SF's 2012 diary - the most exciting year yet!

slowlyfading

Thanks for taking the time to write that Jo, I didn't realise you'd been in a hit and run accident, how awful for you if I found out I was pregnant tomorrow, I would be over joyed! Once I've started my new job in January, I do intend to come off the Pill, whether we've bought a house or not I'm 26 this year, so I know my time is ticking away!

And yes, maybe that is DH's secret plan...

rising_from_the_ashes

*sigh* ohhhhh to be 26 again :rotfl:

I'm rather partial to the odd latte myself - used to have one everyday when I had to walk to work but a) it added up to a fair bit and b) can't have "normal" milk anymore (I can risk the odd one but regularly errrr no!).

Not tried a flavoured on tho' mmmmmm might just have to try one next week at the staff canteen (they do *bucks coffees there) - maybe Friday to celebrate starting my hols:D

Rain seems to have missed us somehow - the daughter of one of the girls I work with works at another site 5 miles from where we are & they had torrential rain ..... 5 miles up the road from them, there was the same & flooding ..... 10 miles the other way, the same - where we are errr sun:p

slowlyfading

rising - ooh you must try a flavoured one sometime! Although the thing I love the most at *bucks is the chai tea latte totally amazing. The cinnamon and gingerbread lattes at C coffee are also pretty good I've had to taste them just to check, you see...

slowlyfading

Morning!

Things have not gone to plan this morning... when DH left for work at 8am this morning I thought "Right, 5 more minutes and I'll get up..." Next thing I know it's 10:30am :eek: fell back to sleep! oops so my plans for the morning haven't gone to plan at all :rotfl:

I'm just planning our menu for the week; we've got some friends coming over for dinner tonight and then I need to do food shopping for the rest of the week, so I need to write a shopping list and get myself off to Mr Ts - we've hardly got any food left!

But, as it's currently chucking it down and it's also really windy, it's the last thing I can be bothered to do right now...

slowlyfading

So, our menu plan for the week looks like this:
today: goats cheese tart, HM chips (DH) and salad (me)
monday: fishcakes, waffles and beans
tuesday: pea and bacon risotto
wednesday: summer-in-winter chicken with new potatoes
thursday: spinach and ricotta pasta with sauce
friday: HM colley curry with rice and naan bread

Got all the shopping sorted for the week too breakfast is just cheerios with almond milk for me, and probably nothing for DH (as hard as I've tried, he just won't eat breakfast!).

I've had a big realisation today, which has been bubbling away for a while but has fully hit me today. There's a personal issue that I've been struggling with for a while, and it hit me today that I don't want to feel like I do anymore, I don't want to live like this anymore, so I'm going to take more positive steps to try and overcome it, and eventually, maybe, speak to someone about it. It's been going on for far too long and I need to accept it, then work on it and finally, let things go. I hope

It won't be a NSD for us as we're off out later with some friends to watch the England match at the pub. Can't say I'm excited about it to be honest, but DH wants to go so I'll go and keep him company

Phew, long post! That'll do for now

Jo4

I love your meals for the week, can I ask where do you come up with all these receipes? Hubby doesn't eat breakfast either and no matter how hard I've tried it doesn't make a difference!

I hope you can deal with your personal issue as it isn't healthy for you to be carrying it about especially when you have just got married and you will soon start a new job and hopefully a family!

Enjoy yourself tonight!

DedicatedDFW

Hi slowlyfading and everyone else

Found you and am all caught up - on this diary at least :cool: Thank you for stopping by and your kind and encouraging words on my diary

Loving your diary with all the piccies of gorgeous cakes :T

And what a year you have had, getting married, getting a new job - a huge amount saved for a house deposit too :j:j:j

I just read your post from recently saying something along the lines of you've managed to save so much by just not spending lately - is this what you'd recommend to save ? I'm looking to push myself again on clearing the debt which i feel is holding me back on my future (i want to move house ) so do you think having a NSD challenge or keeping a spending diary might help at all ? Hope you don't mind me asking but you've done so brilliantly and are really inspirational Also how do you find budgetting for grocery shopping ? I went today and was _pale_ at the cost. i checked the bill and everything had been charged correctly as well :think: I did also check the list against the shopping list and to be honest there were only a few things (costing no more than £5) that i had bought due to the fantastic offers on (less than half price and products i will need in the next couple of weeks when the offers end ) so money saving for another week if that makes sense ?

Sorry for all the questions

Hope you're having a nice evening

rising_from_the_ashes

Dedicated (SF hope you don't mind me butting in!) - where do you do your grocery shop?

If one of the big SM have you tried places like Al*di & Li*dl?

It does take a while to get used to the different products & my one word of advice would be to only buy one of something & try it - some things are fab but there will be some things that you prefer from elsewhere.

I keep 2 shopping lists:- the essential one that has stuff that needs to be replaced immediately at the next shop and the "top up" one where I note down things that last for ages (when I open the last jar/packet etc).

I take both lists with me but stuff from the 2nd list is only bought if it's on offer (and a decent one!) - if I get to the point of needing something from this list, it goes onto the essential list. Hope that makes some sort of sense!

I also bulk buy when stuff's on great offers (got all my wm liquid, fabric conditioner, household cleaning stuff for the year in March as there was great offers on).

I have a slightly different budget every 3rd month (see my sig) which is a stocking up month - things like loo rolls, kitchen roll etc - still getting used to this so the jury's still a bit undecided on whether this is worth it as I do tend to still buy stuff when offers are on. HTH

slowlyfading

Gah, just wrote a long post and lost it! :mad: :mad:

Jo - I look on the BBC good food website a lot and I've also got a recipe folder with lots of print-outs and stuff in, which I look at often. I try and vary our meals, otherwise we both get bored! and thanks - this weekend has been a real wake-up call and I am more determined than ever to work on the issues and hopefully let some things go.

DedicatedDFW - :hello: and wow, thanks for reading through my whole diary! Hope you weren't too bored for both me and DH, not spending is a key step in being able to save so much. I think another thing is that we know, at the moment, it's definitely a shorter term thing rather than forever, if you see what I mean? I keep being distracted by homeware things, but I know we don't need them, so I can refrain... for now I love the NSD challenge here on MSE (it's on the DFW board, have a search for it!) and as I'm slightly competitive, it really helps for grocery shopping, I do a weekly menu and then look in the cupboards and see what we need to use up, and then write a shopping list accordingly. We really don't buy any extras, we rarely buy any alcohol and we don't buy many snacks and stuff either, especially as I'm trying to lose some weight I've got no qualms about using certain value brands (for example kidney beans at 18p a tin!) and that can bring it down a bit more does that help at all? don't apologise for asking questions!

rising - thanks, as always, for your advice

HappyNow

Hi Slowlyfading, I just wanted to say congratulations on everything you've achieved so far. Your wedding sounded lovely .

Really well done on getting your job. It seems a long time to wait until you start it, but I suppose that's normal in teaching. Hope you get lots of supply work/tutoring to see you through until then. Now you've got a firm job offer does that mean you can apply for a mortgage, or do you need to be in-post for a while? Looking for houses is so exciting!!

You have my sympathies over Mr SF's snoring! Mr Happy does the same, but I now have him trained to flip over when I dig him hard in the ribs and hiss abuse into his ear! It took me 20 years though, so while you're waiting do you have a spare bedroom to use when it's really bad? Sleep deprivation is a terrible thing....

About your personal issue. I hope you don't think I'm poking my nose in, and obviously I don't know what it is, but I just wondered why you feel you should wait to speak to someone and get help? If it's worrying you and you're struggling, I would have thought the sooner the better?