Do Your Bit & et A Freebie To Help The Bees

http://www.foe.co.uk/what_we_do/bee_cause_seeds_35043.html?ic_number=675459&m_sourcecode=LM1204052&product=CAMP&utm_source=lyris&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email&hq_em=thedrisback@hotmail.com&MID=1629689&hq_e=el&hq_m=1629689&hq_l=4&hq_v=88313735ec

Weekly Goals

Today we all went to my mum & dads for dinner. It was DH birthday yesterday. My son gave dh shower gel, deoderant & shaving foam. He loves that sort of present as it is pratical & useful.  DD got DH some lovely after shave which again he was most pleased with. DH & I do not get each other a present. We just figure that if we wanted or needed something we would get it as and when & not for the sake of it. My mum & dad give Dh money to treat himself & my sister gives Dh some money to.  Dh mum will take us out for a meal when she visits in May as she does not live in the UK anymore.  My sweet mum gave us a little food bag of soups , cereal, tuna & muffins. I also got lots of magazines to read. They will keep me quiet!. As well as the book "Water For Elephants" my mum found this one in the charity shop for 50p.  I am a slow reader & I am still reading "The Help!".

On the way back from my mum & dads I bought a large hard backed notebook in Tescos. I wanted a large one as my Ds has pinched one of my smaller ones! & also my spending diary got all soggy in the bottom of my bag when my water leaked. As it is all new & shiny it should encourage me to be good right!??.   

So leading on from that my Monday week goals!

• Every single penny that has to be spent if any is to be recorded in my book & I am determind to keep this up
• Everyweek I say it & everyweek I cave in.  But this week nothing sweet is going to pass my lips.  Just lots of fruit & good healthy smaller portions(feel free to join me!).  Control those cravings
• Keep a food diary for the week

The emergency fund is sitting at £450.00 .  It will be £500.00 when cheque clears. I also have £20.00 from garage rental to pay in. I have been paying in the money made from ironing & this has helped.  DH seems to be more on board with the idea of the emergency fund.  So next goal will be a £1000. pounds.

Bye for now xx 

Free Sample!

http://www.garnier.co.uk/_en/_gb/body-intensive/7-days-challenge/sample_form.aspx
I just filled in my details to get this. They did a 7 day face moisturizer last time. Thought you might like to to!

Brek - Muesli & semi skimmed milk

Snack - 3 x seeded flat bread crackers with houmous

Lunch - Homemade Chickpea & tomato soup
                   2 x flatbread crackers
                   Rhubarb yogurt
                   Almond slice

Dinner -      Green salad & pasta & pesto 
                    2 small almond biscuits
                    Granola yogurt

I need to cut out my sweet tooth everyday!

MMM??

Brek  -   2 weetabix with sliced banana

Snack -  1 apple

Lunch -  leftover mug of celery soup & a wholemeal garlic sausage & houmous roll

Snack -  Tiny peice of coconut cake (visited elderly neighbours for an hour & they will not take no for    an answer when they offer you cake!

Dinner - mashed potato, beans & 4 sausages(They shrank when cooking honest!)
               2 peanut tracker bars (100 calories per bar).They have seriously got smaller over the years

I should not have eaten 4 sausages & I should have just had that little bit of coconut cake. Not 2 trackers. Still will do better tommorow now no temptations luring me!

At the moment I have a nice face mask on. I bought it for 30p at the car  boot sale. It is one of those ones that goes on like a gel & it goes all tight. Then you peel it of, I love that bit!Its Avon lavender & Jasmine.  At the car boot sale I have bought a few different cosmetic unopened items.  I would be tempted to buy this from Avon if I see it . I usually have 2 face masks a week. My skin feels all lovely & soft after this one. I then use a toner & a moisturizer.  I do have times where I am to lazy to do this routine! As I had my hair done last week I have been making an effort to pamper myself 

 Do you have any budget brands that you love? Or any special beauty tips that you want to share ?

Must try harder!

Today I had to go to town as I needed to get some new jeans.  My jeans have gone Awol!. I have either donated them to charity by mistake or ironed them & they have gone in with one of the customers ironing!???.  I only had the one pair. Luckily I had a voucher for £12.00 for M&S, & found a pair of boot cut jeans for £12.50.  I did look in a few other shops for jeans. I really dislike shopping for jeans especially.  I got a size 14 and I did have to pull them in to do them up.  I decided then & there enough is enough. I must try harder to lose that stone.  I refuse to go up any further in weight & clothes size.

Day 1!
Brek -  Muesli & semi skimmed milk

Lunch - Wholemeal cheese & salad cream roll
              1 banana

Snack - A small bowl of celery & potato soup(made with wilting celery!, it was delicious)

Dinner- Mixed green salad & wholewheat pasta with tomato pesto & 2 x slices of garlic sausage

              Yoghurt

I weighed out 80grms of pasta which was a serving for one person!. On seeing it after it was cooked I can see where my portion size goes seriously wrong. Where I can with certain food I will weigh them out especially pasta.

Finance 
Managed to pop £100.00 in to the emergency fund last week. Emergency fund is now at £300.00.  Which I am pleased , after buying the bed.
I did  get alot of ironing work last week which was good. A few things sold on ebay but that will be going towards that water bill when it finally arrives.  Then I will set up a direct debit for the water bill.  Then anything made on ebay will go towards our £0.00 holiday fund ggrrhh! I have not got much left to sell on ebay anymore.    

De-Clutter

I slept very well last night. Thank you for all your goodnights!.  The good thing about getting the bed was that it helped me to de-clutter my room in preperation for its arrival.  Sometimes I think it would be nice to have a tv in my bedroom. But the good side of me thinks "no!", keep your room for just sleeping & relaxing. 
Anyway it has spured me on to start a de-clutter

Benefits Of De-Cluttering

Living lighter

Makes you feel calmer

Spend less time being disorganized & searching for things

Spend less money as you do not not want to add to the clutter

Spend more time with people & things that matter  

 

Anything I declutter will be donated to charity shop or popped on ebay.I will keep a de-clutter list in my side bar. feel free to join in!

In bed early!!!

I am in bed early tonight doing this blog post!.  Yesterday the new bed arrived. Our old bed was a white iron one. Every turn in the bed it squeaked. Every so often it needed tightening up. The mattres was awful you could feel the wires & every time you moved it went ping ping ping!. Our emergency fund got spent on this & it cost us £650.00 including delivery. I have never spent so much on a bed in my lifetime. I think the fact that it will last a very long time will help. Also I guess we spend a good proportion of our lives sleeping in a bed.  This time we went for a divan with drawers. We went for comfort. We picked a plain linen head board. I really like plain simplistic furnishing. I find it calming in my cluttered mind!

I even painted the wall behind my bed a french grey colour & the wardrobe which you cannot see swedish blue!. Our home has a beach feel to it & I like that. 

I have been squealing with delight since the bed arrived the comfort of it compared to the old bed. Shoes & bags do not compare!(not that I am a shoe or bag person really!) 

Even though the emergency fund is gone , it felt nice to pay for it in cash & not credit

Night x x x

ps hope you do not hear me snoring!

The day After

The morning after I did that brisk walk. I woke up and my muscles felt so achy & I felt generaly tired. To be honest I have felt pretty achy & tired since.  I do not work full time. I do my little cleaning job & a few ironing jobs each week.  I would like to work more hours & I am not making excuses.  In a month I spend so much of it feeling tired & washed out. Heavy periods do not help the matter I must admit. I have had blood tests as I have sometimes suffered with anemia.  In general I put my tiredness down to low mood/ depression. I swing from feeling ok to feeling weepy.  I wish I did not but as you know when you feel like that you just cannot help it.  I really could not handle working a block of hours.  I have been on prozac/ floroxitine for over 3 years it is a 20mg dosage. Sometimes I wonder if that has given me a general malaise.  I want to stop taking it one day but also feel terrified that lots of feelings of anxiety/panic will come flooding back. I do feel a degree of it anyway.  Sometimes it is all so wearing.  I can come across as pretty upbeat & sometimes I do feel pretty upbeat.  Its inside that we hold it.  DD has been staying all week (!) funny how I am worn out now?!.

So today to help myself I am going to eat more fruit & drink more water & only have 1 cup of tea. I drink far to much tea that coupled with anxiety can sometimes give me palpitations.  I think it is hormonal to as they can be on either side of a period to.
I have booked to have some low lights, cut & blow dry next week as well at a cost of £55.00 in total. I need a little treat & sometimes I look in the mirror and see these dark circles under my eyes.  So i thought a hair treat would be a good place to start. I need a little pampering!
I love this website I saved this article
 http://zenhabits.net/55-ways-to-get-more-energy/

How do you relax & do you get stages of feeling weepy/ weary?

Walkies!

I walked to the post office & back today to post my ebay parcels.  This is about a 20 - 30 minute each way. 

In the evening I put by black leggings & t-shirt on & popped my trainers on.  I went on a brisk walk which lasted somewhere between 45 -60 mins. I enjoy brisk walking. I would not feel fit enough to jog yet!.  I feel that brisk walking is something you can introduce in to your routine more easily. Its the keeping it up part that needs attention!  When I am walking along I love the feel of the breeze, the smell of the fresh air.  I love the fact that it does not cost anything this form of exercise.  Apart from that it is meant to be good for stress & your feel good factor.  My aim is to fit in 3 brisk walks a week the other walks are extra ones (ie that post office one!)

I do have a couple of exercise dvds a Claire Sweeny Perfect Fit one. I have had that one for years in my cupboard!. I did used to do it more regualar. I kept it as I do really like the dvd. You can fit in as little as 10 minutes  if you wish. I also have Pilates for dummies which is good to (not to difficult). 

Food wise today I was better than what I have been. Dinner portion size was sensible!. All the little decisions hopefully will add up eventually.

             

Mini Goals Ready For Monday!...

Since I have been awol from my blog I have lost focus in all areas. I lost focus on trying to lose the weight. Lost focus on trying to be good with money. I guess blogs are good!, for motivation & keeping you on the path you are trying to keep to!. 

Mini Goals For Week Beginning Monday 9th April 

Health Goals

• To eat really healthily this week.  Stick to breakfast , lunch & dinner with fruit as a snack. To really watch my portion size.
• To go for a power walk ( well brisk!) at least 3 times this week. Need to use willpower here
• I have 3 skirts that are to tight that I really love & want to get into again!

Finance Goals

• To keep a spending diary
• To really try hard this week & keep spending to only what is neccesary 
• Sort out whats going out & whats coming in

Personal Goals

• Try & be more organized
• Wake up & be more positive
• Take each day as a new day
• Take time to notice the smaller things each day, appreciate the smaller things that if you sometimes do not, you probably do not notice & can slip by easily
• Count your blessings each day
• Do not dwell on things. 
• Stop carrying so much hurt around inside & move forward   

  
"Willpower is nothing but the power of choice. When you begin to see the choices in each of the decisions that you make,and start to consciously choose what you decide on, you will develop a good amount of willpower".
I will work on these mini goals this week & work at willpower to! 

Yo yo!

Its a long time since I have posted. I did not mean for so much time to elapse between my blog posts.  I would love to say life has been peachy!.  Having DD is hard work.  I also guess having not being able to shake of my low mood is hard sometimes. As sometimes I feel ok, sometimes not & sometimes plain fed up.  I try not to give in to it.  I stopped seeing the counsellor & will have a Cbt workshop in May time. 

I have been planting tomato plants given to me by my nice neighbour. I have also planted some runner beans.  Spending time in the garden & sunshine is nice.  I have been doing lots of ironing!. I have even posted out some postcards locally advertising !. Nothing has come back yet. 

The holiday fund & emergency fund took a big hit as we needed to get a new bed.  All of a sudden it seemed that we could feel the springs & wires in our bed.  We decided on a Silentnight bed & spent quite a bit on it as well as a headboard.  We are waiting for it to be delivered.  We had a cream iron bed with brass finials on before & this time we decided on comfort opposed to what it looked like firstly!.  It was nice to be able to pay for it with cash upfront & we did feel gutted to that the holiday fund & emergency fund took a big dent.  Still hopefully we will get super sleeps! & be full of energy!

Since I have been away from my blog I feel like my money saving & frugalness has vanished. I think you bloggers make me more motivated with your frugalness.  I need to seriously get back on the money saving wagon & re jig the finances as it is all in array!. 

Will be back tmrow with a To Do List & Agenda! xx