Last Sunday was a smashing day here in middle England. The sun was splitting the trees and suitably fortified by some strong coffee and a couple of slices of toast and marmalade, I put down the Sunday papers and decided it was a day for doing the “outdoor jobs”.

First on the long list of jobs to be done was shed and fence painting. I am the proud possessor of three garden sheds (please don’t ask we ended up with three – probably the same way we ended up with FIVE Yorkshire terriers at one time) and I thought I’ll start off with the smallest shed.  It seemed quite a straightforward task – medium brush to remove all cobwebs and c**p and a wire brush for the green gungy stuff at the bottom.

However when I got round to the far away side of the shed I discovered to my surprise that the roofing felt had been worn away – possibly by the adjacent holly tree.  So half my day ended up as a roofing project than a painting one.  However once I got back to painting with one of my favourite Grateful Dead bootlegs in the background (yes, old hippies never die – they tie-dye, sorry) I got to thinking how I had frequently been in and out of that shed for months but had never looked at the bit that was usually out of sight.

Then I started to ponder all the  other things that I looked at the front of but seldom checked the bits that weren’t obvious to view.  And so the list began:

Bank Accounts – I know I should check my bank statement but how often do we all look at the bottom line and say that looks OK. I know I really should be going through each entry and reconciling it with expenditure and payments made.

Credit Cards – Same thing again but I did find a small monthly recurring payment that I’ll now have to investigate.

eBay Listings – I we sell the same thing time after time on eBay as many of us do, how often do we check through the listing and compare it with other similar listings just to make sure that we’re still up to date and competitive.

Utilities Bills – How often do I check the readings on my utilities bills – not very often. Fortunately that will change as I’ve now moved on to self billing where I send in the quarterly readings.

Monthly Outgoings – This was one where I  was ahead of the game. Some months ago I came across a monthly expenditure log on Martin Lewis website. Since then we’ve keeping a record of all our household expenditure and it’s absolutely fascinating to see where all the money goes – and soooo much of it. We never realised just how much we parted with every month. It’s something I’d recommend anyone to do. Even if it doesn’t make you change your habits it will make you think.

I’m sure that when I get on to my next shed I’ll think of even more areas whose hidden sides need my attention. If there  are readers of the is blog perhaps you have ideas of areas that we all need to check.

Meanwhile, there’s a hot cup of coffee and a biscuit with my name on it nearby…..