The Guidelines are in.
The Guidelines for the next Six Months.
I’m calling them guidelines because life doesn’t run on rules. (Except quantum rules which are more guidelines than rules anyway depending on when and who is watching at the time.)
So as a brief outline of how I’m going to go about this experiment I’ve broken it down into parts:
Money
Health/Fitness
Entertainment/Sanity
Automotive
Land and Home
First the Money. I have certain expenses that must be paid. Mortgage, Student Fucking Loan (I have a theory on this which I may resurrect in this blog.), Gas, Bills, etc. These will be paid but some don’t need to be as high as they are and through selective changes in daily choices I can reduce them. Gas for example, as well as electricity oh and food. Eating out while tasty really hurts the bottom line.My ultimate goal is to pay off my credit cards which will save me several hundreds upon hundreds of dollars per month in money thrown away. Looking back everything purchased on those cards seemed necessary, of course that was five plus years ago. Not very necessary now. 8^( So I will be focusing a significant portion of my time on acquiring legal means of getting more money while at the same time reducing the amount of money I spend. Check out my Hawking Wares section for occasion deals.
Health/Fitness
I’m big boned. No really I am. Ok. I’m just overweight. No one’s fault but my own. And the computers. I hate computers. They made me fat. Oh, and ice cream, potato chips and cheese. They made me fat also. I’m not really fat but I am no where near what I use to be even when I was 27 which was five years after leaving the USMC. When I was in the USMC I was a lean mean killing machine, but never got to do anything with that. It definitely didn’t attract the ladies even though I was ripped like a Greek God. Now I’m ripped like Buddha. I blame the computers and the dew and crown. Lots and lots of Crown. Oh and metabolism. Stupid metabolism. Well I may not be able to become my former Greek God like self but I can at least work on limiting my resemblance to a beer swilling redneck with built in beer tray just under the chin. Not that there’s anything wrong with red necks or beer trays, I just don’t want my stomach to be used as one. (As a side note, I don’t drink a lot of beer, mostly soda and in 2000 I would rest my Dew on my stomach while watching Star Trek Voyager. One day I looked down and blinked, cried a little and since then I put my soda on the tv tray next to the futon. Those days are long gone and now I only have room for shot glasses.)So in an effort to get out of the house, improve the bod (for myself first and the ladies second) I’ll be starting up my fitness routine again: Walking/Running, Sit-ups, Push-Ups, Dips, etc, disc golf, and more physically active diversions of entertainment.
Something that will hurt the budget on food will I’ll be buying more fresh foods for cooking. I’m gonna try to learn how to cook more than rice and chicken. Even though I can cook the hell out of rice and chicken (with cheese slices for cheesy goodness), I gonna need to expand my meal choices. And that means more juice (soda is covered under entertainment), and more fruits and vegetables. They are two different types of food right?
I thought of taking pictures of my physical appearance – one picture a week – but am not sure about that. I don’t want to be sued for physiological trauma. I’ll come up with something.
Entertainment/Sanity
Without entertainment the mind goes crazy. (Ref. The Shining) Now I’m running on all cylinders now, they just misfire now and again. (Ask my friends.) Truth be told I have plenty of hobbies already available around my house, I just can’t get to them through all the SHIT stacked everywhere. I’m sorry I don’t mean to yell. I mean precious mementos of my life to date. Most of which were acquired while in the service which was then merged with all the stuff I had while in high school and it then turned into a George Carlin skit as I got to college. I will be weeding through that, but that’s under the Home aspects of this experiment.
The point being I have hobbies that don’t require I purchase a lot – or anything – to get back into them. I’ll probably start playing the guitar again. Something I use to do all the time. I love playing the guitar but my calluses have long since turned to soft pink finger tips and it’s going to be a while before I can play for hours upon hours singing every song in my dozen song books.
I also have DVD movies – which I watch often and over 300+ cds worth of music. Oh and a library just begging to be read. There are five six foot tall bookcases in my sun room stacked high with books: books on history, biology, sociology, ancient works by Plato, Aristotle, Shakespeare, science fiction, fantasy, poetry throughout the last couple hundreds of years and more. I have enough books to start a small book store. (Hmmm… that’s an idea.)
But even with all this it’s important to get out of the house.
Toward that end I have allotted a modest budget of $20 per month to spend on any new entertainment item or experience. That would give me about 3 movies, or one dvd or two inexpensive music cds (damn record studios), or 15 movies at the dollar theater, or one meal out with friends or the one case of soda I’m allotting for the month. One case of soda taken out of the Entertainment $20 fund. Any money not spent during the month is not rolled over and instead is put into savings.
An active mind is a healthy mind. What were we talking about? …
Automotive
Sometime during the six months from Jan-July I may need to purchase a new car. There’s nothing more to do about it. I have an eleven year old car and it’s not getting any younger. And because the Auto Industry builds cars that will fail inside a decade (to ensure repeat business) I’ll just have to bite the bullet and enjoy the pretty red spray of my blood splattered all over the new car loan paperwork.
But until it does die I’m going to document my mileage and expenses needed to get me to work and around town. I like numbers in spreadsheets. Perhaps it’ll help show where I can further reduce my expenses.
Land and Home
All my life I have wanted two thing.
A wife and kids and land. (Wife and kids are one item. Don’t nitpick.)
I now have 3 acres in BFT and over the last four years have slowly worked the land clearing and trying to grow grass.
Something I have learned: “Never buy grass through the mail.”
So with failed attempts at the green thumb and other expeditions into the old growth forest that is my property I will keep at it. What did you expect me to say I’m gonna quit? Do I sound like a quitter to you? Hey! Did you read my red neck beer gut to shot glass story?
I’ll be clearing up the land with the ultimate goal of clearing a fence line all around the property so I can get a proper fence installed. Thereby keeping out the random stray pitbulls and other dogs my oh so friendly neighbors love to tie up with 50 foot chain and then attach that chain to a small number two pencil they hammer into the ground.
You have not been woke up until you hear the rattling chaos a fifty foot chain makes as it is being dragged through the under brush in your back yard while chasing some forest animal or worse my cats. I lost a cat. No I lost Zork on January 19th 2004.
I just haven’t been able to save enough to get a fence. There are fence people who do fence and line work but they are very expensive and the line work I need done is extensive. (3 arces) I’ll put pictures up under the Land and Home section eventually. And the people who don’t do line work won’t put up a fence until the line is clear.
With finances the way they are I just haven’t been able to get it together enough to get a fence put up. That is my goal once this experiment is over. To have the land cleared enough along the property line to put up a decent fence.
Part of the Home aspects of this experiment is to have yard sales. I want to clear the rooms of quality fine merchandise (see hawking wares) I have collected over the course of 20 years and enjoy coming home to a clean house. My house is clean it’s just really busy. I’ve started on that recently and it has helped but there’s always more to do.
I want to make room for hobbies and eventually have a woman come over and not run screaming out of the house as my eighteen cats greet her at the door. No I don’t have eighteen cats and I have had woman over, it’s just there are things I can do to the home to make it more inviting and comfortable past the diner and a movie stage of a friendship/relationship. I’ll be working on that. If you have any tips on what a woman wants you should save them up and write a book. You’ll make millions.
Expenses needed to improve land and home will be weighted carefully against the intent and spirit of this experiment – not just the guidelines – before making any final purchases.
Well that’s it. Concentrating on these areas of my life I hope to eliminate unnecessary debt, un-clutter my home, revitalize my creative spirit and hobbies, and get into shape through regular exercise and yard work. Let’s see how it goes.(This post is permanently housed under the The Essentials page.)
Great plan! Best of luck to you!
Just a tip from my own “reinventing” I did about seven years ago. Forget the soda. All soda. Give up on carbonated drinks entirely. Believe me, it helps. Give water a try.
First, you quickly begin to feel better without carbonation. Not that you feel bad now, but there will be a noticeable difference once you no longer have carbonated beverages filling you up with needless gas.
Second, water really is the best hydrator. Drinking lots of water really helps to flush the system out and is the best beverage if you’re trying to lose weight.
Now I’ve fallen off course myself a few times (the temptation of the Dew), but overall I’ve vastly reduced the amount of soda I drink. I feel much better for it.
Good luck with your plan!
Shag
I stopped drinking soda when I was in high school and lost fifteen pounds.
A couple years back I stopped drinking soda for a year and didn’t loose anything.
It’s hard to give up the dew though. But I’ve done it before. My plan is to only drink it occasionally and tie it into my entertainment budget.
So if I really must get a two liter bottle it’s coming out of my fun time money.
I agree sodas are terrible drinks and I even read a study that says children are growing up with thinner bones because instead of milk they drink soda which doesn’t grow bone. As adults you don’t grow anymore bone and whatever strength your bones are is what they are - or something like that. I’m not a nutriennist so I may have gotten the facts completely wrong.
Anwyho.. too much soda = bad!
I totally agree. But like wine or beer the occasional indulgance shouldn’t be too bad.
Perhaps has I eat different foods that don’t go as well with soda the cravings will stop?
Thanks for the post and support.
If you have any of that $20 left over at the end of any month, you deserve an award. That is going to be tough. It would be great if this site could provide some extra $$ to up the entertainment fund or go towards your other goals. If only AdSense revenue was higher. . . . Speaking of revenue– start hawking your wares. Any comics coming down the pipeline?
Yeah, regular soda is a killer. I still have one can of diet soda per day (I can’t have my lunch without a Diet Barq’s!), but I try to mainly drink copius amounts of water. I got on this kick to drink at least a gallon a day for awhile. But honestly, it royally sucked. I’ve found Crystal Light is a great option to reduce the monotony of plain water. I even make it half strength. It tastes better to me and saves some dough.
You are correct about the soda/osteoperosis connection. It is the phosphoric acid that studies have been done on.. it seems to be an on going arguement betweeen groups of “scientists”. One being is that kids drink soda in place of milk/water thus causing brittle bones or is it the caffeine along with phosphoric acid- here is a good article with info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/phospheri_acid
It is also - enlightening to known who is paying for a study- the soda company or is it independent?
One soda a day should not hurt you but have you thought of tea. Perhaps it is the caffeine that you are craving it could be the sugar if you don’t drink diet. Sugar causes cravings.
A 12 ounce can of soda has apx ten teaspoons of sugar or apx 140 calories.
Sugar seems about right. And caffine. Yeah, it’s the sugar and the caffine.
I read in a tiny book of facts that chewing an apple in the morning will wake you up just as efficiently as a cup of coffee. The act of chewing works the muscles and the sugars from the apple serve as energy. Apples a fruit right? 8^)
Well apples are out of season - I think - it’s really cold for apples.
Thanks for the link about the bones and such.
It’s day three and I’ll do an update tomorrow.
Things to say.
You should look at Ben Franklin’s autobiography. I haven’t read the whole thing, but he had this list of 12 or 13 things to live by. It helps to have a list like that you can check out to see how you’re doing, and remind you every time you open your wallet.
I’m trying to do some of the same things. I think I’ll post about it.