Frump to Fab 2026.

chanie

i stocked up on underwear in the january sales. i probably brought more than i need, but ive put some away for now. im a bit of a hoarder like that - i’ll grab stock up on offers and put it away until needed. when my children are little, i’d buy clothes in the next size up in the sales - this was really handy during lock down!

what i have been buying is gym wear for exercise and i’ve realised i have loads, but all either bought on offer or cheaply.

2Scratters

@Watty1 that is good news to hear. No rushing just take positive actions. I would go with the bed change weekly. As there is nothing like a fresh bed. Have you considered 100% cotton or linen sheets. As they are natural and calming. I too like perfumes and a bit of lippy and that is me done however I am using up some hydro skin stuff that seems to do a reasonable job.

I am eating more eggs veg and meat and my weight is slowly dropping down. We are in the process of getting rid (and certainly not buying any UPF) this has helped with my digestive issues and I have stopped taking a medication for the problem. I am still slowly reducing my stock of clothes. I really should get some onto ebay. Not used the other site Vinted.

At Christmas I purchased an air purifier as hubby has lung disease and we have 2 collies. Boy does it make a difference to the quality of air. Any opportunity to breath easier is a bonus.

2 Scratters xx

chanie

happy galentines day, fabbers.

Wednesday2000

Happy belated Galentine's day.xx

chanie

Hi fabbers,

it’s half term this week and i’ve taken a few days off, as i have quite a bit of annual leave left. Today, i went to Mass for Ash Wednesday and then to the outdoor gym for some exercise.

i still have a few days annual leave left and i’m going to have a treat day soon. My annual leave is always planned around my children, but i’ve always tried to give myself 1-2 guilt free ‘me’ days a year, which normally involves a wander around the shops and then lunch.

what would you do on your perfect ‘me’ day?

Wednesday2000

I just had a wander around the shops too Chanie while I was in Southend. I got a few bits from Superdrug and Holland & Barrett and I went into New Look. I got an email today with 25% off for New Look which was very handy so I bought myself three dresses.

I went out to Southend last night to see the indie band Ash and the lead singer made a quip about it being Ash Wednesday. We stayed in a hotel as we often have trouble getting home at night as the buses stop so early and it was quite nice and had a sea view. I am staying in a different seafront hotel tonight again and we are going out for a meal tonight as well I always try and do as much as we can while our dog is at the kennel. We can't really do any big trips as she doesn't like being left too many days so we have to make do with overnight trips or just short trips around the UK.

It is so nice now I have had the upstairs of my house deep cleaned. The did a great job and are coming back next week to do the downstairs. I am going to set up a regular appointment for them to do weekly cleaning after that.

Tomorrow I have a class that my husband is joining me on which is near the seafront so we are just going to wander around and have breakfast at a cafe, maybe a drink at another cafe and look around the shops. Leigh-on-sea has lots of nice independent shops. I have another class in the evening while my husband has a concert to go to. I have three other classes this weekend.

I saw Wuthering Heights the other night with some people from my book groups. I quite enjoyed it, although it was a very loose adaptation of the book! Has anyone else on here seen it yet?

chanie

Sounds like life is busy but enjoyable for you, Wednesday.

You have just reminded me to plan a trip to Southend this year. We go most years, but for some reason, didn’t go last year. i remember a few years back we went to Clacton for the day - i haven’t been in 30+ years and we decided to go for a change instead of Southend. DS was coughing and spluttering all over the place and when we got home we heard on the news that many people had the same symptom and it was put down to some kind of contamination but i don’t think the official ever found out what it was.

i took the children to Central London today and we met up with my Mum for a few hours and had a bit of a wander. we don’t do much, but it was nice to get out of the house for a few hours.

I haven’t seen the mew adaptation of Wuthering Heights. it’s a book i’ve heard of, but never read, so i’m not buying into the hype. i always think of bonkers Kate Bush when i think of Wuthering Heights!

Watty1

Hopefully the village film club will get that film in a few months. Feel I can make it to what I kindly call the "oldies" film club, it is just £5 a film and always a chance to get a cup of tea or a glass of wine before the movie starts. Still struggling to go out but I did go last week to see "The Roses" and next week there is a locally made film being shown so have put that in the diary too.

Wednesday2000

I studied Wuthering Heights at A Level so I remembered parts of the book when I reread it for book group. The film was a good adaptation.

I am busy at the moment. I had a Qigong class yesterday and I missed the Soundbath last night as I was too tired from walking around. It was already paid for which was annoying, but I needed an early night. I feel much better today. I did almost 20,000 steps yesterday. I am going to see the Qigong tutor one to one as I am noticing my balance is much better and I want to learn the techniques so I can do it on my own if I need to.

Chanie - if you do a trip to Southend maybe we could meet up for a drink? I would say a coffee, but I don't drink coffee as it gives me migraines.🙄😀

chanie

wednesday- will let you know if we go to Southend - would be lovely to meet you in person.

With rising costs, me and OH have been looking at ways to tighten our belts. We aren’t on the breadline, but want to keep an eye on our costs. it really isn’t easy being MSE at times…..

DD needed a new school skirt and blazer, which i could only buy from the uniform shop. i had a £50 customer loyalty card (which has taken me 7 years to ‘earn’) so i only had to pay £15. The shop couldn’t accept my loyalist card, they said they needed to verify it, which is thir normal procedure, so i left it with them to process. then i got a message the next day to say the voucher was ready, so i had to go back to town to buy the blazer and skirt.

We did our grocery shop and Lidl had a rain jacket in their ‘aisle of junk’. i showed it to OH, as he has been complaining about getting wet at work given the recent weather. He was reluctant, but as you couldn’t tell it was from Lidl, he decided to give it a go. when we got home, he tried it on and decided to keep it. We got DS to try it on as well, as he has started working with his Dad. As it fit him, i decided to go back and grab another one. as i had just come back from Lidl 1, i didnt wan to go back because of the car parking restrictions, so started to make my way to Lidl 2. Realised the football had just finished when means stadium traffic, so abandoned Lidl 2 and headed to Lidl 3, which didn’t have the jacket, so ended up back in Lidl 1! Luckily, we have plenty of Lidl’s in our area, it was too much driving.