Paid off the £31,000! BUT - still scrimping!

Seasidegal58

Thanks bob! I dont know about beautiful, but hopefully it will be the most clutter free! . One thing though I can't compute in my head is where do all those dust bunnies come from? You dust and in a few days they are scampering around the skirting boards again!:think:

Anyway biggie spend day today. Lunch with my friend locally, then we went shopping. - bought play-doh Xmas gift for sis's little niece, lovely soft bunny for a friend's new baby boy, Xmas rosettes for pressies, baubles to put in large glass vase for Xmas deccie and ordered Christmas wreath for my mum and dad's grave.

I also bought myself an Xmas pressie which wasn't planned but I saw a beautiful table lamp to replace a current one which keeps going on the blink! I had £30 in birthday present vouchers for this shop that I've had for a while so put the other £75 to this for the lamp.

Went out early this evening as it was our local Christmas Lights evening. Loads of the local shops stay open for this so popped into my friend's shop and had a wee dram with her!

When I got home I booked some theatre tickets in the New Year for my sis's birthday pressie. Her birthday was the other month but as she's had a busy couple of months we left it for a while. I will now have a Seasidegal rant! The booking fee was £13.50 each ticket!:mad: London theatre tickets are getting a joke these days. About the only way you can get out of paying an extortionate booking fee is to go to the theatre direct and buy the ticket - which isn't that convenient when you work full time!

I'll stop now!

Seasidegal58

Hi everyone

NSDs yesterday and today!:j

Went to see a friend last night but didn't cost anything as she lives nearby and I took bottle of wine I had in the fridge.

This morning I took the bits I sorted out the other day to the charity shop and then wrapped a couple of pressies to get the ball rolling. While I was wrapping I drank a glass of Baileys and listened to Christmas song playlist on the iPod. Very festive!

Xmas Cleaning Project

Yesterday
Cleaning - was finishing the Bedroom. Cleaned lamps including shades and bulbs, skirting boards, wiped furniture, vacuumed cushions on bed and carpet thoroughly - including under the bedside cabinets.

Organising - Items on the Stairs - don't have any stairs, ha, ha!

Maintenance - laundry - done that.

Today
Cleaning - The Dining Room - which I don't have!

Organising was the"China Hutch" which must be the "China Cabinet!" I don't have a formal dinner service any more as I don't have a big table. So I wiped down the shelves in the kitchen cabinet where I keep my day to day crockery. Nothing to throw out here. She hasn't mentioned this cupboard when going through the kitchen so will look out for other anomalies at the end of the project.

Maintenance - was extra in the kitchen to constitute its weekly cleaning so I did that.

That's enough wittering from me for tonight - as I got paid last Friday I'll report on the financials tomorrow!

Night, night!

brizzledfw

youre doing brilliantly on the cleaning front..I haven't managed to get into the book yet I am afraid.. but on my to do list!

Am looking forward to the update

Seasidegal58

Looking back over the last month since I got paid on Friday:

Negatives:

- Financially not a great month! When totting up everything, my spending at the Christmas Fair totally knocked anything useful into the stratosphere that I could have put over to the EF from the ad hoc weekly spends and groceries (but the glittering spangly bangle was so lovely m’lud!). Accordingly, £2.81 was left from the food budget and £6.10 from ad hoc spends. So £8.91 in total to go to the EF along with the monthly 123 current account interest of £18.31.

- Also blew toiletries/make up monthly budget! But did redeem myself a little via downsizing brands on cosmetics (see Positives below!).

- Also the Clothes budget took a hit as well because of the boots!

- Forgot I bought an international bolt-on for the phone when I was abroad recently so it popped up on the O2 invoice this month!

- The nuclear spending at the Christmas Show and which broke the budget…………….

Positives:

• ........but a lovely day having a ball with good friends totally made up for it!

• Emergency Fund now £6,027.22!

• The peace that has come from having saved up for Christmas each month - unlike my raggedy debt years before!

• Exceeding my target of NSDs on the Turtles thread!

• Finding another YNAB monthly saving category – Vitamins believe it or not!

• Successfully dropping brands on the cosmetics front. On lipsticks saved £5.50 from dropping down from MAC to Autograph. On face powder saved £14.50 downsizing from Clinique to Bourjois. With no real discernible difference to the look or feel!

• Useful advice on cheap water filters from –taff (thank you!)

• Sis popped up with £50 she owed me from a while ago that we had both forgotten about!

• Quarterly M&S loyalty vouchers arrived - £12!

• Xmas Cleaning Project going well!

• Great night out with friends at recent Hollies concert singing along to the golden oldies!

• ….and meeting my little nephew for the first time - who is totally sweet and funny

This month is going to be spendy I’m afraid with the run up till Christmas as I have a few nights out. This week I have a 70th birthday card and small pressie to buy, plus on Friday it is my annual Xmas meal out with all my local friends.

Today’s spends were £1 for birthday collection in work, plus I bought my nephew’s Xmas present – he likes “Paw Patrol” so ordered two Paw Patrol trucks on Amazon at lunchtime.

SSG Xmas Cleaning Project

Into the home stretch now! Day 28:

Cleaning Task – Hallway - dusted walls, light, ceiling, skirting boards, doors. Polished mirror, picture, table, vase. Vacuumed floor.

Organising Task - Paperwork- as this is a biggie job I'm leaving it till the weekend.

Maintenance - Laundry room emphasis so I wiped washing machine!

Nearly finished!

brizzledfw

Sounding great SSG... that's an impressive EF, despite all the Xmas spends. The dropping a brand tactic seems to be working well for you, well done.

Have a good day, thanks for your good wishes, much better nights sleep last night, thank goodness

Xx

Sun_Addict

All sounding good SSG. I got the book but as you know I'm out of action for a while - ironically. Love the Christmas songs and Baileys. I used to do the same writing cards and wrapping presents.

Seasidegal58

Thanks for popping by brizzle and SA (or should I say "hopping by" in your case SA!):D


I'll let you off the cleaning for a good while SA! Brizzle - I should think it'll be really busy for you running up to Christmas now. Perhaps a New Year's January Cleaning Project?


It's looking like a NSD day today. I've brought in my lunch and it's a 5:2 day today anyway so chicken broth tonight. Will confirm tonight when I get home!

Bobarella

What a great run down of your achievements SG you have done very well. I also think you have a healthy EF there. From your earlier post I can't believe the booking fees either!

Seasidegal58

Didn’t end up posting last night as feel asleep on the sofa! Had a NSD yesterday and have ended up with 18 NSDs on the November Turtle thread so that beat my 13 target!

Bought some more Xmas pressies today – perfume for sis, a cookery book and CD for DD and a bottle of nice Barolo for my hairdresser (he’s Italian and likes his native red wine!).

I was a bit annoyed though today - as I posted the other day, little nephew likes “Paw Patrol” cartoon on the TV so I bought him two Paw Patrol trucks for his Xmas pressie after checking with sis that I had not duplicated anything they or anyone else had bought him so far. However, her OH took him out shopping yesterday and ended up buying him one of the trucks that I had already bought! Not even as a Xmas pressie! So he’s played with it now! I have to send mine back when it arrives and have had to order him a different truck! I think sis was a bit annoyed as well as he’ll be getting quite a few pressies for Christmas and it’s hardly necessary to buy him a £16 toy now!

Other couple of things I had to buy today was a 70th birthday card and some chocs for birthday pressie. I also had my monthly nail appointment tonight.

And – final day of the Xmas Cleaning Project today!

Yesterday's Tasks

Cleaning - was the home office. Which I don't have!

Maintenance - emphasis on bathroom so gave inside and outside of toilet and bath a good scrub! And tiles around shower. Wiped down door and swept floor.

Today

Cleaning- Office Windows and Floors. Nothing to do here!

No Organising and just Daily Cleaning for Maintenance!

I had a look round to see if there was anything she had left out – all was good except in the kitchen where she didn’t mention pots and pans , crockery or things you would keep in the kitchen cupboards like small applicances etc. So at the weekend I will go through these (already done crockery though) along with the paperwork. I also keep my booze in a cupboard in the kitchen so will check here as well!

So what did I think overall? – it was a good exercise - the flat is nice, clean and orderly ready for the Xmas deccies at the weekend. The best bit was sorting out all the clothes in the bedroom which gives me great satisfaction when I look at my nice, neat wardrobe and drawers. I still had to leave the bigger jobs till the weekends as I didn’t feel like doing them when I got in from work although quite a bit didn’t apply to me – no dining room, utility room etc and only one bedroom! If you have a bigger house with family I still think it will take more than 30 days unless you are at home all day and dedicate yourself to it! She gives you a monthly maintenance plan which is basically checking over what you've done before each day along with the daily cleaning plan. I will go back to my normal cleaning routine which works perfectly well, but will look in on the monthly thing to keep things straight like inside cupboards etc. The book also contains quite a few of her homemade cleaning recipes which look quite useful if you want to make your own – and she does have a website as well.

So all good!

New month tomorrow and serious run up to Christmas! I think the budget is going to be stretched as I have my annual Xmas dinner out with my local friends on Friday, my friends’s postponed retirement dinner next week and other festivities!

X
:xmastree:

Bobarella

Well it's been interesting reading all about it. Well done for seeing it through.