Changing our lives....

acornpip

Hi Sessie, just wanted to say that i love reading your posts...even the really, really LONG ones lol...well to be honest they are my favourite! Sounds like you've had a really productive couple of weeks with your batch cooking and bargain hunting - i have been collecting handy tips along the way, so thank you for that

The blankets for the twins sound fab...and perfect for my 2 dd's. Funnily enough my 3yr old would probably prefer the one with the train on (she's really into cars and trains etc)...so my little 1yr old could have the cute pink one and everyone's happy! I'm thinking these would be nice to keep in the car also, cos they already have some nice knitted ones to use in the house.

Anyway, i'm prattling on now...so i'll slink back into lurkdom and look forward to your next installment :j

Sessie

Had a much better night's sleep last night thank goodness.

This morning hubby played with the children whilst I did ALL of this week's ironing! :j. I do have a SMALL confession to make though.... whilst I was telling the truth about having done all the stuff out of the airing cupboard, since then it had been sitting on the kitchen table waiting to be put away for about the last five days. Until today. It is all now neatly stacked back in there (TICK!) and I can't believe it's the same cupboard. The tank is now clear of any obstructions and I will be able to leave the cupboard door open on an evening just to get a bit of extra heat into the house.

Haven't put all the ironing away (there was a lot of it!) but will do that tomorrow night. Cleaned all the kitchen tops, table and hob so it looks nice and tidy again. TICK! Also cleaned the front room window - mum and dad stand the children on the windowsill when Mr Sessie and I go to work so they can wave goodbye and they (the kids I mean, not my parents, although I don't know....:)) COVER the glass in fingerprints all the time. At least for today it's all clean. Also cleaned the sink out properly with cleaner when I washed my hair. Just little jobs but they are helping me get used to doing more things more often rather than letting it build up into a "I'll NEVER get all this done!" situation.

Then we went to see MIL and FIL as they have been away in Cyprus for two weeks. They went with BIL and SIL and their son and said that as they had given their boy some money to spend on the holiday they wanted to give the same to our children (who are obviously way too young to go to Cyprus where, they said, it was 100 degrees nearly every day! My WORST nightmare! I'd rather be cold than really hot).

So they'd had a look around whilst on holiday but all the clothes were summer clothes which isn't really much use now we are into September. So, when they got back they went to Mothercare and today they gave us two GORGEOUS winter coats for the children, REALLY lovely ones. Thick, toasty warm, lovely to look at coats of awesome. They had left the tags on "in case you don't like them"... (!!!) and they were £25 each!! So that was a lovely surprise and means we don't have to shell out for those - something I also didn't put on my list of known upcoming expenses but now it doesn't matter! They also bought Girlchild a tin with little jigsaws in and Boychild a Police Helicopter (just a small one, nothing flash). With a siren. Oh he likes the siren. No.. he REALLY likes the siren. Mummy, however, already DOESN'T like the siren....

Then my mum phoned and said all their blackberries were ready so we went back via their house and picked a big bowlful and knocked some more of their apples down from their neverending tree. There are still LOADS on the tree and am hoping to go sometime this week, get on a stepladder and knock a load more down so I can make more stuff to freeze - pies and such. Was going to do the fruit tonight but to be honest, am too tired, will do it tomorrow night. The children ran around SO much at MILs and then at mum's that they had no sleep all day (they usually have 30 mins or so at some point early afternoon) and they were REALLY crotchety by teatime. We fed them a quick tea, put them in jimjams and to bed by 6.30 pm. We had burgers (the £2.00 ones from the other day) and chips (made with "seconds" Mr M's potatoes) for tea which was lovely as we don't have that sort of meal much.

Oh and dad had bought me some De-icer for the car for winter. I'd tried a couple of the cheapy shops the other day but they didn't have it so he went to the DIY store with the initials for its name and got me some from there. I know it seems well early to be thinking of that but I don't want to get up one day and find the car frozen and think, "Oh if ONLY I'd got it when I thought about it months ago!". TICK!

Am having the day off tomorrow, going to town to (amongst other things) try to source some material to make the children's duvet covers with - there are a few cheap shops in town and I will also try the market. I love my children to death but it's a rare treat to be able to have a real good look around shops and the market at my own pace. I usually work all day Monday so mum and dad are having the children as they usually do so I get a day of freedom! I dare say a couple of coffee shop visits may work their way into my day so it PROOOOBABLY won't be an NSD!! Just the thought of having a nice bit of cake, a hot latte and a read of the newspaper is BLISS!! I don't need much, me!!

So I'll finish today with some words of motivation for us all....

".. don't spend your time lookin' around
For something you want that can't be found
When you find out you can live without it
And go along not thinkin' about it
I'll tell you something true
The bare necessities of life will come to you"

You are truly a wise bear Baloo!!

x

Sessie

So, I was in town for 7.40 am this morning - went with hubby as if I was going to work as normal. Seemed pointless to stay at home another hour and pay for the bus and there'd have been no lie in for me if I had as the children were awake early and the police helicopter was wooo-wooooing away....

Obviously, not many shops were open so I went to a cafe and had....well, it was SUPPOSED to be an English Breakfast but.. it was a plate of grease and cardboard. Was well disappointed - it was going to be a real treat but it was horrible! Still, the tea was nice! Sat and read the newspaper from cover to cover for probably the first time this year.

In my long wander around town I managed to get:

(1) the AAA batteries for the torches (TICK!), which I put in when I got home and the children promptly went MENTAL (as in excited/happy) and ran around flashing them everywhere and have actually taken them to bed!! They've not been down long but I'll go up soon, when they've dropped off and try to prise them out of their hands!! Need to put them somewhere safe so we know where to go for them if/when there's a power cut. Then we can use them to get out the emergency under-sink box, light candles and try to stop the children grabbing THOSE!!

(2) nine rolls of Xmas wrapping paper (I know, I know! but I'm still having a TICK! for it!) for £3. It's quite nice stuff too. I seriously HATE carrying that around when we're present shopping so I'll be glad in December!! Need to find some of the packs of that thin shiny tape that you can curl with scissors (I LOVE prettifying the pressies!! We have a night wrapping and a few traditions - we watch Jack Dee and die laughing, even though we can almost quote it word for word, we have a takeaway, hubby wraps and I prettify and do the labels) and some bows and stuff, but think I'll have to wait til nearer the time as I didn't find any today. Oh and 2 rolls of sellotape for 50p (for both) which I've left in the bag with the paper so it's all together.

(3) an ice lolly mould - it was £1.20. Both children love ice lollies and I've decided we can make them ourselves cheaper as we buy SO much juice, plus I think the children will enjoy the pouring and waiting and seeing how they are made. Have already put some in the freezer for tomorrow.

(4) this wasn't on the list buuuuut.... in the Scope shop I found a GORGEOUS purple cordouroy dress for Girlchild for a pound. C'mon.. a POUND! She looks lovely in it, as soon as I showed her it when I got home she said, "On mummy, on now...". She will be wearing it tomorrow I think. Their weekly playgroup has been closed for the last six weeks for summer but it starts again tomorrow - it's stupidly cheap - they only ask for £1 for BOTH of the children (not each!) and they get a HUGE bowl of fruit halfway through (not just apples and oranges, but strawberries, blueberries, bananas, all sorts!) and they have loads of toys and then a singing session. Mum and dad take them as I'm at work but I've been a few times and it's a really good place.

(5) Got a load of fruit and veg from the market because I found this spice shop I've never seen before (see? I get the time to wander around and I FIND stuff in the city I've lived in for 40 years!). OMG, what a shop! They have all the raw ingredients and spices and powders and you tell them what meat you have and they make you up a mix to use with it - you can choose how spicy, how creamy, whatever... and they make it up. The shop smelled DIVINE, I didn't want to leave! I restricted myself to two portions (each will do a meal for four) and a block of coconut cream and am really looking forward to cooking tomorrow afternoon now! Will also have to do the apples and blackberries from yesterday as I haven't done them tonight either!!

Went to a few shops to look for material to make the cotbed duvet covers but the choice was disappointingly poor - think I'll have to go further afield to find some I like. HOWEVER, someone had sent me a link on my email - which I checked whilst having a couple of hours surf in the library (free! TICK!) - to a place that sells cotbed duvets for £7. It's a proper shop rather than a private seller so I have sent for two and will see what they are like. I'm still going to make the covers (when I find some nice material!) but even if I had bought cheap duvets to cut down I couldn't have done it cheaper than that!

Finally I went to another Edinburgh Woollen Mill we have in the city - I was just checking whether their blankets might have been cheaper in there! - sadly they weren't but I found some nice socks for Mr Sessie (he has a bit of a thing about socks.. he loves putting on a new pair for the first time so it's a bit of a joke, I get him socks quite a lot "for a treat" - it's a cheap enough way to make him smile!) and some shortbread (big boxes, should have been £4.50 each but it was 2 for £6.00 so ... they are now upstairs in a cupboard not to be brought out until Xmas (yeaaahhhhRIGHT!).

I did see quite a few Xmas present possibilities but decided to leave the actual buying for another day. Have written them down though - t'was quite hard to walk out of Hotel Chocolat empty-handed though I did give them my email address so I could get a freebie chocolate piece (which was yummy!). It's really quite expensive there but my dad will be the recipient I think so he's worth every penny. They said they may well get different boxes of stuff nearer Xmas so, whilst they had some good ones now, decided to wait.

Anyhow, am REALLY hungry, forgot to eat in town, was so busy looking around and haven't had time since I got home so I MUST get something now. Also, time to watch Dragons' Den - LOVE this programme!!

x

whatatwit

Hi Sessie, just having a catch up.

Are Hotel Chocolat on Quidco, might be worth a looksie for some cashback

Have you thought about making fleecy sleeping bags for the children for winter, I'm sure I read about them on the OldStyle board.

The spice shop sounds wonderful :drool:

Reading your progress had made me realise that the ironing I did at work this evening is still in the car and it's raining here now, oh well, don't suppose I'll melt and at least the clothes have got polywrap on them.

Sessie

Hey 'Twit (we're friends now right? I can give you a nickname?!)!

The sleeping bags idea is a good one but... they move around SO much in their cots during the night I don't know if they'd take to them, if they get caught up in their blankets and can't get them off, they cry and wake me up until I "release" them!! I will still have a look for the topic on OS though, can always make them for a year or two's time so thanks for that!

Have made one curry with one of the spice mixes tonight. It smells AMAZING. The guy told me to make it one day and let it sit until the next day for the best results, to let all the flavours infuse and such (I always believed curries were best the next day anyhow!) but we are sitting here and can smell it and it's driving us CRAZY! I will resist but I go to bed WAY before Mr Sessie ... and I know he won't be able to stay away from it!

As for the ironing, well, here's something I need to take heed from. Found it on another frugal living site I frequent and I REALLY need to take it on board:

The laundry isn’t done until it is put away. Get out of the mind set that if it is washed and dried it is done. Folding and putting it away is equally as important. Some of us think that if we get the laundry washed and dried that’s all we need to do and it’s okay for the family to just pull stuff out of a pile. That makes as much sense as cooking a meal and expecting everyone to stand at the stove and take turns scooping the food out of the pan and eating it one spoonful at a time. You wouldn’t dream of doing that. Yes the food is cooked, but the meal is not complete until the table is set and the food is put on plates. Do the same for your laundry. Put it away.

Whilst I've been managing to DO the washing and ironing lately I've not been QUITE so good at that last bit. Most weeks the full basket (of ironed and clean stuff) has been sitting either in the kitchen or my bedroom for a few days before (read: IF) it gets put away. The last couple of weeks I've been doing pretty much the above - ie; pulling stuff out of the basket for us (and the children!) to wear. It's just finding the TIME! I can't do it during the day because the children squeal if I go upstairs and leave them, I can't do it at night because they're in bed.

PLUS, I sort of "don't want to" because I want to bring their drawers down one night and sort through them - there must be a lot of stuff in there that either doesn't fit or is too summery now (at the bottom) that I can pull out and either give to friends at work or to the charity shop. Then, when everything will go in easier, I'll be more inclined to put everything away each time. It's just.. getting round to getting the drawers out of their room before bed so I can bring them down after we've put them to bed. I keep "meaning to" ... and then I'm so tired by teatime I can't face it. Think I need to set a night to do it, post it on here and then I'll HAVE to! Tomorrow night I'm busy, Thursday night we have company and Friday night I'm at work until 8pm so I guess it's not for the next few days!!

I'm mad at myself for forgetting to buy curtain hooks yesterday - there are two that have broken on the nursery curtains, one at each end of one curtain and they are falling open. Grrr.. don't know if I'll get anywhere to get them in the next few days either.

Ack, crying Girlchild.. back in a bit!

x

Sessie

Bless her, she's not well. She has a cold and she's all snotty and can't breathe when she lies down. I put some Vick on her chest and neck and she's smiling at me saying, "A little bit more.. nice smelling... a little bit more mummy..." and her little red eyes are all swollen from rubbing them. Gulp *sniff*...

So, another shopping trip today after work - wrote another list and stuck to it apart from ONE packet of chocolate/mallow teacakes that I bloomin' well feel I deserve! A whole POUND they cost! Well, strike me down!

Got 10 jars of the Uncle Bens sauces as they are still on offer at 5 for £5. They'll last us a good few months as I won't just cook meal after meal with them. Also bought a couple of big bags of pasta. Am going to start a box which will be kept in the garage with non-perishables with long dates on them so we don't have to buy as much in winter and also so we are well-stocked if we have really bad weather and don't have to go out. Will buy a few extra things each week and put them in there. I will be the only one who knows it's there and then, when there's ten foot of snow on the ground I can smugly produce food from "thin air" and say, "Ta-daaaa!" and smile benignly whilst my husband and children look at me like I'm Superwoman!

Also got a good supply of pack up stuff so we can carry on taking lunches to work to save money. Some of the stuff from Mr M's isn't that great (the sliced meat, in our opinion, is no great shakes) but other stuff - the spreads with meat etc.. in are Ok though. Didn't actually remember to take my OWN lunch today, but only bought a packet of crisps at 50p from the vending machine and had something else when we got home from shopping so that wasn't TOO bad.

Right, have found ANOTHER big topic to go and read over on the Old Style Board - about what to do with leftovers - so off I trot! Oooh, also got the Mr M's magazine at the till (free) and there are LOTS of really nice-looking recipes in there. I'll probably have a go at some of those in the next few weeks. Will let you know what I make and how (quite literally!) it goes down!

Oh and got the number of a financial advisor today (hubby of someone at work) - will be seeing him some time during week of 4 October as Mr Sessie and I are both off for the week. On that note...

Things still to do:

Ring Financial Advisor - tell him briefly what we want to talk about and ask him what paperwork he needs us to have when he comes to save time digging it out when he gets here.

CURTAIN HOOKS CURTAIN HOOKS MUST REMEMBER CURTAIN HOOKS!

Check with Tesco re that SIM deal - every month? Or just as and when you top up? Rolling contract you can get out of whenever? Call costs as opposed to current provider? (Ooh another side note, got a text from my current provider today saying I had unclaimed credit that I'd earned earlier in the year before my phone went for a bubbly swim so claimed it today and now don't have to top up! That's a definite TICK!).

And... dad - what exactly DO you have in mind for the cat flap??

x

whatatwit

Sessie, have you tried the basics range of sauces from Sainsburys.
We really like the curry one and the sweet'n'sour one, both as cheap as chips The sweet n sour is 28p, curry one is cheaper.

I add some frozen peppers and a tins of cheapo pineapple chunks to sweet n sour and some coconut or tinned new potatoes and peas to the curry one.
They work well with bits from a roast chicken or I also get frozen chicken breasts from Farmfoods that are good value.

o2bfree

Sessie, I have done nothing except read your diary for the last hour or so, and I had so much to do today.
Not complaining though. It is very interesting reading and you are so motivational.
I shall be popping back often to catch up with your goings on.
Good luck

Sessie

Bah! I was having a really good day and got ahead of myself and then my back went GRAAAAARGHHHHHH and so now I'm sitting here in agony. Again. .

Got up about 7.30 (children seem to be sleeping a bit later these days, they wake about 7 but play happily for a while so I get chance to wake up. This is quite good as the clocks go back at the end of October so they won't be waking at the crack of dawn!! 6.30 am I can live with, 5.30 am?? I'm SO done with that!! They were doing that last Christmas and it nearly killed me!). Changed and dressed them but stayed in PJs myself as I thought I'd try to get loads done and then get a shower.

Got them a LOAD of toys out and also made then a "den" (ie; four kitchen chairs and a huge throw draped over them!) and sat them inside with the little torches I got the other day, which they thought was FAB.

Had a BUCKET (huge one) of apples from the weekend's picking at mum's together with a load more blackberries so stewed all those, some together, some separate, some with apricots and/or sultanas in. After that, tidied the whole kitchen, cleaned all the tops etc...

Put one load of washing through and then washed all the children's sheets, blankets, pillowcases etc... and put them in the sparkly new tidy airing cupboard to dry as it was threatening to rain again.

Went to the park with the children for a while to let out some of their energy, came back, had a bit of lunch then Boychild "made a nest" as we call it, and fell asleep. This means he drags two pillows over to the chair, together with about twelve toys, arranges them where he can see them all, covers himself up with the pillows and falls asleep. I sat on the sofa with Girlchild who soon followed suit and was soon snoring and lying all over me. So it was one of those rare days where I get an hour's break, I half-dozed, half-thought of stuff I need to do in the next few days.

Have found a number for one of those "no job too small" handymen and may well just ring him to see if he can sort the catflap.

Decided not to put the kitchen noticeboard back up after the recent paint job. It wasn't really used and the walls look lovely and clean and fresh now. There were a few numbers on it that we need but I have put those into my new phone, plus swimming times and bus times but I am going to stick those on the inside of a cupboard instead. Will probably hang on to the board for a few weeks until I see if there is any other use for it (I know, this is hardly decluttering but I have told myself if I don't touch it again before the end of October then I don't need it and it will go).

Oh, forgot to say yesterday that I bought new bulbs for the kitchen downlighters as only one of six was actually working! . Nagge-... I mean... ASKED hubby to sort them as soon as he walked in the door, which he did and the kitchen is now like something out of Star Trek!! Most of the lights had been out for about a week but as we don't really go in the kitchen at night I'd just been letting it slide but... NO MORE!! Deal with things AS they occur Sessie m'lady!!

The children had been playing half in their pirate boat full of water (outside!) and the sandpit and resembled Worzel Gummidge so took them upstairs and bathed them. They were happy enough running around upstairs so I made up their cots again with the clean linen and tidied away a lot of their toys. They have quite a few things in the cots already but every night they take something else up and then something else... I'd say there was about 30 things in each cot which I have got back down to about 10.

I want to slowly start decreasing this too as the cotbed duvets arrived today and they are JUST what I wanted. Am going to get 2 more in case of illness where... shall we say to protect those with more sensitive stomachs .. I may need to change the duvet in the middle of the night ... and leave it at that!? But as they pretty much fill the bed from top to bottom, I don't want toys underneath, they need room for their feet. I can often hear them kicking cars and stuff through the monitor by my bed on a night.

Whilst I was in the nursery and they were playing happily (well, they were happy chasing the cats around trying to pull their tails off, can't say the cats were best pleased!) I thought I'd clean the paintwork... which led to me moving furniture... which led to me hoovering the whole room!! So now, the only thing that really needs doing in there is sorting the bookcase. It has a lot of books we got for them for when they are older - sets of Beatrix Potter, Mr Men, Wind in the Willows etc.. and some fairy tale type books for when they get a little older and will sit and listen to bedtime stories, but at the bottom are a lot of my books, some read, some not. It has also become a bit of a dumping ground (tidy, but stuff is on there that needs... putting somewhere else, not quite sure WHERE but not there!). Of course, there is also the matter of CURTAIN HOOKS which I didn't get out to get today!

Came downstairs when Mr Sessie got back from work, gave them tea, washed up AGAIN and swept and swish-wiped the kitchen floor. On a whim, decided I'd do the children's drawers I mentioned yesterday tonight. Was bringing the second one downstairs when my back just "went". Lucky I didn't fall down the stairs as when it goes, it's SO painful. So now I'm sitting here counting down until I can have more painkillers. Sitting on the floor leaning over drawers putting things in piles and twisting around is DEFINITELY off the agenda! Still, it's forced me to have a night off. Since I've started this whole thing, I've been looking for things to do all the time!! It's becoming a bit of an obsession!!

So I'm going to look at that "using up leftovers" topic on the OS board as I didn't get there last night.

Finally, the curry (which was resisted by both Mr Sessie and me yesterday) was BLOOMIN' lovely! Only "bad" thing was chomping down on a piece of aniseed (star anise?)! Lovely as a flavour, HORRIBLE if you chew the actual plant bit!! Will def go back for some more mixes next time I'm in town. There is still enough left for Friday's tea for all four of us too (having company tomorrow so cooking something else).

Thanks for the Sainsbury's sauces tip - it's a bit out of the way for me but I know someone at work who goes so will ask them to get me a jar or two to try!

Not expecting tonight to be much in the way of sleep as my back gets worse when I lie down. *sigh* Still, I've got all those books to read...

x

whatatwit

Ouch to the back

I started a clear up in the kitchen, in an attempt to move the desk into there. Not yet finished, but I will.