Moving on

Cherryfudge

For a Tuesday, today has been a good Saturday. It must be Saturday because DH and I both had the day off with no child care and I feel it has to be Sunday tomorrow.

We did get some more photos of the grandchildren today - the holiday seems to be going very well.

We've assembled the hose and fixed it by the tap, first having taken breaks to cut the dead cotoneaster, wire some trellis to the fence, recharge the drill, repoint the wall, and go for coffees. We are very proud of ourselves for such a grownup activity and having coped with the instructions. Actually that's not quite the case - we coped with the instructions by watching the YouTube tutorial. The actual instructions were referred to quite often, but the video won the day.

I've got a refund for the water butt pipe (I bought the wrong one) and had my glasses fixed - again. We bought compost, clogs for DH and groceries, and I got a free large plant pot from the plant pot recycling at the garden centre.

'Coffee' was courtesy of the freebie from the garden centre membership - it's the place where we don't like their versions of our favourites so DH chose another tea and I ordered lemon and ginger as I know theirs is lovely. Then I thought to check the ingredients and found it has lemon balm which inhibits the absorption of thyroxine. As I'm on thyroxine supplements, I gave my drink to DH in addition to his and bought a cold drink. He also bought a scone so our 'free' hot drinks cost us a bit. We also had a chat with the lady who looks after the garden centre roses and she suggested we use G00gle images to identify our two old anonymous roses. She demonstrated and came up with a perfect ID. When I tried it later, it suggests the white one is a climbing Iceberg (right colour but doesn't remind me at all of the Iceberg rose my parents had) and the orange/red one on first go was identified as Rosa Munda (it's nothing like). On the second attempt it told me it was a poppy. I think Auntie is more likely to be right: she wondered if it's 'Super Star'.

And while I'm on the subject of coffees (sort of), I'm on my second day without my beloved packet cappuccinos. Not only have they gone up in price (and I do spend inordinately on them), but I looked closely at the ingredients and realised they probably aren't doing my cholesterol levels any good. Yesterday it wasn't easy doing without but I had an instant coffee at breakfast and that was okay. Today was easier. Cappuccino cold turkey. Now there's a strange recipe.

And dinner tonight was salmon with peas and cous cous. I've been suffering cake deprivation so I got some cheap fairy cakes and ate several! 90 Kcals apiece.

I'm supposed to be getting ready for the Wednesday job but I'm all at sea. I did the prep last week and part of my brain is telling me I've already done it, but I need at least to look at what I prepared. I have been avoiding it by entering my receipts in my notebook. We are spending quite a bit on the garden this year compared to normal, but it's worth it.

Expenditure:
Garden (refund) £4.99
Entertainment £6.05
Housekeeping £16.77
Hobbies £4.20
Clothing £3.99
Garden £3.49

Watty1

WELL!  I never knew that about lemon balm.  (Also on thyroxine and used to drink a lot of herbal and fruit teas until stress drove me to real coffee!)

Cherryfudge

Watty1 said:

WELL!  I never knew that about lemon balm.  (Also on thyroxine and used to drink a lot of herbal and fruit teas until stress drove me to real coffee!)

It's worth looking up - as with other plants, they know there's an effect but it's hard to quantify. It was about 7 hours after my tablets when I bought the tea, so they were probably well absorbed but I wasn't in the mood to take chances. Incidentally (and you may well know this already) it's also recommended to have 30-60 minutes break after thyroxine before having coffee, and longer than that for things containing calcium. Makes planning breakfast a bit tricky!  

rtandon27

Oh my @Cherryfudge - I do sympathize with your coffee woes!  I'd be bereft and moody without my favorite morning cuppa - mine is a simpler concoction though, a strong long black with a splash of almond milk.  On days when I've run out of almond milk, I drink it black and hot, but it's just not the same.  Well done on paying attention to the ingredients list though, some of those UPF can be scary when the ingredients are taken into consideration!  I've very fond of a couple of UPF products, that we try not to bring into the house, but sometimes cravings get the better of me!

Cherryfudge

rtandon27 said:

Oh my @Cherryfudge - I do sympathize with your coffee woes!  I'd be bereft and moody without my favorite morning cuppa - mine is a simpler concoction though, a strong long black with a splash of almond milk.  On days when I've run out of almond milk, I drink it black and hot, but it's just not the same.  Well done on paying attention to the ingredients list though, some of those UPF can be scary when the ingredients are taken into consideration!  I've very fond of a couple of UPF products, that we try not to bring into the house, but sometimes cravings get the better of me!

Day three now! And it actually is getting easier day by day. I suspected it's the consistency of the froth that I like, but it's not a true milk froth. Goodness knows what it actually is. It began to ring alarm bells when I realised this but admittedly it was a long time before I had a proper look at what goes into it. Palm oil is known to be one of these filler ingredients that's relatively cheap and in addition I'd read somewhere about the textures of some UPFs being a factor in perpetuating consumption.

I think I will save about £4 a week if I give it up totally, but I'm not making any promises there. However, that's a couple of hundred a year, which is a thousand by the time I reach retirement age... which in turn means I'm lining someone's pockets at the cost of my own well-being. In terms of health budgeting, it's a good call... but I might just allow 'the odd one' on weekends! Or is that a slippery slope?

in_need_of_direction

I think that so long as it’s stays as a treat, it’s a good thing. For me the problem is that a treat becomes an everyday thing.  I think you should have an actual saving for every day of non consumption.

liselle

Re.thyroxine and coffee, the info in my thyroxine pack states that de-caffeinated drinks are fine before taking the medication.
(This has thrown my morning regime as I usually start the day with caffeine, then have de-caff for the rest of the day.)

Laura_Elsewhere

in_need_of_direction said:

I think that so long as it’s stays as a treat, it’s a good thing. For me the problem is that a treat becomes an everyday thing.  I think you should have an actual saving for every day of non consumption.

An old friend who grew up in Depression-era New York always quoted his English mother: “party food is for parties!” 

 

rtandon27

@Laura_Elsewhere - fabulous quote!

Cherryfudge

in_need_of_direction said:

I think that so long as it’s stays as a treat, it’s a good thing. For me the problem is that a treat becomes an everyday thing.  I think you should have an actual saving for every day of non consumption.

I have the same problem with treats becoming an everyday thing! However I'm on day 3 without the sachet cappuccinos now and not missing them any more. Not to say I won't ever want another, because I will.

liselle said:

Re.thyroxine and coffee, the info in my thyroxine pack states that de-caffeinated drinks are fine before taking the medication.
(This has thrown my morning regime as I usually start the day with caffeine, then have de-caff for the rest of the day.)

It's the thought of no morning coffee that's so hard! I wait half to one hour before I have my caffeine now, which is do-able. I have mine black so there's no problem with the calcium content.

Laura_Elsewhere said:

An old friend who grew up in Depression-era New York always quoted his English mother: “party food is for parties!” 

I can see her saying that - looking very like the picture of Nanny in Ballet Shoes - though I've no idea what she looked like! It's just the sort of motherly saying that's rightly remembered.