As predicted it has been a very busy week but I've done pretty well so far! 🙌 Financially all is going to plan - dh has stayed out of the shops, all food has been from the freezer or storecupboard and I have made the decision to get rid of prime - there's nothing that interests me on the tv part and it's far too easy to buy stuff I don't need with the 'free' and next day delivery! I'm pretty convinced that I will be offered a month 'free' or greatly reduced in the not too distant future so if need be, the few things that I do have to buy from them (due to lack of availability elsewhere) I will buy at that point 😉 Work is good, I finally feel that I'm getting on top of everything and have a clear path forward - I had a clear out yesterday and organised the masses of paperwork I had been using to sort the new systems so my office doesn't look like a bombsite anymore! All the paper that is no longer relevant has been shredded ready for composting at the weekend 🙌 House is good - the kids seem to have finally started to do some stuff! Not masses but I don't need them to go mental on it, just do their share, so that's a really positive step forward- fingers crossed it continues! We'll be doing some garden stuff at the weekend- I need to get the veg beds weeded on Saturday, my sweetpeas and broadbeans sown on Sunday, and my papaya re-potted and a general tidy-up along with sorting the compost bins as we go along. It looks like the weather may be a bit ropey so we'll do stuff in between the downpours! 😂
I'm really looking forward to Saturdays 'new years eve' celebrations - although it's a low-key, family affair, it is my favourite festival. We have a fire, a meal based on seasonal produce and we drink, talk and make plans! I follow the pagan calendar (loosely) because it fits in with the seasons- I have no spiritual beliefs at all but I do feel my connection to nature. I love the beginning of winter as it feels like the opportunity to 'start again' and the foundations of new growth can be established. It makes me very happy! 😊 I'm off the alcohol for a month starting Sunday and I've also decided to quit smoking then too!! 🙈 I decided that if I'm going to spend a few days being grumpy I may as well be grumpy for two reasons rather than one! 😉😂 It probably means that I'll post daily for the first week as it will help me feel accountable! It won't be the essays that I've been writing recently though! 😂
@Baileys_Babe - no distractions planned really, I'm just hoping I can channel my natural stubbornness and get through the first three days without becoming a serial killer!! 😂😂😂
It's been a chaotic day - I've done a 13 hour day work wise and I'm still not out the other side yet 🙈 I'll have to work again tomorrow but it will be worth it to be able to start with a clear slate on Monday morning 🙌
Food is still being used from the freezer and stores - I'll have to get some shopping in tomorrow but that's from the celebration budget so my grocery budget will remain intact until Sunday 😊 I'll get as much done in the garden as I can after work - I want to get at least 4 of the veg beds cleared even if I can't finish them all. Fingers crossed that the rain holds off - I don't want to be soggy all afternoon! 🙈
Happy new year!!! 🎉 I've ended up working all weekend so didn't get the stuff done in the garden as intended - however, it's such a relief to have things done I'm okay with that! 😊 Had a lovely evening yesterday, open fire, music and chat - a perfect celebration 😊 Today I am smoke and alcohol free and pretty proud of myself! Now that I've completed all the work I needed to do I feel really organised and on top of things for the first time in months - I've already written tomorrow's 'to do' list and I have sorted a meal plan for the week. It's surprising how much it's lifted my spirits - I'm definitely keeping it up this year! 😊
Well the tumble dryer decided to die on me yesterday! 🙈 nightmare of epic proportions as I have a laundry mountain to get through but I have another one turning up today so I'll cope 😂 Money coming from the household fund so not an issue but annoying nevertheless! I'm absolutely knackered today - I haven't slept properly for days and it's finally catching up on me - I've decided that I'm going to have a few 'me' hours today and get some sleep 😉 I made a lovely Thai style curry yesterday - for some reason all the leaves have fallen off my kaffir lime plant so I put them to good use! I'm hoping that I've just over watered it and it will recover 🙈 I also made a big pot of rice bake which we will have over the next couple of days and I made a batch of hommous- it's not quite normal as I only had a tiny bit of lemon juice left so I added lime juice too, turned out really nice though! 😉😂 Alcohol is proving easy to give up which I'm surprised about, cigarettes not so much 😔 however, I will battle on and get there in the end 😊
So far it's been a really mixed month! 🙈 I've given up giving up smoking for now - the stress levels have been horrendous recently, paticularly with work, and I think I would have probably lost the plot had I avoided tobacco - I haven't been so close to quitting my job in years! It's starting to improve now but next week will be the decider! I'm doing well on the alcohol front though so at least that's something 😉 Anyway, that's the bad stuff - now the good 😉 The kids are closer to moving out now - hopefully their house will complete by the end of January - all in the hands of solicitors now (fingers crossed for earlier but I'm a realist! 😂) As I promised them our sofas for when they move (they're only a couple of years old and in new condition but I've hated them since the day they arrived! 🙈) we have found, ordered and paid for new ones 🙌- we may well be sofa free for several weeks due to the expected delivery times but I'm okay with that. The reason it's on my 'really good' list is that it took 6 years for me to find the sofas we currently have as I hated all of the ones I saw - our current ones were nothing like we expected (the one in the shop we chose from was a corner unit and a different colour but the single sofas turned out to look awful in rl and the fabric is really odd in the colour we chose! 😞) but the new ones were found after about 30mins of web browsing, a call to check that the shop had the actual sofa I liked on display and a quick video call with dh when he went in to check out what they looked and felt like!!! 🙌🙌🙌 I'd been dreading finding new ones after the last saga (along with the fact that I loathe shopping) so this is a major win 😊 Other stuff, the new budget is working well - the grocery spends are at about £160 this month (although we've spent about £50 of that on household items - the revised new budget has a fund for these now but I've taken it from the groceries this month 😉) and we only have 10 days left - I'm pretty convinced that we can probably come in at about £200 so that is really good! We've been eating from the freezer and stores mainly, I am going to do a 10 day menu plan tomorrow and we'll buy what we need at the weekend so that no more shopping is required until next month 😊 I've been making enough for dh to take for lunches and re-purposing leftovers too so I'll leave a couple of gaps in my menu plan so that we can continue that 😉 Garden work is ongoing - we've put in the garlic and planted sweetpeas - the tuscan kale is still producing along with the rainbow chard and we have brussel sprouts and parsnips to harvest. The winter cabbages are doing well so hopefully we'll be able to have those in a few months too 😊 nothing on the purple sprouting broccoli yet but I've never grown it before so perhaps it's too early 🤔 The house is still good although the kids seem to be slipping a bit (I'll gently remind them tomorrow I think!) laundry is all up to date and we've got no real plans for the weekend other than shopping so I'm looking forward to a pretty relaxing one! Right, essay done - hope all is well!
Menu plan done, shopping bought and unless we've forgotten something, I'm under £200 for the month (£150 if I take off the household stuff 😉)!! 🙌
I bought some solstice alcohol today (different budget) so that if we can't have a family gathering, dh and I are sorted - I've yet to do the food menu but if it's just us, we'll eat from what we have in - I have plenty of stuff that I can jazz up to make it a bit different, I've got sprouts, leeks, parsnips, kale and herbs in the garden, carrots in the freezer, plenty of hm pickles, nuts to make cheeses and flour to make breads and pastas. We won't need choccies or biccies as we don't really eat them and I can't think of anything that we need on top of what we already have 🤔 It could end up being the cheapest solstice on record!! 😂 I'm considering a re-think on how much I spend on the kids too - I currently do £100 each for my kids and the 2 grandbabies along with £75 each for the sil and dil plus supply all the food and alcohol - I do the same for their birthdays which means £1100 a year in gifts plus I take the whole family out for a meal on each birthday plus the one for my bday and dh's - it works out about £200 per meal - I think that I spend about £2500 every year on solstice and birthdays and I'm starting to think that it's time I reeled that in a bit...more thought is required 🤔 Anyway, I'd better get on with finishing the cooking - I'm sorting thd seitan for tomorrow's casserole! 😁
We've given up on birthday presents and just go out for a meal. Not sure whether that's going to be able to happen for our youngest daughter as her birthday is February and we're currently in Tier 3 so unless we move up to Tier 2 by then it won't happen!
Definitely looks like an awful lot of money spent on presents. Like yours our children are grown up, our grandchildren too (both in 20s) so we only spend £30 per person for Christmas so we manage to keep it much more manageable on our pensions.
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Financially all is going to plan - dh has stayed out of the shops, all food has been from the freezer or storecupboard and I have made the decision to get rid of prime - there's nothing that interests me on the tv part and it's far too easy to buy stuff I don't need with the 'free' and next day delivery! I'm pretty convinced that I will be offered a month 'free' or greatly reduced in the not too distant future so if need be, the few things that I do have to buy from them (due to lack of availability elsewhere) I will buy at that point 😉
Work is good, I finally feel that I'm getting on top of everything and have a clear path forward - I had a clear out yesterday and organised the masses of paperwork I had been using to sort the new systems so my office doesn't look like a bombsite anymore! All the paper that is no longer relevant has been shredded ready for composting at the weekend 🙌
House is good - the kids seem to have finally started to do some stuff! Not masses but I don't need them to go mental on it, just do their share, so that's a really positive step forward- fingers crossed it continues!
We'll be doing some garden stuff at the weekend- I need to get the veg beds weeded on Saturday, my sweetpeas and broadbeans sown on Sunday, and my papaya re-potted and a general tidy-up along with sorting the compost bins as we go along. It looks like the weather may be a bit ropey so we'll do stuff in between the downpours! 😂
I'm really looking forward to Saturdays 'new years eve' celebrations - although it's a low-key, family affair, it is my favourite festival. We have a fire, a meal based on seasonal produce and we drink, talk and make plans! I follow the pagan calendar (loosely) because it fits in with the seasons- I have no spiritual beliefs at all but I do feel my connection to nature. I love the beginning of winter as it feels like the opportunity to 'start again' and the foundations of new growth can be established. It makes me very happy! 😊
I'm off the alcohol for a month starting Sunday and I've also decided to quit smoking then too!! 🙈 I decided that if I'm going to spend a few days being grumpy I may as well be grumpy for two reasons rather than one! 😉😂 It probably means that I'll post daily for the first week as it will help me feel accountable! It won't be the essays that I've been writing recently though! 😂
Rolled over coupons 62.5/62.5 remaining (using for secondhand purchases)
One income, home educating family
It's been a chaotic day - I've done a 13 hour day work wise and I'm still not out the other side yet 🙈 I'll have to work again tomorrow but it will be worth it to be able to start with a clear slate on Monday morning 🙌
Food is still being used from the freezer and stores - I'll have to get some shopping in tomorrow but that's from the celebration budget so my grocery budget will remain intact until Sunday 😊 I'll get as much done in the garden as I can after work - I want to get at least 4 of the veg beds cleared even if I can't finish them all. Fingers crossed that the rain holds off - I don't want to be soggy all afternoon! 🙈
I've ended up working all weekend so didn't get the stuff done in the garden as intended - however, it's such a relief to have things done I'm okay with that! 😊
Had a lovely evening yesterday, open fire, music and chat - a perfect celebration 😊 Today I am smoke and alcohol free and pretty proud of myself!
Now that I've completed all the work I needed to do I feel really organised and on top of things for the first time in months - I've already written tomorrow's 'to do' list and I have sorted a meal plan for the week. It's surprising how much it's lifted my spirits - I'm definitely keeping it up this year! 😊
I'm absolutely knackered today - I haven't slept properly for days and it's finally catching up on me - I've decided that I'm going to have a few 'me' hours today and get some sleep 😉
I made a lovely Thai style curry yesterday - for some reason all the leaves have fallen off my kaffir lime plant so I put them to good use! I'm hoping that I've just over watered it and it will recover 🙈 I also made a big pot of rice bake which we will have over the next couple of days and I made a batch of hommous- it's not quite normal as I only had a tiny bit of lemon juice left so I added lime juice too, turned out really nice though! 😉😂
Alcohol is proving easy to give up which I'm surprised about, cigarettes not so much 😔 however, I will battle on and get there in the end 😊
Anyway, that's the bad stuff - now the good 😉 The kids are closer to moving out now - hopefully their house will complete by the end of January - all in the hands of solicitors now (fingers crossed for earlier but I'm a realist! 😂) As I promised them our sofas for when they move (they're only a couple of years old and in new condition but I've hated them since the day they arrived! 🙈) we have found, ordered and paid for new ones 🙌- we may well be sofa free for several weeks due to the expected delivery times but I'm okay with that. The reason it's on my 'really good' list is that it took 6 years for me to find the sofas we currently have as I hated all of the ones I saw - our current ones were nothing like we expected (the one in the shop we chose from was a corner unit and a different colour but the single sofas turned out to look awful in rl and the fabric is really odd in the colour we chose! 😞) but the new ones were found after about 30mins of web browsing, a call to check that the shop had the actual sofa I liked on display and a quick video call with dh when he went in to check out what they looked and felt like!!! 🙌🙌🙌 I'd been dreading finding new ones after the last saga (along with the fact that I loathe shopping) so this is a major win 😊
Other stuff, the new budget is working well - the grocery spends are at about £160 this month (although we've spent about £50 of that on household items - the revised new budget has a fund for these now but I've taken it from the groceries this month 😉) and we only have 10 days left - I'm pretty convinced that we can probably come in at about £200 so that is really good! We've been eating from the freezer and stores mainly, I am going to do a 10 day menu plan tomorrow and we'll buy what we need at the weekend so that no more shopping is required until next month 😊 I've been making enough for dh to take for lunches and re-purposing leftovers too so I'll leave a couple of gaps in my menu plan so that we can continue that 😉
Garden work is ongoing - we've put in the garlic and planted sweetpeas - the tuscan kale is still producing along with the rainbow chard and we have brussel sprouts and parsnips to harvest. The winter cabbages are doing well so hopefully we'll be able to have those in a few months too 😊 nothing on the purple sprouting broccoli yet but I've never grown it before so perhaps it's too early 🤔
The house is still good although the kids seem to be slipping a bit (I'll gently remind them tomorrow I think!) laundry is all up to date and we've got no real plans for the weekend other than shopping so I'm looking forward to a pretty relaxing one!
Right, essay done - hope all is well!
I bought some solstice alcohol today (different budget) so that if we can't have a family gathering, dh and I are sorted - I've yet to do the food menu but if it's just us, we'll eat from what we have in - I have plenty of stuff that I can jazz up to make it a bit different, I've got sprouts, leeks, parsnips, kale and herbs in the garden, carrots in the freezer, plenty of hm pickles, nuts to make cheeses and flour to make breads and pastas. We won't need choccies or biccies as we don't really eat them and I can't think of anything that we need on top of what we already have 🤔 It could end up being the cheapest solstice on record!! 😂
I'm considering a re-think on how much I spend on the kids too - I currently do £100 each for my kids and the 2 grandbabies along with £75 each for the sil and dil plus supply all the food and alcohol - I do the same for their birthdays which means £1100 a year in gifts plus I take the whole family out for a meal on each birthday plus the one for my bday and dh's - it works out about £200 per meal - I think that I spend about £2500 every year on solstice and birthdays and I'm starting to think that it's time I reeled that in a bit...more thought is required 🤔
Anyway, I'd better get on with finishing the cooking - I'm sorting thd seitan for tomorrow's casserole! 😁
Rolled over coupons 62.5/62.5 remaining (using for secondhand purchases)
One income, home educating family
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Definitely looks like an awful lot of money spent on presents. Like yours our children are grown up, our grandchildren too (both in 20s) so we only spend £30 per person for Christmas so we manage to keep it much more manageable on our pensions.