Monday, January 7, 2013

Follow up on last week's challenges:



Financial Goal Week One: Instead of buying something you need this week, find a way to "make do". Do you grab a coffee each day on the way to work? can you brew at home & use a travel mug? Run out of an ingredient for a recipe? Can you find a substitution? There are many ways to "make do" each & every day... track how much you would have spent.

For this I am going to skip grocery shopping for a week. There is plenty in the house to eat and we'll make do with what we have on hand.

I did end up buying some ground beef and three cans of tuna which cost $13.  I normally spend $75+ so I am going to say I succeeded here.

Decluttering Goal Week One: What "thing" clutters up your home the most? Is it clothes? Toys? Books/magazines? Kitchen Stuff? Knick-Knacks? Find a way to get rid of some of these items! Be sure to snap a pic of your declutter!

Here I am going to clean out the Christmas Decoration Boxes. We have enough decorations to sink a ship. The only down side of this, is I will be packing them away to either sell or donate later in the year, as no one wants to either buy or accept Christmas Decorations this time of the year. They will be boxed up though ready to go in November of 2013.

Now with this there was a slight change of plan.  It has to do with my hands, which I'll explain more about tomorrow.  So my challenge was changed to sorting out the Christmas cards.


From the pile above I am left with this below, which are the letters, notes and photos.

I input all the info into an Excel spreadsheet, so I can see who sent me what for next year.

Will say after the letter I sent everyone, I did receive more letters and emails than the year before.  I am still going to prune more down though.

Finally I would like to thank Freya101 for signing up under me at Swagbucks.  No idea who you are, but if you have any questions, please let me know?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's a good idea to make a list - I'm going to do the same. Thank you.

Hope your hands are okay Gill.

Cindy@NorthofWiarton said...

Good job on what you did get done on the challenge

Buttons Thoughts said...

I tend to forget lists and always run out of something I need. Hope your hand is feeling better too. B

Welsh Poppy said...

I did the same in my notebook.
Good job with the challenge.

Debby said...

Good start on this months challenge!! I did so much last week that I hope to lay back a little this week, I am ready for normal to return!!

Piece by Piece said...

I have a christmas card address book,(from Regal I think) where I write who I sent a card to, if they sent me one back etc. etc. find it very useful. Saturday I decluttered, why do I keep all of the paperwork from my vacations??? Invoices, duplicate itineries, etc. etc. I shredded a pile of unwanted stuff. Got a start on clutter.
Patricia

Cash Only Living said...

Only spending $13 on food is a great savings! Which is a good reminder that even if you can't spend NO money on food for the week, you can cut down the amount you usually spend by a great deal and still save a lot of money. Good job!

Evelyn said...

lol books aren't clutter! WTG on the challenge!

peppylady (Dora) said...

I don't use my spread sheet and I should.

I got all my Christmas stuff put away but hubby needs to put it on the upper shelf were it belongs. Oh I could get stool out and do it.

I've been doing Carla challenge and I've been keeping up, maybe not the best.

Coffee is on.

~Carla~ said...

Wow... Well done on the grocery!! Awesome!! I've started saving for Christmas next year, but that's about it! I'll figure it out later...lol!

{{{SIGH}}}

Tuesday was a mixed bag type of day. Had the appliance repair guy come again to install another circuit board in the fridge.  When hubby got...