Well, this week (I know it's only Tuesday) has sucked. Work is so stressful right now because of all of these changes and different things they are trying to put into place. That's a blog for another day. Like I've posted before, I'm going to try to be more positive. I think that is so important. I don't like getting sucked into that rabbit hole of negativity. So! This is me being positive about a sucky week...
A little background:
I love to shop. I love to buy clothes, home decor, bath stuff, art stuff, craft stuff...the list could go on and on. It's always been a thing. And I love to go out to dinner with friends. It's social. It's therapeutic. It's just fun. If there is money in the bank, why not? Right?
Wrong. Boy, is that thinking wrong. Well, I realize that now.
Present Day:
I had a half day today, which gave me ample opportunity to reflect on my situation. If you read my New Year's Day blog, I wrote about my goals. One is to de-clutter my life. I've been going through my room and closet, getting rid of things. I realized that I have this urge to go out and purchase something else to fill that space. Then I look at my bank account and rethink that.
See, I've been living on basically part-time wages. It's been SO difficult. Between getting sick about 5 times with no paid leave to make up that time off, and having a billion half days around Christmas, my pay checks have sucked. It's difficult. But, I have made do. That's not to say that I haven't griped about it. Or struggled through it. Because I have. However, yesterday I had an epiphany.
Like I said before, work has sucked this week. Yesterday was uber stressful. I was running on one hour of sleep. Work was a nightmare of stress. I came home and poured my frustrations out to Amber (my BFF and roomie). Thanks Amber! After I was finished griping, she asked if I wanted to go to dinner. I immediately said that I couldn't because I was too poor. Then I thought about it. I actually do have plenty of money, but I didn't want to spend it on going out to eat when I had perfectly good homemade leftover soup in the fridge. That's a change!!! Turning down going out, AND eating leftovers?!? Last night, I was thinking about this. It was weird that my first reaction was "no, I'm too poor." Weirder still, is that I actually stuck to that.
I realize that I have been blowing so much money on stupid stuff. I'm not saying that going out to eat with your friend is stupid, it's not. But going out to eat 3-4 times a week is ridic. I mean, that's a ton of money! Purchasing stuff for no good reason, is such a waste! Especially when half of the time it ends up in a garage sale two months later. I realized how much I've been able to do without whilst living on these measly paychecks. And it's been great! I don't need that. I honestly didn't realize how much of a thing it had become. I want to continue with this "I'm too poor" mentality. If it's going to help me save money and keep my apartment clutter free, then holler! My goal is that much closer to being met.
I've been reading the Living Well Spending Less blog, and she has some awesome points. I want to do the 31 Days of Living Well and Spending Zero. It seems like an awesome challenge. They ended up saving close to $1000 in one month because they ate what they had in the house and they didn't do any unnecessary spending. And on top of all that, they de-cluttered and organized their home. Win/Win! Anyone want to join me? I'm going to try this in February and the first couple days of March. I just want to see if I can do it. So! If I turn you down for a movie or going out to dinner, don't be offended. I'm just trying a month of not doing any unnecessary spending. I do still love you all!
Well folks, this week has no where to go but up. Tomorrow is a new day. I'm going to continue on in my goal of finding positive things to focus on. I'm also going to continue on in my goal to organize and get rid of things. It feels so good when your house loses some of that weight it's been carrying around. AND, by putting some of my stuff on the Facebook Garage Sale sites, I've made some money. If you haven't already, y'all should try it! It's awesome!
Later, chickens! Y'all have a good night!
Showing posts with label cleaning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cleaning. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Saturday, January 4, 2014
1st Pin of Interest- Garbage Disposal Bombs
Pow! Zap! Kerrrrrrplunk!
Maybe I got carried away there. It has bomb in its name, it only seemed fitting. Ok, so I'm going to start my 52 Pins of Interest this week. Today. Right now. My Pins of Interest idea is really for my own benefit. If y'all garner any tips or encouragement from them, then HOLLER!
I'm not a crafty person. I think I have a crafty brain (in more ways than one), but generally I don't do crafts. Not because I don't like them, I do. Mainly because I don't have the patience to do them. Perhaps I'll add that to my goals for this year: Along with my Pins of Interest, I shall endeavor to learn patience and focus. Now that that's out of the way...
So far, the Pins I have decided on are pretty simple. There are a few more challenging ones in there, but I'm going to keep it easy for now.
To begin...
For some reason or another, I decided on Garbage Disposal Bombs. For this Pin of Interest, PopSugar helped me out. This looks simple enough, and they are way handy. I loved making bath bombs (a blog for another day), so why not garbage disposal bombs? I was sure they'd smell awesome. And if y'all could see what I just dumped down the disposal, you'd probably understand my line of thinking.
I got all of my ingredients together:
***Let me put in a disclaimer here. I look at recipes and crafts, and I hardly ever follow the directions word for word. I always like to add my own thing to them. I don't stray too far from the original, but I add a little Emily Twist to it. I can't seem to help myself. End of disclaimer***
****A disclaimer to the disclaimer, I will most likely do this on most if not all of my Pins. I really can't help myself. End of disclaimer to the disclaimer****
3/4 c of Baking soda
1/2 c of Salt
Lemon (I also used a Lime)
1/2 tsp Liquid Dish Soap
Sweet Orange Essential Oil (again my twisty thing)
In a bowl, you add the baking soda and salt together.
Take your lemon (and lime), and grate the peeling into the bowl and mix together.
Add the liquid dish soap.
Squeeze the juice from the lemon and lime into the bowl, one half at a time. Beware here...the baking soda and the acid from the juice will make some fizz, so add slowly. I used a small strainer to catch the seeds.You may not need all of that juice, so mix as you go. It's definitely easier to do this if you mix by hand. You want the consistency of wet sand. Think beach. Think California. Think...ok, so whatever, just feel wet sand. You don't want the mix to be soppin' wet. You can tell it's damp enough if you pick up a small handful, squeeze it in your fist, and it sticks together.
I noticed that it smelled strongly of baking soda. I wanted more citrus, so I added 10-15 drops of my sweet orange essential oils. That was just the trick! It was perfect for me! The kitchen smelled awesome!
Now time to scoop!
I put some parchment paper on the table and got a Teaspoon measuring spoon and used that to scoop out the bomb mix.
Important thing to note: once you have scooped a spoonful of mix out, press it firmly into the spoon. It will make it adhere to itself a lot more. Bombs can be uber crumbly, so this is an important thing to remember. Otherwise you will have a big fat mess of crumbs on your hands and table. Line up your bombs on your parchment paper, and voila!
Now, leave them alone. DO NOT TOUCH. Let them sit over night, then you can put them in an air tight container. On the Pin, PopSugar had a cute little jar. I will most likely put mine in a plain mason jar, 'cause that's how I roll. Maybe one day I'll make some cute labels. Either way, they turned out so great. They look pretty and smell awesome! I can't wait to use them!!
This recipe makes about 40 little bombs. All in all, it took all of about 10 minutes. It was so simple. To use these little guys, you just put a few in your disposal, turn the water on, then flip the disposal switch. Nothing will explode. Except your senses. They will explode with the sweet, crisp citrusy aroma permeating through the air. (If you read that last sentence in a dreamy, overly dramatic voice, props to you...if not, go read it again)
I'll probably have another entry before my next Pin of Interest. Not sure what it'll be about. So until then, later Chickens!
If you want to------->
Maybe I got carried away there. It has bomb in its name, it only seemed fitting. Ok, so I'm going to start my 52 Pins of Interest this week. Today. Right now. My Pins of Interest idea is really for my own benefit. If y'all garner any tips or encouragement from them, then HOLLER!
I'm not a crafty person. I think I have a crafty brain (in more ways than one), but generally I don't do crafts. Not because I don't like them, I do. Mainly because I don't have the patience to do them. Perhaps I'll add that to my goals for this year: Along with my Pins of Interest, I shall endeavor to learn patience and focus. Now that that's out of the way...
So far, the Pins I have decided on are pretty simple. There are a few more challenging ones in there, but I'm going to keep it easy for now.
To begin...
For some reason or another, I decided on Garbage Disposal Bombs. For this Pin of Interest, PopSugar helped me out. This looks simple enough, and they are way handy. I loved making bath bombs (a blog for another day), so why not garbage disposal bombs? I was sure they'd smell awesome. And if y'all could see what I just dumped down the disposal, you'd probably understand my line of thinking.
I got all of my ingredients together:
***Let me put in a disclaimer here. I look at recipes and crafts, and I hardly ever follow the directions word for word. I always like to add my own thing to them. I don't stray too far from the original, but I add a little Emily Twist to it. I can't seem to help myself. End of disclaimer***
****A disclaimer to the disclaimer, I will most likely do this on most if not all of my Pins. I really can't help myself. End of disclaimer to the disclaimer****
3/4 c of Baking soda
1/2 c of Salt
Lemon (I also used a Lime)
1/2 tsp Liquid Dish Soap
Sweet Orange Essential Oil (again my twisty thing)In a bowl, you add the baking soda and salt together.
Take your lemon (and lime), and grate the peeling into the bowl and mix together.
Add the liquid dish soap.
Squeeze the juice from the lemon and lime into the bowl, one half at a time. Beware here...the baking soda and the acid from the juice will make some fizz, so add slowly. I used a small strainer to catch the seeds.You may not need all of that juice, so mix as you go. It's definitely easier to do this if you mix by hand. You want the consistency of wet sand. Think beach. Think California. Think...ok, so whatever, just feel wet sand. You don't want the mix to be soppin' wet. You can tell it's damp enough if you pick up a small handful, squeeze it in your fist, and it sticks together.
I noticed that it smelled strongly of baking soda. I wanted more citrus, so I added 10-15 drops of my sweet orange essential oils. That was just the trick! It was perfect for me! The kitchen smelled awesome!
Now time to scoop!
I put some parchment paper on the table and got a Teaspoon measuring spoon and used that to scoop out the bomb mix.
Now, leave them alone. DO NOT TOUCH. Let them sit over night, then you can put them in an air tight container. On the Pin, PopSugar had a cute little jar. I will most likely put mine in a plain mason jar, 'cause that's how I roll. Maybe one day I'll make some cute labels. Either way, they turned out so great. They look pretty and smell awesome! I can't wait to use them!!
This recipe makes about 40 little bombs. All in all, it took all of about 10 minutes. It was so simple. To use these little guys, you just put a few in your disposal, turn the water on, then flip the disposal switch. Nothing will explode. Except your senses. They will explode with the sweet, crisp citrusy aroma permeating through the air. (If you read that last sentence in a dreamy, overly dramatic voice, props to you...if not, go read it again)
If you want to------->
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