Fresh Start At Fox Towers.

Elisheba

I'm so glad things are going well for you in the new house, Fox. You sound so much happier 😊.

foxandflowers

Morning all.

I fell asleep on the sofa reading a book about serial killers last night and had some very strange dreams as a result. On the plus side I am working from home today at my new desk set up, and it is once again very sunny outside. I think a little lunchtime stroll on the beach may be called for. It's April now, so the heating is officially off until November now. I will continue to put £40 a month onto the gas meter and hope that gives us a small buffer for the winter months, as I honestly have no idea how warm/cold the house will be. 

No joy on the PB's this month unfortunately! Less than a week until the shed gets built though, and the final payment for the storage unit left my account this morning. We ought to get our tip permit through the post shortly, and then we can get on with dismantling the shed that is currently at the end of the garden and getting rid of the stacks of cardboard and old carpet languishing down there too.

Off to do the second weekly food shop this afternoon - it is our weekend without the kids so I am freezer dipping for a couple of nicer meals. Last night we had a curry using up leftover chicken from the roast on Sunday - it was delicious. Meal plan is set as follows:
Weds: Spaghetti Bolognese
Thurs: Sea bass (from freezer), asparagus, couscous
Friday: Red snapper fillets, rice and green beans
Saturday: 2 for £15 from M&S [kid free treat!]
Sunday: Pork belly strips & cauliflower cheese
Monday: Lasagne and salad
Tuesday: Cornflake chicken tenders, corn on the cob & salad

I am currently drinking a perfectly scalding cuppa and munching on some homemade fudge. 

Love, Fox.

foxandflowers

It's lunchtime so I am here for my check in. 

Lidl's yesterday came in under budget at £93.77 for the week, leaving me 6.23 for food shopping until next Wednesday (although I only need to top up the bread and milk.) It would have been cheaper but I picked up some pecans to make pecan puffs. The most expensive thing on my receipt was olive oil, at £6.29 for a litre! The meat came to £16.86, and some desert bits also snuck into the trolley. Middle of Lidl was almost avoided but Mr Fox was with me, so we came home with some digital scales and a dish drying mat. Our sink is TINY. Am pretty sure it is a sink for faeries, not humans. So every time you wash the dishes you end up splashing water over half the counter tops. Dish drying mat has so far prevented this from gliding rapidly towards the backsplash and inevitable drip down the back of the cupboards. 

Middle stepson's birthday is approaching and we have bought him a paddleboard at his request. This came from the gift pot, and there is still £200 in there! I know, I'm shocked too. Looking forward to spending lots of time at the beach together this summer and making sure our paddleboards get good use too. I have used a little more of my personal spends on a sample of perfume from eBay - I am desperate to find a daily perfume that smells like gorse bushes (my favourite smell on earth) but I cannot justify spending £75 on something that I might not like! eBay to the rescue, £6 including delivery for a sample! 

Bad news this morning from the guy who was going to build our shed - he has a back injury and might be out for a while. No bueno as I have given notice on the storage unit - so frantic ringing around today, and I have found someone else who can do the same thing last minute, however the first person was going to build me a shed base, and this company will not. I don't know what to do! I have to make a decision by 4pm today and I haven't the first clue about shed bases and all my googling suggests it will be harder than I think and more expensive than I think too. The original person was going to do it for £200, I can easily see myself spending double to try and do it myself. Argh. 

Off to my volunteering job later, and then back home to continue working on my cross-stitch. Need to finish sorting through the literal pillowcase of junk pulled out of my old desk and get some stuff up on Vinted too! 

Busy busy. First off to sit on the patio in the sun with some pasta.

Love, 

Fox.

Cherryfudge

If he won't build a shed base, is there some alternative that could be put in temporarily? That's if the shed could then be moved later onto a permanent base? Even loose bricks and/or hardboard that would keep the contents off the floor?

birdsfoottrefoil

Hi, we’ve done a shed base and rebuilt a shed recently. This might be the worse description ever but if it helps (I think you mentioned Mr Fox used to do labouring? So he’ll be handy).

- dug out flat slightly wider than shed. (Spade and wheel barrow)

- put hardcore down and compressed (we borrowed a wacker plate but you could use a garden roller)
- then put this shed base plastic matting down (similar to this https://www.diy.com/departments/plastic-interlocking-shed-base-w-49cm-x-l-49cm-pack-of-4/5060192725094_BQ.prd?storeId=1316&gStoreCode=1316&gQT=1)
-put a layer of gravel on that filled the gaps in the matting (like it shows on the plastic matting pictures)
- built shed on top

I think they’ll be videos on YouTube. 

You might not need to do all those steps, but def look into the shed base matting. Or if you’ve got an old patio or gravel are already? 

It took us a Saturday including taking the shed down as we got it second hand. Building it was quite easy.

Hope that helps and should save you £200! 

MayDogsandCoffee

Delurking, I have done a 10 x 8 shed base myself in one day and it is not difficult at all (although physical).  Take time to level and flatten then put the slabs down, make sure you have a spirit level.  Was very inexpensive too - about £50 all in all, the materials are not that expensive you are paying the guy for labour and time - get the kids to help out and have a garden picnic.

foxandflowers

Morning.

It's a glorious Monday and I am stuck in the office so popping on to update you. 

Have been very busy this weekend. Decided to wait for our original shed guy, as it puts me under even more pressure to declutter as much as possible! Our tip licence finally arrived, so we got shot of a load of cardboard/broken down mdf furniture/random stuff at the end of the garden. Small bookshelf from the unit is gone, and I got the first of (many) bags to sort through from there. It was my summer clothes, so I had fun looking through them and deciding what I wanted to keep, what did and didn't fit, and listing some things from there on Vinted. 3 have sold so far, and the others have loads of favourites so I'm hopeful they go soon. My wardrobe is now very full, and I will have to go through and thin it down again I think, once I know what I wear regularly and what I don't. 

We've done lots of pottering in the garden, including repainting one side of the patio wall (ran out of paint before doing the second side!) and sorting out the solar lights. I want to get some bright pink wood paint now for the garden bench, and then with the blue and white outdoor rug and the olive tree it will practically be Santorini out there (as long as the weather holds!).

Did loads of laundry, had a little trip to M&S for our 2-4-15 meal deal (steak pie was soooo good) and bought a pair of light wash jeans (oops) and new underwear that doesn't have holes in it, went to B&M and got some bits for the house, made pecan puffs, hung the mirror in our bedroom, bought curtain tape to make my curtains work properly as they are currently not on rings and don't slide along the top rail properly which is driving me barmy, and Mr Fox surprised me with a new Miele stick vacuum, as I have been struggling with the stairs and narrow spaces with the Henry, from money he has made selling his stuff. 

Sold 3 things on Vinted yesterday, for £17.50 - with the potential to earn another £90 if everything on there sells. Got loads more to list. Brought the bits with me today to post on lunch. 

Incremental Pay Rise has been applied, I am now on £15.07 an hour. I was on £11.44 when I started here 2 and a bit years ago. Unfortunately this is also the first of five monthly deductions for my course, so I won't see the benefit of it until September. 

Love, Fox. 

Cherryfudge

Lots of positives there! Well done. And thoughtful of Mr Fox: we find we use our mini vacuum cleaner a lot.

in_need_of_direction

Love that mr fox bought vacuum from money he generated 

foxandflowers

Morning all,

Gorse perfume arrived. Very citrussy for first five minutes then mellows nicely. Solid 8/10 but I can't afford a proper sized bottle yet! It's almost two months of personal spends! Going to Lush today to hunt down a sample of their Furze and see how it compares. Also need to go to M&S to return shorts, and drop off two more Vinted parcels (now on £44.50 made this month, so coming along nicely). 

Spent most of last night papier mache-ing a balloon to create Giant Easter Egg for school competition. I don't know why I do these things to myself. Mini Fox enjoyed anyway. More layers to be added tonight, and then pompom chicks made tomorrow. Painting Thursday! 

I am going to start the Couch to 5k program tonight. I am doing a Pretty Muddy 5k in just over a month and have done precisely no training, although I have raised nearly £300 for Cancer Research so far. I'm noticing how unfit I am and quite frankly think it has a lot to do with lifestyle choices. It isn't doing me any good so time to change it. I've started logging my food too, although I'm not necessarily ready to tackle 'dieting' I am interested to see what I eat and how it impacts me. I definitely eat through boredom. It has however, been lovely to do home baking, and have snacks on hand that I have made. Absolute favourite has been the Pecan Puffs, which are sooo easy to make. Blitz pecans up into fine flour, add some creamed margarine, 2 tablespoons of sugar and plain flour plus splash of vanilla essence. Beat together, roll into balls size of walnuts and bake on low for 40 minutes. Yum!

Love, Fox.