M. Suzanne Terry

Budgeting.

Ugh.

I hate budgeting.

But it must be done.

I will say from the top that I don’t need anything else in the apartment.  I do not need anything to complete this project.  In fact, I could get rid of a whole lot of things and still have everything I need to make the apartment clean and organized.

I could just wash my hands of this whole budgeting issue by making “buy nothing” one of the rules. The only problem is that, having met me, I know that I would break this rule, and without guidelines, I would break it hard, because I really love buying things.

I won’t know everything I want for each space until I am spending the week focusing on it, but here’s a small dose of what I have been pondering:

Entryway (includes all the odd space between the door and the living area):

• Divider shelf to make a stacked display of the espresso cups
• Small cabinet for liquor storage/bar paraphernalia (hello, garage sales, because I am not paying retail)
• Books for CDs so I can get rid of all those hideous jewel cases

Living room and writing nook:

• Sheets, inexpensive fabric – something to make curtains out of that 1) is not sheer and 3) matches or can be dyed to match (ish – doesn’t have to be exact)
• Possibly dye

Kitchen:

• Storage containers – leaning toward mason jars for most things but will need larger ones for multiple flours
• Small shelves to maximize space in all the cabinets
• Wooden slats to fix bottom drawer of chest of drawers and perhaps make slats for bakeware
• Barring the ability to find inexpensive shelving, spice jars that will stack
• Add to my Simple Additions collection (Pampered Chef plates, bowls, etc. – also, I’m a consultant, so if you see something you like, I can hook you up. /shameless plug)

Bedroom:

• Under-the-bed storage
• Storage chest for end of bed
• Material to make curtains (or just buying curtains) for east window
• Materials to make headboard

Bathroom:

• Silver accessories – soap dispenser, trash can, etc.
• Plum linens – six bath towels, two hand towels, shower curtain, bath mat(s)

That’s a long list already for a home that doesn’t really need anything.

This week, I am going to start pricing things and scouring garage sales and thrift stores.  Because here’s the kicker – I’m going to give myself a $300 limit.  For the whole summer.  And I’m anxious about even setting aside that much, because I really do not need anything at all.

I can buy almost everything secondhand on my list or make it myself.  I imagine the bulk of the money will be spent on the bathroom (because secondhand towels give me the icks), so I’m saving $150 for it (I have some coupons). That means that the other four areas have to average $35 apiece, with a $10 cushion.  I will have to be careful.  Because I have four huge windows in the living room/writing nook, and finding curtains for all four that either match or at least fit together in an artsy but not college-student-living-on-ramen kind of way for less than $35 is going to take a miracle (or a really fantastic estate sale).

When it comes to spending money on my apartment this summer, I will remember two things:

1. I will not consider the week a failure if I can’t find items that fit into my budget by the end of the week that the room is supposed to be “done.”  I will remember that the whole point of this project is that making a home is an on-going, ever-changing, organic process.  It is unreasonable to expect that it will be My Ultimate Living Environment by the end of the summer.
2. Even though the work is going to be divided into areas, the shopping doesn’t have to be.  If I find inexpensive storage or great towels this week, I’m going to go ahead and buy them.  Particularly if they are on sale.

Tuesday and Thursday afternoons are going to be thrift afternoons, but I reserve the right to shop whenever I feel like it.  Also, garage sales happen on Saturdays, so that’s when I’ll be doing that.  I will also be scouring Denton’s Freecycle list more carefully (meaning, I’ll actually read the email instead of saying, “Ack! No!  No more stuff!” and deleting it without opening it).  And SCRAP just became my favorite store of the summer, because the next two Fridays are fabric sales, and I might find jars there that will serve my spice storage needs. I am actively planning to make out like a bandit.

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Yesterday, I announced my summer project – to get my diet and home in order.

First, let’s discuss the meal situation.

This past week was Finals Week at one job and Closedown Week (with a side order of Re-Opening Day on Saturday) at the other. Translation: last week was a six-day work week, because no amount of planning will make the busiest week of the year fit into five days.

A little bit of planning, however, could have improved the week’s grocery haul:

I do have to give myself some credit.  Last year, this picture would have been a loaf of sandwich bread and a jar of peanut butter surrounded by empty takeout containers and Whataburger bags.  This year’s week of sandwiches, taquitos, and cereal might be only marginally healthier (hey – at least it wasn’t soda and deep-fried onion rings), but it was a lot less expensive.  So progress has been made.

In addition to the week of tornado-esque frenzy at work, I had two social engagements to which I brought food, which accounts for the artisan breads and the second box of taquitos, because I didn’t have time to make them from scratch.

However.

Making my own bread doesn’t actually require that much hands-on time.  It just requires planning ahead.  And I can make six loaves of fancy bread for the price of one of the artisan loaves that I bought.

Also, did you notice something missing from the picture?  Vegetables.  The only vegetables you see are the red onion and the jar of roasted peppers, and they only made the list because they were part of the recipe for cheesy bread that I took to Supper Club.  It’s springtime in Texas.  We have fresh vegetables coming out our ears down here.  But they didn’t make it on my list because I didn’t have a plan.

Second, let’s discuss the apartment situation.

I have to pat myself on the back for my work ethic.  My grades were finalized by Wednesday, allowing me to give my full attention to the residence hall when it needed attention the most.  I did not procrastinate at work.

Unfortunately, since cleaning is how I procrastinate, it kind of fell by the wayside last week.

Who am I kidding?  It has been making its home on the wayside for quite some time now.  It’s looking at wayside schools and searching for wayside jobs.

My apartment is a wreck.  If you saw a picture of how it looks right now, you might cry.  I’ll give you a minor example.

This is the cleanest, most organized corner of my home at this moment:

Keeping a home clean and organized has never been a skill I’ve possessed.  Don’t get me wrong – I prefer a clean, organized home.  I just hate doing the work it takes to keep it that way.  And because I hate doing it, I put it off (unless I’m putting off doing something I dread more, like grading), which ultimately makes it into a gargantuan, daunting job.

But because I grew up in my mother’s house, I know it doesn’t have to get to that point.  I know that I can have the home I want by deep cleaning two or three times a year if I will commit to maintaining it the rest of the year.  And that’s a habit I want to create this summer.

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This message is brought to you by my mother.

Growing up, we had three square meals a day, and most of them were at home. Driving through for burgers and eating out were special treats that might have happened once or twice a month.  If we had cookies, they were homemade. Even when she worked full-time, we had hot, balanced meals on the table.

She also kept an immaculate house.  At one of my birthday parties, we sat on the kitchen floor to have our cake.  One of my friends dropped a bite on the floor, as small children are wont to do. When she picked it up and tried to hand it to her mom, her mom said, “Just eat it.”  Then her mom laughed and turned to my mom.  “This is probably the only kitchen floor I’d let my daughter eat off of.”

I am not my mother.

I know that she had help.  She and Dad split the domestic responsibilities pretty evenly, and she made it clear to my sister and me that we were expected to pull our own age-appropriate weight.  The flipside is that she had three other people in the house making messes and requiring sustenance.  Show of hands – how many of you know that toddlers (or twelve-year-olds, for that matter) make way more of a mess than they clean up? So while she had more help than I do, she also had a lot more to do.

I know that it is possible to have a full-time job, a clean house, and a healthy, affordable diet, and it is possible to have all of that and still have time to read, watch TV, and have a social life.  I know it’s possible, because I spent the first eighteen years of my life watching my mother do it. I also know, having been brought up by this superwoman, how to do it.

On this Mother’s Day, I honor what Mom modeled and taught me.  Today, I start my three-month series on getting it together.

Tomorrow, I will post the need, and Tuesday, I will lay out the plan.

Wish me luck!

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