Cleaning your home may not sound like it has anything to do with personal finance, budgeting and saving money but bear with me and I’ll show you how it does.
I am the one who does most of the chores around the house and if I’m honest, I really dislike doing any of it.
It’s not just the house work itself but the fact that everything seems to be messy five minutes after I’ve done it! I suppose that’s the price to pay when you have kids.
Obviously some things need to be cleaned and tidied daily but for a slightly deeper clean, rather than doing everything all in one day, I focus on one room each day of the week. I think most people do this as it’d take too long to do everything in one day.
“I’m sorry Skint Dad, I though this was a money-saving site! What has keeping your house clean got anything to do with personal finance!?”
Well, bear with me, I am going somewhere with this….
Cleaning your home
Trying to clean every room in the house in one day is a mammoth task.
At the beginning you do ok and things are sparkling but by the end of the day, you don’t put as much effort in, you skip some of the tasks and you avoid anything out of eyes reach (well I do anyway).
Spending a whole day cleaning also means that I don’t get to concentrate on other things I usually would like playing with Chloe and working on the blog.
Saving money
Now let’s think about that in terms of money.
If you try to sort out all of your personal finance in one day it’s a mammoth task.
At the start you put your full concentration into it and get things done. As the day goes on, you get number blind, you get bored and think about doing anything else.
You don’t put full effort into making sure you’re saving the most you can on your bills, cutting back everything you should and making sure your finances are on track.
Can you see how it’s similar?
Sorting our your finances is a bit like cleaning the house. You may not want to do it but things get messy if you don’t.
Staying up-to-date on house chores can also save money in the long run.
Using a steam cleaner to remove grime and limescale before it builds up, for example, saves money on expensive cleaning products in the future.
You don’t even need an expensive model, as there are plenty of handheld steamers that cost less than £50. Preventing drains from clogging, stains from setting in carpets, and mould from growing also reduces the need to hire professionals.
Even as a money geek I don’t want to be spending ALL day dealing with my finances. I like checking things daily to make sure that my bank account looks as it should and saving any spare pennies I have but I spread some of the bigger money decisions over the course of a year.
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As an added bonus, with some of the more tricky, boring cleaning jobs like cleaning the back of the fridge can help reduce your energy bills as it is having to work less hard once clean. Coupling the clean with a deep clean, extra income could be raised to help tackle debt or savings.
You know that slipped my mind! Very good point. The same would go for clearing out any built up residue in the washing machine and even cleaning filters in your vacuum.