Back to Normal

Well as normal as we can be.

Tom has settled into college althouigh there was an initial hiccup in that one of his 'A' level subjects was no longer being offered (Sport of all things).
David has settled back into school ok; and myself and Dave are now both back at work.

There has been a definite coolness in the air the last few mornings and certain veggies are no longer growing, so it is time to clear out these and look at the next stage.

We have chopped down a couple of trees and cleared a good space in the back garden as we need to have a new oil tank and it has to be sited in a different place.

We still have swede, parsnips, carrots, spring onions and leeks in the garden and tomatoes, cucumbers and both bell and chilli peppers in the greenhouse; there are also some all year round cauliflowers which we are trying under a netting cage.

We have been fairly lucky in that although some crops haven't produced huge amounts it has been enough for us as a family, and we have given some away of others as well.

The potatoes we grew in old compost bags were delicious, so we will be doing that again next year.

I will have to have a look at my menu plans as some days we need an evening meal which can be served at varying times due to Tom's time of arriving home and other activities.

Apologies

I feel I should apologise for my lack of posting, but life has just gotten in the way.

We have been getting the garden sorted, trying to fill as many gaps with produce  so that we can reduce our grocery bill. The idea being that we grow enough veg so that the veg box delivery will incorporate fruit as well so that is taken off the supermarket list.

I am still making 99% of our bread, buns, cakes etc it is only really when I'm short on time that I purchase items.

As myself and the boys have been off school this week and there has been a day out with friends dinners have not been from the menu plan, but have still used bits up from the freezer.

Another thing we need to look at is that we have to pay for the college bus for Tom now instead of it being a free pass, so that is another £300 per year to find, plus books and along with an increase in car insurance of £130 per year and then general increases as normal, so we need approx an extra £500 for normal living expenses. So this is where I'm hoping the garden will help.

I'm hoping to have a stall at a local car boot sale in a couple of weeks time which will hopefully get rid of some clutter and also be an outlet for some of my jams that i have been making.

Wet & Windy

Well  the weather has changed to wet and windy, the rain is very welcome as it means the whole ground will gat a good drink not just the areas we choose to water.

All the veggie seedlings are doing well despite the lack of water.

Dave had a work trip to holland last week but is now home safe and sound; and Tom starts his GCSEs today properly.

Both boys decided to measure their heights at the weekend, Tom is now 171cm so 1cm short of 6ft and David is 163cm so 5ft 5 inches.
They are both still eating for England and I can never seem to keep them full.

Dinners this week will be taken from summer menu 4 with possibly a couple of changes due to the boys activities.

I hate to say it and wish the time away but I can't wait for things to be ready in the garden, there is so much enjoyment from picking and eating something you have nurtured from a seed which then provides food for the table.

Hopefully things will continue to grow as they have and we will see the benfits soon.

Back to "normal"

Well today saw the boys both back to school this morning after 2 long weeks of holidays. I am also back at work today; could have quite gotten used to not having to go in.

Although this week we are on a 3 day week owing to a bank holiday monday and the Royal Wedding on friday.

The seedlings are coming on in leaps and bounds in the greenhouse and just need to be bit bigger then they will be put to harden off outside for planting on towards the end of May.

We are also creating a wild flower area in one corner of the back garden which will hopefully attract some beneficial insects especially bees.

I need to get some jam made to use up the remainder of the blackberries and gooseberries from the freezer from last year, although I may just save a couple of bags of blakberries just in case i don't get any this year.
Dave wants me to put a stall outside selling it, good idea in essence but we are on a no through road so no passing cars, but maybe if I make some and if it doesn't go could have a stall at the next carboot sale in the village.

Meals this week are from Summer Menu 1, but if the idea for a bbq takes us then obviously things will be jigged around.

Into the Last Week before a Break

We have started the last week of school/work before we all have some time off.

Myself and the boys get 2 weeks as school holidays and Dave has a week off taken as annual leave.

This will be good in that apart from one day where I arranged an appointment for first thing we can get up without the alarm, which will be so much better for our bodies.

Dinners this week are from menu 2. I will probably during the time off have a revamp of these to incorporate some lighter type meals.

I have been looking at our household budget to see if we can make any savings on the day to day expenses, not just the normal monthly bills which I already try to keep as low as possible. I know that one area will be better once we start getting some produce from the garden, as obviously this will reduce the grocery bill again.
Another area which I have been monitoring closely is petrol, I try to incorporate as many things into each outing as possible, thereby keeping the consumption down.

I have been baking more snacks etc for the boys and Dave to eat either as part of their packups or when they need something but its too far from dinner. I have made sausage rolls, corned beef & onion pasties, weetabix chocolate brownies and fairy cakes as well as the daily loaf of bread and extra garlic bread when we need it for a meal. The boys will often have a sandwich as a snack which is a good way of filling them up enough to keep going , but not too much that they don't want thei dinner. There is also always fruit and yogurt available.

Week Commencing 7 March 2011

We are eating from menu 2 this week although there will be a couple of changes to incorporate Pancake Day on Tuesday.

We have awoken to a clear blue sky with sunshine; yipee!! It is lovely to hear the birds singing their little songs.

I had a bit of a declutter from my computer desk so quite a few papers etc which were no longer needed have gone into the recycling bin. Landfill rubbish was only a carrier bag size so all is good there.

Tom has an interview at one of his chosen colleges this week; along with all the football ,karate and snooker which both boys are doing, this just adds to the already hectic schedule for evenings.

Freezer Update

I defrosted the big chest freezer yesterday, and apart from a couple of loaves of bread which had to be given to the birds there were no surprises.

Unless you count the 2 large carrier bags of bananas (approx 50) Banana Cake anyone?

There was also more rhubarb and blackberries than I thought but they will be used soon.

The freezer doesn't seem as full now but that might have something to do with the 2 inches of ice which were in the bottom.

I have to take the car to the garage today but will make a big batch of Banana Cake later, some of which can go into the freezer for the future.

I will sort the larder freezer tomorrow, but at least there is now space for the contents to go into the chest one whilst I sort it.

Half-term holidays

The boys and myself are on half-term from school this week.

We won't be doing much, just kicking back and chilling.

There are a couple of jobs I need to do; I have 2 large freezers, a shop size chest freezer in the shed and a larder freezer in the kitchen; my plan was to defrost and organise the chest freezer, but Dave left the door on the larder one ajar at the weekend so although nothing spoiled, it now needs defrosting as well.

The boys are planning on having lie-ins most mornings, and then just chilling with their friends.

Week Commencing 14 Feb 2011

The menu plan is now running on a 4 week rotation so I won't bore you all with the details every week; I'll put the 4 week plan up on the sidebar.
Suffice it to say we are on week 3 this week.

Dave is still working long hours which means that most of the household chores, running around is left to me.

The weather here has been mixed to say the least, with wet cold days, dry clear cold days , and windy sunny days.

Laundry has been and will be pegged out onto the line weather permitting, or the indoor airer if not.

I have had to order some more heating oil but I'm hoping this will now last us until the summer and we will be back on track, don't really want to have to find an extra £300 for 500 litres.
We usually have 500 in July/August and 500 in February, well this winter we had to have 500 in November as well, although there was a little of that left but not enough to last through and the minimum order is 500 litres.

I will be sorting through my seeds soon and deciding what to grow this year. Some things we had too much of last year but others not enough so I need to try and get the balance right.

Garden Produce

Last night saw us eating leeks taken from the garden which had over wintered beautifully.

These I sauteed lightly in butter and served with our gammon, we also had mashed swede and carrot.

I have been very lax on the decluttering front but did make a small start yesterday afternoon, and cleared a pile of magazines; you know the ones you read and then keep for future reference to never return to.

Hopefully this will now spurr me on and i can get this moving.

menu plan w/c 7 Feb

Mon - sausage & chips

Tues - gammon, mash, veggies, parsley sauce

Wed - lasagne

Thurs - beef casserole

Fri - chilli & saffron rice

Sat - burgers

Sun - roast lamb and all the trimmings (boys will have chicken)

Menu Plan w/c 31 Jan

Mon - Fish & Chips ( fish baked in the oven, hm chips)

Tues - sausage & mash, assorted veggies

Wed - pork casserole

Thurs - mince & tatties

Fri - pasta bake

Sat - tacos

Sun - roast chicken with all the trimmings

Shopping less at the Supermarket

I have been looking at the meat pack which my butcher does £30 delivered

Fresh Yorkshire Chicken
Joint of Scotch Silverside
Corner Gammon Joint
1lb Lincolnshire Sausage
1lb Minced Steak
2 Scotch Rump Steaks
2 Lincolnshire Pork Lojn Steaks
2 Yorkshire Chicken Breast Fillets
2 Ind Scotch Steak Pies

Now I have worked out that if I buy 2 of these plus some extra sausage, pork cheeks and shin beef (for casseroles and curries), then some fish from the docks I can easily have the meat/fish for a month for approx £100 (we are big meat eaters); the meat/fish will average £3 per meal for the 4 of us.

Add in the organic veg box or homegrown veggies, fruit and potatoes from the farm shop if not the veg box, milk and dairy from the milkman, eggs from the farm gate and homemade bread, cakes and pastries.
We have the makings of good wholesome food without much supermarket shopping, maybe once a month or couple of months for tins, dry goods, household and toiletries.

Getting Back To Normal

Well yesterday saw Dave go back to work and today has seen the boys go back to school; I return to work tomorrow.

Today will be a general catch up day, which will include the following jobs:
putting clean laundry away
baking for the freezer
putting the Christmas tree and decorations away
making a birthday card for a friend

I also hope to if I have time to make a start on some decluttering, even if only one box and will take baby steps to achieve this.

NEW YEAR, NEW US!!

Happy New Year to everyone.

I am going to do a few things a little differently this year.

I will not be logging all our rubbish as we pretty much have it down to where we are putting the minimum we can for us into our landfill bin. We ended the year by having put out 12.67kg, so just over 1.0kg per month or for those who like to visualise the equivalent to a bag of sugar.

The garden is going to be more productive for us this year than last year as we have more time to get things planned, and we will concentrate on maximising our growing room.

Another thing I'm looking to do is to try and make more of the snacky things which the boys like to eat, not always easy I know but even though it hasn't produced much more packaging this last year, I feel I should be at least trying.

I am also going to be more stricter with my grocery budget and menu planning, especially as certain grocery items are subject to the VAT increase on 4 Jan.

Add into the above that I want to do some serious de-cluttering and get back into my card making then I think I will have a full year ahead.

Catching up - Life gets in the way

It seems that every time I get chance to post on here lately I'm apologising for not posting iyswim.

Anyhow we are coming to the end of the halfterm week and we all go back to school or work on Monday.

This week Dave has had the week off as well and we have just spent time relaxing and not doing much.

It has been nice not to get up to an alarm clock.

Cooking has been casual using things up or what we fancy from our stores.

We have spent some time in the garden clearing a few things away and doing some general tidying so there is less to do another day. Also doing a bit of planning ready for next year so hopefully we can grow more veggies ourselves.

Our waste management seems to have evened out and although some weeks is a little more than my target others it is under; I'm not going to be fastidious in trying to achieve the target every week we are averaging 185g per week for the last 42 weeks so not a major amount in real terms for a family of 4.

Dave is hopefully starting a new phase in his work when he goes back on Monday, he will be doing some courses but also will possibly be working different hours and days which should mean an increase in income for us; this is obviously not to be sniffed at in the current economic climate.
So I will be holding the fort more, but also will be looking at what we can still do to maximise our income and growing potential.
I know I want an apple tree and that will be sorted for next year, we have made a note of the types of veggies which grew well and which we all also liked, and will grow more of these utilising the most space available.

Catch Up

Well things have been very hectic the last few weeks.

We've had end of school items, extra work hours for me, the garden going into overdrive, plus all the usual goings on in a family with 2 teenage boys.

I have still been logging the waste we have put into the landfill bin and can reveal that over the last 4 weeks we have only put out 966g; which considering what has been going on is brilliant.

We have been eating cucumbers and lettuce galore, and now the green beans and carrots have come into there own and I am freezing down the surplus. The first tomatoes have now started to turn orangey red so won't be long before we are getting a surplus of those as well.

I also found the time (don't ask how) to make a batch of Elderflower Champagne and a batch of Pink Rhubarb Champagne; these are more like a fizzy wine but sounds better if you say champers.

Hopefully now that we are into the school hols things can settle down for a few weeks; we are however having a major declutter and doing at least one carboot sale per week, (think loft full of baby items- boys are 15 & 12).

My next plan on the cooking front is to find some brambles to be able to make some blackberry jam.

Curried Soup

I was making a batch of curry sauce to put into the freezer, as there were a few veggies which needed using including an aubergine and courgette.

I then hit upon the idea of using some of the sauce as a base for a curried type soup, so I took some aside, added in some extra spices blitzed it all with the whizz stick and added a tin of coconut milk.

Even if I say so myself, a very nice warming soup with a bit of a kick.

I wouldn't be able to ever replicate it identically but I know that basically once I have my basic curry sauce good to go then I can tweak it to make some soup.

National Baking Week

I can't believe it is National Baking Week again.

It doesn't seem five minutes since I was asking you all to go have a look last year.

Anyway if you can be bothered go have a peek again at all the lovely ideas on the website.

A Day in the Life Of

I have decided to also do a typical whilst the boys are in school and I am at work. The evenings are dictated to more by which after school activities the boys do, be it at school or individual clubs; Tom does football on a Wednesday and David does Karate on a Thursday.

6.30am - Alarm goes off

6.45am - Myself and Dave get up, we have a cup of tea, I sort his pack up and put an extra load of laundry in if needed. I also make the bread dough into whatever bread I want for the day and put to prove whilst the oven is heating, if we need cakes then these are also made at the same time.

7.15am - Daves wakes the boys, they get up and have their cereal etc, then get any last minute things sorted for school.

8.00am - Dave goes to work and the boys go to catch the school bus, I put bread and cakes into oven to bake; prepare the dinner to put in the slow cooker if using. I then peg out first load of laundry. Obviously I am checking the bread and cakes as well. The computer is switched on so it is ready for checking online banking. ( I try to do this daily)

9.00am - The second load is usually finished by now so this also gets pegged out, (On wet wintry days I use an airer to hang the laundry on) I then empty the dishwasher as this has been running overnight on economy 7 electricity. I will then put away the laundry from the day before, and quick clean the bathroom. I straighten the all the beds. Hoover the upstairs and gather laundry which will go in overnight. This is the time I would also spend half hour doing a bit of sorting out.

10.30am - Coffee break, I check emails etc again,

11.30am - I have my own lunch

11.45am - I get ready to leave for work

1.30pm - return form work, cup of tea and check emails etc, I would then spend some time reading maybe or do some extra sorting and hoover downstairs,
once we start using it I also set the coal fire so it is ready to just put a match to just before the boys come home.

3.30pm - the boys come home and raid the fridge ( both claiming starvation!!); I have usually made a plate of sandwiches and left in there, they both have school canteen dinners.

4.00pm - they are off outside with their friends.

4.30pm - Dave comes home, we have a cup of tea and catch up on the day.

5.30pm - David usually comes in does any homework and spends approx an hour on the PC on MSN, Facebook and the online games he likes. I will prepare dinner if not done earlier in day.

6.30pm - I prepare the remainder of dinner, the boys set the table etc.

7.00pm - we eat dinner, the boys clear the table, I load the dishwasher so it can be put on timer to run overnight. I also load the bread machine and set the timer. I set the washer as well on its timer. Myself and Dave will either read or watch tv.

7.30pm - The boys both go back outside with their friends, they usually come in approx 8.30pm. Tom then does any homework and has approx 1 hour to catch up with his other friends on MSN, Facebook etc (certainly cheaper than him phoning all of them).David either watches tv with us or a dvd in his room or goes on Playstation or Wii.

9.00pm - David goes to bed,

10.00pm Tom goes to bed

10.30 - 11.00pm Myself and Dave go to bed.

Once the really wintry nights come in the boys obviously don't go back outside after dinner and will probably be on the Playstation or Wii, or we play family games.

Also although I think it is good for them to get a good blow/burn some energy off when first home from school homework takes priority over the extra leisure time after dinner.

Grocery shopping would be fitted in one morning once the boys had gone to school and before I needed to be at work.