One Step at a Time

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2010-11-23T17:20:00.002Z

The Biggest Kitchen Table - Living deliberately & Money

2009-07-04T15:30:00.002+01:00

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...

2009-06-23T16:06:00.002+01:00

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

2009-06-14T11:18:00.009+01:00

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

2009-06-14T09:58:00.002+01:00

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!

2009-06-13T18:34:00.006+01:00

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

2009-03-25T18:02:00.004Z

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

2009-03-08T18:28:00.003Z

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...

2009-02-25T17:20:00.000Z

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

2009-02-24T07:30:00.002Z

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!

Happy Pictures

2009-02-23T15:48:00.003Z

The service was very emotional today but went very well.
The hard part starts now, moving forward whilst dealing with the grief.

However I'm feeling really positive and looking forward to getting the house straight and getting things back on track after the recent upheaval here.

Here are a few pictures of things that have been making me smile this week:

Me and my Gorgeous Niece Jessica (here she was about 8 hours old) now 11 days old!
My daffodil collection - they have always been dear to my heart since I heard a story that Gramp ate one for a bet! When Gran came home I collected some daffodils in bud from the garden to flower inside. As she was passing away one (just one out of all below) was opening until when she had left us it was completely open. Magical just Amazing.
The real daffodils from the garden are in the vase, the ones in the plant pot are fake and were given to me by the family as a everlasting reminder of 'that' moment. The small daffodil head is a daffodil pin that we all have (donation of £1 to Marie Curie Cancer for each one) and wore to the funeral today. You will also see a locket which have daffodils on, I have one and I gave one to gran (in her coffin).

When I was down Grans the other day I found this book in a drawer, it seems that she was 'green' at heart to!! I can't wait to read this!

It is funny what things are sentimental, here is one of gran and gramps butter knifes. I just 'had' to have one of these for a keepsake! Fond memories come flooding back just looking at it. Almost every time you went in they would have bread and butter spread really thickly.

This was on the windowsill at grans as well. I think she used it as an ashtray, however it was just so adorable I have brought it home. I'll probably use it next to the kitchen sink to keep the dishcloth etc on.

We have also been very lucky in being able to have a solid wood sideboard which is just beautiful, I will post a picture of this when we have it.

I hope everyone is well and I look forward to posting a bit more regularly now!

I'm off to do some cooking and cleaning to try and realign myself back to normality.

Grief & Finding the Peace

2009-02-16T17:37:00.005Z

Just a quick update to let you all know that Gran deteriorated over the last 10 days. We were told we would have her with us for a few weeks/days on Friday. As she couldn't go 'home' she came to mine on Saturday at 5pm and passed away peacefully surrounded by her family at 3.35am on Sunday morning.

It has been a hard weekend and I'm sure it will be difficult for a while yet. Her funeral is on Monday so I am going to take some time out until then to try and find some peace.

Grief is a funny thing one minute you are immensely sad and overcome by the tears the next you are laughing at funny memories. She will be very sadly missed.

I know gran is at peace now and reunited with gramp who passed away just over a year ago. I need to reconnect with my soul and find my peace with the situation so that I can regain strength to move forward day by day.

Life and death are part of the same cycle and my Niece was born on Thursday and she has certainly helped me see the other side of the cycle and cheer me up.

To make matters even better (she says sarcastically) I have the coldy fluey thing going round and have been quite ill over the weekend.

However the sunshine and birds singing today quietly reminded me that however bad things get...they always get better.

Organic Vegetable & Fruit Boxes

2009-02-10T19:32:00.003Z

Well after my post about recycling and how annoying it is having fruit and veg wrapped in ten layers of plastic, it was suggested I consider a vegetable box delivery.

We hubby and I have mulled this over and think it is the right way to go.
We decided on using Abel & Cole as they are wholly organic and try wherever possible to use UK Produce and as it is delivered in a box there is no packaging and any packaging there is can be recycled.

We are going to have a large fruit and veg box, some milk and bread delivered every other week.

So lets see how this goes!! Its feels really good that amongst all of the chaos and madness in the family at the moment we are still moving forward with our aims and goals.

I am currently preparing for a 'homemade' valentines evening but I cannot write about that until Sunday as I do not want Allan to know what we are eating!!

What a weekend!

2009-02-09T08:03:00.002Z

Hi everyone,

Just an update from me. Gran is still in hospital they won't start the chemo until she is feeling better and is stronger.

My auntie went to collect a few of Grans things to take to the hospital on Saturday and then saw it.
The tank in the airing cupboard had split, leaking water into both of the bedrooms, through the floor/ceiling into the lounge and the dividing wall downstairs!.

I spent most of Saturday afternoon trying to lodge the claim and get things moving.
** Red Tape Alert ** Can you believe that even when I explained to the insurance company that Gran was in hospital with terminal cancer and we didn't want to tell her of the true extent of the damage as we were worried this could make her worse. The insurance company would not speak to me. I gave them her name, address, DOB, policy number etc etc but no. We had to get my auntie who had gone to visit to phone the insurance company on her mobile in hospital (which you are not allowed to do!) and get gran from her hospital bed to say I am allowed to deal with it.
You would have thought in these circumstances they would have showed some leniency!.
Ok Rant over.

Anyway we managed to get the company dealing with the contents out yesterday and he has said with his experience that it will probably take approx 4 months to sort. As they will probably have to pull up the floor upstairs, pull down the ceiling downstairs, strip the internal wall, dry out, re plaster, and then redecorate and re carpet the whole house!

So I have managed to get a day off today to try and sort it with the insurance company to find alternative accommodation. Even though Gran is ill she is still fiercely independent so would not live with anyone! Poor Gran!

So that is the long story as to why I haven't posted on here!

Hope everyone else is OK and hopefully when this week settles down I'll be able to get back to Greening/Simplifying/Frugality!

Finding the happiness in simplicity

2009-02-06T18:09:00.003Z

I think that to be truly happy we need to find 'simple' things every day that make us happy. It is an affirmation that today was a good day and that you have made a difference.

Today has been an average day. The snow was so bad in the village I was unable to go to work.
I feel tired and am nearly ready for bed. As it has been snowing for 5 days on and off this is nothing new.

Yet out of this average day I suddenly see all of the simple, frugal (no cost) things that have made me happy today. Some of which are-
1. A snowball fight with my sister and mum
2. Making a snow woman
3. Digging my mums car out of the snow (It is the first time in my life I have had to do this).
4. Walking in the snow so much that little Millie has slept for 5 hours straight.
5. Having a log fire to warm the house using 'used' newspapers, homemade firelighters (tumble dryer fluff stuffed inside toilet roll inners) and logs from a fallen tree at Al's parents farm.
6. Standing in a snow drift so deep it went over my wellies!!
7. Whilst giggling at a friend who slipped over in the snow, having Millie even the game by pulling me over!
8. Drinking a lovely cuppa.
9. Drying my socks on the radiators and trousers in front of the fire.
10. Cutting my favorite parts out of magazines to go in recipe books - green tips, recipes, organising, home ideas, sewing patterns you name it - its in there!

I could go on and on. Although I don't feel bouncing off of the walls happy every day. When I think about it I have a lot to be happy about and a lot to be thankful for.

Things are never straight forward but hey things would be boring if they are.

Thank you all very much for your comments the other day. I'll be taking note of them!

The Crossroads

2009-02-04T21:10:00.003Z

I am there...the crossroads. I am stood in the middle and I don't know which way I should turn.

Things are a little difficult at the moment. Gran is ill. Although the family in general get on very very well, my immediate family (mum, dad, steph and soph) are not.

As hard as I try to keep out of it I always end up being the mediator and thereby my feelings get hurt and my stress levels rise even though I am not in the argument.

My dad has Multiple Sclerosis, he has had it for nearly 10 years. He can still just about walk with a zimmer frame but is getting worse every day. His grip is going in his hand. He is only 50.

I sometimes close my eyes and imagine how life would be, living in a smallholding in rural wales or yorkshire. Having farm animals and chooks, letting the dog roam free and maybe a polytunnel. Letting the kids run amok and play dens and just be free.
I imagine how lovely it would be having no 'ties' with family. No family members ill whose bedside i'm rushing to, no rowing family to quiet, no referees outfit to wear.
And then that thought makes me sad and happy and the same time. Happy because it would be lovely and sad for the same reason.

I love my family very much and would do ANYTHING to help them.

But today I have come to the conclusion that they cannot be helped.

I am at a crossroads do I go down with them or stay strong and look after No1?
Do I concentrate on putting my family first or should I be putting my all into my career?
Am I being sucked into their negativeness and risking my marriage with my moodiness?

How do you include family in you life when 90% of time it brings sadness?

I am at a crossroads and I don't know which way to turn.

Sorry for this rather negative post, I'm sure my path will pick me soon and tell me which way to walk. I just feel a little lost at the moment.

Recycling

2009-02-03T17:00:00.002Z

We really try and recycle everything we can.

As a rule this is what we recycle:
Cans
Glass Bottles
Newspaper/Junk Mail/Magazines (Either sent for recycling or used for fire)
Yellow Pages/ Telephone directories
Plastic bottles
Cardboard
Tetrapaks
Clothes/Shoes/Bags (either sent for recycling or charity)
Wood
Electrical Items (taken to recycling centre)
Ink Cartridges for Printer (sent to help child line)
Food waste - all non cooked items composted.
General Household goods/furniture (Offered to friends/family/freecyle/charity)
Plastic bags

We do aim to recycle everything we can. One problem we face is the over packaged fruit and vegetables. We try to eat organically and find that more often than not these items are in a non recyclable plastic carton wrapped in plastic.

We also try to find multi uses for things by adapting them to fit our ever changing needs.

For example we have a cotton duvet set that has become misshapen and therefore we do not use it anymore. I will be 'reusing' these as I am going to turn them into cot blankets and also rags.
Also I am going to go through my wardrobe and 'declutter' so I will be bearing my fabric pile in mind before recyling anything I no longer need.

Can anyone think of anything else we should be doing?

Water Usage

2009-02-02T17:00:00.005Z

Well as if it wasn't bad enough the water bill arrived today.

Over 210 days we used 67 units which means a bill of £235.88.
We used on average 0.32 of a unit a day and therefore £1.12 a day.

My target with the water usage is to get the bill to approx £1 a day max.

One little good thing though is that our monthly DD payments of £38.50 had exceeded the value of the bill by £104.94. We will therefore be phoning the water company and getting a cheque for this and putting it into our house savings.

Things we do currently:
- We have a water butt
- We normally have showers (bath once a week)
- Turn the taps off when brushing teeth
- Don't have a swimming/paddling pool
Actually that is all I can think of that we do to save water. (Oh Dear)

Things we will do:
- Retain bath water to 'flush' toilet (must find a container to keep in the toilet).
- Ensure Stacey's showers do not overrun (might have to get a waterproof timer!!)
- Reuse cooking water to water houseplants.
- Only hand wash a 'full load' rather than a few bits here and there.
- Reuse water from condenser tumble dryer to 'flush toilet'

Any other tips would be really appreciated.

I would really like to become more self sufficient in energy & water!

Decluttering & Organising - Step 1

2009-02-01T19:01:00.000Z

I am a hoarder. I believe it is genetic as my mum was the same. I need 'spares'. It will come in useful some when. Why chuck it away when I might need to buy it again some when. It is of sentimental value. It is a good solid piece it would be a shame to throw it away. How can I be green if I get rid of things.

These are all things I have said to myself over the last week.

Step 1 to decluttering and organising.

Admitting that things have to change and wanting it to.

The admission that even after saying all of the above excuses I have too much 'stuff'. That I am struggling to live a simple life surrounded by all of these 'things'. And that no matter how hard it is to part with 'things' I really want to do it.

I have a real issue with getting rid of things.
Stationery, clothes, shoes, ornaments,photos, paperwork and on and on and on.

Things have to change.

I am going to start small as I really need to take 'one step at a time' with this.
I'll start with the area around my desk.

My findings:
Staples - 2 boxes - decanted into a small jar
Post it notes - one huge block and 10 small ones!! - retained 2 small ones
labels - 2 small packs different types - OK.
paperclips - one box - decanted into small jar.
26/6 staples - one huge box and one small (for a stapler we used once to make wedding invites!) retain big box get rid of small
Filofax - address pages, post it notes, ruler & ruled notepad. - don't need any more.
140 ink cartridges in assorted colours (I haven't used a cheap fountain pen in years)
4 glue sticks - 2 completely dried out so threw these away, others will be used for scrap books)
4 sharpeners - only need one!
15 mini highlighters - don't need
4 medium highlighters - keep
1 pen highlighter - keep
1 jumbo highlighter - don't need
3 compasses - only need one
11 felt tip pens - don't use.
Colouring pencils - use occasionally.
6 sketching pencils - use occasionally.
Bottle of tip ex - cheap bottle and is rubbish!
1 bottle of good tip ex - keep.
Assorted rulers - retain one of each.
2 Parker fountain pens and 14 ink cartridges. - keep one pen & Cartridges.
4 fountain pen correctors- don't use
8 permanent markers - keep for labelling boxed when we move out.
5 assorted permanent markers - don't use
2 'security markers' - keep and label TV etc.
51 pencils - keep 10 best
10 red Biro's - keep 4
4 green Biro's - keep 4
49 black/blue Biro's - keep 25
1 silver paint market - keep
3 calligraphy pens - don't use
1 pack invisible mounts - use for scrap books
1 pack - bulldog clips - use
2 staplers - keep one
2 mini rolls of sellotape on dispensers - keep
2 hole punches - keep one
3 erasers - keep one
3 calculators - 2 scientific and one mini - get rid of old scientific.
2 rewritable discs - keep
1 pair scissors - keep
Various envelopes - all OK
cream 'special paper' and burgundy card - use for crafting.
one ream of printer paper/wallets & dividers - all OK
large A4 sheet of 10 labels - OK.
sellotape - 2 rolls.
one magazine file full of 'lined paper' - sell Filofax paper keep 3 a4 pads.
one magazine file full of 'other paper' - keep a4 square pad, a4 journal pad, graph paper, give white card to mum and get rid of white paper.
three pencil cases! - keep one

Oh my god!! This stationery was in my desk and dotted about here and there but when I listed it even I was shocked at how much there was!

I have put the unwanted items onto freecycle. Hopefully someone will make good use of them.

Now which drawer/shelf shall I tackle next?

Electric Usage - Arrggh!

2009-01-31T17:00:00.000Z

Well I have some bad news! We have had the electric bill! Gulp!

It was £255.91 for 1535 units over 135 days!
This equals an average of 11.37 units a day therefore £1.59 a day! Oh dear.

We have now discovered that:
1. We can actually live a decent life without every light in the house on.
2. Maybe we do not need to use the dishwasher/washing machine/tumble dryer quite so much
3. The dehumidifier we bought (only used on 14 days out of the above) doubles our electric usage each day! (Oh My God!)

Our target for the average this year is going to be 8 units therefore £1.12 a day.

We will achieve this by:
1. Turning off lights at every opportunity and using the lights with least amount of bulbs in each room.
2. Reducing the usage of dishwasher/washing machine/tumble dryer.
3. Only using the dehumidifier when necessary
4. I've changed from a electric alarm clock with a light that comes on half an hour before you wake to a wind up alarm clock - only small savings but still worthwhile.
5. We have taken everything 'off' standby and removed plugs from sockets where possible.
6. Trying to optimise the use of the oven (i.e have more than one thing in at a time).
7. Only filling the kettle up to the correct number of cups.
8. Ensuring the fridge freezer and chest freezer are at the correct temperature.
9. Stacey not using the laptop so much (this one is gonna be tough!)

Hopefully I can update with some progress at some point this year as we are using way too much!

Homemade Cards - No 16

2009-01-30T17:00:00.000Z

Well I have been a lucky bunny, I have put as one of my challenges that I would like to buy 'homemade' cards from my mum rather than buy cards for the coming year.
Well I went round mums the other day and had a look through her stash and found a few I liked, I then happened to mention that we had been given a turkey over Christmas that was too big to fit in our oven.
A little bartering took place as my mum said I could have a years worth of cards for the turkey and she would invite me & Allan to the meal when they cook it. I agreed there and then and feel like we have both profited from this agreement!

The cards I selected were:
Mum has said I just need to write down how many more I need and she will make them!

The Vegetable Garden - Seeds & Sowing Plan

2009-01-29T17:00:00.004Z

Well I have now purchased all of my seeds and I have quite a few!

Here are the seed potatoes & onion sets (we are still waiting for the garlic to arrive)

And here are all of our other seeds, some are new & some are from last year. I have checked the date on the packets to ensure that they are 'in date' and therefore they should have a good germination rate.

This year we will be growing:

Fruit - Raspberries, Strawberries, Cooking Apples, Eating Apples, Plums, Pears, Red Grapes (All Existing plants/trees)
Vegetables - Plum Tomatoes, Normal Tomatoes, Cherry Tomatoes, Cucumber, Courgette, Swede, Parsnip, Carrot, Calabrese (green broccoli), Cauliflower, Green & Iceburg Lettuce Heads, Mixed Lettuce Leaves, French (green) Beans, Peas, Onions, Leeks, Kidney Beans, Potatoes, Garlic and Spring Onions.

Our plot is 12ft x 37ft.

I have a spreadsheet on which I have drawn the plot to scale. I then use this to work out where each item should be planted and how much of it I should plant.
I then look at each packet of seeds to see when each should be planted/propagated, thinned and harvested. I put this onto a spreadsheet having columns for each type of vegetable, and a weekly date.

This means at a glance I can see that during the week of the 15th April 2009 I should be sowing mixed lettuce, sowing 2ft peas, propagating 2 cauliflowers, propagating the courgette seeds and tending to the parsnip seedlings.
Although the weather could throw this plan out completely it at least helps me see where I should be each week and remind me to do various things to try to avoid gluts.

If anyone would like a copy of this spreadsheet just leave your email address on a comment and I'll email it to you.

Vegetables are so easy to grow, all you need is dirt/compost, water and sun.
All I normally do is put the seeds in the ground, water when dry and weed around them. That's it. I have many commitments outside of full time work and yet I still manage to keep a vegetable patch and harvest delicious vegetables.

Even if you are a beginner just try some mixed lettuce leaves and cherry tomato's, both can be grown in containers.

Want healthy food straight from the garden?....Dig for victory!

The Vegetable Garden - January Update

2009-01-28T17:00:00.001Z

The veggie garden is coming along, Allan has been hard at work digging the plot over and I think he has done about a third of the plot.

The view down the plot...

You can see our raspberry bush in the front of the picture above. It was about 50cm high when we bought it last year and it is the same height as me now - 150cm!

This time of year for us is a time for preparing for spring and we never usually produce much.
We have some purple sprouting broccoli in which I don't think we will get any result with but we'll see. Everything else has been harvested. We have some courgette in the freezer and some cooking apples as well and also some onions hung outside.

I have ordered all of our seeds & sets for growing already and most have arrived. I will do another post listing what we will grow and when.

And I think spring is on its way, we have daffodils coming up

And some other unknown bulbs coming up:

I'll try and post a picture of these when they are in flower so we can all (myself included) see what these shoots turn out like!

2009-01-27T20:20:00.002Z

A few lines about what living simply means to me:

Love - Your family, friends, neighbours, surroundings, everyone & everything.
Interpret - Watch how everyone else you admire lives & interpret your own version.
Vegetables - From a little acorn a huge oak tree grew, grow veg & fruit and reep the rewards.
Invent - Make do & mend and invent your own uses for 'old' things, buying new is a last resort.
Nutrition - Your body is only as good as the food put into it. Consider organic/seasonal produce.
Green - Being aware of the environment and controlling your impact on it.

Sleep - We spend half our life doing it so get enough and ensure it is good quality!
Interact - Stop texting and emailing, visit people, join your community, talk face to face.
Money - We all have to have some to get by, we don't need excess, budget & you can live on less.
Peace - Find an activity that creates some peace in your life (yoga/meditation), rest a little.
Live - Start living life now, tomorrow never comes, enjoy the day to day living.
You - You're the most important person in your life, spend time on you doing things you want to.

We may not be able to stop things happening in our lives but we can change how we react to them and live life consciously and positively.

No 4 - Make my own dishcloths...

2009-01-27T17:00:00.001Z

...is complete!

I have been trying for a while now to 'get the hang of' knitting and I just couldn't do it. So I ended up getting my mum round to show me where I was going wrong.

Firstly I was pulling the wool too tight, I was trying to ensure there were no big holes and just ending up making my life difficult!.
Also I was knitting about 3 rows and then deciding it didn't look right and so unpicking it and starting again. Now if I had got to row 10 I would have realised that I was doing it right in the first place but that it just takes a while to see the results.

I have now managed to knit my first dishcloth and will never buy new again. Wahoo!

For anyone who hasn't mastered knitting please keep trying, once you get the knack it is very easy and therapeutic. I was given a book on how to knit by my parents for Christmas. It is aimed at kids but I found it very easy to understand and was able to put the words into actions. It shows you how to do a few different types of stitch and also how to knit a few different things. I have taken a picture of it so that you would recognise it is you saw it.
It is the Usborne Art Ideas How to Knit book.
Oh and i have just found it on The Book People's website for £2.99! Bargain.

Happy knitting!

Green Cleaning

2009-01-26T17:00:00.000Z

By the end of 2009 I want to be using solely Green Cleaning Products.

I have made a start. The first thing I did was instead of using a huge scoop of branded washing powder I changed to using a mix of 4 parts supermarket own brand washing powder, 2 parts Borax and 2 parts soda crystals and only using about a 1/3rd of the recommended amount. I found this cleaned my clothes just as good and have had no problems with it. (When I run out of the current mix I will swap the supermarket brand to Ecover washing powder).

Next I swapped my window cleaner for good old white vinegar and newspaper. This was quickly followed by changing my furniture polish from the spray polish to lemon juice and olive oil (1 part olive oil & 3 parts lemon juice, give it a shake before applying). I dust my furniture with microfibre cloths as I find these pick up the dust really easily and I only need to polish the furniture every 6 to 8 weeks. I store the white vinegar in a reused spray bottle and the lemon juice and vinegar in a reused glass jar (make sure you wash the bottles/jars out thoroughly before you refill them)

I also started using bicarbonate of soda and white vinegar to clean the drains with. I also put a small bowl of bicarbonate of soda in the fridge to remove moisture and smells.
You can see from the picture below:
Boxes of borax & bicarbonate of soda, bottle of lemon juice, bottle of white vinegar (non brewed condiment) and microfibre cloths.

My plans for the future are:
When current washing up liquid runs out change to Ecover.
When dishwasher tablets run out change to Ecover.
Find a multi purpose 'spray' that I can make to clean the kitchen worktops, bathroom and floors. (Any ideas other than Ecover?).

Hopefully this area of my life will be completely green by the end of the year!

Update on my 101 Things

2009-01-26T13:58:00.002Z

Well as I said yesterday I have been busy starting various challenges from the list of 101 things.

Items that I have started are:

17. Use friends and family instead of taxi's - we have given lifts to my cousins a couple of times this year.

33. Send a letter instead of a text - Sent a letter to my best friend instead of a text/phone call. It reminded me of when we used to write to each other in the school holidays!

46. Well I have been doing yoga for half an hour each week (sometimes twice a week!) and feel a lot better for it!

57. As I said yesterday I have lost 9lbs since New Years Eve! I am joining a slimming club with my auntie as I feel I have lost the creative side when thinking of healthy things to eat. This club shows you what you should be eating every day to maintain a healthy lifestyle (not just another fad diet). I hope to learn a lot from this to ensure I eat healthy every day always and then once I have lost the excess weight I will be able to keep it off!

Will post another post shortly about 'green cleaning'.

I'm Back!

2009-01-25T14:30:00.002Z

Sorry I have not posted recently been rather busy...

Firstly been working 6 day weeks in 5 days, then my gran has been poorly (led up in bed) so been visiting every day and then she went to hospital so a visit there (an hour each way journey). Add on a new part time job doing the books for a village hall and the day to day chores etc and here I am!

Phew been a busy week or so.

Good news though, gran is now at home and doing well (well as good as you can with terminal cancer!).

I haven't even read any blogs for over a week. That is so unlike me! I read them every day normally!. I also have booked tomorrow off work so I will be able to rest and put a better post on here, I have still been working on my 101 things and I will take a few update pictures of a few things for you to see.

Another piece of good new is on the subject of bartering. My bestest friend in the world came over this morning and told me she wanted one of my recipes, so we have agreed that I will teach her to cook some of my recipes and she will teach me to ride her horse!! I am petrified of horses!
Also we are going to enroll on some one day courses at our local college so we can spend time together learning new things. How cool is that!

And wait a minute I have some more good news I'm nearly there on one of my 101 things as I have lost 9lb since new years eve!!

So even though I have been busy it hasn't been all bad!

Thanks for the comment 'slice'!! Please leave a comment if you pop in for a read otherwise I think I am posting this into cyberspace!!

Will blog tomorrow....

Stacey

Being happy with your lot

2009-01-13T18:23:00.003Z

I don't know why but whenever I have a hard day at work/haven't had enough sleep/feel ill I view 'my lot' with grey tinted glasses. I seem to find fault in everything. Nothing seems to have that same sparkle as when you are feeling great. I say to myself I can't afford a house yet, this room isn't the right colour, I don't like this and I don't like that.
I then wind myself up so much that I want to crawl into a hole and not come out.

Being truly happy in life, I believe, means living a simple life where the only goals in life are to live.
So often we are wrapped up in the latest new story, the new seasons colour for the home, the latest fashion on the catwalk that we seem to miss that point.
Why bother with all these things?
The news is all about things that have happened (past tense) and more than often it leaves you feeling deflated as it is so negative - why watch it? I'm sure you will hear about anything that affects you. As long as the walls and roof of your house are sound does it matter what colour the walls are, it certainly doesn't affect whether you can live in it or not. You wear clothes for a few reasons so that you are not naked, for warmth and for protection as long as your outfits meet these criteria you can wear them.

I try my best to be thankful for all that I have and to appreciate the simple life but I still have to try. It isn't something that comes naturally. And I have taken a lot of things for granted.

Doing this blog however has started a change. Now when I look back at the photos of a walk I took. It changes from 'just a walk' to 'a walk through a beautiful part of the village, looking at many animals, discovering gardens and houses I didn't know about, meeting new people and buying local free range delicous produce'. It can't get much better than that.
When I look back at a few of my posts I can now see that 'my lot' is a life of luxury for some and I promise I won't take it for granted again.

Everyday of our life will probably involve food, drink, home and work (either to earn or in the home). It will have all of those things whether we live in the country, city or seaside, whether we are in a flat, house or bungalow, whether we own it or not, whether we are near family or on the other side of the world. And we will always have things to do whether that be the in tray at work or the day to day work in the home. We can spend each of these days sulking about what we haven't got or wishing we had more.
Or we can find the happiness in each day. Thoroughly enjoying that first cup of tea, being thankful when someone goes to the trouble of making it for you, feeling blessed that you are fit and able to clear up after it yourself.

I need to work on this just as much as the next person.

As a starter i'll post 5 things I am thankful of/have enjoyed today

1. My husband who has worked as long and hard as I have today has made my tea.
2. Despite hearing of many redundancies across the country my job is still ok. I say a secret thank you for this every day.
3. I am fortunate enough to have healthy food in the house and money to buy more if I need it.
4. I have been able to create this blog and have comments from people all over. How amazing that people a) want to read my rambling and b) go to the trouble of leaving a comment. Please even if you just pop by leave me a comment so I know you have been as it makes my day.
5. That I have not had to spend any money today and this means that money does not make me happy!

I am going to live my life you just try and stop me!

Budgeting

2009-01-12T17:48:00.004Z

Budgeting is crucial to your home, health and happiness. Especially in the current climate we all need to ensure that we are managing our money well.

I tend to do our monthly budget just after we have been paid but before we have spent anything. I then update throughout the month to see 'where we are'.

Both Allan & I have our own current accounts. This originally was due to Allan being in an IVA, but it still seems to be working OK. Although there is always room for improvement.

Our Budget Is:
Allan Income = £XXXX
Stacey Income = £XXXX

Allan Expenses out of current account:
Half of Rent & Council Tax = £180.00
Transfer to Godson = £5.00
Water Direct Debit = £38.50
Sky TV = £42.00 (our treat and this includes broadband and all landline calls)
Mobile Phone = £25.00
Fuel = £100.00
Allan Spends = £75.00 (Allan plays skittles for our local team which accounts for £50 of this)
Total = £465.50

Stacey Expenses out of current account:
Half of Rent & Council Tax = £200.00
Mobile Phone = £15.00
Charity Donations = £14.00 (See my other post!)
Fuel = £80.00
Food Shopping = £100.00
Stacey Spends = £25.00
Total = £409.00

I then transfer the following to a 'Bill Account' (once a month for both of us):
TV Licence = £13
Dentist = £33 (Unfortunately we have been unable to get an NHS dentist yet)
MOT's & Services = £42
Car Tax = £25
Car Insurance = £96 (This is the best deal we could get at the time!)
Garden/Seeds etc = £10 (Max limit £100)
Electric = £25
Water = £17 (As the bill is often more than the DD Payments)
Chimney Sweep / Boiler Service = £10
AAT Registration = £10
Christmas Savings = £50 (Max Limit £600)
Emergency Bill Fund = £150 (Max limit £2000)
Pet Fund = £42 (Max limit £500 - this is for her boosters/flea/worming etc)
Birthdays = £35
Contents Insurance = £10 (We managed to get a years policy for £9 last year but it is normally £120 so that is what we will save up)
Millie Insurance = £10
Baby Fund = £150 (Max limit £2000)
Total = £731

The balance we have left after deducting our expenses goes into our house deposit account.

I have a spreadsheet set up and I record all of this information.
I have one bank account for the bill account but I have categories on my spreadsheet so I can see how much I put in and take out for each one. I.e I put in £10 a month for gardening x 10 months = £100 and I then spend £25, so after 10 months the balance on that category is £75.00.
I have a limit on each account so for example the pet fund account limit is £500. Once this balance is reached I stop paying in.

Things I would like to achieve in 2009.

1) Reduce water usage and therefore bills!
2) Reduce electric usage and therefore bills!
3) Stick to grocery budget and try to reduce if possible.
4) When car insurance renewal comes about - try to reduce.
5) Find an NHS dentist and use it instead of private...much cheaper but quite difficult!
6) Try to only use a maximum of £50 for gardening etc Try to save seeds for next year.
7) Try to spend a lot less than £600 at Christmas by making gifts and shopping around)
8) Try to get a competitive quote for Millies & Contents Insurance.
9) Start using cash to pay for fuel & food shopping where possible to help track spends.

Tips on doing your own budget:

General.
When doing your own budget make sure you do it weekly/monthly/fortnightly etc but ensure that everything you list is for the same period.
If you are not sure how much you spend on 'stuff' (clothes, magazines,books, newspapers tea/coffee,music, dvds etc etc all the non essentials) then keep your receipts or a spending diary for 3 months to show your spending habits
Make sure you have to hand 3 months worth of bank statements. If you withdraw cash quite often then make sure you keep receipts or a spending diary for the same period so you can see what the cash is being spent on.

1) Make a list of your income from every source.
Next to each type of income write whether it is guaranteed or not.
For example your basic wage may be guaranteed but a bonus or commission may be on top and you may not always get this every month.

2) Make a list of your expenditure.
List everything.
Next to each item mark whether it is essential or not.

Deduct the total of list 2 from list 1.
If you have money left then you are not going to get yourself in debt but you still may be able to find ways to have more leftover.
If you do not have money left then you must address your budget urgently as if you ignore the situation you will end up getting deeper and deeper into debt.

First of all go through your list of 'non essential expenditure'. If you didn't have any money left on the first budget exercise then I'm afraid a lot of this will have to go. I do not think it is healthy to get rid of absolutely everything. After all you have to live. But needs must and you need to look at your spending and adjust this until you have money left in your budget (if you remove it all and you still are in a negative position I strongly suggest you speak to a government funded company on how to sort the situation out. The CAB is a good place to start).

If you can afford to have some non essentials think about how to cut them down...
If you buy a scratchcard twice a week it will cost you £104 a year why don't you put this £104 into premium bonds,you will still have a chance of winning big but you can get your money back.
A newspaper a day costs £185 - Why don't you read the news online and save this money
Two magazines a month costs £84 - reduce to one magazine as a treat and subscribe to it as it is cheaper.
Two DVDs a month costs £180 rent movies instead (lovefilm is £10 a month for unlimited rentals) watching more movies and still saving £60!
That coffee and sandwich every weekday costs £1250 take packed lunches to work and use the £700 you save to go on holiday
Eating out or getting a takeaway once a fortnight costs £480 why don't you spend £10 a month on fabulous ingredients and cook a delicious meal still saving £360!

Then go through the list of essentials this will typically include:
Food shopping
Insurances
Vehicle Costs
Phone
Etc Etc

As you go through this list think again about how you can cut down the cost of these, even though we HAVE to pay them we do have control over where we shop and how much we pay.

Can you change to a cheaper supermarket, drop a brand on the products you use, use homemade instead of convenience/disposable.
For insurances use a comparison site and also check cash back sites for a better offer.
Vehicles costs find a reputable mechanic who you can trust, drive the car more economically, walk to places under 2 miles.
and so on.

Once you have gone through all these changes - ACTION THEM - It is the thinking about it and planning it that takes the time.

Once you have actioned all the immediate changes rewrite your budget with the new figures. This will be your budget to stick to.

I find that my budget can always be tweaked taking a bit more off here and some more off there so do not worry if it is not perfect straight away.
Also it is better to start off with small reductions in 'your spends' and 'food shopping' and target yourself to cut down £10 a month rather than £150 now as you need to have a realistic budget.

I'm sure I can post many more posts on this subject so watch this space.

Good luck!

Challenge No 13 - Replace 5 types of food/drink

2009-01-11T19:01:00.001Z

I have completed the following:
13. Replace at least 5 types of food or drink for a local/free range/organic alternative & always buy that.
1. Fruit and Vegetables
Wherever possible use 'home grown'. This is organic and has less food miles. If this is not available then organic preferably from a local shop but a supermarket if necessary.
2. Eggs
Purchase free range eggs from the village, if unavailable then purchase them from a local shop must we Wiltshire free range eggs.
3. Meat
Purchase from the local butcher.
4. Milk, Cheese, Butter & Yoghurt
Buy organic always, and local if possible.
5. Bread
Make own as first choice, but if not by organic and as a last choice wholemeal.

The Vegetable Garden

2009-01-11T10:14:00.003Z

Well the growing season is fast approaching and we have a lot to do in the vegetable garden.
Last year we 'half heartedly' build raised beds, we used the wood from broken pallets and nailed them into squares etc. We didn't actually fill them with compost etc so they weren't raised.
This year when planning what to plant and how to plant it, it just became apparent that as the 'boxes' we made were quite small we were actually loosing a lot of the plot to pathways. So this year we are going to revert to the traditional plot.

This year we will be growing:
Fruit - we already have an existing eating apple, cooking apple, plum and pear tree, raspberry bush, strawberry plants and grape vine.
Vegetable - We will plant 3 types of tomato, cucumber, courgette, swede, parsnip, carrot, green brocolli (calabrese), cauliflower, mixed leave cut and come again lettuce and green and iceburg lettuce heads, peas, french (green) beans, onions, leeks, kidney beans (to dry), potatos, spring onions and garlic.
We have thought very hard about what to grow, making sure that it only includes things we know we like, and more space is given to things we eat often and less to things we don't.

I am really looking forward to this growing season I had wished that we could get a greenhouse but we have both decided that we would prefer to buy one that will last and to invest such a large amount of money into it seems silly until we have a permanent home.

This is a picture of our vegetable garden at the moment. It is 12ft by 37ft. We have dismantled the boxes and will use them to 'fence off' the garden from the lawn etc.
We are also going to borrow a rotavator to dig over the plot ready for planting.

You will see in the picture below that we have a compost bin although we have never actually used the compost in it- we need to concentrate on this and make sure that what we are putting in actually means that we get something out!

Our purple sprouting brocolli is the only thing in the garden that is still growing. We planted these from seed and they are now over a metre high. I am hoping to have some purple sprouting brocolli spears from these but i am not getting my hopes up as they have been overun with caterpillers and have been hit hard by the frost. We'll wait and see.

This will be our 3rd year with a veggie garden and in the first year we were pretty sure that any saving we had made by growing our own would have been wiped out by the volume of water we had used to keep it growing! So we knew the only way forward was to invest in a water butt:

And finally there is a passage between the house and the garage and we use this to store our wood for our fire and also to hang last seasons onions.

Hopefully as the season progresses I will be able to post further pictures of our vegetable garden and what is happening out there.

Update on my 101 Things

2009-01-11T07:30:00.001Z

I am still beavering away with my 101 things.

I am currently working on meal planning, eating breakfast and dinner on work days (more of a challenge than you would think), and I have been given a book about knitting for Christmas so I have been reading that in preparation for knitting dishcloths.

I have also been writing down ideas for posts on here which sort of counts for no 101 I think?

I am going to arrange to see my mums selection of handmade cards soon to buy some which is also another challenge.

I have been thinking about what to have in an emergency box and where to put it although haven't actually started this challenge yet.

And I have made a homemade furniture polish so that is the start of the green cleaning products challenge.

So it is going well so far.

House Pets

2009-01-10T18:03:00.001Z

I really like my home to filled with natural materials i.e solid wooden tables instead of plastic, natural colours on the wall and so on where I can. It struck me that when I choose ornaments or things to look at, there seems to be alot of animals bringing nature from outside in. These I suppose are my house pets.

Examples are:

Deefa the duck (D For Duck) Who lives in my kitchen by the dresser...

This is a tiny piggy bank given to me one Christmas from my gran and gramp and lives on my dresser.

Edward the pig (cause his head is made of wood) He lives on the unit next to the television.

This is the picture that i have above the fireplace and is about a metre wide by a metre high.

And this is for the people who thought my doggie was cute! We climbed the Pen-Y-Ghent peak in yorkshire with our little doggie, i think it was about 7 miles. We were so tired when we got back to the car we had a hot flask of tomato soup and some fresh bread to eat it was just what we needed. Millie looked so tired and sweet as a little treat we let her have the last dribble out of the flask. However when we wiped her white face.... it stayed orange!! took about 3 days to come off!

We also have a collie dog that is a draught excluder that we got in scotland. We sometime curl it up on the sofa and confuse our guests who think it is real!
Do you have any house pets? What are they?

Another Crisp Winter Walk

2009-01-10T14:29:00.005Z

Today we went on another crisp winters walk and we saw a few treats along the way.

Frozen Holly Leaves...

Mr Piggy saying hello...

A small apple orchard...

You can just make out two chickens...

Three sheep in the field that my mum and sister hope to keep there pony from next month...

You can just see the hills through the gap in the hedge...

Two free range chooks in someones garden...

And outside the fence...

Very free range eggs - 6 eggs for a £1!! I had to have a box of those...

I might have to use one of my egg recipes now!!

down---to---earth: The Biggest Kitchen Table - keeping chickens

2009-01-09T22:36:00.000Z

down---to---earth: The Biggest Kitchen Table - keeping chickens

Eggs!

2009-01-09T21:17:00.004Z

Well as I couldn't add too much to the kitchen table the next best thing I can do is talk about eggs.

This morning on the way to work I was playing about with the radio and Radio 2 came on, I do not normally listen to this channel but a song by Dean Martin came on and the first few lines were:

(H) How do you like your eggs in the morning
(D) I like mine with a kiss
(H) Boiled or fried (D) I'm satisfied as long as I get my kiss

Now this is quite an old fashioned song but it was lovely. A real happy song to start the day with!
I arrived at work and a man was waiting on the pavement (I guess for someone to collect him to go to work) and he looked so bemused. My little black car with alloys, a young woman inside and old fashioned music! I think he was expecting to hear clubbing music and he just looked confused! I had to giggle.

I love challenging peoples perceptions of what should be!

Anyway Eggs...

There are quite a few things you can make with them but here are my top 5:

Omelette:
All you need is a couple of eggs whisked, add a few grinds of salt and pepper and a dash of milk.
Whisk together.
Put a knob of butter in a medium saucepan and melt on a medium to hot hob.
Add the mixture.
Pull in the sides allowing the liquid to seep to the bottom of the pan until no liquid is visible.
Leave to cook for a few minutes and add any topping/filling required.
Flip half of the omelette onto the filling and tip onto plate to serve!
Filling Ideas=
-Avocado & Bacon
-Ham, Cheese, & Tomato
-Green Peppers, Mushrooms, Pepperoni
-Black Olive, Feta, & Capers
-Baked Beans and bacon
- Cherry tomatoes, mushrooms and pepper
To name but a few!

Yorkshire Pudding:
Put 300g of plain flour and 300g of eggs into a jug with a dash of salt and whisk milk into the mixture until it is the consistency of double cream.
Leave to stand for 20 minutes.
While it is standing set the oven to 220c and put a baking tray into the oven with a small layer of oil (a few mm). Let the oil get so hot it smokes.
Add the mixture to the oil and leave in the oven until risen and golden.
DO NOT open the oven until you are ready to serve if you open it part way through cooking it will go flat!
I like to put sausages into the mixture when it goes into the oven and have toad in the hole.
Traditionally Yorkshire puddings is served with beef for a Sunday dinner.
But Yorkshire puddings go very well with any vegetable and gravy dish!

French Toast
Simple but good!
A couple of eggs plenty of salt and pepper, soak a couple of bits of bread in the mixture and dry fry. Eat with a healthy English breakfast of grilled tomatoes, grilled bacon,mushrooms and backed beans, delicious!

Cake!!
225g butter, softened
225g caster sugar
4 large free-range eggs
225g self-raising flour, sifted
For the filling:
6 tbsp good-quality strawberry jam (homemade if you have it!!)
300ml double cream, lightly whipped
Also two approx 15cm cake tins

Heat the oven to 180c
Grease the tins
In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar, beat well to get lots of air into the mixture.
Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add a tablespoon of flour if the mixture curdles.
Fold in the flour using a large metal spoon. Be careful not to over-mix it.
Pour the mixture equally between the two cake tins.
Place in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes.
Remove from the oven and place them on a wire rack to cool completely.
Spread the sponge with the jam and the whipped cream, then carefully sandwich together.
Eat!

Breakfast eggs!
Whether it be scrambled egg on toast, boiled egg with soldiers, fried egg with an english breakfast or poached egg!

Here is the link to rhonda jeans kitchen table...http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/2009/01/biggest-kitchen-table-keeping-chickens.html

See you in the morning!

Keeping Chickens - Kitchen Table

2009-01-09T18:09:00.003Z

My first kitchen table blog...

Keeping chickens is something i have always wanted to do. Unfortunately as we are due to move home within the next 12 to 18 months it is not something we can do at the moment.

When we get our new home i would like to have 3 or 4 chickens to keep for eggs.

I have absolutely no idea what i need, where to get it from and what to do.
How do i move forward from here? How do i start turning this dream into a reality even if i can't actually get the chickens just yet?
My first port of call will be 'The Kitchen Table' I will make some notes from the wealth of information there. I will also go to the library so that i can find information related to my country and maybe even my region.
I 'googled' Chicken Wiltshire and have found a company in Bradford on Avon (15 mins away) selling 'traditional and rare breed' Chickens.
I have also found a store called Countrywide locally that sells chook feed, feeders and drinkers, vitamins etc.

Unfortunately this is not an area that i can bring much to the kitchen table but i certainly can take something away from it!

Hopefully you will see some time in the future a blog about getting my first chickens!!

Winter Wonderland

2009-01-04T20:24:00.009Z

I just wanted to post a few pictures of me and Allan walking Millie as it was absolutely gorgeous out, there was a very heavy frost and everything was white! I have never seen such a covering!

Walking up the driveway (Past our neighbours houses)

Out into the open field at the end of the drive

Down a track...

Look at all of the frost particles on this tree branch...

Oh and Millies dirty face after she decided to dig up a mole hill...naughty little doggie!

Back to the routine...

2009-01-04T19:44:00.002Z

Tomorrow i go back to work. It is the start of getting up at 5.45am rather than lying in bed until 9.30am. It is the start of working hard from 7.00am until 3.00pm 5 days a week. It is also the start of a new bookkeeping job that i have taken on which is a couple of hours a week. And guess what?...
I cannot wait. I always seem to get more done when i have more to do and i seem to need the routine to help me achieve.
I am organised, i have cleaned the house and i have made a healthy breakfast (organic vanilla yoghurt and grapes), healthy snacks (banana and apple), healthy dinner (leftover tomato pasta with a multiseed brown roll) and a little treat (one small chocolate biscuit) and a bottle of juice which counts as one of my 5 a day. I just have to clear the tea stuff away and do a little ironing.
I'm looking forward to my week!
One of my most favorite blogs is 'Down to Earth' by Rhonda Jean (see my blog list). I have been reading this blog for about 18 months and it is fantastic, such a wealth of information. I am joining the 'kitchen table' which is basically a group of readers and bloggers who talk about a subject posted by Rhonda on their own blogs and then link it back to hers. It should be the start of some new subjects and projects and maybe just maybe it may help me cross off a few of my 101 things. I am very excited to be taking up this 'challenge'.
Looking forward to posting some more posts over the next week.

Increasing Monthly Charity Donations...

2009-01-01T10:24:00.003Z

The first item to be crossed off my list in 2009 is item is number 28 - increase monthly charity donations to £10 a month by DD.
Here are a list of my regular monthly donations as of today:
£2 Cancer Research (this has been running for about 18 months).
£2 Multiple Sclerosis Society (As Dad has MS).
£2 Multiple Sclerosis Research Centre (as above).
£2 Dorothy House Hospice Care (Do a great job and have helped many people i knew)
£2 RSPCA (help beat cruelty to animals)
£2 The Dogs Trust (never put a healthy dog down)
Total £12 a month.

What a great way to be able to start the new year!

Happy New Year

2008-12-31T21:30:00.002Z

Well it is here the last day of the year.
My 3 course meal kinda went to pot lol. Instead of spending 2 hours at gran's i spent 5 and a half, instead of one alcoholic drink i had 6 and instead of a delicious homecooked 3 course meal we have an 18 inch takeaway pizza.
And guess what i had a two hour headache and feel really tired! No more.
2009 is going to be my year for change.
Tomorrow all of our unhealthy food is going into our spare wardrobe and will come out in very small portions for occasional 'treats' and i am going to plan tomorrows meals to ensure they are healthy.
Exercise and healthy food has to become the norm and not just for a few weeks here and there.
Roll on tomorrow, the start of change.
Happy New Year!

Whoopsies...

2008-12-30T16:56:00.002Z

I am planning our New Years Eve three course meal and Allan and I were having a chat about what we should have and what we needed to buy and then i suggested that we make the dinner using only what we have in the house (loads!).
But first we went shopping to a couple of local towns.
I haven't done a puzzle in years so we decided to buy a 1000 and 3000 piece puzzle from a charity shop for a total of £4.00. Both have lovely pictures of English cottages on.
We then went to another charity shop where i bought a book about houseplants (which is selling in the shops now for £8.99) and also a book called the green consumer guide for a grand sum of 40p each.
We also went to the somerfield food store and bought milk and free range eggs and then some yellow stickered whoopies!! Two packets of pancakes reduced from 75p to 25p per packet, two mini strawberry cheesecakes reduced from 65p to 16p each, 6 wholemeal pittas reduced from 60p to 13p and two packs of somerfield 'the best' sausagemeat reduced from £2 a pack to £1 and 50p a pack. Oh and a chocolate crossiant reduced from 60p to 16p. yum yum yum.

I am working on finding the balance between local/free range/fair trade/organic etc but think i have to work on the fact that it will not be at prices like the above!

So even though we said that we would not buy any more food we did as it was very reduced!
I think our menu for tomorrow night however will be:
Homemade sweet potato and carrot soup with ciabatta bread.
Homemade meatballs with spaghetti (meatballs made out of sausagemeat) and bread from above. And then the strawberry cheesecake puddings (above).
All topped off with a bottle of bucks fizz.

I'll try and get some pictures tomorrow of the meal!

I'm Cheating...

2008-12-27T16:56:00.004Z

I am so eager to start my 101 things that i am cheating!

I have completed No 24- Create a long term financial plan.
My goals:
To save £2000 for a baby fund & £6925 in an emergency/bill fund ASAP.
Then to save for a deposit for a house with a target of £25000 for a deposit/fees.
From the age of 23 to save £600 a year towards retirement, and in the future when we have no mortgage up that to £1800 a year. This will result in savings of £50,000 without interest to supplement my state pension.

Hmmm might see if i can tick any others off...

Also at this festive time of year i am going to post 5 things i am thankful for today:
1. Feeling blessed that i 'want for nothing' and therefore only spent £6.15 in the January sales (i don't need shoes, bags, clothes, house stuff what i have is at the very least adequate!). I purchased 2 x pukka notepads that were on offer to help me keep track of my challenges, a newspaper which we will later use for a fire in the living room and a magazine which once i have read will be scrap booked.
2. Looking forward to eating a homemade (by my mum) sausage meat and stuffing puff pastry plait with new potatoes and salad.
3. Enjoying tea and dark chocolate biscuits whilst having a natter with my gran.
4. Looking through all my wonderful Christmas presents, I can't believe how many i have and that they are so lovely, so well chosen. I am so lucky! And i really really do appreciate every single one and every single penny spent on them!
5. Generally being thankful for what i have, a husband, a doggy, a home full of furniture and food, a job, money in the bank and a wonderful family.

Roll on 2009 the start of something special i am sure!

The last few days

2008-12-20T20:11:00.003Z

Haven't posted since Wednesday so thought i would update with what i have been up to.
Wedneday evening i went to mums and rehearsed some Christmas songs. We then went and sang them to three selected households! it was so much fun, was really well received and enjoyed by all. So nice to give 'thought' and 'time' rather than money! I then went and watched TV with my gran (Bill night!).
Thursday i 'tried' to go to bed early but we had a call at 9pm from a friend who was driving through the village and nearly into some cows who had got onto the main road, Allan drove up there to help and i tried to find a telephone number of the farmer. We eventually got to sleep at about 10pm.
Friday was my sisters 20th birthday, after work i got ready, met my friend and went to mums and gave Steph her present, we then went up town to three different pubs. The first was good and even had some carol singers at one point, the second had a band playing from our village and the third we had a good old boogie. I drove so no hangover but as we got in at 1am and got up at 8am i was shattered today.
I went to Morrisons to get the last of the Christmas food at 9.30 this morning, then went to grans and had a natter, i came home and had a nap on the sofa, had soup and french bread for tea,went to lidl and then came home and am now drinking a hot chocolate and writing this. Hoping to achieve a lot tomorrow!!

Gingerbread Recipe

2008-12-17T16:51:00.006Z

As promised:
Ingredients:
100g Brown Sugar, 150g Golden Syrup, 5ml Cinnamon, 5ml Ground Ginger, 5ml Ground Cloves, 150g Butter, 1 Egg, 5 ml Bicarbonate of Soda, 5ml Cold Water, 450g Plain Flour.
Steps:
1. Set oven to 180c or Gas 4
2. Put sugar, syrup, spices & butter in a saucepan and stir over a low heat until butter has melted.
3. Turn off heat, remove saucepan from cooker, let the mixture cool slightly. While you are waiting beat the egg in a cup and dissolve the bicarbonate of soda into the water in another cup.
4. Add egg to saucepan and stir.
5. Add the bicarbonate of soda to saucepan and stir (it may fizz).
6. Add the flour, one spoon at a time, mixing well with a wooden spoon. (You will end up with a glossy dough.
7. Put dough in the fridge to cool for 20 minutes.
8. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface to 3mm thick and cut out using shapes.
9. Place on baking tray and cook for 8-10 minutes.
10. Cool on wire rack.
Top tips:
1. If you do not have ground cloves either use mixed spice or leave out completely.
2. You must add flour one spoon at a time and mix well, if you add it all at once you will probably end up with a lumpy dough!.
3. Put the dough in the fridge for a minimum of 20 minutes, don't' do what i did and take it out after 10 minutes and then realise it doesn't hold together properly until it is completely cold.
4. When you remove from oven the gingerbread will still be soft, don't worry just wait for a few minutes until they harden up and then transfer to wire rack. (don't attempt to transfer them too soon as you will end up with gingerbread men without limbs!).
5. For extra special gingerbread decorate with coloured icing.
Happy baking!

Christmas Treats

2008-12-17T16:26:00.009Z

Tonight my sisters and I will be visiting 3 houses and singing Christmas carols to our friends and family who live there. We will be dropping off a bottle of mulled wine, homemade gingerbread (from me) and mince pies (from mum) at each. These people have either had a hard year and therefore deserve a treat or are people who we think would appreciate the thought. Christmas is a time for goodwill as well as the giving/food/presents. It feels so nice to have the opportunity to do this for other people and that my sisters as so keen to do it also.
I have also attached a few pictures of our Christmas decorations, because with a week to go i am starting to feel really festive!

Christmas is around the corner

2008-12-16T17:17:00.002Z

Can you believe it is is the 16th of December already!
Once a month the General Manager, Director and I go for lunch at a pub down the road for an hour so we get a break from our monthly meeting.
Our Director had a surprise today though we went to a different pub and what a gem it was. It was like a warren all little rooms appearing from nowhere and it was so beautifully decorated! On top of that the food was amazing!!! I think i may have to take my husband there in the new year. I would go again just to sit and look at the place, it had lovely leather arm chairs, solid wooden furniture, ornate picture frames and festive boughs, garlands, trees and fairy lights.
Anyway back to the reason i posted, I am going round my mums to rehearse some Christmas carols with my sisters tonight...i'll explain why tomorrow!! hehe!
Then i am coming home and making gingerbread and shortbread again for tomorrow. (I'll try and post the recipes soon and maybe some pictures if you are lucky!
Christmas is around the corner and i cannot wait!

Busy Day

2008-12-15T21:45:00.003Z

Well it has certainly been a busy day...
Got up at 6.00am and then got ready and left for work at 6.45am. Worked from 7.00 until 3.30 (was supposed to finish at 3 but had to finish a few things), on way home drove around the village delivering Christmas cards and arrived home at 4.10 and then made a salmon, white fish, broccoli, cauliflower and pea pie (with white sauce and mash). At 4.50 went to mums and Steph (my sister) cut my hair, got home at 7.10, had a shower and tea and then went to my first village social club meeting at 7.50 and got home from that at 9.30.
Far from feeling tired i feel energised. How good it felt to actually be busy and not just waste my day watching TV or on the internet.
I may have the possibility of earning some additional money through this which is a bonus as i really just want to commit to something that helps the community in which i live.
BUT if i did commit then i would have to review my time management as i would need a minimum of 2 hours a week and although it doesn't sound a lot i know i would need to ensure that i consistently have that two hours. I am going to find out some more information on Thursday but i feel that i might accept a medium term (6 months) trial position and then review it then so that i have the opt out without 'dropping anyone in it'.
So today my time management was pretty darn good, i ate pretty well and got a lot done. result.

I'm Thankful Today

2008-12-14T18:01:00.002Z

Well, The getting up early didn't exactly go to plan. I think it was about 9.15am on Saturday and 8.00am today. Which is much better than 10.30 each day which it has been recently but still a way to go. I get up at 5.45 am on a weekday and i would like to get up at 7.30 on a weekend to try and sort my body clock out and stop wasting the weekends!. So some improvement made.
I did manage to get a lot done this weekend although it was mainly things that don't really show! Food shopping online, updating our budgets, and various other things. Allan was fantastic this weekend and his efforts have ensured that the house looks tidy, clean and more organised than it did a few days ago.
There is a forum that i go onto now and then and they have a great post in which people submit 5 things they are thankful for or that has made them happy today. It is really nice to read a positive post like this (amongst the doom and gloom on the news). So today here are my 5:
1. Watching my husband sleeping on the sofa with a Christmas hat on and a sleeping doggie on his lap (he was knackered from working hard today).
2. Finishing wrapping the christmas presents and watching how excited our doggie was when she spotted hers (like a little kid)!.
3. Receiving a Christmas card from my in laws and discovering it donates money to the MS Society and being really touched at the thought put into it.
4. Starting to plan our veggie garden for next year and the possibility that we will have a greenhouse or poly-tunnel so we are able to grow more/longer/better.
5. Watching my all time favorite Christmas Movie 'Elf' and recording it. I love this film it makes me laugh out loud and you always feel happy after its finished.
Life is good.

My 101 Things...

2008-12-13T13:37:00.009Z

Here is the list of 101 things to do before 23rd September 2011...
All things completed will be bold with a date of completion at the end all in progress will be in italics.
Environment/Green
1. To learn how to make my own soap and then never buy shop bought.
2. To reduce water usage by 10% against averaged 2008 figures.
3. To reduce electric usage by 10% against averaged 2008 figures.
4. To learn how to make waffle dishcloths and then never buy shop bought. Completed 27/01/2009.
5. To grow veggies and fruit and get a better weight/yield than last year.
6. To compost ALL biodegradable waste using compost and bokashi for 6 weeks (0/6)
7. To use only green cleaning products (when chemical products run out)
8. Have at least 1 houseplant in each room we use - fresh air!!
9. To improve fuel usage against averaged 2008 figures.
10. To shop solely from 'one man band' shops/markets for 3 months (0/3)
11. To find a more natural type of face and body products and if they are as good use them.
12. To eat a completely homemade/home cooked picnic.
13. Replace at least 5 types of food or drink for a local/free range/organic alternative & always buy that. Completed 11/01/2009.
14. Use totes/bags for life (no plastic shop bags) for 2 months (0/2)
15. Take part in earth hour 2009, 2010 & 2011 (Sat 28 Mar 2009 at 8.30pm). Signed up to Earth Hour on 10.01.2009.
16. To 'buy' all 'occasion' cards from mum and Christmas cards either from mum or charity.
17. To wherever possible use family/friends for taxis so they get money instead of a company.
Financial
18. To have £25000 in a house fund (£0)
19. To earn at least £1000 not though main job (quidco, ebay etc) (£0)
20. To put £600 a year into premium bonds/savings as a pension (£0).
21. To have £2000 in a baby fund (see no 68) (£0)
22. To have £6925 in emergency fund inc saving for bills(£0)
23. To make it one year without spending any of my money on NEW clothes, jewelery etc.
24. To create a long term financial plan so i at least have an aim of where i want to be. Completed 27/12/2008.
25. After doing the plan decide whether we need to up Allan's pension payment or if I should put 'no 20' money into a pension instead of savings.
26. Decide on a grocery budget and stick to it for 12 months (0/12).
27. To have a total of 10 weeks where do not spend any money! (0/10).
Giving/Charity
28. Increase monthly charity direct debit donations to approx £10. Completed 01/01/2009
29. Do at least one box for operation Christmas child each year.
30. Donate something to a charity shop every 6 months.
31. Buy the big issue magazine from the lady in Chippenham (instead of walking by like normal).
32. Befriend someone in need and help however i can.
33. Send letters rather than texts to 5 people (1/5). 1 letter sent to Leah 15/01/2009
34. To make a homemade gift and give away to 5 people.
Classes/Learning New Skills
35. Learn how to play my piano so that i am good enough to sing along to.
36. To keep a diary and calendar up to date - time management!.
37. Even though i am not interested in politics at all, research the parties so i know i am voting for the right party for me, rather than my 'lucky dip' approach.
38. Paint or draw a picture that i am proud enough of to put it up on the wall (and do it)!
39. Make a piece of clothing and wear it just because.
40. Write a list of 101 things I love and that make me happy to look at when i am stressed or sad.
41. Make a tomato ketchup i like.
42. Learn to make one item i always buy pre-made (food) and never buy it again.
43. Meal plan for one month and stick to it!
44. Understand how to use aromatherapy oils and use them.
45. Try meditation see if it is as chilled and refreshing as it looks.
46. To take up yoga/pilates/tai chi and try to do it at least once a week.
47. Try making homemade yoghurt and see what it is like.
48. Learn how to make banoffee pie just like mums
49. Learn how to make home made garlic bread just like stephs
Health/Sport
50. Try to organise my working day so that i have breakfast and dinner every day without fail.
51. Drink only water and plenty of it for one week and see if it has any positive effects.
52. To go for a walk or run at least 3 times a week for ten weeks (0/10)
53. To do 50 sit ups a day each week for 10 weeks (0/10).
54. Not eat chocolate for a month.
55. Play squash and see if it is as fun as it was at school.
56. Complete an activity for charity
57. To lose 1 stone (14lbs) (9/14). Lost 9lbs as at 28/01/09!!
58. To eat meals by recommended portion size for a week (do i overeat?)
Friendships
59. Meet up with 5 old friends (0/5)
Travel
60. Have a holiday with allan (& Millie if possible) for a max £250 for everything (it must be possible surely!?!)
61. Go somewhere with real snow at least a foot deep even if it is just for the day just to experience it.
62. Visit 3 counties i have never been to before.
63. Go for a walk in the pooring rain just for the hell of it.
64. Take a road trip (possibly in a hired camper van)
65. Go camping and have a campfire.
66. Go for a walk on the beach barefoot.
67. Go sightseeing in London.
All For Me!
68. To have a child (i want one before i am 25)... I'm pregnant!!
69. Decide on some Christmas traditions i want to create, list them and stick to it!
70. Go somewhere truly peaceful and just sit x 5 (0/5)
71. Have 10 'dates' with Allan (0/10).
72. Cleanse, tone and moisturise every day for 2 weeks.
73. Cook 5 new meals from recipe book i have but have not tried yet.
74. Buy something used and update it to something gorgeous.
75. Look after my hands and feet for a month.
76. Get passport pictures done with Allan to keep in my purse.
77. Bite the bullet and finish my AAT Technician and become a MAAT.
78. Renew my library card and use it.
79. Sew a tote bag.
80. Sew a brush roll for make up brushes.
81. Sew a bag better suited for make up.
82. Sew a calendar/wall hanger with pockets.
83. Filmfest - watch three funny films in a row (must have popcorn!).
84. Read a book a month (0/36)
85. Write a list of 5 things i do not like about myself and work on getting rid of them.
86. Write a list of 25 things i do like about myself and work on using them more.
87. Write a will.
88. Buy a house or flat.
89. Buy a bike and try to use it for most journeys in the village.
90. Take a beautiful photo every week for a year. (0/52)
91. Finish my wedding, honeymoon and hen night scrapbooks.
Things For Home
92. Register with telephone and mail preference service and unsubscribe to all junk emails.
93. To eat at the table every weekday for 10 weeks but try to go permanent (0/10).
94. Spend a total of 6 weeks as a veggie. (0/6).
95. Ensure all meals for a week are completely home cooked x 4 weeks (0/4).
96. Have a maximum of 10 takeaways a year (2/30) Cheeseburger & chips from Kebab House 03.01.2009. Chicken Chow Mein from Ocean City 25/01/2009.
97. Calculate how long on average i spend watching the TV and on the internet and then try to half it by end of the challenge.
98. To stick to my cleaning rota for 12 weeks (0/12).
99. Clear out! Go through every room and declutter.
100. Create an emergency box with candles, torch, phone numbers etc.
101. Try to write about and take photos of each task i complete.
And for every one i do not complete i will give £2 to charity!
Phew well there it is lets see how i do! As i complete each task i will try to explain why each task was on the list, as well as what happened etc.

Its friday....

2008-12-12T16:31:00.002Z

Well its finally Friday... wahoo!!
I have no firm plans for Saturday or Sunday but many many things on my to do list! It will be good to see how much i achieve... I always look forward to the weekend with so much enthusiasm at how much i can get done and how organised i will be by Sunday evening and then i seem to whittle the weekend away with a combination of lie ins, TV, internet and visiting the family. Now I know all of those things are part of what weekends are about...relaxing... but i really think i need to work on my time management and cut down on all the above to allow time for the other things i need and want to do. Time management is definitely not one of my strong points!! So i thought, this weekend i will get up at 7.00am, and watch no TV and not use the internet all weekend. Now what are the chances of me doing that!?!
I really need to grasp the concept of 'baby steps' to get where i want to go. I am an all or nothing girl and consequently go full throttle and then burn out and achieve nothing.
So to start with I have been trying to get up before 8.00am on both days of the weekend. So far so good, lets see how this weekend goes...

Here we go...

2008-12-11T18:40:00.001Z

Well I have (unofficially) started my 101 challenge.
I have set this blog up to record my travels as i work through my 101 things in 1001 days.
I officially start this challenge on 1st January 2009. I am hoping that this challenge will lead to life being simpler, greener and happier and that by the end of it i will find 'my level' on certain subjects.
For example i know that i want to eat healthily but i do not really know where i stand on the whole moneysaving=cheap food versus organic / locally produced / free range / fair trade etc etc.
I am hoping to educate myself and then know what my priorities are so that i can say i do this because... rather than just doing a bit of everything and feeling a little unfulfilled.
I will list my 101 things soon and then start having a think about what preparation i need to do!!
Until next time.... Stacey