Treasures

What did I find?

Well I survived my little foray into our loft. It is not a job I ever intend doing again. It was shameful what we had up there, shameful. I will be brutally honest and say that the fault lies firmly and squarely at the feet of my husband! Now, I am not in the habit of running him down in his absence, but he would admit it too. He finds it terribly hard to get rid of things, so I have done it for him. There were boxes up there for items that we don't even own any more. I mean a car load of boxes. I will also not admit to how many old duvets I found that my OH has insisted on keeping over the years in case they come in handy. 

Gone, gone gone.

I will however confess to a few moments of reminiscing over school books and baby clothes and the one small box of memories that were mine. Sigh, the good old days.

I found the silver locket that my parents gave me on my 16th birthday.

The pearls my Grandy let me have. Real? Not sure. Don't care.Remind me of her.

And this little owl - some things come back into fashion if you keep them long enough!

There were also a collection of things I had put up there for the children - books, shoes in certain sizes, clothes etc and forgotten about. Some I have missed the boat with , but some are perfect for now and the years to come so I'm keeping. The charity shop has benefited from a boot load too . Of course I couldn't drop off at the charity shop without a quick look.

Don't shoot me though - it is from Primark. Recycling at it's best.

November

A Good Sort Out!

I get to this time of year, with Christmas fast approaching and I always have a damn good sort out. I often also end up setting myself some unrealistic target of painting the kitchen or lounge before the day too, but have decided that I can do without that sort of relentless pressure!

So, throughout November I have set myself the challenge of going through cupboards and drawers, clothes and kitchen items and de cluttering. 

It all ends up in here! Good job this is being re done in the building works!

I am being ruthless.

 A bag of 'junk' a day has to go. I have made an E. Bay pile, but am being realistic about what will sell and the rest is going to my nieces ( clothes, jewellery and make up) and charity. Tomorrow I am even going to head into the dark abyss that is better known as The Loft. If I don't return by nightfall, please send in a search party to get me out.

It is a fantastic feeling . I always think I am not a hoarder and am quite organised, but no, not so. You won't believe the stuff I have found! 

Now there is an ulterior motive to all this madness apart from Christmas. We are launching into an extension to our house early next year and I intend on documenting some of this on my blog. It is a pretty major bit of work and we have been saving forever to do this. However, as with all projects, when is enough, enough? So we are tightening our belts to make sure we can spend the spare cash we have on this project and finish it to the standard we know it deserves. For those who know me , you know how long and how patiently I have waited for this and how many times we have postponed it's start so a little tightening our belts is no hardship I can tell you! I am going to end up with a fantastic new kitchen and living space.

Of course once you look afresh at your finances and how you spend, it becomes somewhat shocking how much can actually dribble through your fingers in a short space of time. These small expenses quickly add up and can be the thing that tips the balance between saving or not. So, in my mission to save a little (and my hatred of giving away unnecessarily our hard earned money) I am going to be documenting this part of my journey in some regular posts on a Friday. I am going to call these 

Frugal Friday posts

 Although I am not technically being totally frugal in our spending - just careful with how I do spend - these posts will contain tips and hints on how to cut back on your weekly outgoings and also how well (or badly ) I am doing. I often have set myself a" no spend" period of time like I did during my 30 x 30 challenge as I feel this helps diminish in me that desire and need to spend, spend, spend! 

When you see how much after a week, a month, a year that you can save then it can become quite addictive! We have the attitude that we would rather be careful with our money where we can so we can spend it on the things we really want!

If it's not your thing, then thats fine too - avoid my Friday post!

What do you do when you need to rein things in and tighten your belt?