A creature of habit...

Routine and habits - those ways that one is accustomed to - seem to have a lot to do with spending patterns, I think.  My posts have slowed down in the last couple of weeks.  This is not because I have lost interest in the project or feel less passionate about writing about it; instead I think I have simply got used to spending less.  I go to the shops less, I have a constant mantra in my head when I do go shopping:  "do I really need it?" and when I shop on-line I search for the best deal often instead of buying now I just 'save my basket,' to give me time to decide whether what I am buying is really essential.

So I seem to have adjusted, and although there are still plenty of topics to write about and areas to improve in terms of making savings, it seems as though acquiring things has lost its appeal to me!  I will continue with my weekly thoughts, but I think the focus in the next few weeks with be clearing, fixing and mending.  I have been spending the last few weeks methodically clearing through each room in the house.  At the end of each tidying session, I am left with the satisfying sight of less clutter on the surfaces and full bin bags separated into rubbish, recycling and charity shop piles.  I am nearing the end of my mammoth clear-out and I still feel I could have been more ruthless, but it is a good start.  My next job is to tackle the dining room chair cushions and the ever increasing pile of darning... all creative jobs which I look forward to embarking on; probably a year ago I would have thrown away those things and bought new ones.  Much more satisfying to fix what I have and appreciate those lovely things for a little longer!

More fun for free

Finally today we had a lovely sunny day and so we went for a really nice walk by the river.   However, these warm days are few and far between.  Thinking of days out when it is pouring is a bit more difficult - especially if you don't want to spend money.  So how about this:

Rain was beating down on the windscreen as we were all ready to go to some jubilee celebrations, but couldn't quite face a parade in this rain.  I looked to my husband in the car wondering what we should do, and he responded: "Let's go to see the tropical fish at Arturis" (a local garden centre).  I was a little shocked and not sure whether to quite believe him, but he was serious!  With no better ideas, we trundled down to visit the fish.  It was quite a revelation: we spent at least half an hour looking at all the different kinds of fish and all the high-tech tanks.  It was only then that my husband confessed that this is what he used to do with his family on a rainy day as a regular outing!  After our visit to the fish, we had a cheap lunch out at the garden centre cafe.  It was still raining when we came back home a couple of hours later, but we thoroughly enjoyed our little trip out and then snuggled up on the sofa to watch a film and have a cup of tea - satisfied by our achievement of a surprise cheap day out!

Baby products

My daughter surprised us all the other week when she simply sat on her potty and did a wee!  Hooray - outgoings will certainly go down significantly when I no longer need to buy nappies and wipes.  Having children certainly adds to the bills every month.  I guess in a lot of ways, the first child is the most expensive because after that at least you have the basics, and some clothes to hand down to the others.

I fondly remember those first shopping trips to Mothercare and other stores to buy brand-new lovely baby paraphernalia!  It is exciting - and such a milestone in your life - that it is only natural to want all-new bright things for the new addition to your family - assuming that finances can stretch.  However, as time goes on and baby budgets become depleted, you start to learn all the tricks of saving money as a parent.  First of all, there seems to be an awful lot of stuff that is never needed at all!  If you are lucky to have friends and family who have also recently become parents, then they are generally a font of knowledge for what is really needed and what can be done without.  We were lucky to buy both cot and pram second-hand from a friend, which is a good start.  Then there is always e-bay (a huge section for children), and the National Childbirth Trust (N.C.T) local sales, where both clothes and toys are very cheaply bought and can always be found in good condition.

We tried the cloth nappy option with our first baby, but seemed to be doing about 6 washes a day, as he seemed to leak down his legs every time!  There is a wealth of choice when it comes to which type of cloth nappy would suit your child's shape - but we learnt that a little too late, and eventually opted for the disposable eco-nappy route. This doesn't save money, but did make me feel a little better about using disposables!

I suppose my biggest bug-bear about spending money connected to babies is all the marketing that's focused on baby goods - and especially that relating to bottle-feeding.  I understand that a proportion of mothers will be unable to breast-feed, for various reasons, but otherwise so much seems to depend on having good support to surround mothers in sustaining breast-feeding.  I will try not to be militant here, so for the purposes of this blog it would suffice to say that it certainly cuts down a lot on cost and preparation to use breast milk.  Then there are the purpose-made baby foods.  It was only the other day that I discovered foods can be labelled organic if they only have 14% organic ingredients.  This was a great shock to me as this food is more expensive, but many mothers, if able to afford it, would give it to their babies on the premise that it is so important to feed your child good quality organic food.  As we have had more children, we have been more relaxed about giving our children specific baby food.  Our third more or less forced baby weaning on us, for example, by demanding a bite from the banana I was eating!  The ready-made foods certainly have their uses for travelling etc. but generally I think home-made is best - as well as being so much cheaper. By the time they are one year old, most babies are able to eat much more which looks like grown-up food rather than puréed mixtures!

Since I started this post, our daughter has decided that nappies are much more convenient, so the dreaded potty training may take longer than first anticipated - but nappy-free days are still in sight!

Our adventure without electricity!

Well, our first attempt didn't go too well.  I got up on Sunday 3rd June, went downstairs and switched on the kettle - whoops!  It is just so automatic, so much taken for granted that the hard bit is not living without the power but remembering not to use it as it is just there!

By the time it had dawned on all of us that we were not meant to be using electricity, it was 10am and more or less every appliance had been used already that day!  Oh well, I am not easily deterred, so the plan was to try again tomorrow - as it was a Bank Holiday it is a similar day to a Sunday in terms of not needing to rush off to work etc.

Take 2: Monday, 4th June - this time it worked better.  The main difference was that we made sure we told the children what we were going to do, just before they went to bed, so that they remembered not to turn on lights etc in the morning.  Tea was made using a saucepan of water on the gas hob, the battery radio kept us company in the kitchen and the children were turfed out into the garden sooner than usual.  The novelty of living without television did not last long for our 6-year-old son who had just discovered the film of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.  He can be defiant and disobedient when he wishes, but for some reason he did listen and didn't try to sneak the t.v. on; instead we just had to put up with half-hourly questions about whether we could watch "Harry Potter now?".  Mid-morning snack for the children and coffee made in an old-fashioned cafetiere gave us energy to take our dog out to the park.  This was a normal outing for the children, so they forgot about moaning and just enjoyed scooting in the park.

Tea will be ready soon!

Lunch was fried vegetarian sausage sandwiches, and then the afternoon was spent pottering about in the garden.  As soon as Leo was taken out of the environment where he was reminded that he could be watching the film, he was soon occupied in whatever activity we encouraged.  He very enthusiastically re-potted a tray of sunflower seedlings into individual pots with me, and I managed to do all the sowing of onion and sweet-pea seedlings into the ground, and pot up some lettuce and tomato plants into larger pots to encourage their growth.  The rest of the day was taken up with playing Blockus (a board game), whilst Felix started the industrious task of designing and drawing superheroes made from fruit to occupy him and his brother.

Playing Blockus

So while watermelon-man and banana-superdog came to life, Chris and I managed to get the picnic together for the jubilee celebrations that we were having with my Mum and Step-dad in their village.  After a couple of hours of yummy food and listening to a brass-band, we returned to our naturally lit house to get stories read to the children and into bed before the light faded from the windows.  All achieved and finished with a romantic hour of listening to the Royal jubilee concert broadcast from Radio 2 on our little battery-radio in the dark!

Off the grid!

Finally been pushed to go for it - so here it is, one day a week without electricity.  The final straw was my husband and sons frequently checking for dragons on an on-line game that they have started.  The bad news is that as you create your own kingdom etc, it never ends!!  So, I had had enough of losing my family to the big computer screen up the stairs.  What better way to make your feelings known than to announce a day without electricity once a week.  My husband had promised that the computer won't be played at weekends any more, but still - this will force them to put on their sandals and join me in the sunshine.

Here are the rules: simply cannot use electricity!  So that means out with the phone, television, stereo,  radio unless battery-powered, lights, computer games (hooray) or anything to do with the computer, kettle and oven.  I will allow gas - just so I can at least cook hot food on the hob and make the essential cups of tea, as well as heating water for washing-up and baths.  Also, no use of the dishwasher or washing machine!  This is going to be fun - or at least a challenge.   With a lot of my challenges this year, I start off small and then can always expand the remits - either by having more days without electricity or by adding more restrictions - i.e. no power at all.  I will start off allowing the use of the  fridge and freezer (stopping use of these appliances would be wasting a lot of money on food that has already been bought), for me this is about making my family aware of how dependent we are on electricity and about breaking the lazy habits of watching t.v. and using the computer.

The family have been warned, the rules will be posted on our fridge, and Sunday 3rd June will be the first day.  Will let you know how we got on in my next post!

Fun things to do in the Spring which are free

Make an ice dog for fun!  Saturday chores were being done while the children played out in the garden.  My husband had managed to de-ice the freezer which was beginning to get difficult to close!  So a bucket-full of ice sat in the garden in a bowl...but not for long!  That is what I love about children's creativity: they are brilliant at making things out of whatever is around them.  Felix then comes in to say he would like me to see his ice-sculpture of our dog.  Picture to follow, as we have had trouble uploading the photo of the said ice-dog.  Instead, here is some inspiration for ice sculptures found on google images:

With windy, wet weather like we have been having for most of the months of April and May, our cosy home has felt like the most appealing place to be.  Board games, baking, and getting wrapped up in all-in-ones and wellies for a splash in the puddles have been the main activities for us in the last couple of months.  Looking on the bright side of having miserable weather - I think you tend to spend less on days out!  Gardens, farms and other family-friendly venues are always much better in the sunshine.  Talking about sunshine, it is the beginning of fete season. The weather has only just decided to catch up with the season and give us some sunshine in the last couple of days, but fetes have been happening regardless - "the show must go on in the English countryside".  Although not free, they are often cheap and great days out - lots for the children to do: face painting; lucky dips; bouncy castles and yummy home-baked cakes.  For me and my husband, the highlights have to be the plant stalls and book stalls where we often find a bargain or two.  I went to my first fete of the year a couple of weeks ago with instructions from my husband (who was away) to buy tomato plants.  My attempts to grow them from seed do not seem to have been completely successful - and perhaps were started a bit late!  So, for £3.00 I came home with 2 of the Alicante variety and 4 Moneymaker, plus a handful of books (75p for 3 paperbacks, as I just visited the stall at the right time when everything had been reduced to half-price!)  The children were given some pocket money and spent it on a soft toy each plus a couple of rides.  50p for a dragon seems like a good deal to me!

My inspiration to write this post today was our afternoon activity, over a cup of tea and piece of cake after a breezy walk on the downs with our dog:  we made collages, using today's newspapers, of Chelsea'swin in the final of the Champions' League.  My husband has been a loyal supporter from the age of 6 and has now indoctrinated his children.  I am fighting a losing battle, so I thought at least I could have some input by encouraging a creative activity connected to this big event for all of us!!!!  I quite enjoyed my cutting-up of little pictures, and the children were delighted to have these to stick onto their pieces of card with a glue stick. All for the price of a couple of papers!

Now, with the hot weather finally appearing, "the world is our oyster" with plenty of gardening to do, and more opportunity to enjoy the outdoors!

Seeds emerging...

I'm beginning to see rewards for all the sowing I did in the greenhouse back in March.  Broad beans which started off like the one below are now 8-10 inches tall in the vegetable patch and doing really well. The journey for the courgettes has been more rocky - one shop-bought courgette plant survived and one of my ones planted from seed too; both are doing well.  I have also had donations from my Step-Dad to my collection of courgettes, sunflowers and herbs which is great!

Our broad been seeds beginning to sprout - more photos to follow soon!

Snails have been doing their best to spoil my fun in the greenhouse which is very disheartening.  They destroyed a courgette, most of the dahlias and were also slowly working through the cucumbers!  So, the kitchen window-sill has now become an extension to the greenhouse. I'm also using space in the conservatory as a haven for plants - I will not be defeated by snails!

The weather was so wet in April - and also very mixed this month in May - that the appeal of the garden has lessened: I do like it warm and sunny if I am going to work out in the garden!  Anyway, regardless of a few missed days of watering here and there, everything is still doing fine and I'm now moving on to the next stage of thinning out the seeds and planting out.  I have to remember that in a few months time I will be eating my own produce and then all the trials and tribulations will look to have been worth it!

Dreaming of strawberries to come!