I have lost my OS ways, help!

Aril

Hello:D

I've made a start by rounding up all my lurking leftovers and deciding what to do with them. Some have been incorporated into the meal plan next week. Lurking courgette and patty pan that I've been kindly given are going in a roasted veg bake tonight. The frozen homegrown raspberries are now jam and the froth that comes off the top was used to sweeten the stewed damsons- I also stirred in the rest of the creme fraiche and have had it as a pud over the last couple of nights. Runner beans were made into a curry. The leftover whipped cream [we had friends over for a meal] had vanilla extract and icing sugar added to it and is now frozen as icecream and the chicken slices that were defrosted and then were not being used up in sandwiches appeared instead of tuna in the tuna bake I'd planned. Can you tell I had an afternoon off work:rotfl:

Arilx

grandmasam

Lovely breakfast this morning. Picked fresh field mushrooms on the dog walk and had them with eggs from the girls and fried bread, naughty but nice!!
Today intend to sand down the front door ready to repaint, but how do I keep the hound from sticking ,literally!, her nose in?? I finished painting the dresser, replaced all the handles and put back the collection, much edited!
Have a good day all,
Caz

Caterina

Good morning,

Chirpycheap, our own Martin has written a very good article about gifts and gifting at Christmas time, but the principle is applicable to other times as well, hope you find it useful:

http://blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2009/11/10/is-it-time-to-ban-christmas-presents/

My OS plan for today:

Just back from a little forage into somebody's front garden round the corner. Yesterday I noticed they were throwing away a whole lot of furniture and my eyes fell on a nice little armchair, one of those old fashioned ones with wooden armrests and feet. So after knocking and asking permission, and being told to take whatever I want, I came home with the armchair, two wooden salad bowls and a set of small wooden bowls (ideal as I am reducing plastic in my home) and two large Pyrex glass baking dishes. My builder who had just popped in for a coffee while doing some work locally came with me and got a working torch (I wish I had seen it first!), two brand new builders mixing buckets and a vileda bucket for floor washing.

I have a pot of YS living salad to plant and the temptation to go to the allotment while the sun is shining is strong, but my eyes keep falling on the ironing mountain. Also, DS sometimes does not hear the door from his room and we are expecting two deliveries, so ironing it is, sadly.

My friend's work baby was born yesterday so today she is picking me up at 3 for a couple of hours of accounts work. Nice as I shall have a bit of extra cash for the weekend.

Tonight DD will have dinner with us, so I will cook something with kale, probably chick peas, with millet and side salad. And the plums I picked up yesterday.

I should go buy some soya milk but if I don't, and blend hazelnuts in water instead, I could make today a NSD, which would be good and wise after yesterday's meal out and tomorrow planned fish and chips, which would be two portions instead of the usual one, to include DS.

Have a good OS day all

greenbee

Caterina wrote: »

Good morning,

Chirpycheap, our own Martin has written a very good article about gifts and gifting at Christmas time, but the principle is applicable to other times as well, hope you find it useful:

http://blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2009/11/10/is-it-time-to-ban-christmas-presents/

I start cutting my list by seeing who hasn't been writing thank you letters... :cool:

Good for you on cutting down on plastic Caterina. I'm trying to do the same. And keeping electronics and electrical equipment to a minimum.

chirpycheap

Thanks so much for your replies to my gift giving dilemma. It's just one of those things that evolve in a family and get stuck. It's useful to hear how other people manage it. The Martin Lewis bit really made me think, particularly this bit:

'Christmas gifts are often a ‘zero-sum’ game, where often people just give gifts of similar values to each other. It’s worth examining what this means in a dispassionate practical sense:

Sharon gives a £20 necklace to Violet
Violet gives £20 earrings to Sharon.

If we examine the net result then, in fact….

Sharon has spent £20 to get earrings
Violet has spent £20 to get a necklace.

Yet the problem here is Sharon’s loaded and Violet’s skint. Without the gift-giving obligation, would Violet have really chosen to spend her hard-earned £20 for a necklace?
Instead, perhaps she’d have bought food for her children, paid some bills, or put the money towards replacing worn out shoes.
In other words, Violet’s financial priorities have been skewed because of gift-swapping. She would’ve been better off if they had agreed not to give in the first place.'

That really struck home as I've never thought about it that way before!

The other thing that I'm determined to be brave enough to do is skip diving as Caterina talked about in an earlier post. There are skips galore around here and I often spot interesting stuff but I'm too shy to knock on someone's door and ask in case they say no or are unpleasant to me.
I think that because we weren't too well off as kids and my mum always tried to hide the fact from other people I have inherited that fear of people judging me. I may have inherited her thrifty ways but I miss out on saving money by being too proud when I can't afford to be!


On the plus side DS is home for ten days. What a difference moving away and having to pay your own bills has made. He used to be the fussiest of eaters, a real Marks and Spencer's Finest range sort of young man! Now he is advising me on the best buys and price per 100g in the supermarket. What a joy! I think he may have finally grown up!

Caterina

Hello greenbee, good to see you posting here! The plastic cutting project is not going too well at the moment because of my kitchenless state, so I have bought a lot of ready packed veg and easy cook stuff. In a few weeks I hope to start again in earnest, especially as we have invested quite a lot of money in making our kitchen as natural as possible, using eco materials, paints etc. and I want to make my whole lifestyle as natural and clean as possible.

Chirpycheap, skip diving and being frugal is nothing to be ashamed of, and it is lots of fun. I hope you find a lot of treasure in your local skips, please make sure you share stories of your finds with us, so we can rejoice together!

Today went really well, first of all those brilliant finds, then it was a NSD yippee! Then work for my friend, two solid hours which will more than pay for tomorrow fish and chips treat.

But the best of all was finding a good new home for my old two seater sofa. After asking around if anyone I knew wanted it and no success, I had toyed with the idea of cutting it in half and taking it to the tip. But the OSer in me just could not do it without making another attempt to rehome it.

So today, in a hurry before going to work, I put a one-line ad on gumtree offering it, together with an elasticated washable cover. I had forgotten all about it and was cooking dinner when I got a text from someone enquiring about the sofa dimensions. I texted back and she said she would like to see. What do you know, she lives literally around the corner from me, no more than 30 seconds walk! She came, liked it, DH and DS carried it to her home and everybody was very happy. What a lovely "coincidence" (even if I know there is no such thing of course).

Good night.

greenbee

Caterina wrote: »

Hello greenbee, good to see you posting here! The plastic cutting project is not going too well at the moment because of my kitchenless state, so I have bought a lot of ready packed veg and easy cook stuff. In a few weeks I hope to start again in earnest, especially as we have invested quite a lot of money in making our kitchen as natural as possible, using eco materials, paints etc. and I want to make my whole lifestyle as natural and clean as possible.

Good luck with that... I've had great difficulty getting people to understand why I've gone for wooden windows (and traditional ones rather than ones with integrated locking systems). I have no kitchen at the moment, and the way the budget is going on heating/plumbing/electrics/windows/roof repairs/essential maintenance etc it may be several years before I do! I suspect I'll end up with something temporary from Ik*a next year to see me through until I can afford the kind of solution you have gone for.

I do have one of MG's thermal bags which has been invaluable (we get lots of powercuts too) and I'm just starting the production line of stewed apple in it tonight... (as light relief from clearing up after the window fitters!).

I really do need to return to OS ways as I need to save every penny I can for the work that needs doing on the house.

Pinkstar206

Good evening all, hope you've had a good day. Hello Natsnice to see another newbie along here. Think I'll struggle to post much when I'm back at work but feel I must make an effort to stay on board to help keep me motivated!

No news on OH's job interview unfortunately. They said possibly Friday but that it could be later so probably won't hear until after the weekend We're having a cheap night away in a youth hostel on Monday which I'm really looking forward to so maybe that will take our minds off the waiting...

Been trying my best with OS ways, didn't pay for parking today & walked a bit further, had coffee with a friend (but only one) and stuck pretty much to food shop list in aldi. Also made dinner from scratch which is not my forte but was very nice! Must keep up efforts over the weekend and hopefully avoid pitfalls where possible...

Caterina

Good morning,

greenbee, I know, the struggle to make people understand why we recoil from PVC and plastic is really something. Best of luck with house renovation. We have had to make some compromises because of cost, for example had "regular" commercial insulation instead of eco under the floorboards and regular plaster instead of lime, because they would have been prohibitively expensive. But we got everything in wood and using VOC free paints and eco oil to do walls, worktops, cabinets and floor. The expense is justified by the fact that these are exposed areas and we reduce the risk of toxicity. We are lucky with our main builder, who also thinks on the same lines. We had previous builders quoting us, who looked at us like we had three heads when we started talking about no MDF, no PVC etc!

Pink, still crossing fingers for your OH job interview.

Today I do not have much planned yet, apart from bootcamp at 9:30, which I did not do yesterday because of waiting for deliveries.

The sun is shining so I might go and plant the salads in the allotment, but don't want to do too much there or I shall ache for the rest of the weekend.

DH is working alongside the builder to put the finishing touches to the kitchen decoration today, as next week we have the electrician and plumber in, the cooker arrives and then week after next the main builder comes back to complete the work. Date of completion 8th September, I shall believe it when I see it.

So probably it means that I shall spend the rest of the day making sandwiches and tea for the workers! I cannot stand DIY, that's something I leave to DH.

If I am careful I do not have to shop for sandwiches, I have bread in the freezer, the very nice YS Poilane that tastes like the Italian Casareccio, the builder will be well pleased! And cheese, tomato and lettuce. Sorted!

Looking forward to tonight fish and chips. Probably the men will want beer with it, so if I have the time I might pop to l1dl for a few bottles of the cheap but lovely stuff.

Have a good sunshiny day.

jlhmd666

Avoiding the pitfalls is something I struggle with at times Pink I've been reading this thread:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/643755

and it is something I would like to achieve Simplifying Life There has been some great ideas already that I can start wih and I'm sure I will come across more as I read through it.

It is often the pitfalls though that can scupper what we are aiming to achieve so I need to give more thought to what I am doing. For me the biggest battle is getting OH on board. I'm sure he hates this site and often roles his eyes when I tell him about something I've read on here. I'm going to persevere though as the house looks cleaner and everyone is eating better meals.