Grocery Shopping Rant and other bits

K is feeling a lot better today, thank goodness! We went to the Lottie and planted peas and runners. We had to give everything a good water, the weeds are getting out of control!

Grocery shopping - this month we have spent £323, that's a horrendous amount for 2 adults and 2 children and our budget is £250. We have overspent by £73 and we need things. K and I sat down tonight and decided to do the following
1. use up what we have, we have 1 large freezer and 2 smaller ones and they are FULL, stuffed to the gunnel's with food, how terrible that is too have so much food in, its what I call dead money - we've paid a supermarket money for food that we can then store for months! All those deals come around time and time again and yet we have fallen for the trap they have set us, well no more Mr Moneygrabbingsupermarket, we buy what we NEED and that's it.
2. We are drawing out cash each week for the shopping we need [£75 per week for June] and what we don't use goes into the car tax/insurance pot. If we need more money one week for shopping and we don't have enough then we have to wait till the next week till we can buy it.
3.Take advantage of offers but realise that the offers always appear again and again and again, we don't need to buy enough for 6 months, we need to shop smartly.
4. Get rid of the freezer in the garage, we've given ourselves 3 months to run it down, this will also save on the leccy to run it.
5. Use the money saved to buy car insurance for the year, pay upfront and then save for the next year, it may take us a couple of years to get to the point where we can pay in one instalment instead of 12 but this will happen and its cheaper to pay once a year [avoid those charges for monthly payments] we also want to pay for the car tax yearly instead of every 6 months as its also cheaper to do that.
6. Remember that every pound saved is ours and not the supermarkets

I can't describe how angry I am that we have fallen into the traps set by the supermarkets - we know better but we still got sucked in by them. We struggle every month, especially for the last 2 weeks and that's hardly surprising given how much we are spending on food! There are areas of expenditure we can do little about - petrol for example but where we can we will save. Lidl and Aldis will be our new bestest mates and Tesco can go jump, petrol is what we will use them for and also offers that suit us not them. We will also buy more from the Market - fruit and veg etc, we don't make enough use of the market, that's another change about to happen.

Nice part - I used Groupon the other day to buy tickets to take Mum and the children to a Medieval Day on Monday 4th June - day out for £12 plus petrol, we'll take our own food and drinks [we always do] and I'll buy the children an ice cream. They have pocket money to take with them if they want to buy themselves something but I buy nothing for them, sounds hard but they are happy with this. Their Dad gives them a lot of pocket money and they get to keep it and spend it on what they want to [within reason] everything they want to buy has to be okayed by me and its always discussed in detail and we scour the Internet to get things cheaply [D really "gets" this, C sometimes struggles and wants things NOW] Even if the weather is poop I'm sure we'll have a nice day.

Yesterday it was Mums birthday so we went for a walk at Harold Odell Country Park, boy was it hot, we were really daft and didn't take water to drink so had to buy a drink there, £4 for a tea and a hot chocolate, expensive, cake was £3 a slice - didn't buy any. We had a lovely, lovely walk.

The weather is due to cool down for a few days, that will make weeding at the Lottie a lot easier

Helen x

Birthday, Lottie, Coughs and Colds

Morning

On Wednesday it was my 47th birthday - yeah!!

I was given lots of lovely presents. K and I spent the morning and some of the afternoon at the Lottie, planting things, weeding and generally tidying up. We took the camping stove and K made bacon butties whilst we were there - a lovely way to spend a day. We then went to my Mums for Tea. K stayed at home because by this time he was suffering badly from a cold which has now turned into a chest "thing". Poor man is really suffering now - and that's what happens when you give up smoking.

The weather here has turned very hot, I shouldn't complain but its a tad too hot for me - I like Spring and Autumn days and the snow, this heat makes me tired, it zaps my energy.

Today is another Lottie day if K is up for it, we'll see. He's currently snoring on the sofa lol.

I hope that you are all planning something nice to do this weekend and that you are enjoying the sunshine

Helen x 

Lottie

Not alot done this weekend
We went to the Lottie and managed to get some bits planted
I did a stack of ironing
I made some headway with the cushion I'm making

Don't you sometimes look back at what you've done and feel that you wasted time!!

The weather today is overcast and quite chilly but the forecast is for it to brighten up and I for one can't wait to see some sunshine, I always feel better when the sun is out

Helen x

St Ives - K's painting, Tomatoes, Migraines, Clematis

D has been diagnosed today with "Abdominal Migraines" This explains alot about his health lately and whilst I'm not happy about it I am glad we've a name for his problems, he's likely to suffer from Migraines when he gets older so that's not good. We are cutting out Chocolate at the moment as he was troughing his way through his Easter Eggs, a complete ban on choc is in force to see if this will help, he also has to go for an eye test which was on the cards anyway and he has to have a fasting blood test at the hospital when we get the appointment through.

In the space of 2 days we've gone from 1 Tomato seedling poking his head out of the compost

to several all vying for the light and heat that the window and radiator are providing

Its taken 3 lots of sowing seeds to get to this point - woe betide anyone or anything that upsets them

My Clematis in bud. I've had this plant for years but its not been happy for the last 7 or 8 of them, last year I gave it the pruning of its life and then it was moved to a place for the Winter that gets plenty of light, in the Spring it took off and its really loved all the rain we've had [well something had too] and its about 6ft tall and has about 20 buds on it. When it does flower more photos will be taken as it produces very pretty purple flowers that I love.

I've planted some Broad Beans in a bed at home and some at the Lottie, I've had to put chicken wire all around the beans to stop the cat from next door using the bed as a loo and to stop our dog tramping all over it

Tomatoes that were bought from a Garden Centre have now been put into the big trough that K made from pallets a couple of years ago, the seedlings will go to the Lottie if they survive

And now for the exciting [to me] bit - K has done a painting of how we see St Ives, Cornwall. We love it there and would love to be nearer so we could visit more often, but we don't so we can't. Instead he has painted this picture for me, the photos don't do it justice - its colours are jaded as opposed to the vibrant colours that they are in real life.

Its got the seagulls, boats and harbout wall that I love, the blueness of the sea is brilliant and the house are all higgledty piggledty just like they are in real life. I love, love, love my man for painting this for me, he's framed it and its going up in the Dining Room tomorrow

Helen x

Radishes

We popped over to the Lottie this morning - just to have a look at how bad the flooding was - the water is starting to go down and the Potatoes are looking good - they will need earthing up next week. We plan to spend Tuesday over there providing the weather holds, there is a alot of weeding to do and we really need to get some of the plants from home over there and in the ground.

Our first produce we picked -

K has already eaten them

H x

Cushion, Lottie

Hi
Its been raining again lol, its now getting quite funny really, we're still in drought conditions but local rivers have burst their banks the next local town [NP] has been put on flood alert and has suffered some flooding near the river but there is still a hosepipe ban!

I've had to buy some Tomato plants, I don't like doing it but this year I've been unable to get any to set from seed and I do like growing Tomatoes so I gave in and bought some

Cushion - I've managed to do a cushion - patchwork design in mainly Red and Green, its not perfect but then neither am I but I like it. I've caught the bug now and I've just started cutting up more material to make another cushion, this time in Pinks, Greens and Purples. I need to start scouring the charity shops for clothing in colours that I like so I can cut them up - gives me more material for my money, the problem is that the Charity Shops around here are expensive and to go to cheaper ones I have to travel and use petrol!

Tomorrow the children are at their Dads so K and I are going for a walk somewhere - weather permitting hehe. Blows Downs is where I think we're going - Bluebell hunting

I've just bought this months Gardeners World magazine because it has a 2 for 1 booklet in it that allows 1 free adult entry for 1 paying adult. I intend to use it when we go to Cornwall so that we can visit the Eden Project.  K and I have always wanted to go and this will save us £23 on admission - well worth the £3.80 I paid for the mag and it allows this 2 for 1 entry at LOTS of other Gardens throughout the country so we plan to get more use out of it :]

Have a lovely Bank Holiday Weekend and for those of you that have to work I really feel for you - K will be working on Monday and will get no extra pay for it or time off :{


H x

Sunshine, Lottie, Gardening, Sewing

The Sun has got his hat on Hip, Hip, Hip, Hooray!!

What a difference a little bit of sunshine makes! No rain today - just for today by the looks of the forecast :[ Today I have done some Gardening at P and C's, cleared the guttering at the back of the house, cut the grass, tidied up the garden, sat and had coffee and read a book outside, went to the Lottie - yeah, planted out Broad Beans, Lettuce, Spring Onions, Radishes. Didn't get everything done at the Lottie that I wanted to but its a start and boy, was it great to be over there.

K has given up smoking, he's done 7 days so far and whilst I'm being as supportive as I can, I just have to say that its hard, I know its harder for him but this is a man who is usually really laid back, I'm now having to deal with a man who is stroppy - comes as quite a bit of a shock, tonight I bit back [how mature of me - not] tomorrow I won't.

I've been cutting up material on my new cutting board with my new rotary cutter - such bliss, I almost don't want to sew the fabric together - I like to see it cut up and stacked up lol. I have made a template of the design that I'm happy with - just need to sew it together now - must measure it first to make sure its the right size!

Ah well - back to rain tomorrow and the huge stack of ironing I have got to do - I'll watch the latest Twilight film whilst ironing - C is insisting that I watch it and nagging me to do so!

H x

Birthday, Friendships, School Trips, Lottie

Wow 12 days since my last post - bad woman!! Lots of things happening here. K had his 50th birthday on the 12th. It was a low key affair as being 50 is not good lol. The children wanted to make something of it so we invited Mum around and had a buffet tea. K liked his pressies so much - they are still sat on his desk in the bedroom!  C has her birthday on 21st so I've been getting ready for that - actually no I haven't as I bought everything in the Jan sales and for her main pressie she's having money, just need to wrap it all tomorrow.
D is going to Overstrand with his school for 3 days as of Wednesday, he's very excited, he's decided that his blank needs to stay at home though, he's growing up.
C is going to France with her school next Monday for 5 days,she has just had a big fall out with her friend and is very upset, she's also worried that it might make her trip a difficult one, these are the times when I wish I could give her 1/10th of my confidence - she has none - then she could just tell the nasty madam to go away once and for all and then stand up to the ones that are mean to her, I don't remember having any problems at school with my friends, we all got on together and played nicely, nowadays they do nothing but compete for attention from each other and try and beat each other in the fashion/boyfriend/who's done what stakes. C gets really upset about it all and feels very inferior, she has just over 1 year left before moving onto secondary school - home ed seems more and more likely!
Housework has fallen by the wayside so today I've spent all my time clearing, cleaning, hoovering blah, blah, blah
The Lottie is coming along nicely as we've been over there alot, Lettuce's are sprouting away and lots of seeds have been planted along with Onions, Garlic and Shallots - I love these next few months at the Lottie, I love to see everything growing and the wait for the produce is almost orgasmic.

Photos of the Lottie next time

H x

4 Months later . . .

Well here I am 4 months after my last post.

I felt after my last post in September that blogging wasn't for me,why not? Because all I was doing was concentrating on the negative stuff that was happening in my life instead of the positive and that wasn't what I wanted from my own blog. I looked around at lots of other blogs and decided that I still wanted to write about my everyday life but I wanted a record of the good things that have happened so I'm starting again.

Today C and D went to their Dads for the day. K and I have had a lovely, lovely day. We tidied up the back garden and then went to the Lottie and carried out a few little jobs there. We both feel that once we get over there we don't want to leave. The air seems cleaner and we get back in touch with the earth. We have great plans for the veg we are going to grow this year and I'll be writing about that a lot. We came home and spent time together, reconnecting, talking, laughing and having a lovely time.

K is making Game Pie for our tea, C and D are home again so the TV is on!! We'll eat once they are in bed, I've moved a lamp into the DR and will light some candles so we can have a romantic meal.

Our life at the moment is full and that's what I want to share, not the petty squabbles the children have or how lack of money prevents us from doing things because we get so much enjoyment from doing things that don't cost money [or not a lot]

I hope you will enjoy the new style I want to go forward with.

H x

Just testing  . . . .  hoping a picture of Toby is displayed - our lovely, silly dog!