Apple muncher's number crunching

Habibiboo

:wave:
Sorry about the tummy gripes A*M, it goes to show doesn't it that a body quickly gets used to what it regards as the "right" things and is quick to protest when you have a little intake of the "wrong" stuff. Hope the purple soup did the trick!

Well done with the OPs and the minimum spends, somehow January seems to be one extreme or the other ... I'm aiming for your low spend end of things too.

Tartan owl sounds like a hoot! :rotfl: Sorry, couldn't resist! X

apple_muncher

Habibiboo wrote: »

:wave:
Sorry about the tummy gripes A*M, it goes to show doesn't it that a body quickly gets used to what it regards as the "right" things and is quick to protest when you have a little intake of the "wrong" stuff. Hope the purple soup did the trick!

Well done with the OPs and the minimum spends, somehow January seems to be one extreme or the other ... I'm aiming for your low spend end of things too.

Tartan owl sounds like a hoot! :rotfl: Sorry, couldn't resist! X

Hello Habibiboo, thanks for popping in. Only one more seam to sew to finish this pair of owls. Have decided to move on to making something different next, as being mocked by a 6 year old is too much!!:rotfl:!!

Two Christmases ago, I made knitted hanging tree ornaments for dd's class, so I'm tempted to make more of those. Depends if I really am serious about aiming to have a stall at either the summer fair of Cmas fair this year. Never done one before, and I realise I'd need to have an awful lot of stuff to fill a stall! Plus having an eye-catching layout.... Dd was talking about putting them on the raffle table - heck no!! Cheeky munchkin!

Dh is on PA tomorrow but has a lift in at 8.30; I'm on Kids Klub, so dd's happy, and we'll probably leave at 9. Me and dd should be home by 1.30; dh has to do/run some sort of PA training after the service, so may not get home til 2.30 (or even later, but nice lift in will also give lift home). And the taxi comes for him at 5ish. So he's doing some packing now!

I wish to do more than just get by when he's away; so I plan to go to bed early, even if that means dd is still awake and we share the bed! I'll also keep sugar and grain free, which is getting more and more of a habit now, and will stop any 'poor me' sentiments or slumps creeping in. I'll keep on top of the washing up - usually dh's job - and there'll be less of it too. Same for washing. And shopping and cooking.

other tasks to do include:
- take bag to Sally Army DONE + ANOTHER ONE NEARLY READY
- try to sell dd's books and if don't sell, then donate to her sch TRYING; NO TAKERS so giving to friends/school
- hoover (has to get q bad for me to bother with this one!) DONE STAIRS + LANDING - THAT'S PROB ALL I'LL BOTHER WITH! DID BEDROOM TOO - GO ME !
- knit 4 items DONE - IF SEWING UP DOESN'T MATTER! DONE MORE
- exercise 8 times, either a workout or stepper DONE 1, DONE 2, DONE ...4, ALL DONE
- move monies around once paid DONE

Dd's starting with a cold, but I need her to be well enough for school, so plenty of Ca1po1 stocked up!

nighty night - listen out for those owls....

apple_muncher

So, dh is now sitting in Heathrow with a 12 hour flight in economy ahead of him. The departure from home was all very smooth. But I seriously hate goodbyes, so went upstairs and had a good bawl while dd was watching telly. At bedtime she said that she was missing him, so we're going to do a countdown to his return, like advent! And plan nice things for the day he returns.

On another note, today's a NSD and also grain and sugar free. Got in a short 15 mins on the stepper. And have knitted most of the bits for a mouse. Sewing it up will show whether my scaled-down version was accurate...

Made more purple soup. Will be quite sad when red cabbage is no longer in season, as it will just be a greeny-brown then.

Got the stairs hoovered tonight, but not the landing. Steady! Dd had a hot bath and is dosed up on meds. She's had a croaky/squeaky voice all day.

Am trying to cut elec/gas usage while dh away, so I turned the heating off once dd was in bed. I have my polar bear and a blaket if necessary. I took a reading earlier on, so must just remember to do another one in 2 weeks.

And to start as I mean to go on,I'm off to bed!

apple_muncher

Managed to get an Elsa doll for dd from Arg0s - phew! She was soo happy to get it. Wandering round the shoppig centre was awful. It was lovely and uncluttered with people, but the few shops I did go into were still uninspiring. And still too costly for me! Did get dd some tights + me some wool (oops!) for the princely sum of £1.25. Wasn't even feeling the usual pullof the 99p/£ shops!

On the way home I dropped off the bag to the Sally Army. Was tempted to do food shop in Ice1and, and got as far as getting a trolley, then turned round and put trolley back cos Ice1and prices are just sooo much higher than Ald1. Given that I was in the car I just carried on to Ald1 to shop. Much better all round!

Got a load of flowers for friends - thank yous, bdays, jobs - and even have a few left over for me. Result! All for under a tenner.

Am freegling a load of old jiffy bags. We don't re-use them so I've no idea why we've kept them! Very satisfying, and clears some space.

Food spend is coming well under budget so far this month. Next month I'm going to include the payments for the veggie box in my total. So will prob keep the total the same but it will include more outgoings.

NSDs not going to hit target, but don't mind too much. Working 4 days a week means it's impossible (for me anyway) to buy weekly, as it's usually things for dd we need, and they are non-negotiable. She doesn't eat a variety of food (long story and prob not going to change soon) so need to feed her what she eats!

Decluttering going ok. Always ongoing, eh? But getting £2 per big Sally Army bag is a fairly good incentive.

Slept ok last night having dd in with me. She certainly slept better and isn't quite so full of poorliness today. I'll keep getting her to bed a bit earlier than normal - thankfully she can't yet tell the time!

Wanted to hit 15000 steps today and am currently on 14910 so I reckon I'll get there. :j

Paid in £60 cash today. Not sure why, but I like to have ready cash 'hidden' round the house :rotfl:. When I do a workout, I put £1 in a pot and am now taking some of it to the bank every so often. Plus am saving £2 coins and coppers. And 50ps ish. And any other coinage gets put in a money box for Cmas 2014.

Enough wittering. Time to take neighbour home and feed dd. Hope to finish mouse's base and tail and stuff and sew 2 of them up.

Pearla*Merle

Apple muncher, you're doing so well :T I'm so impressed. I'm so glad I managed to catch up with you today, I've been a bit out of it and you've cheered me up immensely, and also inspired me to just keep on plugging away at things every day, it's amazing how quickly things can mount up. :T

You should definitely try doing a craft stall! Christmas ones are definitely the time to aim to do them, usually there are loads of fairs Nov/Dec time so it's often worth doing a few. It's hard to compare them to ones at other times of year (ie. if you wanted to test it out in summer to see how much you'd make*) because people just panic buy and you can make quite a lot of cash. It does take a while to fill one up, but once you decide to do it usually you can bring it together far faster than you realise. I used to do them all the time, the trick is to think up ideas for super cheap/quick to make items as they'll sell fast but also help you with upping the stock numbers. Also a few big, eyecatching items help fill up space too (*if you do do one way before Christmas, use it as a way to get a feel for setting up a stall, selling and getting a bit of feedback on your work; don't worry too much if certain items don't sell immediately as they will probably sell well during Christmas - I've seen it time and time again).

apple_muncher wrote: »

Hi Pearla*, I use evoo to moisturise about 3 times a day at the mo. I wear no make up so absorbtion times don't matter. The scrub I made is ok, but I wouldn't recommend using the lumpy sea salt that you put in a grinder as it's too big. The scrub may be ok on the body, but the same thing could be an issue. Next time I'll just use the fine sea salt.

Fantastic, thank you. I've just started using oil to moisturise during the day and it seems to be going ok. :T I'm so glad I tried it

apple_muncher wrote: »

The Latin verb for 's/he's snoring' is 'stertit' and both dd and dh are doing that now, so 'stertiunt' I think!

:rotfl: I'm adding that to my vocab, snoring's a big subject in this household.

Padded envelopes - lol, I can't bear to chuck them away either, I should probably start donating them to someone who wants them as well.

The countdown/advent to your OH's return sounds magical, what a great idea :T

apple_muncher

Hello Pearla*Merlathanks for stopping by and commenting. You've boosted my ego tremendously!

For me, the evoo is working and still v necessary as, if I'm lazy and wash upstairs, then I get soo itchy despite putting evoo on. It's not rocket science,so I should've learned my lesson by now!

One of the mice still need finishing. Grr. Have realised they are super fiddly and make the owls look easy! Body, base, tail, 4 bits for the ears (!) then sewing, stuffing then eyes and whiskers. Have taken your suggestion of finding a simple but effective item to heart! So will return to the trees. Have also seen them glued onto cards, or used as bunting so will experiment. Must set myself a target of how many to make.'freestanding trees require 2 sewn together plus decorating, bunting requires tidiness! And cards requires ...well ...cards!

I'm glad you also like the snoring word! Tonight it's become: filia stertit - my dd's snoring. I have no idea how she manages to stay asleep throughh the racket she makes!

Garnered anothe NSD and sugar + grain free day, plus 20mins on the stepper so am feeling virtuous! Also tilly tidied £9.71 to the mortgage so have on my smug face!

Thought today was Friday so turned up to my y7 lesson to find I had y8, but 3 doors down! D'uh! And I thought it was the 19th...??!??

However, I KNOW tomorrow really is Friday, so I'm more or less in synch with the world now.

It's good to have the time and space to write this diary, to follow NSK and her challenges monthly, to add my own goals and ideas month by month.

Tonight I'm grateful for dd sleeping through the noise, for her getting ready for school so well, for a lovely email from a lovely mum at work, for the 30 min programme on the washing machine and for dh phoning last night.

apple_muncher

Made it to Friday evening! And so has dd. She is worn out and was struggling to cope with little things this evening. So tap/ballet may not happen tomorrow, and I think church will be skipped on Sunday. She started the week with a cold which seemed to get better, but now seems worse! Poor mite.

This week I got given 2 partly-used packets of g-f jaffas. Decided to put first 1 in cupboard (ie out of sight!) and save til today, after tea. Then when I collected dd today, my friend gave me a 2nd packet, which somehow got eaten on the 5 min journey home. Aargh! I then ate the 1st packet, a mint aero bar, 2 treacle flapjacks (my own recipe). And then didn't feel so good!! :rotfl: Had a simple,plain tea after all that!

Had a day off from using the stepper, as have done over 10k steps with work and normal living. So, didn't do sugar-free or grain-free or even NSD. The last one was silly as I'll be out this w/end with dd and should have waited - the milk situation isn't that bad yet!

Feeling rather meh tonight about making things for a craft stall. I know it's just cos I'm tired and need to sleep. I did finish a mouse and have all the bits for the other, but have no motivation to do it yet! Body is sewn, so that's 1 thing done towards finishing it. Instead, I looked through a couple of knitting books for inspiration, and got through 1/2 a fingerless glove before giving up and going on mse. But it's chunky needles, so fast progress, which is what I've needed this eve.

Actually, am prob feeling meh due to all the sugar and grain rubbish I shoved into my mouth! However, to drag a positive out of it, I had made a conscious decision to save the 1st jaffas, and I did save them, delaying eating them by 2 days :T.

Was hoping dh would be paid today, but no. Humph. It's his first pay cheque from the company. And it's still another 4 days til I get paid. But then it'll be fun to allocate it, so worth the wait!

Sat for 30 mins this afternoon with my notebook, planning Feb. My major cutbacks will be on food, as i'll include the veggie box in there, and the mysterious 'other' category(!) which needs a bit a analysing... I'll have my usual giving and the lump sum for the weekly saving challenge that I'm doing in reverse. A mere £116 for Feb!

Dd is snoring yet again - can hear her from the lounge! I've been good at switching the heating off after she goes to bed, thus saving about 1.5 hours. It's only on 17 degrees anyway.

Oooh, wonder when the rugby's on again...? LOVE it! Off to check the Radio Times before turning in. Nighty night.

apple_muncher

Darn it - no rugby!

Having had a day where I got no further than the food recyc bin out front, and halfway down our 5m long garden, I've - surprisingly - not gone stir crazy!

Took one look at dd this morning and knew we'd not be going out. We started to make the Frozen ice castle by painting a box blue. She cut up some cereal box and painted those bits blue too. Then the creative bug fizzled and she spent time with her Polly Pockets while I got jobs done (washing, washing up, tidying, knitting). After a whole I suggested she go out and clamber over the climbing frame, which she gladly did, then we got the neighbour over for a couple of hours. So dd's had a great day and that makes me happy. We rub along together very well!

Got myself another NSD, plus sugar and grain free too.

Got 4 fingerless gloves knitted - result. Tho they're not yet sewn up, of course!

Heating is off; NCIS is on telly; and I just might continue knitting, with a few pauses to mooch around mse.

apple_muncher

After a stay-at-home w/end, it was good to get out today! We eked out the ca1po1 by using ibuprofen instead, so I made sure I stopped off and got some today. Now that dd is 6 she has moved up uo the 'big girl' ca1po1, where she's back to getting just 1 tsp not 2. So it'll lasttwice as long- moneysaving or what??!

Super busy day at work, teaching all day plus setting up and overseeing an Italian mock AS during lunch. But an enjoyable day, nevertheless, spent with some great kids whose company I enjoy.

Tomorrow is payday and we got the slips today. And, yes, I have been paid for the extra 2 days a week - woohoo! :j It'll hit my account tomorrow, but in my mind, I 'only' have the £290 that's currently in there, which won't drop below £200 by Friday. I hope! Then I'll top up the amount to savings to my target, move the target amount to the mortgage, then I can choose where to allocate the rest. Fun, fun, fun!

I'm only getting extra money til the end of August, so want to feel that I've 'done something' with it. It'd be nice to have a summer holiday, but some friends are off to America for 8 weeks in March and will give us the keys to their flat by the sea. So we could go there for a week or so at Easter time. It's about a 45 min drive from dh's work, so he wouldn't have to take too much time off- he only started 4 weeks ago, so hasn't accrued much leave yet!

The same friends have let us use it in the past 2 summers too when they go to France (they have significantly more money than us! But are very generous people too), so fingers crossed for 3 in a row...!

Knitting is happening in fits and starts. Fat needles and doubled up yarn makes for a speeding growth of items! Still on fingerless gloves with a thumb. Did just 2 rows tonight, but at least I did that. Like saving money - it may only be a small amount, but it all adds up.

Tomorrow is my day off, and my 'to do' list keeps growing. Dd has asked for a new lunchbox - the end of an era as she abandons Scooby Doo in favour of Sofia the 1st or Frozen. So am off to town tomorrow to try to source one. D1sny store add £5 delivery so want to pop into store to see if they have one; otherwise it'll be p1ay online - free delivery. I put some of her old dressing up costumes on fb amd have sold 3 so far. Only £2 each, so a right bargain for the buyer! And it means they'll sell ; and if not, then they help make up a bag worth £2 from the Sally Army. Tomorrow is the last day that I'll have the car on my day off, as dh should be back from S Africa this w/end, so will use it for food shopping too.

Am enjoying making hm soup at the weekend for lunches in the week. I also boil up lots of eggs and add 2 to each soup pot. Filling and lots of veggies too.

Grain free and sugarfree are going well. Much better than I could ever have anticipated, really. But have munched on far too much dried fruit, so when it's gone, it's gone for at least a week. If I get enough protein then I don't get the urge to pick/nibble/scoff!

tootoo

Hi am
a lovely person on the discount board popped some free delivery codes on for the d!sney store if still needed. I used one at the weekend.

We also brought an elsa doll for dd birthday, thanks goodness we found one as that was all she wanted for her birthday!