Making a start

Saturday is normally a very quiet, rather lazy day in this house but I actually made a start on sorting stuff yesterday so I have got twenty items ready to leave the premises.  I knew if I didn’t get started yesterday I wouldn’t get started at all!

I had a quick look through some of my books.  There seem to be quite a lot of bloggers who have worked in libraries and I’m one of them.  Including my years at Library School I worked eleven years in various libraries both here in the UK and in Nigeria when I was doing Voluntary Service Overseas.  I take a real joy in handling books but what I like is not the physical ownership of a lot of tomes but the wonderful stuff which is in them.  I have had my years when possession of books was very important to me, but these days I am happy to use my Kindle, and even more important I am happy to use the public libraries.

I never thought that the day would come when public libraries would be a service under threat but that day is already here.  The library here in Caistor is run by volunteers who do such a good job that it is now open seven days a week.  I have taken a very deliberate decision that I do not need to own books in order to own knowledge or the pleasure of reading.  Libraries need my support so I shan’t be acquiring to make up the stuff I have sorted for the charity shop.

Apart from seventeen books I’ve sorted a storage jar, a foot scrubber and some make-up sponges.  I hope Sally Ann enjoys them

Frugally Challenged Challenges Herself!

Enough is enough!

I have had quite a lazy couple of months but the last few days have seen me emerging from my nest and getting out into the world - it's amazing what a bit of sunshine can do.

Although today's weather is far from wonderful I'm getting the feeling that Spring is on its way and a bit of spring sorting (maybe even spring cleaning?) is A Good Idea.  The house looks lethargic and needs to look lively.  I know, I know, it's really me looking a bit lethargic and needing to look lively, but waking up the house might make me look livelier too.

Anyway, Frugally Challenged Challenges Herself!  My plan is to get rid of 350 items between now and the end of March.  I've been counting and there are 35 days to 31st March so that makes for an average of ten items per day but I'm planning on there being a lot some days and not so much on others.  

The truly dreadful thing is that I think this may be achievable!

I do like freebies!

I have to spend quite a lot of time sitting but I'm never idle.  I knit and crochet, make cards and write letters whilst I'm in my armchair but I have to admit that I also spend rather a lot of time on t'interweb.  One thing I have discovered is on-line competitions or comping as the aficionados seem to call it.

This is not a way to make a fortune (although I think some compers do turn a profit) but it's a wonderful way of getting the occasional treat or replenishing the gift stash.  Anyway, a few weeks ago I got an e mail telling me I had won a competition.

And yesterday the prize arrived - and what a useful prize it is!  I use lots of margarine tubs, yoghurt cartons etc but a few better quality boxes never came amiss especially when they are FREE!

Frugally challenged ? - not!

I keep an eye on my finances day to day but I have to admit I don't always count the change in my purse and record all my purchases, reconciling the two every day.  However, every so often I do just that.  Every penny leaving my purse has to be accounted for and recorded, usually over a period of about a month.

I've been doing that since the beginning of the year.  Sometimes I find I have a little more money than I should have, sometimes a little less but I keep a money box and use that as a float so I can balance things if necessary.  I emptied my float on 1st January but had been aware that I was putting the odd penny in since.  

Today I decided to check the box and this is what I found.  

To save you the trouble of counting I will tell you there is £7.77.  How did that happen?

I am a financial genius!