Changing our lives....

meersy22

Morning Sessie

Popping over to your diary to say hi and will keep a nosy on your diary.

Thank you for your crumble recipe. Just reading your diary has made me hungry:D

Good luck with your debt clearing and hopefully having a diary will keep us on the straight and narrow.

chevalier

Well done on stopping the slide into debt at the yellow warning light! Welcome to the boards. I too had the robot like shopping run, putting things in the trolley on autopilot, and then thinking there was nothing to eat! I woke up when we moved down under and now save a lot. One of my big savings was not buying fruit and veg from tesco's but from the local market. Always seemed to be a bit cheaper...

Well done on the batch cooking. I still pine for my lovely large freezer I had in the UK which I stupidly left behind...
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Sessie

Here I am again, worked a full day today and got lots done (proper JOB work I mean). Took a packed lunch and NO money so have had an NSD :j. Makes up for yesterday's.. er... lapse and means I've managed three this week.

When I got there, found out I had won an incentive thingy they were running a couple of weeks ago and was given a £10 Argos card, which was a nice surprise. Will hang on to it til I NEED something, not just spend it now. Hopefully I'll forget it's in my purse til nearer Christmas, then it will help out nicely!

Have decided to set myself a target for the next couple of weeks now that I'm starting to think in the right way. They are only small steps, but that's how you climb the mountain methinks....

I will do three things every day, no matter how small, attacking the following three areas of my life:

(1) Money - saving, meal planning/using up what's in instead of buying what I don't need, changing the way I deal with it, looking into new deals for mortgage, utilities etc..., sticking to my shopping list ONLY, putting something in my sealed jars, having a NSD.... anything counts!

(2) Decluttering - I will clean out a drawer, sort out my (and the children's!) clothes and take them to the charity shop/use for rags/crafting (have been building a huge craft box for the children for some time now, they're not old enough yet but when they are, what a treasure trove they will have!), just generally do SOMETHING to reduce the amount of "stuff" in my house. Eating a bar of chocolate from the cupboard DOES count in this category.... right??! There'll be one less when I'm done!

(3) Sorting house out - it's not DIRTY but it's untidy - kind of links in with (2) but it's difficult finding the time between my work hours, shopping, cooking and the children. They hate the hoover and scream when I put it on, if I go into another room and leave them for a few minutes they find anything vaguely breakable and.. well... you can guess the rest....

I am in the process of making myself a list of basic daily/weekly tasks that NEED to be done - washing the kitchen floor, ironing, cleaning bathrooms (we have an ensuite shower/loo attached to our room approximately the size of a hamster cage before anyone says, "..bathroomS??"), brushing down the stairs (two cats make much hair as they like to sleep on the stairs!), stuff like that. Then I need to split it as evenly as I can over the days I don't work and DO IT with no excuses and try to get into THAT habit. I know that if I do it regularly, along with the decluttering, the house will be easier to keep and I will be happier in it. I read on someone else's diary (apologies, I can't remember your name!) that she suffered from CHAOS - Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome - great way of putting how I feel too!

I do find that when there is "stuff" all over the place, my mindset is low and my motivation drops massively. There be truth in the maxim, "A clean start".

Oooh it's all change here....

Thanks to all of you for your support, it means a lot .

gettingthereslowly

Loving the CHAOS! People ring ahead when coming to mine so that i can have a quick tidy :rotfl:

You'll have to post up your list so that we can all motivate (copy ) you along the way.

Well done and keep it up! :j :T

Sessie

Today we took the children out for a belated birthday trip to a light railway about 30 mins away from home. It was a planned trip - hubby has been working so much overtime it was the first full day we've all had together for WEEKS - so I'm not counting it as "unnecessary spending".

Had a lovely day and they are now in bed, hopefully for the duration as they were ZONKED when we got back. We all had the macaroni cheese and aubergine bake I made the other day and then some crumble also from the other day so we used food we had in and nothing bought for meals today!

As I knew we were going to be out all day I thought I wasn't going to meet my "tasks" but I did! :j.

Saving - like I said above, we ate food I had already batch cooked so spent nothing on food today. Also before we set off I went out to the blackberry bush and picked another huge bowlful and mixed this with some cooking apples mum gave me to make a big bowl of stewed fruit. This will go on breakfasts (porridge, left over from making the crumble topping!) for the next few days, so STILL no extra spending on meals for a little while! TICK!

Decluttering - last night when I went to bed I took up a load of books that had been sitting on top of the microwave for weeks and put them back on the bookshelf. I also took up some clothes that had been on the line and didn't need ironing and put them away (normally I'd have left them downstairs folded on a chair back or something until I did the rest of the ironing). Today, I consciously made myself put something back IN THE RIGHT PLACE, not just "back down" to be "put back later" when I picked it up. So another TICK!

Sorting House Out - after we had bathed the children and got them in jimjams I asked hubby to play with them in the bedroom. I not only washed the bath out (as always) but I Cif-ed it and cleaned it along with the loo, the sink and the shelves. So the bathroom is all sparkly now and it was just an extra 10 mins after the bath. Will try to do this more often - it's not always going to be possible if the children are in a bad mood post-bath but will try whenever I can. Have also earmarked two drawers in the kitchen to try to clear out tomorrow after they have gone to bed (I work a full day on Mondays). TICK number three!! Way to go me!!

Right, it SOUNDS pretty quiet upstairs so I think I'll have an hour or so with a book (one of the many "unreads" I have, another vow - see another thread that I'd link to but I don't know how! - is not to buy any more until I've read all I've got!).

Hope everyone's weekend was good - we had GORGEOUS weather today but apparently we're due "weeks of rain" from now on! Still, if it pours we won't go out as much so more NSDs ahead!!

See y'all again soon, can't stay away from here now!

x

JoKay_2

Hi sessie, just dropping in to say hi and well done on your good start!

Sessie

Morning!

See? Can't stay away!

I've already ticked the "Decluttering" box today and it's only 8.15 am!

Am working all day but have brought with me a questionnaire to fill in that I have to do before a hospital appointment in October. I know that seems ages away but my usual habit would be to put it in a pile of "to do"s and then remember on the day of the appointment that I need to do it. I have just finished filling it in so it's ready to go.

I don't start work until 8.30 so am now writing a list of "known upcoming expenses" (which I will post when complete). Let's just see how many UNKNOWN expenses come up - this will further prod me into realising how bad I am for not having a savings account to cover these unexpected things. Quite how I WILL pay for them is another matter! Wonder if I can get fishnet tights and a "lady of the night" outfit from Poundland??!

Have a good day everyone and thank you for your continued support!

x

pennywisepoundstupid

Hi sessie, just wanted to say fab diary and i think your doing fantastic, keep it up and that CC will be paid off in no time. Could you ebay some of the clutter instead of sending it to charity shop, would make a bit of money as well as getting rid of stuff.

WelshWoofer

Hi Sessie!

Hope you don't mind me having a nosey at your diary - I recently started mine and am in a simialr situation (without the kids!).
I do have debt but its manageable and I want to pay it off ASAP. So I'm doing all of the little things too.
Good luck and I'm hoping to pick up a few tips from you!

chevalier

Ref the decluttering don't forget that ebay have free listing days, so this might be a good way of raising money (say from selling the clothes) for that rainy day fund. Also books on amazon are easy to list, and cd/dvd's either on there or play.com.

Well done on keeping motivated.
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