The Frugal Hearth: Stories of Simple Living and Living Well

Elisheba

Bore da, thrifty fellows,

First off, in fantabulous news, I have finally broken through the 4 stone weight loss mark - woo hoo 🎉🎊! Nice little achievement for me, feels like a proper number and not just tinkering around the edges. 

I shall remain quiet on the topic now until the next big milestone. Other people's weight loss journeys don't tend to be very interesting I find, and quite frankly even I have better things to be thinking about. 

Very glad I earmarked today for rest as my period started this morning and I'm feeling rotten. I've taken some naproxen and am sitting in bed with a coffee until I feel like a functional human again.

It's going to be a scorcher here today, at least 28 according to the forecast, so I'm hoping I feel human again reasonably soon as I need to get silly dog out early for it to be bearable.

I think I will bite the bullet and get diesel today after all. I need to get a few bits for the C00p so will fit that in the journey, and then do the dog walk. Although actually, it's a bank holiday so places won't open until 10am, so might need to do the walk first. Might treat myself to blueberries, strawberries and cream for dinner as well - my excuse is it could very well be the last day of summer! 

Other than that, I need to bring in the washing and put it away, and hoover upstairs. After that it will be reading in the garden. I'm finding it very hard to settle to one book at the moment - I have about 5 on the go, but I can't get stuck into any of them.

So this afternoon in the garden I am going to retrain my brain to focus on one thing. I'll pick a book and stick with it, and every half hour I'll give myself a little reward of some sort, until I stop struggling to focus and just keep reading! 

Hope everyone has a lovely, relaxing day, and don't forget your sun lotion!

Cheery_Daff

An afternoon in the garden sounds like a lovely one! Congratulations on the weight loss too, excellent work x

KajiKita

That weight loss is amazing! Very well done 👏 

Ive been out in the garden early and plan to pootle about indoors for the rest of the day with regular breaks in front of the fan 😊 Fortunately our house stays quite cool in hot weather (for the first few days at least). 

KK

cuddlymarm

Well done on the 4 stone loss Elisheba.
Its absolutely gorgeous here and I’m having to sit out in the shade, not a complaint cos the mornings are starting to feel slightly autumnal now and the weather report for the rest of the week isn’t good so I’m making the most of it.
Im feeling the need to work on a wooly blanket at the moment but all my wool and needles are packed away as we’re moving. I think I may have to be lavish and buy a couple of balls of wool and new needles, they’ll always get used 😀

fionaandphil

Well done on the weight loss!

Hot here as well, I did 5 loads of washing and it's all dried and away already. Beds stripped before the rain starts tomorrow, they were due to get done this week anyway so thought it best to get it out of the way while the sun was shining.

I spent some of the day in the garden, tidying up before autumn and repotting. I also had a tidy up in the greenhouse and picked some cucumbers and tomatoes. I was only in there 2 days ago and came back in with about 10 large tomatoes and 6 cucumbers 😳 lots of salad this week.

Hope you've all had a great bank holiday 

Elisheba

Bore da, frugal friends,

Sound alike everyone had the same idea and headed to the garden yesterday! Ah well,  that's the bank holiday gone and it's back to the grindstone now.

Thanks, everyone, on the congrats. I very much enjoyed my fresh strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and cream as a celebration, and I have enough left for brunch today 😁.

I got everything on yesterday's list done (not that there was much) and spent the afternoon in the garden reading, as planned. 

So spending yesterday - £25 on diesel (checked which garage was cheapest near me on the Petrol Prices app, and unusually it was the one which takes Amex so I got a little bit of cashback on that as well). That's coming out of next month's budget, as I figure that when I'm going to use it.

Then went to the C00p and got a few messages as well as the fresh fruit and cream which was £14.16. That's from this months food budget, which I know has gone over for the month 😬. I also forgot to get coffee which I'm going to need really soon, so will need to pop back at some point this week. 

While I write down what I've spent in my Notion spending tracker, I don't keep the receipts so I think next month I will, and just work out what I'm spending my food budget on and if there are any little cut backs I can make.

I took silly dog a fairly long walk around town while I was there and while it was cool.  Good to get all my busy things and exercise out the way early so later I could just flop!

Once I was home I watered the honeysuckle plants I planted earlier in the year. I lost about a 1/3 of what I planted while I was away and it didn't get watered, so trying to keep the rest going until the rain falls.

Then brought the washing in. As you say @fionaandphil , best to get it all done while the sun is shining and take advantage of the free (and quick) drying weather.

There was a white bedding set hanging out to dry, and the sheet has gone a bit yellow in the middle so I left that out pegged across the whirligig, to see if the sun would bleach it. Didn't seem to have done a huge amount of good when I brought it in at the end of the day sadly. Maybe next summer I'll give it a wash with green bleach, then soak it in a lemon juice mix and hang it out again and see if that does the trick.

One of the 'rules' I have heard a lot about in decluttering is 'Don't buy a problem'. Well I wish I'd thought of that before I bought a white bedding set. Or white anything really.

Buying white fabric items is buying a problem for me. I have very little that is white so I either have to wash it on its own which is an added expense, or wash it with colours which increases the risk of it greying. Then it shows every mark, and in the case of the bedding set I have a black cat that sleeps in bed with me most nights so her hair shows up very clearly. So altogether, just a blooming problem. I could donate it, but I'm reluctant to as it's serviceable and I do use it in the summertime. 

Got the washing put away, then gave upstairs a quick hoover. It's so much quicker and easier now I've decluttered! Then it was time for the garden and relaxing. I decided I was going to have another go at The Shellseekers by Rosamunde Pilcher which I put down a few months ago when it started time jumping, and never picked back up again. Managed to get into it again quite easily though.

She's not kind about many of her characters. I don't think anyone is really as self absorbed or hopelessly flawed as she makes them out to be. I'm also not hugely fond of jumping between time periods in a book. And she isn't afraid to kill off characters so I spend a lot of time in an agony of suspense wondering if this character is going to die soon! However, her storytelling is very good, as well as her descriptions and world building. You do feel like you have been through an emotional journey reading one of her books.

So a lovely afternoon was had lying under the parasol, wondering who was going to die next! I'm nearly finished my second bottle of sunscreen of the summer, which really does say it all about how hot this summer has been. I often don't even finish one.

Once it was cooler and the last of the sun had gone behind the hills I retreated inside for dinner, and watched a documentary which is on YT called Minimalism. It's a few years old now and was a very interesting commentary on modern society and over consumption. I also decluttered some charging wires I had bagged up a few weeks ago. I decided on balance I didn't need about 15 extra wires, some so short I would never use them. So I kept one or two spare of each fitting and the rest have been disposed of.

Then at bed time, I cleaned the bathroom except the floor so that's all done.

So altogether, a really lovely last day of the long weekend. I was sort of regretting on Sunday not making any plans to go off on an adventure somewhere, but on balance I'm glad I stayed put and enjoyed the space I have. I not only saved money, but everywhere is so busy on a bank holiday that it would have been stressful.

Today, I'm so up to date with everything that I don't really have any plans! Work obviously, and I do have plans for what I'm doing with that. And then I might go to town at lunchtime for the forgotten coffee, and walk silly dog at the same time. Other than that though I'm free as a bird. I'm sure things will occur to me as the day goes on though!

Hope everyone has a great day back at work.

DawnW

Could you dye your problematic white bed set @Elisheba?

beanielou

Agree with you that white is a bad colour when you have cats. 

Elisheba

DawnW said:

Could you dye your problematic white bed set @Elisheba?

Thats a possibility actually. Although I'm not sure if it's 100% cotton, so it could turn out very weird and wonderful. Might near it in mind for if it actually becomes unpresentable.

Elisheba

Evening, Tuesday fellow travellers,

Very little to report today. I popped to small town at lunchtime and got some coffee, so I shall live to wake up another day. Also needed sunlotion but C00p didn't have any sensitive stuff, so I picked it up from the chemist on my dog walk. Checked on Amazon when I got home, and Amazon was £5 less than the chemist. I want to support local shops but it's hard when the price differential is so big.

Other than that the bathroom floor finally got cleaned. It's too much effort to lug a bucket and mop up the stairs for such a little room, so I use a ripped up old towel, and put a little washing up liquid in the sink. Saves water and money, and isn't really that much elbow grease.

Worked until 6pm as I was on a roll and wasn't very hungry, and then afterwards watched the last episode of Our Farm Next Door, with Amanda Owen. They really live in an stunningly beautiful part of the world. While I was watching it I sharpened the hedge shears and the kitchen scissors, so both a productive and enjoyable time 🤣.

Dinner was leftovers of a rather odd cabbage, sausage and mushroom dish I had made, cooked in butter with marmite stirred through, and some grated cheese on the top. It was okay,  but would have been nicer with some potatoes 🤣.

And then it was time for bed. The day really seems to have flown by! Must remember I have black cat to the vet tomorrow, and I haven't actually got a line in the annual pots budget for vet bills. I'll have to add one and transfer some of the money from areas I have underspent.

She's well insured and the excess is only £50, and the ex is paying half of that, so it won't break the bank. Think silly dog's excess is quite a bit higher than that though (and all my responsibility) so wouldn't hurt to make sure there is a line in the budget for next year just so it's there in case of need.

Right, sleepy time calls. Hope noone gets wet tomorrow with these drops of water that we are told will fall from the sky 😯. I seem to remember that it used to happen long ago and we called it rain...