Daddy's in the hospital

One side effect of living in my car is it has helped me work on being more organized with time and belongings. The project today is eliminating old cassettes and floppy disks (yes, I said floppy disks). I started digitizing my old cassettes 3-4 years ago, saving old songs onto my computer. However, I stopped for two years. Now, that I'm doing it again, I realized that many of these songs were popular and on Youtube or Grooveshark now and they are NOT going away. There is not point in digitizing them. That revelation is saving me a lot of time. I'm focusing on saving old sermons, recordings of me and my siblings when we were children, and other hard-to-replace audio. One thing that is more important to declutter than my car, storage unit, or classroom is my soul. I read an update on Sandy Patty's blog that reminded me of this (http://sandipatty.com/things-im-learning-from-decluttering/). I have to decide what to keep, toss, or donate from my life. I need to work on throwing away wounds, slights, wrong decisions, adn broken relationships. Which brings me to a more important matter. My dad went into the ICU Wednesday because of diabetes complications. I researched flight options and informed my job that I may be taking off some days. Then it dawned on me that I could use technology to visit him in the hospital. I didn't mind spending $640 dollars for airfare plus more for a rental car, but my mom and Sasha assured me that he was getting better and better as the hours passed by so I chose the technology option. However, Google hangouts is terrible. After several hours of failing to get it to work, Aunt and Uncle Theo and I just downloaded Skype on our devices and practiced making Skype calls so that we can all visit with Daddy. Video chatting with him was my one goal yesterday, and it didn't even happen because the folks down South didn't have it and couldn't figure out how to get it in time. They were also busy with other tasks throughout the day. No one realized how much it hurt me not to be able to see Daddy yesterday. I cried before I went to bed. This morning, I'm over it. I'm thankful that I have my dad here still, and if I didn't have technology, I would be happy to just hear updates from people (Daddy can't talk, so that's another reason video-chatting was so important 0 so I could SEE him). So, I'll still be content. I'll also be focused on the day when there will be no need for hospitals and virtual visits.

Things I'll forever do differently after living in my car

Jan 14, 2014

 Some things I think I'll forever do differently after living in my car:

 1. wash coloreds and whites together if I don't have enough for full, separate loads.

2. I may or may not go back to ironing clothes again.

 3. Use dryer sheets to freshen the car.

 4. Never eat out again when I get my own kitchen.

5. Have a dedicated ready-for-bed routine.

 6. Give family an updated list of my friends to contact in case of emergency.

7. use supercook.com to use current ingredients before they go bad

8. Get rid of credit cards

 9. Get rid of cable.

10. Save money for what I want, including business opportunities.

11. Live like I'm poor.

Things I'll forever do differently after living in my car

Jan 14, 2014

 Some things I think I'll forever do differently after living in my car:

 1. wash coloreds and whites together if I don't have enough for full, separate loads.

2. I may or may not go back to ironing clothes again.

 3. Use dryer sheets to freshen the car.

 4. Never eat out again when I get my own kitchen.

5. Have a dedicated ready-for-bed routine.

 6. Give family an updated list of my friends to contact in case of emergency.

7. use supercook.com to use current ingredients before they go bad

8. Get rid of credit cards

 9. Get rid of cable.

10. Save money for what I want, including business opportunities.

11. Live like I'm poor.

Looking forward to an apartment

January 10 Last night was down in the single digits, but I was warm in my sleeping bag. Woke up at 6 o'clock - started the day doing laundry, gassing up the car, and running some errands. 2 hour delay at school. Tonight I went to the hospital to sleep. it was full of snow plows pushing snow out of the way. I sleep right next to a parking garage that is for doctors only. snowplow was pushing snow off the top of the garage right onto the spot where I usually park. I didn't hang around to see how long it would take them to finish and leave. there have been nights when I've been very sleepy driving around looking for a place to sleep either because there was a problem with the hospital or my old neighborhood. So, I decided to go ahead and sleep somewhere else (not the hospital) while I still alert enough to drive safely. I really look forward to being back in an apartment in April. I don't look forward to spending 1200 dollars for an apartment. I'm seriously considering just coming back and living in my car every winter. 6 months in an apartment and six months in my car. that's like giving myself a 7000 dollar bonus every year.

I missed a tow - close call

Dec 10 It's tough sleeping in my sleeping bag when I'm on my period, because I don't want to have an accident and stain the bag. I go to sleep slightly worried. Yesterday I slept in the front seat because I didn't want to risk an accident. I chose a new parking lot to sleep in - in the old neighborhood but not on the street. I didn't want to be caught in the front seat in one of my favorite places.Then I wouldn't be able to go back there. I woke up at 2:30 in the morning - I don't know why. Ten minutes later, a tow truck came and towed the car next to me. I thank God for waking me up just in time. I had turned on the heat because I was cold and was sitting there probably looking like I was waiting for someone. This month I got a new tablet to help me be more organized. My finances are the most organized area of my life. Now it's time to really bring the physical stuff and my time management up to par. The tablet allows me to keep notes up to date, plan better, and keep up with notes without losing them. One of my resolutions was to keep an "Everything journal" - which I did this year - yay, me - but lost each journal at least once. I don't think I'll lose this technology. It's too expensive to mindlessly leave somewhere. I expect the technology to help me be more organized and paperless in the classroom, too. Maybe the problem is not that I'm not organized, but that there is too much paper. Using technology helps tame that. I'm happy to be enjoying this day with family and Jefferson down South.

Knocking off the student loans now...

December 19, 2015 I just discovered a great new idea - get dressed at night in whatever clothes I plan to wear the next day. Up till now, I’ve been sleeping in whatever I wore that day. I changed in the morning in my car sometimes. However, if I change I night, I’m less likely to be seen changing. Short sale – the bank is doing stuff and so is my realtor, but I have no clue how this will end. We've paid $1600 in student loan interest this year. That should max out my student loan interest deduction this year. It feels good to hit my finances on two fronts like that – paying down debt and making a smart tax move. We have used 22 months of forebearance and have 14 left. with forebearance no application is necessary and I am responsible for interest on subsidenized loans. With deferments, the government pays inters with subsidized loans and there is no limit to deferment time when I am in school.

New shower curtains!

January 5 Great news! The gym got new shower curtains - cloth ones. Suddenly, the shower water tastes warmer and better, my own shower towel felt softer to the touch, and I was completely hidden in the shower - unlike before. I like the curtain so much I think I could stay in my car for the rest of the year! Nah, just kidding. I worked at my school for 9 hours tonight not leaving till 3 in the morning, I needed a place to nap for 2 hours and I wanted to sleep in the front seat. I couldn't risk staying in the hospital or my usual neighborhood because I might be discovered and then I can't stay there anymore. So I drove to a 24-hour IHOP. I went out of my way to get there. So why were there 7 police cars in the parking lot? Fortunately, there was a hotel next door. I parked in the space between the hotel, IHOP, and some other businesses. I gave my family a heads up that I was coming back to fetch Jefferson in April. I look forward to being back in an apartment. I could move in now, I suppose, However, it makes no sense to move in in the dead of winter. I would spend so much unnecessary money just keeping warm. It's much cheaper to heat up my small car.

Happy 2015!

I didn't think it had been a month since I wrote. Nevertheless, Happy New Year! 2014 was a powerful year for me. In 2014, I - started the year unemployed, but got a new job earning more. - helped parents fix up the floor and the gaping holes in the wall in their house. - paid off credit cards and began saving for a car - lived in my car for 4 months - decreased paper in my life by digitizing all of my past tax records and some of my job-related work - faithfully kept an everything journal (which I am now digitizing) - gave to causes that were important to me - paid extra on student loans - got caught up filing all of my taxes I only kept one of my New Year's Resolutions from last year. I don't feel discouraged, though. In fact, I'm ready for 2015. Here are my resolutions for 2015. 1. drink a bottle of water a day 2. pray/meditate 15 minutes a day 3. read a book each month 4. publish an article 5. use less paper in my life 6. contact friends and acquaintances the first week of each month 7. save for retirement When it comes to using less paper in my life, I really want to be more organized this year. That will help a lot with not getting into financial trouble again. I went to ChikFilA with family tonight and my mother (who is also disorganized) handed me 4 coupons that expire today. I was supposed to buy dinner for the nieces and nephew. While standing in line, my sister pointed out to me that the coupons were for BREAKFAST. I asked if I could use them anyway, and the cashier let me. If she hadn't, that would have been $12 down the drain. (One coupon was forgotten at home, so that one actually did go down the drain). That's an example of a small leak, but small leaks are just signs that there are bigger leaks somewhere. I know this is true in my life. So, becoming more organized is very important to my financial health. I have started using Evernote to help me be more organized and particularly to get rid of paper. This journey of living in my car to save money and get financially stable will end in about 3 months, when the weather gets too warm to stay in my car. It has been exciting and I've learned how strong I am. The condo property is still in foreclosure/short sale status with a buyer. I'm really interested in seeing how this all works out.