Time to clear the remnants of my old life

badmemory

So pleased to hear you have given up smoking.  Like any addiction it isn't easy.  When I gave up it seemed fairly easy then a few years down the line I was sitting in a pubs quiz night when someone passed round the cigarettes & yes I took one.  Talk about an OMG moment.  Thankfully I realised before the lighter got as far as me.  But once you have one addiction the rest follow.  I now need to avoid alcohol.  So none on the premises - Tescos will be going broke!

savingholmes

You can save a lot giving up alcohol @badmemory and you may find you slim down and sleep better too judging by experiences friends of mine have had.

badmemory

savingholmes said:

You can save a lot giving up alcohol @badmemory and you may find you slim down and sleep better too judging by experiences friends of mine have had.

You can indeed - over 2 stone since Feb when I gave up alcohol completely.  Just over a stone to go.  Also it more than pays for the increase in energy prices.  As an old friend used to say "jobs a goodun".

savingholmes

badmemory said:

savingholmes said:

You can save a lot giving up alcohol @badmemory and you may find you slim down and sleep better too judging by experiences friends of mine have had.

You can indeed - over 2 stone since Feb when I gave up alcohol completely.  Just over a stone to go.  Also it more than pays for the increase in energy prices.  As an old friend used to say "jobs a goodun".

So pleased for you.

leftatthetrafficlights

@joedenise, @savingholmes, @Humdinger1, @badmemory - thank you for all the support re the stopping smoking 😁 it's been over a week now but it's still a bit of a battle - especially when I'm doing things which would traditionally have pauses for a smoke built in! 

I've got lots to do this weekend- I've got some courgettes which have turned into marrows and some of the biggest calabrese heads I have ever seen!! 😳😂

I'm going to do an enormous pan of courgette, tomato and basil sauce which I  will cook, blitz, freeze and use as soup and the base for bolognese/chilli/jackfruit etc. I'm also planning on making some raw courgette and corn tortillas to have later in the week with walnut and tomato 'mince'

The calabrese will be mainly blanched and frozen for later use but we'll eat some tomorrow with tarragon butter and I'll harvest and steam some potatoes to serve with it along with making some cannellini beans and sage. 

I've also got beans, tomatoes, beans, fennel, romanesca, pak choi, beetroot, leaves, spring onions and radishes ready to harvest plus I have a couple of aubergines that are very close to being ready. I need to really sort out the freezers tonight so that I can get it all processed this weekend! 🤦‍♀️
 
Money wise things are okay - savings are pretty much on track to be where I want them to be by the time I leave work.

We start on the August grocery budget today and despite the leftover cash from July being quite low, we are still under budget despite spending a lot on wine thinking that we were having family visit (it was cancelled due to covid) so I'm happy with that. I have cash put aside for my holiday food so with the garden produce,  it should be a pretty good month with the grocery budget 😁 

leftatthetrafficlights

It's been a fab week! 😁 

Office totally dismantled, equipment returned and room re-purposed - I'm currently on leave and only have 9 working days remaining when I return so will work from my kitchen table for those days 🙌 It feels so good to have cleared the space - I am starting to feel like I'm shedding the toxicity and am finally embarking on my new journey 😁 

I've spent a bit of money re-purposing the room but it's money well spent as far as I'm concerned - it's really calming and relaxing now as well as being totally functional which is exactly what I wanted. 

Food wise all is good - still harvesting from the garden and preserving what we can't use yet. I did spend a fortune this week on nuts, seeds and dried fruits but that should keep us going for a while. I'm still running down the cupboards too - still got enough to feed the hoards but at least I'm starting to make in-roads! 😂 

Being on leave is lovely- I'm treating it as spa week so I've had an Epsom salt bath; exfoliated; done a face mask; had a hair treatment; practiced yoga asanas; meditated; drunk lots of water and herbal teas; been for a beach walk; read a couple of books; eaten loads of fruit and veg and generally relaxed! It's exactly what I needed and I've still got a week of leave ahead of me! 🙌 

Right, I'm off to get some chamomile tea and sit in the garden to watch the squirrels - have a fab weekend!! 😁

savingholmes

Glad you're detoxing. I think sorting rooms in your home can have a powerful impact on your wellbeing.

I'm currently part way through doing my bedroom - although I need to declutter the whole house -doing some is better than none. Cat is cuddled up on me too which is unusual for him.

leftatthetrafficlights

@savingholmes - decluttering is the best way to free your brain from negativity in my opinion! 😉 even if its just one drawer at a time, it's worth the effort and the cumulative effect soon makes a massive impact 😁 

I'm a minimalist at heart; I cannot cope with clutter or mess, my house is cleaned top to bottom every day and I dispose of everything that isn't useful or brings me joy. When we were renovating the house and there was wall to wall chaos for months it genuinely made me feel like I was going insane 😔 despite it being for 'the greater good' I could feel myself spiralling into a deep depression and the relief was stunning once it was done and I could return to a clean living routine - tip trips are incredibly cathartic and having a couple of skips helped enormously (although I was on the phone to them daily once they were filled to get them to pick them up!! 😂)  

On the theme of decluttering, I have massively reduced the threads I subscribe to on here - I have found recently that many of them have become very judgmental, totally off topic and entirely dominated by one or two posters who appear to have a bit of a 'god complex' 🤦‍♀️ it's very disappointing as they used to be interesting and useful threads but have been hijacked by the 'pay attention to me, I've been there, seen it, done it' brigade who are more condescending than helpful- quite frankly, living through rationing etc does not make you an expert on coping with the realities of the modern world and the issues faced by people today...it's insulting to suggest that it does - some skills may be transferable but experience is not! 

Anyway, sorry about the rant but I needed to vent! 😂😂😂 

So, I made a couple of raw dishes at the weekend which are very pleasant- a raw vegan mince based on walnuts and a courgette hommous - tonight I'm going to make a tomato and basil sauce to go with the mince and serve the hommous over broccoli and romanesca. 

For lunch I wilted some beetroot leaves in coriander butter (I made pickled beetroot at the weekend), dressed with the hommous and served with strawberries, papaya, pomegranate and avocado salad. It was very nice indeed 😁 

In other news, I've done a really good asana practice,  spent lots of time reading and writing and generally had a lovely day! 😁 Holidays are fab!! 🙌

savingholmes

Glad you are enjoying your time off. 

I've found some of the pensions threads have been hijacked which is irritating me too.

leftatthetrafficlights

Been back at work this week which is depressing but at least it's going to be short-lived! 😉

It's not been a great week so far as dh and I are both positive for covid and I'm feeling fairly poop - dh is feeling better now (he had it a few days before me) so I'm hoping that I'll start to feel better in a couple of days- the worst part of all of it is not being able to see my grandbaby 😭 I feel lost without him so it's making me miserable ☹ 

It's also preventing me from doing anything towards feeling healthy- I'm completely off food and don't have the energy for any type of exercise. I also don't have the energy for cleaning so my house is a mess as I can't have my cleaner in..... right, that's my self-indulgent pity party done, now the good stuff! 😂 

Finance wise, things are okay - it won't be long until I know what is happening as far as my final salary is concerned so I will be able to make decisions on the slush and debt neutral funds. Unless we spend a lot in the next week, I'll have some surplus from the grocery and petrol budgets this month to be able to do a bit of a money shuffle into various pots too. I'll feel a lot better once I have definite figures and know my starting point. What also occurred to me the other day is that as I won't be taking any further paid employment this tax year, I'll be due a tax refund in a couple of months! 🙌 That will help a lot as we have our trip abroad to pay for so I'll probably split that between the main account (to offset increases in energy bills) and the slush and debt neutral funds. It will be good to have the buffer just in case 😉 

Garden wise, the last few weeks have been mental; produce is ready way earlier than usual and some has gone to seed - the calabrese and romanesca is finished now (I don't normally start harvesting those until September!😳) I've got loads of swede ready which is bizarre and the courgettes are still coming thick and fast. My celeriac has basically not formed anything like decent sized bulbs so I'll probably have to just give up on that and my butternut squash isn't doing much at all. I've put in some sprouting broccoli and winter cabbages now and the leeks are looking good so hopefully I'll still have some veg available during the winter! 

I'll be harvesting the sweetcorn within the next 10-14 days - I'm planning on doing a bbq with the babies once I'm better so it will go lovely with that! 😁 It's one of the real pleasures of summer in my opinion! 

Anyway,  covid brain is waffling now so I'll stop! 😂