OS Daily Thurs 19th Feb

thriftlady_2

thriftlady wrote: »

I've got a 550g piece of feather steak to use up ( it came in a meat box). I've been puzzling over what to do with it for a while. I wanted to serve it as steak rather than stir-fry as we don't often have steak.

Well, I think it was braising steak not feather steak. There was loads of sinew which of course did not disappear during a quick blast on the griddle. I reckon I got about 3 mouthfuls of actual meat. Good job I did plenty of chips.

Cookie monster I'm a housewife with 3 school-age children. I've been getting away with not having a real job for nearly 14 years now:D We're lucky enough to be pretty comfortably off although there are lots of things we don't spend money on. We live in a modern detached 3-bedroomed house but I'd really love an old country cottage-type house. One of the reasons we're quite comfortable is that we have opted not to upgrade to a 4-bedroomed house.

I love cooking for my family. I also love shopping for food. I shop at a butcher a 10 minute drive away and a farmshop a bit further. I use my nearest Waitrose for everything else-excellent customer service and quality although a bit more expensive than the rest.
I bake all our bread, make all our preserves, make yogurt, baked goods, stock and cook from scratch every day.

I don't really garden or sew, but I can turn my hand to both. I have quite a lot of fruit growing in my garden (it looks after itself) which I turn into preserves and I like to take advantage of the elderflower/berry harvest near my house. I think if I had a huge garden I'd garden in earnest.

I have to have real coffee;)

taplady

Cookie_monster wrote: »

Ok, it was more a general thing than "how was your day today?" to find out how all the famous names on here spend their days.

hi Cookie_Monster:hello:

I spend my days in 2 ways - either working(shift work) or catching up on the OS stuff on my days off such as batch cooking, gardening and the usual housework etc. My shifts are either 10 or 11 hours so nothing much OS gets done then but I do get 2 days off in the week and every other weekend so its not too hard to keep up with the chores.

In_Search_Of_Me

csarina wrote: »

I made a quilt based on my visit. There is a photo of it in my webshots album, its still waiting to be quilted :Dquote]

do you have a linky - would love to see it...!

csarina

In_Search_Of_Me wrote: »

csarina wrote: »

I made a quilt based on my visit. There is a photo of it in my webshots album, its still waiting to be quilted :Dquote]

do you have a linky - would love to see it...!

If you click on the photo you will see it bigger. The pattern is a triple churn dash a pattern I am very fond of. I have a quilt on our bed which is a churn dash made from 1930's fabrics I was given when I went to the US.

Sunnyday

Evening peeps :wave:

Bit late on here today as i`m on strange shifts and the pc i `ve been using most of today dosen`t have access to the net :eek: never mind i`ve made it now.
Not much to report really, just the usual chores and hw happening. Tea was yummy though - spicy meatballs and egg noodles
Both hamsters are walked and happy and i`m waiting for waking the dead to start on telly at 9pm.

Sunnygirl - So sorry to hear about your Dad, i do hope that he makes a full recovery ((((HUGS))))

Taplady - Good luck to your DS for his interview tomorrow.

Kathlicos - Glad the scan went well

Ravylesley - Happy Birthday :bdaycake: Hope you had a great day!

((((HUGS)))) to anyone i`ve missed, i have a Happy Birthday phonecall to make to a friend so i`ll love you all and leave you.

Have a nice evening everyone.

SD

redruby

csarina wrote: »

Red Ruby, we stayed in Shipshewana too at the Morton Street Guest House for 4 nights whilst we 'did' the area.

How funny that we both stayed in the same place, I love your quilt too xx



Hester, glad your dd is on the mend xx

Larumbelle

Cookie_monster wrote: »

How does a day in the life of an OSer go? We all gain so much from these boards but all live different lives and I was wondering how a typical day goes for you....

Do you work? Do you grow your own veg? Do you earn extra income from sideline businesses or a cottage industry? Do you go to a supermarket or shop daily at the local shops? Do you share a teabag with the family or have to have fresh coffee?

Care to share???:j

Hi Cookie_Monster
I don't think there's an average 'day in the life' of an OS'er... I know I and many others talk about it as being a 'way of life' but I suppose that's more in terms of absorbing techniques into our everyday lives rather than having a similar lifestyle. If you stick around on the daily thread you do get to know how different people live their lives - bliss for a nosy so-and-so like myself - so it's worth sticking around if you want a little inspiration.

I am lucky in that I don't have to fit OS around a day job or kids or anything. In fact, it was OS that enabled me to quit work for a while without having to claim benefits, as I have a recurrent illness which can be very severe at times but at others does not affect me at all. This means that in the bad times I was unable to work at all, but in good times I am far too well to justify claiming benefits. Does that make any sense? I'm not brilliant at explaining what I mean. But I do have bits 'on the side' so to speak. I am an Avon rep and sales leader, which means I recruit and look after my own team of reps. It's great because I can do lots of work when I feel up to it and ease up a bit when I'm poorly.

A typical day for me:
I get up when OH gets up and goes to work, about 6 in the morning. If I'm not good I do tend to get a few more hours sleep after he's gone out but I always get up with him. I prepare his breakfast and make him some coffee, which makes me sound like a doormat but it's my choice to do that, I like to show that I appreciate that he gets up every morning to go out and earn some pennies I'll also do some chores in this little window, I start the breadmaker first thing and usually wash last night's dinner plates, which are usually still in the sink (please don't kill me, flylady fans. My sink is clean, it just has dishes in it!) I put laundry straight into the washing machine, so if that is full (maybe once every two or three days it is) I put the washing machine on at this time too. We don't have enough whites to justify separate loads, but I do try to do towels and jeans separate from other laundry. Also, I 'start' dinner at this time too. Sometimes this means boiling beans and browning meat for the slow-cooker, sometimes it just means getting things out of the freezer to defrost. I don't 'meal plan' as such, but I do have a list of meals that we have food in for. I prefer to do it this way as it means I can be flexible if I find some great reductions, offers or gluts from the garden. Also my partner's appetite is variable, so often we'll have unexpected leftovers that will need using up.

At this point I usually plonk myself down with breakfast if I want it and a drink, and decide what I'm going to do today. I don't re-use teabags but then, I don't drink tea. I don't like instant coffee either, occasionally I treat myself to properly percolated coffee (I keep the bag in the freezer so it stores well, a packet lasts me months) but usually it's wither water or cordial - I make my own cordials from homegrown or foraged berries. Right now my pantry is teeming with homemade blackberry cordial and not a lot else, roll on elderflower season! When I do shop, I go to the farm shop, then the butcher's, then the co-op, then once in a while I do a supermarket shop online for the things that I can't get from these three (I'm trying to eliminate the supermarket shop altogether though). The shopping gets done on the weekend when Dave is home, but the supermarket shop is a chore I do while he's at work.

Apart from spending far too long on MSE :rolleyes: I spend my days either working on my Avon business, doing housework, or gardening (I grow my own everything). I shop once a week at most, so that doesn't factor in that often. If I've done laundry I'll hang it up at this point. I try to be home when Dave comes home at lunchtime and I make him a sarnie with the still-warm bread. I buy joints from the butcher's and slice them before freezing them in small amounts, or he has cheese, which we snap up when there's a good offer, I know you can freeze it but as we both like our cheddar lethally strong we usually just leave it in the back of the fridge.

When Dave gets home from work in the evening it's my cue to abandon my chores too except for making dinner, of course. We watch a bit of crap telly like deal or no deal and come dine with me, then the news. Then dinner's normally ready. After dinner in the winter we watch TV, play the wii, or play cards or scrabble snuggled under blankets. If we're watching TV I iron the few things that I bother to iron, do some sewing or mending, read books, or generally try and do something constructive. There are a few political issues I have a strong belief in and often in the evening I'm doing stuff connected to that. Sometimes, though, I end up back on MSE again, which is fine because as well as being social it passes for being research In the summer we spend most evenings in the garden, either being constructive or just chatting. We also have friends that we go and visit on set evenings, and some evenings they come to us too. Then it's bath, then bed.

On weekends I don't tend to do many chores unless Dave is at work or away. If he is, that's my cue to go on a batch cooking or deep-cleaning frenzy that lasts until the next time. We like our weekends to be quality time together, I usually cook him a hot breakfast of some kind then we garden, socialise or I do my own thing while he watches football. We also make homebrew and that tends to get done together on weekends.

So... that's my every day life. Dead boring now I look at it. Oh well, it's mine, it's comfy and I like it! I know I am lucky as I don't have kids or a job to work around. Also that when I'm bad and my routine goes to pot and nothing gets done, my OH is very understanding. We're on a tight financial budget but I am more than happy since it is our 'choice' that things are this way... although at the moment I am getting well again and thinking I would like a job again, no idea how that will happen in this economic climate, but you never know, my cosy routine could be stood on its head very soon!

Gosh, that was an essay and a half, wasn't it?

Cookie_monster_7

It has been wonderful reading about a day in your lives, thank you for replying. It is a shame this couldn't stay as a separate thread, I'm sure a lot of people would have loved to read your stories and add theirs, I don't normally visit the daily thread as it seems like such a lovely close knit group I'd feel like an intruder . Your essay was a great read silvercharming, thank you for that :T I have picked up a few pointers from you ladies already.

I'm a SAHM to my dd (1) and I'd rather be OS and grow veg, bake my own bread etc and teach her these things than do a part time job and pop her in a nursery (nothing wrong with that just not what I fancy doing). I am currently looking for ways to earn some money other than working iykwim;) and I always love to find ways to save money so I am glued to MSE most of the time.

Rowan9

Thanks for taking the time to write that silvercharming. I found it really interesting - your care and commitment to the things you do really comes across
w

redruby

Cookie_monster wrote: »

It has been wonderful reading about a day in your lives, thank you for replying. It is a shame this couldn't stay as a separate thread, I'm sure a lot of people would have loved to read your stories and add theirs, I don't normally visit the daily thread as it seems like such a lovely close knit group I'd feel like an intruder .

.

Now now Cookie, no one is an intruder here, and anyway once you have posted once, you have to come back and tell us how you are getting on, them's the rules