Morning Light

 

I am determined to reduce our household utilities, when the alarm goes off at 7am it is very dark and cold in our house, one bedside lamp goes on and while OH is in the shower or having a wash I put a pair of joggers and a fleece over my pyjamas, dressing gown over the top to keep me warm, then I wake my son up put his lamp on, then I will go down stairs in the dark, and I put one lamp on in the back room..

 

  

And a few fairy lights go on in the kitchen,

 

 

It just lights up the corner of the room, I then go round and open up the blinds ready for 8.20 when we have enough natural daylight to turn them off. Make the teas and coffee flick the heating on low and then our morning routines will begin..it would be so easy to flick every light on throughout the house in the mornings and to put the heating on full blast..but when trying so save money we simply cannot afford too.

 

 

Our kitchen is an extension into the back yard and has a concrete floor and gets very cold so slippers and thick socks are a must at any time of the day but in the morning its freezing cold.. the OH and Son have left for work and school, the lights are off and I now get to have my breakfast, todays choice is porridge and a large tea (pint size) I have worked out that a small glass of porridge oats and a larger glass of milk measure out great for my porridge, bung them into a bowl and into the microwave for 4.5 mins and hey presto its ready, more energy efficient than cooking for 15 mins on the gas stove with a pan to then wash up. A large tea will fill me up for the morning and saves boiling the kettle twice for two mugs of tea...

 

Can you see a round mirror peeping up and a  fuzzy thing in the photo above?  haha I will have to reveal what that is another time there are three of them ..!! unless you can guess?

 

 

Just popped upstairs and look who is making himself comfy on my bed? .. excuse me Mr Diesel Dog

 

He says im not bothered Mummy, and then refuses to look at me.. haha..

 

 

Look at his tucked in legs awww :)

 

We have workmen digging u the road outside our house, so noisy, it unsettles poor old Deeds and he starts barking and running around the house.. I best get ready and take him out for his muddy walk, its bin day too so I need to sort that out..it seems bright but looks cold up North today so ibetter wrap up warm..

 

Due to all the bad weather that has been battling the UK I saw on Facebook last night that in Lake on The Isle Of Wight (where my parents still live) they have had another landslide on the cliff path, we were only walking on it at xmas..I forget now that I live up North that these things still effect the Islanders, any increase in wind or rain and the boats have to stop running, cutting all connections to and from the mainland, the roads flood very easily and in many areas there is only one road to get you where you are going, so if its flooded it tough your not going anywhere.. and the many landslides that happen..when I was a child in places the cliff path that you see in the photo's below was a football pitch away from the edge of the cliff drop, now its only a couple of meters away...the Island is shrinking fast...seems funny to me now, but its just normal life there...

 

 

Life goes on eh? thank goodness no one was hurt.

Happy Tuesday Everyone

 

AFM xx

 

P.S I wonder if Mr Herron is about today-fingers crossed we see him :)

Whatever Next?

Well those two weeks passed very quickly i must say ! Since my first post i have been down to the Isle Of Wight to visit family and friends, some of  who i haven't seen for almost 11 years, it was lovely to catch up and i enjoyed myself thoroughly - being spoiled by my Mum was great, Lemon Meringue Pie i here you say?..ooh yes please :) indeed a long 5 days of family and food was just the tonic i needed. Not very Frugal i hear you say? well my Mum had bought me a show ticket so i was going down primarily for that at first, compaired to over £200 on Mr V Trains National Express coaches came in at £24.00 so ten hours later i arrived in Southampton, £11 boat fare and i was there.

 My parents drove me back to Lancashire on the Sunday and stayed for a weeks break, so no spend there for travel fare, and the boat price was paid for me too..Happy days. Well seeing as my parents were up we really needed to get a new oven, £200 pound my dad says? it will be bloomin tat!! so we went off in search, there are no gas show rooms any more so as previously found it was a hard task indeed...

We found one in Currys was £400 with a hundred off was on sale for £300, it was a bigger sized oven, and so the decision was made to buy it. After a 10 minute discussion with the sales adviser we walked out with nothing! that's right nothing!! Yes that's correct Mr Foster three hundred pounds, delivery will be Twenty Pounds and we will install it for Seventy Pounds...WHATT!!! so in all my £300 pound cooker was going to cost us £390, way over budget, we were originally only wanted to pay about £200, already this had gone up to £300, and couldn't go any higher. Dad was getting irate with the sales adviser and asked if we could collect ourselves from the store? Oh no you cant do that. why? health and safety sir!! well that was it ... Off we went again, finally we found a local store called "Washking" originally i didn't bother to look in as their shop name states they only ever used to sell washing machines, i was wrong and again spotted a very nice silver and black fancy looking larger sized gas oven, again it was marked down from £400 to £300, yes we will take it, same day delivery great many thanks.

 That was last Wednesday, it was delivered in the afternoon, all excited and ready to use it we burnt it off as per the instruction Manuel stated, and proceeded to made two shepherds pies, one meaty and one quorn, prepared the veg to go with it and put it on to cook. Now usually when i make a vegi shepherd pie it bakes  in the oven for about 45 mins, now that blooming oven was on for 1.5 hours and it wasn't even bubbling!! oh deary me, next morning i was straight onto the shop and explained what the oven was doing! basically nothing! no problem they said they earliest we can get a replacement to you is next Tuesday the 29th..well it arrived yesterday and i am happy to say fingers crossed it is working fine...phew i can now plan to get all my batch cooking done this weekend as the freezer is low and i am having surgery on the Tuesday so easy home cooked and nourishing meals will be needed.

Sorry for the long post my friends.

AFM xx