What a Day........and its only 12.49!

Well

I decided this morning to give growing my own another go.
Sadly last year my greenhouse took a battering with the delightful Welsh weather and all the fun that living on top of a mountain near the coast brings so I have had to spend on a smaller new growing space.

£11 for a cloche set in Wilkinson's but it should do the job nicely.

I did try last year but went a bit 'gun ho' and tried to grow everything , which ultimately wasnt great because I quite frankly lost interest when the bad weather hit and then it all went to pot fairly quickly.

This year I have decided to be sensible and focus on a few things well rather than lots of things badly.

So I have brought myself
Cloche ~ £11
Seed trays ~ £1.25 for 3
Seed Tray Trays ~ £1.50 for 3
A window tray propergator with lid ~ £2.50
A kitchen garden pot (sweet bell peppers) ~ £1.25
Cucumber seeds ~ £1.60
Tumbling Toms ~ £1.60
Lettuce leaves ~ 98p
Spring Onions ~ 80p
Peas ~ £1
Cress seeds ~ £1.59

All in all costing £25.07

I already have a giant bag of compost though out the back that Owen got me from CountryWide and he works down the road from it so hopefully I will manage to get over there at some point to check out what they have got in there.

I brought the cress for the kids - Ben is fascinated by nature and wants to grow something so him and Holly cna both grow Cress - I also found these little hedgehog growing kits in B&M for 89p so have brought them one each as well

A fair bit of the veg we have brought we will eat and use. In the summer months too my mother in law tends to invite us over for BBQs quite a bit so at least this year I should be able to provide the salad for them and she is also a keen salad eater - but she has wild rhubarb and an abundance of strawberries that we can exchange between us which is nice.

In other news - Mabel is in heat so her and Bruno are in separate rooms at the minute. I hate the idea of dogs being intentionally bred for a profit and am a big supporter of rescue centres. I just don't understand why people would willingly add to the dog population when there are so many lovely dogs needing homes already. I just cant understand it. She is still a bit grumpy with Bruno (understandable at the minute though) but we have realised its only when he is near her seat, when he is on the other sofa with me, and she comes over to see him they are fine, and they will touch noses, he will sit on the sofa and she sits on the floor nicely with about a foot space between them but still no attacks or anything which is very good news for us........still going slow and steady. (should reiterate that we do allow Bruno in the living room in the evening but only when Owen and Me are both home, he sits on one sofa with one dog and I sit on the other sofa with the other dog)

I am somewhat upset with Bruno at the minute as well. I brought a nice pack of chicken drumsticks today which I intended to herb/spice up and cook for tea and owen was going to take the leftovers to work wel I cma home from shopping to find Bruno had been in the fridge, ripped open the new packet and helped himself to 2 possibly 3 (cant remember for the life of me how many were in the pack) que much frantic-ness from me - especially since I cancelled Bruno's insurance policy the other day to add Mabel so both dogs were covered and it has another 5 days before it starts. but after some research I have read about the BARF and the RAW food diet dogs can eat which includes chicken bones and apparently that they were raw is a good thing as they are softer and easier to chew, most that may happen (touch wood) is that he may have an upset belly for a day or two.........lets keep fingers crossed that this is the case.
Also suggested to Owen that when we brought Mabel home my boss gave me a box of Bakers Meaty Meals ball things, which we tried her on and she wouldn't eat them so we gave them to Bruno to try just to use them up as I didn't want to waste them and they have a laxative effect on him since he is an older doggy - so we finished the box last night but I'm wondering whether to go and buy another box and feed him a few to help things pass through smoothly if that makes sense.
Should also add I now have a baby lock on the fridge as well.

Right so on that note Im off now to find something else for dinner and let him out for a bit.

Talk soon and I'll be back later with an update.

Sammy
x x x x

Food Banks are struggling.....

So I have had a busy few days de-cluttering the house in preparation for Benjie going back to school. In fairness as much as I love and adore my son - my poor house needs to find its floors again.....its amazing how large a tornado a 2 year old and an 8 year old can make if left alone for 2 seconds!

Although I did wake up to this posting this morning

( if anyone would like to read the article I read its here )

It does really make you wonder what is going to happen in the future but I think it has made me more determined than ever to make sure my food stores are stocked and in order.......having learned the hard way as well this month....Owen was paid early in December to cover him for Christmas. He currently has £30 to last him until the 31st and I have £28 in my bank to last until the 15th....which is only a week away and to me that is completely do able but I was thinking about it - what if I needed money? what if there was an emergency? If Owen needs money for fuel for work then what will we do? well we would be stuck is the only answer because we have no savings at all.

Another scheme I saw that was linked to from this story was that local food banks are struggling to feed people now because the demand is so high, that deeply saddens me and makes me all the more aware that the world is changing and so has many peoples mentalities towards food storage/preparation and sensible buying.

My parents divorced in 1999, me and my sister stayed with my dad whilst my mum left. She found a place with her friend but was later abandoned by her friend to take on all the bills herself. After 6 months I was told by a family friend that my mum was literally living on hand outs from neighbours - she was living on biscuits basically - and had been for months. I hadn't spoken to my mother since she left but bit the bullet and decided to leave my dad to move in with her. Knowing full well my mum would get child benefit for me and that she would at least have a little bit more money coming in that she could claim and therefore feed herself. I had many cheap/make do/ leftovers from the pub meals (my mums second job was in a pub) and they never did me any harm.....in fact they probably toughened me and my sister up a bit.

Now my mum is back in the same position. She is relying on my sister to feed her (my sister has 3 kids to support) because my mum simply cant afford to feed herself.

This has given me something to think about and ponder for the day.

A busy few days.......

Sorry all

The last few days have been busy

Wednesday I went shopping, I had £100 of New Look vouchers from Christmas to spend so I decided to make use of them whilst Owen had his last day off work and I would be child free to bargain hunt and browse for a change.

I got a lift in with a neighbour and treated myself to lunch - a jacket potato with butter and a hot chocolate - which cost me £2 in the little local cafe.

As for my shopping trip - I came home with the following

So I did have a productive shop. I still have £50 to spend on it if anything ever comes up - or as gifts etc or if I need an outfit for an occasion  I needed shoes desperately though as my work ones are worn to the point my toes are going to come out of them soon and so they needed replacing and tops I have I tend to buy things I can swap between.
I think I literally own maybe one pair of jeans, two pairs of legging and 2 pairs of work trousers, and maybe about 6 tops. Oh and a dress and I will possibly buy a new top if I have to go out somewhere but even then they tend to be sale items and I rarely if ever go out. I have 3 hoodies, two were gifts and one I brought with a load of vouchers from my last birthday. I'm useless at shopping though but I liked the things I had this time round

Other things I have gotten done the last few days
- I baked a chocolate cake using my new food processor again - minus the almost amputating a finger, it didn't last the day though but have finally found my perfect cake recipe.
- made myself a bill book (my mum had one of these and she recorded every penny meticulously) so I decided to do the same and have already looked into just what I could have left if I am strict with myself with money and spending.
- planned a food shop that will stick to my new food budget and take into account some store cupboard stocking up items
- I have been to work and did come home with a good few items that were 'labelled waste' that I rescued because I didn't want to see them in the bin

• 3 packs of 6 mini fajita wraps
• 2 swedes
• 2 blocks of mature cheddar cheese
• 3 Peters Steak and Kidney Pies

I've since frozen the cheddar, the pies and the wraps. I will spend tomorrow blanching the swede and getting that frozen as well.

I will post pictures tomorrow of my new bill book and will put up a draft list of my shopping plans as well. I'm hoping I will be able to use a few vouchers as well to save a few pennies here and there.
I've also enlisted my mother in law as well, and we have decided that we will be taking a trip to Aldi or Lidls to have a look there too together. I'm thinking too that pound land and the 99p store in town might be worth having a look in for cleaning stuff and a few cheaper food bits.

Right until then, I will bid you all goodnight

x Sammy x

Rain and Pantry talk

Well it is torrential rain today which has been hammering the windows all night.

Now I know there are jokes about Welsh weather but this is ridiculous. The River that runs through our village from the mountains is very high at the minute - thankfully we live on top of a mountain so it does affect us too much but our village is somewhat prone to weather damage.

It is in a valley with 3 available exit points. One road has a very steep hill to access it, over the river, and some may remember a few years back a couple had their Christmas ruined because a mudslide came through the back of their house? Yes that was from this road. It is subsiding rather badly despite our councils best attempts to re-inforce it.
The second exit way is the shortest to town but the road is prone to flooding and the valley wall is weak so there are regularly mudslides with too much rain - it is currently half closed at the minute.
The third is prone to mudslides but means you have a 40 minutes detour to get somewhere that usually takes 10 minutes.

That said I love my little welsh valley.

This is the view from my back door. We regularly see paragliders over the mountain and horses playing.

This is the same mountain but you can see somewhat further down the valley and my garden

My village by dusk when Im out walking Muttley.


Also I spent most my shift thinking about extra food storage yesterday - Im still stumped with the cupboard but was thinking about maybe boxes that I can store elsewhere in the house as sort of a mobile pantry - my nan use to have a little cupboard under the stairs that she'd use.
Sadly the only other available space I have like that is in our bedroom and its literally a box cupboard - its about 3ft square but full height which I could convert but it is also apparently a portal way to Narnia and I'm scared that if I go in to clear it out I may never be seen again.
So anyway whilst I was in work last night I found these boxes

and Im thinking I can fill them with cans/packets/non perishables and store them elsewhere in the house. We also have lots of the empty fruit and veg crates - little and large - that are stackable which I think might be a handy store system too - its just finding space now.

This sounds ridiculous too but our bed is broken. Its been broken since we moved to this house (2 years in May!) otherwise the larger crates would have been able to live under the bed with no problem at all and there boxes could have had little covers made and used as small bedside tables. I think that may be my first thing to try and save some money for or to try and find on freecycle - a new bed frame.

The one we have is lovely but my partner Ow is not very DIY savvy and would much rather go to his shed and play with his motorcross bike or sit playing on the computer than do any kind of work round the house. Hence the reason its been broken for 2 years and I have no idea how to fix it, although I can reuse the wood from it to hopefully make myself a veg planter and the slats if I save them will be turned into shelves. I think maybe I will make that my goal this year - to learn how to complete small DIY projects..........could do with a few shelves putting up

Right I had better get on and feed the kiddiwinks

x Sammy x