Environment:
House- If I want to finish up the Spring cleaning by May, I had better get a move on. Obviously, I have not been keen about starting the Craft Room, so this week I will choose the living room. I finished the living room at the eleventh hour (on the weekend of the first week). I moped around for a week and a half feeling very uninspired and then my SIL arrived last Wednesday to help me decide on my future course of action. I have been working on the Craft Room ever since. I am newly motivated to purge every room in the house preparing for the big yard sale in May and the subsequent sale of the house.
I will wash the woodwork, dust the furniture, change out my red Christmas dishes (yes, I am still using those) for the regular service ware that is now stored in my living room cabinet. The dishes were changed out but I will wait until the very large wall unit, the couch, all the red maple furniture, and the electric fireplace are gone before I tackle the walls and woodwork in that room.
I will wash the living room drapes, throws and cushion covers. Done
I will photograph any items that I purge and put them outside in my van for the next trip to the Thrift Store. I am either throwing out garbage or saving the items for a big Yard Sale. Anything that doesn't sell will be taken to the thrift store.
I will remove the finishing nails from the pine planks that need to go back on the dining room ceiling. Not done yet.
Garden- I will buy my potting soil this month in order to start some of my seeds indoors this month. I bought the potting soil for transplants (which I completed) but I will not plant seeds until after I come back from my trip to Elliot Lake. I need to be home to make sure the seedlings don't dry out.
Finances:
Spending- I will continue to record my spending and differentiate between food and non-food items. Now that I have all the paperwork that has come in for income tax purposes, I will arrange to meet with the accountant to have that done up. After this year, I will be able to do my own taxes. Later this month I will start my CAA membership again so that the renewal date is not during the month of February. I have too many one time payments due during that month. I have not phoned the accountant yet. I don't want to start the membership to CAA until after the first of April or they will back date it until February anyway.
Saving- For the time being, I am attempting to put extra money towards c.c. payments, rather than into savings. I will try to do better with using coupons for discounts and freebies, but so far my record has been abysmal. (not for lack of trying). Most of my groceries are meat, produce and dairy, and little processed food, so it is difficult. I did get to do a Pine Cone survey recently though so I am still earning a little through them. I am also earning loyalty points through two different shops. I was able to make a small additional payment of $55 towards my c.c. debt at the end of the month.
Family and Friends: I feel that my family ties have grown much closer, but maybe at the expense of my friends? Sometimes I feel stretched as I really am more of an introvert. But I will continue to make an effort to phone them more often. The girls (from the girls' weekend) are celebrating my birthday mid March at a restaurant. I enjoyed myself immensely with my friends at my birthday dinner. I drove to Smith Falls for the dinner and concert in Ottawa, and stayed overnight with my brother and his wife. I will be going with my son and his fiancee tomorrow for Easter dinner also in Smith Falls.
Health: I am continuing my diet. As the weather improves there will be more outdoor activity. Right now all I do is walk the dog around the block once a day. There has been little snow shoveling lately [knock on wood]. I am scheduled for a physical and a pap test this week. Last month I was required to mail in a FOBT (poop on a stick) to the lab, but haven't got the results yet. Then, I am not required to see my GP until August. The appointment went well and my GP has made a few referrals. I have heard from the ENT specialist and an appointment is scheduled for early in May. I received a notification by mail yesterday that my colonoscopy has been scheduled for April 9, so I will be postponing my trip to Elliot Lake by a week. My Doctor wants to see me in 2 months time instead of 6 months. She increased my thyroid medication.
Crafts and Leisure: I will not need to purchase any more craft supplies. I have threads for embroidery and cross stitch and I have found some on-line sites for patterns. I have two different cords for macrame projects and all kinds of supplies for jewellery making. I have everything I need for paper projects. My goal this month is to show you a finished craft every week. I made a macrame plant hanger for myself and a wall hanging for my son. I mailed off a finished embroidered pillowcase to my youngest grand daughter and started another. I knit another dishcloth.
Another excellent list of goals for this month Susan! I was looking at my living room drapes just the other day, thinking I haven't cleaned them in over 3 years! That's how long I have been unable to deep clean my house!
ReplyDeleteWhat I do for those one-time/annual payments is, I take the total amount and divide it by 12 and allocate that amount in my monthly budget. It gets saved and accumulated during the course of the year so that the funds are available when the payment is due. When it is something like property insurance which usually goes up, annually, I base the monthly amount on the previous year's bill and add 10% to it. It makes the budgeting a little bit easier, for me. No last minute scramble to come up with extra funds in a given month.
Looking forward to seeing all the finished crafts projects, every week.
Hope you have a good month and accomplish all your goals for March.
That makes perfect sense Bless, but I am not always sensible. *laugh* I am not good about keeping aside those 1/12 payments. I would need to stash them in my mattress or open up yet another savings account. I have one for savings and one for Emergency funds. And when it comes to my Water bill and my Reliance bill, which are billed every two or three months, I pay ahead a certain amount each month followed by the balance on the month they are due. But maybe you are right. I could open a third savings account for those once a year payments. There are others (like visits to the vet and the gift fund)
ReplyDeletePerhaps you could pretend that you've spent a certain amount every month for those expenses when you balance your balance, however you do it, but you actually leave the money in your checking account? And then train yourself to look at the balance left in your budgeting notebook or spreadsheet instead of your bank statement? That's mostly how I do it otherwise I'd need something like 20 savings accounts...
DeleteIt's hard for me to think of you as an introvert as you have so many close friends and interact so much with your relatives (phone, videos, emails, blogs, in person...). I think it's lovely that your family has grown closer as it is your main support system anyway. Is your oldest granddaughter still feeling stressed about her studies? How are your DIL who had surgery and your son who had the transplant doing? And your dad?