Arwedd and Jo - thank you for your kind comments
Cold/Cough - I still have the blooming thing - it just won't shift. I'm fed up with it now and I'm starting to feel run down, can't sleep, headaches blah, blah, blah!
Weather - its horrid here, blowing a hooey, raining and cold. I keep having to put the heating on.
Half Term Hols - I had this weeks worth of events all planned out, nice walks through woods, picnics, tent up in the garden for C to hang out in [she loves putting the Tent up and claiming it as hers] but because I feel ill and because of the weather this week has been a struggle. Its Friday now and I can't remember what we did on Monday! I'm sure we did something ????????? Today we are going to the pictures to see Men In Black 3, the children have gift vouchers left over from Xmas that will pay for them to get in and I'll pay for me and Mum to get in. We take sweets and drinks with us, I'm NOT paying the prices that a Cinema charges! ~Yesterday we went up the City Centre, C had her hair cut, D traded in some games and started his pot of savings to go towards a PS3 that he wants [yes, another console] I bought 3lbs of Strawberries for £2, came home and I hulled them all and left them to soak overnight in sugar, ready to be turned into Jam or Sauce today.
And that's it - what a dreadful week.
1 week to go and then we are on holiday, I can't wait.
Oh, oh, forgot to say [how could I forget this] K has a new job!!! He went for his 2nd interview yesterday, he applied for a Support Workers Role at a residential home 5 miles away. He had his 1st interview last week and the 2nd last night, last nights 1 was about meet and greet the residents, he was offered the job straight away, now awaiting his CRB and then he can hand his notice in - neither of us can wait for the moment. The pay is a couple of hundred more and his petrol will be a lot less and the rota is far better and he gets 33 days hols a year - exciting times for him and he really deserves it as he puts up with a lot where he is working now, I'm really pleased for him.
Helen x
PS I have some pictures of rude strawberries - I'll post them later [naughty!]
Friday, 8 June 2012
Saturday, 2 June 2012
Cold and colder
Cold - K has kindly passed on his cold to me, aches and pains and feeling very tired along with a blocked nose and a headache, thanks K.
Colder - the weather has changed and the boiling hot, muggy weather has turned into winds, rain and cold, cold, cold!!
Toby is still poorly, bad tummy isn't letting up
Not a good weekend so far
Helen x
Colder - the weather has changed and the boiling hot, muggy weather has turned into winds, rain and cold, cold, cold!!
Toby is still poorly, bad tummy isn't letting up
Not a good weekend so far
Helen x
Friday, 1 June 2012
Toby
Toby our Dog is poorly - don't read on if you don't like dog poo!!
Toby is a cross between an Alsatian and a Border Collie, he's the naughty baby in the house. Everything we do revolves around him. He's 10 years old. I got him when I went to see the litter - he was the runt of the pack and oh my, he was adorable. He's very naughty - can't be let off the lead as he runs away, he pinches any food left lying around [except grapes or jelly]. He snores, he howls in his sleep [he sleeps in our bedroom], he's very protective of me, he barks wildly if anyone knocks at the door, we had to get a post box to go outside for the postmen otherwise he rips the post to shreds and tries to get the postman's hand too!! He hates cats and pigeons, he thinks squirrels are his next meal. Toby sleeps on C's bed during the day - when he's not barking at someone or something.
Toby has an upset tummy, he's making a mess in the garden, he's passing mucus and we think he may have colonitis. I will have to wash the grass tomorrow, how gross is that. He's on a diet of rice and boiled chicken or boiled white fish for the next few days. Its Jubilee weekend and a bank holiday thrown in to boot. Vets on Weds if he's no better.
Poor Toby, K and I are praying he'll get better, not only will we be very upset but C will be completely devastated, she's known him since she was 2 and she loves him. After losing Grandad last year she won't cope with losing Toby too, he's getting old in his ways, even if this tummy upset isn't the end for him we don't think he'll be around all that much longer. My poor Toby.
Helen x
Toby is a cross between an Alsatian and a Border Collie, he's the naughty baby in the house. Everything we do revolves around him. He's 10 years old. I got him when I went to see the litter - he was the runt of the pack and oh my, he was adorable. He's very naughty - can't be let off the lead as he runs away, he pinches any food left lying around [except grapes or jelly]. He snores, he howls in his sleep [he sleeps in our bedroom], he's very protective of me, he barks wildly if anyone knocks at the door, we had to get a post box to go outside for the postmen otherwise he rips the post to shreds and tries to get the postman's hand too!! He hates cats and pigeons, he thinks squirrels are his next meal. Toby sleeps on C's bed during the day - when he's not barking at someone or something.
Toby has an upset tummy, he's making a mess in the garden, he's passing mucus and we think he may have colonitis. I will have to wash the grass tomorrow, how gross is that. He's on a diet of rice and boiled chicken or boiled white fish for the next few days. Its Jubilee weekend and a bank holiday thrown in to boot. Vets on Weds if he's no better.
Poor Toby, K and I are praying he'll get better, not only will we be very upset but C will be completely devastated, she's known him since she was 2 and she loves him. After losing Grandad last year she won't cope with losing Toby too, he's getting old in his ways, even if this tummy upset isn't the end for him we don't think he'll be around all that much longer. My poor Toby.
Helen x
Tuesday, 29 May 2012
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
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
Sunday, 27 May 2012
Cold, Hot, Red Hot
Cold - K has been poorly now for 3 days, he's in bed as I type this, he has a cold and a cough but its really dragging him down and he's fed up, this is his long weekend off and he's spent the majority of it in bed!
Hot - boy its hot here, even in the shade its too hot for me to sit out in
Red Hot - C has gone to a friends birthday party, talk about a pressie on the cheap - bath set from Boots 75% off sale and a make up set from the same sale, wrapped in reduced paper from MrT and put into a gift bag I was given for my birthday, card was reduced to. Value should of been £29 actual price was £8! They are going bowling and then out for a meal at "Red Hot" - the cost of this party must be [way too much for me to think about] C doesn't have a party anymore as I think that they should stop when they are 10, at least that's what I've told my 2. The cost of entertaining out is out of our league and the children are at the age when they don't want "home" parties anymore - shame as I loved doing them, oh well :{
Helen x
Hot - boy its hot here, even in the shade its too hot for me to sit out in
Red Hot - C has gone to a friends birthday party, talk about a pressie on the cheap - bath set from Boots 75% off sale and a make up set from the same sale, wrapped in reduced paper from MrT and put into a gift bag I was given for my birthday, card was reduced to. Value should of been £29 actual price was £8! They are going bowling and then out for a meal at "Red Hot" - the cost of this party must be [way too much for me to think about] C doesn't have a party anymore as I think that they should stop when they are 10, at least that's what I've told my 2. The cost of entertaining out is out of our league and the children are at the age when they don't want "home" parties anymore - shame as I loved doing them, oh well :{
Helen x
Saturday, 26 May 2012
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
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
Monday, 21 May 2012
My New Shopping Bag
Evening All
I was making a patchwork cushion but I couldn't get the sqaures to line up properly and it looked awful once I ironed on the interfacing stuff. K thought I was making a bag so today I decided to turn it into one :]
Step 1. Getting all the bits together
Step 2. Choosing the back material
Step 3.Making handles
Step 4. Make an inside pocket or two, to cover up the parts that don't line up
Step 5. Making the front
Step 6. Completed
Step 7. Liking the inside better than the out!!
First time I've made a bag. I once told a sewing teacher at school that the skirt I was making looked like a bag, she was very upset by my comments, I think that she thought it was a personal reflection on her teaching but it wasn't, it was all about how rubbish I was at this when I was at school. Now I have more patience and time. I'm pleased with the bag and I'll use it when we go on holiday
Helen x
I was making a patchwork cushion but I couldn't get the sqaures to line up properly and it looked awful once I ironed on the interfacing stuff. K thought I was making a bag so today I decided to turn it into one :]
Step 1. Getting all the bits together
Step 2. Choosing the back material
Step 3.Making handles
Step 4. Make an inside pocket or two, to cover up the parts that don't line up
Step 5. Making the front
Step 6. Completed
Step 7. Liking the inside better than the out!!
First time I've made a bag. I once told a sewing teacher at school that the skirt I was making looked like a bag, she was very upset by my comments, I think that she thought it was a personal reflection on her teaching but it wasn't, it was all about how rubbish I was at this when I was at school. Now I have more patience and time. I'm pleased with the bag and I'll use it when we go on holiday
Helen x
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