In the beginning, there was a budget...

I finally started a blog! I'm so excited, my gastritis is acting up.


Two weeks ago, I was laid off. Downsized. Given my walking papers. Insert bitter-but-acceptable cliche here. I've gone through the normal phases of grief: anger, denial, more anger, ambivalence, a lesser yet undeniable anger, and then finally acceptance. My friends and colleagues have surrounded me with support and my social calendar has been pleasantly full with lunch dates, coffee dates, movie dates, "are you sure you're okay" dates. What a wonderful feeling....

I loved my job. But in the past few weeks, I've felt as though I'm on the precipus of major change (by the way, I have been waiting to use "precipus" in a sentence for a very long time and I may or may not have just given myself a round of applause). I've been feeling creative, rested, calm.

Weird, right? I should be freaking out about my job search, my finances, and becomming irrelevant at the height of my career. And that's when it hit me. That could still happen. The panic. The fear. What happens when the novelty of my unemployment wears off and I'm bored? Lonely? What if I run out of money? Is there a way to maintain this strange sense of stability?



Because I'm all too familiar with lazy Sundays, I wanted to find a way to motivate myself to get off the couch so that I don't live a life of lazy Mondays, Tuesdays, everydays. To get myself out of the house. To interact with society. To stay in touch with my community. Oh but wait - I'M UNEMPLOYED AND DON'T HAVE ANY MONEY!



So I came up with 28x1x1. Math is hard, but not impossible. The equation is this:
*28 days
*28 friends
*28 dollars

I will rehabilitate my social life in a financially limited existence. I will train myself to stay socially connected during a transitional time. I will strengthen relationships by removing the stress of spending money. I will encourage my friends to explore inexpensive activities in Omaha with me.

The rules: for each day in the month of February, I will make plans with a different friend/family member. And during each of the social activities, I'm allowed to spend just one dollar. Yep, just $1. The only flexibility on the $1 spending limit is tax, so technically I can spend $1.07 if I'm in my home state (like I'm planning on going anywhere??). I will blog about each day, listing the friend I saw (possibly altering their name if they are shy), the activity we chose, and the exact amount of money I spent. And in case you were wondering, there will most definitely be a spreadsheet.


In the next few days, I'll start scheduling my $1 dates and making lists of possible activities. If you'd like to participate, let me know! If you've got ideas for activites (PG-13 rated please), share them with me!

That's all.