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The Biggest Kitchen Table - Living deliberately & Money

Hi All,

Been rather busy so I am catching up now.

Rhonda Jean at Down to Earth is doing a week of 'the biggest kitchen table' posts so I have decided to join in although I have to play catchup as I missed yesterdays!

So firstly...

Living Deliberately & Money.

No spending week - It was suggested that we all partake in a no spending week where we do not spend any money at all on anything. Unfortunately I cannot participate in this as I need food shopping & Loo rolls, fuel for the car and as part of my part time job I go to our local social club to do the bookkeeping so need to buy drinks etc.
However I will try to keep Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri as no spending days!.

Living Deliberately
Rhonda Jean makes a great point about making sure that you are living in the moment and are sure of your goals and motivations so that you are always working towards them (and not being tempted to stray onto another path).
My main aims in life are...
To have a family and stay at home to raise the children and keep the home. I aim to do this by ensuring we have sufficient savings now whilst i'm working so we have a buffer in case of any unexpected bills. I also will ensure we have a strict budget to ensure that we pay all the bills but also that we pay the minimum so that there is more left for savings/family time & experiences.

Money
Thankfully at the end of last year we managed to pay off all of our debts we do not owe anyone for anything we have no loans, credit cards, overdrafts, car repayments, finance, even bills on installment. Everything now is saved up for and paid for in full no matter what the cost.
I like the idea of Rhonda's envelope system and think we will put this into practice as we have a few categories of spending which are a little haywire.
These are purchasing of food and going out! So I will make up some fabric envelopes and start this system soon! I think I will also make up an envelope for Allan to put his skittles money into each month.
We also have a 'bill account' as a separate account on our online banking and once a month we transfer a lump sum into it. This is analysed on a spreadsheet and the account basically is then split into categories for tv licence, mot/repairs, car tax, car insurance, christmas, birthdays, baby fund, electric, water, gas, contents insurance, pet insurance, pet emergency fund, general emergency fund and dentist and each month is equivilent to a monthly installment against this.
This system works really well for us it is just the food and going out parts that are an issue so we will work on these.

So to achieve the above I need to make some envelopes and start using the envelope system for cash purchases.

Things are moving on...

Ok so the posting every other day didn't exactly go to plan!

Things have been very busy over the last week.

I have started buying some things for the baby. Although to be 'green' I should probably buy as much as possible second hand we have decided to get the bigger 'essentials' new and ensure we buy to last as we are hoping that this child is the first of many and we therefore want to 'recycle' the items for each child. All of the items we have purchased are bright and colourful but are neutral so again they will will used for each child (we certainly won't be redecorating the nursery for each child!). Most of the things we have so far (I am extremely lucky to say) have been gifts from the families even still we have ensured that they are the best quality and are a good price/on sale. We are trying to ensure we have everything we need in the best quality at the lowest price, then hopefully we will have some money left in our baby budget for the things after birth that come up unexpectedly.

The garden is also coming on.
The peas are coming up, courgette seedlings are in, green beans and runner beans are growing well, spring onions are up, lettuce is getting there and tomato seedlings are doing well.
I have also planted some parsnips and carrots.
I will post some more pictures too!

The budget...well at the moment there is a very loose one in place but from 01/07/09 that is going to be tightened up! We need to get on track again after the house move to ensure we are saving as much as we can ready for a year without me working eeeekkk!!

I also started to feel a few kicks since last weekend so it is a very exciting time!!

I am really looking forward to being the best mother, wife and all round stay at home mum whilst i'm off work and I hope that I enjoy it as much as I think I will (i.e I am thinking about not returning to full time work but I may change my mind!).

Hope everyone is ok and the sun is shining where you are.

The Update

Well, I think we can class today as a success!

I started the morning with a lovely cup of 'proper' tea using my tea for one set...

Baking - Using a book that I purchased 4 years ago from a charity shop (the book itself is 20+ years old) I decided for the first time to make rock cakes. Allan's mum always has rock cakes on offer at the farm so I know as long as they come out OK they will be liked by Al!

They looked quite good going into the oven...

And here is the end result. They look really hard like rocks but they are gorgeous and moist inside and so yummy!

I also really enjoyed watching Millie relaxing in the sunshine whilst I was washing up. She looked so cute sat on the warm earth in the newly dug over beds that I had to sneak out and take a picture!


Also we made some substantial steps forward with the garden...

Here is the before shot, this was taken last weekend and we hadn't done anything during the week. The 'pond' was dug over and planted last weekend. The rest of the earth was weeds and various patio slabs.

Here is the 'after' picture across the 'patch'

Here you can see the newly created and dug over bed by the shed, I have planted peas in this bed and as you can see we have had to put nets over to protect the (hopefully soon to be) seedlings from the numerous pigeons that visit the garden. Also you can see the pots I planted yesterday with lettuce, spring onions and cherry tomatoes.

Unfortunately we did not manage to plant anything in these beds yet. The soil is very sticky and clay like and it took us a while to dig it through and break it up.
We have put the canes in ready for the runner beans and we will have cucumber and courgette in the front of one bed and carrots and parsnips in the other.

Here is a picture of the 'pond' bed at the bottom of the garden.

An up close picture of our lettuce seedlings coming through in the pond bed (the ones that have so far survived the slugs and snails that is, 50% have already disappeared)

And a picture of the french bean seedlings coming up, we will both eat this as french beans and also dry some pods for kidney beans.

We were also lucky enough to borrow a pressure washer from a friend so we cleaned the patio up which was very green and stained. It now looks lovely.


Oh and I managed to do all the ironing in 40 minutes!! every last bit.
It feels really good to be back up together with this.

So all in all a very productive day. I am really starting to feel tired now. I didn't work solidly throughout the day though don't worry, I am making sure I take regular breaks to put my feet up and rest. I have 'bumpy' to think of now!!

I hope everyone enjoys the week ahead.

Stacey xXx

Today's Goals

I am a list lover. I make a list with about 30 items on it and then feel really deflated when I only manage to achieve 5 things. I always attempt to do too much and then feel that I should have tried harder.

So today I have decided to list 3 things to do today and concentrate only on these:
(These are aside from the general day to day tidying etc)

1. Dig over the vegetable beds and plant some veggies

2. Bake something for lunchboxes

3. Do at least half an hours ironing and put the ironed clothes away(I have a huge pile which has been accumulating since before the move, normally I'd say get the ironing done but half an hour it better than nothing!)

Allan was working all day yesterday, then out in the evening (until 3am!!) and then working on his parents farm from 8am until lunchtime today.
I am therefore going to try and do a nice dinner so that he can relax this afternoon and not have to do too much. It is amazing when you take a step back and take pride in your role as a wife, you can get a great deal of enjoyment for providing for your husband.
Granted I certainly don't wait on him hand and foot nor am I a perfect wife, but I try to do the best I can.

Enjoy your sundays, I'll try and post later with some pictures of our day and an update on today's goals!

Hello Again...back to blogging and my news!

Hello,

Well life has certainly been busy and has kinda got in the way of my lifestyle aims, 101 things and general greening of our life.

Our news that I mentioned many weeks ago is.........I'm pregnant!!

We were trying for 7 months (my it felt longer than that) and I am now proud to tell you that I'm 17 weeks pregnant.Above is a little ornament that a friend gave us in hearing our news - how adorable.

We have also moved house. We knew that we would have to leave the bungalow next year so we decided to bite the bullet and move now so we didn't have the upheaval with a baby to deal with as well.

I absolutely love our new house, it feels like home, almost like it was made for us.
I never had that feeling at the bungalow, I wanted to change so many things but it would have cost many thousands of pounds and so was pointless as we knew we would leave there shortly.
I know Rhonda Jean from the blog 'Down to Earth' talks about shutting her gate to the world and relishing her role as homemaker in the garden/house that is her safe haven...for the first time I know exactly what she means.
We are still renting unfortunately but I think as long as we are happy where we are and enjoy our life it doesn't really matter too much!

So due to the pregnancy, and house move (we've been here for 3 weeks now and have just about unpacked) I have somewhat wandered from the path I had chosen and ultimately the path that makes me happy.

Whist watching the 4th hour of television this afternoon and feeling oh so bored and unfulfilled I knew what I had to do, get back on here, get back blogging, turn the ruddy television off and start living my life again!!

So I promptly went out and planted some veggies and flowers in our new garden and then came on here!.

A few pretty flowers in pots we had from the bungalow.

We have rearranged some slabs that were strewn over an area of earth that was weeded over. Now we have a narrow bed next to the shed and two larger beds which we will dig over and plant veggies in.

We are guessing this was a pond and it has been filled in with compost therefore making a perfect 4th bed. We have a variety of lettuce in the first half (you can just see the seedlings) and then french beans in the other bit.

Various seeds were planted in pots to (hopefully) germinate and then be planted outside.... Cucumber, tomatoes, courgette, basil and oregano.

I have also planted spring onions, more lettuce and cherry tomatoes in pots outside and also put our runner beans into the propagator.

Unfortunately we may have missed the window of opportunity with some of the veg that we have planted as it is a little late in the season but we figured even if half of the things grow its better than doing nothing!!

Please accept my apologies for lack of posting over the last few weeks/months, I am going to aim to post every other day (more if possible).

Looking forward to re-establishing this blog....off to check my progress with the 101 things now.

Stacey xXx

P.s please leave a comment if you read this as I am wondering if any of the previous readers will still see my blog?!?!

Its been a while

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the lack of posts I have still been scurrying away in the background.

Just like my friend at Notes from the Frugal Trenches I am working on something that I will be able to announce in a few weeks!!

For now though I will update you on a few goings on...

First a couple of weeks ago now I went to my aunties wedding. It was a beautiful day and very much a make do and mend wedding. A few things she did was:
- borrowed a marquee from another auntie
- hand sewed white cushion covers for outside chairs using old sheets
- wedding cake made by daughter
- wedding rings were 'commitment rings' they already had
- old, borrowed and blue were all things that were previously owned.
- wore a black and white dress that can be worn again
- lights in marquee borrowed from grans house
and so on.

I really wanted a fascinator to wear but lets face it i don't go to that many weddings and at £25 a pop they are really expensive. So I butchered some black thick ribboney stuff off of an old hat i had, twisted it around, sewed it up and hey presto:


Also the purple sprouting brocolli has sprouted purple!


Home cooked slow cooked beef stew tonight, it looks a lot nicer than in the picture I can assure you!


Millie asleep in her bed. Her bed is an old sofa cushion which has now been pulled to shreds 'in the name of making it comfy' by Millie!


I also had some not so good news this week, I (and the whole company) will probably be going onto a 4 day week and therefore taking a 20% paycut.
This is even more reason to stick to budgets etc and to bring our spending down to an absolute minimum. Although thankfully I do not have a mortgage and therefore this pay cut will be manageable.

I hope everyone is ok and best wishes to all who need them.
Stacey x

Busy,Busy, Busy

Well I have had quite a good weekend.

Friday night I decided that we needed to take 'another step' forward with the decluttering.

So I decided to do the TV cabinet.
The TV cabinet holds, the TV, stereo, playstation, sky box, DVD player, a few DVD's, loads of CD's and there are two basket type things next to it holding about 25 DVD's each.

Firstly we removed the HUGE stereo system from the unit and the two large speakers that stand either side of the cabinet. (they are about 75cm high and about 30cm square each).
This is going to be sold at a car boot sale. The tape deck is broken and we have a micro stereo system in the spare room. Do we need two? No. So the small one stays and the large one goes! Hurrah I'm making progress.

Next we sorted out our CD's. We are keeping our 'favourites' and storing them in 2 of the 3 CD racks incorporated in the unit and two CD boxes again held on the unit. Around 60% of the CD's to be sold at a car boot sale. (Any good songs on these CD's will be loaded onto itunes first).

DVD's we sorted through these a while ago and got rid of about 40% of these. Keeping the most watched. These are now neatly lined up on the TV unit as there is now space where the CD's and stereo once were!

Allans Playstation has some cables to charge the controllers, an earpiece and a few other bits so these are now stored in the 1st of the 3 CD integral racks so they are to hand but out of sight.

The net result of this is that we have removed 1 HUGE hifi system, approx 60 CD's, a few DVD's and everything for entertainment is all on one unit and is pleasant to look at.

OH MY GOD.

You will never guess ..... I am doing it .... I am actually deluttering!!!!!

Now today I have so far,

Washed up last night's tea things and put the dishwasher on, cleaned the surfaces in the kitchen and sorted through the paperwork on the dining room table.
Cleaned the kitchen sink, and cleaned the window over the kitchen sink.
Swept and washed the utility, kitchen, toilet and bathroom floor.
Quickly cleaned the toilet, sink and shower and washed the soap dish and toothbrush holder and changed the towels in the bathroom.
Moved all of the wheely bins (1 x green, 1 x black, 2 x black boxes, 1 x abel & cole milk box and 1 x bokashi) and swept all of the dirt, twigs and stuff up and out of the way so it is not getting brought into the house.
Cut up the last 2 magazines I had and glued my favorite hints, tips, sewing patterns and recipes into my project books.
Sorted out the doggie basket by the back door and decluttered so that only the basics are in there and it all fits into the basket (instead of having a big jar of treats next to it)
Updated my diary with my plans for the forthcoming week.
Saw my best friend from 11.45 until 3.00pm for a good old chin wag and a nice cup of coffee at mine!! Sheer bliss I needed a bit of 'friend' time!!
Sorted out the sideboard in the living room and made Allan sort through his IT wires, CD's, Work laptops, IT Books, etc etc etc. Net result = 1 full cupboard and 2 drawers sorted and now only half a cupboard full!!
Made pizza bases in the breadmaker and Allan is just doing the toppings for tea!


I am going to have tea and then set the timer for 1 hour. I am then going to see how many of the following items I can get done before having a lovely relaxing bath.

Things I need to do.
Change bedding and put the old on for a wash.
Do a packed lunch for me and Allan for work tomorrow. (already got brown pittas out of the freezer).
Put away as many clothes as possible leaving only an ironing pile ready for tomorrow.
Hoover living room, kitchen and hallway.
Do washing up from tea stuff and empty dishwasher.
Get clothes out ready for work tomorrow and polish shoes.

It is funny, if I am really busy and get a lot done at home, just pottering about at a steady pace Ialways feel so fulfilled and happy.
When I sit in front of the laptop/tv all day I don't.

Lesson learnt!

Batch Cooking & Pancakes...

Well I had to try my recipe to check it worked ;-)

Step 1 - Mixture poured into the frying pan...


Step 2 - Flipping it!! Takes much concentration by the looks of it!


Step 3 - Smother with lemon juice and sugar..


Step 4 - Gone!!....Next...


Now, I have had a somewhat turbulent couple of weeks and during this I had my first Organic vegetable box delivery (*Yey*).

I am really pleased with the contents of the box I absolutely wholeheartedly believe in paying more for Organic & wherever possible UK produce, we also had Organic Milk and Bread delivered. The service from Abel & Cole has been absolutely fantastic as well. They phoned the day before delivery to say it was coming and to see if i had any questions and then phoned the day after delivery to check I was happy with everything!

The only problem I face is that due to recent circumstances I am spending large amounts of time either with family (here or at theirs) and therefore do not have the time (or inclination) to cook.
I am still getting over the flu I had over the prior weekend as well and I know that in order for my body to feel well and to have a better sense of well being I need to feed my body with something decent.

So instead of eating the veg fresh as and when needed I am going to batch cook as much of it as possible (otherwise it will end up in the compost as it was not used as i didn't have time).

So perishable contents of fridge:
cauliflower, white cabbage, swede, lettuce

Perishable contents of cupboard:
potatoes

Perishable contents of veg box:
Leeks, onions, potatoes, celeric, mushrooms, tomatoes, carrots, green cabbage, lettuce

What will I be cooking?

Leek & Potato Soup (using the leeks & half of the potatoes)(Chopped 5 leeks and 5 potatoes and fryed in butter, added 2 pints of chicken stock, blended and sieved it smells delicious!)

Italian tarts (using mushrooms and tomatoes and puff pastry from freezer)(Puff pastry rolled out and cut into squares, scored 1cm from edge, tomato puree spread on middle, chopped tomatoes, mushrooms and cheddar cheese placed onto and drizzled with olive oil) (Also made sausage meat and stuffing plait to use up the rest of the pastry).

Cornish pasties (using potato, onion, swede, carrots and minced beef from freezer will make shortcrust pastry from scratch)
Cabbages, lettuces and grated carrot use as salad with tarts or pasties.

Cereriac ?? Never had this before I have no idea what to do with it! Anyone??

Also in a recent post I said I would use the old style ashtray/soapdish by the sink...here it is...


Also the old style pot I had from grans is being used to hold my utensils, and you can see the lamp in my kitchen to save me using a bazillion lights in the kitchen fittings! You can also see my notepad where I had just been listing the freezer contents!


And to sign off I thought I would list 5 things I am thankful for as I haven't done it for a while and it is very easy to become wrapped up in yourself when you are grieving.

1. That my gran & gramp are together. It may be difficult for me and the family to move on without gran but ultimately she is back where she belongs, by his side.
2. My Ipod. I used to sing in a band with my sisters from the age of 10 to 15. We made a few CD's and did bookings at pubs and clubs a couple of times a month. Although I do not regret giving it up I absolutely love singing. I got my Ipod a few christmases ago and singing along to it helps me deal with so many thoughts and feelings. I feel really good when I have just sung my heart out!
3. That I am fortunate enough to have a job which enables me to save for an emergency fund/house/baby fund. And that alongside this I still have some spare to help charities and people who need it. I am going to do a car bootsale soon to raise more money for the house fund and (mainly) to declutter. How fortunate I am to have excess to sell off.
4. I am thankful for my parents in law and husband being 'OK' with gran coming here to die. I am filled with such peace and calm knowing her wish of being 'at home' was fulfilled and her being here enabled all the family to be her when she passed. I will NEVER ever stop being thankful for that.
5. I am also thankful for my family. They are not perfect be any means and they may cause me shedloads of stress but they love me. I am so lucky to have a family that love me and are there for me.

I hope everyone is ok - please share your 5 if you leave a comment!!

Pancake Day

It's Pancake day!! So here is a recipe for pancakes and their various toppings
Ingredients:
110g/4oz plain flour, sifted
pinch of salt
2 eggs
200ml/7fl oz milk mixed with 75ml/3fl oz water
50g/2oz butter
Steps:
1. Sift flour & salt into a bowl.
2. Make a well in the centre of the flour and break the eggs into it.
3. Whisk the eggs & flour together.
4. Slowly add the milk and water mixture, still whisking.
5. Whisk until the batter is smooth, with the consistency of thin cream.
6. Melt the butter in a pan, spoon 2 tbsp of it into the batter and whisk it in.
7. Pour the rest of the butter into a bowl and use it to lubricate the pan, using a wodge of kitchen paper to smear it round before you make each pancake.
8. Get the pan to a medium heat and ladle the batter into the pan (don't use too much).
9. As soon as the batter hits the hot pan, tip it around from side to side to get the base evenly coated with batter.
10. After half a minute or so to cook flip the pancake over with a pan slice or palette knife - the other side will need a few seconds only.
11. Slide it out of the pan onto a plate.

To Serve (Just a few ideas for toppings):
1. Sprinkle the pancakes with caster sugar and lemon juice.
2. Or, Chocolate spread.
3. Or, Golden syrup & bananas.
4. Or, Strawberries and drizzled dark chocolate.
5. Or, Peanut butter and Jam

Roll or fold up the pancakes to serve.

Enjoy!