New Year New Me, the journey continues.........

thrifty_fifty

Had a nice surprise today. Checked my Barclaycard online to see if the final statement had been produced. It has, and rather than the £6 or so owing I thought it would be, it was £1.31. Don't think I've seen one like that for a long time. Well my new MSE self is going to see if I can pay in branch rather than pay to ring them to pay £1.31.

thrifty_fifty

Also was super MSE in considering a sausage maker-didn't want to buy an electric one, and favoured the manual one instead because it would give me excercise, and not incur any more electricity costs.

thrifty_fifty

So here we have today...

£600 paid off credit card and £1.31 final interest paid off Barclaycard

Cleaning the house top to bottom

Dig the borders in the garden and de-weed

washing

sorting junk

sorting and photographing ebay stuff

make and freeze butternut squash ravioli, apple and blackberry streudel (with the foraged apples we got in the summer), pizza.

Make banana bread

Flop, eat dinner, bed.

zzzzzzzzzzzz

thrifty_fifty

Well I at least achieved the cooking element of that list. Made 2 apple streudels, 2 pizzas, homemade pasta ravioli and filling and also tagliatelle for OHs lunch, pasta sauce and a banana cake, plus lots of washing up. All of that took me from 10 in the morning till 6 at night.

Cream crackered, but it was worth it. It makes you realise how few ingredients you need to make this stuff at home, secondly how much the shops are ripping you off, and thirdly how rubbish shop bought stuff tastes.

Also spotted a village that has the perfect on budget house for OH and I, so just got to save that deposit now. Think it will be the beginning of 2014 when we do that, so not too far away.

Doing all that cooking yesterday made me think too, that this is the life I want. You can keep the ratrace. I'm not a blue sky, forward thinking, go-getter. So we'll keep our expenses down to a minimum, keep building up the homemade, homegrown stuff so that we can opt out more and more. Just seems like a more honest and satisfying way of living.

thrifty_fifty

Aching this morning from all the digging at the allotment last night. Still not heard about what is happening with our jobs. Apparently they have drawn up the new job profiles and these will be going to another meeting next week. The trade unions have to approve these and that doesn't happen until the beginning of May. We still don't know how many posts there will be, what they will be, or whether people will be slotted into them or if we need to apply. It's all very worrying. Trying to keep distracted with the allotment.

Was working really hard the other day and just thought what am I doing? Being the usual consciencious worker bee, and they might churn me out in a few months time. Communication is really bad, and they are telling us about changes via email, not having holding meetings. I heard about a change to my area from a colleague across the room-i receive multi receiver emails last-probably something to do with the alphabet or something. That really annoyed me.

Lets see what today brings.

thrifty_fifty

Ooh, my body feels like it has been run over, reversed back over and re run over again. Ouch.

More digging at the allotment, and it is so worth it. Can't wait for all that veg to start coming through. Looks like more difficult decisions to be made next week. I pre-registered on a course with the ou starting in november. They have just emailed to say that I will need to pay £1165 by May. I normally charge this to my OUSBA account, which would start being deducted in November. Considering I'm not sure I will have a job in 4 months and I have this lot to pay off, If there is no other option than to pay now, I will have to cancel the course and perhaps consider giving up on my masters (tough).

Eek. I know my life will take drastic turnarounds this year, but there are just a few too many things at once.

thrifty_fifty

Ate the first of my homemade pizzas last night. It was delicious. I am never buying pizza again.

thrifty_fifty

Morning!

Can't believe I had 11 hours sleep last night. Must have needed that! No more allotment for me today as my body is aching. Despite saying I wouldn't, I did end up having another cooking marathon yesterday, as I was enjoying myself. I made nettle and pesto pasta, and divided some of this into lasagne sheets and some into taglietelle. I made a lemon drizzle cake, honeycomb (which was really fun to make), and two more pizza bases.

I'm going to keep a spreadsheet of how much each batch costs to make and compare this to normal supermarket prices. Only thing I can change is to have hens so that I have my own eggs and to get a millstone so I can make my own flour.

Had a good chat with mum yesterday about where my career should go. I've accepted now that I am a quiet and thoughtful person and so most jobs are just not suited to me. I am not going to change who I am and become a pushy person, just to get on in the world. I'm so looking forward to having our smallholding in Devon. We need a plan now, to make it happen.

thrifty_fifty

Morning

I'm proud to say that I have finally owned up to who the real me is. I'm a scruffy free spirit, and I'm embracing my inner hippie to the max. I'm happiest when I don't even bother to brush my hair, and I'm out in jeans and a mac in the fresh air. I hate being confined to an office because it means that I can't walk around much, and it drives me insane. Viva a life in Devon in country and by the sea, surfing, growing veg, getting some good hard physical work in, some hearty food, and a nice nights sleep.

I take time each day to start with positive thoughts, and have put an Amethyst crystal on my desk at work to keep a chilled out vibe going. So far it's working and I'm loving it.

xx

little_h_2

morning,

just popped in to say hi (am lurking and reading, promise!)

glad you are enjoying the allotment and have worked out what is really important to you it sounds heavenly as a lifestyle!

I love the scruffy hair/scruffy jeans/fresh air thing too. but prefer motorbikes to surfing although I have never tried surfing. It is on my list though! :T now there's a thought for this year