A new royal start

QueenJess

Well it's the end of the first week (well 4 days really) with both DD and DS out during school hours.  In theory I have tons of time getting things done, but I really feel like I have no time and am making very little progress.  I think part of the problem is that I am catching up for having not cleared my to do list for the past year!

DD's room has 4 more drawers to clean out, I have dismantled the bed but need to get rid of it (had some interest, but they have gone quiet) and I need to book for the council to take the horrible old mattress away.  I then just have a few bits and pieces to put away in there.  I need to get some wall stickers and a hook for the back of the door, but I genuinely am uninspired by anything I can see online and as there is no rush, it's postponed for now.

Other than that I'm trying to keep on top of washing and cooking and not sure I've got much further than that.  Tidying/sorting stuff out is a run around each day for about 20 mins and fingers crossed things slowly look better soon!  Done lots of tiny bits and pieces this week though, including replying to some birthday invitations that have come in for DS.  After deliberating a bit on what to get for presents considering these look like whole class sized parties (30 presents sounds like a nightmare to me!!) and trying not to throw away my ethics whilst still providing something acceptable, I decided upon some recycled colouring pencils, a small organic chocolate (not in plastic) and a colouring book each.  I think I'm going to attempt to wrap them up with brown paper and a nice ribbon as I have lots of ribbons and other bits and pieces in my craft collection that I save from anything I receive.  Might have to find myself a guide as wrapping is not really my superpower!

For some reason I seem to have gone a bit crazy with food stores and my cupboards are totally rammed, as is my freezer which is scarily full.  I need to ban myself from food shopping now unless I am desperate for something, although I have almost run out of my 85% chocolate, which is a total disaster I'm having to spend a bit more time cooking and thinking about meals at the moment as DD has decided that she wants to eat what we are eating at the time we are eating.  Generally I can adapt what we have a little bit, but it just requires a bit more thought.  I made a whole macaroni cheese earlier, ready for lunch tomorrow!  At least I can vary her puddings as I tend to have mine later - it's my treat after I have finished clearing up, put DD to bed and not doing any more chores for the day.

Today's lunch was fish finger sandwiches with salad and sweet potato chips.  Dinner was burgers (beef for everyone apart from me - I had spicy beanburgers that I made a couple of weeks ago), sweetcorn, peas (DC), pickled beetroot (me) and hm coleslaw.  Pudding was Jack Monroe's apricot and white chocolate cake (which is really nice), but I had to ram half of that in the freezer as I have too much for me and DH to eat.  DS had a banana and choc chip flapjack I made earlier in the week from the freezer.

My food plan doesn't really take anything out the freezer, but I've only planned until Monday.  Will definitely be using some quick meals and soups from the freezer when DH is out at work next week.  Hopefully that will help a bit!

QueenJess

Urgh. What a week! Cleaner was ill and so didn’t turn up on Monday. Then I had to pick up DD early from nursery as she had a very high temperature. Ended up going to A&E at 10pm and eventually left at 1am… 

Not had more than 3 hours sleep a night since then and been looking after a very clingy baby 24 hours a day. She’s finally looking slightly better this morning, so her medication must have started to kick in.

So basically nothing done, house a mess, I’m severely sleep deprived and basically no cooking happening (been eating from the freezer). Hopefully it is all up now and I can sleep and start doing something useful! Need to start thinking about making small changes to offset some of these energy costs etc since my job is likely gone this year and DH is muttering about wanting to go part time next year. It would have been fine without the cost of living crisis, but the increases are more than any savings I have made.

QueenJess

DD is still ill, so not much happening here as it’s pretty full on. I am plotting a few things next week though when she should be well enough to go back to nursery as I have a few things I want to get sorted in the house and I want to get some plants for the garden to fill holes (they may as well be fruit/herbs to maximise my budget).

Roasted some veg (cauliflower, beetroot, garlic, carrots and celeriac) to use over the next few days. Will add onion, chopped tomatoes, butter beans, smoked paprika and sausages to turn it into a stew for tonight, with mash on the side. Lunch is unknown… as the oven is still hot I might make fish finger sandwiches with sweet potato chips. Pudding is the last of the flapjacks for lunch and after dinner will be yogurt, kiwi and defrosted raspberries as I have loads of kiwi to use up.

Going to try and make lots of tiny changes to see if I can cut our expenditure a bit without changing our lifestyle. I will do tiny things slowly over time so hopefully they become habit and when I’m made redundant it won’t be a problem. That’s the plan anyway… Not sure if I will notice if they make a difference with the cost of living spiralling, but better than doing nothing and worth exhausting these methods first.

So this week all I’ve done so far is:
- making sure I only put washing on when I have a totally full load as I am sometimes guilty of not doing that. I don’t tumble dry and hang it out in the bathroom (our house is very well vented/filtered) anyway and already wash at 30 (with the exception of nappies), so no other savings to be had there.
- discovering all the seeds in the cupboard and planting some of the silly amount of micro green seeds I had for some reason and some cress seeds that came free ages ago.
- turned the heating down by 1 degree as DD no longer feels the cold like she used to and I am often a bit warm as I rush around. Plus usually there isn’t anyone around in the day. Might turn off the bathroom towel rails soon - they only come on for a few hours in the evening, but as it’s warmer outside, I’m not sure I need them.

I pay for my energy as it’s consumed as I hate the concept of energy companies estimating my use and then telling me how much to pay. It’s never right in my experience and they don’t seem to understand our air source heat pump system which means our electricity use falls off a cliff over the summer. So over the next 6 months I’m going to try and buy things in advance (Xmas presents, bit of food cupboard stocking up etc) and try to save up for other things that come in the winter months (like insurance). So hopefully as my electricity bill goes up my other expenditure goes down. That’s the theory anyway..

The only good money news so far is that my water bill is reducing by £2 a month as I don’t use much water. I won’t spend it all at once! Looks like changes at work might be delayed so hopefully I’ll have a few months more to save up. I am assuming not though as then it’ll just be upside.

I am consciously ignoring the fact that DD has given me her cold. I guess it was inevitable given I was so run down looking after her. Hopefully I can get rid of that soon.

QueenJess

In other news, I have managed to cut almost all meat out of my diet without noticing. I am now down to one portion of fish a week and one portion of mince. I don’t miss it, but find it’s interesting that I would rather have fish than other meat.

I am not trying to be vegan per se, just trying to cut whatever I can for environmental reasons, although the other benefit will be cost too. The only other things I have which are non vegan are eggs, cheese and custard. I have some vegan cheese to try in the fridge so I am slowly making progress. I am happy to think of meat as a treat item.

QueenJess

DD is now back to nursery and my cold is right at the end. Feeling run down and a bit fed up though, so told everyone I was on strike and am not doing loads of cooking or the other usual stuff and am pleasing myself for a couple of days. After a week of no sleep caring for a sick baby, I finally took her back to nursery on Monday with her medicine and all the relevant forms for it completed. Got a call in the afternoon to tell me there is no dispensing sticker on the packet and so they are not allowed to give it to her and I would have to drive there everyday to do it for her! They suggested I contacted the doctor to get a copy of the prescription as an alternative, but that’s impossible since they gave it straight to me at A&E at 1:30 in the morning. That was really the last straw for me and I had a bit of a panic attack and felt really short of breath for quite a long time. Obviously no one actually noticed. It’s so depressing to be just be on my own all the time and have literally no one to talk to - I have given up talking to DH altogether since he doesn’t respond or listen to what I say anyway, so seems pointless. Needless to say he never notices anything.

Been thinking about things I like instead the last few days and finally getting round to sorting out the room that gets all the stuff dumped in (mine), which I never get round to as I’m making sure everyone else’s rooms/stuff is all sorted. Got a bit more to do today and might have a go at spring cleaning all my bookshelves. Also planning a nice long shower and generally trying to pamper myself in the day. May also make another card today (did a Mother’s Day one yesterday made mostly from card in my recycling, so very zero waste here). Saved more things from there I think I could use on other things (gift boxes, gift tags, cards, gift bags etc) in my effort to try and reduce all waste to as low as I can.

Petrol prices are currently frightening and my car needs filling up very soon. It’s so annoying as The local nursery is booked up so you struggle to get in even if you tell them the minute you get pregnant. This is because they keep building more and more houses here and ignore the fact that the services cannot cope. It means I have to now drive to get DD to nursery and DS to school rather than walk.

Only three weeks left until I start back at work and I am dreading it. Will have to do everything I do now plus full time work on top. At least I can work from home so it’ll save me a lot of time. Really need to save a bit more money to prepare for leaving, but the price of everything keeps going up! Been reading frugal/thrifty ideas on the internet to try and get myself in the mood for it all. I’m trying really hard to question any non food purchases to consider if I really do need it or if I can find an alternative. I’ve already decided I will never buy a card or wrapping paper again - I can make do with things I find at home. My wrapping paper made from packing paper, stamped with “happy birthday” and a 🎁 picture (had already in the craft drawer), no sellotape and tied together with a ribbon from my craft drawer looked lovely. The gift tag I cut out myself from some nice looking card. Will replicate this for the next 3 😬 birthday parties that DS has been invited to!

Aside from nappies, I haven’t done any washing since Friday! I think that’s a result and no one has actually noticed. Probably will have a full load today, so I will put some on. Hopefully it’ll make a small difference to the energy bills. I’ve also finally got through to DS that you don’t wear PJs once and get new ones from the drawer, you can reuse them. Means it is mainly messy DD taking up washing space now, but that’ll go in time. I’m just happy she had an excellent appetite and is anxious to feed herself.

Lots of completely random thoughts there, so I’m going to go and grab myself some porridge and fruit for breakfast. Lunch I may make veg soup with leftover frozen peelings (just me here today) and dinner is defrosted spag Bol. Pudding is an apple and gooseberry crumble with oat cream (found the gooseberries at the bottom of the freezer from last years garden produce!).

Edit: sorry - all a bit moany, but am feeling quite down this week.

MagicCat

Hi QueenJess, sorry to hear you're still feeling down. It's really hard when you can't get enough sleep with little ones (I'm in that position too so I sympathize!) plus everything in the news is so awful. Could you have a bit of time to yourself to do something you enjoy or meet up with friends before you go back to work? You always seem to be so busy doing things for others and time for you is important too.

I love the descriptions of all the food you make, especially the puddings!

Great work on the frugal/waste reducing ideas, your ideas about wrapping and cards are great and have inspired me to find something around the house for a present my  DS needs for a birthday this weekend.

QueenJess

MagicCat said:

Hi QueenJess, sorry to hear you're still feeling down. It's really hard when you can't get enough sleep with little ones (I'm in that position too so I sympathize!) plus everything in the news is so awful. Could you have a bit of time to yourself to do something you enjoy or meet up with friends before you go back to work? You always seem to be so busy doing things for others and time for you is important too.

I love the descriptions of all the food you make, especially the puddings!

Great work on the frugal/waste reducing ideas, your ideas about wrapping and cards are great and have inspired me to find something around the house for a present my  DS needs for a birthday this weekend.

I'm trying to do a bit of stuff I want to do at home yesterday and today.  Unfortunately all my friends moved abroad and I don't really know anyone here anymore, which is a bit tricky.  I would love to go back to doing some sport as that was my me time, but the classes are evenings and I need to wait until DD stops bf.  Hopefully that'll be soon as the classes were as much about doing sport as they are about chatting!

Tomorrow is my delayed birthday lunch and I should be looking forward to it as it's a lovely place and I've never been before.  I kinda am, but I'll have to make conversation with DH and I'm quite miffed with him at the moment.  He's asked me if I'm ok lots of times and I have clearly said no and tried to explain, but he never listens.  So what's the point in asking me if he's not interested?  Anyway, sorry.. moaning again!

Aimingforthegoodlife

Im sorry that everything is getting on top of you, I won't lie, I am tired and don't have to look after anyone else, so I can't even imagine how tired you must feel, also feeling alone is one of the worst feelings. You are entitled to take time to care for you, is hubby still super busy in work? Is that ending soon so he will be more available? Urgh to nursery, that is a pain in the butt, I wonder if you talk to the surgery or a pharmacist they may be able to help?

Take care lovely lady

QueenJess

Aimingforthegoodlife said:

Im sorry that everything is getting on top of you, I won't lie, I am tired and don't have to look after anyone else, so I can't even imagine how tired you must feel, also feeling alone is one of the worst feelings. You are entitled to take time to care for you, is hubby still super busy in work? Is that ending soon so he will be more available? Urgh to nursery, that is a pain in the butt, I wonder if you talk to the surgery or a pharmacist they may be able to help?

Take care lovely lady

Thanks @a@Aimingforthegoodlife . I pulled myself together eventually on Monday.  It's antibiotics, so I stretch the gap during the day so she has some medicine right before nursery and straight after.  It is good enough, although it means I now have two doses to give in the night time, which is a bit of a nightmare.  It's only today and tomorrow and then it'll be the end of the medicine at least.

DH should finish working hard this week apparently.  He doesn't really do any emotions or "talking about stuff", so not entirely convinced it'll help. 

Aimingforthegoodlife

I am really sorry about that, will he more available for childcare at those times? Perhaps that will give you some much needed you time. Hope little one is feeling better and you can get some more rest