Hi Thrifties!
It has been a while I know! But I'm done with feeling guilty about it.
So much the better because I had recently read some good advice: "Blog as though no one is reading....because most likely no one is." Refreshing and depressing all at the same time, don't you think? Hello? .... oh....right.
Anyways, life up in the north has gotten somewhat drearier. We had recently melted out of our snowbanks and some of the paved road was visible! But then we had a big snowstorm and we're back at about two feet of snow and lumpy ice roads. I'm like an "Ice Road Trucker" but with a compact Hyundai with no shocks. Glorious.
So, about the title of the post: My hubby and I have not been doing well with our money lately. We haven't been very committed to our budgeting and we really need to get back to our cash system. I was hesitant to return to this method because I know that my man really hates it, but it is undeniable how much it helped us before and we are living on far smaller an income since I am not working. Throw in a pregnancy scare last month and I could see the poorhouse not far off! That is a touch dramatic since we have money saved, but it is supposed to be SAVED, not spent at No Frills on milk and flour.
In an effort to jumpstart our saving I dug out all of our cash money from around the house.
~ I was stashing my makeup consultant money in our bedroom and we have a change jar. Too bad we had already taken all the good coins out of the jar. Now there is mostly dimes and quarters mixed with a few useless foreign coins from vacations. ~
From this day until the last of the month, we are only going to spend $102 on groceries, gas, everything! This is what we have on hand in cash. By only using this money we will leave my husbands last pay untouched until he gets paid again on the last of the month, and by then it will be savings. After this I plan on working with a much more reasonable budget (although still in cash.)
Part 2 of the title of this post is about me being a piggy. I am a slob. I admit it. I have glossed over it for years thinking that I'm "a bit messy", but after a few surprise visits at other peoples "messy" houses, I have come to realize that I am genuinely the worst of the worst..... Not "Hoarders" level granted, but like a hoarders childhood maybe.
The remedy? I have already made great progress by cleaning for only 15 minutes per day. I have always planned to clean but with big chunks of time, like an hour or 2, and then I get overwhelmed and don't start. I read online about 15 minutes of decluttering per day, but I have applied it to my general house cleaning. In reality, once started I usually clean for 20 minutes to an hour, but by only needing to do 15 minutes, if I'm not feeling it that day, I can allow myself to stop at the minimum if I want to.
The real change is remembering to tidy up a few things when I make a mess, especially with dinner, and not letting it get out of hand. Obviously I don't count maintenance tidies like these in the 15 minutes. The other hard change for me was running my dishwasher every day. Being just the two of us, I usually wait a few days and then run it, but that really gets me behind in the kitchen. It may cost more to run every day, but I can probably cut down on the soap, the dishwasher is usually pretty full anyways, and the extra water costs are not worth as much as my psyche. I genuinely like a tidy house, that's not the issue, its my bad habits.
I will keep you posted as to how things go!
Follow along! :
Cleaning today ~ Sorting one bin of laundry from bedroom
~ wash & dry 1 load. (2 if there's enough. My hubby has volunteered to fold as his "chore")
~ empty dishwasher
~ sweep & mop hallway and kitchen
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