Getting my Old Style mojo back

pollys

Hi amandaatnumber7
Hope you all feel much better soon.
The last day of my school holiday today. It's rained all morning so I've made bread and more pizza bases for the freezer. DS arrived home from a musical festival rather smelly from the campfires. Luckily it's stopped raining so one load of washing is now hung outside, second load in, third load waiting to go in!
We are having a no spend day today, we need a lot more no spend days! The window fitter is coming tomorrow to replace two windows which have needed replacing for quite some time. After he's done the windows he's going to look at one or two other small jobs that we'd like doing, all will make us better prepared for winter.
I really feel that my old ways are coming back, it feels good!
Thank you amandaatnumber7 for starting the thread, it's just what I needed.

Polly

Tink_04

Hi - a very miserabl day here, rain galore and you can feel the temperature drop. I have all the new uniforms out to be labelled and ironed for Wednesday, all the forms filled in and money bags filled so we are all sorted here ready for the new term. I have done my shopping and the meal plan is set for the week as its going to be a busy one.

amandaatnumber7

pollys wrote: »

Hi amandaatnumber7
Hope you all feel much better soon.
The last day of my school holiday today. It's rained all morning so I've made bread and more pizza bases for the freezer. DS arrived home from a musical festival rather smelly from the campfires. Luckily it's stopped raining so one load of washing is now hung outside, second load in, third load waiting to go in!
We are having a no spend day today, we need a lot more no spend days! The window fitter is coming tomorrow to replace two windows which have needed replacing for quite some time. After he's done the windows he's going to look at one or two other small jobs that we'd like doing, all will make us better prepared for winter.
I really feel that my old ways are coming back, it feels good!
Thank you amandaatnumber7 for starting the thread, it's just what I needed.

Polly

You are very welcome Polly, we are all helping each other. You know how they say it takes a village to raise a child, I feel like that with being OS. Its easier when your with like minded people, when your around spenders/consumers you start playing keeping up with the Jones'.

We are still spending a lot on groceries but we haven't bought any take aways for a couple of weeks and hubby hasn't bought his lunch at work so I guess its about finding a balance that works for our family.
And we are motivated to get our veggie patch going again, today is the first day of Spring here.

I have to go to work today, I don't usually work in the week but its stock take so all hands on deck.
I think I'll go and look through the 'what are you cooking for dinner' thread for some ideas

Have a lovely OS day

Caterina

Good morning,

Amandaatnumber7 sorry to hear about family illness again, I remember those days when my kids brought home all sorts of germs, it is difficult. Good idea to strengthen the immune systems, hopefully you will all be ok soon. We are just coming out of summer here in the UK so I imagine you must be heading towards spring, am I right? At least the good weather should bring some relief from the sniffles.

Polly reading about your DH coming back from the festival brought me such an acute memory of end of summer in years past, when the kids and I would return from long days of festivals (DH rarely had the time to join us because of limited annual leave). I could physically smell the mustiness and campfire smoke of the return from festival aroma as I read your post, it brought such a nostalgia!

Tink_04, your post also brought me more memories, the preparations for a new school year, it seems so long ago!

In spite of my kids being 26 (twins) and not having been in school for 7-8 years now, September never fails to bring a feeling of new beginnings, much more than 1st January, for me, it opens up possibilities of new craft classes, bonfires, walks in the park among the falling leaves...don't get me wrong, I love Summer but find that September has a magic of its own which is very special, very renewing. I suppose it is the old witch in me, feeling the Wheel spinning!

I am declaring a mini challenge: 10 days to spend £20 maximum on food. It is not a very hard challenge because I have a lot of food stored at home, but I want to clear fridge and freezer before we leave for our holidays on 11th (yippee, silver wedding honeymoon, 2 weeks in a campsite bungalow in Spain!). I know that I will need onions very soon, but not much more. Probably some soya milk, bread for DH, a few veg, but the allotment is producing, I have a few plums (note to self: need to cook the softer ones with a couple of apples), lots of apples from a friend's tree, I can make almond milk in the blender for DH's cereal, bread with the flour in stock, technically I have almost everything. But I will allow £20 because I don't want DH to feel deprived. So I might stretch to buying a packet of coffee for him, as it is nearly all gone. Unless, of course. I serve him my old decaf LOL!

We had long conversations recently on how to balance ethical with frugal, what are our financial priorities, and we have come to the conclusion that ethical needs to come first, and to be frugal in the purchase of ethical stuff. Probably in the longer term it means moving away from regular supermarket shopping, bye bye YS shopping :-( but hello farmers markets, vege boxes and organic bulk buys of groceries. It is going to be challenging for me but I am happy to go that way.

We haven't defined any rules as such and I will prob occasionally pop into the odd SM for occasional purchases, but the idea is not to rely on it and make ethical choices our primary ones. A sort of 80/20 ethical lifestyle, with a bit of space for imperfection - otherwise it becomes a religion and it will weigh on our minds. What am I saying, really, is that because I have primary responsibility for most purchases in the household, it would drive me crazy to be too much of a stickler for rules.

I remember when I went totally plastic free, it was a nightmare to maintain, there is plastic everywhere! And it is costly to buy loose stuff, as you can only get it in speciality shops, delis etc.

So, with some flexibility, we are embarking on a modicum of ethical/frugal lifestyle. I suppose I have been led by these principles for many years, but to be able to discuss and agree a plan, even if a bit vague, with DH, is great progress!

I will keep you updated.

Meanwhile, today's plan is:

Breakfast, taichi in the park, then tidy up the kitchen, bottle the tomatoes that we dried yesterday in the dehydrator (wow, loving our new toy, got it second hand via gumtree recently), cook plums and apples for pudding compote, get some dinner going: stuffed marrow, steamed veg and tomato salad - you can tell we have a glut of tomatoes!

Apart from the regular small supply from the garden and allotment, on Sunday my favourite stall holders at the farmers market had a lot of organic plum tomatoes with minor (mainly cosmetic) defects, thst try were selling much cheaper, so I pounced! Got a large jar of tomato sauce, a few trays of dried tomatoes and lots still a bit green ripening in a basket. Tomato is going to figure prominently on my menus, together with courgettes and marrows, in my next few days menus.

Have a good day.

moments_of_sanity

Caterina, thank you for reminding me about my dehydrator which is up in the loft, I had completely forgotten about it.

DD was away for 9 days which meant very little spending, she is a vegetarian so most of my food budget goes towards her really. I don't mind as I fully support her decision.

We have a lot of pets here (DD training to be a vet & youngest wants to be a vet nurse) so we seem to 'acquire' animals. One of my dogs has been poorly for just over a month and after a visit to the RVC Queen Mother last month we were no closer to finding out what the problem was......fast forward a month and his condition worsened on Sunday so we had an emergency drive again to the RVC and it seems after various blood tests, CT scan, pain meds, antibiotics and surgery that he is finally 'fixed'...thank goodness we insure him up to £7,000 each year as we are just about reaching that now :eek: This has in turn had a knock on effect as it has hit the fuel budget hard so I will need to do some moving around/juggling of finances to cover the additional spend.

I put 6 bananas in the freezer yesterday as they weren't eaten in time, banana cake anyone? Dinner is going to be something with chicken as we have left overs from yesterday so possibly fajitas.

Today will be a tidy up day for me as all our gang have been at home this weekend so I have a lot of general tidying to do, I seem to struggle with keeping on top of it when everyone is at home.

Have a great day everyone.

Tink_04

Well batch cooking is on the go and meals all prepped for tomorrow, love the back to school start as it makes me think of slow cooker and Autumn food.

Struggling with breakfast as my 2 are not big fans but really want DD to try and eat something on a morning. DS has another breakfast at nursery or when he comes back home with me but DD5 won't get anything else until dinner time at school, she has warm milk on a morning and I have tried cereals, toast, crumpets, eggs, porridge, sausages, fruit, yoghurt, she will eat it for a day then go back to picking and wasting it!

No shops for.me today as did a shop yesterday and plan to not have to pick anything other than milk and bread at the end of the week.

Hope everyone is having a good day

Caterina

Hello,

Just popping in to update and show off my signature. First NSD in a long time, feeling very happy!

Good night.

moments_of_sanity

I was hoping for a NSD today but we need some milk so I will have to pop to the local shop and pick some up.

Dinner tonight will be left over chicken again but will heat it up in some chicken gravy and serve with mash and lots of veg, last nights dinner of fajitas with left over chicken went down well but think they might get bored with chicken very soon

I am trying to find semolina flour as my veggie DD wants to make her own pasta so if anyone knows where I can find it, I would be very grateful. I can find fine semolina so not sure if this would work?

Ishtar

I'm back from my 'summer' hols - one week camping in Somerset in the pouring rain. Typical British summer weather.

The past month or so has been interesting and I've stuck to the budget as much as possible - holiday wasn't expensive, either on the cost of it or the spending money, so I managed to save some money away. We need new front and back doors as they are still the originals and are quite cold during the winter. The previous owners of the house had the windows done but not the doors. It won't be this winter, but will be ready for next year.

On the grocery front I came in just under budget - and that includes all the food we bought on holiday (except the times we ate out). I've done more baking, and more is being cooked from scratch. It's a slow job, but it's getting there; I can't believe how much I have let it slip....

Tink_04

Made some pasta sauce out of a tin of tomatoes and some left over veg and have a freezer and fridge full of potatoes in every form so that should keep.us going for a while did go to the shops for bread and spent £13 but it was on tinned stuff that we usually buy that was on offer so stocked up, might get some more next week if it's still on offer.

Trying to have a clear out before Xmas, 2 bin bags gone to the CS and one in the bin, need to tackle the kids stuff but will have to wait for a day off work.and do.it when they are out.

Really feels like Autumn here I actually put the heating on for the kids bath time as it was that cold!

Hope everyone is doing well xx