Trying to make my dreams a reality!!

icontinuetodream

well, my last fag has been smoked....no more in the house, shops are shut and the babies are at their respective partners so can't cadge any either!!! :eek::rotfl:

dh decided to have a night off the kitchen yesterday so won't be tiling today after all....he is currently sorting out the plinths and will be putting shelves in after that so will move the stocks down later today....tiling will have to wait for tomorrow oh, the trauma :rotfl:

hope you are all having a fab christmas day :xmastree:.....i have been out with the puppy and am now watching singining in the rain I do love the holidays!!!

dd is home tomorrow so will make a roast dinner to make her happy....I still have a 'turkey' roast in the freezer and plenty of veg in the fridge so will make tomorrow her belated solstice dinner.... not sure what we will eat today...very much depends on when dh finishes the kitchen!! Think I will just raid the fridge and see what I come up with....I still have a cabbage in there I think so I may do a cabbage, red bean and rice dinner...very filling, comfort food which always go down well and doesn't take a lot of time to do

I will make some butternut squash and bean enchiladas for the following night as I know I still have a squash in the fridge, I will serve it with a beetroot and apple salad....nomnom!!

I may spend the evening sorting a menu plan...it will be so much easier once all the stocks are easily accessible!! I am determined not to spend any more money on food until the new year and then only on fresh stuff....I am doing really well on my vegan storecupboard challenge and don't want to fall off that wagon...we had got to the point where every time we went to a supermarket we were spending around £70 and coming out with very little :eek: doing the challenge has saved me vast amounts already and I want to keep it going for as long as possible.....;)

Okay, I am waffling now so I had better sign off...far too much brandy consumed!!!:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Have a fab holiday!!:D

RevolvingDoor

icontinuetodream wrote: »

dd is home tomorrow so will make a roast dinner to make her happy....I still have a 'turkey' roast in the freezer and plenty of veg in the fridge so will make tomorrow her belated solstice dinner.

Is this the Redwood one? I quite like that and the vegan beef one.:)

icontinuetodream

RevolvingDoor wrote: »

Is this the Redwood one? I quite like that and the vegan beef one.:)

it certainly is!!! I absolutely love it with cranberry sauce, orange and ginger sprouts, mash etc....nomnom!!

love the 'beef' one too....and their rashers...well,i have converted many a meat eater with them!!! :rotfl::T

icontinuetodream

oh yes...my kitchen is sorted...just the floor tiles to do now!!! All my stuff from the spare room has been moved down into the cupboards, I actually know what I have in stock, I am so happy I could do this :j:j:j:j!!!!!!

It has been a long time coming, my dh has worked his socks off for weeks to get it sorted and I am sooooo impressed with what he has managed to do It looks fab and I am going to get some pans either this week or next so that I can actually start cooking in it!!!:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Had to get petrol today.....so not a nsd but stayed away from the shop and kept my grocery spending at zero so far this payday Unfortunately, one of my friends came over last night and had bought me some cigarettes and alcohol as a pressie as she didn't know what else to get me (the fags and brandy were unfortunate, not her visit!! ) so still haven't managed to quit .....oh well, I will finish these ones and not buy anymore....should have gone through them by tomorrow so not too much of an issue.....

I am looking forward to doing some meal planning tomorrow....it took me a lot longer than anticipated to sort the cupboards etc so haven't had a chance yet and the brandy is calling me so probably won't get it done tonight

Anyhoo...off to answer the call.....have a fab night....I am stupidly kitchen happy so am going to admire it again!!:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Lois_E

Wow! You are OPing loads this month. Well done you.

icontinuetodream

Lois_E wrote: »

Wow! You are OPing loads this month. Well done you.

Thanks Lois...it has been a good month so far....apart from with the groceries...dh keeps going out and buying beer!! Can't complain though....he has worked so hard on the kitchen I would feel churlish whinging about having beers when he has finished for the night!! However, it does mean that I have to rethink my gc for this month...may have to lower the amount :eek:

I have started the 'Don't Throw Food Away' challenge of 2013 with Squeaky's permission....

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4366653

and am starting with nothing to throw away!! :j I intend to use everything up this year....I did really well at the beginning of last year but it turned into a nightmare by the end of it!!:o

I took a box of marrow soup out of the freezer this morning so will have that for dinner along with some hm bread which I am going to put on in a minute....I am looking forward to getting the 'utility' room sorted today and bringing my dehydrator downstairs....I am going to dehydrate lots of carrots, onions, herbs and celery and make my own veggie stock....I also still have to make the onion chutney as have spent all my time tiling, grouting and cleaning the grout off my floor tiles over the last couple of days!!

Today will be an nsd...I'm not going anywhere and will be starting the year of on an MSE note!!!

Happy new year everyone!!:D

icontinuetodream

I've had a few days off the boards due to internet problems, but apart from that, life is good!!

I have managed another £130.50 op and also made my normal mortgage payment which brings the total so far for January to:

£1673 :j:j:j

I am really pleased...it hasn't been an easy month (I started my 2013 budget in December due to paydates!!!) and I have gone off the rails a couple of times which is stupid as I could have done better, but I am pretty impressed with what I have achieved

I still have another two weeks of this month to go, but I will not be doing too much so will hopefully not spend anything else on anything that is not already budgeted for...:o

a lot of the stupid spends (although they have come out of my personal spend budget) have been on lunches for the puppy!!! I am extremely fortunate that my wonderful employers have agreed to me taking her into work every day with me so that she doesn't have to be on her own at home (its also because I am a wreck if I don't have her with me....I worry about her all the time!) and we have a van which comes to the office everyday with hot baguettes....suffice to say that she really enjoys bacon, chicken and cheese panini's etc!! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: what can I say...it makes her happy!!!

Today, I am going to get my house clean, go and get some 'real' dog food and at some point, finally make that onion chutney!!! I can't believe that I still haven't done it honestly, I really have to start getting my backside in gear....I am finding it difficult to motivate myself at the moment and I'm not sure why.....its shocking how little I can manage to do sometimes!!! :rotfl: Right, off to at least do something....probably get no further than getting out of my dressing gown, but hey, its a start!!!!

Lois_E

Awwww! How lovely being able to have your puppy in work with you. I think I read somewhere it's not good for dogs to have too much bread, though. Although I'm not surprised she likes the chicken, bacon and cheese. Mmmmmm...woof.

icontinuetodream

Thanks lois...it is very lovely having her there...i always think that dogs in offices cheer everyone up!

Okay, mega long post alert!!! Feel free to tune out at this point!!

I have spent the last few days deciding on what I need to achieve this year....the dust has settled on last year now and I am ready to start again – its scary, but I have to learn to put things behind me and concentrate on what I can do now to make the present and future be how I want it to be. I have lacked motivation in most things for a number of months and, to be honest, I'm bored with it!!

I have decided that this year, I should try to have as much balance and cleanliness as I can in my mind, body and environment. I am fed up of feeling guilty about stuff that I haven't done and I want to have a sense of acheivement back in my life....

It hasn't been an easy process, I have spent quite a while thinking about it and I have made a massive 'to do' list which I want to get completed as soon as I possibly can....this covers all of the areas I want to improve - some things will be dependent upon finances, some are weather dependent and others are dependent on other peoples availability etc. but those which are in my control will be done asap Its the only way that I can get some enthusiasm back for life...

As far as my environment goes, I have decided that I am going to concentrate on, and deep clean, one room per night over the rest of this week to get things up to a decent standard, which I will then do every week, saving a huge amount of time in the long run (I think that this will take around an hour per night the first week and then about 30 mins every night following this) and leaving the weekends free to dothe more time intensive stuff like the gardens.

Daily stuff will be done in 15 mins bursts - laundry, cooking, swish & swipes, making dinner/lunches, checking budgets, doing paperwork, personal care etc.

The intensive stuff will be done at weekends, but we will only do a Saturday....Sunday has to be our day of doing nothing other than that which makes us happy!! Once we have done all the big jobs, every weekend will be free to do what we want – that makes sense to me!!:j

Mind & body wise, I need to go on a detox - although my diet isn't too bad due to being vegan, I skip meals, drink too much latte, eat too much sugar etc. Making sure that I change that will give me much more energy and I can pretty much do a detox without needing to change my current budget - just need to change the habits!! I am also going to finally make use of my Wii-fit and start doing yoga & balance excercises three times per week plus I am going to start meditating again too....that really clears my mind and gets me focused. That will help with the feeling both emotional and physical balance.

So, big changes ahead for me....now that I have the financial stuff in place and ticking over, its time for me to sort the rest of my life out!! Sticking to my financial plans has helped me realise that I can acheive all sorts of stuff if I make the effort...its just a case of using those lessons in other aspects of my life

Tomorrow, the whole thing starts...tonight, its talking to everyone and making sure they know what they have to do to play their part and keep this ball rolling!! :rotfl:

icontinuetodream

Its been an interesting couple of weeks...I have had untold aggravation with my internet connection so have missed the boards as they keep me motivated, but have made lots of progress in many ways!

Another £300 to OP today.....I am now at £1973 for the month!!!:j:j:j I am really pleased with the progress but I know that next month won't be so good...I had to fill up the tank with oil and pay that today and I have a few things that I need to buy this month to finish off the basic decoration that the house needs.

On the excellent news front, my kitchen is fully functional now....we have tiled the utility room, got rid of the shelves in there and have dispensed with the old cooker I had a friend over on Saturday for dinner and it was the first time I used my kitchen properly....the rest of the time I was using the cooker in the utility room, the freezer in the bedroom and the hob in the kitchen!! Getting the old cooker out of the room was a good thing to do....running between two rooms just to cook a meal is not the best way to spend time!!:rotfl:

I have sorted my budgets for 2013 now, despite having to work from it since the middle of december :eek: it has had to have a bit of a re-jig but I feel that I am finally in control of it now....I also splashed out on a tiny notebook (40p) which I am going to use as a spending diary for the month ahead....I need to keep a better track of what I am spending as I sometimes think that I squander a few bits here and there and I don't want to do that anymore

So, all in all, a reasonable couple of weeks....getting there slowly and lots more lessons to put into practice but at least I am making the effort!!:D