A Lazy Day

I’m one of the lucky gal’s who gets today off. As a substitute teacher, I  pretty much get every national holiday off, a week for spring break, three weeks of winter vacation, and a full 12-week summer vacation. Not bad, considering of those 180 working days I’m home by 3pm. Of course, I don’t get paid on my days off, but that’s a whole other story. So, today I’m spending my day relaxing in the warm California sun. Oh, yeah! Our temp’s have zoomed back up to 77 degrees, making me realize why I pay so much for living in sunny Southern California; the weather!

This weekend I not only helped my husband with a client project, finished 3 school projects, but also had the luxury of spending Sunday and most of today doing absolutely nothing. My favorite thing to do, out side of bike riding (I got to do this as well this weekend). I’ve decided that I can shrug off the guilt of doing nothing because I accomplished plenty on my three days off. But, that brings me to making the most of a 3-day weekend without the guilt. It all boils down to time management:

• Saturday: Since my husband manages his own business, he often has to catch up on projects on the weekends.  I helped him for a few hours. Results: completed one project, got paid.
• Sunday AM: Skype meeting with my brother who is starting his own business. Not only is he 12 hours ahead of me time wise, he also has different work days, Sunday being one of them. Results: finalized his logo, he should pay soon. (He’s my bro, so I can’t harass him too much!) Since I had to wake up early for the meeting, I had enough time to finish 2 school projects. Results: Two down, one more to go.
• Sunday PM: Had time to throw in a couple of loads of laundry while my husband cleaned the car and bikes (my Valentine’s Day gift, I think). Went to a friend’s for an early B-B-Q via a bike ride. Wrapped up the evening with a movie at home and a beer. Results: My do nothing time! Minus the laundry, of course.
• Monday AM: Sleep in! Finished the final school project. Will hop on my bike later today and head out for my 2-hour class. Results: I finished everything without being pressed for time and stressed out.

Since today is a holiday for many people, I intend to catch up on some pleasurable reading and not worry about the remainder of the week’s impending work.

How are you spending your 3-day weekend? Did you get to do something romantic or plan a weekend get-away? Are you one of the lucky people who get’s every national holiday off?

It never fails, I take a few days off and I fall WAY behind! The work that was brushed off during my 3-day excursion to Arizona will most likely take me a full week to make up. This is a down fall of owning your own business or working for yourself: Work is in a stand still mode and NO PAID VACATION!

My extended family can’t really understand this, and feel a little irked that my husband and I can’t spend more time with them when we visit. They have full time jobs at companies that offer up to 4-weeks off of vacation time a year. For example, my husband’s sister has been working for a grocery company for 15 years. She gets at least 4-weeks paid vacation a year (if not more) and doesn’t worry about the missed worked when she isn’t in the office. Someone else will pick up the slack for her, or it can wait until she returns. Not that what she does isn’t important, it’s just that in a corporate setting, there is usually another person who functions in the same capacity and can handle the few weeks when she is on vacation.

Working for yourself means that it’s just you and perhaps your spouse, that handle all the client questions, concerns, new projects, etc. Even a hired employee really can’t make up for the time spent away, the client needs answers and decisions made. All you can do is hope your clients are understanding and are waiting for you when you return. Even if that means being bombarded with multiple projects and short deadlines.

Working for yourself also means that when you do finally take some time off, it’s time UNPAID. Your clients aren’t paying you to take a vacation. They pay you to finish their projects. If we do decide to take a few days off, we have to make sure we aren’t committing financial suicide: No Pay + Paying for a vacation or short trip =  less funds in the bank. In an ideal world when we have a break in work, we’d have copious amounts of cash floating around, enough for us to take a vacation. But this isn’t an ideal world. Usually, when times are slow, we stress out hoping to make all our bills for the month. Then, when times are hectic and the money is flowing, we don’t have time to take a break. Such a conundrum!

At the beginning of the year, I revised my budget based on our Quickbooks reports. Hopefully that budget will help us put extra money away during the good times to prepare for the slow ones. Eventually, if we can continue building our business, someday we’ll be able to take a stress-free vacation!

I’ve been looking forward to the rain, really I have. I’m tired of looking at brown mountains and dried out lawns. The much needed rain will green everything up for a bit. However, since we are a town that barely receives our annual 15 inches, this week will be a trying week. Meteorologists are predicting up to 8 inches in a week, that’s more than half our annual rain fall amount.

Most cities across the nation handle much more harrowing weather, like snow, sleet, and ice. There are plenty of people who drive in much worse conditions than just a steady rain fall. Yet our normally arid city slowly comes to a halt with a few inches of that wet matter. For instance, yesterday while driving around town running some errands, every other major stop light was out. At one intersection, our trusty LA Fire Department was putting out a small fire a top a telephone pole….not so nice. Many major roads and intersections were flooded, not because we’ve received our full 8 inches, but because our run-off drains are clogged with leaves and, unfortunately, trash.

Considering our city is one of the most car-dependent, you’d think that our tax dollars could be spent filling pot holes. Not the case, with water filling in the holes, many go undetected, causing havoc to an unsuspecting driver’s automobile. So, with the promise of lots of rain this week which may help us get out of our drought, comes a commuting head ache for many on the road. Drive safely LA!

This 'Drop Your Pant's Here' sign is really cute!

Lately, my plate has been full of responsibilities. On top of working full time, helping my husband with his projects, and school part-time, I still have to keep the laundry under control and the bathrooms fairly clean. My husband has been wonderful picking up a few of my usual chores. For instance, he has been throwing laundry in when he sees the basket overflowing. Of course, he sometimes forgets the laundry is in the washer or dryer, then we have to deal with ironing or redrying, but it’s better this way than not at all. He also has been making sure I eat a nutritious meal. When I come home on my one late day, he has dinner waiting for me at the dinner table.

But, I still need to get everything accomplished in a timely manner. How do I do it? I multi-task like crazy! I wake up one hour earlier than normal so that I can squeeze in some time for me, meaning time to write this post and comment on some of my favorite blogs. If I didn’t use this time wisely, I’d never have any ‘me’ time, and that would make me cranky. At school, over my breaks, I try to plan and organize the classroom so that I can leave right away at the end of the day. That might mean planning for the week ahead, entering test scores on the computer, preparing an art or writing project, or grading tests.

When I come home, I quickly make sure no one is looking for me, meaning a client that needs something. I check my email and respond to those that only need a few-word reply. I ask my husband, while throwing in a load of laundry, if he needs my help before I spend an hour or two reading for class. If my help is needed, then I allot an hour to a client project, leaving me an additional hour to read or write a paper. Before walking to the bedroom to read, I might water my potted plants on the back patio. Luckily, they are drought-tolerant and only need watering a couple of times a week. Purchasing low maintenance items make life a lot easier.

Since eating doesn’t take much time, I chow down a meal between books so that I have the energy to continue studying. One day during the work week I make sure I spend 30 minutes to an hour completing any papers I have due that Friday. On the weekends, I schedule one half-day to completing longer research papers.  Before my one weekend work-day begins, I can usually clean both bathrooms, minus the shower, and have another chore completed, and the bathrooms in decent condition. Usually setting aside 3 to 4 hours will suffice and I can accomplish enough so that I can spend some quality time with my husband on the second weekend day. As the evening is approaching, I can complete any laundry I forgot about or spend time with my husband, who has lately been neglected.

My one weekend day off, I indulge myself with sleeping in. My husband and I might decide to go to breakfast, a favorite local place that only charges $10 – $12 for the both of us. Living frugally the majority of the week, we feel we can splurge on this one meal. We establish our grocery or shopping list and take a portion of this day to shop. In the early evening, with the weather still warm, we might decide to grill out on the patio. Since I am usually caught up on school work, I don’t feel stressed or guilty that I can take one day off to enjoy the day. Multi-tasking makes my one guilt-free day possible.

I consider myself a fairly organized person. I have to be. I’m juggling many balls, or wearing many hats, to use a metaphor describing my current life style. I help my husband with his graphic design business, I teach elementary school, I am attending school myself part-time to finish up my teaching credential, and I’ve started a blog because I enjoy writing. So, being organized, or managing my time wisely, is a must for me.

However, my wallet (or wallets) is/are the one area where I’m just not as organized. Now, I read years ago that a messy,or disorganized, wallet is an indicator of a messy financial situation. I don’t know how much I agree with this, though I can see where one would make that connection. My situation, though, is different. In some ways, I have achieved superb wallet organization, in others, I’ve not. For example, I have two wallets. One wallet holds all of my credit cards, which I rarely use, my AAA membership card, my health insurance, dental insurance, and pharmacy card, and a Border’s Books Club card. This is a wallet that I don’t pull out very often.

My other wallet, a small, fake-leather, coin purse I purchased in Mexico almost two years ago, holds my debit/ATM card, my Starbucks Gold Reward Card, my savings account ATM card, my Ralph’s Club card, my driver’s license, and (here is the surprise) a couple of Starbucks Gift Cards. I use this wallet on a daily basis. It’s small enough to fit in my pocket when I ride my bike to Starbucks in the morning or to the grocery store. It’s also convenient to place in a small clutch when, and this is rare, I go out and need a smaller purse. I knew I had a couple of Starbucks Gift Cards in there, but I thought they only had a dollar or less on them, so haven’t bothered to pull them out in a while.

Starbucks Gift Card, a pleasant surprise!

The other day, my husband needed my debit card to renew our AAA membership. He pulled out my small coin purse and emptied the contents on his desk (this was easier for him to do than file through the cards with his large fingers). When the two Starbucks Gift Cards fell out, along with the debit card he needed, he announced his finding to me. He even had the time to look online and check their balances. To both of our amazements, one of the gift cards still had $20.00 on it! I was shocked. Not only did I not realize I had this kind of credit on one of the gift cards, I don’t even remember saving it for future use.

A few days have passed and I still haven’t used my gift card. I am now subconsciously ’saving’ it for a rainy day. However, that little surprise was delightful, sort of a similar feeling to finding cash in a washed article of clothing.

Do you find pleasure in surprises such as these? How many of us misplaced a gift card only later to find it? Did you use it right away, or save it?

I love my bike, I can’t really stress this enough. Every morning, I ride to Starbucks on my green Raleigh Venture, a comfort bike with collapsible side baskets, over the rear tire, that hold one bag of groceries each. Not only is my ride pleasurable, I’m saving in so many ways.

To begin with, I’m saving the environment. With the wind in my face, I coast the short one-mile distance and feel terrific that I’m not wasting gas or polluting the air for that one-mile coffee run. I try, as much as possible, to ride my bike for any short trip or errand; usually under 2-miles is a no-brainer bike ride. I am also conserving fuel, my husband and I only purchase gas about twice a month. Of course, it helps that one of us works full-time from home and the other (me) loves riding my bike!

Me biking through the park. I love my bike!

Another reason to love biking, it reduces the wear and tear on our one, shared vehicle. I love my Honda Element and want it to last a long time. It’s the vehicle that inspired our love of camping! So, the less we drive, the less maintenance is needed on our car. We also save money on required maintenance by keeping our annual mileage under 14,000 miles.

One of the most recent money saving reasons to love my bike: I didn’t have to purchase a parking permit at the state college I’m attending. Although, it helps that I live in Southern California where we seldom have inclement weather, I can ride up to the building where my class is held and not fight over a parking space, or walk a mile to class. That $300 is money that stays in the bank.

Since I get a lot of cardiovascular exercise by riding my bike, I can forgo a gym membership. I’ve never really liked gyms to begin with, so this was more of an added bonus: firm legs and rear that I can be proud of. Last year I rode so much, I even noticed that my arms were firming up, that wobbly chicken wing-thing was beginning to disappear into a well-toned muscle. Not only am I saving money on exercising, I’m saving money in the long run by staying active and  healthy.

But what really takes the cake is that biking keeps me sane. Meaning, it reduces any stress I might have that day. Whether I have a million things to do and am stressing  because I only accomplished 3, or if I had a rough day teaching small children to read, I can jump on my bike and my thoughts are soon someplace else. Being outside, enjoying nature, biking along at a moderate and comfortable pace keeps my insanity at bay. And that is priceless!

Using QuickBooks to track our expenses and income has allowed me to notice where we spend money and how much money we make monthly and yearly. This is incredibly helpful in determining where we can save money, and it has also made me realize that our income varies greatly by month.  Actually, every other month our income goes up and down like a roller coaster. One month we average $10,000, while the next we only bring in $3,000.  Since our bills stay pretty much the same, it makes budgeting for the reduced-income months difficult.

Before my husband and I started analyzing our expenses and planning how we were going to save money for a down payment, we didn’t realize how erratic our income was. In a month where we had a wind-fall, we’d pay our bills easily and still have spending money for large  household purchases. When the next month came, and our income was greatly reduced, I’d stuggle to pay all the bills on time. This negatively affected our credit scores if I paid late, and increased our overall debt if I had to ‘borrow’ from a source of credit.

A sampling of 2008's income by month

Now that we are on a budget and much more savvy as to where our money is spent, I am better able to use the QuickBooks graphs effectively. I used to think that families on a stable income had it easy. They knew how much money they brought in each month and what bills had to be paid. However, I now realize that there are drawbacks to a stable income, such as saving large lump sums at a time. Also, having a stable income means if you make a spending mistake one month, it’s difficult to ‘catch up’ the next since the amount coming in stays the same. With an erratic income, there’s a little more flexibility to saving large amounts of money in a good month, as long as you can budget for the upcoming short-fall month.

For instance, on the months where we make more money, I try and deposit a minimum of $1,000 into our savings for our ‘house fund’ (or 25% of the income received). I then budget out next month’s bills and try and determine how much income we can expect on a minimal basis . Looking at my QuickBooks graphs over the past 3 years, our lowest income month was $2,800. This is my base line. I then put aside the difference between the $2,800 that I know we will at least bring in, versus the large amount that just came in. Our bills are quite high (averaging $6,800 including my husband’s one employee), so I try and save about $2,000 – $3,000 toward next month’s bills. In actuality, I need to stash away at least $3,000, and if I can, $4,000 towards next month’s bills. Luckily, we usually make more than the baseline figure of $2,800 even on a slow month.

Reducing our bills has helped with our overall budgeting as well as anticipating those bills that come bi-monthly or tri-monthly, like our water and electric bill or our life insurance payments. Sometimes these two give us a double-whammy mid-summer and our monthly bills increase by $600. Since our water and power bill come every 2 months and our life insurance every 3 months, they sometimes sneak up on us at the same time.

Having a savings account and budgeting for next month’s short-comings helps to reduce the anxiety of anticipating larger bills. When it doesn’t work out as planned, we have to dip into our ‘house fund’, which I really don’t like doing, to keep up with our bills and pay everything on time. My budgeting isn’t an exact science, I know I could average out my minimum income, then try and reduce our bills to that amount. But for now, it all works out.

Time Management Skills, or Budgeting Your Time Wisely

Now that I’m back in school, opening a special education class in a week, and continuing to help my husband on a few projects, I really need to budget and manage my time wisely. Just like setting up a financial budget, budgeting time is one item I consider extremely important. No longer can I surf the web for random stories, browse sites I like to call my “junk” sites, basically celebrity gossip sites I quickly glance at, or search for my next new hair color. My time between now and mid-December needs to be managed down to the minute, or I will end up having panic attacks and procrastinating on items that have due dates.

One thing that has worked for me in the past is staying on top of my email. For example, most of the projects my husband throws my way are smaller projects I can handle on my own; a postcard design,  client website updates, a revised brochure, etc. To keep in contact with these clients on the progress of their project, I check my email daily and make sure I respond to their questions and comments within the same day. For the most part, I  keep this up by checking my email as soon as I get home at 3:00pm. Most projects only take an hour or so, and I can squeeze in some time before dinner. The clients I work with directly are  satisfied with the due date of their project as long as I am fairly accurate on when they can expect to see something completed.

After working on a website revision or postcard design, I budget 2 hours for reading school assignments. Since I’m only attending school part-time and taking 2 courses, I’m not overloaded with a full-time schedule. Luckily I’m a proficient and fast reader, most likely because I was encouraged to read a lot as a child (but this is a whole other topic), and can keep up with the reading requirements for this semester. Reports and summaries can be included in this 2-hour block if I take notes while reading, a terrific activity to remembering what I’ve read. Note-taking is also helpful if a test is coming up.

On the weekends, I can spend a few hours each day catching up on my reading, reporting and summarizing. Only recently have my husband and I been able to take a weekend off, a rare advantage to being self-employed. The remainder of the weekend I can use to clean, not very fun I know, but this post isn’t about having fun really. My husband and I turbo clean the house, he vacuums while I clean the bathrooms. We jointly clean the kitchen and can have the house cleaned with in an hour or so.  Laundry is something I can do all week, throwing in a load here and there between phone calls and reading. If I manage to complete all of my tasks and reading, I might even have a few hours in the evening to sit on the patio, drink a beer, and cook out – now that’s my idea of fun!

I guess the best way to finish all of my work, now that I have a many obligations, is not waste any time. I’m a person who doesn’t procrastinate, unless I begin to panic, and I outline a lot of my ideas, articles, summaries, etc. before I begin writing. Most of the work is finished by the time I complete an outline and my thoughts are somewhat organized. So in summary, and to show off my outlining-time managing skills:

• 6:30 am: wake up, get ready for class (the special ed class I’m opening – this has a daily schedule all on its own written in a plan book)
• come home, check email, respond to clients
• finish client projects (1-2 hours)
• read assigned books and summarize (1-2 hours)
• spend half an hour to an hour making sure I’ve written a post for my blog and commented on blogs I like to read
• have dinner, a beer, and watch a movie (do sit ups while watching a movie to squeeze in exercise and negate that beer)
• go to bed by 10pm
• start all over again the next day (if I’m feeling enthusiastic, wake up 45 minutes earlier and ride my bike to school)

I need a nap now. I got tired just outlining what my day will be like in a week.