What a difference a book makes.

We did manage to get out of the house today although it wasn't exactly what I had in mind!
I was envisaging driving beneath the dappled shade of trees arching gracefully above us, the warm sunshine flickering its golden glow through the foliage as we wended our way to a picturesque destination. Alas, no!
We sat in town traffic and spent the morning in Staples and PC World. Not particularly enjoyable, but necessary for Phils work.
Things did improve. We arrived home to see the postman leaving our house, however we had missed a package, so Phil chased after him to retrieve it. It was for me! I had received two much wished for books for my birthday from my lovely friend Mirjam. And it is these two books that shaped the rest of my day.

The first is about finding simplicity in your life and your day to day living so that the things that matter can really have your time and attention. It is about decluttering your home, but also your mind, and although this sounds all rather cliched, it is not one of those kind of books. Sure it does give some useful advice and tips, but it is about finding what works for your home, your family. Having just received the book today, I have only had time to dip in and out so far, but it has already inspired some changes that I would like to, and in some cases, need to try out.
We have really started to notice the increase in our outgoings lately. The obvious being food and petrol. But when I sat down this afternoon and started to really map out our current finances, I got quite a shock. We are not in dire straits, but we do need a plan of action. Where can we save money? What can we do without? Are there any bills we could switch to cheaper tariffs? And on the decluttering front, what do we have that we really don't need or use and could sell?
Having had a new room to organise and furnish, I feel very satisfied that I have mostly re-used or re-vamped items that we already owned. There is very little that we had to buy new. But we have also rediscovered items that we are no longer in need of, so our first step will be to sell those and achieve decluttering and boosting our finances in one hit!
I also needed to plan a new menu for the next 7 days, so with money saving in mind, I wrote a list of everything in our store cupboard and freezer in an attempt to get all 7 days covered with little or no shopping. I managed to plan 5 out of the 7 meals from the food already in the house; and before you ask, no, I didn't find 5 tins of beans!
The domino effect really started to kick in, and this got me making a very strict budget for our shopping each week. We will have a set amount and when it's gone it's gone! I do so like a challenge and actually find this kind of thing very satisfying when it works. When we were young, my Dad was made redundant, and I remember going shopping with my Mum, calculator in hand, weighing a single carrot or onion or suchlike and calculating the cost to see if we could afford to add it to the trolley. It was a good lesson to learn and I hope that I too am teaching my children the value of money.
Recently I made a schedule for some of the household chores, like laundry and vacuuming. It was in an attempt to try to get each of us doing a bit so that I would not feel guilty having my rest, but also so that the jobs would get done. When I'm not feeling well, the housework suffers and then I get down and so it goes on! I made lovely little laminated lists and it started well but has not been sustained, so I am hoping to revive them......sharpish!! My lists could go on and on, but you get the idea, and I don't want to bore you. I am quite excited about the challenge; in anticipation of a new found simplicity. I shall keep you posted!

I think I will have to tell you about the second book another time. This evening has passed all too quickly, and keeping in mind what I have read about today, I simply need to sleep. Goodnight and sleep well. x