Spendy Wendy to Saver Savvy

foxgloves

@Spendywendywoo - The daily (but not weekends) home care hour seems to be working well here at Foxgloves Manor. We split household chores straight down the middle while I was working, as is only fair when both partners work full time. When I took VR, I took over most of the running of the house, but Mr F still helps with things like vacuuming & the sort of jobs he's better at than me because he's taller, stronger, has arms like a gibbon, etc. Up until fairly recently, I set Friday mornings for cleaning the house & tbf, I did get a lot done. I'd change the bed & household linens, empty all the bins, clean the kitchen & bathroom, dust the surfaces most in need (piano = dust magnet + cat pawprints on windowsills the worst offenders here) & vacuum the entire house. It kept everything looking decent BUT other cleaning tasks would build up because having done all my Friday cleaning (I also have a decent-sized garden with veg plot to maintain plus I did a stint as a Labour councillor for a few years too), I did not find myself thinking, 'Great, now I'll clean the fridge, take everything off the bookshelves, scrub the bathroom grout', etc, so this would mean every so often we'd need to do a really big deep-clean, which while satisfying to look at afterwards, is also boring, hard physical work & time-consuming. Hence my Home Care Hour, which is pretty much weekdays only. I am incorporating the usual cleaning tasks like vacuuming as & when to fill up an incomplete hour, ditto bins, etc, but I am spending greater proportion of the hour doing more in-depth cleaning. I do think the house is looking better for it. I am not someone who has to have a perfect-looking house, far from it, but I am aware that I am noticing just a generally better level of cleanliness, so it must be working, I think.
F

Spendywendywoo

@foxgloves, thank you that’s really insightful. We both work FT but I WFH a lot so don’t have a commute, most of the time (but when I do it’s a two/three hour stay away), DH works shifts so works long days but does help out where needed. I’m looking to really planning everything in during the week so the weekends are ours. I still get time to do the things I like such as reading but I am procrastinating, and I’ve found I’m checking in on social media again and this needs to stop. 

It sounds like you have a good system, and I love that your house is better off for a more relaxed approach. 

I’m thinking washing, dishwasher and reset the kitchen can be done morning and / or night dependent on what we have on but certainly daily or every other day for the dishwasher. I’m also going to get into the habit of ironing the few clothes that need ironing instead of putting them into a basket to get more creases before they are ironed lol. I was thinking of concentrating on a room a day but not sure this will work. 

I don’t want to overplan but I’m now so organised with other aspects of my life such as meal planning, budgeting, online shopping etc that I can see just how organising and planning is effective x 

Baldybear

De lurking again not sure about podcasts but there is a gpod blog the money principle  lady uaed to post on here for a while.  Great sound uk financial advice 😊

Sun_Addict

I try to do a small amount of cleaning a day, although I’m FT like you. I loosely base my cleaning routine on the Organised Mum Method (TOMM). I have the app which gives lists of tasks for the day depending on how much time you have. It’s surprising how much you can get done in just 30 minutes. I tend to play catch up at weekends though for the bigger jobs. 

Spendywendywoo

@Baldybear, thank you - I've located her blog so will have a read later when I am relaxing. 

@Sun_Addict, ah I heard about TOMM during COVID. That's where my thinking of dedicated rooms per day came from. I've loosely set a daily schedule now (only the what i.e. home hour, and not the exact plan of action), it will be flexible dependant on activities and events we have on that aren't standard, and I have allocated the time into my online calendar, which will ping on my phone (or not if my phone is on silent which it usually is lol). If it works then I'll stick to it, or tweak it - I'm then hopeful that the timings and habits will become second nature so I don't need the calendar invites. Thanks for letting me know what you do - all insights are welcome, and needed x 

Spendywendywoo

Well today has been incredibly busy with back to back meetings for the most part of the day. Still feeling ropey so I haven't done a walk and I haven't gone to watch DS play football either, which is unknown of. 

I've just finished my second lot of washing for the day (haven't done any for a few days as I needed washing powder / tabs). I opted to buy washing powder again as our clothes were very static using the tablets but wanted to use them up and not waste them. I will leave the drawer out after each wash (as I have been doing) and will wash the drawer and inside the machine once a week as a little mould was visible in my last washing machine and I'm trying to avoid that this time round. Whilst visiting the shop I returned two packets of crisps which DH bought the other day that were out of date. DS has said they didn't taste right, we checked the date and I said surely they haven't gone off in just a couple of weeks...DH tried one and they were indeed soggy and unpleasant. Old Wend would have just chucked them in the bin and reminded DH to check dates on products, but Savvy Saver Wendy returned them to the shop and got a refund (£3, which I will add to the budget it came from - grocery). 

Meals today were;

B: Porridge with chia seeds, flaxseeds, a few crushed plain nuts and a banana
L: Crushed baby potatoes, crisped up the airfryer, salad and tuna mayo
Creamy bacon pasta to use up the remaining cream, bacon and parmesan cheese

I feel like I should really use this time whilst DH and DS are out to get lots done but the house is tidy and my body is saying rest so I'm going to read some diaries and finance blogs, and then read my book before having an early night.

Reminder to myself for tomorrow: must drink lots of water as I am very much failing with this atm and it's not helping how I am feeling, I'm sure x

Suffolk_lass

I hope you start feeling better. Water is good. DH has all his measured in and out at the moment, with IV bags of the salt and lactose rehydration compound over 2 8 hour periods a day!

Spendywendywoo

@Suffolk_lass, feeling a little better today, thank you. 

Poor Mr SL, that doesn't sound pleasant... I hope he is improving? Sending hugs x

jwil

I tend to do admin in the mornings - usually Friday or weekends.  I try and do the basic housework during the week so that weekends are free for other stuff.  I'm an early riser so most productive in the mornings, and I do FT but compressed hours so 4 long days, especially when the school run is added in.  Because I do long days, I try to be quite protective of my lunchbreak, so can use that time to do stuff around the house.   At roughly 7pm  I come off all screens (except TV) and that is my relaxing time where I read or watch tv. I don't use social media or browse the internet in the evenings.  I'm an early to bed person as well so it gives me a couple of hours to chill.

Spendywendywoo

@jwil, I think this is how I need to work it - I'm always up fairly early, like this morning the washer is on, dishwasher emptied, tidied round etc all before work. Lunch time I'm not so good at as I tend to work through as I feel guilty as I then take time out to pick DS up from school though I'm going to quickly get over that (more on that in my update in a moment). I also stop everything at around half 7, shower and then relax with my book, I'm usually asleep for 9.30/10pm as I find I wake naturally around 5.30/6am if I do. 

It sounds like you are very organised, I guess you have to be to work long days - what is your shift pattern, if you don't mind me asking? I'm wondering if it's something I could perhaps look into as I'd love to drop a day to then concentrate on me (sounds selfish but this is very much a new thing for me), and getting everything organised (and even spend more time with DH/DS as well as having the weekend free...