Building The Burrow!

apple_muncher

Love the deep ponderations. Well done you x

in_need_of_direction

Thanks for sharing your musings. It all sounds so positive.

gallygirl

Really interesting stuff PM:T and great that you are converging with Mr M . The important thing is that you're putting yourselves in a position where you have lots of choices - May be difficult deciding what/where etc but so much better than no choice at all :j

Pearla*Merle

INOD, it was probably a good thing that I didn't write it the other day when I had a mini meltdown at the prices of houses down here. :rotfl:

...oops pressed reply too soon, silly iPad...

Exactly, GG - keep things light and maximise the amount of choices we have the future... that's it in a nutshell, I'm going to have to write that down somewhere prominent so I'll always keep it in mind

applemuncher

Pearla*Merle

Time for a list! Feeling not too tired today so I have faith I'll get at least three things done on this...

(Broken down into bite size chunks) Purple = done

• Tidy dining table
• Tidy coffee table
• General living room tidy
• Hoover everywhere as much as possible
• Tidy bedroom
• Serious bathroom clean
• Dishwasher on
• Tidy kitchen
• Washing machine hygiene hot wash
• Laundry epicness
• Make vat of veg soup
• Make healthy pinterest snacks
• Energy readings for new supplier
• Recycling & bin out
• Wash hair
• Declutter/use up bits in the fridge
• Write up calendar/list of events & places to visit locally
• Order CD storage case
• Change bed linen
• Still try to spend goodly amount of time today resting, reading & drinking pot after pot of tea...

Lunchtime update: Decluttered three books, a shopping trolley token, a knife. Found a winter spice candle under the TV Hope it'll keep til next Christmas, how many days are we away?

Afternoon update: oh my god. I'm so bored of tidying now. But I have scones, tea, and Netflix on standby.... time to put my feet up...

apple_muncher

About 221 I think...:D

Pearla*Merle

Heck, I actually need to start thinking about it then. :rotfl:

Seriously though, oh dear, I do. Mr M has a big birthday next year so I need to do some proper strategic planning(!)

Pearla*Merle

Didn't quite get to the end of the list. Family stuff came and rattled around during the evening. At least I've got some ready-made plans leftover for the weekend. :rotfl:

Though I did manage to update my spending diary (easy, as I've only spent on travel :T - oh, forgot about CD case, lol) and my various spending pots are been allocated their weekly funds. Old papers have been shredded to boot.

Right, back to work ... or maybe I should say money making... sounds more inviting that way. :rotfl:

Pearla*Merle

Real life got in the way again. Think it's settled for now, so onwards and upwards!

Got spends to confess to spends. Though considering I've been eating scraps from the fridge/cupboards all week, it maybe all levels itself out?!

Bought a large suitcase (had a camelcamelcamel alert on it), it went down to about half price (or similar), and it's the cheapest it's ever been so at least I was MSE about it. I didn't particularly want a large suitcase, but it'll be helpful for other trips abroad when Mr Merle needs space to bring back a ton of cheap clothes/foodstuffs/decorative items as is his way, so it's really a present for him. :rotfl: £70 though! :eek: I've been assured it will last a lifetime - we'll see!! At least he's been the one paying for the holidays. :rotfl:

I need to buy a new phone case. It got a bit battered on the holiday when I was shoving it into a tiny bag (think I dropped it a few times too, lol) and it has now decided to utterly disintegrate. I'm searching about at the moment, need to get the right blend of price and prettiness.

Survived a trip to Aldee relatively unscathed, bought some veg and cheese to finish off store cupboard dishes. I put back the chocolate... but then picked up some chocolate muffins. Seriously needed right now. Healthy eating regime restarts next week (I'm going to get MyFitnessPal/Fitbit on the go again asap then). Also bought myself some beautiful lilac stocks as their scent captured me and I couldn't leave them! They're sitting so happily on the sideboard that I've already got my £2.50-worth out of them I reckon.

Also bought some mealworms & wildflower mix seeds while I was out - hopefully the birds will start coming back (I've seen goldfinches and green finches flying about - pray they come to my bird feeder!). My plan for the seeds is to scatter them on some derelict ground I've spotted on my walk to work - if I can't have a garden then by god I'll make one elsewhere! :rotfl: I'm going to use up some other flower seeds I have kicking around the house since I won't be planting them here this year, so might as well release them into the wilds.

The house had a major tidy yesterday evening, and a few things that have been lying about in corners have finally been given homes. There's still lots of Mr M's stuff around that I can't really sort out/rehome - I'm going to have to get him on the case, because it is slowly driving me mad. I sorted out my tea cupboard, which has made me very happy, as I've found a wealth of random tea samples to use up (vanilla honeybush, raspberry black tea, milk oolong, lemongrass mate), yum.

Oh, forgot to say that the strap of my summer bag also broke. It's not particularly the greatest bag for wandering about cities in, so I've been looking into buying another one. I found some nice handmade leather ones (UK maker) that are really cheap (£20-£35!) considering the material/quality so I think I may invest in one (before they up their prices!).

Also had to buy some tights. Omg, all my beautiful piles of money.... decimated in the past week. At least it's all on well-thought-out, quality items that I actually need. Silver linings and all that.

Grilled veggies and couscous for tea tonight, stir fry veg & rice noodles tomorrow (making my own black bean sauce - looked at a jar in Aldee and realised I had all the ingredients at home anyway :A).

4p shrapnel from purse into the kittybank. Get paid tomorrow. :T

I'm going to keep following greent's lead with her notes on what she's decluttered, as it makes for some fun reading. I don't think I can number it though as it may be too terrifying... I know I've already managed to rid myself of a thousand or so items and that's skimming the surface...anyhoo...

Decluttered: two broken kettles (I know, I know); about to finish a book that I borrowed from my dad a few years ago, oops, and will be given back to him; a couple of national geo's; more paper and packaging, a bag of textiles and a pair of shoes went into a textile recycling bin.

Pearla*Merle

Note to self - use chutney to bring together couscous & veg dishes (great way to use up those lingering jars!). Didn't even think about it in my panic and used a sweet mustard instead (which actually worked ok too). Used some black beans with the veg, very nice, and the other half of the tin awaits my stirfry sauce tomorrow. Love it when a plan comes together. :T

Found 8 more DVDs to relegate to the storage case, quite pleased as I thought I'd exhausted my search. I've got a plan for the reject cases as well which means they don't end up in landfill (found someone who wants them), hooray.

Spending diary uptodate. Doesn't actually look so bad now I've plotted it against my various budgeted pots which have been growing for ages, so actually it's a very small hit. :T

Simple Pleasures: finding new flowers springing up in my pots outside; watching the swallows dart around; putting a rarely-used but much beloved vase into action for my flower purchase earlier.