Trying to escape the Rat Race

picasso2

I'm not sure where this week went !

Mostly it's been Drs, speaking to union and filling out solicitors forms I'm trying not to think about the work thing for a few days but it is clear now that returning to my job will be very difficult.

Today has been better. I had a lie in then tackled a long list of jobs. I had a couple of eBay items paid for so I walked to town and posted them and whilst I was in town signed up for an induction at the council gym. I then walked to the out of town M&s and used a voucher I had been given to buy the £10 meal deal. Never had one before and good value considering the wine I chose is normally £5.99 on its own. I was good and bought just that so no cash left my purse. Went also to MR A and bought essentials and used a couple of vouchers giving me £1.97 off. One of the vouchers gave me more off than the price of the item so that was great. So I've spent less than £5 and we have plenty of food in for a great weekend.

I would think I walked 5 miles on my trip today and am really pleased at all that free exercise. I had keyhole surgery 18 month ago and I have only just managed to regain my stamina. When I get going I'm hoping to drop the couple of dress sizes I gained being ill.

DD is out overnight so I heated a casserole from the freezer for my tea and come to bed with a hot water bottle. I'm trying to keep the heating off as much as possible though that has not been easy.

I'm going to try and have a relaxing weekend if I can. My FiL gave me another huge bag of apples so am mulling over what to make with them. Having made 3 batches of apple and blackberry jam recently I can't face that and I have no jars left The house is fairly tidy but I might just have a sort in the spare room so I can hide from the noise of the construction site next week.

I spent today thinking about my spending and I think I've come a long way, especially on the food spending and takeaway spending. We are eating so much healthier now and spending so much less on food and better still wasting nothing.

Well here's to a chilled weekend

Adoremouse

Hello,

I just wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your diary, and I am subscribing so that I can see how you're getting on

Mouse x

picasso2

Hi mouse thanks for joining me.

I had the day pretty much to myself yesterday so managed to keep the heating off most of the day but heated the lounge with the fire. I decided to tackle the shocking headache I've had which is tension related.
I walked DDs dog in the morning but relented to some paracetamol and made a fruit smoothie with scraps from the freezer and also took a Mega Vit B capsule. It helped. I decided to have a soak in the bath next , this is unusual for me as I cant sit long plus i'm on a water meter. I had a lovely mini pamper session diogging out some henna hair treatment i bought at the 99p shop earlier in the year and using up some face masque and products and polishing my toenails. It worked , I had a good nights sleep and my head feel much better.

I didn't waste the bathwater either , i used it to scrub my wellies clean !

DD woke me up this morning to go to the carboot sale. It opens at nine so not too early. We spent four pound in all and got some little treats that we don't feel guilty about. One thing I got was a lovely cotton dressing table mat which also covers a stain on my dressing table , a ladies boudoir has to be perfect :rotfl:

I've put a £10 note in a seperate purse that is our food spend for this week. We will need to do a big shop next week but i really need to run the freezer down so I can defrost it and I think its a good habit to get into. We are having our M+S meal deal today with my home made yorkshire puds and roast potatoes and then sitting down to write our meal plan for the week to see what we need to buy in.

I had a couple of things sell on ebay last night. Its nice to see the clutter going and I have allocated £20 to go towards CC1. I had a letter from CC3 yesterday saying they were going to raise the interest rates by 4% :eek: I rang them up to close the account which would stop the increase and they said that as I had been overpaying and had not missed any payments they would leave it as it is for another year. So thats a relief.

I've not much planned for today. DD is going to show me how to put my CDs and talking books on my iTunes account so next time I have a bath it won't be so boring and I'm going to have a major go on the competitions. I seriously need a new laptop as I suspect the hard drive is on its way out on this one. I've not entered many latley as my head has been tied up elsewhere so I'm aiming to enter 200 today if I don't lose the will !

Here's to a fruitfull sunday

picasso2

Well it seems the headaches are not just tension headaches but I have got a good dose of sinusitis too. This has led to me feeling generally unwell with a touch of vertigo . So I spent most of what is now yesterday laying in bed feeling rubbish and very sorry for myself.
With the luxury of the I player I have been watching a series of programmes on demand TV which make me feel that the way I feel about the pressures of modern day life are being more widely felt. True there are still a lot of programmes aimed at consumerism but I am particularly heartened to see programmes that make us step back and think about our impact not just on our environment but on ourselves. I particularly like Kevin McClouds man made home. Moving away from 500k + grand designs to building himself a shed in a field using mostly what is already around him and recycling.
This would be a dream for me. I've often told my friends how I would love to live in a caravan or a hut away from everything and getting back to the basics in life.

I've been reflecting tonight on the progress I have made this year. I've had lots of dreams and hopes and mad plans but underneath the one thing that is consistent is the desire to escape 'the rat race'. I think I've taken steps towards making healthy changes in my life that have made a healthy impact on DD too.

We have cut back big time. I got into debt due to the desire to spend spend spend. I got my kicks from having something new and shiny and annual 'once in a lifetime' holidays. Our supermarket spends we're often £200 per week for just the two of us and by the end of the week we were emptying the fridge of rotting food straight into the bin. The house was groaning under the weight of the stuff inside it. I think our refuse collectors will be pleased that we no longer put out a wheelie bin that is groaning too.
My monthly outgoings are coming down and payments to the card debts going up. We still eat good quality food. I am concerned about the ethics of cheap supermarket meat so we have kept up the quality and reduced the quantity. I've had a go at growing my own and Freinds and family have offered me surpluses of their own in exchange for chutneys, jams, puddings etc which I have enjoyed making. No more shop bought jam for me ! We eat better having drastically cut the number of takeaways we bought because we were 'too tired to cook' and hugely cut the sweet treats. My waistline is sadly still the same but I feel healthier and DD has certainly lost a good deal of weight which is a relief.
The house is a more comfortable place to be, we have decluttered and sent a lot to charity shops , some has been freegled and a fair bit has been sold on eBay. Our purchases have been of what we need and we have made our home more personal and less of a coffee and cream show home.
I don't have the urge to travel the world. I cancelled plans to travel to Nepal next year and am looking instead at a week in a caravan in glorious England.
What we are working on now is reducing our energy costs. We put in a new boiler earlier this year along with cavity wall insulation which will help but we have had a bad habit of just switching on the heating whenever it felt cold and DD always left her TV on at night along with the light. So the habit we are now working on is switching things off at night and heating only when essential. I don't think we will notice big changes as the cost of energy seems to be rising all the time but if we can keep our usage low perhaps I won't need a glass of wine before looking at the bills

So what I've been thinking whilst laying in bed feeling sorry for myself is that whilst I may not be able to up sticks and live in a shed just yet. Both DD and myself are easing ourselves out of the lifestyle we got caught up in and are developing some healthy habits that give me hope that the dream can become reality.

Well now I've got those thoughts off my chest it's time for some paracetamol and an inhalation of vapour rub in the hope of some sleep.

Goodnight

picasso2

This viral illness has knocked me for six. I've only been out of the house one day this week and spent most of my time in bed. I'm still here but pottering around between episodes of vertigo and ringing in my ears.:(
On a positive note, if you can call it that , I have had a very cheap week as a result:o
I have been very annoyed over the week by the amount of light that comes through my bedroom blinds so today I got DD to staple a duvet cover across the window. It does not look as awful as it sounds and it has helped reduce the light coming in.
My appetite has not diminished and we have eaten well, a chicken was our evening meal one day , lunch the next and a couple of portions of chicken and vegetable rice the next. Good job we like chicken. I'm loving the way we have so little food waste these days.
My Freinds dad has a glut of green tomatoes and has offered me some as he knows I like to make green tomato chutney. I've been very lucky this year with the amount of home grown food that has been passed on to me. In fact I'm not too sure if I am going to be able to find enough jars for everything. I have a carrier bag full of cooking apples wrapped in newspaper , some will go in the chutney and the rest will probably have to be pur!ed and frozen.


I've entered a few competitions from bed when I couldn't sleep and have managed to win some film merchandise on twitter , some pop tarts and a hobgoblins t shirt on Facebook. I'm really pleased with the hobgoblin t shirt and my usual t shirt for Halloween is now too small and very old so ready to be replaced.

I also took a few minutes to send an email about the instant tea I drink. I've had a few problems with it lately. The said it was a result of a change in the ingredients and are sending me some alternatives out as an apology. They offered to give me my money back , I had a choice, but I do like their products and am looking forward to trying some different flavours.


I'm still procrastinating over my future employment. My union are dealing with my employers as the weight of evidence of the unfair treatment I have had is overwhelming. I'm sad in some respects as I loved many elements of my job and if they had just agreed to follow advice from occupational health I would probably have never gone off sick. Now I suspect going back will be untenable. I met a recruitment consultant back in the spring who gave me her card and I guess agency work is a good fall back. I don't think it's difficult with a professional qualification to find some kind of employment even if its only to keep you going until you find something you want.

Tomorrow I need to get up early. My freind and I want to go to Glastonbury next year. So in the morning me , DD, my freind and her mum will be manning the computers and phones in a effort. I won't be upset if we don't get them , it's an expense I can do without and as I seem to get ill if I'm caught in bad weather it feels like it would be a health roulette too. Still it would be nice to have another item on the bucket list ticked off.

Hiddenidenity

Hope your feeling better soon xx

picasso2

Thank you Hiddenidentity. Me too !

Well when I said the duvet cover stapled around the window didn't look too bad I must have been looking through ros! tinted glasses. it looks terrible. However it has worked and I'm the only one that see's it so it can stay until I find something more functional.

We did not manage to get tickets for Glastenbury. We are planning a few days in a caravan in Northumberland instead. Am really looking forward to that. It's such a beautiful place.

I have however won the lottery. Yes a whole £10. I promise I will spend it wisely.

picasso2

I'm bored of being poorly now.
Missed the lovely weather yesterday but did manage to sit out on the patio for my tea which was leftover lamb. Never again will I cook a lamb joint in the oven. I had a reduced price joint in the freezer that I picked up at Asda recently. Defrosted it overnight and then bobbed it in the slow cooker . Only one word - luscious

Having renewed my vigour by reading some of the other diaries I relisted just one item on eBay and also listed a book on Amazon. I haven't put anything on there in ages so it will be interesting to see how it goes.

I've had an annoying problem with my TV Ariel cable lately. It has come away from the wall and has been swaying around in front of my windows. I hate getting people in to do work as being a single woman I have a fear of being done. My sister told me about a service where you can put your task on the site and workman contact you. I think it's called rated people and they are all vetted. I went to the site through Quidco and put up my ad and gained £5 for doing so. I have had a couple of tradesmen contact me and discuss the work and it should be done by the end of the week. So thanks sis

Today I was tempted to lay in bed feeling sorry for myself but the weather report suggested this was going to be the last day of 'good' weather for sometime. The excessive rain means my grass has grown quite long and I don't want to look at a severely overgrown lawn all winter. So I dragged myself up and slowly but surely got the lawn looking pristine. By late afternoon the sun was lovely so I managed to lop down the bush that I think is bamboo, pulled a few weeds, and gave the garden a good tidy so now I've done all the necessary work to have it ready to cope with the winter. I'm shattered but pleased as I know I would regret not having done it.

Tomorrow I have my online monthly food shop coming. It's a huge order with the intention of keeping the weekly shops to the minimum. I'm hoping there is enough room in the freezer. I've added in a bag of Demerara sugar and some pickling vinegar for the green tomato chutney.
The shopping all gets scanned and its a military operation to scan it and put it away , especially as the animals get nosey! After all that I need to go to the library to return my books before I get a fine. The Homemade book was excellent with lots of good ideas , the frugal cookbook was less thrilling. I'll have a look at what else they have in while I'm there and use their computers for an hour or so.

When DD gets home we will have to sort out our weekly meal plan and then I aim to have a quick shower , a glass of wine (first in a week!) , and a good nights sleep !

Hiddenidenity

Hope your feeling better and all is well x

NewLeaf_2

Hiya!

I have loads of green tomatoes. Do you mind sharing your recipe?

How are you feeling today?