Pantry Challenge 2018

My word for 2018 is Frugal. I've never had a word for the year before and am not a word for the year type, but someone asked what my 2018 focus Word was and Frugal came to mind. For the first time ever, I am honestly (rather than halfheartedly) budgeting using the Every Dollar app. One of the budget items is groceries. I haven't a clue what I spend on groceries in a month. First identified what all the grocery budget would be spent for. This will include toilet paper, Kleenex, make up, shampoo, toothpaste and laundry detergent. It will not include meals out (restaurants) or pet food/supplies.

I decided to budget $100 a month and then began to wonder what the suggested budget amount was for groceries. Per a Life Hacker article Americans spend 9-12% of our income on food, which is less than any other country. Life Hacker suggests one budgets 14% of their income for food. One hundred dollars is below the 14% suggestion and I began doubting the amount I had decided. Per the article, a thrifty food budget for a family of two under 50 years of age is $373.30, a liberal food budget for the same would be $743.10!  Seven hundred dollars for groceries?!? I can't begin to imagine! 

Anyhow, I'm sticking with $100 month on groceries for now. It can always be changed at a later date. I have a well stocked pantry and freezer which will help keep the amount spent low for at least a few months. 

Housekeeping 2

It began with Almost Amish (Nancy Sleeth) and continued with Flosstube.  Flosstube are videos posted on You Tube by cross stitchers during which they share things they're stitching, cross stitch stash they've purchased, plans, finishing, etc. There is one flosstuber who has 131 WIPs.  WIPS stand for Works In Progress.  One Hundred Thirty One pieces, patterns she's started.  131!  Oh my land!  She has this spread sheet and uses a computer random number generator to determine what she should be stitching on each day (all of her WIPS are numbered).  I can't even comprehend and have decided one until done is better than her program, though it works for her. 

Most of the stitchers share plans and they often go something like this; Tonight I am going to spend 2 hours working on X and 30 minutes on Y, the next night I'll work on Z and the following night A...  These people have all this time to cross stitch and I have little!  Do they all have maids?  Cooks?  Lawn men (women)?  I want to stitch as much as they do, but hello, life calls. Laundry piles up, the lawn needs mowed, the floors need swept... Its always something.  So, I've decided to try a weekly chore chart.  I've been planning this for several weeks, but didn't get around to starting it until recently.  Heres what I've come up with;

Monday:
Trash Night!
Clean out the refrigerator
Take trash to the curb
Clean, straighten up kitchen counters/surfaces, floor
Wash dishes
Clean, straighten up laundry room

Tuesday:
Laundry (clothing, towels)
Put away clean dishes washed on Monday
Clean bathroom

Wednesday:
Put away clean laundry washed on Tuesday
Dust, straighten up and vacuum dining room, living room, hallway and bedroom

Thursday:
Bible study 

Friday:
Rest and Enjoy

Saturday and Sunday:
Yard work
Extra Laundry (bedding, slip covers, rugs...)
 
This is a basic list.  I'm sure I've forgotten to list many things and I've entirely left off the basement and upstairs rooms.  Those will be squeezed in whenever. As will mopping the hardwoods and other non weekly chores.  Its only a guideline to help me stay on focus and free up time for relaxing, stitching, reading or whatever else I want to do, but never seem to find time for.  I've done this now for two weeks and zero stitching gets done on Monday or Tuesday evening. Those chores take the longest. For me, this is working. I like lists and crossing things off the list. I also love sitting and stitching without thought of what all I should be doing. 

Housekeeping 1

It started with the book Almost Amish (Nancy Sleeth).  I remember specifically the author discussing junk mail.  I don’t get a lot of junk mail, actually most days I don’t get mail of any kind.  While I don’t get actual junk mail via the mailbox, there are other things that apply.

Facebook! 

I unliked the majority of pages and groups I belonged to or followed.  Taste of Home, 12 Tomatoes were my food page hold outs, but I eventually I unliked them.  I have a ton of great cookbooks, plus more available to me for free at the library or from my mother (who owns every Gooseberry Patch cookbook ever made, plus several other cookbooks) and a ton of pinned recipes on Pinterest.  I do not need to be tempted with ooey, gooey recipes and I think I'll live without tips like these;

 

Antique pages, unliked.  Tourist pages, unliked.  I like Manhattan KS, but I hadn’t really needed to follow Aggieville’s page.  I’ve kept Southern Plate, which is a recipe blog/page, but is much more than that too.   I’ve kept certain Christian pages; Allister Begg, Ligonier, the page for the church I’m sort of attending…  The farming pages; all unliked.  

I’m hoping more of the content I really care to see will now appear and I won’t have to scroll through so much that I hadn’t really needed, wanted to see and that took up so much of my time.  Maybe I’ll even get to the point where I’m not checking FB but once or twice a week and not several times a day!  I know for some FB is a stress reliever, but I’d much rather cross stitch, watch a movie, read a good book or go for a walk than to wonder what I’m missing on FB. 

Email.  Some time ago a friend posted a screen shot of his emails not read number.  It was over 2000. It drove his wife nuts.  She had fewer than 30.  Whats your number?  Mine is;

 

 

 

I’m working to lower that.  When I find myself with a few minutes, I work to delete or move to a folder those unread emails.  This also applies to the hundreds, if not thousands of emails I’ve read or glanced at, but never deleted.  I know there are emails that go back to 2014 that I’ve read, but never deleted.

Email subscriptions.  Betty Crocker, The Attic (a cross stitch store), newsletters, store promotions.  I’m unsubscribing to them as they appear in my email box.  This one appeared in my inbox lately and I unsubscribed.

 

 

Cross stitch newsletter. I have so many great patterns in my stash that I do not need to be tempted to purchase more.  I won’t die if I don’t get that one pattern that everyone else loves.  All I have to do is go upstairs, open my file cabinet and see all the great patterns I have, most for many years, that I’ve never gotten around to stitching.  I do no need more stuff! 

Books.  This one is harder.  Guilt.  I bought these books.  Some at Goodwill, others at garage sales, estate sales, the libraries book sale.  Others were given to me.  Most I’ve not read and while I thought I might, I know I won’t.  So, I’m going through them and most will be donated to the library for their big annual book sale in September and others will be given away to someone who will read them.  

Eventually I hope to carry this “housekeeping” over to my cookbooks and cross stitch stash, but I haven’t had time to yet.  I’m open to other suggestions on decluttering.  Have you taken similar steps to declutter?