I was just reading Jody's blog about a week without spending. Don't think I have ever done that but what a great idea! Maybe we could make it a challenge for all of us here on the blog site. We pick a week then everyone vow not to spend for that week. Im sure we would get lots of creative ideas on how to get things without spending money over the course of a week. Anyone up for a challenge?

I haven't posted for ages, mainly because my life has been really crazy for the past couple of months. I have been trying to juggle a dozen quite seperate and quite demanding projects and I'm not doing really well with any of them.

Today I decided to sort out and prioritize what's important and drop or put aside the rest in the interest of doing my best on a few projects instead of doing so so (and bringing myself to the point of exhaustion) on everything.

Here's my list...

1) My health. This is my top priority so I will sleep eight hours a night, exercise every day and eat as healthy as possible (with an occasional splurge on coffee ice cream).

2) My finances. This is my second priority. I need to get my debts (credit cards) paid off, then my car then my house. I really need to concentrate on both increasing my income and decreasing my spending.

3) College. I've decided to go back to college in the hopes of becoming a naturopathic physician. I took one chemistry course this summer just to get my feet wet (it's been 20 years since I was in college) and I'm realizing that this learning stuff takes ALOT of effort. Since I'm paying for it, I need to do as well as I can. Good news...I got a scholarship that will pay for my next quarter of college

4) My business. This is where my income comes from so I need to give my clients the best possible work that I can. I plan on selling this business when I attend medical school so I can use the money to support myself while I'm in school so I won't have to work.

The things I will need to cut down or cut out include travel (costs a lot of money and directly conflicts with priority #2), volunteering (I volunteer about 20 hours a week with various causes; this time would be better spent on priority 1, 2, 3, and 4), writing and websites (my hobbies that, while they bring in some income, are very time/labor intensive).

Well now that I've vented I better get back to studying for my chemistry final