THE BIG FAT LIST OF THE YEAR

......and the reasoning behind it....



I'm going to run you through all the small things I'm monitoring this year. Invisible person potentially reading this - very probably you will read some of these and go 'Say what?'. Having mentioned a couple of them to the people I work with I've had laughter, puzzlement and a little derision. That's ok, I'm not doing this for them. And I'm not doing this for you either, mythical internet person. Small things regularly monitored lead to bigger things. Honest, they do. I'll be banging on about that at some point.

So here is my big fat list of the year 2015.

1. WALK THE DOGS

I have 2 pugs, Reggie and Gertie - more on them later. And they are simultaneously the joy and bane of my life. Mainly down to the fact I am a Bad Dog Mother (TM) and can't train them. If you're under the impression pugs are fat, slug like creatures who are no bother I'm here to tell you - HA! I work all day and often it is cold, wet and dark by the time I get home. They don't get walked, their behaviour gets worse and all of us are miserable. I will try to walk the dogs every day. Daily score.


2. CLEAN THE KITCHEN

I'm not a tidy person. I'd go so far to say I am a lazy, sloven who would sit on her arse all day if she could get away with it. But, clean tidy spaces make me happy. How do I deal with wanting a clean tidy house but not wanting to put the effort into creating that? I could get a cleaner but I'm too thrifty (some would say tight!) for that. So my pledge for 2015 is I will try to make sure my kitchen is tidy and clean when i go to bed every night. This is slightly Flylady of me (Google it) but it's a start. I know when I keep it clean it makes waking up every morning a little easier. Daily score.


3. FEED THE POT

Christmas costs much, yes? Never enough money (if you're like me) to pay for it. The Sealed Pot challenge - explained in greater depth later - is run on MoneySavingExpert.com forums. Daily score.


4. THE VIRTUAL POT CHALLENGE

This happens on a Sunday and is linked to no. 3 - I'll fill you in when we get there. Weekly score


5. SUNDAY PURSE TIP

Again, tied closely to no.3 - and I'll do a post about it. Weekly score


6. RECYCLING

I regularly miss the bin men and on a fortnightly collection this is a pain in the rear end. And most time when I do get the wheely bin out I forget (can't be bothered) to get the recycling boxes out as well. See, i told you I was lazy. Fornightly score.


7. DOCUMENT MY COMPETITION LIFE

One of the things that takes a chunk of my time is comping. I'm hoping along the way to address some of the misconceptions about compers and share with you what a year in comping looks like. This translates to - sharing when I've won something - yip yip! Posting pictures of my winnings - yip yip yip! Moaning when I've not won - sad face. Ad hoc score - the higher this one gets over the year the happier I will be.


8. A YEAR OF FILMS

Because I comp and I have pugs I spend a lot of time on the sofa with my laptop on my knee and the telly on in the background - why not combine that with watching movies? Good movies hopefully, I'm sure some rotten ones will sneak in.



So here's how the scoring works. If I do something I get a point. And over the year those points should add up - hopefully leading me to see that I'm not a series of disasters but a conglomeration of small wins. I really do believe that when you get in a rut you need to start praising the small wins and through that your self esteem will come back and you'll move onto bigger and better things.

None of these are challenging in and of themselves. But that's not to say they don't have worth. All will make me feel better in their own tiny ways. We're aiming for a cumulative effect here people.


And be warned - there will be various other bits and bobs lobbed at this space as and when. It really is a dib dab of most everything.