Yay! It’s August 1!
Another day closer to fall, lhudly sing huzzah. But more to the point, I’ve survived the first month on the (re)budget! And I came out only $274 in the hole.
Not too bad, considering how feral my financial garden has gotten. Without the bill from WonderAccountant, I’d have seen only $72 worth of red ink, and that’s despite the $175 I diddled away on the art class.
Art class starts tomorrow…this should be interesting! It’s an indulgence, no doubt of it. But one could also regard it as an investment in sanity. I really, really need to spend more time around some human beings.
This August looks pretty positive, providing no really big unexpected bills occur. Though my estimate of $400 for summertime utilities was just about right on, gasoline cost nothing like the expected $50±. The initial $22 I spent on the first of the month lasted three weeks! I filled the tank last week, and it’s still almost full.
So if that fill-up lasts another ten days to two weeks, the gas card I have to buy this month from Costco may amount to just $25 or $30!
What that suggests, I’m thinking, is that I may only have to buy a Costco cash card to use at the pumps about once very six weeks, which would mean some months would have (wowzers!) $0.00 upfront cash outlay on gasoline.
The grocery bills were much attenuated by the charity handout at the start of July. Those people will be back at the church next Saturday, and you may be sure I’ll be first in line when they open at 7 a.m.
The grocery store bills came in $50 over budget, despite my hardly having to go into a store. But that’s still $100 less than the average $400(!!!) I found I’d been spending over the prior six months. If I can push it down to under $300, I’ll be happy…but think that’s unlikely because this month I haven’t had to buy any meat of any kind, thanks to the gigantic Costco stashes in the freezer. Well, except for meat for the dogs.
In that department, the dog food situation also devolved into a pleasant surprise. The amount I paid out for a giant package of cheapo pork and a package of chicken thighs on the fifteenth bought enough to last the dogs much, much longer than expected.
I cut the pork into easily cooked chunks and stored it in three huge Ziplock bags. We’ve used one of those and half the giant package of chicken. Still have about a day and a half of dog food from that. This afternoon, though, I’ll cook up another packet of the pork for them (mixed with other nutritional goodies). That means we’ve used less than half of the dog meat in two weeks! Significantly less. There’s a good possibility that what I have on hand will last longer than a month.
A miracle!
My plan is to make a Costco run a little later this week, maybe, and while there buy one package of chicken, which is cheap. That will insure that we won’t run out in the next month…and mean that instead of $55, in August I’ll spend about $13 on dog food. With half a bag of frozen dog veggies left, I shouldn’t need any more of those. Everything else that goes into dog food is either on hand or extremely cheap.
The power and water bills this month are going to be astronomical. I expect they’ll far exceed the allotted $400, so the limited spending on gas and dog food is a blessing. That should take up the slack, I hope.
Progress is being made on the writing & publishing book. Despite adding a couple of chapters, I’ve managed to cut the page count to under 400. Alas, though, I still have two more chapters to write. However, there’s still some unduly bloggish material that can go, so I think the final page count will be about a wash.
That’s in the current template I’m using. Its trim size is 5.5 x 8.5 inches, a standard trade paperback size. However, The Essential Feature was 7 x 10 inches.
If I set the copy in that trim size, that alone would cut the page count. So I’m thinking I may buy a another Friedlander template in the 7 x 10 trim size — he has one with the same font and overall design. That would be a lot easier than me trying to figure out the page setup, and the cost isn’t THAT much.
Only problem is, reflowing the copy into a new template will take time. And, of course, it’ll create the usual hair-tearing hassles.
However, it will take time to get speaking engagements, so there probably is time to address a new template. I need to start working on that right now, come to think of it.
Yesterday I learned that WonderAccountant’s sister works at the Small Business Administration’s downtown education center! So: a contact! Hallelujah brothers and sisters. I’m going to call down there and see if they’ll let me do a presentation — if I’m not mistaken, they have a regular roster of speakers who come in on a rotating basis. If by some miracle I could wriggle my way in there, that would soon start to create some new editorial clients.
Also need to rejoin the Chamber (argh! the time suck! money suck!!) and schmooze enough to justify asking if they’ll let me speak. Someone else suggested calling all the BNI groups in town.
Before I do that, though, I’ll need to have the dog and pony show prepared and rehearsed. And…to get the damn book in print.
Since I think it’ll only take another week or two to finish the book & its print layout, I’m prioritizing that chore. Then will get down to work on a professional presentation, which will be a project. I’m pretty comfortable speaking in front of groups, because of all the classroom experience…but because of all the classroom experience, I tend to speak off the cuff a lot. That won’t do for what I have in mind.
So, onward!