Halfway through March already!

Happy Monday :)

What a lot of activity has been packed into the last couple of weeks.

Project chicken shed is complete.  GH has relocated them from the shed on the right, to the shed on the left - that's how we know it anyway.  The shed on the right turned out to be rotting and have mice, possibly rats, so it had to go.  We had a nice newish shed which GH built a few years back and with some new roof felt and some changes inside, it's a brand, spanking new chicken home for our 7 girls.

The shed on the right and the shed on the left and the reamains of the trampoline!

The new pully system to open the hatch and save me getting filthy when I let them out on a morning in my work clothes.

The first night they weren't sure what to do as they kept wandering over to their old place, despite having been shown the new place.  Understandable as ideally we should have had it ready for first thing on a morning and locked them in for a couple of hours to get used to it.  That's what our local farmer says anyway.  So after much chasing and slipping, we managed to catch them and out them in their new home.  A week or two on and they figured it out and now roost where they are supposed to and to top it off we have started seeing the first eggs of 2015 from them. 

In the process of doing this we decided to get rid of the trampoline as it was huge and took over the bottom end of the garden.  It looks a lot bigger without it and when we come to sell the house, it's one less thing to tackle for us and a huge benefit for the buyers/ sale photos point of view.

I also took the time to start the big declutter - I listed one of the kid's toys on ebay and got £16 for it so rather pleased with that too.



The finally got it.

Then came the busy week!  I had to travel to Belgium for work meaning chaos ensued at home.  The kids have to sleep out when I do given GH is out far too early and they need someone to take them to school etc.  Also the horses, dog and chickens need thinking about and taking care as required.  So we set the wheels in motion and it ran smoothly. 

Then came the weekend away - only thing was that GH had an operation on the same day we were to go away - talk about bad luck of timing.  He managed to come away with us still, given that we were not going too far.

Before we know it, here we are at Monday again.  I've started my healthy eating again today, so porridge for breakfast, soup for lunch then chicken and rice for tea.  This benefits me twice over, all frugal and cheap, easy to make plus the added benefit of healthy. 

I did this the year before last and lost 1.5 stone so I hope to do the same again - well I have 1 stone 11lb's to lose to get to the weight I'd like to be.

More on that next time as I will maybe have some progress to report.

In the mean time, I'll continue to overpay the loan and live our lives to the full.  Have a great week if you're reading this :)

Frugal home cooking and knowing what you eat

In an attempt to continue to save the pennies and keep September as a low spend month, I've plunged into home cooking and baking again.  The kids are well into it too so it's been a family effort (GH does the taste test).

So far we have the plum jam as pictured previously, which is going down a treat and in an effort to know what we eat I've been using the bread maker for home made bread.  It is gorgeous!  Tonight I have taken a recipe from Frugal Queen's blog and adapted it with what I had in.  It was the fish and rice one and it was lovely.  Thanks to her for that.

We've also done some jam tarts, ice lollies and crumbles.  It is so rewarding to use foraged fruits and pantry items to produce lovely meals. 

Friday we went to a garden party / festival and it was quite fun - I've never been to one before and won't hurry back, but it was nice enough. 

I am also finding that as soon as I'm getting organised, things start unravelling just as quickly!  So this weekend has so far been spent trying to get outstanding jobs done and organising as much as possible for next week and then the aim is to stay organised!!!

Our jam tarts with home made plum jam

Grace chilling with the chicken Jess (Jess is moulting a lot at the moment)

Shot from our festival

Happy Saturday everyone