Last week I cleaned out my entire car so now every time I jump in and glance at the super shiny dashboard/steering wheel/gear change console, I think: 'Whoa! Shit! Who's car is this?' Then I remember and drive away laughing manically at how amazing I am.
What a time.
^_^v.
I also moved around half my bedroom furniture and it is IN-SANE how big and clean and modern it looks now, I almost don't even feel the need to buy beautiful bookshelves or the actual storage I need. Every time I walk in I experience that calm zen feeling of utter bliss. Then it immediately fizzes out when I glance at my paper pile. The dreaded Paper Pile. *Shudder* The pile the I will get-to-one-day.
Stares out at the horizon. Oh, there's one day! Just past that sunset! Great, I'm saved! No pile sorting for me in the near future! Hoohoo!
But the funny thing is, is that I did sort all my papers around April of this year. I bought four ring folders and millions of plastic sheets from the heavenly Office Works, making sure to walk through each aisle and inhale the scent of newness, run my undeserving fingers along stiff notebooks with pretty covers and promises of endless dream making on their blank pages inside, whisper declarations of love to the ample supply of every pen and highlighter and pencil you could ever want in every colour and more, stare longingly at the stationary section because I DO need three types of rulers, a mathematics calculator, sticky notes shaped like hearts, and scrapbook kit for that scrapbook that I haven't even thought of making but someday definitely will. I NEED IT ALL!!
Like Pokemon, but better because I don't have use straining effort to catch them or name them all (although I most certainly will) or worry about getting attacked by enemies or finding out that a crazy pair of thieves with amusing over-the-top laughs and matching baseball caps have just taken my prized butterfly paperclip and is holding it hostage.
So cleaning the paper pile will go to the top of my to do list for possibly next week, when I have an endless supply of free time due to my No Spend September.
Yes!
The challenge is almost upon me!
My month of no spending outside of the essentials, and I gotta say, I'm kind of nervous. I don't spend much at the best of times, and my close friends will reminisce about the time I went shopping for an antique desk chair and came out without one because I just 'didn't feel like spending money on something I hardly use'. And it's true, I'm a laze around in bed kind of girl.
Even so, I'm used to having the money there if I need it.
So! without further ado!....
The Challenge!
* My fortnightly wage after tax is about 1,200
* In a fortnight I pay 275 in rent, 50 to super, 400 to mortgage, 120 to bills, and 167 to a saving goal that I MUST DO.
* That leaves me with 188
* I've given myself 19.20 to spend on groceries a week, which equals to 38.40 fortnightly, as well as 30 petrol a week that equals to 60.
* That leaves me with 89.60 that I will hopefully NOT TOUCH, and at the end of the month that 89.60 x 2 will hopefully become 179.20. Which is a lot of yummy Iced Coffees and butterfly paper clips!
I'll try to record my food situation and keep a weekly tally of how I go. I must admit, here and now, I am an emotional eater. My stress attracts large quantities of chocolate as if I'm wearing a magnetic dress, and feeling happy makes me want to sit around watching Clannad with two bags of chips (yes, this did happen. No, I am not as ashamed as I should probably be). The real challenge will be resolving emotional issues without reaching for the food, and instead maybe reaching for my running shoes or yoga mat. I have a yoga mat! It's purple! ~Moving on...
The week ahead
This first week of spring will most likely see me going through the womanly cycle. I am prepared. I have these weirdass pineapple chews that aren't that great by number 6 because they stick in your teeth and practically taste like diabetes, as well as a
Food in my freezer:
3x frozen meals
2x soups
1x ice cream container of soup
1x tub of actual ice cream
1x half packet of berries
1x quarter packet of frozen vegetables
1x custard and carrot cake
6x 2 slices of bread, wrapped individually
Food in my fridge:
1x half carton of eggs
1x half carton of milk
2x 2 slices of bread, wrapped individually
a container of half cucumber, half tomato, half avocado, three quarters of a block of cheese
1x avocado
2x tomatoes
1x three quarter bag of carrots
1x half a jar of jam I haven't touched for about two years
2x bottles of food colouring
1x half a container of orange juice that I haven't touched in about one month
Food in pantry:
1x container of oats
1x half a packet of jatz crackers
1x whole bag unopened of brown rice
1x can of spicy tuna
1x can of kippers (god knows what they are, but I guess I'll find out!)
1x bottle half of olive oil
1x can of gluten free pasta sauce
1x gluten free pasta (my housemate is gf)
2x jars of spring water tuna
1x half a jar of forest berry jam
2x cloves of garlic
1x half a packet of oreo biscuits >_<
1x half packet of m&ms
1x half a packet of pineapple chews
And, misc baking stuff such as: food colourings, sprinkles, gluten free flour, sugar, drinking chocolate, candy hearts etc.
Food in basket:
2x onions that have been there for about two weeks
5x bananas
1x kiwi fruit that has been there for one or two weeks
2x mandarins
This week from 1st September (which starts tomorrow, eek!!) until the 9th of September, with the aid of 19.20, that is all I will be eating. And when you look at it, it's not that bad, really.
(Keep up the positives, Cerri... Keep up the good cheer.... T_T .. Weeps into INTERNATIONAL ROAST ---)
NOW HOLD ON A SECOND
I have a gripe.
A real gripe.
I want to save my moolah and get ahead on the mortgage game because lord knows the banks don't make it easy, but I REFUSE to substitute my 19.88 Moccona coffee, which I then did substitute for 6.99 (or whatever it was) Nescafe blend, and EVEN THEN, I almost took home the decaf, and I understand about how change is great because it's better than a holiday, but did anyone go on a holiday with my Peterbae and do the king sized bed life? I thought not. It was the best. And even ON that holiday our hotel room had Moccona sachets and I wept with joy whilst using the sparkling new shower and amazingly accurate hair-dryer. Why did I weep? From joy. That's why. From the miraculous joy of my favourite coffee.
However.
As with all good things, I may have to sacrifice the good stuff and slurp the 'black and gold instant coffee' that is always 2.99.
Oh, the horror!
And if that does come to pass, and If I actually do have to choose the lowest of the low, I still WILL NOT, WILLLL NOTTTTTT, subject myself to the atrocity that is International Roast.
Or will I?
I once had a cold shower --three times-- in the middle of winter because we were without hot water for a good four months due to errors and landlords and generally not wanting to visit friends or family once again for a shower without a present or baked goods or other favours, and the 21st century somehow not working as the brochure said it would.
Sometimes I wonder: Are We Actually Going Forwards? And: But Is It In The Right Direction? With The Right Things?
Anywho! My chicken, cheese and avocado fajita beckons me to the last money-made meal I will have in a long while...
Wish me luck!
Allons y!
(o) (o)
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