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Financial Journey
Eating the Elephant - Part Two
I am smiling as
I write this because I am so completely satiated from eating all of my
elephants. I have remained focused on my mission to get rid of the herd and it
has literally opened up room in my home, my mind, and my life! More...
Once I have eaten a good part of the elephant – one bite at a time – I find it is no longer crushing me. This gives me the strength and energy to move on to eating the rest of the herd. I have chewed away at several and still have a journey ahead to complete my goals. It is amazing how much time I have gained as I turn a huge elephant into a baby or eliminate it completely. I have found that my elephants would probably fill an entire book, so I am going to give updates on the ones I have already discussed. I can see that I will need another update to this article, as I haven’t addressed other issues that have weighed heavily on me. Hopefully, by the time I get to those, I will have eaten some huge chunks or devoured them! Let’s revisit my July article – Eating the Elephant – Part One: Debt—I made a plan and continue to work the plan. I have scheduled automatic payments each month that are debited from my checking account. I have been so pleased to see the balances dropping each month. I am not using the credit cards except for a few payments that were previously scheduled to be paid through the card. These are very few, so the balances are being reduced at a satisfying rate! I know that if there is an unplanned expense for an emergency, I can change the payoff amount to one or more credit cards if needed. But, I will avoid that option unless absolutely necessary. I find it humorous the things that I get excited about. One credit card will be paid in full by October, then I will apply that money to the two remaining cards. There have been a few times that I have had extra money in my account as I have employed black belt frugality once again. I add the extra to the debt payoff. This elephant was crushing me beyond belief, to the point that I was having difficulty separating the herd. It felt like they were all stepping on me at once. It was necessary to take time to plan and determine the highest priorities first. My goal is to have it all paid off by the end of 2012. What a wonderful feeling to know that is actually going to happen! With resourcefulness and creativity, I might slay this humongous weight before the end of 2012. I am currently using my debit card for all purchases and that has resolved the debt problem. Organization – I have eaten a large elephant to get this one under control! The first part I had to deal with was the paperwork in shopping bags in my closet from the last few years. I am happy to report that the current paperwork is actually current. All paper bags are gone and have been replaced by a small portable file box with my essential files. It has proved even further “The Pareto Principle” we've talked about before. In most cases, we access 10-20% of our filing 80 to 90% of the time. I now have the 10 to 20% in one small box that is easy to access. My shredder is nearby and I am shredding liberally, knowing I can reference necessary information online for up to ten years. The only loose paperwork is in a very small basket near my couch and every two to three days I go through it and handle it. There is no longer any back up, lost statements, or piles of paperwork in different places. I have a wooden file cabinet in my closet that looks like a small dresser. It is obviously filled with files, but I rarely need to retrieve them. The key files that I did access are moved to my portable file box – e.g. tax documents and vital records. My next bite (or several bites) is to get rid of the paperwork from this unnecessary piece of furniture. This will free up a great amount of space in the closet for much needed storage. I am ashamed to admit that I have saved all paperwork since Bob and I were married 33 years ago. Most of the files have been archived in large plastic bins and are taking up valuable space in the garage and basement. I never look at these files, so it is a “no-brainer” that these can go! Unfortunately, the friend who offered to shred my paperwork at her office has been transferred to another city. She did get rid of the last few years of shredding in the shopping bags, but now I have to dispose of the contents of the large file cabinet and plastic bins. I prepared myself to accept that this was going to cost money, but with the amount of shredding in these older files, I thought the expense would be outrageous. I searched the internet for places in my area where I could take the massive amount of paperwork. I found an article about a bank that offered a free shredding day last October. I called and found that they are doing it again this October with a limit of 10 boxes. I wonder if they count the size of the box? I can empty these files in a hurry and will be the first in line in October! I was so happy, and it served as another reminder to be creative and resourceful in finding ways to meet my needs and achieve goals. Once these files are emptied, the paperwork elephant will be extinct from my house! I handle it every few days at the most and it is never crushing me again. Another elephant that reappears annually is related to gift giving in my family. My 5th great granddaughter was born two days ago! I still try to give a gift to all children, their spouses, my 12 grandchildren, and currently 5 great grandchildren for both Christmas and birthdays. I have 2 more great grandchildren due before the end of the year. Whew! I tackled the gift elephant during the last couple of months. I have always kept a gift cabinet and buy items throughout the year at after-Christmas sales, clearances, thrift stores and garage sales. I still have gifts in my cabinet, but I have ransacked it over the last few years and I haven’t been going to garage sales as frequently. I really did want to clear it out before buying more gifts. Now it is time to work on restocking it. I will be leaving for a lengthy vacation next week. I will be spending one week with my daughter and several grandchildren and great grandchildren as part of this trip. Being focused on my own herd of elephants, I realized I better start thinking about gifts for Christmas and birthdays next year. We each have our own herd, and while some may be similar to mine, others could be completely different. This is where our resourcefulness and creativity plays a vital role, motivating and inspiring us to eat our individual elephants. This part of my family consists of 20 relatives! A couple of months ago, I realized I had better prepare to take the gifts with me to save on postage. I am flying Southwest Airlines for this leg of the trip and they allow two pieces of luggage free of cost. I have one suitcase fully packed with all of their gifts and another for my clothing. I wrapped all of the Christmas gifts, as well as birthdays through August 2012. Can you feel the weight lifting from that elephant crushing me? I can!! Home Improvement – I am happy to report that I have a new house! I didn’t move, but the painters took a solid two weeks and did a tremendous job on my home. They went the extra mile all the way around and were a pleasure to work with. I did fix them milkshakes each day, brought pizza in one day, and bought us Panda Express for our last day. I really wanted to do some nice things for them because they were working so hard and the weather was in the 90s in the shade. I don’t know who appreciated the other more – I know they appreciated my treats, but I can’t begin to express how happy I was with their work. They took on some extra jobs that were not in the original contract and were happy to do them without additional charges. I had some of them on my “to do” list that was becoming a “not getting done” list over time. They painted my wishing well, a bridge that is part of the landscaping, an antique mining cart, my mailbox, and a special sign that Bob had made when we named our home “Pinehaven.” I had been trying to figure out how to restore the wishing well, mailbox, and Pinehaven sign since I have a sentimental attachment to them. The mailbox, which Bob made to match our house, had been severely damaged in a storm, I didn’t want to replace it, so I was extremely happy when they restored it. The wishing well looked like it was doomed for the garbage can and they made it appear like new. And so on and so forth! While they were here, I was trying to repair
the carpet shampooer. In complete frustration, I showed one of the guys the
problem I was having. He asked if I had bought it from Costco, which I had. He
said they have a pretty good exchange policy. I have always maintained that
“If you don’t ask, the answer is NO.” I decided to give it a try. They searched it and saw that I had purchased it in 2004. They gave me a full refund seven years later since they still carry the same type of shampooer (although updated) at the price I originally paid for it! I didn’t buy a new one just yet. Instead,
I gave a tip to each of the painters in the amount of the refund I received.
They deserved it! Yes, I believe in being frugal and saving wherever I can. But
I also believe in the concept of “what goes around, comes around.” More
importantly, they took pride in their work and gave themselves fully to the job.
I feel it is essential to give back to others, see The
Philosophical Tip at Pizza Hut. The yard guy is a different story. I have had to be a squeaky wheel with him. He keeps flaking out on me. He came at the beginning of June to provide the estimate and has promised three different dates, but has not followed through. If it weren’t for the grant that provides 50% toward the cost of clean-up, I would scrap this guy in a hurry. He has now promised me next week. I will call him on Friday and will continue to call until he gets out here and the work is done. Being empathetic for him, I know he has a lot of elephants crushing him due to the massive amount of clearing that needs to be done to prevent forest fires. But if he can get rid of my elephant, that will be one less for him to deal with. It is important that I remain focused on my end goal so that I don’t let necessary tasks slip one by one. As I rid my life of an elephant, I refuse to let it back in. I keep my eye on the horizon while enjoying the journey of eating these big pests! I am feeling more peace of mind and more time in my life to pursue other activities, such as increasing my social life and working on my hobbies. I want to enjoy my time on earth rather than lying on the floor with a herd of elephants crushing me! The following are some techniques that I have been using to accomplish my goals:
I continue to remain focused on my progress. I actually have been enjoying the safari as I breathe easier and know I have a plan in place to eat the entire herd of elephants. Because it is one bite at a time, I have resigned myself to the reality that it isn’t a fast fix. By accepting this fact, I am not getting frustrated as I have in the past. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel even if it is further away on the timeline of my life than I would prefer. I will continue to write about my progress and hope that my experiences can inspire others to tackle the elephant diet. If you are thinking that our circumstances are different – and that I had certain advantages fall into place to help me achieve my goals – I want to remind you that we all have resources to help. It takes a lot of creativity, planning, and dedicated work to find our individual resources to draw upon. I am not any different than anybody else as far as being blessed with resources and opportunities at the right time. I stayed crushed a long time before I began to find the answers. I don’t want to be crushed again and I want each of our readers to know that you can get rid of your own elephants. Just take one bite at a time! * * *
Copyright © 2011 by Karen Kuebler. All rights reserved. Want more money-saving tips? Get a FREE Subscription to our monthly newsletter!
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