Silly, but it's fun

 

I'm finally on holiday now for 2 weeks and 1 day!  I'm celebrating by watching my favourite ever British comedy show The Good Life.  The Christmas special named 'Silly, but it's fun' is currently available on BBC iPlayer (if you can get it.)  

I'm tired and ready for a break from school but have got loads planned for the holidays.  Including getting a large delivery from B&Q on Saturday, yes on Christmas Eve!!!!! 😲

Day 38: New month

 

It's a new month so I arranged for my big monthly shop to be delivered first thing this morning.  By 8.30am it was all packed away with a chicken roasting in the oven and a gammon joint in the Crockpot.  This cost me £105.03 plus £2 for the saver delivery slot!!  It really doesn't look much.

Last month I set myself the challenge of getting my food and supermarket shopping down to £120 a month (£30 a week) plus a £10 treat allowance.  I spent £122.74 plus £11.22 on 'treats' so I'm rather pleased I got close!  And I still have plenty of stuff in the storecupboard/fridge/freezer from that.

Fridge items to last the month.  I'll need to top up on the fresh salad stuff that my garden and plot can't produce.  I'll go to my big Lidl for that.

Storecupboard items

My vitamins and anti histamines will last the month but the cold and flu tablets are for my Winter first aid kit.  During lockdown, paracetamol etc was hard to get so I like to keep a decent stash just in case!! 

And these are my holiday treat items.  I'm going away for a few days with my Gin Queen friends so I'm packing some GF items that I can rely on if I need them.  I do have a holiday budget (accommodation is free as it's my friend's holiday lodge) but it will be interesting to see how much it costs me overall.  

I've not been on a holiday since Christmas 2019 when I went to see my son in Melbourne.  One of my friends has already been to Cyprus for a week and then London for a week.  My other friend has been to Shetland for a week and stayed in her lodge for 2 weeks.  I've always preferred staying home for the Summer holiday and going away at the October break or at Easter so this wee break is my only 'Summer holiday.'  But I'm ok with that 😊

Summer holiday starts here!

 

Yesterday was the last day of school so I'm finally on holiday!  What a year it's been!  I managed back to work for the last 2 weeks and hobbled about on crutches and an ankle support.  Wasn't perfect but the kids and my colleagues helped me out.  And I managed to clear out my classroom ready for my move back to Primary 1 (that's Reception or Kindergarten elsewhere).  Since I'm absolutely positive this is my last move I gave away all my upper and middle school resources.  This is all I took to my new room.

Mostly toys and some books, some trays that will fit into an Ikea unit that the janitor will move for me next week.  I'm also to get a new sink installed.  The current P1 teacher is on maternity leave so she's not moved her stuff out yet.  I'm not going back into school until early August as I just need a complete break.  Plenty of time before the new kids arrive 😊

Both my garden and allotment are overgrown with weeds.  Just 6 weeks of no work means they've got wild!  So my aim is to do a wee bit every day.

At least the onion bed is looking good thanks to my lovely mum! 🧅  Red and brown varieties.

I'm not going away on holiday anywhere so it's a staycation for me.  I've got loads to do around the house and garden to keep me busy.  I'm planning to do loads of cooking, knitting and a bit of stripping 😉 I need to get my mobility and fitness back.  And I've already made a start on making all those appointments teachers put off until the holidays! 😂

Day 1

Last week I was very excited to see this asparagus shoot pop up in my new raised bed.  Even though it was tempting, I know it will be a few years before I can harvest them.

Today my 5 crowns looked like this!  I had planned to spend the first day of my holiday in the garden but heavy rain stopped play. So I've been inside instead.

I've been making some patchwork hexies from scrap fabric so added a few more today.  All hand sewn and made from fabric that was no use to my Lovely Mum and her quilting friends.

It's slowly growing.  It's totally random as long as patches made with the same fabric are not touching each other.  It's a nice easy project to work on at night or on rainy days.

As always the first day of the summer holiday has been a lazy one.  I have so much I want to do so I need to make a plan! 

End of term

I am now officially on holiday for 7 weeks. Yeay!  But I have no idea what teaching will look like when I go back in August.  Maybe we'll have the blended model (part time in school with half the class, rest of the time home learning) or maybe we'll be back full time business as normal cos this virus is just going to disappear in 7 weeks in Scotland.  That is what Mr Swinney said this week so must be true 😑  This is what my stripped down classroom looks like 😢  Each child will have to sit at a table by themselves 2m away from the next person.  No play based activities, no active learning.  Good old fashioned chalk and talk teaching with kids sitting at a desk all day.  Not happening with 6 and 7yos!!  But I'm not thinking about it for the next 6 weeks.

This was the view from my polytunnel this week on the one rainy day we had.  I'll make a video soon as the plot is unrecognisable.

Today I picked some raspberries and strawberries.  The birds have been having a field day until I finally got some netting on them.  Sadly the crumbly raspberries are losing to the local blackbirds!

Tonight I had the first of my home grown garden potatoes for tea.  Just potatoes with non dairy 'butter' and spring onions 😋

Emma has been enjoying me being at home, as you can see 😄

And so we come to the biggest unexpected expense of the year so far.  My neighbour has had major building works.  We share a wall (on the right) and he kindly paid for the work done to that.  But in doing so we discovered that my garage front needed some attention ie the roughcasting was letting in water.

So that wee tiny circled bit on my neighbour's side resulted in me needing to pay £1200 to get my garage front and roof sorted!!

Looks much better already.  Thank goodness I've got savings to cover it! I've been repairing the door and it's ready to paint now.  That will be my first holiday job 😊

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all you lovely people!  I hope 2020 is a good year for you 💖 I got home last night and pretty much went straight to bed after travelling for 32 hours, door to door.  I had an amazing chilled time with my son which was exactly what I needed.  I have loads of of exciting plans and news for this year (and beyond) but I'll save that for another post 😉 xxx

Merry Christmas

In a few hours I'm leaving to fly to Melbourne to spend Christmas and New Year with my middle son.  See you again in the new year!

Have a lovely holiday however you spend it 🎄 xxx

Decorating the Guest Room

I'm decorating again!  This is my downstairs bedroom, the guest room.  It's usually a dumping room for anything that doesn't have a place, only getting tidied when someone (usually family) visits.

It's been on my list to decorate for ages and now I have a good reason to get it done asap.  That disgusting green carpet had to go!!!

There were 2 built in cupboards and about a year ago I had the idea to turn one of them into a dressing table area as the room was too small to have a proper one.

So in the last week I've stripped the walls and removed the carpet and underlay.

A big plastic pipe from the old cooker extractor fan was removed (the kitchen is on the other side of that wall) and the hole to the outside vent was insulated and blocked up.

And the surprise mould under the wallpaper has now been cleaned and treated.  I'm ready to start the painting and wallpapering.  I'll be ordering my carpet tomorrow so fingers crossed they can do it before Christmas.

It's been a busy few weeks with work (but still managing to find those yellow stickers!!) Busy but positive.  I have another mature post grad student.  She is doing really well but as it's her first ever placement I'm constantly planning with her, observing her lessons and giving her feedback.  I'm mentoring a teacher from another school in our writing scheme, which I'm enjoying but again takes up time.  And my union rep duties are just ridiculous with everything that's happening here!!

But my holiday has done me good.  In fact, I've booked another one!  I'm going to Australia for Christmas and the New Year to see my middle son!  ✈🎄🐨 My flights are booked and I've arranged a housesitter to look after Emma and the chickens.  Hence the need to get my guest room finished asap! 🛏

My first solo holiday

I'm not a good flier.  Never have been.  But usually I have someone to hold my hand on take off.  Not this time! So some pink champagne was required pre flight.  Cost me £16 for a glass!!!!! 😮

But I made it!  This was sunrise on my first morning.  Quiet and peaceful.

 My room was lovely! 

The hotel was huge!!!!

This is a selfie I posted on FB on my 3rd morning.  I'd spent a couple of days by the pool just people watching.  There were folks of all shapes and sizes.  All confident in their own bodies.  I took this on impulse (actually I took about 30 shots and they were all similar, so it wasn't a fluke!)  I realised that I'm in ok shape for a woman of my age and experience.  I'm too hard on myself.  I have grey hair.  I have wobbly bits.  I'm 53 and had 3 kids.  My body reflects this and I'm happy with that.

Every night before dinner I took a selfie then I went to the dining room with a book.  The first night I ate dinner in 20 mins.  By the final night I took over an hour.

Yes, going on holiday by myself was challenging.  But I spent a lot of time simply reflecting on life and making plans for the future.  It made me realise I can do anything, be anything I want. And that was empowering 😎

October Break

Well I made it to the October break.  I've been constantly ill for the last 5 weeks with one virus following another.  I even had to take a day off work this week as I could not stop coughing. I'm totally run down.

Tomorrow I'm heading off to Gran Canaria for a week in the sunshine.  I'm going to a 4 star adults only hotel.  By myself.

I'm excited and terrified in equal measure as I've never holidayed on my own before.  Could be interesting!

I made it!

It was a very long term 4 but I made it to the holiday in one piece.  It's been a tough one personally and professionally. My life is taking a different direction to the one I had planned and to be honest I'm still working it all out.  But it's all good and on my terms.

I took the plunge and joined Slimming World.  I know it's partly my age and some bad snacking habits but I just cannot lose weight easily any more.  One of my young colleagues has lost 3 stone so when I asked her about it, she invited me to go with her to her group.  It was actually great fun!  I'm 2 weeks in and 3.5lbs down already.  And the amount of food I can eat is fab! I was rather chuffed with my homemade healthy waffles for today's breakfast.  Joy over at The Frugal Factor has loads of great ideas I'll be using 😋

Last week's weather was rather bizarre.  The hill outside my house was flooded thanks to heavy rain and flash flooding.  Apparently there was footage of my town on the BBC Breakfast News! This wee sports car tried to drive through it.  Clearly not a local or he would have known about the weird dip in the road there.

It took an hour for the fire engine to pump the water away!  View is me hanging out my bedroom window!! 😂

I'm not going away this summer so I have 7 lovely weeks to spend in my garden and work on my house.  Can't wait!

Some leftovers

My dear colleague and friend retired today.  She's not a party animal and didn't want a night out to celebrate.  She wanted an afternoon tea party.  So we all pitched in and made food.  One of our fabulous SLAs (Support for Learning Assistant) has loads of vintage china so we set up a proper tea party for her with white tablecloths and wee vases of flowers.

The selection of food was amazing and people went to the extra effort making sure there were GF sandwiches and cakes for me.  I work with lovely people!! 😊 But there was too much food and so there were tons of leftovers.  Interestingly the younger members of staff wanted to put it all in the bin!  😲  Luckily us oldies know the value of leftovers 😄

I came home with a dozen pancakes, 2 jars of chutney, 7 apples, a wee GF loaf and some French bread.   The pancakes and French bread aren't GF but The Teenogre will eat them.  They're already in the freezer along with the bread.

I tossed a couple of pieces to the chickens.  They went crazy for it!!  And Emma had a few sneaky pieces too!

I will miss my friend but she totally deserves her retirement!  It was a lovely send off.

And now, I'm on holiday for 2 whole weeks!!

Frugal tips

2024 edited to say this popular post was written in 2018.  I've now been living a frugal life for almost 14 years and some of the things no longer apply as I'm now retired.  But these are still good tips!

When I first started this frugal lifestyle 8 years ago there were loads of blogs that inspired and helped me on my journey.  For various reasons many of these blogs no longer exist.  3 of the best were Mortgage Free in Three (Elaine inspired my 40k in 4 years), Frugal Queen and Our New Life in the Country. I know Elaine and Jane had technical issues so maybe that's why their blogs are gone.  Sue over at Our New Life in The Country also had fab ideas but she kindly left her blogs up for people to read. 

So when Mrs Frugal left a comment on yesterday's post it got me thinking.  What advice could I give to someone starting their frugal journey?

1.  Live beneath your means.

I live on less than half my salary.  The other half is saved.  In the last few years we've bought (and sold) a campervan.  We've been on 2 major family trips to Singapore for a wedding and to Australia to visit my middle son.  Plus I was able to buy a flat for my oldest son.

2.  Cut your food budget.  

Cook from scratch.  If you can't cook, learn!
Look for yellow stickers.
Eat more veggie meals.
Look at budget ranges in supermarkets.  Work out what can be substituted eg Basics ketchup v Heinz ketchup and what can't eg my Percol coffee is non negotiable! (2024 edit - I now drink Tesco's own brand coffee!)
Use up every single bit of food you buy.

3.  Research every single major purchase

Shop around for the best price.  Consider second hand options.

4.  Cut your clothing budget

If you don't have a budget make one.  Mine is £500 a year for everything.  Buy from Ebay and charity shops.  I get a lot of new stuff with the tags still on

5.  Just stop buying stuff

Only buy stuff you 'need' not what you 'want'

6.  Teach yourself new skills

Why pay someone else to do something if you can DIY?  OH and I will have a go at most things before considering getting someone else in to do it.  Yep you'll make mistakes but you get better every time.  OH is a pro at tiling now 👍

These are my main ones but maybe you could add to the list.  I did write an article with my tips for a US blog a few years ago.  You can still read it HERE

I had 3 wrinkly peppers left over from last week's shop.  So I mixed some onion, rice, black beans, salsa and fajita seasoning together, stuffed the peppers and topped them with goats cheese.  They were very tasty and cheap!

Back tae auld claes and porridge

It's a fab Scottish phrase meaning back to wearing old clothes and eating porridge.  In other words the holiday's over and it's back to normal. That means watching the pennies even more closely!

Speaking of clothes, I did go on a wee spending spree before I went away so I've updated my clothing budget on the side.  I've spent just over half of my annual target.  I know I'll need to change my working wardrobe a bit as I'm in a hotter classroom this year *rolls eyes* so I'll be keeping an eye on the Summer sales for some lightweight tunics.

*Edited to add how I came to my £500 clothes budget if anyone is interested.

Holidays are expensive even when they're carefully planned in advance.  OH remarked that the cost of living in Australia had gone up significantly since his last visit 2 years ago.  Staying with my son for the first part helped keep costs down.  When we went out and about we took a packed lunch and snacks with us.  OH and I even took our travel mugs with us as buying teas and coffees can add up quickly!  I noticed that my son and his partner buy an awful lot of fancy takeaway coffees ☕

Yesterday I was checking through my credit card transactions online and discovered that every time I had used my credit card on holiday I've been charged a non sterling payment fee!! Luckily I didn't use it very often but it's enough to be annoyed about.  I've yet to discover if this is a new M&S policy or an Australian thing.  I've never been charged this before when I've used my card abroad so I'll contact them to find out.  It's on my list of Things to Do which seems to be getting longer and longer  📄

Back to normality

Michaelmas Cay from the boat
 

I got home yesterday morning.  We had an amazing time but I was ready to get back to normality after almost 3 weeks.  My digestive system was starting to protest even though I was able to stick to GF foods most of the time.  Eating out was relatively easy but we got a bit fed up with it and were longing for simple home cooking.

We spent the first half in Cairns with my son and enjoyed hot temperatures in the late 20s and early 30s despite it being Winter.  We did lots of touristy things like snorkeling and diving (OH and The Teenogre) on the Great Barrier Reef, visited Kuranda on the original train route up the mountain (came back down by cable car),  and went inland a bit to see some spectacular waterfalls and visit a platypus farm.

Millaa Millaa Falls  

But mostly it was lovely just to spend time with my middle son and meet his partner for the first time.

My gorgeous middle son

The second half was spent in Perth where OH lived for 7 years.  We stayed in a lovely hotel in Scarborough for this week.

View from hotel balcony

Perth by night 

Again we did touristy things like visiting Rottnest Island, AQWA, the Maritime Museum where I went inside a submarine and the markets and prison at Freemantle.  We spent time with OH's brother and his new family.  We also caught up with some old friends and shared a Christmas in July evening with them!

 OH's farm

OH still owns a farm so we went to visit it. His brother has a license to fly drones so he took one with us to have a play.  The Teenogre was a natural and took this photo of us standing in the garden.  OH was a bit annoyed that the farm's tenant has neglected the house and garden.  Lots of fruit trees had died as the sprinkler system was broken and he hadn't fixed it.  (OH charges him a very low rent in return for maintaining the property.)

At some point in the future (when we're retired) OH and I may spent some time there working on the property before selling it.

The highlight of our Perth trip was definitely meeting this wee cutie, OH's niece.  She's 6 months old and absolutely adorable.  OH's brother is the same age as me(!) so he's coming late to fatherhood. You may remember I went to their fabulous wedding in Singapore a few years ago.

So far the jet lag has been ok.  I managed to stay awake yesterday and went to bed early.  I got up this morning after 11 hours sleep!! I think a few early nights will soon get me back to normal.