NST February frugality and frolics

mothernerd

My friend took everything I offered her - machines, accessories, notions, material (found another two lengths last night whilst looking for the second sewing machine), loved her starter embroidery set (also included a book I don't often use but has been useful over the years - covers lots of different types of embroidery) and one of the large boxes. She would have taken the other large box but with two small boys, the stuff I gave her and the dog's bedding (dog had been dropped off at the kennels), there was no room left.

The only material I have left is a bolt of cream blackout material - to be used to line DS3's curtains, make spare sheets until I find some I want/ can afford, extra rags for cleaning and Beloved wants to make a blind to cover the roof window.

They have been out today. They went for blood tests yesterday and Beloved got a call back (actually her father was phoned so she had to untangle the mix -up). Yesterday's blood test showed that her cortisol level is dangerously low. Consultant did not want to change her appointment (next Monday) but wanted them to go to the main hospital (other side of the borough) today and start medication now. If she vomits they have to return to A&E immediately.

I have tried to have a rest day. Between the funeral and carrying things about, various bits of my body have gone on strike. Went to mum's but have been slothing. Bins have gone out, birds have been fed, mum and I have been fed. Had a nap on mum's bed this afternoon (could not find a comfortable position on the chair, put a cushion under my arm on the bed).

Got home (even the taxi drivers are now telling me to slow down) and was pulling off my leggings when i remembered my bin. Bins done, I have brought up stuff to make sandwiches and buttered (buttery low fat spread) scones so i can lie in until at least lunchtime tomorrow. Want to tackle the bulky piece of furniture but not fit for that so slothing is the order of the day.

Today I am grateful for finding a good home for things I needed to leave my house, for a nice day so only wearing a cardigan for the second day running, for little treats (not much sugar in scones and only a pinch of salt - better for me than chocolate).

sashanut

Hi all :j

Busy day with CS work till after lunch - got presented with an envelope which contained a badge for 3 years' service, crikey..

Then to garage to pick up car after repairs from MOT, all done & safe.

F Food Expenditure Aiming for £225 for the month, down from about £275.. already done a bit of spending so no NSDs as yet. Shopping already spent £139.56/225 . Made some purchases today/yesterday so need to add those on.


E Excursions and entertainment should be planned. ...No excursions but planning a trip to Ireland before B-day but looks like they have changed the ferry crossings to make it vastly more inconvenient for us. However, DH is on the case & looking at alternative routes. Will be in March. Looks like we can make an alternative crossing & even though we need to stay overnight in a B&B it will be cheaper, so should book this week. Car viewing again tomorrow, this time off to Harrogate. Hopefully a bit more successfully then yesterday.

B Budgets None set as yet - other than food - & all DDs already out.

U Useful leftovers Will also carry on with frogs. Need to make a list for DH also, there are plenty of things he can be doing. Massive frog today - inventoried one of the fridges -yaay! OK as we didn't go out I finally inventoried the other fridge, tons of stuff in there, quite amazing really..should mean hardly any more shopping although I've said that before. Started on the bedroom frog today - which is very big. Cleared out some paperwork for recycling bin & found a truly hideous teapot which will be going to the CS with me on Tuesday. Didn't take teapot as DH thought it might be worth selling, so will check first.

A Aim to take your lunch
Don't work outside the home other than volunteer at a CS but will aim to take snacks/lunch/etc when we go out. Took fruit & nuts to CS.

R Remind yourself Nice shift with colleagues, easy food already prepped, good health & happiness.

Y You should pay your debt or savings first Have no debt other than a cc paid off in full each month. However, savings needed for dental work & also for house renovations, so will take care of that. Paid back joint account for dental work again. Will make another payment after this post.

S Spend Free Days (SFDs)Still 6/18

U Use it up Keep using up what we have, have done some shopping already but should only need fresh F&V & bread, plus animals food/litter. Used up some things from fridge as I now know what is in there & what needs to be used up first. All food from stores & used leftovers for supper.

R Regular check ins Here

V Cards only .. in the nut household

I Indoors/outdoors My only regular exercise is gardening, which I try to do most days. Walked a lot when away need to have slightly better weather to do much around here. Out this afternoon in the garden although very windy it was dry & I did another bit of the border, 3 barrows of compost on it & pruned some branches that were overhanging the rockery. Not outside for long as lots of housework/cooking etc. Did one more barrow load. More pruning outside this morning, happy in the fresh air. Only pout with the pooches today, no gardening with all the running about.


Indoors - being a hermit. Relaxed reading a cook book from the CS that I been keeping an eye out for - £26 originally, 50p to me.

V Vending machines etc Rarely use but do have the occasional takeaway as part of family meal. Maybe once a month, but no plans so far. Had family meal out yesterday, no plans for a takeaway AFAIK.

A Advance planning This is a problem for me, I don't plan in advance but decide what to have on an almost daily basis. I know I have to get more organised, so will inventory both fridges...as a starting point. Have not inventoried yet , will do tomorrow. Done Fridge one. Fridge 2 to go. Done fridge 2.....have a loongg list on my phone. Need to see if I can meal plan for this week now I have an idea of what we have. Wont need tomorrow as we should be eating out, but for rest of week. Still WIP.

Garden prep - up to today - has been going on apace, not with planting as the ground has been frozen but with pruning & some greenhouse stuff. No veg as yet but it's a bit early for here. Will go through seeds - I have loads - and see what I need if anything. Also have lots of pots of paint for projects inside & outside the house - once decluttered enough to decorate.. Mulching borders is in hand although it will take me forever. One more load done. Amazingly DH has offered to help...well he will cut down some stuff that is too big for my loppers to cut. Fills me with fear tbh...he's not handy! Scheduled for rest of week if fine, dependent on car viewings too.

Go Turtles!!!

f0xh0les

NSD5 yesterday as boilerbob did not invoice me yet.

3 days left until half term. I have a massive pile of books to read. I have a mound of fabric to turn into other stuff, and if I am lucky, I will end up at the tip. I have 3 boxes of tat left outside the main storage area of boxes of tat at the back of the house, so am going to try and sort those out. They do not need to be sat in the kitchen looking at me. There are probably some really useful things in there that I have been wondering where did the xxx go? So there. I have a plan.

Grateful for my car being loud, but not dangerous, for 2 more get-ups before half term, for it not being rainy!! for my toes not feeling like they are going to fall off, while waiting to pick up kids, for tomorrow being the half way mark.

GlendaSugarbean

Happy Wednesday! Shopping day for me as the cupboards are bare. Managed to squeak a NSD yesterday despite failing to take in my lunch - I rooted about it my desk and found some Ryvita and miso soup so no need to buy lunch. Think I'm on 6/15, not too shabby for this time of the month.

Mothernerd: have a nice quiet day, and I hope Beloved gets her meds sorted.

I think we should do a bulk order of Philip Schofields for all the nursing homes. Would brighten up many a day!

SpekySquarehead

I'm gutted with out my February NSD challenge is going.

Had to buy milk for the office, 80p, which ruined my NSD yesterday. (Once again) I shouldn't have any spends until the weekend. Don't hold me to it, given the way the first 2 weeks have went.

mothernerd

Speky don't despair - is there anything else in the challenge that you are/ could be working on. How's your exercise regime? Are you still munching away at those frogs? Did you take your lunch to work? How is your debt/ savings?

Congratulate yourself on your successes and don't beat yourself up over the one target you aren't quite managing yet. All the turtle tools have a purpose. The more you can manage, the better you do. Turn negatives into positives. Note that those of us who have been poorly have totted up SFDs just by not being able to leave the house.

You haven't had a boiler blow up, just minor mishaps getting in the way. Don't underestimate the value of your regular football game - keeping fit, socialising, keeping your mental health on an even keel and helping protect future you (don't overdo it though - some of my challenges are due to getting through a lifetime's wear and tear in under 50 years).

When all else fails, we just keep plodding/ dog paddling.

mothernerd

I slept well after spraying both shoulders with pain relief heat spray. Mostly one and two hour chunks but then an unprecedented 4 am until 9.30am. I feel good but after getting to the bathroom and brushing my teeth, I was really grateful to get back on the bed (even that felt like a climb - my legs didn't seem to be in the right places so lots of minor adjustments and changing position.

Have only just had morning pills and something to eat (soft sandwich filling on soft wholemeal seeded bread - both bought on the way back from Monday's funeral) with red pepper pieces added. Tasted wonderful but if i fall asleep again I'm not fighting it. No plans to move unless strictly necessary but have paperwork and other tasks I can do from here.

So today's message is Listen to Your Body.

Just that. There are times when you need to push on and do a bit more and times to just stop and switch off. Given that I feel fine except when I try to move (when hacking cough kicks in) I am going to stay right here and let my body heal.

I am aware of taking my body too much for granted. I never thought it was beautiful although it wasn't bad when I was younger. Post childbearing I always thought of it as serviceable. It did all the things I asked of it including walking for miles for both necessity and pleasure.

I went to the gym and swimming regularly but was not sculpted and toned. I enjoyed tai chi and yoga and danced for hours after the boys were asleep (and occasionally, with them, in shops). Embarrassing your children is included in the job description.

I was careful about some things. My mother had her varicose veins operated on when I was 6, so I knew from an early age that when your legs ached you should put them up on a stool and rest.

I've never been able to drink milk. AS a baby I regurgitated it all if forced to have more than a tiny amount. When I was pregnant for the first time, I told the doctor I could only get it down as custard, blancmange or rice pudding (knew I should be having it for the baby's sake) and since then I've worked hard to find yoghurts I could stomach.

Until my hip diagnosis, my main worry was osteoporosis as reading told me I'd missed out on too much calcium in the supposedly critical years.

So I'm listening to my body, trying to be kind to it (it has served me well, I haven't always returned the favour) and I am taking a sloth day (Friday is going to be a tough day so need to bank my energy).

The other thing I'm going to say, on a positive rather than cautionary note, is Whatever the challenge, there is usually a way to do it or get round it.

When I was younger this meant getting a too heavy for me tv (they used to be built like tanks, for younger turtles, a 24" screen meant something roughly 36" x 32" x 24" with a couple of bricks and some lead piping inside) upstairs with the aid of 4 small boys (2 mine, 2 belonging to neighbours) and a large blanket Basically wrapped the blanket round the tv, gave the boys a corner each and told them to pull like Father Christmas's reindeers (in pairs, above on the stairs, with enough room so that I wasn't scared of little feet getting trapped) with me underneath and behind supporting most (but not all) of it.

Nowadays it means eliminating anything unessential, adapting what I do (left hand or smaller more frequent tasks) and working out the rest as I go along. There is always a way.

Enough wittering from me (although I may comment on some of your posts).

mothernerd

hugs f0xh0les. Tat sort, definitely. Ask yourself "Do I want to keep this?", "Would I pay good money for this if I saw it in a shop today?" (the regret is for your original mistake in buying it, not getting rid of it now). Really radical, see if you can chuck the box without looking (very environmentally unfriendly, not something I would advocate normally).

You sound as though it's you or the tat and we want to keep you, so ditch the tat. Save the books for the days you are going to let the f0xcubs stay in their pjs with controllers glued to their hands.

Toni'sfriend

NSD No 3 and a much better day for me, at least. Himself and the Boy seem to have come down with some kind of bug and are feeling rubbish.

I've managed to get a fair bit done but I'm still all at sixes and sevens . Don't seem to be able to get myself back in to a routine.

Eating from the stores and freezer but due to the two chaps not feeling a hundred per cent my meal plan has gone awry.

Plodding on.

dolly84

Today is a NSD. Have walked the dog, cleaned and cycled today. All food from stores, defrosted vegan cottage pies last night so they just warmed up in the oven and the kids had tortellini.



Have braved a brand new pair of Dr Martens boots that I have had for ages and have been putting off trying to break in, walked the dog to the woods in them and found them much softer than my black ones were when I first got them. I love docs so much so I really enjoyed wearing them today.


Plan for the rest of the day is to clean the kitchen up, have a shower, make the kids packed lunches then read for a bit.