Blowing the Cobwebs Away

 

With all the renovations still going on at the bungalow, it's been important to make an effort to do things at the weekend.  Alan really needs a break from being on his knees all week cutting, laying and sticking down the tiles and woohoo, he's got grouting coming soon.  So each Saturday we try and go somewhere.  With the weather dry and mostly sunny last weekend we decided to go to Fleetwood for a walk on the prom and a cup of coffee.

It's made a lovely change from the last couple of weeks, when the somewhere has been B&Q or Wickes for building supplies.  Although of course even those trips usually end up with a coffee and a bit of lunch, so it's not all bad.

Coffee in Fleetwood was accompanied by a bacon butty for the man in my life, it's been well earned.

After a sit down and half an hour of enjoying the gloriously fresh air while we drank, and in Alan's case ate, we took a walk along the full length of the promenade.  We were keeping pace with the Isle of Man to Heysham ferry which you can see out at sea in this photo.

https://youtube.com/shorts/mPgoWg4fZVE?si=gaI5Kpcn0r_ev673

Here's a little bit of the fresh air sound for you to enjoy, we stood there for quite a while enjoying the freshness.  Because I have been so slow at posting this, it's now almost the weekend again ... now where should we go this week? 😀

Sue xx

Just a Simple Sort of Day

 

It was just a normal, simple day ... but I photographed it. 

Starting with breakfast of what I already had on the go, some orange juice and a Weetabix with the last of the stewed apple from the freezer.  I must do some more, stewed apple and Weetabix goes so well together.  It's good to start the day with two of my five a day, and yes these measurements of orange juice and apple were the exact amount needed to qualify.

Don't worry about it being dry I did add a good splash of soya milk after I took the photo. 😄

The while the washing was whizzing around in the machine I got out the pegs and put the line across the garden.  I never take the washing machine for granted after washing everything by hand for many, many years.  Some things are worth appreciating.

All pegged out.

It wasn't terribly sunny but the breeze kept everything moving and it was all dry for late afternoon and put away by bedtime,

While the washing was drying, I did a bit of tidying, a run through with the hoover and had a bit of a top up of the spice tin.  

It's always good to check what I have and what I might need to buy soon. I have just about enough of everything at the moment, and spares of the things that are almost running out.  The onion granules ... the tub with the spoon in ... are running low, but they are a bit stuck together so I need to chop at them with the little spoon for a while whenever I need some.  I will persevere until they are all gone and then I have a new pack waiting to be broken into..

Lunch was a nice simple affair of scrambled eggs on toast with my usual coffee.

https://youtu.be/HeBteQW7_kA?si=Oss3vMUJxKBMj6z8

It was eaten in front of the television while I watched a 'new to me'  YouTube channel called The Hidden House.  It's a lovely relaxing watch, especially over some tasty food and a coffee.

Later I sat outside and read a bit more of my book.  I do want to get this one finished so I can take a nice new read away with me for the weekend.  I'm nearly there.

For my tea I had decided on some pasta, so I had a bit of a pasta cookathon so that I would have some more for later in the week.  It just makes sense to make three times what you actually need, if I don't use it all it can go into the freezer before we go away.

I had found half a tins worth of tuna in a little tub in the fridge, so I had a simple tea of pasta, peas and tuna liberally sprinkled with grated cheese.  It was very tasty, again eaten in front of the television this time watching The Chase.

I am really looking forward to having a dining table when we move into the bungalow!

 

I was feeling peckish halfway through the evening, so I raided the fridge and had half a tub of my recently stewed rhubarb with the last of a tub of yoghurt.  Swiftly followed by another black coffee.

Yes, I can drink black caffeinated coffee just before bedtime and still fall asleep within minutes. 😁

Just an average sort of day in my life, but photographed as I lived it.

Sue xx

Saving Money - Absolutely No Waste

One of the first steps to saving money is to have absolutely no waste.

To use everything up of everything that you buy, whether that be eating all the leftovers and composting all the vegetable bits that are inedible, or making good use out of every last drop of something in a tube for instance.

I have spent years now cutting the ends of tubes to get out all the hand-cream, face cream or as in this case toothpaste.

It's surprising what is still left in there after you have already spent a week squeezing, shaking and scraping down the tube for all your worth to get the product out.

Of course I don't want the product to go hard or go off with the tube cut into pieces, so I always cut out a middle section then use the bottom as a top.  It works a treat.

My little nail pencil, which was once the length of a normal pencil, is now just over an inch long, it's hard to sharpen it these days, but I will persevere.  While it is still there, I am still using it.

All I ask of life at the moment is to live simply, to have enough of what I need, to make the best of what I have ... and to be grateful for each and every day.

What is one money saving tip that you would add in the comments to help others that might not have heard of it?

Sue xx

Taking Five Minutes

 

The River Wyre

I had to go into town yesterday to pick up my new reading glasses, after about five years my prescription had changed enough to warrant a couple of new pairs.  It meant that I had to pay for an hour on the car park even though I would only be ten minutes, so I made good use of the ticket and sat by the river for a few minutes.

Sometimes you have to take five minutes in the fresh air for your sanities sake.

I had been woken at 4.30am with my phone ringing on my bedside table.  Mum had taken a turn for the worse and the care home were calling for an ambulance so they rang to tell me.  Then an hour later I was woken again by the ambulance crew telling me that a visit to hospital was deemed necessary.  I don't cope well with being woken from a deep sleep and having to make serious decisions, so the rest of the day saw me in a pretty much zombie-like state.  Thank goodness I was only picking my glasses up and not having to choose any.

Another thing to hit Facebook Marketplace, to boost my food shopping budget this week was this little cupboard.

 I bought it off FB Marketplace in 2021, and posted about it HERE.  It was just before we completed the move into our current home, and while I have loved having it, it just won't go anywhere in our new bungalow, it was a bit of a clutter-gatherer anyway but it was lovely. 

I decluttered it a lot for the FB Marketplace photos and have managed to sell it for £20, just a bit less than I paid five years ago.  It's going to be someone's bathroom cabinet in a little old cottage, above an old fashioned sink set into a little sideboard.  

I'm happy it's going to a good home.

Sue xx

Small Kitchen Appliances

 

These are three of the six small kitchen appliances that I use the most often.  Seen here in action last night earning their keep and cooking my tea.  😀

Usually the rice cooker is kept in the drawer, the other small appliances not shown here, are my toaster, which kept on the little white drawer unit in a basket, my Nutribullet which lives in the cupboard under the sink and ...

... my small sized Kitchen Aid food processor, which also lives in the cupboard until I need to use it.

I don't have the space to leave them all out ready for action so it's just the things that are used every single day that are on the worktop.  The kettle ... what would life be without numerous cups of coffee over the course of the day ... and the Remoska which is used once or twice every day and which normally stands on the back of the hob, I only ever use the front part of the hotplate so it's perfectly safe there.

I did give an air fryer a try for a few weeks last year when my last Remoska broke and was unrepairable, but it didn't suit my style of cooking as well.  So that was sold on and that particular little dalliance ended.

What are your most used small kitchen appliances?

Sue xx

It's Been Amazing ...

 

It's been amazing this year how long my stash of toiletries has lasted me, and continues to last me.

At the start of this year in a bid to cut shopping and save myself money, and also to monitor how long things last me, I decided to stop buying anything new and instead use up all the toiletries that were laying around in various places around the lodge.  They were everywhere initially, in the bedroom drawers, the basket in the wardrobe, in various make-up bags etc etc. as well as in the obvious place ... the bathroom.

I had lots of the freebies that Alan picks up when he stays in hotels on business trips, tiny shampoos, shower gels etc, I had stacks of things I had bought when they were on offer last year, toilet wipes, tissues and soaps,  and gifts from from family to me from the last two Christmases.

My first priority was to get rid of all the little bitty bits, and try and make what I had more logical.  In some ways I was saving the best for last, as I used up the sort of things that I wouldn't have dreamed of buying myself and all the annoying half full packs and containers of things.

Now I am down to the last little bar of hotel soap.

 The final bottle of Dove shower body wash.

(I don't clean my teeth in the shower, that's my old 'cleaning in small spaces' toothbrush that I use on the grout lines etc. 😄)

The last container of the body lotion from the Christmas gift pack two years ago.

Now things are starting to get much more logical and the stash is greatly reduced.  Everything fits in the two small baskets in my little bathroom shelf unit, one of which is in the top picture next to the contents of the other.  It was good going through everything this morning as I found a hand-cream that I didn't know I had, so that's another couple of weeks without having to buy a tube of hand-cream then. 😀

The only other things that I have are in the bathroom cabinet, including my stash of face creams, which were all bought in the week between Christmas and New Year last year when they were on a good offer, saving me over £5 a pack ... I'm glad I stocked up.

 It's good to be on the journey to just have in stock the few items that I use and need, and to be slowly getting through all of the things that I don't particularly like.  For instance I don't like shower gels or liquid soaps in plastic bottles, I'm a bar soap girl through and through and always have been.  I like one sort of body lotion that comes in a tub not a squeezy bottle, that way there's no fighting to get every last little bit out and I can remember what it smells like, unlike things that people have bought me that I have no idea about, and I don't like lots of choices ... I like the things that I like, and if they work for me I don't really see the need to experiment with others.  So I tend to want to have one bar of soap, one tube of toothpaste, one face-cream, one hand-cream, one deodorant, one shampoo etc etc.

I've been thinking about next years finances a lot this weekend, and getting right back to basics is going to be very necessary next year when I retire a year early and yet have no state pension coming in.  It's not scary in the least, in fact it's somehow strangely invigorating the thought of it all.

Sue xx