Budgeting, Planning, Decluttering.

Hi Frugal Gals and Guys,

I've been slowly working on my new 2013 budget and a updated 5 year plan. It's been a hard slog as it's hot here in the tropics and Australia in general. I've been lazy and procrastinating but it needs to be done NOW if I'm to get ahead and off the rat race merry go round.

The decluttering has also been a slow and painful process as I see use for everything however another bag left our home today and tonight I am busy listing Dolly's out grown clothes and other items on Gumtree and FB to bring in some extra pennies.

How are you doing with pinching extra money so far in 2013? Cutting back on anything? Selling anything? Working an extra job?

Would love to hear what you are up to.


Stephanie @ Frugal Down Under.

Gone, One Car

At last it's gone...

Our car was sitting in the driveway gathering dust and taking our valuable shady car spot for a year and a half. Each time I arrived home it was the 1st thing I saw and it dragged me down increasing my feeling blue. The motor was fine. The only damage was the smashed back. A great project for a mechanic student, teen or even mechanic wanting to tinker on the weekend.

1. I tried advertising it at an inexpensive price on 2 popular sites in my city (no interest).
2. I tried calling the car part yards (only after specific models).
3. I tried to offer it to mechanic classes in a high school and uni (liability issues).
4. A friend offered it to the Fire Dept for practice - (I would have to get it to them costing me $$$).
5. I tried to give it away on Freecycle, 2 people were interested (but no takers).

Last week I saw a small notice in a FREE newspaper - someone looking for cars of certain models and makes. So I called with car paperwork in hand rattling off brand, make, year and qualities. Two days latter our car was picked up. No drama, no hassle and gone in 10 minutes. Just like that. And.. the man was thrilled with our car which makes me very happy indeed.

We didn't make extra cash but we didn't have to hand any of our money to have it removed by a towing company which was to be my next move.

As I arrive home from work each afternoon - I smile because I see a shady empty space for the car we use each day. So my advice to you is wait it out if you can. Try your different avenues and take a few minutes to look at those wanted ads in you free newspapers. Someone may just be after the very something you have been trying to get rid of.

I see a week of success coming up. I am positive and making changes in my life :-)  I have been busy and taking a little time away from here to recharge and prioritise. But I'm back from my little Blog Holiday and hope to catch up with all of you this week on your blogs and through comments.

Have a Happy Day :-)

Stephanie at Frugal Down Under

Cyclone Clutter

Here we are again... Last night we were waiting on a cyclone. The sky was heavy with rain, our laundry piled high, our home damp.

I look at the clutter around me and wish it would diminish faster. Each time a cyclone comes, the clutter blinds me of the items that need special care and attention. I have worked at eliminating clutter with small weekly bags leaving our home. I have also followed our rule of anything new in means the same amount or more out. Happily very little new has come in lately.

Now that I have photoshop up and running again I will declutter more. My aim is to find something in our home to list for selling each day. A book here, a doll there, baby dress, old camera gear, old toys, kitchen stuff and so forth.

The money will go in the appropriate place. If it's a family item in common it will go in our home loan or Borneo fund. If it's Dolly's, she will carefully divide it into three, and place it in her various savings. If it's my mums it will go to her. If it's mine I think I will place it in my online savings account.

Today school was cancelled, the cyclone bypassed us and my laundry keeps piling. So time to focus on some clutter to make room, breathing space and extra cash. And I'm starting with this much enjoyed John Waters DVD of Cry Baby with Johnny Depp. I've watched it many times over the years and it can go now.

John Waters - Cry Baby - With Johnny Depp.

How about you? Got some junk to turn to cash laying around?

Finding My Long Lost Motivation

Saving For Travel recently commented that I seem to be very motivated at present. I sure am!!! Much of this has to do with Dolly being in big school and arriving home exhausted. This means we have been keeping everything low key, eat early and in bed by 6:45 for 20 minutes or so of bedtime stories.

The Rambling Expat and I both lie in bed with her taking turns reading books. Once done she has been falling in a deep sleep by 7:15pm. I read my own books until 8:00pm (Current bedside book is - 7pm Bedtime) and then get up for a relaxing shower and tidy our home for 30 minutes. The chaos is slowly reducing as I rid of clutter and organise.

By 9:00pm I am sitting at my desk going through my paperwork, finances, bills, to do lists and so on that have been neglected for months. Each day something gets finished off and I feel amazingly energised and satisfied by the advancements I am making.

At 10:00pm I may work on a craft project or read my FREE magazines I have picked up from the library or giveaway shelves. At the moment my pile is high with investment, mortgage, gardening, home and money magazines. I tag articles I want to re-read, action or copy. I place copies in a folder I have named Frugal. I cut out real estate or jobs I'm interested in and paste them into a old 2007 work diary for future reference and knowledge building.

Getting Organised.

By 11:00pm I'm checking emails, blogging and visiting blogs until 1:00am. It's a new routine and I never stick to routines. But I would like this one to stick as I've been on it for 9 days and it's moving me forward. There is still a long way to go in my disorganisation but I'm hopefully getting to where I want to be.

So thanks to my sweet Dolly being so exhausted, I have uninterrupted hours to catch up with months of neglected TO DO LISTS.

How about you? Any new routines moving you forward? Any thing you want to share?

Book Credit!

Remember the free books I gathered and talked about a few days ago here, (nine of them were in Italian) well when I went in to the second hand book shop in the CBD, I saw the Borneo book I wanted for $25. So I pulled out my bag and asked if I could gain store credit for my books. I was feeling shy and nervous as I have never done this before. I was encouraged with a smiling yes and I crossed my fingers I would get enough credit for the book I want.

Well, let me tell you.....

It was totally worth it! I was given $60 store credit!!!!!! I'm so thrilled as I now have $60 to spend at my leisure on books that I want. I left the Borneo book behind because the manager told me it was now a popular destination so I know that book will be on the shelves again and we are not going for another year.

Each great experience like this encourages me to step forward away from my comfort zone and ask, because an ask is rarely declined. And in this occurrence it surpassed my expectations. Another win on my eco frugal life.

Have you ever gained store credit for your books, clothes or anything else?

(By the way, I did go and pick up The Rambling Expat in the darkness of the night. I am happy that I pushed myself, it's nice for The Rambling Expat to have family greeting him instead of waiting in a long queue for a taxi and wasting money. For those who pop over to his blog from time to time he has a fishing lure GIVEAWAY if you enjoy fishing.)

Busy and Staying Frugal

H Everyone,

I didn't post yesterday as I have been so busy with Dolly during our holidays and today is another busy day. I am working hard to avoid temptations of money spending and still decluttering 1 to 5 items per day.

This is My Today:

7:45am - Gardening at our plot.
8:45am - Home - Dolly plays - I Blog.
9:30am - Quick showers and dress.
10:00am - Go to Kevin's Kids Disco (Free Event of Course)
12:30 - Inexpensive Lunch of sandwiches and fruit.
1:30pm - Head to town to see if I can exchange books I collected for free here and there (aiming for a Borneo travel book).
2:00pm - Post a cookbook (I no longer wanted) which I sold on Fishpond.
2:30 - Library - enjoy the cool aircond, browse books and magazines.
4:30 - Home - unwind, read a few bog posts, cook, eat a pasta dinner (last light was chicken satay with peanut sauce and veggies. Cost me $6 to make 11 generous satay. Cost at supermarket $1.50 each. Cost at Takeaway shop $3.00 each.)
7:30pm - Bed - Watch movie from a colleague's collection.

Free Books I Hope to Swap For A Book I Really Want.

So that is my busy frugal holiday day, penny pinching and fun :-)

Keep commenting and if your a lurker say "Hello" :-)  I hope to catch up with blog reading tonight.

Decluttering.

After Gardening at the Botanical Gardens, a FREE Craft Activity at Officeworks and a movie at home Dolly played while I got on with some much needed decluttering and sorting.

This is what is Gone:

• Bag of books to another child.
• Early 1980s TV - Dump-Landfill (no one on Freecycle was interested)

And Going

• 2 wigs purchased for a costume party 6 years ago.
• Our written off car. (Car yards aren't interested. Placed on Freecycle hopefully someone will take it as a project and drive with it soon.)
• Bag of soft toys. (Please no more!!! Why do girls get given so many of these)

Less clutter at home means less money and time wasted.. I know this.. but I'm hoarder. I think I may just need this another day and also because I don't want to put stuff in the bin due to it's ecological nightmare to landfill. But it's to my detriment.

I am still following my rules of anything in, means same amount or larger must go out. However we are still overwhelmed with stuff. I pushed myself while I had the rare decluttering bug and aim to get more out this month.

Are you good at decluttering or are you like me with the "I may need this for...."? What are you like with clutter?

On The Mend and We Did Lots

Today was like a new me. So much better. Still a little trembly but nothing compared to last night. This is a long post of all the lovely things we did today.

Once Dolly arrived home this morning we headed to a FREE Christmas Family Fun Day. Dolly crafted at 2 of the tables from many on offer, sang christmas songs and met Santa. She didn't want to rock climb, go on the jumping castle or have her face painted which was unusual, but she may have been jittery from last nights fright. (The Rambling Expat has photos so I will add these tomorrow).

We then headed to the dreadful Spotlight where I spent money on new stuff which will help me use old stuff. I purchased pinking shears for sewing and mod podge for my earrings, magnets and other projects. I also purchased plastic storage boxes for our beads and other treasures. These I ahhhed and ummed about, for ages - however I purchased them as we currently use a million different bowls, tins and jars. I just want it in one easy area for Dolly's items and another for me in the aim to reduce chaos and clutter.

Dolly's Storage Box.

1 large box for Dolly and 2 small ones for myself. I now regret not getting the same one as Dolly as her compartments can be extended while mine can't. We started to fill them and I was able to empty 3 containers to relocate our goodies. Nearly all items are sourced from hand me downs (Dolly has a huge pile of 70's plastic beads in her box), op shop beads and broken jewellery, bottle tops and soft drink tabs from neighbours, buttons from old clothes and the list goes on. The only new item in Dolly's box is some pink wire and the only new item in mine is some of the earring hooks. Even my new in packet items were sourced from neighbours leaving town and op shops.

Started to fill her up with all of Dolly's treasures to craft.

My Box is half the size of Dolly's.

Sweetest Op Shopped Creatures. Dolly's Butterfly 10 cents, My Ceramic Owl .50 cents. 

After our quick shop we spent the afternoon at home on the couch sewing little rose petal sachets from chopped up old clothing, fabric scraps and a vintage sheet. I purchased the rose petals in a organic health shop a few weeks ago. I wanted lavender but the price was too high so opted for the much cheaper rose petals. They are used for cooking and teas, but crafting is an option too. I mixed 5 drops of geranium oil to intensify the aromas. This is what we made for someone special to Dolly (not saying in case she reads our blog).

60's, 70's, 2000 and 2010's Fabric. Pinking Shears Tested :-)

Pretty Pressie Ready to Give. Cost $3.20 - Time 2 hours with Dolly.

One Extra For Another Gift.

Our funky party animal neighbour Jacinta turned 50 last week. She likes to live loud, wears bright op shopped clothes and isn't scared of creative types. So we also made one rose petal sachet, added a earring stand and a pair of earrings for her. Dolly was so proud giving these home made gifts. Costs: Rose Petal Sachet .80 cents, earring stand $1.50, earrings .60 cents = Total $2.90, pretty cool on the pocket and not too hard on our time as it's so much fun making these items.

Jacinta's Pretty Gift Cost $2.90

And that was our day. As you see I'm on the mend. We kept our meals very simple. Lunch was tinned tuna sandwiches and fruit. Dinner was rice and fish fingers bringing out the kid in the 3 of us. Tomorrow will be a new day and lots of veggies for dinner.

Oh - And I decluttered by Offering on Freecycle, lovely Nadia picked up a milk crate of clothing, hand bags and other bits and bobs to rummage through. I also gave away to another Freecycler a long warm vintage camel hair and wool coat from my Melbourne days. I've been here in the tropics 7 years so it was time for it to go.

Did you enjoy your day today?

Decluttering With Ebay

I listed 7 items on Ebay this week in the aim to declutter a few items and make some extra cash for our Borneo travel fund which we originally wanted to do in January 2012. However we will wait 1 more year for Dolly to be a little bigger and a little stronger to be able to do a small trek to see Orangutans.

So far my vintage 1970s scrabble pieces have happily reached $16.50 and there is 2 days left. Cross my fingers they reach $20. I had intended to use them in crafting projects but I wasn't moving on it. So out they go as I will come across these again at op shops when I want them again.  This will allow me to free up valuable breathing space in our cluttered home.

99 Vintage Scrabble Pieces

I also listed 6 books, one is out of print. I made an extra effort to make my photo's look attractive. Blogland has shown me the beautiful pictures and extra effort people make. I have been inspired to try and do the same for my decluttering Ebay listings.

Vogue Art Book from 1986 Now Out Of Print

With Christmas coming up it's a good time to list collectables and special vintage pieces. Are you listing anything for sale this week to increase your money for a special event or simply to get clutter out?

Home Sick Odd Jobs

Hello wonderful people. A reminder to my Aussie readers to don't forget to enter my Giveaway - a $200 Coles/Myer voucher! I know what I would spend it on... groceries. And then place $200 from my usual grocery budget into my mortgage.

I stayed home sick today. I should have seen it coming. The sore ears, unbalanced and all the sleeping I've been doing. My nose is like a running tap and my ears are so blocked I feel like I'm under water.

I spent the day feeling hot and sorry for myself. Drinking lots of water and taking a couple of Panadol to ease the aches. Luckily the fridge was full of cooked food so no cooking had to be done - just heating up.

While I had a small burst of semi energy I cleaned and painted 2 small vintage wooden frames that I had sitting around for over a year. I had purchased them them for about $1 each, maybe $2, but no more then that. I placed inside them pages of a damaged 1966 children's book I purchased for 50 cents at the op shop last week. I think they look lovely and will make pretty presents for Birthdays and new babies. At $2.05 a pop these revamped old frames are looking fresh and sweet with a vintage touch. Plus I have many more pictures left to use. Each prettier then the next. Swoon.

Pretty as a Picture.

One other job that caught my eye today was the stack of medicines we had. So I decluttered the fridge door compartment where they all live. 6 items had expired in 2010 and 2011. So out they went. However the compartment still looks just as full! How does that happen?

I hope you are well and keep frugally fantastic.

Rubbish and Clutter Turned in Nifty Gifts

So here are the mystery gifts For World Teacher Day I blogged about yesterday.

Mystery Gifts

Earrings and Magnets. I used mainly recycled items except for the earring hooks and glue. Gifts are:

1. For female Teacher; dangly Jetsons Earrings. 
2. For the Teacher Assistant; dangly Sleeping Beauty Earrings. 
3. For the male Student Teacher; Flinstones Fridge Magnets.

Sweet Upcycled Gifts

This is what I used:

• Beer bottle tops - from a thirsty neighbour, 
• Images from old calenders - I purchased at the op shop for 50 cents in 2009
• Earring hooks (new) - purchased at Spotlight in 2009
• Flat fridge magnet - cluttering my fridge since forever, from junk mail.
• Craft glue - to stick image and waterproof it.

Groovy Magnets

For the cards and packaging I used scrap pieces of scrapbooking pages saved from Dolly's other crafty projects and the old calender pages.

Packaging to Match the Gifts

Sleeping Beauty Earrings in Sleeping Beauty Packet with Card.

Linking up to Recycled Fashions. Take time to click and get inspired.

So have you used up some of your clutter lately to save some of your money?

Busy And Quiet

Tonight I have spent 3 hours finding and creating items to create gifts for Dolly's teachers for Teachers Day on the 28 October 2011. If I was more organised this would have only taken 1 hour. The searching for stuff has used up my precious hours and frustrated me. And that is why I need to declutter and be better organised!

This is what I've been working on tonight. I'll let you see the finished gifts tomorrow, when they are dry, assembled and ready to go into their little gift bags. I think they are very cute.

Mystery Gifts

Tonight we also ate dinner with our neighbour Mr T. He has a BBQ and we had a barramundi that The Rambling Expat caught over the weekend in crocodile infested waters.

The Rambling Expat and Bara

It was a quiet night for us as our friend Franck passed away this afternoon. He was only 42 but had a heart condition. My mum and I, visited him last week in hospital and he was happy to be getting out this week but he had a turn for the worst. I'm now preparing Dolly for her 1st funeral. She has decided she wants to come and I believe in being gently honest with my daughter about death. Being a mum is not always easy with these decisions.

What did you do tonight?

Chatting

Ms Dig was in our home town. So we caught up in a park that way Dolly could run around while we chatted. Ms Dig brought the Pizza and we brought the chocolate biscuits. She has made a super interesting career choice as she is an archeologist. I am envious of those who work in their area of passion. I'm now over 40 and I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. Do any of you have this problem too?

Ms Dig, The Rambling Expat and Dolly.

Not everything is my life is fun as on our return home I spent 30 minutes decluttering a huge pile of papers. I reduced it with this pile for the recycling bin.

Waste of Trees - Gone to the Recycling Bin.

The rest is in a folder with the aim of a nightly 5 minute "deal with it and file chore". Paper clutter is my constant battle. My aim if for a tidier home by Saturday as I was sent product to review by Soup and will be inviting all the people from my block to come and do some blind sniff testing. I can't wait - it should be fun. They don't read my blog, so this will be a nice surprise for them.

My Review Goodies - To Sniff and Gift to My Participants.

I have been sponsored by Soup and Air Wick to review the nice smelling product. So stay tuned to find out my real thoughts on the new Air Wick Aqua Mist. I will also have an amazing Giveaway for my Australian readers, so FOLLOW ME to not miss out my notification. (Many apologies to all my overseas readers this time around)

Have you ever been contacted to review a product? What did you think? Was it Fun or an Extra chore?

Decluttering

Dolly and I sorted through 2 tubs of toys in an attempt to declutter our home and make room for her and her friends to play in our small flat. Not fair on her as the last 4 purchases I made were not for her, but I had to find stuff to leave the house of the same size or bigger and it's been getting harder. Plus I'm so messy everything always looks worst then it is.

Clutter is a drain on time, mental space and money, as misplaced items cause money wasted on new purchases, late fees and so on and so on... One of my problem areas I have been tackling in my life and I think getting better at it in the past year. (I think blogging helps me.)

Anyway this is what left our home today.

• Dolly = 2 bags of toys and 1 toy trolley to op shop.
• Me = 1 small bag of stuff to op shop.
• Plus 1 bag of broken bits to rubbish bin.

Goodbye Stuff

Tomorrow night I plan to go through one of my boxes (not Dolly's), after we have had dinner with our friend Ms Dig who is buying us a picnic Pizza dinner. Looking forward to catching up with her and being entertained by her stories, chatting about our lives, chatting about blogging, asking filming and you tube uploading advice and taking some photos to load up here.

So are you a clutter bug and what do you do about it? Advice welcome here.

PS; I have a generous Giveaway for readers in Australia in the pipeline. I would love you to "Follow" me so I know who you are if your not already a follower.

Repurposed an Owl for 2yr Old

This morning we headed to a Birthday party for a 2 year old at the swimming pool so I made an Owl out of old clothes and Dolly helped me make a Birthday card. And then we wrapped it up in Dolly's art work.

Wrapped And Ready To Go.

I was notified only 3 days earlier of the Birthday Party so found myself crafting an owl in my lunch breaks at work, the midnight hour at home and I got up an 2 hours earlier this morning to finish off the job. It took me just over 5 hours to copy and cut my template, find and cut the fabrics and make it as I am not skilled in crafts/sewing (yet).

The wonderful thing is I only used items from home that were saved to have another life, making me Eco proud. The whole gift only cost me $1.45, which makes me Frugal proud.

Hoot Hoot

Cost to make the owl $1.25 (blue fabric, brown felt and cotton thread).
Body - 2nd hand trousers I've worn to tatters but was able to recoup some of the fabric.
Eyes - scrap pieces of felt I made from 2nd hand wool jumpers. 2 buttons from Freecycle.
Beak - Dolly's outgrown and stretched 2nd hand yellow dress destined for the rag bin.
Applique - Large 2nd hand top purchased for $1 for the cute blue fabric over a year ago. Plenty of it left!
Wings / ears - New brown felt we had at home.
Stuffing - from unneeded pillow that lost it's shape in the wash.

Vintage Card Image (1970 - Good Year).

Dolly's 1st ever sounding out spelling on her own was her friends name "Ila"

Cost to make the card 20 cents.
Green Paper - Scrapbooking block of paper purchased about 2 yrs ago. 10 cents a sheet.
Picture - Children's 1970s 2nd hand book for 50 cents, purchased to cut up. 8 images = 6 cents each.
Glue - From home and used some scrap paper.

I felt very satisfied and super proud at my achievement. Lots of people at the Party oohed and aahed at my homemade gift and The Rambling Expat beat my drum. This gift project ticked all my happy boxes: Frugal, Ecological, Perfect for the Recipient and it also Decluttered some of my old worn out clothing. (I've linked up to Erica at Recycled Fashions - my creation is not technically a fashion item but it was made from clothing I had previously purchased in op shops and we had worn to shreds.)

I know I could have a box of gifts waiting for those short notice events, however I have tried in the past with new stuff but the gifts I stashed were never suitable or were forgotten about. Now I have a very different set of ideas and I try to not purchase any new items if I can avoid doing so. I do purchase a few second hand gifts for a handful of people I feel sure about, but I also live in a small flat that is already chaotic and bursting at it's seams so don't want to go down that road too much.

Have you done anything lately to make you jig a happy dance? Even if it did take you forever...

Goodbye September, Hello October!

September has been an expensive month for me. I've been loose with cash more then usual. I had a couple of big ticket items to pay for and big bills too. And worst of all I was lazy, which causes wastefulness and stress. 

Loose with Cash:

Ate at a nice restaurant with some girlfriends - $36 (This was a rare catch up with special friends)

Went to the cinema with partner and our daughter - $58. (There will be no next time at that price - If I really want to go, I'll search Australian Groupon or the likes for heavy discounts.)
Art for Dolly - $120. I've wanted to buy it for ages and really want to support artists. If no one had ever supported my partner he would not have been able to continue his passion of photography as a profession.

Big ticket items:

I purchased a mobile telephone plan at $29 a month for 2 years. (It was time I got a mobile and used it properly). 

Purchased a computer hard drive $79 and hard case to store it $10. (My USB stick wasn't enough anymore I needed a bigger storage device to share and transfer files).
4 new car tyres and wheel alignment. Our tyres were worn and dangerous $328.

Lazyness:

I didn't formalise my menu plan or stick to budget and have found it stressful many evenings with "what will we eat tonight" thoughts and wanting to get takeaway. I didn't bulk cook. I've become disorganised, wasting precious time.

Bills:

Paid Council Rates for 1 year for our flat - $ 1,107.00

Paid our 2 month Power and Water Bill - we reduced it by $30 since last time. We are below the national average, paid less then this time last year, but much higher then 2 years ago since the cost increase - $210.89

Paid our 3 month Unit Block - Body corporation fees and levy - $897.00

Welcome October!!! This will be my pick up my game month. Back to the menu planning and counting the pennies and looking at the bigger picture. (We have new windows being installed in November $12,000 - painful, but we have both saved weekly over 1 year for this). This is not a cosmetic or a luxury item to our flat. This is a need, as our present louvers, screens and frames are all loose, old, not to regulation and very dangerous.

Today I started by spending at my local op shop for a couple of sellables. I spent $40 and I hope to make a profit of over $50 after all costs. This is what I picked up: 

• 3 pairs of True Religion Jeans; 2 still have price tags ($240!) bought for $10 each -Sell $20 to $80 each?
• A preloved, like new silk top with owls for $6 that retailed for over $100 - sell $15 to $20? 
• Sweet girls Country Road top for $3 - sell $10 - $15?
• 2, 2010 vogue magazines for 50 cents each - sell $5 for both? (One of them has Aboriginal model Samantha Harris on the cover) If they don't sell I have someone in mind who will enjoy them.

Op Shop Goodies

After this we had sandwiches for lunch with our left over ham and bread. Then we spent 2 hours at our garden plot weeding, pruning, harvesting, placing a cheap water timer on the sprinkler and moving hay bales around. Here's a shot of my harvest basket. I've placed a fork next to the snake beans and winged beans for you to get an idea of the size.

Fresh Produce from my Garden

Tropical Snake Beans and Winged Beans

Lush Egglants.

I harvested:

• 7 egg plants, 
• basil, 
• lemon grass, 
• ginger, 
• snake beans, 
• winged beans, 
• brazilian spinach,
• red leaf spinach. 

We ended the day with our 4 year old Dolly making us a pizza each for dinner. She was so proud. Chapatis used for the base and covered with tomato sauce, cheese, ham, salami, capers, olives, basil and fresh tomato.

Our little Chef

Today was a great day. I loved spending time with my family in a non rushed manner. It was frugalistic and it will reward us in the next few weeks with fresh produce.

As for the decluttering to replace anything new stuff coming in. 

In:

• hard drive, 
• phone
• toy pram (FREE, from the footpath hard rubbish collection). 

Out:

• Going on Monday: 2 large Spanish learning books and CD for a friend, 
• Gone: 1 plastic toddler bike for a baby in the block of flats next to ours.

(I'm not including my sell stuff I purchased as this will be gone within 2 weeks)

In: Pram, mobile phone and hard drive/case. Out: 2 large books and CD.

Out: Toddlers Bike.

How was your spending in September? Any specific aims for October?

Buttons and Books

I was posting give-away Guppie Fish and Brazilian Spinach Cuttings on Freecycle. As we needed a few more variety of coloured buttons for Dolly's crafting and new year gift projects, I also posted a request for buttons.

A lady came by to pick up Guppies and Spinach and dropped off these lovely buttons for us.

Beautiful Lolly and Jewel Like Buttons.

They're a great collection of just what we were looking for. Dolly spent a good hour playing, sorting and admiring them. It was a win win all round. I love days like these. Someone also gave us a bottle of champers in exchange for Guppies, I tried to say no but she refused to take it back, so I'll just have to enjoy it :-)

Freecycle is a wonderful way to obtain stuff in a cashless manner that cares for the environment. I've had 8 people come by my home in the past 24 hours to collect guppies and spinach and it's interesting to note they were all women. Is it women who count the pennies and take the opportunities for fabulous frugalness more then men? Or are fish and gardening a gendered domain full of women?

As for my rule of: Whatever new stuff comes into our home the equivalent size - plus some, must leave our home... I followed through by selling a book (bigger then the whole lot of buttons) on Fishpond and posting it. I'm doing well so far with my rule. Lets hope it's not another one of my crazy rules I break off.

Sold a Book - made back the money I had spent to purchase it.

Did you find anything you wanted recently for free and with a good environmental outcome?

My Saturday Op Shop Finds

Hi I'm back after a very busy 2 weeks. I've spent money on a little junk food, a big purchase (new mobile iphone G3) and some local art for Dolly. I haven't fully restrained myself but I've been good-ish. I had a little splurge at the op shops and purchased $9.50 of goodies.

I'm easing back into blogging by showing you what I purchased second hand today at my two local op shops.

A Lovely Babushka (4 Nesting Dolls) for Dolly's collection: $3.00

3 Home styling magazines for me .50 cents each: $1.50 - Out of date, but magazines I enjoy when I need a bit of mindless relaxation.

A candle stand (?) which we will revamp as a bangles stand: $2.00

A large Marta Mikey Lead Free candle (80hrs burning time) for a Birthday gift: $4.00 - I've no idea how much these cost new - hope I got a bargain. It's looks nice and smells nice, it's my poor photo quality that makes the candle look worn out.

And because I've made a New Decluttering rule for myself; these university readings will leave my home on Monday.

My new rule is: Whatever new stuff comes into our home the equivalent size - plus some must leave our home. So I listed my old Community Development university readings on Freecycle and a lady studying Community Development is coming on Monday to pick them up, which I'm thrilled about as I think she will enjoy them and find them useful. Since we have been cleaning most nights for 30/40 minutes I'm becoming a little more house proud and ready to rid of more and more stuff.

Do you make any rules for yourself about how you manage your stuff or declutter?

Long Lost Finds.

Once Dolly is in bed and asleep The Rambling Expat and I have been cleaning and sorting every night for 40 minutes. It's making a huge difference in my life. I feel much happier and motivated as the messy clutter slowly finds a place and the dust is swept away. I am also finding long lost documents and feeling much more in control. I also feel that the housework is now becoming more evenly distributed between our gendered divide.

We started this when our Parisian visitors were going to have a sleep over at our place. Once they left for France we pushed ourselves to continue with the nightly routine and it's paying off and saves some more of our hard earned cash. For example I found a pair of sneakers I had forgotten I own. So I don't have to do the big sell on Ebay to pay for them.

Long Lost Sneakers.

Six years ago I had a pair of sneakers for a job serving ice-creams at a market. I wore them only 8 hours a week for roughly 5 months while serving customers. As I didn't wear them much, there was barely any wear or tear. They got caught up in some muddy water when our home was flooded 2 years ago and placed in a  box with other grubby shoes to be forgotten about. With this cleaning and sorting action I stumbled upon them and washed them in the washing machine to see how they would turn out. They look fabulous and now I no longer have to fork out money for new sneakers to go on walks with my neighbour Mr T.

Have you ever found any long lost treasures?

Did you click on the Book link above and read the blurb on Found? - It looks really interesting, unfortunately it's not in my public library so I will hold off buying it until it comes my way in an op shop.

Sorting and Purging from My Home

Today I sorted our some of Dolly's clothing which she has outgrown. She has a lot of it as my mum LOVES the op shops and can't resist buying Dolly the cutest name brand dresses, tops and skirts for $1 to $3 most weeks.

I went through a suitcase of her outgrown clothing and created 6 piles. 

• 1 lot to give away to a 2 year old girl we know. 
• 1 lot to give away to a new  4 weeks old baby. girl
• 1 lot to sell at my market stall (This money will go to Dolly's college fund).
• 1 small lot of very damaged cotton clothing for the rag basket.
• 3 items for the rubbish bin. Elastic stretched out and unrepairable.
• 1 pile for the op shop; too good to throw out but not to my taste to hand-me-down or sell.

To sell.

For Baby (full red skirt, stripy playsuit, 2 dresses and over nappy pants).

For 2 yr old (6 dresses, shoes, 5 leggings and other stuff)

It's very satisfying to have sorted the full suitcase and to give away some of it to friends and earn some $$$ with the others to invest into Dolly's future. Also de-cluttering is so energising. Our homes are our sanctuaries from the world and yet so many of us make it unbearable with piles of "stuff" on every clean surface.

Have your been sorting and purging anything lately? Aim to get any money back on any of it? Please share - I love your comments.

Oh and here's Dolly's school morning tea for today: 2 Vegemite star sandwiches, 1 star cheddar cheese, sultanas and half a pear.

Tucker Time

Have a great day...  :-)