Pantry Clean-out

Do you have a pantry?  They are wonderful.  So nice to go into your pantry when you need something for a meal, a snack, whatever.  Problem is if you don't cook that much, many times items in your pantry get beyond the expiration date.  For example the photo below.

This very sadly is all the food I threw away tonight.  Huge waste of money and I feel guilty when I know there are people all over the world that do not have enough food.  This is only because of poor planning on my part and laziness.  I'm sure this is not all but I was tired after going through all of this and it is the majority.  Many of the items were farther than a year beyond their best buy date.  Ugh.

In our preparation for moving, or if we don't end up moving, at least I have one more area in the house pretty much cleaned up.  Trying to decide what I want to clean tomorrow. 

Watered the garden tonight.  The drought continues.  Hopefully all this work is not in vain but I have a bad feeling that we will end up with not very much on the plants.  I haven't given up hope yet.  We are forecast for 90s all week with no rain.

Reality

The reality of my situation is I am in my mid 50's have credit card debt, have a home in two different states, have a husband who likes loves to spend money and buy stuff.  Obviously I do too otherwise I would not  have credit card debt.  Dumb choices.

We are currently living in an older home.  We are not older home people, we are not fixer-uppers.  Never have been.  We don't have the knowledge and I don't like the mess.  We have been looking at newer homes in the city we currently full-time reside in.  The home we have in another state is a newer home, although now over 13 years old, it hasn't been lived in very much since we haven't lived there for at least 10 years.

As we are looking at these homes, there is excitement.  I love a newer cleaner home.  Reality hit me this week that if we move we will do it ourselves rather than have a moving company and I am not moving all our crap, treasures, possessions, overwhelming amount of things, stuff.  Just the thought is overwhelming.  To that end today I have decided to take on the major task of getting rid of stuff I would not move into another home.  I have tackled the bathroom closet (should have taken a before picture, but here is an after picture).  It looks nice, it looks organized and these are things we will move, if we move.  I have a bigger box and 3 trash bags full of towels, blankets, sheet sets, etc.  All perfectly good and usable for someone else.

Top shelf, two pillows, two electric blankets, next shelf 5 bath sheets, next shelf bath towels, hand towels and wash cloths, next shelf 6 couch blankets, next shelf 2 queen sets, 2 twin sets, floor cat and cleaning supplies.  This is much more than we even need but is a reasonable amount to have.  The before picture would include every shelf looking like it is going to vomit all over the floor because there was so much crap stuffed in there.  I like this much better.  Yea, nothing like getting one out of control area back into a semblance of organized bliss.

A friend and I are having a yard sale the end of August.  If I can keep the motivation up I should have a good amount to get rid of.  The big question is where to store it until the sale.  Any money that is made will go directly to credit card debt.

This past week I joined Weight Watchers.  Our first meeting is Tuesday.  This has to be a total lifestyle change to work and I am ready.  Hoping for a feeling of increased wellbeing, more energy, better health.  Couple steps at a time.

Focus' are:
1. Credit Card payoff.
2. Weight loss.
3. Organization/purge.

A Good but Sad Day

As background when I go to the casino my husband gives me $40.  When it is gone I pull out my knitting or book.  If I end up ahead at the end of the night I pay him back and the extra is mine.  Tonight I have an extra $90 to put in my envelope savings.  My mother also deposited money in one of my accounts for Christmas, so another $300 for savings. 

On a sadder note do you ever have to say goodbye to someone and it almost feels like a death.  A co-worker who has become a very dear friend is moving.  His wife moved about 6 months ago, he sold their house and now he is joining her.  There was absolutely nothing more than friendship but I am emotional about him leaving.  I will miss his calm gentle spirit.  I wish him all the happiness in the world.

More snow in the forecast, ugh.

12 HOUR DAYS

Does working 12 hours count as a doing something financially.  I'm beat but got a lot done which relieves stress.

Yesterday financially I returned some Christmas gifts that were spares in case what I ordered did not come in the mail.  The gifts I ordered arrived on Christmas Eve.  Cutting it close but was prepared for them not arriving in time.

SNOW, SNOW GO AWAY

We are getting inundated with snow again today, probably another 6 to 8 inches.  We had 16 inches on Christmas Day.  Our town is unprepared and we have snow everywhere.  This is a catch 22 for me as I love the snow, it is so pretty but I don't want to deal with it, go out in it, anything.  I guess that is why people move to Arizona, Florida, Texas, etc....although Texas is having their own trouble right now.  Lots of prayers going out for people to be safe.

Started working on eliminating one of my jobs today.  It holds possibility.  The control side of me wants to keep it because then I can run things how I want but it is unrealistic to keep going at the pace I am, besides the fact that I don't want to. 

Finished my book tonight, Florabama Ladies Auxiliary and Sewing Circle, it is not a new book but it was good.  Now I have to order the book for a book club that I belong to and get that read.  We are reading Birkebeiner.  It does look pretty good but then a pleasure book again.  Every two weeks I hope to read a book.  Love to read, good escapism.

I am going to post one thing I do daily to improve, or at least something that was done, financially.
** Took pictures of all receipts for Receipt Hog. **

Although it takes a while to accumulate points, and I know it is just a marketing tool for companies, it is a way to earn a little bit by recording the receipts on items you were going to buy anyway.  I have received $30 in the past and already have enough for another $5.00 payout.  It is best to wait until I have enough points for $30 again as the number of points per $5.00 that you need is not as great.

Weighed myself today.....it was ugly, but I now have a starting point. 40 pounds to go.

Contemplation

Tomorrow morning I have a meeting at 10 AM to hopefully make some decisions regarding my employment.  I am working about 2-3/4 full time jobs.  Two jobs were full time at one point and the other was part time which is ironic because it is the one job that takes the most time.  The overtime is wonderful, don't get me wrong, but I'm getting a bit burned out on it all.  I would like to get other streams of income also started kicking off the new year.  This will take planning, I'm excited.

Sat down last night and totaled up by assets versus debts, not pretty.  Partly it is not pretty because I am buying a new car from my husband so included that debt which is $30,000.  Probably that decision was not the smartest but I have always wanted the car he bought for me to buy from him.

Today I made a deposit which is going to pay one of my bills.  I don't have a lot.
1. CC - $16,400.00 (stupid I know).
2. Auto - $29,100. (probably not the smartest)
3. CC - 163.50 (I pay this one off monthly).
4, 5, 6, and 7 are $2,000 accounts I am completing for my grandchildren.

After the first of the year with transferring some money around I will have #4 and 5 paid off.  Paid another $600 tonight on #2.  My big credit card I am moving actually to CC #3 because it has 18 months at 0% interest and then tackling that card with vigor.

My assets totaled $43,133.06, debts $52,855.37.  Like I said if I would take out the car it would be a completely different picture.  These are only my personal assets and debts not our family's which includes other vehicles, homes, etc.

There are some really neat blogs to team up with for different postings.  I may try that.  It is fun to go back and read older posts.  A good time capsule.

Back again

Well the new year is almost on us.  Time to write down all our plans, fail miserably, beat ourselves up over the failure and swear next year will be different.  I am determined that this year will be different, financially, familial, health and general wellness.  This year I want to slow down the amount I work but also to wrap up some pending items, that have been pending for a long time, to enable myself to take off a few weeks this winter to go south with my mother.  She is a wonderful lady, 75, healthy, tired of the cold and snow in the Midwest and I want to spend some time with her, good quality time.  Others thoughts on the fantasy of this plan do not really matter to me any more.  What matters is that I attempt to make it happen.

In that vein I want to get financially on better footing.  This will involve increasing sales on Amazon, selling locally on facebook, increasing garden produce to sell at the farmer's market, creating and selling items on Etsy and anything else I can figure out.  Finances will be my major stumbling block for being able to take off time in the winter so this is a huge area to concentrate on.

For my health, as I have written down for I don't know how many years, I want to be healthier, be at a better weight, be stronger, leaner.  Realistically I have 45 pounds to lose and a lot of shaping up to do.  My diet is not good, my level of activity is not good and it needs to improve.  I am 55 and things will start, and have already started, to become affected.

Family ties need to be made stronger.  I need to call my sister weekly as well as my children and txt them throughout the week.  It doesn't take that much time to just slow down and jot a note.  Cards at birthdays, graduations, etc I also want to get better with getting out on time.  I am truly my mother's child in this regard, she is always  late and so am I.  It is not a good habit to get into.  

This week my goals are:
1. Set up financial goal grafts.
2. Set up weight loss goal graft.
3. Do debt and asset summaries.
4. Set up bullet journal for the year.
5. Finish reading current book.
6. Set up books read side wall.
7. Finish knitting scrubby.

One thing per day, that is enough. 

Busy Day

Busy day today, trying to make it count.

Was up at 5:30 to make sure my son got to work on time.  He is 23 but we have a special project at work and there was no room for him not being on time.  Once up, stayed up, I like the quiet of the morning.  By about 2:30 I hit a brick wall, was so tired.  But this morning got a box of stuff priced for an August yard sale, listed 2 items on Amazon, hung out 4 loads of laundry and went to church.  Tonight we went to the casino because as usual my dear husband was bored.  I won $53.00 yea!!  It goes into the cash stash which I will be making a graph for as soon as I figure out how. :)  This is my small emergency fund.  Unfortunately always seems to come in too handy.  Need to get a handle on that.