I Deserve a Treat

It has been a complete wash out today, quite literally ... it has been pouring with rain from the minute I got up this morning and it hasn't stopped since.  I've been stuck in home, which on a day where my 'get up and go' seemed to have 'got up on gone', has been pretty miserable. 

I cheered up a bit after a yummy breakfast of bacon sandwiches and a mug or two of hot coffee. I read a couple of chapters of a new book (Jeffrey Deaver's 'XO' - too soon to say if it is any good), thought about watching the TV but there was nothing on that I fancied watching, checked Facebook and checked the clock - still only 9 o'clock.  Decided that today was really going to drag if I didn't face up to the thing I was trying to avoid ... time to sort out my budget.

I used the budget planner on Money Saving Expert and I have to say I was pretty impressed by the time I'd finished.  It makes you consider all those other expenses that I'd probably group together as 'miscellaneous' and assess them properly.  Left to my own devices, this is where I'd hopelessly underestimate.  It took me about 2 hours to do it all, checking bank statements etc. and reassessing the utility payments but in the end I've worked out that I'll be approx. £70 a month better off than I thought I would.  Mainly because the utility companies had grossly ever estimated my monthly usage and therefore my payments.  At this stage I was feeling much happier and more motivated so I also signed up for the free 'money manager' service that my bank offers, where you can categorise your spending - the idea being that you can see what you are actually spending your money on. In an ideal world the budget and the actual spending should match up so it will be interesting to see if that is the case.

One mug of coffee and a few biscuits later I was on a roll.  I set up the energy monitor that I got from British Gas so I can see exactly where my electricity usage is.  Don't know if it will help or not so we'll see, but it is done now and I just have to remember to check it.

Feeling rather righteous I then decided to sort out my system for storing photos. I was going to start scanning the old prints today but decided I'd be saving time and energy in the long term if I set up a workable filing system.  After a few false starts and tantrums (!) I've sorted out my new filing system, which is much the same as Joy's and Karen's (thank you ladies) and very similar to the system I used when I worked in the MoD.  I have 12 subject folders which are subdivided as appropriate and within the subfolders the images are filed in date order.  Everything in these folder has already been backed up.  New images will be saved to a single folder and be backed up every week, then moved to be filed in the various subject folders.  I'll report back on how it works!!

So that's been my day so far.  Two things I was dreading have been sorted so I decided I deserved a treat ...  time for waffles with maple syrup.

I tried a new recipe this time which was much, much nicer - really fluffy waffles.  It looks a bit undercooked in this photo but I can assure you that it wasn't.  Very yummy!!

Hope you've all had a good day and that the weather hasn't been too bad.