Relayblogger

Scott Adams published a post titled Rounders vs Accumulators. It is one of those oversimplifications of humans that makes life so much easier to handle for some of us.

I did find the simplification striking though. I am definitively a rounder. The main problem I have with my rounding life style is that I can’t handle a level two problem escalating with time. In my binary book any problem will stay a zero until it is a ten.

As Scott says; the rounder normally lives a happier life. I think most people getting stress related symptoms are accumulators. We are faced with level one and two problems every day. By accumulating them the critical problem level will be passed because of lots of small things.

I would like to know if these characteristics are inherited or if they they are brought upon us when we grow up. I’ll keep an eye on my children. If it is a social issue then maybe we can use this metaphor to convert accumulators that has hit the roof.

The savings are usually not as big as they seem at first glance since home made food also costs money but they are still substancial. Living in Stockholm Sweden it is not unrealistic to save $5 a day. That’s about $100 a month you can spend of fun things instead of bad food.

Apart from saving a lot of money per year you will probably make better food at home than the one you can eat at the lunch restaurant.

Since it’s faster to heat your own food than standing in line at a crowded restaurant you will also save a lot of time.At my work I can go home earlier if I take a shorter lunch brake. If you do not have flexible working hours that half hour each day is well spent taking a brisk walk. That is free and good exercise. If you’re not the moving type, but a regular reader of this blog the saved time is a splendid opportunity to write for your blog. Bring pen and paper from home so that there is no ground for discussions of making private money with company resources.

I have to stop doing things in the mornings. It fails more often than succeds.

While reordering things in my bike bag I had put the wallet in my bookshelf among the CD-covers. Yes, I know; I am not a very bright person in the morning.

I should probably train the kids to take care of me instead of the other way round.

The recent frugality and tidiness commitment really got a blow yesterday. I lost my wallet at the train station when I pulled some rain protection out of my bag. My sleeping habits and lack of routines with the children in the mornings makes me a nerve wreck until I get to work.

Fortunately no one had used the cards. All cards but the drivers license are canceled. I am going to wait a couple of days to apply for a new drivers license since it is a real hassle to get a new one when I have no other means of identification.  At least that is the experience I have from the last time I had to renew it. At that time the Swedish passports weren’t accepted as domestic identification. Hopefully they are now.

There weren’t much money in the wallet, but I had some parking receipts that I won’t get paid for now.

To be continued…

My first step to a more frugal life is to get some order in my home. My home has been a mess more or less since I moved together with my wife. My boy room was tidy. To be honest it is definitively not my wife that is creating all the mess now.

My solution is to tidy up in a small area, like the kitchen sink or the living room sofa. When that area is tidy I commit to keep it so. Since keeping the small area nice is not very hard to do, it becomes a habit quite soon. Here is where the Kaizen thinking come in: If I continue to keep that are nice and expand it a little bit each day the small tidy area will soon become a large tidy area without much discomfort.

Establish a baseline and make small continuous improvements.

It is a philosophy I support way more than trying to do large changes up front. My biggest problem is staying committed so I have to restart with the small activity often. Another difficulty is convincing my wife who prefer larger activities. Actually I think it is just the size of the initial activity that differ.

If you are serious about making money from your blog you have to apply this too. One implementation of it is the Demming Cycle: Plan, Do, Check, Act. A practice in use by many large organizations.