Simplifying Life - Mark II

pagangirl

Glad your OH is feeling better Mary - mine started out as head cold 2 weeks ago, been terribly congested but 2-3 days ago it went on me chest - felt really 'tight' so knew I had to go doc's - she gave me week's supply antibiotics, said if no better come back for another weeks supply and if no better after then will send me for x-ray :eek: Keep your fingers crossed folks !

No simplifiying done here either - went to a table sale this morning got 2 mini owl ornaments, little grey bear ornament in witch's costume (well I couldn't leave that behind could I ?) and 2 books - one was Eragon and other Nigel Slater - Toast (not how to make it, but how he started out as chef/cookery writer), not bad for £1.90. also went to Mr T for 5 x light bulbs at 40p (saving of £4.50) = 8p each - sort of spending to save, and found 2 pk x 6 potato cakes for 30p each - went straight in freezer, all in all not a bad day. :j It was beautiful here this morning, like a spring day - now cold wet n VERY windy - glad I'm tucked up in here !

mary43

pagangirl - hope the antibiotics do the job ok. Just make sure you keep warm and plenty of rest etc. (but you know that anyway I'm sure). Been blue skies here but still very cold so I stayed indoors.
Hadn't realised how much mess I'd made with my re-arranging of pictures and stuff in this room till a friend popped in and I proudly showed her my display of books on the wall, newly arrange photo albums...........and both our eyes were then drawn to the 'stuff' that seems to have got ignored in the process.
Everyday I say I'll do it and then something else crops up that needs doing -I'm spoiled for choice what to do next................lol:rotfl:
Take care

pagangirl

mary43 wrote: »

pagangirl - hope the antibiotics do the job ok. Just make sure you keep warm and plenty of rest etc. (but you know that anyway I'm sure). Been blue skies here but still very cold so I stayed indoors.
Hadn't realised how much mess I'd made with my re-arranging of pictures and stuff in this room till a friend popped in and I proudly showed her my display of books on the wall, newly arrange photo albums...........and both our eyes were then drawn to the 'stuff' that seems to have got ignored in the process.
Everyday I say I'll do it and then something else crops up that needs doing -I'm spoiled for choice what to do next................lol:rotfl:
Take care

Take it that you won't get bored then?

Thanks Mary I will definitely be staying in nice n warm, plenty in fridge/freezer etc. so don't have to go out (glad I stocked up). Will be able to have sort out again this week - have got largish storage box by couch in living room full of un-urgent paperwork, recipes from magazines etc. so can sift through that lot, will probably have bag for recycling when that's all sorted. NO to storage boxes - the worst thing ever invented for storing clutter !:o

ceridwen

Aril - I had to laugh at your quotes today - but then I always appreciate them one way or the other

Pagan Girl - always particularly worth it for us "singlies" to be well stocked-up with food, etc - precisely because we know we can still eat - even if we arent well enough to go out shopping. Take care. The thought is coming to mind of what a Greek person I was talking to about her heavy cold told me she was intending to take as a remedy for it - hot chocolate with a generous slug of brandy in. Hmmm....I duly bought her a bottle of brandy (as a present was due anyway) and made a mental note of this - and it IS very comforting 'tis true. Dont know if 'tis specifically a Greek idea for dealing with colds or no - as shes the only one thats advocated that one to me...but it is nice.

Well I've spent some of my time doing household manual stuff.

Now got me a gardening manual, general cookery manual and manual divided into sections where I have copied out (variously) recipes from Weezl's thread, Shirley Goode's blog and Gingham Ribbon's threads - as I figure all these recipes will have been tried out in "real life" so to say.

My Page A Day Household Diary is coming on okay so far - I'm keeping it up and note that so far I think I'm spending an average of about £20 per week on food (an amount many MSE'ers will think horrendous I know - but its very good going for me - as I averaged about £35 per week pre-MSE). All in all - and considering the price rises there have been over the last year or so - I'm pretty pleased with that, as it means I have halved my food bill in effect. I havent got round to MSE style meal planning yet - but I am being very conscious of getting value for my money (I walk round supermarkets now with Moany Moany's voice ringing in my ears - going "How Much!!!") and using up leftovers. Right at this moment - lunch was based round home-made soup (much cheaper than getting Covent Garden or the like ones - which is what I would have done previously) and dinner = a casserole of a leftover cheese sandwich from yesterday, some cooked broccoli also from yesterday, and I've thrown a bit of fried onion on top of it and will top off with an egg beaten up in some milk (full-fat milk watered down a bit - instead of the skim milk I used to get) and then put a few slices of tomato on top and bake in the oven. Think I'll probably have some spicy potato wedges with that and throw a few (homegrown) bean sprouts on top. So - I'm feeling very virtuous there.

mary43

pagangirl - I'd be at a loss without my storage boxes !! Mind you I do have quite a few....well six that stack in sets of 3, sort of canvas ones - but they all serve a purpose and last year I made sure when I re-sorted them that I labelled them all so I know which one to go to when I need something.
My other weakness is shoeboxes. oh so useful (I tell myself.........lol)
You fall over laughing if you saw what I've got - added to boxes I''ve got baskets - picnic hamper types -four of them stacked on top of each other..........but they are all labelled now so I can see at a glance whats in them....................best I don't mention shelves and drawers............:rotfl:

ceridwen - you do sound organised.............I thought I was doing well -mind you OH does the food shopping and the idea of keeping a notebook of expenditure on it would make him instantly pour out a pint or several of brown wet stuff !!! My notebooks/diaries are mainly 'stuff to do/de-clutter/make'.........dates/appointments/......gardening journal so I know whats planted and when and if it did ok or not. My other diary is for recording general household goings on and how I felt or coped with them. Can be very theraputic after a hectic day and interesting at the end of the year (or maybe two) to see how I felt or dealt with a situation. I think thats about as organised as I get. Have yet to compile a sort of index book to list what is kept where so should anything crop up and OH have to find something then he;d know without getting in too much of a flap - hopefully............:rotfl:

firework

evening all,

ceridwen - interested to hear about your page a day Household diary - is it one you've "built" yourself or a normal page a day diary ... and more importantly what kinda stuff you putting in? i ask as i have just started my own folder (lever arch - i have an awful lot of paperwork lurking!) and have split it up with dividers, have a few bits in - credit card bills to pay - which has already proven quite effective - bit more in my face than when they were shoved in a drawer, list of birthdays - which i can never normally put a hand to, paperwork that just needs filing, oh, and printed off a spreadsheet "grid" for my weekly expenditure so i can see where it all goes, will just fill this in manually as i quite often prefer to write stuff down and kinda work through it in my head as i go. hoping to get a grip on my meal planning which at the moment means me opening the freezer door and going "crispy pancakes or fish fingers?......"

I would really like to start some kind of growing my own veggies in pots this year and hopefully keep some sort of garden journal ! have got the links for the square foot gardening so have a bit of reading to do before i embark on anything there. just wondering if there's anything obvious that i've missed or any good tips i've not yet discovered. at the minute just popping bits in as i come across them so it's all a bit jumbled up.

ceridwen

Hi Firework

Its just a normal page a day diary. I reckon the size with just A5 pages should be enough for me - could end up revising that next year up to one with A4 size pages - but I think this will do for me.

Its - so far at any rate - just going to be where I note down expenditure (divided into food and "other") and make a note at the end of each week what I spent on those two categories and what money has been spent on stuff that doesnt fall into either of those categories (ie work on the house, healthcare bills, etc). I thought it would help me get a handle on how much I need to live on from week to week.

I'm also putting in there regular medical appointments - dentist/optician/etc - so I can check that I'm keeping up-to-date on that and not forgetting my "maintenance" stuff.

Garden stuff as well - I'll also be using it as a garden notebook. So far - I've just written in it what I intend to plant over the next couple of months - will have to sit down and get that bit more "sorted out".

I've worked out a rota for regular (ie weekly or thereabouts) housework tasks (well - it helps me stick to it - if not being a guarantee I will!). I've also worked out a springcleaning rota (ie March = kitchen, April = bedroom 2 up to October = bathroom) to cover keeping the house reasonably presentable. That diary is a good place to keep those things.

It will just be handy as well for when I am reminding myself to do specific one-off things on a certain date - the post-it notes or whatever can get slotted into the diary on those dates. So far - I've got a torn-out page of contents of next Kitchen Garden magazine inserted at the date where that edition comes out - as I want to be sure I buy it, as some of those forthcoming articles look interesting.

So - yep...basically...its just for efficient upkeep of my house, garden and healthcare. I keep the standard small carry-round diary for running my life (social life/appointments/etc).

Doncha' just hate all this having to be organised? - but doing things like this is the only way I can stop myself going off into "absent-minded academic" mode and just sticking my head in interesting books whilst everything goes to pot around me (and now I've found t'Internet as well....ooooh.....all that extra stuff about the subjects that interest/concern me).

mary43

I think my problem is probably having too many diaries.....lol Plus a gardening journal that I had bought me.

firework - I did find a site where you could download pages for a gardening journal and was going to print it out then I had one bought me. I took the link off 'my favourites' but think I got it off the 'Freebie Board' on here so you could try a search on there.
I find ours really useful for noting down what we plant and when, how well it does compared to the previous year and I always make a note of how the weather is behaving.

Well, can't say I've done anything today except make a couple of get well cards and then blow me, if I didn't open a drawer and find a bundle of photos that hadn't made it to the albums !!! So, they've got to be sorted. Lucky I hadn't actually written in any of them.........put that off just in case there were a few 'strays' lurking about...........lol

mary43

firework - just found that link for gardening journal download. Hope it helps

http://www.northerngardening.com/gardenjournal.htm.

pagangirl

Haven't done much today either - have a few items for charity shop - backwards clock I don't use anymore, nice calender in place instead and 4 funny face mugs just used as ornaments - have realised I can do without them. Still have to get stuck into storage box but decided I can do that later while watching TV. Have just gone mad on @mazon - bought 3 of the books Ceridwen mentioned by Joy O I Spoczynska - Look after the Pennies, Wildfoods Cookbook and Indoor Kitchen Garden. Did want Self Sufficiency in a Flat but wasn't paying £40 for it !:eek: Will investigate other sites for that one.