Spring Cleaning
Every spring seems like a good time to not only clean up the apartment and git rid of anything that is no longer useful -- or I don't use it enough to be useful. It's also a good time to clean up other parts of your life that have felt lacking. Lately I've actually been playing my clarinet again. I haven't played or practiced on a regular basis since probably first year of college. I've started getting back into it -- but I'm still really horrible and no where near where I could be. I might start taking lessons -- but that will highly depend on the job search. I don't want to take lessons and then find another job in two weeks. But maybe I should because then I will find a new job.... that's a thought.
There are a lot of good musicians in this area because of the local university has a well known music program.
I've done some very useful things today and it's only noon. I took a shower, made breakfast, put away my laundry from like two weeks ago, clean up, swept and mopped, clean up the kitchen, emptied the dishwasher and started another load, cleaned out my drawers and took the old stuff to goodwill, paid bills, just generally being productive and not sitting around. I really need to be more focused with things I give myself to do -- because I've found this last year and a half, that when left to my own devices it turns rather destructive if I don't have anything constructive to do.
Earlier this week I found out that my gas tank was leaking. So I took it to this shop that my boss recommended. It was definitely a leak in the gas tank which is not much of a problem to replace. The real issue is that the filler neck (the part that goes from the gas tank to the outside pump) was not in great shape -- and its near impossible to find one. I thought it was kind of ridiculous that you couldn't find a part for a car that's only about 10-12 years old, but when I actually checked there were none to be found and everyone else said the same thing. But they were able to fix it and use the good part and get me up and running again. The next thing I need to repair is the muffler - it's getting a little loud. I'm not that excited about that one. Probably after Joe's wedding -- or maybe next week. I'm not sure yet -- depends on when I can get it in.
This car problem brought up the fact that this car is really old and I might have to buy a new one. So I was flipping out all week trying to find everything I needed to go buy a new car. Even after my car got fixed on Friday I still went car shopping yesterday. It's really between the Honda Civic LX and the Mazda3 with the side airbags/ABS package. They are basically the same car -- very similar in options and everything. Both manual (God I love a stick! ha!) transmission, there's like a $500 difference. I almost bought one. But then held back. I also drove the Nissan Versa and the Toyota Corolla -- and I have to say the Corolla was my least favorite out of all of them. I think the Mazda3 was definitely my favorite it just drove like butter, but the rear crash test rating isn't quite as good. I did like the way the tachometer was set up on the civic -- it was pretty cool.
I then cam back and took a good look at my budget -- and I really want to save up a little more money in my emergency fund before I put down a down payment on a new car. My car isn't in that bad of shape yet. I hope I can get it to at least last the rest of the summer. Then I'll be much happier with my financial situation if everything works out okay. If I end up finding a new job and have to move in this time period -- things might change a bit. It would be easier to afford a new car if I got paid the extra 10-15K a year that I'm worth.
I have to say my budget spread sheet rocks! I've got it set up so that everything refers to everything else so I can easily change it for getting a raise or having one expense go up a lot and see how it will affect everything else really easily. I would definitely recommend it. The only thing that's hard is moving to another state -- the state and local taxes will be a bit different. But it at least gives me a good idea what would happen and I can better budget for how much I want to spend on anything and still have a good chunk left for savings. Yeah for budgets!
I should probably do laundry today - but I don't want to. I really just want to go biking -- but it's raining. Dumb rain. I guess I'll have to find something else to do. Maybe I'll go read "Emma" that I just got from Amazon yesterday. I know it's dumb and really girly but I still like silliness like Jane Austen.
There are a lot of good musicians in this area because of the local university has a well known music program.
I've done some very useful things today and it's only noon. I took a shower, made breakfast, put away my laundry from like two weeks ago, clean up, swept and mopped, clean up the kitchen, emptied the dishwasher and started another load, cleaned out my drawers and took the old stuff to goodwill, paid bills, just generally being productive and not sitting around. I really need to be more focused with things I give myself to do -- because I've found this last year and a half, that when left to my own devices it turns rather destructive if I don't have anything constructive to do.
Earlier this week I found out that my gas tank was leaking. So I took it to this shop that my boss recommended. It was definitely a leak in the gas tank which is not much of a problem to replace. The real issue is that the filler neck (the part that goes from the gas tank to the outside pump) was not in great shape -- and its near impossible to find one. I thought it was kind of ridiculous that you couldn't find a part for a car that's only about 10-12 years old, but when I actually checked there were none to be found and everyone else said the same thing. But they were able to fix it and use the good part and get me up and running again. The next thing I need to repair is the muffler - it's getting a little loud. I'm not that excited about that one. Probably after Joe's wedding -- or maybe next week. I'm not sure yet -- depends on when I can get it in.
This car problem brought up the fact that this car is really old and I might have to buy a new one. So I was flipping out all week trying to find everything I needed to go buy a new car. Even after my car got fixed on Friday I still went car shopping yesterday. It's really between the Honda Civic LX and the Mazda3 with the side airbags/ABS package. They are basically the same car -- very similar in options and everything. Both manual (God I love a stick! ha!) transmission, there's like a $500 difference. I almost bought one. But then held back. I also drove the Nissan Versa and the Toyota Corolla -- and I have to say the Corolla was my least favorite out of all of them. I think the Mazda3 was definitely my favorite it just drove like butter, but the rear crash test rating isn't quite as good. I did like the way the tachometer was set up on the civic -- it was pretty cool.
I then cam back and took a good look at my budget -- and I really want to save up a little more money in my emergency fund before I put down a down payment on a new car. My car isn't in that bad of shape yet. I hope I can get it to at least last the rest of the summer. Then I'll be much happier with my financial situation if everything works out okay. If I end up finding a new job and have to move in this time period -- things might change a bit. It would be easier to afford a new car if I got paid the extra 10-15K a year that I'm worth.
I have to say my budget spread sheet rocks! I've got it set up so that everything refers to everything else so I can easily change it for getting a raise or having one expense go up a lot and see how it will affect everything else really easily. I would definitely recommend it. The only thing that's hard is moving to another state -- the state and local taxes will be a bit different. But it at least gives me a good idea what would happen and I can better budget for how much I want to spend on anything and still have a good chunk left for savings. Yeah for budgets!
I should probably do laundry today - but I don't want to. I really just want to go biking -- but it's raining. Dumb rain. I guess I'll have to find something else to do. Maybe I'll go read "Emma" that I just got from Amazon yesterday. I know it's dumb and really girly but I still like silliness like Jane Austen.
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