A new royal start

QueenJess

Not feeling very motivated work wise, but apparnetly it spilled over into home stuff and I haven’t done much today. Nappies have been cleaned and are drying ready for tomorrow. I also saved some spinach leaves that were threatening to go soggy by putting them in a container in the fridge with kitchen towel at the bottom.

Lots of things to use up in the fridge at the moment. Dinner today was tagliatelle with red pesto, mushrooms and home grown tomatoes (DS had his plain with cheese, peas and broccoli). Pudding will be jam muffins from the freezer heated up with some ice cream. I am still contemplating what to make with all the rest of the veg lingering in the fridge. I could cancel Thursdays veg box, but I’d rather have a few things in hand in the freezer and have some nice veggie laden lunches.

QueenJess

Feels a bit like the calm before the storm at work at the moment. Lots to do, but I am waiting for other things that have to happen yet. It’s going to be a crazy few weeks! I think I’ll spend this afternoon catching up on my home to do list as it’ll have to be tossed aside soon.

My stomach isn’t feeling great (maybe I ate something that disagreed with me?), so I am putting off roasting a ton of veg until tomorrow. I seem to be craving carbs, so lunch will be toasted sandwiches with mozzarella, home grown tomatoes and basil. For afters we have jam muffins to eat up.

Dinner will be burgers with the corn on the cob from the fridge, pickled beetroot for me (any excuse 😋) and sweet potato fries. Pudding will be yogurt and berries from the fridge.

QueenJess

I spent a lot of time waiting for people to give me stuff so I can do my work today. So not to waste any time, whilst I was waiting I emptied the fridge of veg (so I could fit the new veg box in) and roasted a huge amount of carrots, onions, garlic, tomatoes and turnips. I also made an Eve’s pudding as we have tons of apples. I then ran out of time to clear up and had to do it whilst cooking dinner. DH looked a bit alarmed at the mess!

Lunch was unsurprisingly roasted veg with cous cous and I ate the last muffin for after. Dinner was spaghetti not meatballs and I now have a large amount of tomato sauce in my fridge (also used up one of the courgettes). Pudding is the Eve’s pudding and the already open vegan cream.

Looking forward to less cooking tomorrow now I’m all organised and the fridge is completely rammed. I’ll be trying to use it all up now over the next week or so!

QueenJess

This week has both flown by and crawled past at the same time. Is that possible?!

DD kept me awake most the night (again), but I dragged myself out of bed earlier than usual.  I changed all the beds, put the washing on, changed the batteries in DS's musical night thing (it was DD's but she doesn't care about it and he wanted it), had a shower/hair wash and was sat at my desk with my breakfast before 9am.  Picked up DS early today as he is bored at his club as they just do the same things all the time.  I still had stuff to do, but he played in his room happily.

Spent so much money this evening .  I really needed some stuff for winter and so bought some warm jogging bottoms for working in the house, some new to me jeans (I only have one pair and it is tricky to know what to wear when they need washing!), a pair of trousers (I don't really need them... but it is nice to have a bit of choice), another pair of PJ shorts (2nd hand) that they don't sell anymore so wanted to snap them up as I love the one pair I have and need another one and a white long top for the winter (I am lacking in long tops for the winter).  Most things were second hand, but the odd thing I struggled to find over the weeks and had to give up and buy new (ethically, but expensive!).  I have also tried to buy 2 pairs of leggings for the winter (I currently have none), but so far I've technically bought 8 and 6 have been refunded as the seller never sent them (Vinted).  Fingers crossed for the next two, but one has gone quiet and their time is up soon.  *Sigh*... it's so frustrating!

I feel a bit guilty for spending money, but aside from one pair of extra trousers, it really is needed stuff.  I also need some more tights, but just can't face spending more money right now.

Need to get on the frugal wagon again, but I do have a list of things to purchase for winter (like torches etc) and somehow I have to solve the problem of needing a single guest bed but having absolutely nowhere to put it before xmas and DH's parents come to stay (we already have one single guest bed).  Not that I have the money to purchase a bed anyway... ahh.. really need to save money quickly, although I guess at least the spending above was my personal money rather than the very sad looking joint account.  Oh well... onwards and upwards I guess.  At least I'm so far being restrained with the grocery spending.  Pathetic really as it's only 2 days into the month  

DH has gone off to the pub with our ex neighbour who is visiting and some of our actual neighbours.  He was meant to be back a while ago and I did threaten to watch the other half of Shetland if he didn't come back in time!  Apparently he is busy gossiping, so I may well watch it without him! I hope everyone has had a good frugal week.

Edit: lunch today was pasta with leftover tomato sauce and some of the roasted veg from yesterday. Dinner was lazy fish and chips. Pudding was more Eve’s pudding with cream.

QueenJess

I'm so tired right now.  DD has been waking very frequently for the past few nights and I've not slept for more than 4 hours for days.  DD is going through some sort of major growth spurt and we seem to be feeding her one way or another 24-7! Trying to juggle a full time home job and a full time paid work job on top of that is exhausting.

Went out yesterday to a local fair thing that the kids really enjoyed.  We took our own lunch, so expenditure was limited to a fizzy drink for me (I don't drink them usually, but needed some energy as I was so tired) and a couple of ice creams.  The bouncy castle was a big hit and free.  Today DH's parents were meant to come round for the day and go out for dinner, but his mum is not feeling well, so they cancelled.  So instead we popped out to the park and fed the ducks well and then the kids had a lovely time playing on the swings and slide.  When it completely chucked it down, we decided to come back home.  DD wasn't impressed with the decision, but I had the foresight to pack a little pack of fruit treats for the kids each and that kept them happy and quiet until we got back home.  The park costs to park there, but it is the best park I've ever been to and I don't begrudge them some money to maintain it.

Need to make sure I'm ready for DS to go back to school tomorrow.  I think I have a couple of name labels to sew on and I need to put a sticky label on his new book bag (his old one completely disintegrated, but luckily I picked up another one free from our local buy nothing group).  Not looking forward to next week as work will start to ramp up into a complete nightmare.. there's loads I need to do, but I have to wait for other people to do their work first.

Lunch today was the last of the tomato sauce from the fridge with pasta, broccoli and half a garlic bread from the freezer.  We had strawberries and yogurt for afters (we have tons of strawberries as they were selling them off cheap despite looking actually not quite ripe).  It seemed wasteful to just have the oven on for garlic bread, so I whipped up some banana and chocolate chip flapjacks with the very black bananas and they cooked together. 

I didn't have anything in for dinner as we were planning to be out, so I popped out to the local M&S to buy the pre-cooked chicken that DS and DH loves as a treat for dinner with chips and whatever veg I can pull out of the freezer/fridge.  I also picked up free cooking apples on my way to M&S someone was giving away and so I need to stew them up later for lots of freezer crumbles over the winter.  Pudding is more of the Eve's pudding and cream, although DS will have the banana and chocolate chip flapjacks.

I'm not sure how long I can last without food shopping again.  It's better in the week when the kids aren't eating everything in sight, but we are down to our last pack of rice cakes and I fear there will be WW3 in the house if we actually run out!  Will see if I can stretch it to Weds/Thurs and do some sort of top up shopping.  I will cancel the fruit box order this week as we seem to have enough fruit to sink a battleship at the moment (peaches*, ys strawberries, ys blueberries, eating apples, cooking apples, pears, melon, bananas, two types of grapes).  I'm hoping I won't need the veg box either, but will reassess what I actually have left on Tuesday when I would normally do the order.

*DH has an expensive M&S peach addiction.  This will not be an ordinary purchase, but he practically begged me for some!

Better go and attack my list of jobs before dinner duty.  I definitely need to put a load of washing on, sew on name badges, sort out DS's school book bag, start a food shopping list so I only buy what I actually need, check if DS needs a new coat for winter, water the houseplants, do a bit more money sorting to try and catch up to date and do a quick tidy up before the cleaner comes tomorrow.  That'll probably do for one day. 

QueenJess

I’m now in the middle of the really busy time at work. As my job requires lots of thought and judgement, it does make me extra tired.

Not much time for things and we’ve had a quiet weekend. I took DS to his first gymnastics session yesterday that he really enjoyed. I’m glad he liked it because I do too (really need to go back as soon as DD lets me as it’s in the evenings), but also I picked it because I thought it is something he would be interested in. It was quite nice to sit there for an hour without a screen and did some killer sudoku puzzles (my brain doesn’t switch off!). I think it’ll be good for him as sometimes he gives up too easily when things are hard, but gymnastics is hard and it’s as much metal as it is physical.

DS now has a bad cold that developed yesterday afternoon. The joys of going back to school! DH has taken DD out today instead, but I think I’ll see if DS wants to pop to the garden centre to get some seeds (should be free as I have a voucher) and to feed the huge fish for £1. I might also pop to our favourite antiques shop. That makes me sound so posh, but it is on 3 floors and really is like a huge second hand shop with a few more expensive things. DS loves it as they have second hand metal cars which are £1-3 each and is perfect for his pocket money. I like it as you never know what you might find - it’s very random. I’ve found a few good bits and pieces before and stashed away a like new board for DD with metal latches and things on that was 1/3 of the new price.

Just trying to get through the next few weeks really with work being crazy. At least there are a few interesting bits to occupy my brain with there. It makes all the difference to me. House is a bit of a tip, so will do a bit of tidying today for the cleaner to be able to clean tomorrow, but not worrying about it too much at the moment. On the upside, I have no time to spend money when I’m busy!

Still got a big list of things I need to do as always. Need to chip away at it. I feel bad that we still haven’t got swimming lessons in for DS that was all interrupted due to Covid and then DD’s arrival. I think it’s important to learn, but no idea when I’m supposed to have the time for him to go? Things would definitely be easier if I could work a school day as I could squeeze things in then and still be able to pick up DD. I guess I’ll look into it and see if work will be able to be flexible a day a week or something. I’m probably already pushing my luck by food shopping in the mornings and almost never going into the office… but we’ll see.

Yesterday’s dinner was fish and chips and I rammed the oven out by adding an apple crumble for pudding with the free apple I picked up from the buy nothing group. I popped out into the garden yesterday and managed to pick a bowl of tomatoes, raspberries, strawberries and a cucumber as well.  Dinner tonight is the farm shop beef and ale pie (it’s in the way back from gymnastics and a naughty treat for us all), with whatever veg I have in the fridge (probably carrots and green beans). Pudding is more crumble and vegan cream. Lunch will be lazy sandwiches and fruit/yogurt as it’s just the two of us.

Spent too much on food etc this month and getting close to budget already, but not helped by stocking up the kids bubble bars that is in the same budget line. I ordered more to make the postage worth it, but hasn’t realised how big some of them were and now have about a years worth 😂. I had a lovely glass jar to put them in, but some were so big they didn’t fit through the aperture. I thought about buying something for 5 mins, then realised that was silly, Broke the big ones in half and squeezed them all in. The kids are also eating everything in sight and seem to have developed a serious rice cake addiction … I just bought a bulk lot which I really hope will last quite a while!

My decluttering is currently on hold whilst I am busy at work, but I did make myself a reusable notebook out of one sided paper I’ve saved over the years. Hopefully I’ll slowly get through it as I make a lot of notes at work.

I also have bought myself an energy monitoring plug which is currently plugged into my work monitor. I’m going to see if I charge my laptop separately rather than through the extra monitor what difference it makes. It’ll take me ages to plug into different things and see what the energy usage is, but I have until the end of the year to make small changes as we are fixed until then.

badmemory

I bought one of those plugs a few days ago too.  Both my fridge & my freezer use a lot more than a new one should.  So I need to make a decision.  Buy new & reduce costs to around half or stick with these until they break.  Of course I do know that if I wait until they break it will be at the most inconvenient time possible.  I'm not worried about the usage of the washing machine or dishwasher but the tumbledrier oops.  I've started using my airer again & just finish with 10 mins in the drier, which saves me using the iron, which I haven't used so far since the first lockdown!

QueenJess

badmemory said:

I bought one of those plugs a few days ago too.  Both my fridge & my freezer use a lot more than a new one should.  So I need to make a decision.  Buy new & reduce costs to around half or stick with these until they break.  Of course I do know that if I wait until they break it will be at the most inconvenient time possible.  I'm not worried about the usage of the washing machine or dishwasher but the tumbledrier oops.  I've started using my airer again & just finish with 10 mins in the drier, which saves me using the iron, which I haven't used so far since the first lockdown!

Hmm.. the fridge/freezer is a difficult dilemma. I would love to see how much power my oven uses, but it is built in and in their infinite wisdom the plug for the oven is behind the oven. So basically you have to pull out the oven and get someone to put their hand in to unplug it before you can pull it out the rest of the way because the lead is so short. Stupid design…

I have a feeling my fridge/freezer, washing machine and dishwasher are the same. I’m limited to playing around with small things and ramming the oven full of things when I put it on. I don’t ever use the tumble drier bit of the washing machine and wash on 30 except for nappies so not much I can do there. 

I have the pie to heat up later and it’s best in the oven, so planning to fill the rest of it with chocolate chip cookies 😋

badmemory

I've tied down 3/4 of my elect usage to their appliance.  Freezer comes in 2nd & fridge comes in 3rd.  The largest is definitely the shower.  I can't do much to change that as DS needs his shower which can be for as long as 30 mins.  It does seem though that any old appliances use significantly more than any new ones.

If you go online any fairly new ones should give an idea of energy usage, which will give you some idea of what the best things are to cut down on.  I most confess though that I am struggling with the idea that I worked for over 6 years past my retirement age just to be able to pay some of the extra energy bills.

Bluegreen143

Working a school day is amazing, highly recommend as that’s what I do (I do also have a Friday off but may change this when Bambi goes to school). If you do it every day, you can do 30-32 hours per week (depending on start time) and in most workplaces that’s the same as working a four day week. I’d personally MUCH rather work five shorter days with leisurely afternoons/evenings than four longer rushed ones and once both kids are school age it means no term time childcare costs.