Week 7 Challenge

I admit I haven't been doing very well with the weekly challenges over @ A Bowl Full Of Lemons, but this weeks challenge is one I both need and want to complete. Organising my Finances! or lack there of lol

This challenge is over 6 days and Toni has broken it down to nice easy bite size chunks:

Day 1 - Set up a budget, track all spending for entire 6 day challenge & Enter Giveaway
Day 2 - Learn about & set up an envelope system
Day 3 - Create a "Budget Box"
Day 4 - Create your debt snowball & learn about free budgeting software
Day 5 - Dave Ramsey interview questions answered
Day 6 - Giveaway Winner & debt free stories


I really need to do some research on who Dave Ramsey is and what it's all about. Being in the UK I feel a bit lost over Mr Ramsey.


{TH} and I are already on a budget and on the road to becoming debt free, although being debt free is a few years away yet. I am however always looking for new ways to budget and work our finances a little better. I sometimes get a little lost and mis-calculate so I need a system that works for us, that both {TH} and I can understand. It needs to be simple and preferably not use excel (unless someone can give me a crash course in using that damn prog!)

Maybe it's time for good old fashioned paper and pencils, I did buy those little notepads the other day that I have not given to the kidlets, therefore I could use those and those funky new mechanical pencils lol.

Whatever I go, it must be better than my current system, which involves:

Checking the bank online and scibbling on scraps of paper, that ultimately get lost. I always have a rough idea of how much we have coming in and going out, but I sometimes 'forget' to budget things in and then it messes up the week.

So this week, today is a new start and I'm determined to get a system that works and will continue to work.

First thing I need to do is write down all our bills and how much we owe, then I can break things down and work things out. For me the worst part is have 9 different paydays through the month and all our bills are paid monthly (at different times). Think today will cause me more than one headache but I know it's the first step on a long road that I desperatly want to get to the end of!

PoundShop Bargains

I love my local poundshops, stores full of tat hehe. We do get quite alot of stuff from there, I get most of my cleaning products from there and other odds and sods. I love to wander round and see what other junk useful items I can get. Yesterday, I got some Colgate toothpaste ({TH} got the same stuff from tesco the other day for £2.50), I also got some kiddie toothpaste as they don't like the one we're using at the min, it's a little too strong for them, some hand cream, rechargable batteries and this neat little storage drawer unit thingie-me-bob lol

Despite my best efforts recently, I have ended up with with multiple pots/jars/buckets with pens, pencils etc etc in and then a storage box under my desk with sellotape, glue, more pens and pencils in. It was getting silly, but I won't throw pens away until they don't work and I only throw pencils away when they either get to small or the kids have dropped them once too often and the lead is broken. So when I saw this little drawer thing I knew I needed it. 3 drawers and it's quite small so I hoped it would fit under my monitor shelf on the desk. Which it does *smiles* I have the top drawer filled with pens and pencils (I admit spares are still in a box under the desk). Middle drawer has felt tip pens, highlighters, glitter pens and metallic pens. Bottom drawer has my 2 spare post-it note pads, sellotape, eraser, sharpner, staples, scissors and some glue. This leaves my desk quite alot clearer and everything is contained in one area. I just need to make some labels for it, but since I don't have a label maker I will have to attempt to make them by hand. I think I will check ebay too and see if I can grab a small (& cheap) label maker. I only remember the old fashioned Dynmo (sp) ones that printed embossed text on very thin sticky strips, these new ones seem alot more high tech and funky!

I nipped into the other poundshop and got some more bargains, I picked up some 2 packs of ribbons (5x1m), a yellow DVD storage box (not for dvd's though), 3 small baskets (in a bundle) and a candle in a jar. I got them all with a purpose in mind. I also picked up some mechanical pencils, handwriting pens for {B} and some little notebooks (pack of 4). {LM} keeps asking me for a notebook (diary) so I grabbed those, which means one each for the kids and one for me hehe. I also grabbed a letter rack, we still get mail for our landlady and previous tennent, but our landlady comes round about once every 3 months and collects all the mail. It's getting less and less but still it comes to us. It was always just dumped on the window sill next to the door, but it always looked scruffy and untidy. So when I saw a letter rack for just a pound I grabbed it. It's not fantasically pretty, in fact it's plain and quite boring, but it does the job. I have put it on the shelf under the mirror, rather than on the window sill. It has 3 sections for mail, so I have organised the mail too, a section for the landlady's mail, a section for the previous tennent and the front section for us.


Onto the things I bought with other things in mine for those things.........
Ribbons - technically these are for scrapbookers/card makers (which I don't do) but I thought they would be nice to wrap wround jars to make them look pretty, plus I am going to 'attempt' to make a card for my mum for mothers day and thought these might come in handy.

DVD Storage Box - I wanted something to put my spare printer inks and photo paper in, this is the right size and nice and bright. I could probably have got a slightly smaller one, but for a pound I got this one.

3 Small Baskets - I picked these up for the kitchen cupboards. We (ok {TH}) has a few little pots and jars of baking stuff. It's always getting lost in the cupboard so I thought putting them in baskets would help and makybe save some space.

Candle In A Jar - I use alot of hair grips in both mine and the girls hair. However I hate digging round in the bottom on the bobble bucket to find them. So I thought this little candle jar would be idea (once I burn the candle away). It's got a lid so the grips will be safe and tucked away. I may grab a few more next time I got as I think they would make lovely spice jars and because they look quite pretty would look nice on a shelf and once again save us hunting through a cupboard looking for the 'right' spice

So those were my bargains yesterday. I have to nip into the main town next week, where there are 3 poundshops (one is huge) so who knows what bargains I will find next week.

On a side note, when I showed {TH} the baskets I had grabbed he went straight into the kitchen and begand re-organising his baking cupboard. He put stuff in jars and labeled them and made the shelved look all pretty. He's only used one of the baskets so far, but has stacked the baskets inside each other ready to be filled. He also did that to stop me from finding somewhere else for them to go and get filled with other stuff lol. They had the same ones in bright green and pink too, I might get another set and put one in my top drawer to keep my hair stuff in, {TB} could no doubt use one to put his pens and stuff in that clutter his desk and the other one...well you can always find a use for a basket, even if not at the time you buy it.

Some pics of bargains 

 my mini drawer unit thingie-me-bob

the bottom drawer

the middle drawer

 the top drawer

candle in a jar 

 this picture doesn't really show it but the lid is air tight due to rubber/plastic seal

 the boring letter rack and my keys lol complete with Scoobies made by myself and {B}

 filled letter rack

the basket(s)

filled with goodies

back in the cupboard

all neat and tidy - sorry no before picture as {TH} had got everything out before I had my camera ready

Hot Spots vs A Good Book

My hot spots are almost clear. They need some tweaking and I need to find homes for things and rejig other places to accomodate other stuff. One job is never one job, there are always (in my case and maybe yours) 3 other jobs that need to be done before the job in question can be done and then of course another 3 jobs after, that were created by the job in question. So it seems to take longer to do the job that originally planned. Of course not every job has 3 jobs before and 3 jobs after but it's never, ever just one job.

Washing - laundry needs to be sorted before making it to the washer, then moved to the dryer, then folded and put away.

Hoovering - stuff needs to picked up, moved before I can 'whip' the hoover round.

So it's no wonder I got bored yesterday with my hot spots. I cleared and rejigged the kitchen sides, but after that I was incredibly pissed off. Why? {TH}. He had wound me up so much and he hadn't said or done anything, that was the issue. While I had busied myself in the kitchen moving things round and cleaning the sides {TH} sat in the lounge playing Call Of Duty (COD). He did nothing, he didn't even pick up the mess he made when he knocked the ashtray over. Why should I work myself like a dog to get the house looking neat and tidy when he can't be bothered to do anything?

As he was playing COD it meant I couldn't watch TV unless I went and sat in the bedroom. The bedroom that is scruffy, untidy and full of washing waiting to be folded and put away. I struggle to get the sleep in there some nights as the mess is actually annoying the hell out of me, there was no way I was going to sit in there on a saturday night and watch TV. Also we pay a fair whack each month for our Sky TV package, but it isn't in the bedroom, only the lounge, freeview in comparison to sky is poopy! 

My dad sent a few books round a few weeks ago he thought I might enjoy reading. I haven't read a book in ages, the last one was Sophie Kinsella's Mini Shop-A-Holic. I did pick up The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo a few weeks ago with every intention of reading it, but I never and when my bookcase arrived it just went to live there with all the other books. So yesterday I grabbed the newest one sent over, it's called Sister and by Rosamund Lupton. I couldn't put it down. I read until about 11pm last night when my eyes could take no more and this morning after I made my cuppa I sat back down and carried on. I had to stop to feed the kidlets lunch and then my father in law turned up, but I have now finished it and loved it... Synopsis below

Nothing can break the bond between sisters ...When Beatrice gets a frantic call in the middle of Sunday lunch to say that her younger sister, Tess, is missing, she boards the first flight home to London. But as she learns about the circumstances surrounding her sister's disappearance, she is stunned to discover how little she actually knows of her sister's life - and unprepared for the terrifying truths she must now face. The police, Beatrice's fiance and even their mother accept they have lost Tess but Beatrice refuses to give up on her. So she embarks on a dangerous journey to discover the truth, no matter the cost.

Now at 5:30pm on a Sunday evening I have no desire to tackle the mess that is our bedroom, nor to fold the endless piles of washing, I have no desire to do anything! Yet if I don't, I know that tomorrow when I get back from dropping the kidlets off, it will still be here waiting for me, mocking me for not doing it before. The thing is I have to tackle part of it in order to find the kids uniforms so they can be ironed. Common sense would tell me that as I have to tackle some of it I may as well tackle all of it, yet the shear amount that needs to be done terrifies me. It's gone past being a quick 10 minute job and turned into a monsterous hour (if not longer) chore, one I wish I could shut the door on and ignore, or one that someone else will say 'don't worry I'll do it' however I know that isn't going to happen and I will have to face up to it, at some point, so why not now? Well I could think of lots of things I would rather be doing, like sitting here reading blogs about people who are organised and have neat and tidy homes, or curling up on the sofa with the dog and reading another book sent over by my dad, or perhaps just sitting and doing nothing. I'd pretty much do anything rather than tackle that washing. There is no escape though is there? It has to be done......I'll just finish my cuppa first though

A Busy Day

I've had a quite a busy day today. {TH} got up this morning feeling awful, in fact is exact words where "I feel like I'm dying" not sure how he knows what it feels like to be dying and didn't ask. I had to go out today the pole I reserved yesterday had to be collected today or I couldn't guarantee getting it. I also had a few other things I needed to grab, like dog food. I explained to the kids that daddy wasn't feeling very well and they needed to be extra good while I nipped out. I prepared their lunch for them and made up juice, so {TH} didn't need to do anything, except tell them when it was lunch time. I got all the colouring stuff I could find out and dug out some lined paper for them too, found glue and child safe scissors and gave them the stack on junk mail and flyers that were awaiting being took out to the recycle bin. I figured they could cut them up and make pictures etc etc and that would keep them fairly happy while I was out.
I got what I needed and stuff I didn't, bleach was on offer 3 for £2 so I grabbed 3, well I won't have to buy it again for a while. I nipped to see {TH}'s aunt & uncle, they live round the corner from the shopping center. Picked up my Avon order that arrived today 4 x 1lts bottles of bubble bath, it was on offer in the last brochure so I stocked up. Of course I had to take a look at the new brochure....I ordered a new hairbrush (1/2 price), 4 bottles of detangling spray (1/2 price) for {LM}'s hair and the coolest tote bag I've seen (£3 off) which I thought would be fabby for school and college. I just tried finding a pic online but it seems they haven't updated to the new brochure yet. I can't say no to a bargain lol.


Home I came, my table was immaculate and the kids were watching tv with {TH}. Apparantly after about 20mins they got board of cutting up paper and glueing it and wanted to watch TV instead. {TH} made them tidy away all their mess before letting them watch TV. 


So with {TH} being ill it looks like my curtain pole will have to wait, as capable as I am to wield a power tool {TH} believes it to be 'his job' and gets uppity when I do things like that. So I will leave it till he is feeling better and get my curtain pole up and curtains too.


Oh yeah, I did get the paper for my priner and get it all hooked up and running. Although in typical fashion I made a slight boo boo. As part of the install process it wants to print a photo, so I picked a photo of my kids and away I went, however I didn't change the size, so I only have a 1/4 of the image lol. It's very good quality though