Getting Down to the Minutiae

After yet another day sorting through things at Mum's bungalow while we were waiting for some painters and decorators to come and give us a quote, I realised that while Mum was never a hoarder of  things in the same way that my Dad was, she still nevertheless has lots of stuff.

In Mum's case it's lots of little stuff. 

She has saved every leaflet that came with every bill, every shopping list that she wrote out to phone through to my brother, every paper clip that came on a letter, every photograph whether good or bad.  It's been as slow a job sorting through Mum's things, slower even than Dad's garage that was packed to the rafters.  

I can't rush any of it as I have found important documents hidden in old birthday cards.  For example, we searched high and low for Mum's DNR when the carers needed it and nothing, then last week there it was in a Mother's Day card from many years ago.  A treasured photo of my great-grandmother tucked in with old receipts for electrical items that Mum bought many, many years ago.  There's no rhyme or reason for where things have found themselves being deposited, well maybe Mum had one, but she never told us.

So while we wait for various deliveries and things to be quoted for I have been sitting and sifting through the minutiae of my Mum's life.  It makes me come home and do my own.  In little corners of my home tins are being tipped out and small things that might have been saved 'just in case', if they haven't been used since I moved here over three years ago, they will most likely not be needed anytime soon.

One thing for sure they will not be there when my son's have to rifle through my possessions in the future.  Even living simply and small as I do now, there are still little things hidden behind cupboard doors, in boxes and in tins that are just not necessary.  Yesterday I sorted through my ribbon stash and got rid of virtually everything, this morning it was my handy little box of screws, nails, hooks and the like.  It's not that handy if it contains nothing that I need to use.

I thought I had finished my decluttering ... well I have for the bigger things ... now it's the turn of the little ones.

Sue xx

The Books I Read Last Month ... and the Final Days

How is it already the start of February, January usually seems to drag on for what seems like months, but this year it has flown by.

I didn't have time for a lot of reading last month, and some of the time that I could have spent reading I instead found myself too tired to concentrate, therefore it was oh so easy to simply turn the television on and binge watch programmes or catch up on my YouTube watching.

Anyway the books that I did manage are here for posterity.  😄

The first book straight after the New Year was An Ideal Husband by Erica James.

This was a really well thought out and well executed story, not too predictable and with some neat twists and turns and well worthy of it's No.1 bestseller status on Amazon.  It's inspired me to look out for more of Erica's books on the charity table in Booths ... which was where this one came from and went back to after I had finished reading it.

I am being quite ruthless with my books this year, if I doubt that I will read them again they will be donated right after I finish them.

My next read was Laura Ingalls Wilder's The Long Winter.

I read this book over the snowiest, coldest and windiest couple of weeks for a long time.  The atmospheric conditions here made it an even better read.  

I highly recommend this book ...

... especially if you used to liked watching The Little House on the Prairie.

For me it worked out cheaper to buy this book as a modern reprint and as a full set than it would have been to buy a single new or even used copy, absolute madness but that's how it was.  I will be keeping this book and all the others at least until I get around to reading them all.

After finishing The Long Winter I struggled with what to read next, so in the end I switched to reading a few cook books.  The first one was Deliciously Ella by Ella Woodward, I bought this book way back in 2015 and have been cooking from it on and off ever since.

My most used recipes from it are the hummus recipes and the Cauliflower and Potato Curry, and it was this book that introduced me to Banana Ice-cream.

Of course this will be remaining in my collection.

The next two books will not though and have already been donated to the Booths charity book table yesterday morning.  There was nothing that I wanted to make from either of them.

Vegan on the Go

And Vegan Cakes and Other Bakes, both by Jerome Eckmeier and Daniela Lais.

While there are a multitude of good recipes in both, there are none that think that I would go out of my way to make, and nothing outstanding enough to make me want to keep them on my shelf for future reference.

To round the month off nicely we had two garden centre visits during the final days of the month.  

At Barton Grange, which is just five minutes from our front door, we had lunch and then got acquainted with some friends.  

Alan with a Grizzly Bear.

And me with Eric ... I'm not entirely sure who Eric is or was, but this bench is called Eric's Bench and he's sat on it.  😀

Neither of our friends had much to say for themselves!!

Then yesterday to take last minute advantage of the two free coffees per month that I am allowed with my Dobbies Plus Card, we went to Dobbies in Preston.  

We had our coffees along with a fish and chips lunch each, and with the multiple discounts that were on for January managed to get our lunches for a combined total of just £18.60, saving us a whopping £19.30.

I also had £9.50 of Dobbies vouchers, so these were used towards buying a fresh bag of bark chippings to go on the back garden later this month when we have a tidy up.  Somehow Mavis, who was with us all day, managed to talk her Dad into buying her a doggie pick n' mix biscuit box.

So we all came away very happy. 🐶

Sue xx

Moving Towards Healthier - Part Two - Recent Lunches

 

I bought these just before Christmas and had one over the holidays, the other had been languishing in the freezer until the end of last week.  So, I thought I would have it for my lunch and do a quick food review of these Aldi 'Melting Centre Nut Roasts'.  

They taste quite nice, are full of vegetables, maybe not so perfectly formed as the image on the box, but they are there, and have a lovely gooey and tasty centre.  Possibly a few months ago I would have rated them very favourably, but in my move away from the more processed foods I found them to both look and maybe even taste a bit 'manufactured'. 

I ate them with all the trimmings at Christmas and with some leftover frozen roast potatoes on this particular afternoon ... and yes, there is way to much mayo on that plate it came out with a big splodge!!  I do love mayo, but even for me that was excessive. 😄

Would I buy them again?

 I doubt it really as I am trying to limit this sort of ready made food, and once the freezer is emptied I will be batch cooking homemade food and meal components as most of my future ready meals instead.  But of course the few processed foods that I do really, really love will stay in the repertoire, I'll never say never but I will say occasionally.

Other lunches over the past few days have included:

Salmon, rice and garden peas, which were leftovers reheated.

Egg mayonnaise sandwiches, with sliced cucumber on the side.

The saved and frozen portion of curry and rice that I mentioned on this post.

And finally some homemade pasta sauce with a pack of  Deliciously Ella's  'plants' tortelloni.  Now although my homemade sauce had been in the freezer for over two years that was absolutely delicious, while the tortelloni was very debatable.  This has now joined the ranks of yet another ready made product that I won't be buying again.

It's been a good process this month for whittling down slightly some of the foods that I used to eat but that I probably won't buy again in the future.  There are still some things to get through and now that Alan has his new fridge freezer I can at last see just what foods I have left in my freezer, and actually get the drawers open more easily now that his foods are back home.  

I think a menu plan for next week would be a good idea and keep me on the right track.

Do you have any pre-prepared foods that you used to buy regularly and enjoy eating, but that now seem like something that has become a bit of a no-no?

Sue xx

So What's Next?

 

I finished Laura Ingalls Wilder's 'The Long Winter' the other day and I have yet to start another book.

Sometimes when you finish one book it can take a while to get into another one, and I usually like to really vary what I am reading, so it won't be another in the series even though I do own them all now.

I stood in front of my tall bookcase and didn't see anything that inspired me, so I stood in front of this one, well I stood back in the bathroom which is where I had to crouch down to take this photo.  My little hallway is only narrow, perhaps two foot of passing space between the wall and this glazed bookcase when it's doors are closed.  I do like living small, but it occasionally has it's disadvantages.  😄

Still nothing jumped out at me, I'm obviously lacking inspiration ... maybe it's something to do with yesterdays blog post.

I gave up, but later I needed my hummus recipe so I lifted down this book which it's in.  Why I can't get this recipe fixed in my head after making it since 2015 when this book came out I have no idea. 😕

I found it, and made it.

Then I thought perhaps that's what I need ... to read a couple of recipe books and re-invigorate my cooking mojo.  So that is my next book of choice.  I might as well read through it all and make a list of things to make.

It could end up being invigorating and tasty.

Sue xx

Complaining, Annoyed and P*ssed Off

 

Complaining ... my brain is full of complaints at the moment, the negativity surprises even me.  Contrary to popular belief I'm not all Little Miss Sweetness and Light, I have been known to be Big Mrs Totally Pissed Off on thousands of occasions.

I don't tend to share lots of negativity on here, there are more than enough people doing that in blogland and on social media these days.  But sometimes enough is enough and I have to take a step back and reassess my thoughts ... and on occasion my actions.

That just about sums it all up.  😄

I'll be back tomorrow, hopefully in a better frame of mind.  😉

Sue xx

An Atmospheric Read, and Bargains That Just Had To Be Had

 

With storm Eowyn battering the lodge and the wheelie bins making a break for freedom, I sat cuddled into my fleecy heated blanket this morning and finished the final couple of chapters of this wonderful book.  

I started reading it with snow lying on the ground, so it seemed very authentic to finish it with high winds whipping small items into the air all around our house.  I could easily imagine the Winter long blizzards that battered the prairies and left the families battling to survive The Long Winter.

It was a very good read and is a book that I will be keeping to read again, perhaps next year if we have another storm. 😬

In other news we battled the storm to take some clothes and china from Mum's bungalow to the local Hospice shop this morning, but we got there at 9.20am and it didn't open until 9.30am.  So we took refuge in Booths to wait with a cup of coffee and a toasted teacake.  I obviously brought home the leftover sugar, sweetener and butter along with the unused napkin.  It's my mission to gather in as many freebies as possible this year and document them for my own amusement.

On the way out the charity book table grabbed me and made me buy this book.

The manager was serving someone when we got into the charity shop so we stood waiting and these two items, hanging together just like this, caught my eye.  A brand new Barbour t-shirt, original price £34.95, and a new Weird Fish fleece jacket, original price £60, but currently reduced in the sale to £40, for a combined cost of £19 ... and in my size.  

It had to be done!!

So we went out to make a donation and I ended up spending £20, but what good bargains I got, I'm happy.  😁

Sue xx

Moving Towards Healthier

 

I've always tried to eat relatively healthily, but bad habits creep in sometimes when you least expect them, and sometimes simply for convenience.

For instance I nearly always have a bottle of this lemon juice in the fridge, and when I ran out of lemon slices towards the end of last year I started to use it in my morning hot water and lemon drink.  The habit stayed for quite a while.  It's not too bad to do occasionally but even just looking at these lemon slices shows you which is obviously the healthier of the two choices doesn't it.

Lemon juice in a bottle with added lemon oil and preservative or just lemon?

And of course with the slice of lemon, after I've had it in the hot water I can drop it into a glass of cold tap water, put it into the fridge and have another drink later in the day.  

Double use from one slice.  😀

I dug these up from the bottom of the freezer, I have no idea how long they have been there but when the best before date is up on a commercially frozen food you know it's been quite a while.

The ingredients are not the end of the world, but the sausages are obviously very processed.

The two that were left in the box made for a debatable breakfast,  I possibly enjoyed the tomato ketchup and the lovely fresh bun more than the sausages.  If I am to move away from UPF foods I have to choose my poisons wisely.  Of all the Linda McCartney sausages I think I prefer the 'Lincolnshire' variety the most.  

So these won't be purchased again.

Occasionally I fry these 'Ham Free Slices' and make a 'bacon bun'.  They are also useful as a addition to a nice salad sandwich, adding flavour and some additional protein.  These will be purchased occasionally.

But one of my favourite breakfasts, when I'm not in the mood for a simple bowl of porridge with a dollop of peanut butter, is a slice of toast topped with sautéed tomatoes, onion and a smidge of garlic powder and finished off with a good grinding of black pepper.  

Any day that starts this way is going to be a good one, and of course I will always be purchasing tomatoes, both fresh and tinned.

Sue xx  

Feeding the Addiction, Explaining This Year

 

I got a lovely email the other day, thanks Gail.  In it she mention she was having 'withdrawal symptoms' after following along all through my last years shopping challenge.  She was seriously missing the shopping photos and being able to compare our UK available products and prices with her local ones.

So especially for you, here's this morning's shopping.  😀

As the photo isn't brilliant ... it's a dark and gloomy January morning and the light is bad here, even under the skylight .. I will list what you can see in the photo and the price of each item.  I shopped at Aldi as I wanted to see the new vegan ranges that they have in for Veganuary.  They did have a lot of items, but I was very restrained as this sort of food is virtually all UPF and I am trying to steer away from most of it, but saying that a few new things did catch my eye and I thought it would be good to try them.  Served alongside a half plate of vegetables it won't be the end of the world occasionally.

Wholemeal Seeded Loaf      £1.09

Extra Large Breaded Cod Fillets      £4.49

Garlic and Herb Dusted Basa Fillets    £3.29

Titan Ice-cream Bars     £2.49

Vegetable Nests     £1.99

Mediterranean Style Fillets   £ £3.29

Ready to Wok Noodle   2 x 85p 

Cucumber   89p

Mediterranean Style Vegetables   £1.59

And finally some savoury snacks, as I am trying to steer away from the sweet stuff that I've consumed far too much of since Christmas.

Eat Real Veggie Straws        £1.49

Eat Real Hummus Chips        £1.49

Snack a Jacks        £1.35

Harvest Snaps        99p

Making a grand total of  £26.14

This is the main reason that I have not shared anything about shopping this year, today is the first time I have been shopping and bought something for myself.  

Alan paid for a loaf of bread for me when he was getting his own shopping on the 8th January, and on a different day ... I forget which ... he bought me a dozen eggs, and took no money for either.

This year is a strange one for me, and one that I have intimated about but not properly explained before.  So here goes.  

 Although Alan is now in receipt of his State Pension he retires officially from the company at the end of this financial year which is the end of March.  This means that we can then close our company down, and I will actually have no wages after my March pay-packet, I am effectively making myself redundant.  There will be a directors dividends payment to come, but that will be much later in the year when all the final figures have been dealt with ... and then that is it.  No more regular money coming in until I retire in May of next year.

My quiet mission is therefore to live off my three months salary for as long as I can, and try my best not to dip into savings.  Of course it would have made a brilliant Challenge if I had still been of the mindset to do challenges, but instead I am quietly ticking over in my own time and taking stock of what I have.

Last years Challenge really helped me to prepare for this and to learn what I need, what I can do without and it got me into gear for a year of living even more cheaply than before.  I also made sure that I completely cleared my credit card at the end of December, as well as the usual clearing of it on its due date at the start of the month, in fact I overpaid it by almost £100 so that I had a small buffer for January.

So this year is going to be an interesting one, as well as a very busy one.  But when you're busy you have less time to go shopping and thus you can avoid all temptation to spend any money.

It will all be fine.  💖

Sue xx

What Did I Do Yesterday

 

I do stuff.

I do stuff and I know people.

I don't list what  I do on a day to day basis like a badge of busyness and accomplishment.

I do stuff.

And I go places.

Sometimes I tell where I've been.

Sometimes I tell what I've done.

And sometimes I just breathe ...  

and sigh heavily.  ❤

Sue xx

Freebies, Books and Special Places

  I called very briefly into Booths on my way to the hairdressers this Wednesday to pick up this weeks little freebie, the first one of the year.  It was only a little vegan energy bar thing, but I thought it would be perfect for me as we were heading to Mum's later in the day and I had previously bought two vanilla slices for her and Alan to share ... sadly I can't have these due to the dairy content.

I thought this can't be worth much perhaps 50p at most as it was tiny!!

As you can see from the receipt ... it was £1.75!!

Although it was quite tasty I doubt I would spend that much on something so small.

You might have noticed from the top photo that I picked up a book from the charity book table while I was there.  The table and shelves were in such a mess that I couldn't help but spend five minutes tidying them up and I spotted this.  It's actually one I've been wanting to read for a while, but this year I am trying to be good and mainly pick up second-hand books, and even then only if they are something that I really fancy or that I am actually waiting to read. 

I have so many books of my own that I want to spend this year reading as much from my own stash as possible and donating any that are not really worth reading for a second time.

Artwork by Marcella Cooper

Books they take you to a special place and sometimes leave you there fore a while, I think this piece of art perfectly sums that up.

Sue xx

Switching Bread, Reviving Bread

 

Alan has been buying this bread for a couple of months now, and after having a slice at his house over Christmas I found it really enjoyable.  So the next time we were in Booths and he was buying himself yet another one, I decided to get one for myself too.

It's got a shorter and better ingredient list than any of the other loaves that I've had recently, and although it's a bit pricey at £2.95 I do think that buying better but slightly less bread could be the way forward for me.

It's absolutely beautiful on the day that you buy it, slightly tougher but great for toasting on subsequent days, but unlike the Ancient Grains bread that I used to buy from Aldi, before it was discontinued, it does not last for a full week.

The downside I guess to the fewer ingredients that were no doubt unhealthy, but did aid the bread's keeping power.  I found this out when I picked my loaf up this morning and it was as hard as a brick.  So I decided to use the old 'refresh technique'.

I put the whole loaf under a running tap, shook off the excess water and then wrapped it loosely in tin foil and put it into a medium hot oven for 10 minutes.

It came out lovely and soft, soft enough to have for lunch with some tasty coleslaw that I had also bought from Booths.  The bread, coleslaw and a pack of round buns that we took for a packed lunch after the mammoth clearing session at Mum's last week, are the only new foods to have come into my home since before Christmas.  

I'm having a really good go at living of the contents of my food storage at home instead of spending any money ... and thinking about it I haven't actually spent any money on food as Alan paid for these along with his shopping.  

Two weeks into January and not a penny spent!!

And there's no need to worry about wasting that large sheet of tinfoil either, as with all tinfoil that is relatively clean after it's first use, I wiped it down and left it to dry on the worktop.  It will be used at least once more before going into the bin.

I have quite a large supply of clingfilm and tinfoil now, and so does my brother, as it seems Mum had a bit of penchant for buying the two, or asking my brother to buy them for her without checking her cupboards, and there was a lot to share out between us.  😀

Sue xx

Random Breakfasts, Little Charity Shop Purchases and Good People

 

I'm currently in the process of eating up the leftover Christmas foods, and twice this week I have had a cheeky little breakfast of mini mince pies with squirty cream.  Since before Christmas I've been waking up at the silly time of five thirty most mornings, and by seven o'clock find myself with a rumbling tummy, so something little and tasty before my shower is very necessary.

Sometime later, we went to Morecambe again ... just like last week ... for a doggy walk with Mavis and breakfast in the café on the seafront.  We must have made quite a habit of it now, as instead of heading back to the car Mavis now heads directly to the café after her walk along the prom, so we would hate to disappoint her. 😉

Then all three of us went into the charity shop, and while Mavis had a good sniff around at all the smells it must contain, I found a couple of treasures that I just couldn't leave behind.  Just one pound for the book and one pound fifty for the little jug.  I do love anything with it's own little feet. 😃

Alan's car got seriously scratched by a woman reversing her car out of a huge space in Booths carpark yesterday morning.  She drove off without leaving us a note or anything.  Unluckily for her, two workmen were sat in the car on the next row eating their lunches and watching her bad driving, they took a photo of her mid-manoeuvre.  Also another person left their contact details under our windscreen wiper as they had witnessed it all as well.  Then as luck would have it right outside the Police station Alan spotted her car, and jumped out in front of her so she had to stop.  She has now provided details and asked us to get quotations for the repair work as she doesn't want to go through her insurance company.  Once she agrees to the quote our car will be off the road for two days while it is repaired.

This is not what we need when we are so busy with everything else at the moment for sure.

Sue xx

LPA's, Peaches and Beans

 

I'm taking time today to catch up with all the little things that needed doing, and yes, that includes a quick blog post to let you know that I haven't actually vanished.  

We've been very busy this week, emptying Mum's bungalow and sorting through some of the paperwork ... there is a LOT!!  Getting one kitchen design and quote, organising an appointment for this coming week to have another design and quote done.  Getting three independent valuations on the bungalow in case we need to sell it in order to continue funding Mum's care home costs.  It's all go and involves lots of things that are new to me, Alan and my brother.  

Now that the LPA is in place we are notifying all the organisations that need notifying so that my brother can take  up the reins of all Mum's financial matters ... he works for the Inland Revenue so he's the finance guy.  While me and Alan concentrate on the physical side of getting the bungalow ready for sale ... we've moved home and bought and sold so many times, so we are the property people.

Somehow we are managing to muddle through and get things done.  We have been up and down the motorway so many times that we are sure that the car could actually take us there all by itself.  Mavis now knows what to expect when we tell her we are going to 'Grannies Old House' or 'Grannies New House' and as long as she gets a chew on arrival she is happy to go to either.

With my brain ticking over on so many fronts it's not surprising that I have made a few little mistakes over the course of the last week.  The funniest of which was when I was chatting to my son on the phone while I was making my breakfast the other day.  I reached into the cupboard to grab a tin of peaches to go on top of my yoghurt and accidently picked up and opened a tin of beans.

It was only when I dipped into the tin with my fingers to pull out a peach slice that I realised the mistake.  It gave my son a laugh as I said yuk and had to explain what I had done.  😄

Oh well, the beans were used for two lunches, so nothing was wasted. 

Sue xx