Away From The Madding Crowd

Humboldt

Hello and welcome.

Motivational quote of the week.

For every minute spent in organising, and hour is earned – Benjamin Franklin.

Money saving.

Our monthly grocery budget for me and my DH is £250.  Week 2 spend for February was £64.75.  February’s total to date is £127.77.

Placed a B0ots order.  Took advantage of £10 Tuesday and bought a Ch@mpney’s Calm Bundle (a birthday gift), saving £10.   I saved 10% on B0ots own brand toiletries via my Advant@ge card, and because I am an Over 60’s reward member,  I also collected 8 points per £1 spent on those items too, plus one of those items was buy one get another half price and came with an extra 100 Advant@ge points.  I also had a double points offer via my App.  Postage is free for orders over £25.

The £9.73 gained from selling a few books to W0rld Of B0oks has now been paid into our Birthday/Christmas account.  I had no issues and it took 12 days for the whole process to be completed.

£13.85 gained by selling some CD’s to W0rld of Bo0ks.  Money will be paid direct into our Birthday/Christmas account.   Decluttering the DVDs next!

Took advantage of a good price on a holiday in January 2026.  Only a 10% deposit required, so savings can continue to gain a little more interest.

This week’s main menu.

Monday – Baked potato, chilli con carne and a large green salad.  Chilli con carne is left over from yesterday.  By adding a tin of green lentils to the beef mince, not only did it add more nutrients, but also made enough for 2 meals.  To utilise the oven, I will bake an olive sourdough loaf and freeze it.

Tuesday – Whole-wheat spaghetti with smoked salmon and dill (from one of my recipe scrap books).  The smoked salmon was reduced in price and frozen until required.  I will replace the fromage frais with half fat cream cheese.  The leftover cream cheese and salmon will be served in bagels for a lunch time treat.

Wednesday – Red chilli and bean soup (Br!tish He@rt Foundation recipe), with homemade sourdough bread from the freezer.  I will replace the kale with finely sliced cabbage.

Thursday – Roast chicken, stuffing, roasted root vegetables (carrots, parsnips, red onion, beetroot, and sweet potato), lightly steamed cabbage, and gravy. To utilise the oven, I will bake a sourdough loaf.

Friday –  Ping meal – as above (cook once, eat twice, saves on time and energy costs).

Saturday – Sweet potato curry (Br!tish He@rt Foundation recipe) with a small portion of brown rice.

Sunday –   Mediterranean cod (from one of my recipe scrap books) with roast vegetables. Cod was reduced in price and frozen until required. I will add a few olives (just because I have some).  The rosemary and oregano will be from the garden.  

Healthier lifestyle.

Last week’s step count was 60,594 (due to doggy sitting).

Completed 5 free meditations last week.

Completed 0 free online workouts last week.

Simple pleasures.

Decluttering has resulted in a bag of books being donated to the community book swap and lots of CDs to Oxf@m.

The heady perfume of witch-hazel as I walked through the local park.

Book 3/25 – Pandora by Susan Stokes-Chapman (passed on to me by a friend). 

‘London, 1799.  Dora Blake lives with her uncle in what used to be her parents famed shop of antiquities. 

When a mysterious Greek vase is delivered, Dora is intrigued by her uncle’s suspicious behaviour and enlists the help of Edward Lawrence, a young antiquarian scholar.  For Edward, the ancient vase is the key to unlocking his professional future.  For Dora, it’s a chance to restore the shop to its former glory, and to escape her nefarious uncle.

But what Edward discovers about the vase has Dora questioning everything she has believed about her life, her family and even the world as she knows it.’

Knowing of my love for historical fiction, my friend thought that I would enjoy this book, and I very much did.  Jennifer Saint’s review is perfect ‘Weaves together ancient Greek myth with suspenseful mystery.’

An interesting fact – Studies suggest that Pandora’s Box was not in fact an actual box as the Dutch philosopher Erasmus claimed.  It is thought to have been a jar, a vase, or a pithos (a very large earthenware jar with a wide round mouth used throughout the ancient Greek world for holding and storing large quantities of food or liquids, and sometimes for the burial of the dead).

Thank you for dropping by and taking the time to read my diary.

bluenose1

Enjoying your updates as ever @Humboldt. 

Didn't realise you could sell books to WorldofBooks, will look into that. 

Though we will see as I had decided to sell some clothes now too big for me on Vinted, haven’t listed anything yet but managed to acquire lots of new summer dresses, some even with labels on and still for sale on original website.
Pandora sounds a good read, will see if my library has it in. 

jwil

I love that quote!

louby40

I've sold £450 of unwanted clothes, shoes, bags on  Vinted over the past 2 years. It's so easy to do.

My rule is until one thing goes out another thing can't come in. I really don't need anymore clothes to be honest.

loving your updates! Is your planned holiday to somewhere lovely?

Enjoy your day 🤩

Humboldt

Morning all. 

@bluenose1 and @louby40 funny that you should mention V!nted, because yesterday I spent some time reading through their how to sell guide.  Selling on Eb@y several years ago contributed to us being able to pay off our mortgage, but V!nted now appears to be more popular. 

@louby40 next January's holiday will be somewhere that is considerably warmer than here! 

@jwil I love that quote too.  I am organised by nature, love a list and don't get me started on the positives of a check sheet lol.

Today's simple pleasure (technically yesterday's) - I saw a barn owl hunting. Magical.

Humboldt

louby40 said:

I've sold £450 of unwanted clothes, shoes, bags on  Vinted over the past 2 years. It's so easy to do.

My rule is until one thing goes out another thing can't come in. I really don't need anymore clothes to be honest.

loving your updates! Is your planned holiday to somewhere lovely?

Enjoy your day 🤩

Hi @louby40 I hope that you don't mind me asking, but are there any pitfalls, hints, tips, things I should be aware of, etc before I start selling on V!nted?

Today's simple pleasure - a full set of bedding dried outside on the line this morning.

louby40

Hi, before you list something have a look at what prices other people are selling similar things at.

if you have a lot to sell, I'd suggest buying some self sealing bags from Amazon - or you could use strong plastic bags or save old delivery bags from orders you've had of things. I turn them inside out and seal with brown tape. I've even used supermarket carrier bags. 

Take lots of photos of your items. If you're selling trousers etc measure length and include in your description. Choose Post It lockers to send things (you choose what delivery methods in the set up settings), people seem to prefer it and you can drop off and collect outside of post office hours. The lockers are popping up everywhere now in my area. 

People may ask you if you'll accept a lower offer sometimes, so it's up to you whether you want to do that. You can also offer a discount for bundles e.g if you have 10 t shirts you could offer a 20% discount for 5 t shirts. 

It's a great little way of making a bit of extra cash. I've sold a pair of Adidas trainers this week for £20, wore them twice and they were just sat in the wardrobe, the money has gone into my holiday pot.

I've run out of things to sell now.

Humboldt

@louby40 thank you lots for taking the time to provide an overview of selling on V!nted.  You reassured me that its not too dissimilar to selling on Eb@y, so I have no excuse not to get started now lol.  The P0st It lockers are obviously a new addition, so that was particularly useful.  Fantastic that sales have contributed to your holidays. Thanks again.

Today's simple pleasure - The kindness of strangers.

louby40

It's a pleasure.

Another thing to note, Vinted goes into a bank account whereas Ebay uses PayPal. 

Have a lovely Monday. 

Organgrinder

My eBay goes into my bank account. I recall  having PayPal set up on it years ago but these days it goes straight into my main current account.