Trying to make my dreams a reality!!

icontinuetodream

ETA: Sorry Tahlullah....crossed post!! Great thanks...See below!!;)

Its been whirlwind of a week!!:D

Started my new job and absolutely LOVE it!!:happyhear The people are great, boss is fab and job itself is ideal!!:j

I am totally exhausted though.....all my lazy time while I have been off seems like a lifetime ago already and I am totally out of the groove of working and sorting house/dogs/kids/garden!!:o

On the plus side, I have little to do this weekend so will spend today getting the house straight and then have a total chillax for the rest of the time

Paid another £58 off the mortgage today....its the water rates free part of this months budget so I am pleased to be able to add a little bit more....hopefully, next month I will be able to get back on the wagon properly with the mortgage reduction

I really want to hit it as much as possible while I have a job which will definitely mean spending lots less on alcohol (yep, bought more this week ) with this in mind I am stopping drinking during the week from next week and will get my wine-making head back on so that I have very cheap alcohol during the weekends....it will help with my health too - a lot of the people I now work with are quite health conscious and it will make things a lot easier as my previous work colleagues had a similar attitude to me....which resulted in far too many sweeties being eaten at the desks!!;)

Food wise, I am doing fairly well... I have been sticking pretty much to the meal plans and my freezer stocks are slowly diminishing...however, I have been very poor at sorting lunches for work and have been buying stuff from the sm's...this will also stop next week - I am going to start taking soups and sushi - I love both of them and can make a big sushi roll which will last two days (Tuesday and Wednesday) and intend to have hm soup and hm bread for Saturday lunchtimes and make enough to take for Monday lunch

Not a lot else to report - thankfully, life is pretty quiet again now, my friend is in a much better place and dd is a whole lot happier so I can leave my stress head in its box!!:rotfl:

Hope you all have a great weekend!:D

icontinuetodream

It's all good!! Another £190 to the mortgage today as dh got his overtime through....if I get paid next week (first time on the payroll so not counting my chickens!!;) ) we should be able to add to that too, so April could be quite a nice month!!

I have felt rubbish all week...very heavy cold and have not been at my best at all, but starting to feel slightly more human now despite not sleeping properly all week and am hopeful that I will be a lot better by the time I get back to work on Tuesday....the job is better than I could have ever hoped...I absolutely love it and am very encouraged by my bosses attitude to the things that I have pointed out that need improving!

Busy long weekend ahead now....I have finally defrosted my freezer!!:j Had to play freezer tetris this morning with my small one and have a mega cookout to do tomorrow with the stuff I couldn't fit in... a joint of beef, beetroot soup, rolls, a gammon joint, chicken stock bits, rowan berries, elderberries, blackberries and some ice-cream....

I am cooking the chicken bits for the puppies biccies, the joint of beef I will cook tomorrow and then re-freeze, I will make wine tomorrow from the berries, I am doing the gammon for Sunday and we are having the beetroot soup with rolls for tomorrows lunch......I also bought a ys marrow the other night so I have just sliced that and cooked it with a onion, red pepper, herb, tomato and haricot bean stuffing topped with goats cheese that we will have tomorrow night along with salad from the greenhouse..... I bought three lamb legs from t*sco yesterday as they were dirt cheap so they as soon as the freezer has got back to temperature, they are going in to be used over the next couple of months Ds has been told that he needs to eat the ice-cream and he is apparently fine with that!!

Off out tonight to see a friend who has been working away for a while and have another friend coming over tomorrow for a drinking session and staying over....really don't feel up to it, but I also don't feel that I can let either of them down as the dates have been planned for a while....must admit though, I am really looking forward to Sunday, once my friend has left I intend to do nothing other than eat and sleep!! :rotfl:

Hope you have a fab bank holiday weekend!!

icontinuetodream

Managed to achieve every thing I set out to do this weekend and a few things I hadn't planned too!!

I cooked the beef and the marrow but ended up eating them together on Saturday night when my friend was over.....still have a bit of beef left though so will cut that into strips and freeze it for fajitas and I am going to blend the cooking stock and veg, add a bit of pearl barley and have soup for lunch at work tomorrow and Wednesday.... The gammon joint went down very well yesterday and we will have some more of that for dinner this evening with a papaya salsa that I made yesterday from ys papayas, salad from the greenhouse and an orange and honey dressing leftover from yesterdays gammon baste I will shred some of whatever is left (if there is any....ds attacks the gammon like a swarm of locusts!!;)) to freeze for pizza topping....

I went a bit mad on Saturday with the half price meat and fish offers in t*sco bought another two lamb legs, a huge joint of beef, two huge joints of pork and a side of salmon.....my excuse was that 1) it will save lots of cash in the long run and 2) I have to fill my newly beautifully defrosted freezer to make it cheaper to run!! :rotfl: Dh was not thoroughly convinced, but its true I tell you!!

Tomorrow I will find out whether or not I have been paid so I am hoping that I will have a better idea of what my usual salary will be and also whether I will be able to donate to the mortgage fund from it The suspense is killing me!!:rotfl:

I planted out my broad beans yesterday and put my damson tree in it's permanent home too....can't wait for the days when I will have a supply of damsons for gin...my friend makes it and it is absolutely lush.....I finally racked the elderberry dessert wine and the hedgerow one on Saturday morning (almost two months later than intended!!:o) plus started off the rowan, elder and blackberry one....I really need to do better on the wine-making front....I should have started about ten of them so far this year and have basically failed miserably....:o However, onwards and upwards, I will do better!!;)

Slobbing features heavily on my 'to-do' list today....still feel rubbish and cannot seem to sleep for more than a couple of hours at a time Think I really need to start to take better care of myself as I just don't seem to be able to shake things off like I used to... I will make May the month of sorting myself out physically - eating better, drinking less and getting back into routines for things will do me the world of good I'm sure!

Hope you all have had/are having a fab holiday weekend!

Tahlullah

Wow, you have been active. My entire weekend has been one of slobbing. Not done a thing.

Do look after your health. When it's in tip top shape, it allows you to do everything else you take for granted.

Enjoy the rest of your holiday.

Tx

icontinuetodream

Yay!! I got paid!!:j Ridiculous really, but it is so nice to actually have a salary coming in again its making me stupidly happy!!

Didn't get a slob day on Monday after all as old puppy had what is known as a vestibular episode...basically similar to a stroke:eek: Fortunately, she will make a full recovery and seems perfectly okay now but certainly not good for my nervous system the puppies certainly know how to frighten the life out of me!!

Nothing further to report on the mortgage front....I will put another £10 to it today just to bring the April total up to 1k but the intention of paying off a bigger sum had to be re-visited when I looked at the cc statement!!:o I am paying that off with the money I had earmarked for the mortgage as it is my 'emergency' comfort blanket....I do have savings to cover stuff, but don't like to touch them as they are part of the offset....probably not the best financial sense, but mentally the best way for me to do it!!

Today, I have worked for a couple of hours and intend to spend the rest of the afternoon doing absolutely nothing....there are enough leftovers in the fridge for me to do no cooking later and I have lots of cr*p on the tv to catch up on, so a glass of chardonnay and rubbish tv is the order of the day!!:D

icontinuetodream

Old puppy had another vestibular episode yesterday She seems okayish again now but is much more wobbly than she was after Monday's one....I think that this one was worse than the last but at least I knew what was going on this time....it's proving very stressful for me and I hate the fact that there is little I can do about it

You're absolutely right Tahlullah- physically, I do feel a total mess at the moment - being ill and having all the puppy stress has led to an entire lack of sleep, loss of appetite and general rubbishness that has really hit me hard....I am going to go on a 'take-care' of myself health kick from Monday to try to get some balance back in my life and improve my general physical and mental state - I am hopeless at being ill and it really gets me down emotionally, I am not prepared to continue to leave myself wide open to it anymore so need to do something about it....cutting down on alcohol, eating better, drinking more water and quitting smoking is definitely the order of the day!!;) If I had the energy, I'd be looking forward to it!!:o

Paid off the majority of the cc balance as planned....only £50 left on that now which I intend to bring down with any TT's I have this month and then clear the balance next payday....then it is totally full steam ahead with the mortgage clearance I am getting closer to my mortgage milestone of sub 36k and really want to hit it as soon as is humanly possible.....

Plan for the day is do nothing!! I am going to just snooze when I can and slob for Britain...everything else can wait until tomorrow!

Hope you have a great weekend!!:D

giblet1979

Hi ICTD,

Just found your diary and have subscribed. I think you've done brilliantly!
Really sorry to hear about puppy problems tho. Sending hugs x

icontinuetodream

Hi giblet...thanks for the kind words and welcome aboard!!:hello:

Finally sorted out the grocery budget this morning by getting receipts from dh! Not in the least bit impressed as it was meant to run from the 1st May-1st June and there is £49.80 gone already and five weeks to go!! :shocked: Some of the things we actually needed - loo roll plus bananas and sugar for the wine - but other stuff has been purchased that really wasn't necessary.....dh has bought three packets of bacon from f*rm foods which cost £6 and a huge block of cheese for £5 - although nice to have, definitely wants rather than needs as have nothing to do with the meal plan, he has spent almost £10 on lunch/brekkie stuff which again, we could have planned to make enough at dinner for him to take leftovers etc..... I know its not a lot, but I want to be buying only stuff that we actually need and this does not seem to be getting through!! :mad: He has already started another shopping list too!! :doh:Fortunately, I still have a £10 gift card from A*da, so will get these items (which are needed as it is olive & veg oil plus cling film) from this which prevents him from needing to enter the shops alone again!!;)

The problem is, he doesn't get paid on a set date and as soon as he does get paid, he seems to think that he can start spending the grocery money....I have told him that from now on, we will only shop once a week....and it will be on a Monday from now on so that he can't go alone!! Honestly, sometimes I just despair!!:rotfl:Bless him!

On the plus side - sorted the wine yesterday so now have another demi-john fermenting!!:jI intend to make the kit wine today so that I resist the temptation to spend my persie money on it....it only takes 7 days and although not fab, its drinkable!!:D

Having a roast chicken dinner today - I intend to make a stir-fry tomorrow from the leftovers and then need to find out what dd is doing on Tuesday and Wednesday before I know what to cook on those days....Thursday is leek & potato soup with hm bread, Buddha bowls on Friday and mixed bean lasagne on Saturday..nomnom!!!:D

Peonie

What's Buddha bowls?

Well done on the mortgage OPs. Are you now in your mid 30s? Do we need to start a countdown?

Tahlullah

I am so in tune with your dh. Payday, and it's treat time for the month. Then you settle down to budgetting and meal planning. But everyone should be allowed one little blow out a month in my opinion, which I know counts for nowt. If not, why work all the hours if you get no fun bits each month?. Probably why it's taking so long to pay off my mortgage!