Cherry takes the reins

Cherryfudge

One of my resolutions has been to get back on the Flylady bandwagon so this evening I have a shiny sink and have decluttered somewhat (32 items, but some were just old receipts) and spent 15 minutes tidying the lounge.

There are financial benefits: I've found £20 of M& S vouchers which I nearly threw away as I didn't expect to use anything from the envelope they'd sent me before Christmas! Then I found £6 in Mr T points in a piece of paper on the bookcase.

The former are safely in my purse and the latter are on the notice board. Not sure what to do with the M& S 'bonus' as it's time limited so I may just treat us to nice foods, unless there's anything online that would benefit us (I'm thinking I need a chef's steel for our knives as they are getting damaged on our existing sharpener).

Of course all this is at the expense of sleep but I have another day off tomorrow so I really need to do the housework-y stuff earlier in the day. Today has been for DH and me and for battling the calendar in the hope of seeming organised this year. Tomorrow the normal routine starts again for DH and A. H and I are 'front line' so we've been to work a few times over the last few days and DS2 starts next week, but substantially I'm back to normal tomorrow so no excuses. It's been lovely to have them all over the holidays, though.

WannabeFree

Well done on the decluttering and the finds of vouchers. Nice food or something you need but wouldn't usually want to spend on is a good idea better than them going to waste

Hope you get a good nights sleep

x

Cherryfudge

I searched online but couldn't find the knife sharpener at the above-mentioned retailer, and there isn't enough space in the freezer to get DH's favourite, so the M& S vouchers are in my purse a bit longer. The freezer is an odd mixture of all sorts of stuff and we don't have fridge space so tonight was a quorn curry (sauce from a jar plus oddments from the freezer).

The plan to do housework didn't come to fruition: J popped in for some stuff she'd left here then texted me later to tell me there were half price fairy lights in town, so I spent an hour or so getting all the things I needed for various errands and set off to the shops. I've returned the Christmas presents that were the wrong size/faulty. It may take a while for the refund to come through but at least they've gone. I've sent family newsletters to two ladies my Mum knew, along with copies of the calendar she used to send, and the Post Office is the far end of town from the drop off point for returns. In between were all the shops, of course, and I think I got everything on my list except laundry powder, so it's as well I don't expect to wash clothes tomorrow. I remembered where's cheapest for certain things, but bought quite a few bits in the sales, thus more than wiping out any savings. I also put all except the groceries on my credit card as I can't find my debit card. I think I may have left it where a pile of paper later got dumped, so I really ought to be looking for it, then I can pay the account tonight.

I did get fairy lights, by the way - 3 sets! Some were down from £30 to £7.49 and are now on the tree in place of the set that died of LED failure a few days ago. There are also two little battery-operated sets that were £1 each: one is running between the bannisters making the hall look festive. Sorry to all who pack the decs away on Boxing Day!

I treated myself to a notebook for the Bullet Journal and a Scrapbook (both half price) as I want to assemble my Mum's bag of recipes from magazines. I'm not sure this last is the perfect way to store them but if I wait for that I'll wait forever. So far I've sorted them into types (baking, Christmas, etc.) but I need another hunt for strays before I start being creative.

I'm afraid I got quite a few Christmas food bargains - far more calories than I need. It will save us buying or making cake for a while! I've also spent on postage which gets taken off various funds - gifts in this case - and bought a pretty candle to put aside for a gift next Christmas, and some gold netting that I thought J might like to do something creative with but she hasn't storage space so I think I will have to find a place for it. That and the lights count as household spending because they are part of decorating. So do the wardrobe dehumidifiers I have found.

Losing track now... time to tot up. :eek:
Spending:
Housekeeping £15.77
Household £19.54
Stationery £8.48
Gifts £11.00
Total £54.79
Plus payment to the lady who looks after Mum's old house - that's come out of estate funds.
MS:
Candle and Christmas cards are definite savings for the future.
Half price on fairy lights, most of which were replacements for broken ones.
Cheap Christmas food, though now I will have to fit in two runs a day. :rotfl: (Not going there).
Dehumidifiers will help keep clothes in good condition. The damp upstairs is not healthy.
£2.49 for a bullet journal is cheap - the 'real thing' costs a lot more but I'm happy with this.
Confessions:
Too many calories.
Had to buy a carrier bag as I didn't bring enough.
£5 on glitter net is not MS, though it could make very beautiful decorations.

I'm tired tonight: I couldn't slow down enough to sleep for ages last night. I need to make tomorrow's pack up, do a bit of decluttering and resign myself to not having done any piano practice today.

WannabeFree

A productive day!

Hope you get a good nights sleep
x

charlies_tribe

I really need to start flylady again. I did clear the living room ready for Christmas but it meant we couldn't open the conservatory door! I have since bagged up 11 black bags of clothes (and stored them in the trailer) and today DH has burnt a huge, huge pile of cardboard.
You did really well to find the vouchers before they expired.

Cherryfudge

Work went okay today, then I came back all set to go for a run but decided to have a coffee first and the run didn't happen. Never mind. I went to the shops and had a text from DH asking me to get a 'nice' pizza and hang the expense, so I texted back and said I'd found one for £3,999.99 and would that do? Actually I spent £1.80 and it wasn't worth it: the pepperoni was too strong for my taste. I did get some fancy bacon at 33p, though, (bought two packs) and flavoured creams marked variously at 16p or 21p a tub, so either I'll make some into butter tomorrow and use it to flavour cakes (should be interesting) or I'll freeze it. Other spending was the washing capsules (I know they aren't the most economical but I got as cheap as I could find and couldn't carry a large box of powder), cheese for lunches and some spices for work (I owe work a bit of food). Oh, and a pound on a pot of daffodil bulbs: they remind me of Mum. I used to take pot after pot to her at the nursing home and when they died down I'd try to rescue them before the staff chucked them out, and plant them in my garden. For a year or so they did very well but last year I hardly saw them.

I actually got some real piano practice in this evening, and a bit of knitting, both of which are more relaxing than the computer.

Today's decluttering is not as impressive as yours, Charlie's tribe: you must have worked hard to do all that, and there absolutely has to be more space because of it. I got rid of 11 receipts (!) and three rolls of reclaimed wrapping paper has gone in the recycling because it was just gathering dust. I also had to throw out two pints of milk that were going off, which is a shame but I'm not good with bad milk.

Spending:
Garden £1
Housekeeping £12.24 (this leaves me with almost nothing in my part of the housekeeping budget, and a kitchen full of delicious but not nutritious things).
MS:
Cancelled the standing order for my magazine which was £16.70 twice a year. I realised I had quite a number still in wrappers so I'm not going to miss it too much and if I want a particular edition I can get off the newstand. Saving of potentially £33.40 a year, but only potentially because I'm bound to buy a couple.
Found a £2 coin in yesterday's change for the £2 coin jar.
1p to start a new 10th coin savings packet!
Decluttering:
3 rolls of paper, 10 receipts and 2 pints of old milk

charlies_tribe

It did make a tiny dent in it Cherry, but we have a long way to go.
Sorry the pizza wasn't worth it but well done on the Piano practice and knitting, DD2 had a knitting kit for Christmas as she wanted to learn and i'm quiet surprised at how much i remembered from my gran teaching me.

WannabeFree

Hope you've had a good day Cherry

x

Onebrokelady

Your having a very productive time,well done on the decluttering so far,I can't get the hang of flylady, I'm decluttering and then deep cleaning/ decorating my house this year,I'm going to streamline it so it's easier to keep clean and tidy,shame I can't declutter the dog and cat as they make most of the mess:rotfl:

HairyHandofDartmoor

You got hold of lots of Christmas sale bargains and any decluttering is good. But I'm concerned at how late you go to bed .

You need a set time for your runs maybe? It is hard to fit exercise in, especially when you're at work. Can you say that you will run half an hour after getting home from work and make that an unbreakable date? Or as soon as you get home and avoid the kitchen? I found with walking that it helped to get my walking clothes all laid out and ready to put on, as the hardest thing is getting out of the door. You never regret doing exercise but you always regret not doing it.

I love daffodils too and I planted crocus bulbs in pots this autumn. My mum always bought me a hyacynth in a pot when I was ill as a child, and I've got some on my kitchen windowsill now which remind me of her .