Monthly Goals: July 2012

Here’s a report-back on my June 2012 goals:

1. Get the dent in my car fixed

I decided to do it myself. I have a body dolly, a body hammer, a rubber mallet, and a jack and stands. I bought some scratch cream, because there are some superficial scratches. The only replacement part I needed was a passenger-side front inner fender well. It’s a $1 piece of plastic, but cost me $23 with HST. Sure enough, the shop ordered a driver’s side. Instead of admitting to their mistake, they claimed that I ordered it wrong. As freaking if. I should have just gone to the local NAPA directly. If you’re ordering a new part, don’t bother with wreckers, even if they’re a buck or two cheaper. Wreckers are often just grease monkeys, not mechanics, for a reason. They didn’t want their part back, so I pulled an end-run by putting in a dispute with the credit card company. Once I get the refund from MasterCard, I’ll order the part directly from NAPA and correct the wreckers’ error.

2. Add $2500 to my Net Worth

I added at least $2500 to my Net Worth because I saved over $2500. Per Leigh’s advice I’ll be clearer on this item in July’s goals.

3. Go through my accordion folder

I barely started this, but it’s nowhere near finished. I can’t emphasize how huge this folder is. As for my excuse: we’d almost cleared out the living room (except for the stacked bins of things we want to sell, donate, or get rid of). Then we got a ton of kids’ clothes, books, and toys, from family members who are moving. The sorting of these items is ongoing. A few of the items are in Holly’s room. We started one bin for things we’ll want in a year or two, and we’ll put this in the basement when we’re finished. We dropped off about two garbage bags of high-quality but undesired clothes in a charity’s drop-off bin. We took namebrand, unstained clothing to a consignment shop. Apparently they don’t want winter apparel yet, so they only took half of our stuff. We’ll return with the winter apparel on September 1st. We still have a ton of books to go through. Some will be kept, some will be sold, and (I suspect most) others will be donated to the library (either in City of Kawartha Lakes, Peterborough, or both).

4. Degree Framing

Yes! Done! I went into Michael’s during their supposedly 50% off framing services sale. Of course I was told “Oh, no, that doesn’t apply to mounting it/putting a matte in,” and they quoted me $31 with HST.

At first, I was prepared to walk away. I looked at the materials on the shelf. It’d cost me about $15 to get everything to do the job. That’s retail price, so when Michael’s does the framing their margins are huge. Nevertheless, for $16 extra, I knew the job would get done competently. I have no idea how to properly frame things. It could have been a learning opportunity, but I have more important skills to learn (like autobody repair!). Frugal fail, but I considered it my Father’s Day present.

And I even hung my degree properly with a measuring tape, level, and multiple nails. Proof:

5. Walking

I was able to walk on the majority of reasonably nice (i.e. not rainy days). I didn’t walk every nice day. Still not there yet. As my workload (from moving into the house, fixing things, adjusting to the baby, etc.) decreases, this will continue to get easier. I noticed more slack this month.

6. Write a Review of The Wealthy Barber Returns

I did it, and the post is scheduled for this week!

Here’s what I want to get done in July:

1. Get the dent in my car fixed

We can do it. We have the technology. I just need to pick up an inner fender well. You in, Jack Braithwaite?

2. Save $2500

Instead of simply adding $2,500 to my net worth (some of which could result from hypothetical increases in equity, my pension plan, etc.), I want to be clear that I plan to save at least $2,500. I’ve accomplished this every month (probably my only consistent success) so I’m pretty confident that I’ll pull it off again.

3. Go through the accordian folder and finish sorting the kids’ clothes/books/toys

Getting through my mess of papers would be very relieving. It’s been on the list for two months, after all. If my partner reads this post, I hope she helps me take initiative!

We’re actually all done sorting the kids’ clothes and toys. We just need to finish sorting books. And we need to purge. I’m so anti-materialist/anti-stuff.

4. Get my passport renewed, and get a passport for Catherine

Well, I want to fill out the forms, get pictures, and send them in. Obviously we won’t actually get our passports in July.

5. Walking

I really want to walk almost every nice day. I’m writing this on Saturday, so I’m gonna go for a walk right now!

6. Deal with basement moisture

My basement is poured concrete (with cinder block walls). There’s a small square basin in one corner and a sump pump. Sump pump works fine. Problem: the basement isn’t properly sloped. As a result, when it gets really humid, water collects in the middle of the basement. The water tends to come and go; it got really bad a week or so ago. I used a ShopVac to suck it up. The water, however, has come back a bit and I’m not vacuuming again. I found a 25-pint Danby dehumidifier on sale at Home Depot for $129.99, so by the time this post is live, I may have already solved the issue. I’ll just set up the dehumidifier and run a line into the sump basin (rather than having to empty the bucket myself). The sump pump will then pump the water out of the house. (July 1st update – the dehumidifier is purchased and running. The continuous flow hose runs from the dehumidifier into the sump basin. The sump pump is working, and I’ve verified water is dripping into the basin from the hose. Humidity is already down 2 percent.)

7. Setup a patio or get a couch

We have a huge lawn (not to mention a massive field that’s now been harvested for hay) and a big living room (with my 51″ flatscreen and XBox 360). I haven’t spent a ton of time in either place (save for watching Sons of Anarchy in the living room) . Why? Well, there’s no comfortable furniture. It’d be nice to chillax, lounge with my partner, and even have Jack Braithwaite over on occassion. Thus I think the next major purchase that I’m going to make will be a patio set or a couch. The challenge will be acquiring one of these items while still meeting my savings goal.