We're on a roll......
These past few weeks has seen us sorting out our finance, but we've also started to get rid of all the clutter in the house. I love, love, love this. I am super untidy and Mr H is a massive hoarder so I'll leave the state of our house to your imagination! Having less stuff in the house though certainly helps me - apart from the obvious that there's less to keep tidy, it's also that sense of calm that comes from having less stuff around. We've done this in a number of ways and we're still going!
After watching this TED talk I was inspired to get up the next day and spend half an hour clearing out 3 huge bags of stuff from the bedroom that I hadn't touched since we moved into our place a year ago. Without a word of encouragement* Mr H joined in and filled a few more bags and loaded the car up and off we went to the charity shop and the recycling center. It felt great. We'd actually achieved something. I hate they way us humans feel the need to have so much stuff. I think we could easily get rid of half the stuff in our house and still be just as happy, if not happier.
The other thing that has helped massively is Mr H decided to sell some of his 'might be worth a bit in the future' toys that were filling the loft and that made a few pennies on ebay. If you struggle with this type of thing try and get a family member or friend to help you. Maybe you can offer to help with something that they're not so good at in exchange for them selling some of your things that you no longer want.
Its all a process
Whilst this is just the beginning of the process I feel really positive about what we've been doing. Some of you guys are probably doing bigger and better things but I'm happy with where we're at. I've tried to tackle our clutter before but always felt so overwhelmed that I've let it slip very quickly, or in some cases not even known where to start. Little and often is the key. Don't see these things as huge jobs that need doing right away, see them as a process of changing the way you do things. Break each task down into small manageable tasks and only when you've achieved one do you go on to the next.
I'd love to hear if any of you are de-cluttering? How do you tackle big overwhelming tasks?
Claire x
(*come on guys we all know I mean nagging)
Showing posts with label organised. Show all posts
Showing posts with label organised. Show all posts
Wednesday, 26 August 2015
Sunday, 23 August 2015
Taking control of your finances
Money, money, money
If you're anything like me you won't be the best with money. I've tried time and time again to 'be good' when it comes to controlling my spending and to try and get something into savings. Having started a job in the debt advice sector it's made me really analyse our spending habits as a family and basically has been a huge wake up call about how bad we are with money. Not only did we have no savings we'd also been overspending each month and piling it on credit cards. So after a mooch around the net and stumbling across Mr Money Mustache (seriously love this guy!) I'd found my latest obsession - sorting out our money situation.
So we've gone all guns blazing on trying to pay off this debt we've got hanging around like a bad smell. Looking at our spending habits over a couple of months was a SHOCKER! I recommend you all go do this (but be prepared to be horrified!). We certainly were when we realised aside from our mortgage our biggest outgoing was on food and eating out, spending a few hundred pounds each month on restaurants and coffee. Ouch. The easiest way I found to do this was to split our spending into main headings such as food, transport, eating out, clothes.... and working through our bank statements total up the spending for each category.
Time for a kick up the bum
The first logical step was to start out by doing a budget that included all the essentials that we have to pay for:
Essentials:
Mortgage
Building & contents insurance
Landline & internet
Food
Mobile phones
Pet insurance
TV licence
Council tax
Car insurance
Fuel
Car Insurance
Mr H's car HP - this ones a bummer, it's not something I wanted him to get in the first place but he's tied into it now so we just got to suck it up and pay it
Little H's sports clubs - most of these double us a childcare now that I'm working
Then we added in a couple of things that although we're essential, we really didn;t want to get rid of completely:
Non essential:
£50 a month allowance for social/entertainment costs
Little H's pocket money - he has to do jobs for this and only gets it on the agreement he puts half into his savings account
Clothing - we haven't set an amount for this but realistically things need replacing now and again like little H needing new school shoes this month. All non essential clothing costs have gone though, we're making do with what we have.
Next up I opened us a joint bank account that we have all our bills going out of and then use a 0% cashback credit card to do all the food shopping which we then pay off in full on payday.
So on pay day I transfer most of our wages from our accounts into the joint account. The only money we leave in our single accounts is fuel money Mr H, and a little in my account to cover pocket money and sports clubs. Anything left over after this goes on paying the debts off and some goes into our savings account for things we know we have coming up like birthdays, Christmas, & school trips.
Our first steps to being debt free
It's been a couple of months and so far things are going great. We've paid off nearly £3,000 in debt and saved just over £1,000 (this may seem strange but we're off to New York next month as we'd already booked and paid for it before deciding to go on a spending freeze).
At this rate we're hoping to be debt free in the next 6-8 months and then we can really ramp up the saving. I'll keep you posted.
Are you good with money or do you find it hard to control your spending?
Claire x
If you're anything like me you won't be the best with money. I've tried time and time again to 'be good' when it comes to controlling my spending and to try and get something into savings. Having started a job in the debt advice sector it's made me really analyse our spending habits as a family and basically has been a huge wake up call about how bad we are with money. Not only did we have no savings we'd also been overspending each month and piling it on credit cards. So after a mooch around the net and stumbling across Mr Money Mustache (seriously love this guy!) I'd found my latest obsession - sorting out our money situation.
So we've gone all guns blazing on trying to pay off this debt we've got hanging around like a bad smell. Looking at our spending habits over a couple of months was a SHOCKER! I recommend you all go do this (but be prepared to be horrified!). We certainly were when we realised aside from our mortgage our biggest outgoing was on food and eating out, spending a few hundred pounds each month on restaurants and coffee. Ouch. The easiest way I found to do this was to split our spending into main headings such as food, transport, eating out, clothes.... and working through our bank statements total up the spending for each category.
Time for a kick up the bum
The first logical step was to start out by doing a budget that included all the essentials that we have to pay for:
Essentials:
Mortgage
Building & contents insurance
Landline & internet
Food
Mobile phones
Pet insurance
TV licence
Council tax
Car insurance
Fuel
Car Insurance
Mr H's car HP - this ones a bummer, it's not something I wanted him to get in the first place but he's tied into it now so we just got to suck it up and pay it
Little H's sports clubs - most of these double us a childcare now that I'm working
Then we added in a couple of things that although we're essential, we really didn;t want to get rid of completely:
Non essential:
£50 a month allowance for social/entertainment costs
Little H's pocket money - he has to do jobs for this and only gets it on the agreement he puts half into his savings account
Clothing - we haven't set an amount for this but realistically things need replacing now and again like little H needing new school shoes this month. All non essential clothing costs have gone though, we're making do with what we have.
Next up I opened us a joint bank account that we have all our bills going out of and then use a 0% cashback credit card to do all the food shopping which we then pay off in full on payday.
So on pay day I transfer most of our wages from our accounts into the joint account. The only money we leave in our single accounts is fuel money Mr H, and a little in my account to cover pocket money and sports clubs. Anything left over after this goes on paying the debts off and some goes into our savings account for things we know we have coming up like birthdays, Christmas, & school trips.
Our first steps to being debt free
It's been a couple of months and so far things are going great. We've paid off nearly £3,000 in debt and saved just over £1,000 (this may seem strange but we're off to New York next month as we'd already booked and paid for it before deciding to go on a spending freeze).
At this rate we're hoping to be debt free in the next 6-8 months and then we can really ramp up the saving. I'll keep you posted.
Are you good with money or do you find it hard to control your spending?
Claire x
Wednesday, 10 December 2014
Keeping tidy with dyspraxia
So I'm pretty sure that many of you out there have trouble staying organised and tidy for whatever reason. My biggest battle is dyspraxia. For those of you that haven't heard of it or are unsure of what it is then I'd recommend taking a squiz at the Dyspraxia Foundation website. They've got tons of info and advice. Basically for me though it means amongst many other things I'm messy as hell!!
Now put someone with messy issues in charge of a house that also contains a little person with the same issues and you've got yourself one big messy nightmare! I wanted to share with you today a few of the things that work for me. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not suddenly not messy, my house in no way resembles a show home, it's just a bit less messy and my husband has a little less to complain about.
So here you go:
1. Ten minute tidy
This is what is really working for us in our house. Instead of writing down all the jobs that need doing and then getting nothing done I just tidy for a set time. That way I always achieve something and don't feel bad for not getting things done. You'll be amazed how much you can get done in ten minutes and this is seriously how I do everything around our house. I'm forever getting distracted from whatever I'm doing and feeling crap afterwards for not getting anything done. This way I have no set expectations other than things will be tidier than when I started!
The ten minute tidy also works great for kids. Sending my son to tidy his room never works, but if I tell him to go tidy it for just ten minutes once a week then he gets most of it done and it is relatively tidy most of the time.
Set a timer on your phone or oven for ten minutes. Keep tidying until the beeper goes off and then step back and see what you've achieved. Do this everyday for a week and by the end of the week you'll be amazed at how much easier it is to keep a tidier house.
2. Regular routine
Like the ten minute tidy this is something I do everyday. Once you get into a routine of doing something it makes it so much easier to do and harder to forget! Every morning I do the same thing - empty the dishwasher, load it back up, put a load of washing on, and do a ten minute tidy of the house. And I do all this before I do anything else, no arguments, no excuses. I know if it doesn't get done then, then it won't get done at all.
Ask yourself what needs doing on a daily basis as a bare minimum and make yourself do those tasks at the same time each day until they become habit. It's really important not to overwhelm yourself though so start off with just maybe 2 or 3 small tasks, you can always add more once these become habit.
3. Everything in it's place
Having a set place for everything is a must if you're going to have a tidy house.
When we moved into our new house earlier this year we put our coat rack out of the way in a hallway behind a door because who wants to look at that ugly thing. In reality we use the back door the most and all our coats ended up being piled onto the furniture next to it. We just put a second rack up right next to the back door so all the coats get hung up there now and we can see the furniture again. Simple things like that just make life so much easier.
Think practical. It's no good trying to create a pretty home like you see on pinterest. I can guarantee that most of those houses don't look like that day-to-day.
4. Let go of the guilt
Go easy on yourself. These things are hard for a lot of people and I for one will wave my hand in the air and admit that I'm messy as hell. I've spent years beating myself up over being untidy and disorganised but it's just not worth it. I am who I am and if someone doesn't like that then screw them! It doesn't mean I'm not going to try real hard to be tidier (I won't say 'tidy' because who am I kidding?!) It just means I'm not going to beat myself up over the fact that my house looks, erm, we'll just say 'well lived in'.
Stop stressing over what you haven't done and focus on what you have achieved each day.
5. Less is more
Now I've put this one last because it's one I'm not afraid to admit I'm stuck on. The theory being that the less stuff there is in the house, the less there is to keep tidy right? I'm certainly a lot more ruthless than I used to be when it comes to getting rid of stuff. My Dad took great pleasure in announcing to a room full of people during his speech at our wedding about the time we found a dead slug in my wardrobe that I'd collected as a pet and forgotten about.
If anyone has any tips for us hoarder types on having less 'stuff' please please do share!
I hope those tips will work for you guys and help with the mess that living with something like dyspraxia can bring. If you're going to try any of the tips here I'd totally recommend doing a ten minute tidy today and do let me know in the comments section how you get.
Oh, and if you're reading this because you have dyspraxia remember how awesome you are!
x
Edited to say that the Dyspraxia Foundation are currently running a campaign to raise awareness. To take part just take a selfie wearing a hat with what dyspraxia means to you and post it on their facebook page. To donate text 'HATS02 £2' to 70070.
Now put someone with messy issues in charge of a house that also contains a little person with the same issues and you've got yourself one big messy nightmare! I wanted to share with you today a few of the things that work for me. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not suddenly not messy, my house in no way resembles a show home, it's just a bit less messy and my husband has a little less to complain about.
So here you go:
1. Ten minute tidy
This is what is really working for us in our house. Instead of writing down all the jobs that need doing and then getting nothing done I just tidy for a set time. That way I always achieve something and don't feel bad for not getting things done. You'll be amazed how much you can get done in ten minutes and this is seriously how I do everything around our house. I'm forever getting distracted from whatever I'm doing and feeling crap afterwards for not getting anything done. This way I have no set expectations other than things will be tidier than when I started!
The ten minute tidy also works great for kids. Sending my son to tidy his room never works, but if I tell him to go tidy it for just ten minutes once a week then he gets most of it done and it is relatively tidy most of the time.
Set a timer on your phone or oven for ten minutes. Keep tidying until the beeper goes off and then step back and see what you've achieved. Do this everyday for a week and by the end of the week you'll be amazed at how much easier it is to keep a tidier house.
2. Regular routine
Like the ten minute tidy this is something I do everyday. Once you get into a routine of doing something it makes it so much easier to do and harder to forget! Every morning I do the same thing - empty the dishwasher, load it back up, put a load of washing on, and do a ten minute tidy of the house. And I do all this before I do anything else, no arguments, no excuses. I know if it doesn't get done then, then it won't get done at all.
Ask yourself what needs doing on a daily basis as a bare minimum and make yourself do those tasks at the same time each day until they become habit. It's really important not to overwhelm yourself though so start off with just maybe 2 or 3 small tasks, you can always add more once these become habit.
3. Everything in it's place
Having a set place for everything is a must if you're going to have a tidy house.
When we moved into our new house earlier this year we put our coat rack out of the way in a hallway behind a door because who wants to look at that ugly thing. In reality we use the back door the most and all our coats ended up being piled onto the furniture next to it. We just put a second rack up right next to the back door so all the coats get hung up there now and we can see the furniture again. Simple things like that just make life so much easier.
Think practical. It's no good trying to create a pretty home like you see on pinterest. I can guarantee that most of those houses don't look like that day-to-day.
4. Let go of the guilt
Go easy on yourself. These things are hard for a lot of people and I for one will wave my hand in the air and admit that I'm messy as hell. I've spent years beating myself up over being untidy and disorganised but it's just not worth it. I am who I am and if someone doesn't like that then screw them! It doesn't mean I'm not going to try real hard to be tidier (I won't say 'tidy' because who am I kidding?!) It just means I'm not going to beat myself up over the fact that my house looks, erm, we'll just say 'well lived in'.
Stop stressing over what you haven't done and focus on what you have achieved each day.
5. Less is more
Now I've put this one last because it's one I'm not afraid to admit I'm stuck on. The theory being that the less stuff there is in the house, the less there is to keep tidy right? I'm certainly a lot more ruthless than I used to be when it comes to getting rid of stuff. My Dad took great pleasure in announcing to a room full of people during his speech at our wedding about the time we found a dead slug in my wardrobe that I'd collected as a pet and forgotten about.
If anyone has any tips for us hoarder types on having less 'stuff' please please do share!
I hope those tips will work for you guys and help with the mess that living with something like dyspraxia can bring. If you're going to try any of the tips here I'd totally recommend doing a ten minute tidy today and do let me know in the comments section how you get.
Oh, and if you're reading this because you have dyspraxia remember how awesome you are!
x
Edited to say that the Dyspraxia Foundation are currently running a campaign to raise awareness. To take part just take a selfie wearing a hat with what dyspraxia means to you and post it on their facebook page. To donate text 'HATS02 £2' to 70070.
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