Taking Control of My Environment

that’s what my husband calls cleaning. He says it’s asserting control over your situation. Probably why it makes me feel so good to do it.

This has been a busy morning. My first comment, thank you anonymous, led me to Shoeboxed.com, a site that allows one to organize online receipts. So Achievement #1 today was setting up an account there. Quick explanation of what the site does.
– You sign up for it and they provide you with an e-mail account.
– You use this e-mail account for your account with Amazon and such.
– When you buy things there, the receipt e-mails get sent to Shoeboxed.
– It files them as receipts and helps you sort them (it extracts numbers and such).
– Also can be a place to field the spam or unwanted e-mails that come from ordering online.
– Oh, and it sends your real e-mail a notice each time it receives something.
So I set up an account there and changed my Amazon and Ebay accounts to have my Shoeboxed e-mail address. I don’t do much other buying online.

Achievement #2: I made a shopping list for this coming week. First, I planned the dinners using my More With Less cookbook. This upcoming week, we’re having Kusherie (for which I have all the ingredients) p.108, Garden Vegetable Curry p. 134, and Groundnut Stew p. 172. The dishes are from Egypt, India, and Central Africa respectively. Plus we have leftovers of a wonderful Baked Lentils and Cheese (and veggies!) p. 106, and a strange bean spaghetti I tried to make and kind of messed up. That should be another 2 dinners there. And all three meals will have plenty of leftovers.

The ingredients are pretty inexpensive, or I have them already. Lots of rice and beans involved, though Groundnut Stew has beef…I could substitute chicken, I’ll have to check prices. The one expense is spices. But I bought a lot of spices last summer and still have some left. I also got some leftover spices when my housemates and I divided up the food. And the spices make the meal, really.

Non-financial Achievement #1: Straightened up the apartment. We’d been away last weekend and brought back some stuff from my parents house, but it was just lying around. Then last night’s receipt collection project also messed things up. Now, however, most things are put away and the floors are open again. Made me feel very good. I also listened to the Wicked soundtrack while I did it, which made me feel even better.

Then hubby and I moved our bed to a new part of the room…we’ll see how that works out. I think it seems more practical and it uses space better. Plus changed the sheets and had hubby put in a laundry load of sheets and towels.

Goals for today: Go grocery shopping, edit hubby’s latest article, take in my suit pants (just a bit around the waist), separate grocery receipts, maybe wash more shirts (?). Don’t have to make dinner, since we’re having leftover baked lentils! Microwaves are my friend.

If I’m really good, I’ll do some writing myself, or read something worthwhile. Or maybe Terry Pratchett. He’s very very worthwhile.

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