Already a slacker!

Didn’t turn the computer on till late afternoon.  Yesterday I brought in the Rubbermaid container for the Christmas tree ornaments, and that was all I did – no de-cluttering.  I did manage to take all the ornaments off of the tree and pack them away in the container.  We are still on slow gear here from the holidays, so I’m taking it slow.  Tomorrow I will try and accomplish a little more.  Monday will be the big test.

Today Mandi at Organizing Your Way reviewed starting a budget.  We will see how this goes as I still have to wrap my mind around the de-cluttering.

I found a new site via Money Saving Mom called The Coupon Project.  She has a free downloadable (Excel – I used Open Office) 2010 Savings Tracker.

With this spreadsheet you'll be able to:

• Easily input your monthly and yearly goals
• Enter data from your receipts and let my preset formulas tally your spending, savings, actual-to-budget, and more
• Track and manage your rebates (NEW!)
• Determine how much you saved with coupons, store sales, and rebates
• Have your monthly and year-to-date savings ratio update instantly

I've worked hard to create this spreadsheet and make it as user-friendly as possible. My goal was to have you be able to enter only a few pieces of data from your receipts and let it do all the calculating for you.
To get started, download and save a copy of the spreadsheet to your computer. Then, open the Summary tab. This is where you can get a year-to-date view of your savings. All you need to do on this tab is set up your monthly budget for food and household items - one entry per month. Once you input that information, your monthly tabs will pre-fill with your goals. At any point, you can visit the Summary tab to keep an eye on the "bigger picture" of your spending and savings.
Each time you shop, come back and fill out the few pieces of information from your receipts onto the appropriate monthly tab. Again, I have formulas preset to keep your stats updated EVERY TIME new information is entered….

Via Lifehacker, they have Top Ten Mind Tricks For Making Your Resolutions Stick today.  They also have an article on how to make your own Bailey’s Irish Cream.

One of the deals at SlickDeals.net that Amazon is offering is James Taylor’s Greatest Hits for $2.99 (from August 23, 1977).

That’s it for today.

Technorati Tags: budget,resolutions,free,Bailey's Irish Cream,James Taylor

A New Year

I'm just going to jump right in and try this again.

I have many interests and spend way too much time on the computer and really need to declutter my mind, my body and my house. I also enjoy helping others and sharing so this blog will be an eclectic mix of a little bit of everything.

First, some links of interest to me and they might be to others.

Coffesshop Photography blog by Rita - today she has a beautiful PS/PSE action called Johnna's Tea Party. I love her actions. In the photos above of some clover in our back field, I used her Vintage Blush action in PSE on it. I love the effect of it.

Organizing Your Way blogger, Mandi, is starting 31 Days of Organizing for a Better 2010: Declutter is today's post. I plan on following this to get started on my goals.

Simple Mom (Tsh) has Ring in the New Year with Tangible, Reachable, Optimistic Goals today with a free PDF download that list a great set of questions to ask yourself. They've been downloaded and I need to print them out and answer them.

I've logged in to Sparkpeople once again to start over, once again! Also, over at Real Age today they listed 5 Foods that Boost Weight Loss - make note of this self: Salmon, Eggs, Peanuts, Apples, Fava Beans.

Lifehacker is a site that I visit every day. It satisfies my computer interest, along with a lot of other interests that they include. Today one of their captions is The Great Best of 2009.

Today I'm going to be taking down the Christmas decorations and decluttering them - wish me luck!