Weekly Flylady Thread 25th August 2008

pigpen

Well.. the school stuff is bought.. and another half dozen christmas presents. Just a bag to find for DD1 and my bunny is depressed all tucked in solitary..

Zed42

Right it's Friday night and what's a "young" lady to do with it ... hmm, oh I know ... some filing or perhaps some shredding, or ironing, or slobbing with a bottle of wine and watching trash on tv ...

I vote for the latter.

However, I'm not going to (well, I will drink the wine) ... I am going to tackle the filing, or at least some of it.

I am a hoarder. There I said it.

I still have all my payslips ... from forever ... and that's a mighty long time :rotfl:. But the filing cabinet is now feeling the strain, so I've resigned myself to the fact that I need to be pro-active about it. But as I suggested to Toots, only in small stints. It's way too boring, tedious, overwhelming. So, for me I shall be doing one hanging file at a time.

I've been putting this "chore" off for um, oh, about 5yrs ... and then there's the "archived" stuff.

If I think about it too hard, I'm never going to get started. I see that DD starting school next week, is finally going to give me some time to get some order back into our lives .. so watch out world!!! LOL!

Oh and Shell sounds like cystitis to me too ... so w/o giving medical advice .. plenty of water and no OJ or caffeine, cranberry is good.

Polkadot ..... good luck either way with the pg test, and glad to hear that the Piriton is helping DS.

Valli

greenbee wrote: »

Sounds like your kitchen table is a major hotspot, so I'm sure you'll be allowed to let this count! I can't help with 1 & 2, as I've been lucky enough not to have personal experience of it, but I'm sure the DFW guys will be helpful, and even putting some time aside to read through the posts there will help.

I can help on gas/elec if you give me more details (I work for one of the utilities ), but suggest you PM me, as it might take a bit of discussion.

As far as your kitchen table goes - do you have a filing cabinet/drawer/box? If so, take a small pile off the table and over to the cabinet, file it (putting anything that is still to be actioned into a NEW pile), then go and do something else for at least half an hour (there's always the ironing :rotfl: ). If not, first thing you need to do tomorrow is get yourself a concertina file or a set of folders to keep this stuff in.

Anything that's ancient history can be filed straight away, and it'll be more manageable . Then sort out the stuff that needs dealing with into subject (e.g. gas/elec/phone/bank) by supplier (e.g. bank - TSB, Lloyds etc if you have more than one), and then by date - most urgent first. Put the overdue :eek: stuff in a separate pile.

Once its sorted, have another break. Then take stuff for the next week off the top of the pile, and work your way through it. Once you've done this proactive stuff, have another break, and take a deep breath and deal with the overdue stuff.

Remember, it's breaking it down that makes it manageable. (And writing lists that you can tick things off always helps, so do this as you go along. Include the breaks as things you have to do!).

Hope this helps.

I'm with Greenbee here - I really think this must be a priority job - because, clearly, you're overwhelmed at the moment - and when the paperwork is sorted you will have a better idea of what's what - this method sounds workable.

Tax - keep tax statements/Notices of coding for 7 years. Once you have your year end thing (P45/P60) you can shred any wage slips.

Bank - File in order - oldest at the back. Depends if you're going to reclaim bank charges how long you need to go back for, and whether you can get duplicate statements, for free, online.

I used to file in boxes by subject - now I have my recycled filing cabinet. Mind you, in someways that makes it a bit harder because it's slightly less accessible - good job I like filing (OMG how anal am I)

Bills - don't keep for more than a year - ie 4 gas, 4 leccy...

Paying off debt

This is a hard one - but remember the people who make the most fuss are not the priority debts.
1 - Home - this is the most important
pay these bills first.

Do a budget (this is where I fall down:o ) This shows you how much you can afford to pay off per week/month.
If you can afford all minimum payments then pay them. Any surplus goes to THE DEBT WHICH IS COSTING THE MOST - not necessarily according to how much you owe - but the interest rate.

This, at least, is my understanding of how it works!

Join the DFW board. Bet they're nice, too.

Zed42

pigpen wrote: »

Well.. the school stuff is bought..

A-ha so that's where you've been all day, it's been mightily quiet .

So, put me to shame you've managed uniform for 6 or 7 of yours, and I've still yet to get most of my DD's whose first time it's going to be .... guess who's going to be facing the multitudes tomorrow .. and guess whose M&S order has been delayed, hrmph.

Has anyone ordered online from them and got it smoothly? I haven't, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

Valli

Valli wrote: »

Tax - keep tax statements/Notices of coding for 7 years. Once you have your year end thing (P45/P60) you can shred any wage slips.

Bank - File in order - oldest at the back. Depends if you're going to reclaim bank charges how long you need to go back for, and whether you can get duplicate statements, for free, online.

Bills - don't keep for more than a year - ie 4 gas, 4 leccy...

There you go Zed

soappie

Dustykitten wrote: »

Hi soappie, good day?

Yes, I did thanks - but I'm pooped! Two days on the beach with all that fresh air and I'm done for. Today I was all poshed up but helping behind the scenes too so it was quite busy, outwardly looking calm and relaxed but inwardly on high alert and making sure everything was going to plan, people were catered for, happy etc. etc.

The flying was good again but low level cloud made things a bit flat. Took a load more pictures but won't have time to download them until Sunday probably. I'm now about to find a snack for dinner (pasta probably as it's quick and easy!) and make sure all the buckets etc. are ready for the street collection tomorrow.

We've made around £5000.00 for charity today which is good. I'm hoping tomorrow will add another £1000.00

So, with tomorrow's street collection organisation and the ball tomorrow night. Sunday I feel really will be spent with the doors locked and the phone unplugged!

pigpen

Zed42 wrote: »

A-ha so that's where you've been all day, it's been mightily quiet .

So, put me to shame you've managed uniform for 6 or 7 of yours, and I've still yet to get most of my DD's whose first time it's going to be .... guess who's going to be facing the multitudes tomorrow .. and guess whose M&S order has been delayed, hrmph.

Has anyone ordered online from them and got it smoothly? I haven't, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

I didn't go shopping until after 1pm.. I had my nails done this morning.. went for a coffee.. bought a carpet for the middle room put some money in my mothers bank account. Colected chimps from church club brought them home then went off into town centre. Spent a fortune in Lush.. .. Got DD2 her first bras.. and sorted my school uniform list. Just catching up on bill paying as hubby was paid today then I am off for a shower and to the pub!

I've never had a problem ordering from M&S

I've got uniform for 6, shoes for 7, coats for 7 and clothes for all 10 of us!!

soappie

Oh and Toots - I have done NO flying for two days now and the place looks like a tip. My philosophy is that I'll do the recovery bit a step at a time - don't try and do too much all at once.

Zed42

Valli wrote: »

There you go Zed

Totally agree, but something at the back of my mind always goes .. "but what happens if we get burgled and we need that receipt" or "ooh, is that how much we paid for a tin of beans when we first moved in together ... 14yrs ago" and no, I'm not joking, I have all the receipts.

OMG, I've just realised how bad that sounds. I need to get myself together and perhaps just have snapshots of the receipts from each year?!

At least in the past year I have managed to file them by month in 2 folders, 1 long term and 1 short term .. as I guess I really DON'T need to know how much the beans were? Do I?

Obviously M&S just don't like me then, LOL!

Right, I've procrastinated enough ..... it's almost 20:30 and I'm going to do a HHF of it .... everyone else will be sensibly sitting down by now, I hope!

TAG

Evening ladies -

Well the flying came to a grinding halt again:rolleyes: so buttocks to it. I shall start again properly on Monday.:D

Hugs to all that need them:grouphug:

Hope you all have a good weekend. See you all bright and early Monday morning;)