Changing our lives....

Sessie

Children seem to be pretty much recovered now, but it's been.. and I use this word advisedly, a "messy" couple of days!

Mr Sessie and I had the casserole with pasta in cheese sauce last night. There's some pasta left which tomorrow I'll probably put in some mushroom soup I got at Asda at the weekend (as Heinz soups were only 50p, wish I'd got more now but we were a bit skint so only got three). Add a bit of flour to the soup to thicken it and voila, mushroom sauce for the pasta. Need something quick as, once I've got the children home from school tomorrow we have to have a costume try-on as they have a Halloween dress-up party at school on Friday. Then, we have to throw tea down before I go off to bingo with my mum and sister. The bingo hall are giving away some cute pumpkin electric lantern thingies which I'll hide away until next week.

Planning on getting Mr Sessie to take the children up for a bath just before tea on Halloween (half-term and he has the week off) and I will then decorate the living room with some bunting and bats and witches I've been squirrelling away lately, get out some candles and some of the halloween fairy cakes and the lanterns for when they come back down. The Disney channel (kids one, not movies, don't have movies) is showing a few hours of halloween programmes from 9 to 3 on Saturday which I've set to record (as we will be out all day) and we can watch those by candlelight, have some popcorn and give sweets to the children that come to the door. I only give to the younger ones who come with their parents or in groups - not the teens who just pull up their hoods. My cut-off for opening the door is about 8.30 pm. Nothing's ever happened in the 12 years I've lived here so fingers crossed that stays the same.

Bought some reduced veg today as planning to do some batch cooking on Monday (parents taking twins to Blackpool for 2 days so have lots of time to do it).

So, now for an hour or so reading before bed. My sleep is all over the place lately, really need to get it back under control.

So not really a moneysaving post today but want to get back in the habit of "reporting in". I did spend a good portion of my day at work scanning topics on the OS board and writing down ideas for a meal plan for next week so I did do SOMETHING MSE today! :T

Sessie

Have sorted out my pan cupboard (MAN it was FULL of stuff I don't need and haven't used in YEARS!) and spent a couple of hours this morning making meals that should last us the rest of the week. Bought three packs of meat - stewing steak, sausages (tons!) and mince - for a tenner from a local butcher, a load of reduced veg and cheap sauces from Aldi the other day so we don't really need to buy any food (except fresh stuff like milk and bread) this week at all as the children are off school and so don't need packup stuff.

The children are also away until late tomorrow night with my parents who have taken them over to Blackpool to see the lights and go to the circus so there's just me and Mr S to feed anyhow.

Tomorrow the plan is to inventory my food cupboards and cleaning stuff and toiletries - literally inventory, like put a list on the doors of the cupboards so I can look at them before we next go shopping and KNOW what I need to buy rather than, "ooh I'm not sure if we've got any of that" and buying it when we already have it.

After that, I have a ton of competitions to fill in and send off - can't hurt can it?

Other jobs that need doing are:

My books - I need to really look at what I've got and what I'll actually read - I went through a bit of a stage of buying sets of books from The Book People (who I still love!) a while back when I really only wanted some of the ones in the set. I will offer the others to my mum or sisters and any that are left I'll try and sell to Zapper like I did with our old CDs.

The childrens' old clothes - they still have a lot of stuff in their drawers that nowhere near fit. I will take these down to the old pre-school they used to attend for the kids to use when painting or if they have accidents or whatever.

Ditto toys. Especially with Christmas coming and knowing they'll get a ton more that we have ABSOLUTELY nowhere to store.

Anyhow, a night off beckons so adieu for now!

Sessie

Gave my sister about forty books the other night and have tidied the bookshelf. However, I still have more books than shelf space so need to look at them again and see what else I can either give to mum or the charity shop.

Have just realised there are a TON of cuddly toys in the drawers under the children's beds that they haven't played with for months so need to get those out and either Charity Shop them or take them to the pre-school they used to attend - need to phone and see if they want them first!

Haven't managed to sort their clothes out yet but unexpectedly had yesterday off work as it was so quiet and did all my housework and most of the ironing so should be able to do the clothes-sorting on Monday once I've taken them to school. Again, these will either go to the pre-school or to charity shop.

Have sorted toiletries - have loads of bath stuff, deodorant and shampoo so def don't need to buy any of that for a looooong time.

Need to do a small supermarket run tomorrow for pack-up stuff and fresh food/bread/milk and then going to my sister's for a family meal. Kids out tonight with Mr S to a bonfire/fireworks event so I shall be taking the chance to use some of the bath stuff I found and have a nice long soak in UTTER silence. The latter happens very rarely in a house with two four year olds in it!

Am at work now but it is DEAD. I hate it, I'd much rather have work to do than just be waiting for it to come in but I've got no holiday left so I have to just wait it out til 5 pm. So, I'm going to do yet another list of what I have still to do in the house (the above things plus some others) so I can pin it up and not avoid it.

Also, have decided (after getting us on an even keel again moneywise, we are in my agreed overdraft a little so that needs addressing first!), I'm starting a little secret jar of my own in my bedroom for next Xmas. Every year we go to this AMAZING garden centre near Hull that has EVERYTHING you could ever imagine for Xmas, decorations, housey things, pretty things, presents... I can't even explain it. Usually we have a little spare so I can buy one or two things but this year, not a pea. We went the weekend before last and I came away wistful and annoyed with myself for not saving up a bit. I buy VERY little for me all year long and a few pretty - if unnecessary - things to brighten the place at Christmas is really not a big ask. So, SECRET JAR it is!! :rotfl:

Sessie

Okay, self-pressure time:

Today - and this week - I will do the following. The children have gone to stay with mum until Thursday (afternoon, I'm picking them up from school) and I have Wednesday off work (and today).

(1) Sort out my bottom drawer and my clothes I no longer wear.
(2) Children's old soft toys that they no longer play with.
(3) Clothes that don't fit the children any more.
(4) Meal plan for the rest of the week based on what we have in. We are SO tight this week that we just CAN'T afford to buy anything else in.

Will report back on what I managed to get done.

Sessie

So... been away for a while!! Keep thinking I can keep up the MSE lifestyle without coming to the forum but I can't! I was going to start another diary but decided to stick with this one. Better to admit to myself that I fell off the wagon again by seeing my past successes (and subsequent drop-off!) to try to motivate myself to stay ON this time!!

So yesterday I went to town and bought a TON of meat and veg and (own-brand mostly!) sauces from all the local shops (rather than the supermarket where I’d have spent a load more on things I saw whilst I was there). I reckon I bought enough to make meals for four weeks, maybe more (for 4 of us) and I’d say I spent about £70, so that’s pretty good. Most of it is in the freezer now as I won’t get a chance until Monday when I’m off work and the children are at school but that’s the plan for Monday, batch cook as much as I can. Ditto next Thursday with whatever I have left. I gleaned a lot of great meal ideas from the Old Style board (“What are you making for dinner tonight?” topic) and am quite looking forward to trying some of them out! My daughter has a huge problem with constipation (she sees the hospital every few months, is on various medications etc…) and so the more veg and fibre I can get into her, the better! Sausage casserole and mash to her is a treat – to ME it’s getting five or six different veg into her without her realising!

Also went to the bank and got a load of change for the jar for bus fares to and from school as I’m always running out and bus drivers, for some odd reason, REALLY don’t like being given a ten pound note for a £1.20 bus fare at 7.30 in the morning!!! Another thing is, once I’ve broken into the £10 note, the rest of it seems to…. just…. vanish… and I don’t know where it goes!!

Also picked up the Spring Term school dinners menu (it changes every term) and sat last night filling in the choices form up until Easter (!) and writing the envelopes and putting them in. They are now sitting on the windowsill just ready each week to put the money in and take to school.

Bought my daughter a purple dress with sequins on from a charity shop (£1.75!). It’s actually a long top for an 8 year old with the sides tapering down much longer than the front and back but with a little belt on it, she looks amazing. School are having a “Dress Purple Day” next Friday to raise money for the new school IT programme and we have nothing purple they can wear, other than pyjamas! I’ll have to nip to Asda at the weekend, see if I can get boychild a purple t-shirt but I will make sure I ONLY go to George so I don’t get tempted to spend! I might just take a tenner in cash (in case I have to buy a set of three or four and can’t get a single purple one) and leave my cards at home just to be sure!

I got a whiteboard for Christmas from my sister (I asked for it after a million sticky-notes stuck everywhere in the house started to grate on me last year! I think it was a couple of quid from The Range, including a pen with wiper on the end and two magnets!) and I update it every Sunday with things I need to do, where anyone has to be, whether I need anything to take to school that week etc.. and it’s REALLY helping! I also put birthdays on it at the top so we remember in good time to get cards. It is up on the wall just to the right of my kitchen sink so I can’t help but see it a good few times a day and I’m already finding myself glancing at it whenever I’m in the kitchen.

I’m hoping to get out into the garden this weekend and pick up all the things that have blown around it (a few outside toys, some recycling) and clear up the leaves, wash out the playhouse and toys that have been in there over winter and sweep the trampoline and give it a wash so they can start having a bounce after school now it’s lightening up on an evening. I’ll get them to “help” me as I think they need a bit of energy-blasting, being cooped up in school and then home because it’s been so cold lately hasn’t exactly been beneficial to behaviour – a bit of a runaround will improve things a lot I think.

I also want to check what pots I have that are still intact (I know a few have cracked in the cold) so I can plan some veg to grow again this year. Not only is it fun and cheaper than buying, it’s great education-wise for the children. I’m going to try to get them to be responsible for their own pot or two (they can choose what to grow). I don’t have any actual garden space to grow but we did quite a lot in pots last year (strawberries too! We had a GLUT which was great as they are SO expensive in the shops). Need to nip over to the Greenfingers Board and see what I need to do when as I’m very much a grow-by-numbers rather than a natural gardener!

Think that’s it for now – just wanted to get back into the groove!

pennywisepoundstupid

Hi sessie good to see you back.

Sessie

Thanks Penny

So I'm at work today but there's NOTHING to do so I'm surfing MSE and reading magazines! :beer:

In this week's Woman magazine (Lorraine Kelly on the front, dated 11 Feb) there is an offer on page 60 for a free cut and blow dry at a hair salon. Checked their website and there appears to be one right in the centre of the city where I live so I've filled that form in and will send off on Monday. Worth a try although I know these have been found to be riddled with "extras" once they call you to get you to book. Put it this way, I'd like the free cut and blow dry they're offering - if there are any catches, I'm out!

Also got my Tesco Clubcard vouchers yesterday (£11) and looking through the booklet that comes with it I can turn each £5 one into one worth £15 at Tenpin bowling outlets. My twins LOVED bowling at Christmas so, having just phoned the alley to check there were no day/time restrictions (there aren't but the offer can't be used in conjunction with other offers they have on at the time, which is to be expected really) I've just booked that too! Free afternoons out are always good! Apparently the vouchers take 5 days to receive so hopefully should have them by next weekend, or at least in time for half-term!

I went in for a couple of competitions online last night through some email newsletters I receive from various places (for family tickets to attractions etc...) too - hey, I know the chances are small but they're bigger than if I didn't go in for them at all!

I truly REALLY need to speak to my mobile provider and work out a better deal. I'm on PAYG basically because I have a mega-old Nokia (with four year old twins who always manage to find it no matter where I put it, this is a GOOD THING! :eek:) and also I like knowing that if things get a bit tight I can simply not top it up and not be tied to a contracted amount every month. But I know that the deals I have set up on it are old and include one for calling internationally which I don't do any more.

Oh and am going with my dad this week to get bags and compost at least costed-out if not actually bought so I can start planning what to grow out there. Probably won't be until Thursday at the earliest though so here's hoping I get a good deal of that batch cooking done on Monday as I'd had it planned for Monday AND Thursday.

That'll do for now

Sessie

So, got a good few meals cooked yesterday which are now nestling in the freezer.

Might make a curry tonight as defrosted some chicken breasts but didn't have time to make it yesterday.

My sis and her other half are coming on Friday and bringing food so don't have to cook that night either.

We are going to try and eat out of the cupboards and freezer for the next couple of weeks as, apart from fresh stuff, I honestly think we don't need to go shopping at all.

Also phoned the local swimming pool for info on deals over half term - kids can swim for £1 if they take proof they live in the local area (you can get cards for this, which we have, that double up as library cards) so guess we'll be doing that one day next week!

There's also a toy exhibition in one of the local museums (that's free entry again with the local cards) and I'll tie that in with yet another "feed the pigeons and squirrells in the big park" runaround) so, bus fares aside, there's two fun-filled days out for them at very little cost for half-term.

Need to get £5 for the kids to take on Friday for the dress-up day (along with the £4 I've already paid for pancake ingredients! Goodness schools are FOREVER sending "can we have £x?" notes home in the book bags!) and £20 for train fare/something to eat in Leeds as have to go to a meeting with my sister on Friday (doing the supportive bit!).

Am hoping I can find some of those saving tins that you can only get into with a tin opener in one of the card shops or cheap shops as I have two or three different things I'd like to save for this year but I need to not be able to "break in" to the savings on the nights I really fancy a pizza!! I want to do these savings as a secret so I can pop one of the tins open in November and have a good amount to go, "Ta-daaaah!" with to Mr S for Christmas "luxury extras".

Paid the vet for putting Bobby to sleep yesterday too. had had the bill for a bit and genuinely forgotten about it. I still miss him and it's been months now.

Have a child-free night tonight so need to trawl through a site I've found with really interesting films/documentaries on for the ones I'd like to watch as there are tons but I can never find them when I have a bit of time and by the time I DO find them, I've run out of time to watch them!! :rotfl:

Finally, dad brought me one his gardening catalogues with some veg/potato packs to have a look at so will be doing that tonight too.

Bit of a boring one today but keeps me in the habit of posting!

Sessie

Been a busy one today - and productive too!

Made a huge wok of coconut chicken curry - put all sorts of herbs and spices I found knocking around in the cupboard in it, along with some apricots and raisins that were right at the back of the cupboard that had gone all dry. They soon plumped up lovely in the curry sauce. It's currently cooling on the kitchen bench and I've had to come into the living room as I keep "sampling" it!!

My Tenpin tokens from the Tesco Clubcard arrived today (that was quick! I'm impressed!) so we can have a good day one day next week (half term in Yorkshire) free!! :j

Sorted out the bottom of my big kitchen cupboard so that I can now put the childrens' book bags in each night as they tend to clutter up the floor somewhere in the region of the coat hooks and get kicked about a bit! Also, they can go in there along with their PE bags and other things they have to bring home at the end of each term so they're out of the way but we know where they are when term starts again. I always wash their PE kit on the evening they break up so it's back in the bag ready and I'm not panicking on a Sunday night, "OMG, forgot the PE kits!!".

I also got into the habit right from when they started school of putting a full set of uniform, underwear, socks etc.. out ready every night ready for the next morning so there's no searching around for anything and it's second nature now, which is good. We have to be out of the house by 7.45 am on the days I take them to school (when I'm not at work) so if we were looking for tights and shoes and things there's a good chance we'd be late on a regular basis.

Have emailed my sister with the train times for Friday and told her to ring me so we can make arrangements - trying to get a non rush-hour train as there are discounts on fares for those ones.

Have also just come in from FREEZING to death out in the garage inventorying the freezer. Goodness, we have enough in there to feed us for a MONTH or more without ever leaving the house!! I knew there'd be quite a lot of stuff but I'm AMAZED! After this post, I'm going to type it all out and email it to my work so I can print it out and make a meal plan for the next few days. I'm not going to get ahead of myself and plan for a fortnight or a month just yet (small steps are more likely to become habit, plus some days we just have something simple like cheese on toast). Also, will be useful to just be able to look and decide on the day what we fancy, but knowing that it's there. There are a good few batch cooked things I made a couple of months ago still there that I'd totally forgotten about so have dated the home-made things on the list so we eat in rotation order.

Also found a BAZILLION ice pops, ice lollies etc.. so when the sun finally decides to shine we're ready for it! Hard to imagine those days right now as I'm watching the snow pelting down outside.

Have managed to squirrel away £30 this week in my secret savings as I've not had to go shopping for anything due to using up what we have etc.. so :T to that.

So, now for the list! Until next time!

Sessie

Had to go to a nearby city today with my sister who had a meeting with her work following something very silly she did just before Christmas. Unfortunately she ended up losing her job but to be honest, it genuinely WAS her own fault. I am sorry for her and all but now she has to face up to what she did and move on from it. We are a very supportive family and will always have her back but she does have to accept responsibility for her actions and the consequences it has caused.

Between the initial meeting and the final hearing we had two hours to kill so wandered around and found a 99p shop of AWESOME! The only reason I didn't spend my entire pay in there was that we were on the train and I couldn't carry it all!

Bought three of those savings tins where you need a tin opener to get at the money (! necessary as I kept raiding last year's savings jar for pizza money!) from a 99p shop. Very pretty Disney ones too so the £30 from the other day is now safely tucked away in one of those. Need to put all the loose change (about a jar and a half's worth) into one of the others (need to wait until morning as that's a noisy job and the twins are asleep at last!) and decide how I'm going to save in the last one (50ps? silver?).

Bought quite a lot of Easter bits and bobs for the children too and a couple of potato growing bags (wish I'd bought more but they were wrapped up and I wasn't sure of the quality but having opened one at home, they're great, even have drainage holes in the bottom!).

My Book People order arrived today - a £2.99 book each (one of stickers and one of mazes) for the children for half-term and a set of phonics books to complement the ones they use at school. Lastly a really good hardback book on container/pot veg and fruit growing so I can have a really good read and decide exactly what I'm going to give a go this year. Mr S has had a little bonus via work and is sharing half with me so that will cover most of what I intend to buy (well, until I read the book and decide to open my own farm! :rotfl:).

I'm actually going out tomorrow night for a meal with my work team (actually don't really like most of the people in the Firm as a whole but my team are a good bunch!) and it will be my first night out for over two years so I'm quite excited! I will be dropped off at 7pm and probably home by 10 pm but still... being able to enjoy a good meal, that I didn't cook and don't have to clear up after, to have a fun conversation without listening out for small people waking up ... priceless.

Another brief and mostly pointless update but reiterating the "reporting in" habit.