How to make moving an art form:
1. Con a friend into spending several hours of her night helping you move i.e. putting together a bathroom shelf.
2. Feed her, and yourself, mini-eggs, nacho chips and pepsi for dinner.
3. Spend approximately 1.5 hours putting together a shelf that looks like this:
If you think that shelf looks a little crooked, well, you’d be right. Luckily all we had to do was give the legs a little kick to straighten it up. Guess that’s what happens when you spend $30 on a flimsy shelf at Walmart. They aren’t known for their quality products after all.
On another note, moving has been making me feel a bit sad and nostalgic lately. I mean, technically, I’m moving out of mine and Eric’s first “real home” that we shared. We lived together here for 12 months, which is the longest we’d ever lived together and also the longest we’d been in one place since living with our parents. It was a real defining year in our relationship and I find that moving - and leaving this place behind - makes me feel a bit emotional and sad.
I learned to run - and fell in love with running - in the neighbourhoods around this apartment. Me and Eric celebrated two Thanksgivings here. We “raised” Webster here (yes, he’s our son, who wants to know?). I started this blog - probably one of the best things I did in the last 1.5 years - sitting in the exact same room I sat in when I typed up this blog post you’re reading right now.
While I’m incredibly excited for the next part of my life, I’m also incredibly sad about the part that is ending. And even though my new apartment is in a much better location for me, is much cheaper and is just an all-around better fit for me and Webster the one that I’m in now will always be mine and Eric’s first real home together, and when you’ve lived somewhere for 1.5 years at such a changing point in your life, it’s hard to say goodbye to all the memories that have been made.
Have you ever felt overly sad or nostalgic about moving out of somewhere? Why?
PS: A new Examiner article is up on the importance of putting safety first when you’re running. Check it out here.
Sometimes, like right now, when all my responsibilities (mostly school) are really stressing me out, I like to think about the great things that are coming up in my life.
Ya, ya, I know, I know. Live in the moment. Blah, blah, blah.
But would life be any fun if we didn’t have anything to look forward to? I don’t think so.
Here’s a few things that I’m currently counting down to…
{Source}
10 sleeps until Eric gets here.
33 sleeps until I write my last final exam and finish off my undergraduate degree.
46 sleeps until the Europe trip!
214 sleeps until the Portland Marathon. (Which I finally officially registered for. Read about it here.)
What are you counting down to?
During my first year of college the weekends were for sleep, Eric and I would often sleep in until at least noon if not 1:00 PM. Now, when I sleep in until 9:00 AM I can’t help but think I’ve wasted my day!
Weekends are for getting things done and for kick-ass workouts.
On Saturday I woke up to beautiful sunshine in Kamloops. It was so nice outside! I spent some time do-daing around my apartment before finally dragging my butt out for a run. I had debated about going Sunday instead and I’m so glad I did it on Saturday as Sunday was not so beautiful and sunny here.
I wanted to do a long run but I hadn’t ran more then 6 miles since my 16-miler a few weeks ago. I settled for an 8 mile run with 5.5 of those miles in the trails.
Kenna Cartwright Park is my absolutely favourite place to run in Kamloops! I’m going to be sad when I move to my new apartment that isn’t a hop, skip and a jump away from these gorgeous trails.
After my awesome run I washed my car and then spent some time curled up in my armchair with a Jodi Picoult book I found on my shelf when attempting to pack up my books. Ya, clearly I didn’t get far…
Sunday morning I hit the gym for an hour-long bootcamp class followed by a 30-minute abs only class. Ya, I’m still feeling both of those! It totally kicked my butt. It was a plyometric-style class with lots of jumping and squats!
After I was done at the gym I grabbed a smoothie and headed off to get some grocery shopping done at the local Superstore.
I normally like to buy my groceries at the small, local stores that carry local food. There’s a place that’s actually just across the street from Superstore and it’s called “Old Farm Market” and that’s where I usually get my produce.
But, I had a huge haul of groceries to get and not a huge amount of money, so Superstore it was.
Look at all the groceries I got for a measly $172.
I truly do believe in the importance of buying local food and I do try to as much as possible. In a week, when I need to stock up on fresh produce again, I will go to the local grocery store and this summer I will hit up the Farmer’s Market every weekend.
But on Sunday, I needed a lot of food, I needed to get it all in one place and I needed it to not cost me an insane amount of money. At any other grocery store all this food probably would have been at least $200, if not more. I’m really pleased with the amount of stuff I got for $172!
So, tell me, what are your weekends for and what did you do this weekend? And where do you buy your groceries? Do you try to buy local food or do you just get it wherever is cheapest?
Has anyone seen Til Debt Do Us Part? It’s basically about couples who are living far above their means and are in serious debt. In one case, if they had kept living the way they were living, this one couple would have been over $1 million in debt within three years.
Gail, is a financial analysis/hard-ass who comes to their homes, assesses how they’re living, and puts them on a strict cash budget. She separates their weekly budget into these little food cans and basically when the can is out of money for the week, their out of money for that one thing.
So, if the gas can runs out, guess their walkin until next week.
That’s Gail, and those are the cans she always uses, except obviously they usually say things like “Gas”, “Entertainment”, “Groceries” etc. on them.
{Source - also some really good budgetting advice here}
And, of course, they have to put a certain amount of money - as much as they can really - towards their ever-growing debt each month.
I’ve always found this a fascinating way to budget. I mean, it’s simple, if the money in the can runs out, your money is done for the week End of story.
But, for someone who makes a different amount of money each month (me!) that’s hard. Depending on how much freelance work I pick up in any given month my income can vary by as much as hundreds of dollars. So it’s hard to budget an exact amount for groceries, gas etc.
For now, I’m tracking my income and expenses in a spreadsheet that my mom created for me. It’s working out really well and I see that I don’t really spend a ton of money on things that aren’t necessary. I never shop for things like clothing. I think if anything, I could cut down on my “miscellaneous” expenses - a starbucks coffee here, a dinner out there etc.
Another thing that I’m finding it difficult to plan for/deal with is unexpected expenses. For example, just the other day I had to take Webster in for his annual shots. I wasn’t anticipating them or the $120 cost. It’s not that I didn’t have the money to pay for them, it just kind of threw me for a loop, you know?
So, tell me, do you budget? And, if so, how do you go about doing it?
I’ve briefly mentioned it a few times on here, but I’m currently in the process of moving!
Because I go to school, work, freelance, blah blah I decided to double-rent for the month of March so I’d have an entire month to slowly move. Plus, my Dad, brother and Eric are coming down around the middle-end of March to help me move the big stuff, like my bed.
Side note: Eric will be STAYING until we leave for our trip as he has five weeks of school starting March 22!! Yay! I can’t wait to live with him for a bit, again.
Anyways, the place that I’m moving to is much, much, MUCH smaller then my current apartment. My current apartment is a 2-bedroom and it’s a corner unit so it’s quite bit. I think they said it’s around 900 sq feet.
Well, my new place is a basement suite in the corner of a house not even the whole basement, and it’s about 500 sq feet. Max. It’s also a 1-bedroom with a bedroom so small it will barely fit my queen bed, nightstand and dresser.
Ah, the sacrifices we make when it comes to money. Also, the place I’m in now really is too big for just me and Webster. And, you know, there’s that whole technicality where I’m cough*notsupposedtohavepetsinmyapartmentthatI’minnow*cough. Webster is welcome in the new place 
Because of this I really need to downsize on my stuff. I will be sending quite a bit of furniture back home with my Dad to go into storage, but I also need to figure out some space-savers when it comes to stuff that I’m keeping.
Last weekend I bought a DVD case at Walmart to put all of our DVD’s in because, you know, DVD cases take up a lot of unnecessary room. Well after sitting cross-legged for 1.5 hours sorting and alphabetizing our DVD’s that project was done.
Side note: sitting cross-legged for a long period of time is not easy. My hips and lower back ached afterwards. I am 90 years old.
I also sorted out my towel and sheet closet last night and threw away some really old and ratty towels that I had. I saw somewhere online (can’t remember where now) that rolling your towels takes less room and it totally does! I managed to fit all of my towels in these two baskets, which I also think looks pretty good.
I think my biggest dilemna will be my shoes. Right now I just kind of throw all my shoes and boots into the bottom of my hall closet. But, you see, at this new place there is no hall closet. So what am I going to do with them?
Look at the disaster.
Hall Closet:
Bedroom closet:
Hanging out by the door:
I think there are two or three pairs of shoes in my car too… Oopsie!
See how much help I need? I am what you’d call “messy-organized”. Walk into my apartment and it will look immaculate and neat. Just don’t open any drawers or closets! Ya, well, in this new place there AREN’T very many drawers and closets to hide my messy side.
So, what’s your best tip when it comes to storing stuff in neat and inconspicuous places? And have you ever had to move and majorly downsize? Tell me about it!
