knowing that I will have to do this again when I am coming back from this next wedding trip.

So, all that vented, the things I want to get organized are: finances, the cat, house stuff, the pile of papers on my desk, and the other pile of papers on my kitchen table, and what I am calling “daily health practices”.

Finances//

I have been influenced, and am going to give cash envelope budgeting a try. And to do that, I have done something that you do not have to do, but will hopefully motivate me, and bought a really cute personalized cash envelope wallet:

So, yeah, I am going to give cash envelope budgeting a shot. I’m very curious to see if this tangible way of managing money rather than it all being digital has any impact.

Other than cash envelope budgeting I am going to try to really stick to having five no-spend days a week. Ideally, I will really plan out when I need to make purchases each week. When will I buy coffee or breakfast out, when am I doing my groceries each week and can I do all my other purchases on the same day as my groceries? While tracking my expenses I have noticed that a large number of my transactions are between $10 and $25, but like four times a week. And while maths are not my strong suit, I still can work out that $25 four times a week is $100 gone, in just like snacks? coffee? cat treats? I don’t even know. And if I can stop spending $100 a week in just discretionary spending, then I can save $400 a month. Which is almost $5000 a year. Which is a whole vacation, like a nice one. Or this Gucci bag that I’ve been lusting after for like five years (actually it’s like $1500 more than the Gucci bag).

Also, sticking to my grocery list. I feel like a lot of us relate to this.

The cat//

So the cat has not been happy lately. Ever since I was away in July he has been upset. Urinating and defecating on all my furniture (if my landlord is reading this, he has not been doing anything on the floor or walls, just my furniture, that I own). And I cannot keep washing my bedding and couch cushion covers. I am so scared for my water bill. I have taken him to the vet, they couldn’t get blood, he lost his mind, but on ultrasound there is nothing wrong with him. So I’m just praying that with time he can get over it.

He has also been contributing to my financial concerns, pet sitting, vet visits, new litter boxes just in case that’s the problem, cleaning supplies and laundry, so I am praying we can move on. And I’m booking him in for boarding for the next wedding trip, although he only urinated on the couch while I was away this past weekend, so some improvement.

Chores//

I know I elaborated a few paragraphs above about the piles of paper on my desk and kitchen table, but I don’t feel like I need to elaborate further, because like the way you deal with piles of paper is by going through the piles of paper. I also know that I have to buy stamps for sending stuff to the UK, so I am literally going to stop and put that on my grocery list rn.

I also would really like to buy a book like the one that I had in high school for my film photography class for cards. It wasn’t sticky, but I think it somehow used like the physics of static between the paper and the clingy plastic to hold stuff in place. But I am a card keeper and I want some kind of little book or something to keep them in and that would help with a lot of the paper piling up.

But other than that this is the chores plan:

Daily:

Make bed
Clean litterboxes
Vacuum floors
Wash dishes
Tidy kitchen
Wipe down bathroom sink

Weekly:

Clean kitchen
Clean and sanitize bathroom
Dust furniture and art
Mop floors

Biweekly:

Laundry
Wash mattress pad

Other tasks I want to get done:

Clean out fridge – take out shelves and drawers and wash, wipe down inside
Clean out freezer (I’m actually not bad at keeping on top of the fridge, but the freezer, eek)
Wash washer, clean out dryer
Clean cupboard under the sink
Clean out closet and go through fall clothes
Deep clean car interior and get outside washed

There are more than four things on that list so I think:

Weekend 1: Deep clean car interior and get outside washed and wash washer and clean dryer
Weekend 2: Clean out closet and go through fall clothes
Weekend 3: Clean out fridge, freezer and cupboard under the sink
Weekend 4 will be all about preparing to travel again. Making sure the clothes I want to take are clean, doing any car maintenance I need to do before driving 1400 km and other prep stuff.

Daily health practices//

I am going to keep this bit simple because I think I have enough going on in the next four weeks. But this is essentially just cooking my own food at home every night and doing my physio exercises every day. I also would like to get back into the morning walks while there is still morning light but idk man, idk.