(© ThistleGirl Designs)Our fridge broke down over a week ago. This was a serious calamity, let me tell you. After doing the Phone Call Merry-Go-Round for an hour, I finally reached the business contracted by the manufacturer to fix their products while they were still in warranty. I guess I should be thankful that the ol' girl had the presence of mind to break down now, and not in two weeks when the two year warranty expires, but that's a small comfort when you're forced to shop almost daily.
Hubs' parents loaned us their camping fridge, thank goodness - without it, we'd have been forced to rent a fridge while we waited the TEN DAYS it was going to take a service person to come out. But the camping fridge is this itty bitty thing and so we've not been able to buy more than the bare basics in the way of milk, fruit and veg, and dairy. We drink a lot of milk around here and so between that and eggs and fresh produce, the local supermarket is getting a real workout. Last week, as I signed for my credit card purchase (buying groceries on credit isn't as crazy as it seems. Here's a description of how we're currently doing it - we never did get around to the cash-only grocery budget described in that post though!), instead of comparing it to the signature on the back of my card, the girl simply waved me through and said 'Never mind that, I know who you are'. Well, ahem.
September's Financial Spring Clean ends today. I'm a bit behind in my spreadsheet updating - I have a wipes container filled with receipts I've not yet inputted - but some time in the next couple of days I'll post about what I discovered, along with a few key totals (not everything...a girl has to keep some secrets!). I'll also post a PDF link to the document I created to track all of this (totals removed of course!) so you can see how I laid it out. This time around, I cut myself some serious slack and forewent my usual complicated spreadsheets. I just made up a Word document and added everything with a calculator instead of having the spreadsheet do it automatically. The end result was a much cleaner, simpler and more user-friendly document. Once I've filled in the final totals (I have to check some banking details online), I'll print this off, slip it into a sheet protector, and file it under "Financial" in my Home Management Binder. Then do it all again in October. Originally I was just going to take September as a 'snapshot' of where our expenses were going but this re-working into a simpler system has made it a lot easier to keep a track of expenses permanently.
The rest of today holds ANOTHER trip to the supermarket, this time with the kids in tow (gosh, how I love school holidays, LOL), baking cookies or some such thing, then a simple dinner with just me and The Piglets. Daddy is working afternoon shift and won't be home until late.
Oh, and progress! I de-cobwebbed my laundry room yesterday! One of the best things I ever got Hubs to do for me was to install a row of sturdy wall hooks up in the laundry room. It's amazing how I lived without these! Oftentimes this past winter we've exploded into the entry area, our raincoats dripping wet (we don't have a mudroom) and though we have a coat rack right in the (tiled) entryway, there's really no place we can hang wet dripping coats without creating a mess in this high-traffic area. Dum-dum-dum-DA! Enter these hooks. If the coats drip, it's no big deal, because the laundry room is out of the way and a 'wet area' anyway. Between two hooks makes a perfect resting spot for my Swiffer-like wet/dry mop. And I can hang up smelly swimming bags. They're so handy I'm going to ask Hubs to buy and install two more sets - one next to the original in the laundry room (I love me some hooks!) and a set near the front door so I can get rid of the clunky coat rack altogether. I also have a nifty little gadget similar to this one hanging on the back of my laundry door:
I'm trying to get into the habit of hanging clothes immediately from the dryer but it is difficult when you have a small space with no table or hooks to do the folding/hanging. This kind of rack holds two loads worth if packed tightly, and I no longer have to lug a basket of dry washing through to the other end of the house or worse, to our bedroom where it would inevitably be dumped onto the bed :)
Gosh, look at the time. The kids will have me drawn and quartered if we don't bake cookies today, LOL.
*Edited to add ~ It just occured to me as I was re-reading this that the bit about the wall hooks sounded suspiciously like a 'pay per post' spiel. Just so you know, I don't do PPP, and never will. I'm also anti-blog ads. But that's just my viewpoint - I haven't one iota of a problem with you folk who do use PPP or ads, LOL!
Cheers,
Lizzie
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