New Leaf, New Day, New Ways

Triggles

pennywise and brizzled - hi! sorry, I stopped posting on my old blog as everything in RL was spiralling down rapidly. H & I have now separated, so I felt the need to start a fresh new thread - new beginnings and all. Nice to see you both!!

I played a fun game of "curtain switcharound" yesterday. I wanted a different look in my living room and swapped out the curtains there for a pair in one of my storage boxes, and put my living room curtains in my bedroom. Both rooms look good with the different curtains (they actually look better this way), and I've not spent any money on new curtains. :j

Now that my finances are sorted out a bit, I can afford to get the ball rolling on sprucing up the house so it looks nice. I will start with going around and filling any nail holes or gaps with filler and generally getting the walls ready for painting. Then a nice fresh coat of paint basically everywhere! Then the flooring throughout the house - first, of course, getting rid of the carpeting in the downstairs toilet. Who puts carpeting in toilets anyway?? With a 3yo DS that has discovered the joy of weeing standing up (with not so great aim, I might add), the carpet has seen more scrubbing and febreze than I care to even think about. :rotfl: I think a nice linoleum or linoleum tiles would be great - even better I could put the tiles in myself and save money as well! I find myself itching to finish painting the toilet first so I can get that floor sorted!

July is the month of birthdays in our house. Loads of family members and friends with birthdays. It can be a nightmare financially, if not planned ahead. H & I agreed that we will still organise birthdays for the DCs together - less expensive that way, and less divisive for the DCs. I don't want to get into any "who bought the better present" wars.

Finally on antibiotics for a horrific sinus infection. Believe it or not, it will save me money. Feeling ill and not up to cooking has meant two (shame on me) occasions of take away food because I was too exhausted to cook. I find that when I'm ill I tend to take shortcuts that can cost me money, and that because I'm not feeling well I often adopt an "I don't care" attitude towards moneysaving. And someone please explain to me the logic of buying basics tissues (not very soft and far too thin - one of the few basics products I'm not happy with) to save money whilst spending far too much on a takeaway. :eek: I'd have been much better making beans and toast or even cereal and toast and using some of the "takeaway" money for better tissues! :rotfl: Sometimes my logic fails me at the most important times...

I do find myself looking at decisions made earlier and saying "what was I thinking? I could have done xxx and saved money instead." So while I'm doing the DIY and spruce up of my home, I am pushing myself to make better decisions. Some tasks will be good to do myself - painting, flooring tiles, removing wallpaper. But other things I will need to hire someone to do - such as installing carpet in the bedrooms and a few electrical jobs. And reusing or remaking certain things will be important as well - such as the curtains and using old material to make patchwork quilts for the bedrooms.

I am still mulling over the electric shower. It's not working properly and needs to be replaced - which means a bill for the work as well as a new electric shower. I figured that could mean £200 or so (that's about how much it cost to put in initially). A friend is coming over today (we're going to save money by dying each other's hair instead of paying for it at salon) and is bringing her shower attachment that fits to the taps of the tub. If it works well, I may consider using that instead of replacing the electric shower. Now I know - I can hear people shouting "showers are cheaper than baths!!!" from here. :rotfl: But I have 2 young children with eczema that need to take a bath with emollient stuff in it at least a couple times a week anyway, and DS2 (3yo) doesn't like the shower at all. I like the shower to wash my hair, but it's certainly not necessary. So if I can pay a tenner for a shower attachment and use that for awhile, then that's probably what I'll do - if only over the summer and see how that works. If nothing else, it'll give me time to research electric showers and put aside the money needed to replace the shower as well as do a few other electrical jobs at once, so hopefully the overall cost will be cheaper.

And that's my wandering thoughts for the morning. :rotfl: I am off to finish getting the boys ready for school, and later will be baking banana bread for the freezer.

Triggles

Today (and the next few days) are all about sorting and catching up. With cleaning, with mealplanning, with budgeting, with decluttering, with work on the garden.

The laundry is almost done. I have another load going now, and that will hang up overnight to dry. I'd hang it up outside, but with the weather being rather unpredictable lately, I don't always have the time to go racing out to the garden to pull all the clothing off the line if it starts raining and then hang it up indoors. And I like it hanging up at night, when I don't have to look at it.

I've done a bit of dusting. Wow. It's obviously been awhile since I did any serious dusting around here! :eek: Let's put it this way... if dust could provide energy, I figure I have enough just behind the tv box and the dvd player to power a small city for awhile. I'm using a free cloth I got ages ago (one of those micropore ones or something like that) and a basics furniture polish on the wood items. Seems to work just as well at a fraction of the price, so I'm happy. I love the smell of furniture polish - that and pine cleaner. Probably because my mother used those particular items - reminds me of when I was young.

I swept the carpet tonight with a stiff brush - firstly because it seems to lift the carpet up a bit so it's not so flat and secondly because the DCs are sleeping and I didn't want to wake them up with the vacuum. :rotfl: But it does save on electricity so all's good.

This week we go to the electricity/gas meter. I'm a little nervous as it's a whole new thing for me. But I'm realistic enough to know that this will likely be a much better budgeting tool for me - I hate getting huge utility bills after the fact. This will hopefully mean I can control the usage a little better.

The garden bins go out in the morning for pickup. So in light of my goal to get the garden cleaned up, I popped on my gardening gloves (£2 on sale in Sains) and did a very fast pull-up of any offending weeds I could easily yank out and tossed them in the bin on the way out to the curb. :cool:

I've filled my rubbish bin right up, as I've done some decluttering. Not a lot, but a few odds and ends, broken toys, things that cannot be given away or recycled or dropped off at a charity shop.

I find that I get much more done if I just use 10 minute bursts to do as much cleaning, tossing, weeding, tidying, scrubbing, whatever as I can. This means I can just do it throughout the day, doing different tasks. I'm seeing results, which makes me feel great!!

Right.. I need to go work on my "to do" list for tomorrow and this week, as it's huuuuuuge!!!! :eek: A lovely friend of mine gave me a bottle of wine because I did her hair for her for a party occasion today, so I'm able to relax and enjoy a glass of wine (at no cost, which always makes it taste better, right?) as well! :cool:

Triggles

I'm puzzled at the moment. I pulled out a bookcase from one wall of my dining room - as it will fit perfectly in one corner of my kitchen - and there was damp and mould on the lower corner and a bit along the bottom on the back of it. (and a few teeny little bugs - ICK!!!!) which I spritzed with bleach and wiped down. I've got it positioned where it will gets loads of direct sunlight and heat tomorrow so it will dry it out quickly. But where in the world did this damp come from? Nothing else in the room is damp. The wall isn't damp that I can tell - although there was some mould on it which I bleached as well. I just cannot figure where it came from. And obviously I need to figure it out. I wonder if I ring the council they will come out and check the wall and floor area to see if they can determine it (it's a council house).

I have a stash of cleaning stuff that we've accumulated, which I am going to use to get some deep cleaning done. And some older toothbrushes (as I've just replaced ours) to use for cleaning. A couple pairs of inexpensive cleaning gloves.

I am hoping the weather will be nice enough to get the garden mowed tomorrow - but we'll see. If not, at least I know I can get some serious cleaning done inside. I'm also still doing a quick 10 minute "pull as many offending weeds as possible from the garden" blitz once a day. It's doing wonders so far.

And a friend that was here today saw a RAT!!! Not in my garden, but crossing the street from my neighbour's garden. :eek: I'm not thrilled about that either! I have never seen a rat in my garden, but now I'm worried. Will have to watch very closely over the next week or so.

Mara_uk7

Apparently if you live in a town, you are never more than 10 feet away from a rat ! Scary thought, but told to me by a environmental health officer !

Triggles

Oh heavens. I'm not sure I like those odds about rats!!! I know the neighbours on either side of me have had them in their garden, so odds are they have been in mine as well. They both are growing veg and have compost bins though, so I though perhaps that was an attraction for the rats. I've never actually SEEN one in my garden. I'd like to keep it that way!!

The area the rats came from (neighbours) in alongside my drive, where I just pulled out a bunch of weeds. :eek: I wonder if I put stone edging along the bottom border of their fence, will it block them from coming into my garden? Or is that just naïve? Personally, it makes me want to barricade the whole house, but if the 10 feet thing is true, what's the point?

My sister used to live in New York, and I remember her daughters talking about finding rats in the bathtub regularly. I would go spare if I had to deal with that! :eek:

And here all I was really worried about were spiders.....

Triggles

Oh noooooo! I typed out a whole post and it just went !!!!!!! and disappeared!!! :eek:

Okay. brief recap, as my brain can't recreate the whole thing.

2 chickens cooked today. I then made chicken stock to freeze, pulled off all the meat to put some in sandwiches, salad, and tacos, and some in a few containers in the freezer for later.

Nightmare trying to get the prepaid meter sorted. I won't name the company, but dear god, can they really be that disorganised??? :eek: Still only got the electric one done, and now have another appointment for the gas meter to be completed. Just the most confusing mix up and huge errors on their part - I'm lucky I even got the electric one done!! But hey, we're halfway there now. And box ordered to pay online as well, so that's all good.

I will say that I've been very careful about using electric - it definitely reminds me to turn things off more. The washer and dryer are off at the switch until used, as well as the microwave and cooker. Laptop runs on battery until it needs a charge. Lights turned off unless absolutely needed. I will also pay extra money into it now until I know how much I'm actually using, to avoid any concern over running out at an inconvenient time.

Triggles

Goodness, busy week! And I have neglected my posts as well. I will be better in future.

So in the middle of our current heat wave (is it technically a wave? I must check into that!), what did I do this evening? I baked a cake in the oven. Yes, that's right - hot enough in this house but I then turned on the oven and made it hotter! :eek: No choice, really, as my 3yo was promised that he could bring a cake to preschool tomorrow for his birthday (well, his birthday is actually just after school gets out). So chocolate cake is now baked and cooling on the counter.

I've been monitoring my electrical usage. It's not really bad, if I do say so myself. I'm calculating less than a tenner a week, and that's with the ceiling fans on most of the time as well as using the clothes dryer a few times. (there was NO WAY I was going to hang out my washing outside when the DCs were playing with their friends out in the paddling pool right next to where the line would go!!) So far, I'm quite happy with that. The plan is to keep adding each week so I have sufficient credit on there. I'm still waiting for my box that will allow me to pay from home. And the gas meter will be changed over at the end of the month.

I'm going to really dig through some slow cooker recipes this summer. I've found some online and I'm browsing slowly through them to find things that the DCs might like. It can be a bit tricky as DS1 has some food issues, but we'll see what we can find. It just means less oven usage, so less electricity and cooler house as well. Yay to both!

I am going to devote 30 minutes to DIY tomorrow and 30 minutes to work on the garden. Then about an hour to cleaning. I think that should get enough done that I can relax a bit in the afternoon and focus on picking up groceries and laundry. :rotfl: I have a huge stack of clean clothing that I need to put away.

Triggles

Oh, and I'm a good little worker bee. I snuck up and put away the clothing just now while the DCs were sleeping.:cool: So now I can use some of that cleaning time tomorrow to clean toilets. Lucky lucky me!

Triggles

Birthday gathering this weekend for DS1. So I've got hot dogs and hamburgers to cook for lunch, squash to drink (and tea or coffee if anyone wants it), plus a few inexpensive nibbles and then cake for after. Just family here. I'm not huge on the big birthday parties with tons of people or children. And I hate party bags. I mean loathe party bags. So this way I don't have to deal with them. On that note, most parents I've spoken to also do not like party bags. So why in the world do they do them then?! Kids'll get over it. Really. I vote we abolish the party bag rule. Immediately. :cool:

I suspect it's partly from my background - I grew up in America and at birthday parties the birthday child opens the presents and everyone eats cake and ice cream while they are at the party. Imagine my surprise when taking DS1 to a classmate's party when they didn't open the presents while people were there, and the cake was put in a bag and sent home with everyone. :eek: I was shocked - surely this isn't normal?! But then I found out it was. :rotfl:Nothing wrong with it in that sense. Just so completely different than what I'm used to that I was very confused initially.

But cakes being made tonight. One small one devoid of any icing, as DS1 doesn't like it. And one medium sized one that will have candles on it to blow out while we sing Happy Birthday. Not a fancy cake, but one from a mix. Yes, I could have made it from scratch, but with everything else going on, I am not going to begrudge myself this little shortcut to make life a bit easier for me.

Another hour, however, and school will be "out for the summer." Well, for six weeks anyway. A welcome break from school runs 5 mornings a week and all the petrol it uses (must drive due to distance to DS1's specialised school). But now it means I need to find activities to occupy the children without spending a fortune.

We have a few "bigger budget" ideas going.
- train trip to the zoo with friends
- train trip to beach with friends
- possibly trip to safari park that currently has an offer of free tickets for a second visit to use later in summer when you pay to enter this summer. So basically buy one trip, get one free. Not a bad deal, that.

Then it's the smaller things involving baking, arts/crafts, walks, picking berries at local "pick your own" place, visiting friends, paddling pool, water guns, trampoline, movies. The busier they are, the less bored they will be and less likely to get into trouble. :rotfl:

Triggles

I've been watching my electric meter closely. It's done a bit of a jump recently, but I know why. I've been using the clothes dryer. And it's not a "slipped back into using it" thing. Unfortunately DS1's asthma worsened, and he does much better inside. Related to either the heat or the pollen count, I suppose. This means that very little window opening and drying the clothes inside instead of putting the rack outside. And the dryer especially because when he is already stressed over the asthma, he gets extremely sensitive to sensory things - he'd been complaining his clothes were itchy and scratching constantly. He's got eczema so he was scratching himself raw and the skin was getting inflamed. I switched to the dryer and it stopped. Literally overnight. So I guess it's the dryer and I'll just have to deal with the extra expense. It's really these kind of "extras" that his DLA is for, I suppose.

I look at his DLA and think "gosh, where does it all go?" but it's pretty easy to figure out. Petrol for the car - as he has to be driven to school every day (thankfully six weeks without that added expense!!). Before he went to his SS (which is wonderful, by the way, I'm not complaining at all!), I walked him (well, he was in either his SNs pushchair or then his wheelchair) to school, so no petrol costs. Now I drive as it's too far to walk (for him and DS2) - 2 miles - but not far enough to get transportation provided. Extra clothing - shoes because he goes through them rapidly because he is constantly dragging them or scraping them (sensory), shirts because he chews on them by the collar making holes, socks because he pulls them all over to fit just right and they wear out too fast. Some big ticket items - extra expenses for a trip to Warwick Castle because he wanted to see a real castle, a trampoline, a Nexus tablet, some Wii games that were fun and helped with coordination. And loads of other miscellaneous things - books, sensory toys/aids, tap handles because he can't use the twisty taps, extra stair gates for safety, sand timers, laminator to make visual aids for at home. Looking back, it's been so helpful and provided so much to help him. I still have a few bigger purchases to go - some adaptations in the garden to make it safer and more fun for him, guards for his wheelchair. Eventually I'd like to take him on a brief holiday somewhere - I've never taken him on an overnight holiday due to safety concerns, but at some point I'll have to save up and build up my courage and do it. But the DLA has allowed me the opportunity to purchase things that have made vast improvements for him (that I otherwise would not have been able to get), so it's served its purpose. Thank goodness.

I've noticed something interesting. Since separating from H, some household things have changed. Obviously with less people, the rubbish and recycling bins are less full. The food bill has gone down. And the food waste has gone down as well. I try to keep food portions down to what we will reasonably eat and what is appropriate. I also tend to use leftovers more. I cooked a chicken from the butchers (lovely garlic chicken!!!) on Saturday. Make stock with bones, had chicken that night for tea, chicken sandwiches on Sunday, boys had grilled cheese sandwiches today with cold chicken on the side to nibble, I had chicken sandwich. Tonight cold chicken with (hot) chips for the boys, and I had a salad with chicken chopped up in it. And there's still some chicken left in a container in the fridge. :j

A birthday party (family only thank goodness!) this week for DS2. And DD's DP's birthday on the same day. Busy busy!!!!