organization

I am being driven mad by the amount of stuff we have in and around our house. I spend hours outside tidying and prettying up the garden because I know that my efforts there will not be destroyed by a kougra hurricane every day.

This week though I got stuck into action ... enough is enough.

Kougra is home with me and we are both sick but I am determined to sort our house out one step at a time.

I have been trying to reuse and recycle and not waste things ... but it has meant that I have ended up with piles of bottles and useful containers of all shapes and sizes in assorted piles around the house.

I cleaned up a big 90L box that used to hold rainwater ... but developed a split in the bottom, and I am now using that as my useful box. Anything that I plan to keep for artworks or recycling into something else, will go in here but once I have a couple of each type of container ... or once the box gets full I will be throwing out any excess I have.

I have also started throwing out bits and peices of Kougra's things the minute I think they are no longer required.

We have also started a tidying game in the evening ... it was slow to take off but has increased in popularity now that both of us and a timer are involved.

What happens is I set Kougra a task and she gets to choose how many minutes she thinks it will take her. I set the timer and if she finishes first - she "wins". I then set her two more tasks ... ones that will have the most impact as far as tidying the loungeroom is concerned.

Then Kougra chooses 3 tasks for me to do in a certain amount of time ... and between us ... we get the living areas of the house looking pretty respectable!

I have also got piles of different things that I need to deal with, either putting things away or deciding what to do with them... I started by clearing a few of my downstairs piles and am encouraged by my success so far.

no clearer

After the visit to the vet we are no surer of our pooch's condition. The vet couldn't really feel any pups inside her but he said he would have a better idea if we brought her back in two weeks.

He said based on the changes we had noticed in her and the way they had happened he had a gut feeling that she might be pregnant ... but based on what he could feel now he was 90% sure she wasn't pregnant.

Confusing? YES definitely ....

Will have to wait and see.

points collection

I wrote this post and saved a draft of it and then it got lost!

So this draft will be much more to the point.

I have been collecting fly buys points and credit card points and farm town points.

The first two theoretically pay you back some cash but I am wondering if it is really worth bothering now that I am trying to limit our spending and save more to put towards our mortgage.

Fly buys give you approx 2 points per $5.00 spent so to redeem a $20 gift card you need 2500 points which equates to a cumulative spend amount of approx $6250. This works out to about 0.32 of one percent back for every dollar you spend ... or one third of one cent per dollar or 1c back for every three dollars you spend. Not that much really!

My credit card awards is slightly better in that you get 1 point for every dollar you spend and to get $20 cash back you need 4000 points which equates to a cumulative spend of $4000. This works out to 0.5 of one percent for every dollar you spend ... or half of one cent per dollar or 1c back for every two dollars you spend.

Then of course the bank charges all its clients whose customers pay with credit cards a surcharge anyway so the reward money they give you .... eventually .... comes straight from their customers and so isn't really hurting the bank at all.

Then in order to get 4c a litre off petrol you have to spend at least $30 at a grocery store ... it turns out this is the best deal of all surprisingly!!! And admittedly while you are paying this money you may also be accumulating credit card and/or fly buys points .... $30 ... 10c back from fly buys or 15c back from credit card.

Hmmmm glad I did these figures ... certainly puts things into perspective

points collector ... this is the version I wrote originally and thought was lost ... but now is found

I have just realized just how prone I am to pathologically collecting points.

I have spent countless hours the last 5 months collecting points on farmtown.

I collect points with my credit card and collect flybuys points.

While the last two theoretically give me money back ... it is so miniscule I may as well not be getting any.

e.g. to earn a flybuys $20 reward you need to have collected 2500 points you need to have spent $6250 in a flybuys affiliated store ... admittedly there are many of these ... but I wonder if it is really worth it ... especially if you specifically shop somewhere based on the fact that you will get points and then perhaps end up paying more for a product than if you had shopped around.

With the credit card you need to have spent $4000 on your card to accumulate $20 cash back therefore it would be $5000 to get $25 cash back or 0.5% cash for every dollar you spend.

Comparatively the rate for flybuys rewards is 0.32% or one third of a percent per dollar you spend.

Phantom Pregnancy?

It is one month since our pooch went on heat for the first time.

She was in the local dog kennels during that time and the staff were aware of her situation.

Also extremely aware of her situation was the male desexed dog in the enclosure with her, who "mated" with her.

As far as we know she has not had a chance to mate with an entire dog but we have both noticed that her nipples are quite big, she is putting on weight... and she has also gone off her food (although both these last two could be attributed to the fact that Kougra has been feeding her (LOTS!) She has also been much quieter of late and not as keen to run around like mad .....

Online research indicates that going off food, behaviour changes and changes in nipple size are good signs of pregnancy BUT apparently dogs are quite prone to phantom pregnancies where they act and react as if they are pregnant after having been in season.

Anyway it is off to the vet tomorrow to see if he can shed any light on the subject.