They got me hooked on YouTube

For the last couple of years the boys have been completely hooked on YouTube videos. Like most 30 something parents, I despaired! Seriously! You are watching someone else play a video game. Why? You should play it yourself. Anyhoo, I guess I just got curious one day, I tripped and I fell big time into the YouTube vortex! And now I am hooked! You can learn pretty much anything on YouTube, obviously there is the good, the bad and the ugly (who watches other people squeeze spots??!!) I feel that for the most part my youtube addiction is doing this family good. I am decluttering, I am learning new ways to parent, especially our foster children, and I am teaching myself to manage money so that we can be more financially secure.
My favourites so far:
Clutterbug
Her home is AMAZING but the way she achieves this, feels accessible to mere mortals like me! She is Canadian and seems to buy everything from the dollar tree, I kind of need to have a proper look in the pound shops here, but I get the impression that it's not quite the same. I have managed to get a lot of plastic tubs from Tesco and like Clutterbug I have got the Ikea Kallax system in nearly every room now! This all started because a friend of mine who lives in a tiny but perfectly organised home told me that she keeps everything in storage containers because it is easier to keep everything tidy and makes moving home easier (the joy of renting!)
DebtFreeDana
So Dana pretty much follows the Dave Ramsey financial plan, but personally, I find him really mean! He has great ideas, but kind of yells them at people! Dana is like the soft focus filter for Dave Ramsey. She is super practical and realistic and makes the Baby Steps achievable. We are living like no one else now so that we can live like no one else later! (American style woop) I love that Dana is religious so she includes tithing in her budget, yay!
Jordan F. Page
The owner of Fun Cheap or Free, I started watching her because she explained the envelope budgeting system in a way that even my simple brain could understand! I followed her for a little while and then my Mormon radar kicked in. Total Utah Mormons. I have picked up some great tips and love that she wears flowery leggings under her ripped jeans. I am trying to convert Caitlin to this!!

No blog post is complete without a cute kid picture. So in keeping with my theme, here is Phineas holding a robot that we bought from a charity shop for 50p! He loves it, it's clean, it works and I didn't have to unscrew it from stupid kid packaging, win, win situation. We have really reduced the amount of toys the kids own, and I am now starting to get in the habit of rotating them round, but I think donating their old toys and books to charity shops and then buying new ones from there is a like having a giant toy rotation system, so I am going with that!