March/April

April's focus, in honor of spring, was Simplify (Cleanliness). The resolutions were simple: Find 15 minutes every morning and every night to do some general tidy. I also tried to find the time once a week to tackle a bigger project I had been procrastinating.

I was fairly successful! I did at least one of the 15-minute segments, if not both, most days. My oh my, what a difference it made! I always started by doing the dishes and wiping down the counter and then I've been making my way around the kitchen, taking things off of shelves, wiping down the insides, and reorganizing. I'm not done yet, but it is certainly on it's way. I'm really bad for creating clutter areas, like cupboards and drawers and surfaces. Once I decide something has a home, I'm really awesome at keeping that area clean, but as soon as someone else messes it up, it becomes a magnet for my own stuff too - a dumping ground. Some mini-projects I tackled this month: cleaning off the top of the fridge, cleaning out/organizing the saran wrap/tin foil/etc drawer, cleaning out and organizing the tupperware cupboard (complete chaos!) and fixing the broken shelf in there, reorganizing some casserole dishes, the glassware, and under the kitchen sink (another disaster zone). I didn't manage to tackle the biggest and most procrastinated area of my home of all: the stairs to nowhere. It's an area in my house that "out of the way", a staircase that used to lead up to the second floor of the house but has since been dry-walled to make this a private suite. It has become my personal dumping ground. I swear I will get there though, and it's going to look fabulous. I also hung a couple pictures in the kitchen and took apart the leaning tower of Pisa of a structure in my bathroom - an over the toilet unit that had collapsed against the wall due to moisture. I managed to score some free skateboard decks from a local board shop that I am going to mount as shelves instead, as soon as my artist friend paints them for me. If this is a good habit that I can maintain for the rest of my life, it would be a very good thing...

On other cleaning news, I got a vacuum this month. A real, big girl vacuum. I'm officially a grown-up (not).

May is Money Month. A year and a half ago I was awesome with money. People were always coming to me for advice. After moving into Vancouver, I saw how well I was doing and started to "relax" a bit. Relaxing turned into slacking off which turned into a series of poor decision which eventually lead to my financial ruin. Whoops. Time to get back on track.

My resolutions for May include:

Make a budget
Find a better system for recording hours, wages, tips, and tip out.
Get a new day job
Spend less/Prioritize
Switch bank accounts to one with lower fees or switch banks altogether
Get a credit card

I do have some tips that I will post separately. I'll include my budget for everyone to see. Some would say it's personal, but I look at it as a tool that someone else could use for learning. I've been doing pretty well so far. I eat mostly at home (but could do better) and have stopped all unnecessary expenses. The two things I am struggling with: Netflix and my gym membership. Netflix is $10 a month and my gym is $40 and neither really fit into my budget. But since I've cut eating out from my budget, it's nice that my boyfriend and I can watch a show off of Netflix. And my gym... I'm having trouble viewing this as an unnecessary expense. It's health, right? My body is important. The thing is, I've allotted $50 to dance classes a month, but that isn't really enough to keep me fit. I can run, walk, and bike for free, but none of that is equivalent to weight lifting. I have to give 30 days notice to leave anyway. My $40 fee includes all the classes as well which I do take advantage off. I would only be paying $30/month if I signed a year contract but I always feel that as an actor I have to be ready to up and move at a moments notice, if I had to. I would hate to have to pay $120 just to get out of the contract. Maybe it's worth it.