Organising Finances

I was following Toni over @ A Bowl Full Of Lemons with the weekly challenge of organising our finances....However, after talking it over with {TH} he said we would be best waiting to start at the beginning of the month. Our big payday is at the end of the month and thats when I normally work our budget out, so being mid month we are a little hit and miss. So I am reading all Toni's posts and making a list of things I need to do or buy, that way I am totally prepared to sort my budget at the end of the month ready for next month. I will get on top of our finances.

What I've Done or Not Done

I saw on a blog the other day (again I forget whose sorry) and I saw on Kia's blog yesterday a What I've Done Today post. When I first saw it I thought I must do one of those on my blog, then promptly forgot all about it, until I saw Kia's post last night. I then made a wee note and was adament I would add one today.........

What I've Done Today

In the Kitchen I have:

- wiped down all surafces

- cleaned the cooker top (oven is {TH}'s job!)

- wiped down all the tiles

- wiped down all door fronts

- washed the rings and thingie-me-bobs off the top of the cooker (technically the dishwasher did this part)

- washed all dished that are not dishwasher friendly

- cleaned out the inside of the microwave

- took the rubbish (trash) out

- hoovered and mopped the tiled floor

In the lounge I have:

- picked up all laundy left by the kidlets this morning

- put away all PS3 accessories left out 

-checked the snake eggs and changed the water (did I tell you my one of my other snakes, the black laid eggs on friday? we now have 16 eggs we are trying to incubate)

- dusted

- hoovered

- opened the window to get some air in, now the weather is better
In the dining room I have:

- cleared the table of junk

- wiped the table down

- picked up bits of this and that

- wiped the fire over

- swept, hoovered and mopped the floor 

 In the hallway/launchpad I have: 
- hoovered the floor
- tidied the videos and game away
- put all the shoes back in the shoe box that had escaped
- cleared my hot spot butchers block!!!
- sorted mail and tidied shelf under mirror (removing {B}'s crap she left there this morning when doing her hair!)

In the laundry room I have:

- wiped the washer over

- wiped the dryer over

- swept, hoovered and mopped

In General I have also:

- emptied and washed all ashtrays

- emptied all bins and put rubbish in outside bin

- put things back in their homes 

- done a load of washing

- folded and put away last nights load

- made a pile for each child of their stuff that needs to be put away in their rooms

What I've Not Done Today

In the kitchen I have not:

- emptied, cleaned inside and re-jigged the cupboards

- cleaned the window frames and windows

In the lounge I have not:

- striped the fire down and cleaned it out

- cleaned the window frames and windows

- cleaned the tv

- hoovered under the sofa's

In the dining room I have not:

- cleaned the window frames and windows

- cleaned the mirror

In the hallway/launchpad I have not:
- cleaned the mirror
- wiped down the front door
- cleaned the window sill or window
- tackled the stairs


In General I have not:
- done anything upstairs
- done anything in the master bedroom
- cleaned the en-suite


All in all though I think I've had quite a productive day and am pleased with myself

How Often.......

Jen over at OCD (Organized and Clean Design) has a series titled: How Often You Clean It...?

I thought I would condense these posts down to one post :)

#1 - The Toaster

I wipe my toaster down daily. I empty the crumb tray and hoover (yes I hoover my toaster) once a week. {TB} is a bugger for toast. He has toast for breakfast, if he's peckish in the day he has toast, for supper he has toast. That boy would live on toast if he could! So my toaster gets used pretty heavily and needs to cleaned out regularly. I hoover it because no matter how hard I shake it over the bin there is always crumbs left behind, so I get the hoover in there 

#2 - Behind the Washer and Dryer

I would love to say 'oh all the time' but that would be a big fat stinky lie. I do pull my dryer out once every couple of weeks and hoover/mop behind it. My washer - NEVER!. We did clean behind th epace where it lives before we put it there, but due to its position and pipes going through the wall, I am not planning in pulling it out any time soon to clean behind it. I do hoover the fluff catcher thingie in the front of the dryer at least once a fortnight

#3 - The Ceiling Fans

Never! I don't have ceiling fans hehe. There are not common in homes in the UK, I know people who have them but not like you do stateside. We have a desk fan that lives in the bedroom next to {TH}'s lappy and I hoover that once a week. In the summer (if its warm) and the fans come in out the garage I'll clean them once a week too, they get a wipe down and a hoover.

Meet Me On Monday

It's Monday again and I have to admit I feel a whole lot better today. I've come to some decisions and as soon as {TH} wakes up I will talk things through with him. Poor {TH} had a very bad night last night, he was awake till the early hours and even when he did (finally) drop off he was restless and sweaty. I went to bed early so managed to get a few hours sleep before he came in and distrubed me. I don't mind though, well I do but it's something I've come to deal with and although I'm an 8hrs a night kinda girl I can survive on very little sleep, I just have to keep myself busy through out the day and I have some things I want to get done today so I should be ok. I just hope {TH} is ok.

Questions:

1.  Do you have a fireplace in your home? yes, but it's not a very pretty one lol although it's much prettier now {TH} has done some work on it. You can see some before & after pictures in this post {here}
2.  Can you drive a stick shift? no, I can't drive at all but when I do eventually learn it will be stick shift as thats the most common here in the UK
3.  How many computers are in your home? Now just 3, we recetly sold {TH}'s desktop. There's my mean machine, {TH}'s lappy and {TB}'s desktop
4.  Are your taxes done yet?  Do you do them yourself? no and no hehe being in the UK we don't have to file taxes like you do stateside unless you are self employed (I think)
5.  What is your favorite meal of the day? Can't say I have one to be honest, I like breakfast but only when it's certain cereals and I don't have to rush

Thinking

I've spent alot of today (and last night) thinking. I 'thought' I had my life on track and was going in the right direction, however now I don't think I am. Right now, I feel I've made a huge mistake and I'm not sure how to go about putting it right and getting myself back on the right track. To be honest I'm not sure what the right track is, but I do know it's not the one I am currently going down.

Sometimes, I jump in with both feet, rather than dipping my toe and this is such an occation. I jumped head first into something thinking it was 'just perfect' and now I am starting to realise it's very far from perfect and not what I want at all.

So how do I now correct this mess without people thinking I'm a failure that will never amount to anything? I know raising kids, keeping a family together and running a home is no easy task and to do that, must mean I've amounted to something, but there are always going to be 'those' people within the family who will say things that will no doubt upset me. I can't carry on with the way I am going though just to prove a point to others, can I? Thats just not the sensible option, not when I know at some point I'm going to scream and it's all going to come crashing down around me. Maybe I should just admit it now, get it over and done with....

Only time will tell if I've made the right or wrong choice (again)

My Blog Buddy

I am so proud of my blog buddy Kia, you can find her over @ A View From Here, she (like myself) is on a mission to de-clutter and organise her life, home and her hubby hehe. I've known Kia for ages, we met through an yahoo group for taggers and she is totally awesome, she has helped me out on more than occation with various things. Although we have never met (I do plan on popping down to see her some time this year) I consider her a friend and one I'm proud of. Her success in de-cluttering and organising has been awesome so far, I know she still has some way to go but she is making so much progress. She is my muse, when she tackles something I haven't managed to do I have to either do it or add it to my list hehe. She constantly finds awesome blogs that I need to follow.

So I just wanted everyone to know how proud I am of Kia (and her hubby) and how much she has put me to shame this week lol, she has romped away while I'm still stuck at the starting line lol

Headache

Just fetched {LM} home from a birthday party and now her and {S} are running round like wild animals! If that wasn't enough to give me a headache working out the finances was!

On the plus side we are not in as much debt as I thought we were, we should (fingers crossed) be debt free in a little over 12 months. It could be less, as when one thing is paid off we can put the extra onto debt no.2 and so on. However I am setting us a target to be debt free by April 2012. According to Dave Ramsey we should set up an emergancy fund first of $1000 that equals approx £622. I can't do this first, as I have a debt that I need to pay back by the end of April, but once that is paid we can sort putting some away for our emergancy fund. The most expensive thing to replace for us would probably be the tv in the lounge, so I will set aside the cost of a new tv plus a little extra, it will probably be around the £700/£750 mark.

I still need to jiggle things about and some of the statements for our bills haven't updated yet so I don't know how much is due in April, but I have made a start

Linking this back to A Bowl Full Of Lemons