Come and Gone

My simple year has come and gone.  I must say that even though I haven't spent as much focused time working on simplifying as I had originally hoped, it has been beneficial to have kind of a guiding principle to help me make decisions...and as I look back on the year, we have definitely made some big decisions!

We are in November now and the focus should be "Values".  Hmmm...trying to remember back to what exactly I was thinking when I came up with that.  I guess a good challenge would be to really assess what I value and see if the choices I make are showing where I see value in my life.  I'm going to have to think on this a bit and who knows when I might check back in, but until then, just know that I've got values on my mind.

Made our move!!

We are a week into the new school year in Florida.  The transition hasn't been terrible for the girls but I can't say that it's great either...but again, we are only into the first week of school.  We have been living in Paige's house since we got here (except for when we took a trip to NYC!) and it's been quite challenging staying here and not really having a place to put things.  That was fine for the summer when we didn't really have to be organized or be able to find things, but since school has started its made me realize that we need to find something sooner than a new build would take.  Sooo...with that in mind we are under contract for a house in the area.  It's a little smaller than we originally wanted but its wayyyy under budget so that feels good.  I don't feel like we will be there forever, but it feels like a good next step and we can get into it quickly and easily.  We should be closing by September 25th (if not sooner) and we are looking forward to unpacking our boxes for a longer stay.

Now that all of that is out of the way, the focus for August is clothing.  There are only a handful of days left in the month but it is definitely a worthwhile task to take a look at trying to simplify our clothing.  Our current clothing situation is really pretty overwhelming.  It feels like we have been buying clothes like crazy lately but we still don't have anything to wear.  How can this be?  That is a great question but unfortunately one that I don't have an answer for!  Hopefully by spending some time focused on it I can get us all into a better clothing situation without bringing more clutter into our home.

Here's my plan of attack:

• Take (yet another) load of clothing and shoes to goodwill.  Make sure that anything left in their rooms is clothing that they can and DO wear.
• Make a list of clothing basics and fill in any gaps that the girls might have in their wardrobes

Go big or go home!

We are counting down the days (with some hesitation) to when we move to Florida.  We still haven't decided if we should just buy a house that's already built or use a builder to have one built.  After living in the apartment for over 2 months now, I am ready for a little more space.  I think not having a yard for the girls to go out in has been missed more than anything else since we moved in.  Emma used to go out and just hang out on the trampoline and I know she misses not being able to do that.  We are itching to get settled somewhere so I can't see waiting 6-8 months for a house to be built.  The thought of that makes me cringe.  But the idea of having a brand new house built to our specifications is nice to think about.

We have found a few houses that we really like but can't find a house that has everything that we want (of course).  I know its an unreasonable expectation to think that we will find a house with it all...just can't decide what to give up.  One of the things that is on the top of the girls' list is goats and chickens.  The idea of that sounds fun, but I'm afraid that the reality of having that kind of responsibility all of the time would be less than fun.  We only have a few more summers with Tabetha  (insert sobbing here) so I don't want to be tied down to the house with some stinky goats when we could be traveling.

Speaking of travel...Simplifying travel is my focus for this month.  We just got back from a trip to San Antonio and New Braunfels, Texas.  It was a blast and a great reminder that seeing new things feeds my soul.  Really, there is nothing more enjoyable to me than being in a new place, seeing new things with my family.  I'll have to create a separate post with all the details of the trip.  Suffice it to say, it was awesome and we saw some really beautiful things.

Simplifying housing

This is certainly an appropriate focus for this month, especially since we will probably be purchasing a home or beginning a new construction build, depending on what we decide when we go home next week.  We are currently living in about 1600 square feet (since we sold our home and moved out in May).  So far, I'm not hating it.  I do wish we weren't living out of boxes and the frustration that comes with not being able to find things (especially when we only have half the space to lose them in) is very real.

Where did May go?

It's a little ironic that time was the focus for May but I haven't even had time to blog since the Month started.  We moved out of our house and into our new apartment on May 8th and it just feels like this month has been full of packing, unpacking, rummaging through boxes to find things or attending end of the school year concerts, awards assemblies, etc.  It has been physically, mentally and emotionally exhausting.  My mind is so overburdened and fuzzy that I can't even begin to know where I could simplify my time.

So while I don't have a plan for how I'm going to simplify my time for the remainder of the month, I did want to check in anyway and log a few thoughts, hoping that in pausing to do so I would force myself into a moment of introspection and quiet.

Finally...some progress!

This month will really be the first month that I feel like we made a good amount of headway towards simplifying.  The sale of our home helped in a big way since we were able to wipe out about 7 payments a month by paying off debt.  Just having less money going in and out makes life a lot easier.  I've been using the assigned credit cards for food, clothing and gas and its making it really easy to track.  I guess the 1 caveat is that we have to make sure we are staying on budget for everything else.  I can see us feeling like we have extra money in our checking account and accidentally spending into the money we have allotted to pay off these cards at the end of every month.  The first time this happens we will have to head back to using cash or debit.  We just cannot take the chance of carrying debt from month to month.

Next month...time.  This one should be interesting and I'm glad I checked in tonight to refresh my memory of the the focus for May and get my mind thinking in that direction.

April's all about money

This month is all about money and it's kind of appropriate since we will be selling our house in 2 short weeks and paying off all of our debt with the proceeds.  I'm excited about that but also feel a nervousness about being careful and showing restraint with what's left over after we've got everything paid off.  I keep a pretty close eye on the finances (mostly because I have to).  We don't spend a lot on clothes, toys or things on a whim, but if we don't keep a close eye on our spending, our dining out budget can (and usually does) get away from us.

One of the things I started doing a week or two ago is using a credit card for each of our spending categories:  groceries, clothing, gas, and dining out.  This has helped me keep a better eye on where the money is going and when we have capped out our budget (without having cash on hand...that seems to always disappear).  I know Dave Ramsey would probably roll over in his grave with this strategy (yes, I'm aware he's still alive, but couldn't think of another idiom to represent this idea).  We may modify this once we have everything paid off, but for now it seems to be working well and keeping me from having to log in to our account constantly to see if we've overspent...and yes, our budget is that tight.

So my punch list for April looks something like this:

• Continue using cards to categorize spending.  Once we get them all paid off it will be easier to see that we are truly staying within our budget but for now I know we are staying close.

• Set up recurring grocery orders for automatic delivery (through Amazon).  I've been pretty impressed with the services Amazon has recently launched.  We've been prime members for a while but have recently started using Subscribe and Save and I just placed my first Prime Pantry order today.  I've been fairly impressed with their prices and selection and can see this becoming a good way to keep the grocery budget in check (I always spend more thoughtfully when I can see the total grow with each additional purchase).