Spring Cleaning Round 1

I've got the Jessica Black song stuck in my head right now (thanks Young and Thrifty) *facepalm*

I'm putting some music on to drown it out.

My boyfriend is out of town this weekend for his friend's/former roommate's bachelor party. I'm a little jealous he gets to spend today on the slopes in Banff, but at the same time it really was for the best. After working last weekend, and severely neglecting my house cleaning for... oh... the last 2 months? My place needed some attention.

I have done some cleaning in the last 2 months, just not the reorganize/good scrub down type of cleaning. Seeing as it is actually spring now, despite the rolling hills of snow outside, I figured now is as good a time as any to start my spring cleaning :) I find the longer daylight hours really help with my motivation. I do suffer from SAD during the winter months, and my motivation is all but shot during that time. Just ask my gym clothes.

3 garbage bags later my place does look cleaner, by a long shot, but I'm looking around at how much stuff I have, wondering "where did this all come from?" The occasional item isn't mine, like a chai tea pot left here by my former roommate (making arrangements to have that returned right now), but 99.99% of the stuff in here is mine. Of that 99.99%, I'd say 95% I paid for. That's a lot of money!

Wow that's a lot of money....

I wish my desire to hoard money was as strong as my desire to acquire things. I binge spending, then I purge the items when they build up too much. It's like I'm bulimic with my possessions.

I have a pile of boxes downstairs that I still need to go through from when I moved in last year. They haven't been entirely unopened, I just need to actually find proper locations for the stuff in them. Either that or purge further.

Garbage bag #4?

I've had the urge to have a garage sale for a while now, I just don't have an actual garage to host it out of. I put a status update on my facebook asking everyone I know on there if they're interested in doing a group garage sale; I figure if someone is going to come to a garage sale we may as well make it worth their while.

Has anyone else noticed that garage and garbage are only one letter away from each other? A little coincidental given what I'm talking about, all things considered.

Ah well. It was a productive afternoon of cleaning. I'm kind of using writing as a reprieve before working on another area. I think I'll finish up the kitchen then go work on a couple basement boxes. I've been enjoying spring cleaning a lot more since getting my own place. Its refreshing.

Dear god, I sound like Martha Stewart.

Oh well. Has anyone else started their spring cleaning yet? Any garage sale plans this year?

Staple Soup

Kelly over at Almost Frugal did a post recently on the 6 key ingredients she uses in her day to day life to make quick easy meals. It's good to have fall back stash of multi-purpose foods you can rely on in a pinch when you need to make a quick, easy and cheap meal.

Reading through her list I realized a) I don't bake as much as I should, and b) I'm running out of my staples at home and need to stock up! Haha. It got me thinking though. While initially I looked at the list and thought "Yep, those are my staples too", I realized afterwards that they really weren't anymore. My staples have shifted.

These are Kelly's 6 Staples:

1. Flour
2. Baking Powder
3. Salt
4. Oil
5. Milk
6. Eggs

These are my 6 Staples:

1. Tea
2. Milk
3. Sugar
4. Bread
5. Eggs
6. Pepper

That's not to say that I don't use the other items, because I do, it's just that these are the 6 I use most frequently and almost always have on hand. I'd be lying if I said I never skipped meals and just had a cup of tea instead because I'm busy or on the run. I almost did that tonight :s Add on some squash, onions, garlic and canned tomatoes to this list and I'm pretty content for quite a while.

I'm not going to put up a recipe for my top 6, because I'm pretty sure most of you can figure out what goes into an omelet or french toast yourself, but I will put up one I did recently with squash and garlic. Actually, I do it frequently. It's stupid simple.

Basically:

= 

You take a medium sized butternut squash, cut it into chunks that are similar in size to a golf ball, and put them in a roasting pan. Then take the papery peel off ~8 cloves of garlic, and throw them in the roasting pan with the garlic. Drizzle with olive oil, wrap top with foil or lid, and put them in the oven at 350F/175C until they're softened and toasty (about 45 minutes). Let them cool enough to handle, and take the peel off the squash (you're supposed to do it first thing, but I find it's easier this way). Put the squash and garlic into a pot, and cover with either stock, or water with bouillon cubes/powder. Simmer on medium-low for about half an hour or so, then remove from heat. Either transfer this to a blender, or use an immersion blender, and blend until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste, reheat if necessary.

It's really easy to make, and super forgiving. You can put the stuff in the oven and walk away to do something else while it's roasting. Ditto when it's simmering. It's really adaptable too, you can add all sorts of seasoning to it. I usually like mine with just salt, pepper, and a dollop of either yogurt or sour cream.

Anywho, I have homework calling my name. Have a good night everyone. Happy eating :)

New Years Eve... One Last Hoo Rah

End of the month check in, and I'm kind of in shock.


(Forgive the formatting, I usually do this on my lunch hour at work and I'm home on my Mac right now. I'm not quite as good in Numbers as I am in Excel)

31-Mar-10 30-Nov-10 31-Dec-10 Chequing $116.66 $5.35 $1,140.22 Savings 1 $0.24 $0.26 $0.26 Savings 2 $100.00 $0.90 $0.90 Savings 3 $500.00 $120.07 $0.07 Investment $2,189.67 $931.24 $1,182.81 TFSA $0.00 $2,322.60 $2,463.64 RRSP 1 $1,525.96 $1,551.30 $1,594.74 RRSP 2 $3,868.08 $3,985.44 $4,016.84 ASSETS $8,300.61 $8,917.16 $10,399.48 Car Loan ($13,138.27) ($10,272.45) ($9,760.77) LOC ($10,000.00) ($11,745.00) ($11,100.00) Credit Card ($5,155.65) ($5,174.07) ($4,978.23) DEBTS ($28,293.92) ($27,191.52) ($25,839.00) Net Worth ($19,993.31) ($18,274.36) ($15,439.52)

It was a good month for money, as I got 3 pay checks in December, but this was surprising. I managed to finish up the Christmas season with less debt than I started December with, and made some headway in all categories. My net worth, not including my house, improved by almost $3000. That's way more than one pay check's worth. I'm very happy about that! The chequing account will drop shortly when my mortgage payment and vehicle insurance come out, but even so I'm very happy with the progress.


The other nice thing about thing about the progress on here is that it doesn't take into account of money that's outside of my accounts. Earlier in December I bought $200 worth of grocery store gift cards to be used in the upcoming months, and recently I took a bit of money out to start my budget envelopes. That money isn't accounted for up above. Additionally, many of you probably read Trent's post over at the Simple Dollar about cleaning and restocking a pantry:

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2010/12/17/out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new-clean-out-your-pantry-and-restock-it/

It was something I hadn't done in quite a while, and after looking at my cupboards I realized it was badly needed. Over the last 2 days I've gone to various grocers (2 ethnic grocers and my usual), restocking the things I'll need to make meals over the next few months. It's so nice having a stocked kitchen again!

After a couple very stressful months when it comes to my finances, this feels like a happy end to the year. I have a warm home, full cupboards, and a couple dollars in my pocket to look after my needs. What a great way to ring in the new year. Have a great end to 2010 every one! I look forward to spending 2011 with you all!