So, yesterday….a day of tidying up, cleaning up, more sorting and some simple time chatting in the garden…we are very lucky to have a great garden space.

It costs nothing to sit in the sun in the garden and put the world to rights. A bottle of cheap cider and a bottle of cheap gin from Lidls. The best beetroot from my sisters garden, homegrown is always the best, sausages and burgers on the little old barbeque…the pigeons playing in the trees and the cats chilling out after a busy day running around the grass which currently resembles a field.

To throw in some accountability for myself on this journey, my last three purchases were….£2.99 on book for my Kindle…this I could have avoided because I pay £7.99 a month for Kindle Unlimited, so a plan….only read books currently in Kindle Unlimited. £5.99 on clothing, I likely don’t need much more clothing so this won’t continue and it was for a pre loved item on Ebay, I can justify this one and £43.10 for food in Lidls – absolutely fine with this one, we have been checking out our food budget and we are on track. Finances are a huge part of our plans as Christopher has just finished his corporate recruiting job, a big chunk of income which is no more – it takes some forward planning and some effort, but this can be done. Our aim is to make enough money selling our things and to only buy what we need, therefore, not having to go out and work for anyone else any time soon.

In our last month our spends were up on prescription medication (Chris had some extra needs this month), clothes for me (I hardly have any clothes and it is almost all preloved, just a little restock), eating out (we went wild and had some chips on the beach and a pasty treat when the pasty shop re-opened, we spent £20 when we normally don’t spend anything) and Kindle Books (as above, an added goal for me to use Kindle Unlimited) – nothing traumatic here, all things which we can cover.

I think during this pandemic so many of us have realised how much we eat out when we could eat at home. I’m not saying don’t eat out, those catering guys need their income as much as anyone…just don’t eat out if you can’t really afford to or your cooking is atrocious, or both….or obviously when the pasty shop re-opens…nothing beats a Barnecutts Pasty!!

So, here I go again…starting from scratch in the grand life decluttering project. There are too many headings to even contemplate – clothes, hobbies, food, exercise, house, gifts, toiletries, hair products, e-mails, social media, finances, shopping….

To make it easier I am just taking it step by step, but trying to speed up those steps. For that reason I am changing all of my buy it now items in the Ebay shop over to auctions starting at 99p, check out the tab above to find your way there – no mask needed to enter this shop.

We downsized from a much bigger house, actually a whole year ago and we are still trawling through boxes, selling it, donating it, dumping it…of course, slowed down by the virus …not able to go to the charity shop or the dump. Those brown sofas looked great in our last house, not so great on that awful brown carpet….that’s something to tackle on another day.

I have boxes and boxes of old jewellery….taking it apart and creating new things I enjoy, but again, I have too much, it clutters my mind and then I buy some more…for now the boxes have all been slotted back into the cabinet and I am working through them….to keep it simple I am now only making earrings and charm bracelets…the left over bits will be sold on Ebay to others who can make use of them.

Here is one of my first goals, to go through the remaining boxes of things and sort them so that I can get space back in my bedroom….I am looking forward to sharing the journey here.

That’s it for now, spending too much time at the computer is another topic altogether, so short and sweet it will be.

Geri x