It was SUCH a long night at work Thursday night. One of those where you look at the clock and 5 minutes has passed and it felt like an hour. Today didn't seem much better. I was just in a grumpy mood and took it out on everyone, especially poor Zoe who stayed home sick for the 4th day this week with a fever and a nasty cough. I sleep during the day though so it's hard to really watch her and take care of her and I am NOT a morning person and hate being woken up, so when she woke me up a few times to ask to do things even after I told her to stay in bed all day.. it just made me madder at her. At one point apparently she got up and put a bunch of makeup on. later this afternoon I found her coming in from outside BAREFOOT! GAH! At that point I took her gently by the arm and took her to her bed and showed her that was where she was expected to stay so she could get better. I did see her sitting on her bed an hour or so later playing with some toys. Finally.
What else, oh yeah I asked Christopher to put the old dryer that doesn't work and is sitting on my back porch, into the truck so it can get taken to the repair guy who said he'd buy it off us. Well he didn't want to because he didn't want to drive a dryer around in the back of the truck all weekend. He works 6-3 tomorrow thru Monday so won't be able to take it there til Tuesday. Normally that would be fine, but it's a GORGEOUS evening and the MAIN reason I bought this trailer was because of the back porch and no neighbors behind us. I'd lived without being able to even USE my back door in the old place for 15 years... and here it was going on our 3rd spring here and it would be the 3rd one with old appliances on the back porch! Seriously! I was being whiney and having a pity party, and then decided well forget him, I'll do something to make the back porch useable anyway. I found that the string of dragonfly lights still work and so does the swag lamp we had out there all last summer and never brought in this winter. I was going to toss it, but I thought hmm maybe it works. It has a long lasting florescent eco type bulb in it, so tried it out and it came right on! Huh! So, I got those all sorted and hung where I wanted them, moved things around. Dumped the grill which had been sitting full of water and wet ashes YUCK! I found the broken long handled brush we got in a give-away lot, and it was perfect to scrub out the grill and the porch where it had spilled. Then I threw a couple of pitchers of hot water on it to wash it all off and it was good as new. The deck even looked nicer haha! I threw away a trash bag full of garbage that had piled up out there over the winter, then set up the folding chairs and cleaned them off really good. I can't really hide the giant white dryer sitting her taking up a third of the porch, but it's not terrible. In fact Rhiannon and I sat out there this evening after it got dark and looked at the HUGE BRIGHT supermoon. It was even too bright to look at through her telescope. Like looking at a lightbulb. Crazyness. Hubby googled it and it's the biggest and brightest this weekend that it's been for the last 18 years! How about that! And I got to share it with my 14 yr old daughter because I decided I'd love myself enough to make my deck welcoming despite the thing that I thought was keeping me from enjoying it. It felt pretty good.
That's not all!
Tonight I decided my desk was getting out of hand. Things all have a home, but they've not exactly been getting into their homes. So, I sorted and filed and got the desk looking better. I decided the filing cabinet under my desk doesn't need to hold 10 years of tax returns or all the warranties etc. So I've moved several folders out of it and they'll go into the new tub I got for important papers in the closet. Hubby is sleeping and gets up at 5:30, so not doing it tonight.
Then I realized the monthly folders for Jan and Feb were really stuffed from all the receipts I'd crammed into them. I knew I wanted to keep the receipts to keep track of spending and cash flow so I can see where the money's been going and accommodate for that with the Dave Ramsey envelopes etc.. then I remembered the columnar book I'd found and put into my budget binder. I was already using it for the cash purchases in March. I figured whynot take out a page for each Jan and Feb, and use it to list the receipts in the respective columns. Then once I had the amounts, dates and what they were for, I could toss the receipts (as long as I wouldn't need them to return something of course.) So, that's what I did.
I made columns for each of the following, Grocery, Household, Gas, Clothing, Dining Out, Kids', Rx, and Fun. I decided to just list all receipts whether I paid with cash or debit cards (I don't use credit cards.) For each Kmart or grocery store receipt, I'd add up in my head the amount spent on household stuff and list that, then subtract that from the total on the receipt to know what I'd spent on groceries (food). This also worked for clothing on the Kmart and Family Dollar receipts. Once they were entered on the paper, I'd toss the receipts in the trash can. Then I added them up. When I was done looking them over and considering the totals, I put each month's page into it's folder. Now each monthly folder just has the stubs from paying utilities and other bills, and it's expenses page. Nice and neat and a much thinner folder to fit into the filing cabinet. That'll be really nice closer to the end of the year for sure!
February had higher numbers overall since it was the month we got the tax refund. What I did notice was that we spent WAY too much on date night if we went to the grocery store for snacks. We actually spent more on chips, crackers, spinach dip, cheeses and salsa (oh and fudge) for our date pig-out-and-watch-DVDs nights, than if we'd gone out to dinner and a movie at a theater! So, while I did kind of know we were spending a lot on this, I had just stuffed it to the back of my mind and allowed it because it was for "our night". Well, it's a LOT of money we're blowing on that, and it's not always necessary. We can make do with some carrot sticks and celery and ranch dressing if we have to. No big deal. In fact, tonight we just had home made brownies. I think I'll be able to really save a lot of money in this category and get some bills paid off with what we save. I just need to decide how much of our spending money will get allocated to the Date Night/FUN envelope - and I need to make sure the kids get an equal amount in their envelope. So, keeping it low will be necessary. And once the envelope is empty, that's it! That's going to be the hardest part til we get used to it and see the results.
As I write this, I've discovered I'm not the only one who liked my back porch. The back door is propped open to let in the cool air, and a raccoon hopped over the doggie gate to get onto the porch and just stared at me. We're about 12 feet apart. They are such pretty animals and so clever, but I know the damage they can do. I'll just let him go about his business. I know scaring him off won't keep him away afterall. No trash sitting out for him to get into anyway.
Well have a great weekend everyone!!
What else, oh yeah I asked Christopher to put the old dryer that doesn't work and is sitting on my back porch, into the truck so it can get taken to the repair guy who said he'd buy it off us. Well he didn't want to because he didn't want to drive a dryer around in the back of the truck all weekend. He works 6-3 tomorrow thru Monday so won't be able to take it there til Tuesday. Normally that would be fine, but it's a GORGEOUS evening and the MAIN reason I bought this trailer was because of the back porch and no neighbors behind us. I'd lived without being able to even USE my back door in the old place for 15 years... and here it was going on our 3rd spring here and it would be the 3rd one with old appliances on the back porch! Seriously! I was being whiney and having a pity party, and then decided well forget him, I'll do something to make the back porch useable anyway. I found that the string of dragonfly lights still work and so does the swag lamp we had out there all last summer and never brought in this winter. I was going to toss it, but I thought hmm maybe it works. It has a long lasting florescent eco type bulb in it, so tried it out and it came right on! Huh! So, I got those all sorted and hung where I wanted them, moved things around. Dumped the grill which had been sitting full of water and wet ashes YUCK! I found the broken long handled brush we got in a give-away lot, and it was perfect to scrub out the grill and the porch where it had spilled. Then I threw a couple of pitchers of hot water on it to wash it all off and it was good as new. The deck even looked nicer haha! I threw away a trash bag full of garbage that had piled up out there over the winter, then set up the folding chairs and cleaned them off really good. I can't really hide the giant white dryer sitting her taking up a third of the porch, but it's not terrible. In fact Rhiannon and I sat out there this evening after it got dark and looked at the HUGE BRIGHT supermoon. It was even too bright to look at through her telescope. Like looking at a lightbulb. Crazyness. Hubby googled it and it's the biggest and brightest this weekend that it's been for the last 18 years! How about that! And I got to share it with my 14 yr old daughter because I decided I'd love myself enough to make my deck welcoming despite the thing that I thought was keeping me from enjoying it. It felt pretty good.
That's not all!
Tonight I decided my desk was getting out of hand. Things all have a home, but they've not exactly been getting into their homes. So, I sorted and filed and got the desk looking better. I decided the filing cabinet under my desk doesn't need to hold 10 years of tax returns or all the warranties etc. So I've moved several folders out of it and they'll go into the new tub I got for important papers in the closet. Hubby is sleeping and gets up at 5:30, so not doing it tonight.
Then I realized the monthly folders for Jan and Feb were really stuffed from all the receipts I'd crammed into them. I knew I wanted to keep the receipts to keep track of spending and cash flow so I can see where the money's been going and accommodate for that with the Dave Ramsey envelopes etc.. then I remembered the columnar book I'd found and put into my budget binder. I was already using it for the cash purchases in March. I figured whynot take out a page for each Jan and Feb, and use it to list the receipts in the respective columns. Then once I had the amounts, dates and what they were for, I could toss the receipts (as long as I wouldn't need them to return something of course.) So, that's what I did.
I made columns for each of the following, Grocery, Household, Gas, Clothing, Dining Out, Kids', Rx, and Fun. I decided to just list all receipts whether I paid with cash or debit cards (I don't use credit cards.) For each Kmart or grocery store receipt, I'd add up in my head the amount spent on household stuff and list that, then subtract that from the total on the receipt to know what I'd spent on groceries (food). This also worked for clothing on the Kmart and Family Dollar receipts. Once they were entered on the paper, I'd toss the receipts in the trash can. Then I added them up. When I was done looking them over and considering the totals, I put each month's page into it's folder. Now each monthly folder just has the stubs from paying utilities and other bills, and it's expenses page. Nice and neat and a much thinner folder to fit into the filing cabinet. That'll be really nice closer to the end of the year for sure!
February had higher numbers overall since it was the month we got the tax refund. What I did notice was that we spent WAY too much on date night if we went to the grocery store for snacks. We actually spent more on chips, crackers, spinach dip, cheeses and salsa (oh and fudge) for our date pig-out-and-watch-DVDs nights, than if we'd gone out to dinner and a movie at a theater! So, while I did kind of know we were spending a lot on this, I had just stuffed it to the back of my mind and allowed it because it was for "our night". Well, it's a LOT of money we're blowing on that, and it's not always necessary. We can make do with some carrot sticks and celery and ranch dressing if we have to. No big deal. In fact, tonight we just had home made brownies. I think I'll be able to really save a lot of money in this category and get some bills paid off with what we save. I just need to decide how much of our spending money will get allocated to the Date Night/FUN envelope - and I need to make sure the kids get an equal amount in their envelope. So, keeping it low will be necessary. And once the envelope is empty, that's it! That's going to be the hardest part til we get used to it and see the results.
As I write this, I've discovered I'm not the only one who liked my back porch. The back door is propped open to let in the cool air, and a raccoon hopped over the doggie gate to get onto the porch and just stared at me. We're about 12 feet apart. They are such pretty animals and so clever, but I know the damage they can do. I'll just let him go about his business. I know scaring him off won't keep him away afterall. No trash sitting out for him to get into anyway.
Well have a great weekend everyone!!
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I love getting comments, and I read every one. Thanks for coming by my site and reading my ramblings. I hope you have a wonderful day! -Patty