Current Themes – An Update

Once more it has been a bit of a while since popping in:

Lots to talk about so lets get started…….

Health and Fitness: 

Happily since June things have improved. In September I joined an online Pilates class after a friend recommended the instructor. I can go and do it at anytime as Susan records all her classes. Being at work does make it difficult to get to the live event.

As lockdown was lifted I went to her classes in a local hall. Only 12 of us at a time but it was much better than just doing it online as Susan told us where we were going wrong or needed to adjust a bit.

I find my legs are strong and can do most of the levels of difficulty but my arms are weak and my balance awful.

Nevertheless, it is great and I know where my strengths are and my weaknesses.

I think my legs are strong in part due to working at the allotment. one of the positions is just like the one I use when picking weeds 😀

In addition to gardening and Pilates I have restarted walking training for the 2021 Moonwalk today . I am roping my DH in as he is very sedentary now he works from home. We walked 2.5 miles this morning.

There were a few things bothering me when I last wrote. Here is an update:

Poor Sleep: Sleep managment is much better but I could still imrove things. I like to read so can’t always put my book down. Even if I do I can’t get off to sleep. I found listening to audiobooks helpful. I download a chapter at a time from the library and when I go to sleep the book stops when the chapter runs out.

I still keep the caffiene low and I sleep with the window open. Some nights hot flushes or a need to go to the loo wakes me every hour but other times I can go for three or four hours. Obviously this disturbed sleep is not helpful bit the odd lie in helps.

I stopped wearing my fitbit to monitor sleep as I was worrying more about it than necessary.

Pandemic: The pandemic has really affected lives no end but I am lucky not to be financially at risk and not be in contact with known covid patients at work. I am getting used to Dh being at home in the day. I am getting used to the socially distanced meetups I had (until the current new lockdown)

If I was to be isolated for a year I still have plenty to do.

I have been helping people at work and outside by just asking how they are and listening. I may be ok but many are not for one reason and another and I predict a wave of mental ill health as wll as the effects of long covid willbe with us for years to come form this time.

Making Money: This is an ongoing aspect of the last five or ten years when I decided to retire early ; before cancer; before covid.

Things have been going very well as it happens. I am working at selling all the stuff I have been given by people clearing out their clutter. I am selling on my books and bits of furniture. i am also buying in books at 50 pence each from the charity shop and earning on avarage £2.00 each.

Selling makes me happy but it does take time and energy. It is a quicker earner than all those surveys but is less soul destroying.

I am now less than six months away from retiring.

My savings pot has increased with refunds, selling stuff, surveys etc

1. The Mortgage. My plan to pay the whole amount off at the end of March 2021 is still going fine.
2. Holidays: I had a week away to Whitby with friends at the end of September and visited family down South. Not much has has been spent and I have put any savings towards the next available holiday which may be after retirement.
3. Pay off loan: I paid back my nephew all the money he was owed in September.
4. Emergency Fund: All pots of money for hols, car and emergencies are up to date. I can survive on saved income for four to five months if no wages come in this month.
5. House repairs and car fund: As above.

Decluttering and Minimising: The house is still full of stuff thanks to my work in the charity shop and my difficulty in letting go. The clutter is now limited to two rooms and some int eh dining room where I sell stuff. I am doing one bag or box at a time so the place doesn’t get overloaded.

Prepping: So all the prepping has been worht it and friends who may have though me abit nutty now see the point of at least a bit of forward planning.

The solar panels have been a Godsend as Dh and DD were working on computers at home all summer. DH did all the washing and the dishwasher in teh day so we actually earned some money frome selling electricity back to the grid.

The woodburner has been used but while it is mild it is at rest.

The food preps have been invaluable. As lockdown eased we bought in extra flour and sugar plus other bits. We did have trouble getting paracetamol ( known as acetaminophen in the US) locally but have now stocked up. DD has a high temp last week so we had to self isolated until her swab came back negative. It was just flu I think.

The paracetamol bought her temp down nicely. In the UK you can buy two packs of 16 at a time That is enough for four days for one adult. My argument has been that we need enough for a week for all adults in the house. So it is done. Cold cloths and ice packs only bring down the external temperature and the internal temperature will continue to rise.

One thing we ran out of quickly was fresh fruit and veg. While we had some frozen veg we had no fruit apart from some stewed apple. We will look at rectfying this in some way over thenext few weeks.

Refuse, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle: 

This last few months DH has made 8 raised beds out of pallets that a neighbour gave us as his building work took place. I have given a few away, kept some at home and took a few to the allotment.

I took a load of fabric to my niece and art supplies to her mum in July. I have cleared 75 bags of ‘stuff’ at least since January and hope to reach a hundred by New Year.

We have also removed plastic milk bottles and yoghurt pots from out recyling as it is all being delivered in glass by the milkman. We stopped this service years ago as the milk arrived after we went to work sometimes and was stolen or spoiled. Milk arrives at about 3am now.

So that is it for now. A quick update to keep you going. As retirement approaches I will be poppin gin to mull over my future plans.

A quick apology also for my tardy spelling in my post in June. It looks like I was drunk but my fingers just can’t go as fast as my head.

Take care all of you. Remember Hands – Face – Space

Current Themes – An Update

Back in after over a year away………

Whats been going on? You may well ask.

The last time I popped in was a month after my oldest Sister died suddenly at the age of 58. To be honest it knocked me off my perch. It has taken me a long time to come back here because other parts of my life have seemed more important.

I am returning to the old themes but no doubt will add to and change them as time goes by.

Health and Fitness: 

Last time I wrote I was in training for the 2019 Moonwalk in London. I didn’t get the training in that I needed but still managed to walk the 26 miles plus the other 7 to get there and back.  Happily I raised £1435.00

That was the peak of my fitness and I have fallen right back to old non energy levels

I restarted training again in February for The Moonwalk for 2020 but it was cancelled due to Covid. I haven’t maintained it. I did do a 4 mile walk with a friend the other day and I was shattered afterwards. Part of that was about poor sleep and heat.  The temperature was way above my comfort level at 30 degrees.

Two things about health that are at the forefront at the moment:

1.Poor sleep: I have been struggling with sleep for so long now I feel I will never get another good nights sleep again. Reasons for not sleeping are related to pain, restless legs, heat, stress.

Solutions at the moment have included sleeping in another room so I don’t disturb my husband, prioritisng bedtime and routine, cutting caffiene and eating late. The most important thing for me has been to deal with what is in my head before I lay down, so this week I have been attempting to sit and write to get stuff out. This seems to be helping.

I have gone part time too so I am sleeping in later some days. I just don’t feel as exhausted.

2. Pandemic: I am not at all stressed by the Pandemic. It has improved my life no  end to not go out, spend money, be awake when I want to sleep . To get things done and spend time with my family.

In march to May I often have a self inflicted ‘Lockdown’ anyway, so the timing couldn’t have been better. I am lucky to have been able to go to my allotment and have worked throguh out as the hospital.

Even if I wasn’t allowed out of the house like my in-laws who are whielding I would still have plenty to do.

Making Money:

 

Doing well this year with my target to make £2020 in 2020.

I completed the £2019 in 2019 challenge last year happily.

This is one of the challenges on the Moneysavingexpert forums. Since New Year; with all sorts of cashback, interest, sales on Ebay, refunds  and other bits.

I am now nine months away from retiring. In preparation I have gone part time. I work three days one week and two the next. This has meant a huge financial drop but feeling a lot better with more lie ins.

Having more time has allowed me to sell stuff on Z#ffitt and Eb#y plus locally.

My plans have been held up by lending my brother money to keep going during lockdown. He is self employed. He went back to work last week and is now ok again.

I have very little in the way of savings so I have rehashed everything and so have several streams of financial concern:

1. The Mortgage. My plan to pay the whole amount off at teh end of March 2021 is still going fine.
2. Holidays: A trip to Canada has been delayed no doubt until next year but a trip to Croatia is likely so I need £600 by mid July to pay the rest of the booking and £4-500 by the end of September for pocket money. This is in hand and will be done
3. Pay off loan: My Nephew lent me sonme money a while a go and that need spaying off. Halfway through and will be done by October.
4. Emergency Fund: I have enough pots of money to mak ehat I need in the emergency fund but really I want it all in one place. I have allocated some of these pots to it but also I am saving towards it with a regular amount monthly. I am over half way there.
5. House repairs and car fund: Finally, I want to get a years worth of savings in for these regular and irregular items. It will make me feel a lot happier. The emergency fund is more about if I can’t work or if DH loses his job. I have just started this so there is a way to go. Should be complete by December.

As you can see; a lot to think about but actually taking control has taken a weight off.

 

Decluttering and Minimising:

I am slowly clearing the house with bags and bags of stuff going to where it is needed, or belongs. I cleared a huge bedroom known as The Room Of Doom. I have it set up for guests but it is my room when DH is working in the week.

Just working through the house having a tidy up this week as there are bags of stuff and piles all ove rht eplace.

Prepping:

The last 6 months has really brought it home to us that planning and prepping is the right thing to be doing. Even before Covid was an issue there were concerns about food supply and Brexit.

Over the years I have been working to a more self sufficient lifestyle including having solar panels for power and a wood burner for heat. We have been toasty all winter and we don’t pay for electricity in the day. We would benefit from a battery to collect solar power but it was too much at the time.

We are doing ok for food, making a lot of food from fresh but have a good store cupboard. Now there is pressure off we need to stock up on flour and yeast, loo roll and other things we couldn’t get as lockdown happened.

We even have water which was handy when main water pipe burst a few weeks ago.

So really we have work to do but are not the worst.

Refuse, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle: 

This is an ongoing and ever changing project. DH is working from home so he has been helping repair things and make tables and other bits out of scrap wood.

One of the problems with reuse is storing and keeping all the stuff that you could use. I am now getting rid of some of that. I had a 10 inch pile of scrap paper made from the backs of letters and forms. I will never use all of that so most of it has gone for recycling.

A lot of clothes have also gone in the the great clearout of 2020.

I don’t need nearly anything really and I can’t take it with me and my DD doesn’t want it. I am not dying but if I did I would not want it to be a duty of my husband or child to have to get rid of my stuff.

Current Themes – An Update

Returning after a two month break where its all been happening and not all in a good way.

Health and Fitness: 

Currently in training for The Moonwalk again. Not doing so good due to various things but did manage a 6 mile walk the other day and I could have done more. Just short on time a bit at the moment.

I have to be Moon walk ready by May the 11th and I have committed now because I am now collecting sponsorship. I am already up to £150.00. This is very motivating.

I also have an outfit to design and make along the theme of Boogie Nights. I am hoping to use recycled materials rather than buy anything.

Making Money:

Doing well this year with my target to make £2019 in 2019. This is one of the challenges on the Moneysavingexpert forums. Since New Year; with all sorts of cashback, interest, sales on Ebay and other bits I have made £679 so far; go me.

In other news, I am 23 months from being able to retire and will hopefully be mortgage free on that date. It isn’t long and I would not have been able to even think about retiring if I had not worked at saving, not spending where I didn’t need to and overpaying the mortgage.

Decluttering and Minimising:

I have been working hard on the clearing and decluttering but not helping myself with keeping accepting other people’s stuff to take away. I have had the benefit of some great stuff for myself but most of it has been redistributed to the charity shop, people in need or sold for donations to Cancer Research.

DS2 has moved out but he had 12 bags of clothes that he hadn’t taken with him until tonight. We sorted through it and he has taken 4 bags. The rest is to be bagged and taken to the CS. From his clothing hoard I inherited 2 zip fronted hoodies.

Prepping:

The last time I wrote we were talking about a woodburning stove. Well happily we now have one. It was installed in the week and we have been able to use it as the weather isn’t particularly warm in the UK right now.

It warmed the house enough for the central heating not to have to come on.

Also on the plus side; it is A rated for energy efficiency and is up to all the European standards including some to come in in 2023

Refuse, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle: 

Since DS2 moved out our food bill has gone down, but also what we are buying has changed. We are able to stretch our food budget but also NOT buy stuff that comes in plastic. Bottled pop (soda) and squash for one. Packets of bacon in plastic.

We have started making our own bread which is turning out well. It is heavier and tastier with the quality that you get in posh cafes and restaurants with your soup.

We are lucky that we get fresh yeast from DS3’s college where he works in the kitchen. He often brings out of date or opened stuff that has to be used up to us rather than it be thrown in the bin.

We have also started eating lettuce off the allotment, our first crop this year. Sowing and planting has also started. This year we are adding kale, cauliflour, spinach and baby sweetcorn to our range of crops.

 

 

Current Themes – An Update

Happy New Year all.

Apologies for the long time btween posts. Its been a bit hectic round here as I have had the builders in for a remodel. it was worth it but I had no time for anything else.

Health and Fitness: Well I think I am as unfit as I was this time last year when I had started training for the Moonwalk. I was doing ok until the building started and them the winter set in.

I have reapplied  for the Moonwalk so I now have a deadline to work to.

I have been struggling a bit with being overwhelmed lately but this has started to ease off as the place has got tidier.

First step every time in this case is to self care. Proper bedtime, cut down on rubbish food, prioritise.

Making Money: Despite not working very hard at it DH and I made about £1990 last year with cashback, surveys etc. It would have been better but all extra activities came to a full stop. Not motivated at the moment but a box is filling up of stuff to sell online. It would be great to make the same again this year.

Decluttering and Minimising: The declutter also came to a stop in the last three months of last year. We are back on the wagon now but have an enourmous amount of work to do. Just today we cleared several boxes of clutter from the old kitchen and 3 out of 5 shelves of a tall booksehlf.

This bookshelf is one of two and both have anew home to go to once cleared, hopefully in the next week.

Still working at the Charity shop and still bringings stuff home. I have also been taking bags of stuff in. Now people know I am there they give me stuff to take which comes into the house, gets presorted, and goes right out again.

Prepping: The remodel now complete and our cupboard stores are back to normal levels. Just need to fill the big freezer which has been put in the garage. In time, when ther are only two of us we will get a smaller one but we are making do right now.

The next project which we will start looking into very soon will be whether we can put a multifuel stove in our house. We have had a few brownouts for short periods over the last few years .

They don’t last long, but everything in our house except the gas hob need electricty. We have cooking facilites in the form of a campings stove so we just need a stove to keep us warm.

 

Refuse, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle: 

So we remodelled the house but managed to reuse some items: doors, the cooker hood and double oven. We replaced the hob with one exactly the same but in better condition for £5 from Ebay. We regifted our tumble dryer and have hung onto the washing machine as it worked. My SiL kills hers on a regular basis.

The tall units are now raised beds on teh allotments and some of the shelves reused for shelves in a new alcove we have.

We have reused lots of off cuts

The appliances we bought are all very energy efficient and water saving. Any kitchen item we could reuse or regift, we have.

Finally there are some leftover bits that are unused and so  we will sell them on when we have time.

Christmas was not so good re plastic bottles. Next year I hoping to make some gifts instead of buying as I have a load of fabric and crafty bits.

Current Themes – An Update

Health and Fitness: Sadly fitness has been taking a nosedive the last few month.Since swapping cancer prevention meds I seem to have lost fitness and strength and developed more aches and pains, new ones like finger burning and joint selling, and the old ones just a bit worst.

I expect not making time for excercise, even walking is also taking its toll, plus I had a I heavy cold.

I am managing to walk an average of 9000 steps a day though but obviously I need to go above that to keep weight off and keep healthy.

Making Money: This has been a fairly good month with the two regular savers completing and being able to claim the reward. I have decided to restart selling stuff on Ebay and have had my first sale with a very small profit after charges, but it is better money in my bank than items gathering dust.

Decluttering and Minimising: The big declutter continues, forced along a bit by the need to make space for building works.

I have started working at the local Cancer Research Charity (Thrift) shop. I always wanted to do this but  children and life sort of prevented me from commitment. I have already brought a few things home, paid for I might add.  This has to stop.

I have had loads more stuff come to the house as people give me stuff for the shop. Yesterday I sorted a car load of stuff and put it all straight back into the car for delivery to the shop this morning when I do my 3 hours of sorting.

I am loving it. I do wonder at people who put in dirty socks though…… 😀

DD has now gone back to uni. A van full of stuff has gone with her and she left a bag of clothes, to be sorted, as she cleared out her wardrobe before she left.

Prepping: Prepping for the downstairs remodel continues.

This month we have run down our chest freezer and now just have a small freezer full of usable food. It sort of makes me feel vulnerable. Worst still; it has been at exactly the wrong time as the harvest of food off the allotment has not been preserved, just eaten or given away.

 

Refuse, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle: 

In line with the above we are continuing to rehome stuff from all areas of the house.

 

Current Themes – An Update

Time for an update, now its raining 😀

 

Health and Fitness: Not much going on here. I am maintaining fitness and weight rather than improving on it. I have been pretty active at the allotment hauling water which is like weight training but that is about it.

Sleepwise things are a little improves with me getting an average of 5to 6 hours sleep a night. A lot less when it has been very hot or its a Sunday night.

Hope to restart walking or the Couch to 5k soon but other things are taking my energy as I prep for some building work.

It is three years since breast cancer diagnosis. feels like a long time ago.

Making Money: I have been doing well with monitoring my spending plus money is starting to come back in that was loaned out. I am feeling a lot better about my overall finaces than I was last month.

I am still not doing surveys etc, got too much on still. There will be big outgoings in the next month as the kitchen remodel goes ahead. It is going to be money well spent.

Prepping: Prepping for the downstairs remodel continues.

In the UK we have a big event coming in March next year as we leave the EU. There is a lot of talk about deliveries being delayed and concern about food shortages; at least in the forums I am reading. We are actually ruunning down supplies as we clear the freezers and cupboards os will give this had thought about what we need for winter and beyond.

Decluttering and Minimising: In line with the above we are still decluttering very slowly, the heat and lack of sleep make a big all in one go effort virtually impossible for me.

In the last month a lot more stuff has been donated, given back or thrown away. DS and I sorted out his clothes mountain and most of it is now stored.

This week the builder has been and marked up where things are going to be. Time to finalise kitchen plans and declutter the kitchen.

Refuse, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle: 

In line with the above we are continuing to rehome stuff from all areas of the house.

Current Themes – An Update

It’s been a while, just getting on with living life. Time for an update:

Health and Fitness: Not much to report here. Been away a lot, gone to parties, festivals, a wedding and working on the allotment. It’s too hot in the UK to do any excercise at the moment and I have been so all over the place the only thing I am doing consistently is going to work. Despite all the cake, I haven’t put any weight on ( not lost any either) so  am happy

I had a look at my fitbit my sleep pattern is terrible. I am managing on between three and six hours sleep most nights, especially because it is hot. In the last three weeks I have had two night of more than six hours. I am going to cut myself a bit of slack and wait for the temperature to drop and then start the excercise properly. In the mean time I am cutting down on the bad stuff foodwise and hope to lose a few pounds.

With it being so sunny I am taking care to drink a lot and keep in the shade (I am a burner; freckled and fair). I have sun cream and antihistamines on the allotment but also in my hand bag. I am also the most likely person to get bitten.

As you can imagine, with the lack of sleep and the heat I am having to practice the fine art of pacing. I do bit, rest a bit. It works for me and I get more done than if I did a big task and exhausted myself.

Making Money: Money has been leaving faster than I would like but now I have a had a holiday I am on the money diet. Spend only where necessary and no puds or alchohol when eating out should help.

I am doing ok with bank interest and odd bits of money coming my way. I am too busy for surveys etc at the moment, besides it’s too nice to be stuck on a computer when the sun is shining. Back to all that when the usual British weather returns.

I am owed a substantial amount of money by various people and I am going to work on getting it back. I don’t mind lending it out but get a bit annoyed when no effort is made to then repay.

Prepping: A different sort of prepping is going on in my house at the moment. We are having the downstairs remodelled a bit which means taking out the kitchen for a few months. We are going to use the dining room as our kitchen and eat out of the freezer and cook on the campstove. We have a microwave and a slow cooker too so should be fine.

Decluttering and Minimising: In line with the above we have started moving stuff around. It was going to happen anyway but now there is a bit of pressure on. It started with my sister taking a load of carboard boxes from the shed to move house with. I cleared out the shed which is dry and have now moved a load of fabric into it, neatly stacked in tough plastic boxes. These and a lot more stuff was stored in DS room, but he also had a load of stuff arrive which he was storing somewhere else, he needed the room.

Downstairs there has been a bit by bit decluttering going on to allow for the kitchen to be moved. That isn’t finished yet.

Refuse, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle: Since I last wrote I have been avoiding buying drinks in plastic and takeaway cups. I am re using everything I can. Each item that leaves the house is recycled or reused in some way. Easy things like bags of books and harder things like bags of clothes that are not good enough to be reworn – these are donated to the charity shop marked for rags. The CS makes about £4.50 per bag I am told.

Reducing food waste is relatively easy as we have a freezer and we are pretty creative and accepting what we eat. DD made onion soup today out of a load of reduced price onions, home grown garlic, carrot and spud plus leftover sweetcorn and peas from last nights tea. It was delicous too.

 

Grenfell Fire Anniversary – 1 Year On

Image from Google

It is a year today since the horrific fire which killed 72 people at Grenfell Tower in London, UK.

Image: Evening Times

I for one will never forget the footage of the fire from afar on the TV. I cannot imagine how the surviving residents of the tower as well as the people who live in London, especially near the tower will ever be able to put it behind them. 

This is a wake up call for the penny pinchers. I hope they get all that is coming to them once the inquiry is over. 

In the meantime, I hope that all the survivors get what they need to find resolution, hope and for some, basic accomodation. 

Green is the colour that local school children, affected by the fire, to represent the tragedy and the community as does the green heart.

 

Image: Eastern Eye

 

Bucket List – Hay Festival

I have a long Bucket List. On it are a lot of things including sleeping under the stars to visiting a jungle.

Most people seem to think of it of a list of things to do before you die. Of course I get this but I don’t think of it like that. For me it is not a rush to see and do it all by death, but a focus to take pleasure in, to aim for more experiences things in life. I want to experience all that I can; the list is really so I don’t forget anything.

So one of the things on this bucket list was to go to the Hay Festival. This is a literature festival that takes place each year in the lovely town of Hay on Wye. It is situated on the Welsh side of the English/Welsh border in the county of Herefordshire.

http://www.hay-on-wye.co.uk/  Here is the town website.

Hay is famous for it’s bookshops of which there are over 20 situated in it’s small streets. It is also a very pleasant place to spend the day with all the other lovely shops, cafes and pubs. The famous Offa’s Dyke runs past the town. It is a 177 mile path which follows a Dyke built by King Offa along the whole Welsh border. I would like to walk it in the future but will have to wait until I retire if I want to do it in one go.

Image: Own photo.

The town started having a literature festival in 1988 and has since become one of the world’s top literary festivals. It has been on my list for a long time.

The festival runs for about 10 days but we went from Wednesday to Sunday last week. Instead of buying a ticket for a lot of money and trying to get into things the Festival organiser charge for each show. Tickets range from £6 up to over £20.00.

First night,we saw Dara O’Briain. He is doing  The Voice of Reason Tour. I laughed so much that at times I coudn’t breath.

Image:google images

It was a good start but we hadn’t booked any other tickets. We leafed through the booklet with all the acts in and decided on Marcus du Sautoy, talking about measuring infinity and I opted to go to a session talking about resilience in the NHS.

Over the next few days we say Alice Roberts (anthropologist) and Chris Bonnington (Mountaineer). There was also a storyteller giving us a taste of his book ‘The Assembly of the Severed head’.

The whole event seemed to run very smoothly apart from the odd technical hiccough.

One of the best things was that once a session was over the writer would go to the festival bookshop and sign their book. Each hour or two you could walk in to the shop and see maybe JoJo Moyes or Jilly cooper. I was pleased to see Monty Don in the flesh.

The whole experience was great and I will be going back next year.

The whole festival is held undercover, including the walkways between marquees. Some of the other more pleasing things were the areas just to sit and think like this marquee complete with chairs:

Image: my photo

Each even had a chalkboard outside which was hand drawn individually, here is the one for Alice Roberts and her 10 species that changd the world with the artist who’s name I think was James.

Image: my photo

The whole site was clean and tidy at all times. No piles of plates and cups all over the place. hay festival is the first all reusable cup festival in the world (they say) All the cups were plastic and they were all collected for recycling:

Image: my photo

Current Themes – An Update

 

Its Sunny June and time for an update.

Health and Fitness:  I have been having a rest since doing the moonwalk. One; to recover whole body fitness but also because of some ongoing foot pain I have. I have my sights set on the Couch to 5K still but I need to make sure I don’t injure myself first.

What I have found is that my fitness has definitely improved. I can work longer and harder on the allotment. The only thing slowing me down is tiredness and heat. It has been very warm in the UK over the last few weeks and I am feeling it.

Making Money: Still spending but have managed to earn a bit extra. Nothing amazing though.

Prepping: Nothing new here.

Decluttering and Minimising: I have been away or busy a lot in the last few weeks but have managed to turf out another 2 bags of books and knick knacks. DD is away for the week so I have an opportunity to get rid of some stuff out of her room.

Refuse, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle: Talking to a colleague today about cotton, washable sanitary towels. She is the first person who has said anything about them to me although I have had conversations with other women about them. Lots of Pintrest patterns available.

Went to Hay festival and they had all the beverage sellers using the same plastic cups which were collected for recycling. It shows that where there is a will there is a way.