Prosperous soul embraces creativity & mortgage neutrality

beanielou

Better with a wee skip & you & your cleaner can get cracking

SandyShores

That pasta looks delicious savingholmes!

Just chiming in about foil (saw GreenT's post about beeswax wraps).  I'm a fan of waxed cotton wraps too.  DH used to wrap his daily sandwiches in foil, but that changed once I read that foil isn't very environmentally friendly (and its expensive too).  I've also bought some of the stretchy covers to cover dishes for leftover food.  I feel there's a lot less going in the bin now.  If I ever do need to use foil, say in the oven, I tend to wash it and reuse it, same for foil trays too.

I hate waste too, and try to give things away or recycle them.  It just seems to take a lot more time and I know that once I've made that decision I really need to get it gone.  I popped to the charity shop in the week and they took the clothes I had, but not the small electrical item - so that's now in my car while I find somewhere to take it.  I've started a list of places to recycle and donate things to, so it will hopefully make it a bit easier in future.

MovingForwards

You will get there. Not sure if it's a 'thing' by you, but people have garden / garage sales up here when trying to shift a lot of things at once.

savingholmes

Thanks Beanie, MF and Sandy

Garage sales aren't a thing here as far as I know. Overnight the only interest shown has been in the bar stool I got for free on FB last year! Looks like I've sold it for £8. I will mark down the price on the rocking chair as I just want it gone - but that balances out the bar stool. I'm going to list some mini bookcases today too and see if they go.

DD is the foil user rather than me. I mostly use glass dishes (which mostly have lids for after) or those net type things you can get. We normally use clingfilm for covering smaller stuff though. I will look into those flexi covers next pay day.

My found scales suggest I should have a good weigh in tomorrow at SW so I think last week was a blip. Unless these scales aren't aligned with theirs. Won't know until tomorrow.

DD is going to see Ex's new house today. She's find things hard currently with a lot of her friends about to go back to uni as well. I hope all goes well with her holiday. I'm almost more anxious about it as I'm not going to be there for her. Her friend is great though so hopefully all will be well.

savingholmes

Having reviewed some of the low/no buy challenges last night I'm going to start my own version - mainly targeting fritter spend. There are quite a few things I won't need to buy for a while:

Cleaning products and toiletries

• Cleanings sprays - including cloths - found at least 3 sprays, 1 cream, 3 oven cleaners (binned one), 1 shampoo cleaner (binned another)
• Body sprays - have around 6 between yesterday's finds and others elsewhere
• Tissues - have 8-10 boxes
• Toilet paper - have around 30 rolls+
• Toilet brushes - I have at least 3 sets of new in packaging ones!
• Feather dusters. Found 3 - should bin or give away 2 and just keep the one in packaging.
• Shower gels - I have about a year's supply
• Shampoo - a year's supply
• Conditioner - a year's supply
• Soap - found at least 3 yesterday
• Washing up liquid
• I have quite a few moisturisers - and more coming this week - need to pause subscription (currently 2 monthly).

I want to do a stationery & arts and crafts fast

• In recent living room tidy up found a box of about 10 of my fave unused pens. I have lots more floating around too.
• Felt tips / brush markers
• Colouring pencils, crayons, Oil crayons
• Paints - acrylic - unless I run out of a specific colour
• Watercolours
• Alcohol inks - still not tried the ones I got for my birthday in May
• Sketchbooks
• Frames
• Canvases - unless I run out of a specific size
• Journals - have at least 1 more this size. Ideally I'd use up my mismatched journals that I have bought previously. If I did that - I wouldn't need to buy journals for the rest of the year. I do like them all matching though so not sure on this one. This would be my hardest challenge... But the current journal type I use typically costs £10-15 and lasts around a month - so not cheap but I use it every day so cost per use is reasonable.

Clothes and shoes

• I want to fast from buying any more clothes and shoes - preferably until I change size
• I have bought quite a few clothes over the last 12 months and rectified some areas of historic neglect like bras and footwear
• I think I have plenty of everything else
• I would hope to revisit if I lose significant weight or closer to Christmas. As I lose weight - I will keep topping up my rewards fund by £10 per 1 pound lost so hopefully I can have a really nice wardrobe upgrade when I get closer to my desired weight

DIY Products

• I don't need any more filler!! I have at least 3 floating around the place
• Lots of paint to use up - so only if I am starting a room that day and have no paint having 'shopped from home' first am I allowed to buy any more
• I have lots of wall rollers - I may need gloss rollers - but have at least 1 spare of those too
• I recently bought a room size laser measurer - not used yet.
• I have lots of paint brushes - again these all need bringing together and organising

Presents for the home

• I can spend on things that improve energy efficiency. E.g. curtains might improve things by 17%
• I do need to consider using the curtain I already have or trying to sell them first though
• Other spends should be avoided unless a safety concern or fixing something that's broken
• I still want to do the arbour, stairs, shed roof, wall toppers etc. 
• What I'm targeting is containers, cushions, clips, wooden coat hangers, glass dishes, mugs etc

Eating out / Takeaways

• I enjoy Chinese food and that feels value for money - particularly if I just get the chicken and black bean sauce and have it with jacket spud - so plan to keep this as an occasional treat
• I have been really disappointed with recent pub meals though - which have also gone up in price. I want to avoid these unless I'm going with someone else or am far away from home on a day out somewhere. Even then food from a supermarket is likely to be tastier

While I know I also need to tackle my food spend - the list above is enough to be getting on with so will start there. Food has a much stronger hold on me and is unlikely to be a quick fix.

I hope the above reduces my overall spends so I have more free money. I also want to move from a 'replacement' to a 'repair' type mentality. So a tunic I like has ripped this week at the seam but should be sewable - so I need to find my sewing stuff and mend it. I'm going to check out if my FF is repairable. My fridge is 3.5 this morning and my freezer minus 2. I have to do something. I will see what I can shift into the garage / DD's FF and see if there's anything I can use up to minimise waste in the meantime.

I also want to keep searching for things to sell and get them listed so I can reduce the clutter in my home.

WelshmansDaughter

Just a thought that occurred to me while reading your list, a slightly unconventional solution to the clutter. I don't know if you could do it but perhaps converting a room to a storage room? Like a pantry but for stuff. I think you said you were a visual organizer so it may help and save time finding places for things

beanielou

Pass some tissues. Thanks.
Used more in the last 3 weeks than in last year!

I use one of my spare rooms as somehere to dry washing & have the airers & also things that I buy when on  offer or whatever ie toilet rolls & kitchen rolls & cat food. 
It works well for me as it means that there is only one room that has too much stuff in it. 
WAy way better thyan it used to be 

Mickyh-s

I have one too...a room for storing bits, hanging the washing in colder months, ironing board and a few other bits and bobs. There is a bed in there somewhere too and on the rare occasion we have guests for the night I run around having a good tidy up! 😂

savingholmes

Thanks Beanie, WD and Mickey

I like having stores. I like a tangible EF. I like your idea of getting to the point where you dedicate a space for visual stores. My issue currently is I have multiples of these throughout my home - including spaces in the garage I can't get to - because of clutter blocking my path.

My issue is buying things that never get used like oven cleaner because I feel I should use it... Then finding I already have multiples. It's made worse by the fact I rely on my cleaner to clean - and therefore buy products for her rather than for me. I then have no real visibility of whether I have any left unless she tells me!! Keeping it real...

try_harder

What a great idea ,i love your list ,i might try doing one for all our excess stuff

I have one room too where i keep everything out of sight .Makes the house look like it is really tidy and minimalist when it really isnt