Tuesday, February 3, 2009

#25. keep track of household spending for consecutive months

"Consecutive months"? Talk about setting the bar low. This is one of those things that grown-ups just do. Needless to say, the fact that I don't do this eats away at me, even though I know I'm not in debt and not going in that direction.

Like most things in my life, including The 89 Project, 90% of getting me to do something is the set up. I've tried doing a budget a couple of times before but got distracted and frustrated and walked away.

Obviously, all I had to do was download a free spreadsheet template and I was good to go. Bam. Easy. I did all of 2008 and the first month of 2009 in less than 72 hours. It's absurd how relieving this all is to me. I have a set of symptoms, and I can worry about diagnosis and prognosis now. Some of those are other elements of The 89 Project, even. (Worry is not even the word, due to our frugal style and decent jobs).

In any case, the financial aspect of my life should finally be in order in the next few months. The picture, for now, is positive.

Knock on wood.

#77. get photos printed and framed

So, uh, yeah. I guess I double dipped on this one. It only took me a few months to figure it out. Does this nullify the whole exercise?