It’s Wednesday now, and it’s on with Day Three of our Tenner Week budgeting challenge. How’s your menu for the week working out? Have you spent any of your £10 budget yet?

If you’re in the habit of generally overspending, it can really help to look for freebies, find things you already own that you can use up, or just keep busy with our daily Tenner Week activities. Today’s activity could be a great help to your finances, especially if you decide to tackle an area that triggers you to spend more than you’d like to.

Today’s declutter: Address book, emails or social media

Some of the clutter in our everyday lives isn’t physical. You can’t stub your toe on it or trip over it, but it can weigh you down, make you stressed or just generally get in your way. It can also make you unhappy with yourself or feel as though you’re unworthy or missing out, as is sometimes the case with certain people or brands you might be following on social media. Don’t worry, it’s easy enough to tidy it up.

Today’s activity is to declutter your e-clutter for 15 minutes. You’ll probably be able to identify your own problem area or place that could do with the most tidying up, but if you need some inspiration then you could choose any one of the following:

• Unfollow people, channels or brands on social media that make you feel uncomfortable
• Delete some junk emails or any other old emails you don’t need to keep, remembering to fully empty the trash file afterwards
• Unsubscribe from a few marketing emails, especially ones that make you overspend
• Go through video clips or digital photos and delete multiple duplicates or anything outdated
• Update your privacy settings or security settings on browsers or social media sites
• Tidy up your work or personal files by grouping them into folders by date or theme
• Run a security scan on your laptop or computer
• Back up some important files that you can’t afford to lose
• Delete any apps on your phone that you don’t use – or that you use far too much

If none of those appeal, ask yourself what sort of files or e-clutter you could quickly tidy up to make your life easier, happier, less stressful or more organised. Do you need to look at your online bank statements but have been putting it off, for example?

Choose one single activity that you can work on without interruption, set a timer and work with full focus for a quarter of an hour.

What’s happening here

Yesterday’s bathroom cupboard declutter went fairly smoothly. The recycling went out right away, I have a few things next to the shower now to use up this week, and the rest is in a box to take to the charity shop this weekend. It’s didn’t take that long because the space was essentially clean, and it was only one section that was particularly messy. It’ll be easier to find replacement items in a hurry from now on, and to grab the first aid kit in case of an emergency, which was the main aim of the exercise for me.

I’ll be spending fifteen minutes junking and reorganising some old work emails today – doubt I’ll get to ‘inbox zero’ but it’s a start. Wonder how many I’ll be able to get rid of in those few minutes? Any amount would be useful, I’m sure.

The other thing I’ll be getting up to today is an exercise class. These were pre-paid at the start of term to save money, so there’s no point wasting them. Fortunately it’s only a short walk from home so there should be no other expenses involved. I’m hankering after some new workout gear, but will have to give that a miss for the time being. Perhaps there’ll be something in the final final clearance sales next week, but I’m not going to look in any shops for the moment as that never seems to bode well for my budgeting.

Tonight’s dinner is a quick ‘fend for yourself’ while we’re in and out of the house at different times, which basically translates into hunting around the fridge for leftovers or having some beans and sausages on toast, the only meal we haven’t made a specific plan for. At least we haven’t run out of food to use up yet, so that’s encouraging. A proper home cooked meal’s planned for tomorrow though.

Which e-clutter do you need to sort out the most today? What’s your budget looking like so far this week?