Financial faux pas and other disasterous decisions

moo2moo

So plans for today:

• Remember to go to work. Preferably before anyone else getst here so they're not standing around outside wondering if I'm still tucked up in bed which is incidentally a very appealing thought
• Bung chicken thighs in slow cooker. Have got as far as plonking veggies and 4p curry sauce on worktop. Its not showing any signs of leaping into the slow cooker so I will eventually have to assist it on its way.
• Locate todays flylady thread and laugh at the sheer impossibility of fitting in a day at work and the many many flylady tasks.
• Vaguely contemplate meal planning. Theres enough food to see us through a siege but the temptation to nip to Mr Ts for pizza is rather strong.

moo2moo

Todays Flylady tasks. Fortunately I inadvertantly made a fair old start on these last week but really cleaning out the oven and the fridge on the same day or even in the same week. Are these people nuts? Its most unfair on those of us who have two fridges. Long story but very handy for keeping beer, wine and chocolate chilled and its works v. well as a hiding place for all those things that don't fit anywhere else.Fortunately cleaning out the cupboard under the sink will be a doddle as I decrapped it into the cupboard next to the washing machine earlier in the week. I didn't get quite as far as actually cleaning it though.

Monday ~ Kitchen and Dining Area
Level One
Declutter and wipe those worksurfaces
Sweep and mop the floor
Level Two
clean blinds/curtains
Clean the hob and oven
Clean out the fridge..
Level Three
Clean and wipe the table, replace the cloth if necessary
Clean out the under sink cupboard.. new year, new cleaning products!
Dust and deweb
Wipe over the units and large appliances
Extras

1. wash windows
2. Declutter the tops of the wall units
3. Sort recipe books/files
4. Wipe over all the small appliances

Lurking in the cupboard under my sink there are:

2 Swanky pull out dustbins (one for recycling which never gets used as it gets v. hot under there and things left in the decomposing veggie bin go mouldy v.v. quickly
2 swarfega - one pump one tub
6 squirty soaps (about 6 months supply)
3 washing up liquids
2 bars of soap (freebies from a product test)
sealed pack of scouring pads
1 pair of rubber gloves

V. minimalistic cos its a tiny cupboard and I overflow into a much bigger one elsewhere in the kitchen.

moo2moo

Have spent a fun filled morning decluttering and have put 38 bin bags of fabric in the loft for the next bag2school collection, 18 wooden shelves dismantled for firewood, temporarily cleared half a portacabin for the storage of a little over 90 assorted large items of computer equipment which are being collected tomorrow and filled 6 wheelie bins and a skip. Unfortunately none of that was at home.

Took a large bag of assorted toddler painting things and Playdough accesories to school this morning leaving another chunk of shelf space. X-mas stuff is now in the loft apart from the three items I've found since. Have managed to avoid spending any money thus far today. Have also managed to avoid doing anything on the flylady list although I'm defrosting a fridge at school. Does that count?

Intergalactic_Floozie

I didn't know what Bag2School was, so googled it - it seems like a brilliant idea.

moo2moo

Intergalactic_Floozie wrote: »

I didn't know what Bag2School was, so googled it - it seems like a brilliant idea.

It is. Its the easiest form of fundraising ever and school usually make between £600 and £1000 a year from it.

moo2moo

We had an unexpected visitor yesterday. A baliff with a walking posession order with someone elses name on at a completely different address. Poor guy was completely unphased by the large slab of slate with the house name on after this happened several dozen times a couple of years ago. Apparently SatNav says yes and the satnav never lies whereas debtors clearly do frequently. OH finally convinced him he really was at the wroong place and directed him to the correct house. I fear we may well be in for a lot more of these visits. Aw well it all adds to the excitement.

Successfully cleaned out the cupboard under the sink and dropped some unwanted carpet tiles off at a friends. OH has agreed that we can chuck all the old much recorded over VHS tapes in the bin and just keep the shop bought ones as no ones watched them in years going by the layer of dust on them. That frees up rather a lot of shelf space. Decided to part with a small table that we inherited when we moved in which might eventually have come in handy but never did. Will transform that into firewood later.

Have also sold a book on Green Metropolis for a whole £3. Still thats more money in my pocket rather than gathering dust on the book shelf. Just have to get round to parceling it up and posting it.

moo2moo

Meanwhile todays list of FlyLady jobs is as follows:

Tuesday ~ Master bedroom and landing!
Level One
Strip wash and replace the bedding!
Declutter the floor.. laundry gone, shoes gone.. etc
Level Two
Clear a box of stuff from the landing.
Vacuum and turn the mattress
Vacuum the floors
Level Three
Tidy a chest of drawers/wardrobe.. is there anything past its best that can go live elsewhere?
Clear and tidy the top of a wardrobe/COD and replace only what is necessary.. surely you don't need it all!?
Wash curtains/blinds that are in need.
Extras

1. Wash windows
2. Dust and deweb
3. Shine 2 lightshades!
4. Straighten a shelf of books or ornaments..

Oh no springs to mind. Tis less than a week since I blitzed the masterbedroom so I can get away with a minimalistic swoosh and a quick vac, it really doesn't need anything else. The landing is an entirely different matter though. Spent yesterday rehoming the contents of the linen cupboard into the drawers under the bed. Achieved this by being super ruthless and only keeping three sets of bedding for each bed. One on it, one in the wash and one for emergencies. I filled two bin bags with manky stuff and nursery rhyme covered stuff that the DDS refuse to have in their rooms. Unfortunately this means I now have to rehome about 30 towels but since they're currently stacked in the bidet that a job for later in the week.

The landing though *sigh* is a tip. The bookcases is two deep in books with books stackedon top of books and all sortsof stuff wedged on the shelves because it seemed like a good idea at the time. Suppose tackling that will keep me quiet for the rest of the week.

Days to payday: 10
Money in purse : zero, zip, nada, zilch.
Money in emergency jam jar: As above and an IOU for £40 to the kids to replace their x-mas money.
Money in bank: £209.14
Money spent in January: £618.30
Money remaining of this months portion of the live on £20K challenge : £1048.70

moo2moo

Things haven't gone according to plan. Again. OH is doing woodworky power tool type things on the landing and the stairs and in the master bedroom and his inability to shut doors mean the kids rooms are rather dusty too. Still he is doing something and its looking rather good. Hopefully he'll vac up after himself too. Mmm.

So I tackled the top of the freezer. Again . And the shelf that runs above the freezer. Again. Both are now clutter free. Was even bored enough to test all the DDs felt pens and have reduced them by a third.

lucielle

Boardom usually means a blister and pencil sharpening, in our house.
L

Trying_to_be_good

We had a mass culling of felt tip pens on Christmas Eve, as I'd arranged with Santa (who I call Father Christmas but the kids don't) to deliver lots more. Even with four new sets I somehow struggled to find a green one to go with the black one to mark up the calendar (in my OCD-way) for the green bin and black bin collection days.

Yesterday was my last day of three loads of washing, after four days of it - I'm hoping flylady will let me off bedding changes for quite a while now...