Hopes and aspirations...

Happy New Year!

I hope you are all well and had a lovely Christmas.

Our Christmas was a little different to usual - it was just Daisy, my OH and me here on Christmas Day. When I got my turkey out to defrost, I discovered that it contained milk in the vegetable oil flavouring. This obviously upset me because Daisy couldn't eat it. Why did they need to do that? It wasn't even butter, but milk. So we didn't have a proper dinner :-(

Daisy had scrambled egg and beans and we had a turkey and stuffing sandwich. The whole day was strange and didn't feel like Christmas. Father Christmas did visit a very special little girl though and it took her several days to open all of her presents.

Boxing Day was better with my son, his girlfriend and Charlotte...Daisy loved the attention!

One thing I need to tell you is that Charlotte gave me an iphone 4s for Christmas and you can now find me on instagram. Just search mandymand95 and you'll have more chance of seeing photos on there than on my blog!

Right...2014...my hopes and aspirations...

I'm not making resolutions that I will fail to keep, I'm just chipping away at the parts of my life that I'm not happy with. I've got to realise that there's no point in feeling sorry for myself, I need to make changes for the better. I will not be talking about YKW, but I will focus on the future and try to make good things happen in 2014.

This year has to be all about positive thinking...I need to examine every aspect of my day-to-day life and how I run my home. My two main themes are saving money and establishing good routines...

Saving money - if we can save lots of money, we can finish renovating our house and move to a new area, not far away, but away from bad memories and people that used to be part of my family. This will hopefully mean a fresh new start for us, with new friends.

I will need to go back to some of my old ways and habits to save money where I can. I looked back at the beginning of my blog and I was doing much better than I am now. My blog is now 3 years old!!! I also need to learn new skills and actually use them, instead of just taking notes!

I can make money by continuing my carboot sales and by controlling any spending. The easiest area to change is our food shop which includes toiletries, baby stuff, cleaning and household items. I need to meal plan, waste nothing, stock up with approved food and make substitutions where possible. Some things will simply have to disappear for now because moving is more important.

Routines - to be able to save money in some areas, I need more time, so that's where routines come in. A tidy, uncluttered house makes it much quicker to clean, so the declutter continues and everything needs a home so it can be put away. I need lots of storage ideas and some throwing out sessions.

I need routine to keep up with the laundry and housework.

I need to take over the evening jobs my OH does around the house to free his time up for the house improvements. If I get more done during the day, I will have time for this.

To help with the happiness and positive thinking, I will learn new hobbies and create wonderful things for our home. My sewing room will be ready soon. I will read more and more and make time for myself. I started to keep a diary yesterday...I hope it will help me to reflect and get stuff off my chest when I feel stressed.

So what does this all mean for my blog???

Well, I will be sharing my tips with you and telling you how I'm getting on. I feel that I have learnt enough now about being thrifty and would like to share it properly. Some of it may not be relevant to everyone because it will be baby related, but each thing I do to save money will be posted here.

I will try to blog as much as possible, but I will be spending less time searching for frugal ideas on the internet because I need more hours in my day.

It's the thought that people are interested and reading that boosts my motivation, so please continue to read, comment and follow me on my thrifty journey to a new home.

Mandy x

I made some money!!!

Hi everyone!

I've been away because we are a poorly household. Daisy has been ill for a week now, just a cold, but hard to explain to a 13 month old. On Saturday morning, Charlotte and I set off early to the carboot sale, leaving Grampy to look after Daisy at home (both of them poorly). Charlotte has escaped it so far, but I felt awful! I still went because the next two weekends we are on holiday and the money would come in handy.

I took the most money I have ever taken at a boot sale - £117!!! I know some people take more, but I sell cheaply to get rid of unwanted clutter. There were sales of 10p, 20p, 50p and up to £2 on Daisy's outgrown snowsuits, coats and clothes. One lady bought £15 worth of baby clothes and I thought that was a result, until later... a couple asked how much the babygros, vests etc were in the boxes. The man then asked me how much for the whole six boxes! I then set about adding up roughly what these things would be if sold individually. It was £45 and he offered £30. Charlotte jumped in with "£35" and they took them all. I know I wouldn't have sold every item anyway, so my decluttering head was firmly on! Grampy was really happy that six boxes have now gone from our house, Daisy has some spending money for our holiday and I have some money to buy her new clothes.

We set off with the car seats down and a full boot and returned with the seats up again and empty bags and boxes. We will do one more when I get back from Yorkshire to get some more Christmas money. so this means going through each and every room ruthlessly to clear the clutter and get some cash for Christmas. It really has spurred me on to sort the house and break the cycle of hoarding.

I'm busy this week, nursing a poorly baby and packing for our holiday, so I'll be back with holiday photos soon.

Mandy x

I've completed my decluttering challenge!

Hi everyone!

On Saturday, Charlotte and I did a carboot sale. I took £35, but was selling a lot of my stuff at 20p or 50p, so you can imagine how many things I sold. I was up to number 50 on my challenge, so I'm sure I've made it to 100! It was too busy to keep track of what I sold, but a lot of empty bags came home. Today I've started to re-price my remaining items, cutting everything by at least half. We will do another sale in a few weeks to clear all clutter, selling at silly prices to just get rid of it. Anything unsold will be dropped off at the charity shop. I need to make money where possible, but I also want a tidy home!

I will also look around the house for more unused things!

Is anyone else decluttering at the moment?

Mandy x