Frugalism vs Simple Living are they one and the same

Ive been asking myself this question for a while now and I still dont know the answer so comments are more than welcome on this one. I have been living a frugal life for around 3 years or so now and I like to think of myself as being pretty good at it. I gave my car up 3 years ago and bought a bicycle instead, I moved to an all electric property in the hopes of installing solar panels at some point so we can live off grid, I started shopping at charity shops, started using sites such as Freecycle/ Freegle/ and JFTLOI. I learnt how to shop more wisely and price check everything, I learnt to look for vouchers and coupons on items and events, I learnt how to repair items instead of throwing them away, and I learnt crafts so I could make things by hand either for gifts or for my familys wants and needs. All this said ive noticed a trend in the simple living blogs I read. They all seem to have veggie gardens, keep chickens, and will buy only local produce with a concern on food miles. I have tried many times to start a veggie garden and been unsuccessfull every time. I would love to keep chickens but just can not afford the start up costs at this moment in time. I would love to buy only local produce and support local business's and local farmers but at this moment in time my purse just will not allow it. Here in the UK food prices are at an all time high and set to rise even further. That combined with rising fuel costs, rising energy costs, rising public transport costs etc etc I now buy what I can afford not what I want and im affraid morals have somewhat gone out the window. My priority right now is reducing my debt as quickly as possible so that we can afford to have morals on food miles and buying local produce again. So that I can afford the start up costs of keeping chickens. So all this said am I living a frugal life or a simple life or maybe some where in between ? Maybe in order to live a simple life you have to follow a path starting with frugalism in order to get to your final destination of simple living I know I still have a lot to learn and am so gratefull for all the blogs and writtings avalible to me nowadays teaching me how to move closer to my goal of simple living. Please feel free to comment on this post all CONSTRUCTIVE critism on where Imay be going wrong is more than welcome.

Much Love
Claire
xx xx xx

The Start Of A New Week

We was very busy yesterday (Monday) as soon as I got up I got the children ready for school and tidied the house whilst Lee had a lie in. He has been working a lot of 12 hour night shifts recently so I didnt mind he needed to catch up on his sleep. I did some more washing had a shower and got myself ready. I really wanted to go out and get a few things in town but felt mean waking Lee up so waited untill 11am before doing so. We went into town and had a look in the charity shops where we got some nice items. I got myself 2 pairs of shoes, a pair of trousers and top, a jumper for Brandon, and a lovely Thomas the Tank engine night gown for Brandon. I have put the nightgown away as one of his xmas presents and I just know he is going to love it. I also got some more wool for the scarfs I am making as xmas presents and a plastic funnel for the homemade toiletry xmas gifts I am making this year. I also got some foil containers that I wanted as I plan to make up some family meals for the frezzer this week. By this time we were tired and hungry so we treated ourselves to lunch out. When we were finished we came home and unpacked just in time for picking up the boys from school. Lee went to collect the boys for me as Baby had an appointment at the vets for her vaccinations. I always feel mean taking the animals to the vets but I know its for their own good in the long run. When I got back from the vets it was time for dinner I made a yummy carbonara pasta bake with cheesey garlic bread which was delicious. Then it was bath and bed time for the boys. Once the boys were in bed I sat down to write my weekend blog post, did a little knitting, and did a little housework before going to bed myself.

My etsy shop is now open just click on the ad in my side bar to view the items I currently have in stock.

Remember these

 

 Well this is what they look like now

 

 

 

They are avalible in my etsy shop at just £2.99 each. There will be more stock added just as soon as I can get some decent photos of it.

Much Love
Claire
xx xx xx

Our Weekend

This weekend has been pretty quite as Brad and Brandon were at restpite and Lee was at work which left just me and Ben at home. I love the times I get to spend with my children just one on one I get to focus purely on them. I have managed to get back on top of the mountain of washing that had accumalated whilst I was unwell using my homemade laundry detergent. Some of the boys white school shirts were so badly stained that they did not come up in the wash. So I decided to bleach them overnight and rewash them in the hope of saving them. Im pleased to say this worked and saved me having to get rid of 6 good school shirts.

Washing to be done

 

Washing to put away

 

 

 

I was also inspired by a post written by Rhonda Hetzel at her blog Down To Earth entitled Junk Drawer Challenge. You can find the post here http://down---to---earth.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/junk-drawer-challenge.html#comment-form
I have a drawer in my kitchen that the boys use for their stationary and colours which it has to be said was a complete mess here is a before picture.

 

I just recently bought Brandon some new pants and the packaging they came in was basicly a pencil case so I saved both packets and used them for this task. Here is the packaging I am refering to.

 

I emptied out the drawer and put things into piles all the pencils together, all the crayons together, all the other items such as sissors / rulers / rubbers etc together. I put all the pencils in one set of packaging, all the crayons that were not broken into another set of packaging, and all the other items into a pencil tin that was in the drawer already. I pulled the drawer out and gave it a good clean before putting everthing back and this is how it looks now.

 

I had a large number of broken crayons left over so decided to make some teddy shaped crayons for the boys using these left over broken bits. I put them into piles colour matching as closely as possible.

 

I then peeled the paper from the crayons leaving just the wax crayon itself.

 

I then cut up the crayons into small pieces and put them into my teddy bear silicone moulds.

 

 

 

I put these in the oven at 240 for about 10 minutes untill the wax had melted. I then took them out of the oven and using the end of a paint brush gave the wax a good mix to get a solid colour as opposed to a rainbow effect colour. I then left them to sit on the side for a few hours to cool and solifiy and then poped them out of the moulds and this is what we had.

 

Some fun teddy bear crayons

 

 

The boys were very impressed with these and have been having great fun using them. I have also been busy catching up on my blog reading. I have around 6 blogs that I follow religously and had not read for about 2 months so that meant a lot of reading. It was just what I needed to get my head back into the zone of frugalism and simple living so thank you ladies for your inspirational posts.

I also made a start on one of the 5 scarfs im hoping to get done as xmas presents one for each of my 3 boys, one for Lee, and one for my god-daughter Leia. Appologys for the picture quality my camera has been playing up a bit recently and I need to get Lee to take a look at it for me. I will post a much clearer picture when I get the chance.

 

 

Hope you have all had a good productive weekend at your homesteads.
Much Love
Claire
xx xx xx

Very Very Unwell

Over the last few weeks I have been extremly unwell with my Menieres Disease it has completely stopped me in my tracks and a lot of the time I have had to rely on help from my partner Lee and several of my friends just to get the day to day things done in the house. I have had 2 ambulances called out to me one of which wanted me to go into hospital which I declined as there is nothing that can be done for my condition in hospital that cant be done at home i.e medication and lots of rest. Several doctors appointments and an urgent referral back to my specialist and it looks like im going to have to have more surgery on my ears something im really not looking forward to. So as you can see frugalism has been the last thing on my mind recently and as such im afraid I have very little to report in that respect. I do have some news though Lee and I have decided to live together we have a few things to sort out first but we are aiming for early 2013. New year new start as they say. It will be so nice to have him here all the time especially when I get sick he has a way of calming me down and getting me through the worst of MD attacks. Today I am feeling a little better and the eldest and youngest Till's are at restpite and Lee is at work till tomorow evening so its just me and Ben at home for the weekend giving me time to get back on top of things. Especially the mountain of washing that has accumalated while I have been unwell. The plan is to get back to my frugal living and start my blogging again. However MD is very unpredictable so if I disapper for a while again then you can be sure the MD is upto its old tricks again.

Much Love
Claire
xx xx xx

Busy, Busy, Busy

Wow how busy I have been recently that combined with my MD playing up has not left me much time for blogging. Brandon had his first day at big school I was very brave and managed not to cry. Here are some pictures of him in his school uniform he looks so grown up.

 

 

The teddy bear you see in the picture is one that I made for him it was a prototype if you like as im hopeing to sell these in my etsy shop. Here is a better picture of it.

 

 

It was a friend of mines wedding anniversary so I made this card for her I was very pleased at how it turned out and her and her husband loved it. Its the first time I have used the foil embelishments but I think I will be using these a lot more in the future.

 

 

Ive also been busy making more knitted patches for my bed topper I am making, and some jewellery for the shop. (pictures to follow)
Baby has settled in with the family just beautifully she has such a lovely temprement and its so nice to have her sitting on or next to me when I am laid up with my MD. I had to share this picture of her fast asleep on her back with her paws in the air it really is very cute.

 

 

Here is a video of baby watching the washing machine something she loves to do again very cute.

 

 

When we got baby she was riddled with fleas and worms. The lady we got her from was not the most house proud of people and there was a huge amount of kittens, cats, and dogs all in the back garden. At the time baby was only 5 weeks old and really should not have been out. Im pleased to say she is now flea and worm free because of her age I had to have her treated by the vets but the price was very fair and totaled £10 for the 2 appointments and 2 treatments. Unfourtunately when the vet was giving her a routine health check he noticed she has a heart murmur which is going to make getting insurance for her at a reasonable rate a little tricky.

I am currently working on an upcycled bracelet that will be avaliable to buy in my etsy shop once finished. I bought a pair of shoes from a second hand market stall a few weeks ago for £2.50. They were a very nice pair of blue wedges with beading detail across the top. Unfourtunately the straps on the shoe ripped and the shoes were beyond repair. The plan is to remove all the beads and turn them into a bracelet. Here is a picture of the beaded straps.

 

 

 Finaly I found this picture on facebook and wanted to share it as it really does make you think about the little things we can do that make a big impact on the environment.

 

 

Much Love
Claire xxx

Boys on vacation

Well it's been very quiet here over the last 2 weeks all 3 of my little guys have been at their nanny's in Wales. I have spent most of my time with Lee which has been lovely but boy have I missed my babies and am really looking forward to them coming home tomorow. It was mine and Lee's anniversary last Tuesday 4 months as an official couple (although we were seeing each other for a  while before that). We decided to celebrate with a meal out and we watched Ted at the cinema. A very funny film and well worth a watch if your not easily offended. We then decided to visit the roman baths at night all lit up with torch fire it was really very romantic and I loved every second of our evening. Here are some pictures

 

 

 

We also have a new addition to the family meet baby. She is a real daddy's girl and is only intrested in mummy when Lee is not here. She knows her name already and if you say to her "wheres daddy go find him" she goes looking for Lee till she finds him. The boys dont know we have her yet we decided to suprise them when they get home I cant wait to see their faces. Here are some pictures of Baby

 

 

On Monday I met Lee's dad, brother, and brothers girlfriend for the first time. We went out for dinner and I have to say I was very nervous. Its always nerve wracking meeting a partners family for the first time but I also have the worry of "what if I have an attack"..... "what if they get annoyed with the fact I am partialy deaf and I ask for things to be repeated a lot of the time". I need not have worried they were lovely people who made me feel very welcome and at ease. They were great with my lack of hearing they spoke a little louder and always looked at me so I could read their lips. I must have made a good impression as Lee's brother has invited us to dinner at his house in a few weeks time. Im looking forward to it Lee's brother is a very good cook apparently so im hoping he will give Lee a few pointers (hehe). Anyway I best get to bed as my little monsters will be home tomorow and Lee is at work so I intend to get lots done before every one gets home in the evening. Normal service is soon to be resumed. Its nice to have a little break but I do love it when I have my little family all together.

Till next time
Much Love
Claire xxx

No communication weekend part 2

Ok so I have to confess I have had communication with the outside world today but it has been minimal. I have sent one text which was an importent one and we have been out. We went to Morrisons to get a few bits and stopped at the park for the boys to play on the way home. It has still been a nice day though with very little outside influences entering my little family bubble. We went to Morrisons about half an hour before it closed when they reduce all the items to very very little. Below is a picture and a list of the items we got.

In this picture you can see the following
7 Pieces of southern fried chicken 99p
2 Long ribs 99p
A cumberland sausage 29p
2 Tubs of sage and onion stuffing 69p
A ham, chesse, and pickle sandwich 25p
3 Tubs of strawberry jelly and custard 15p
6 Mini pork pies 15p
3 Tubs of spagetti bolognaise 27p
Total cost £3.78

I spoke to a member of staff in Morrisons who told me the best times of day to go in and get items reduced to such low prices and the locations that these foods are normaly displayed. He was very helpfull and im sure if you ask in your local supermarket they will happily furnish you with the same information.


Here are some pictures from the park

And finaly with the family problems I have been having recently I have been feeling a bit down so my lovely man thought he would cheer me up with these lovely roses. What a lucky girl I am.

Much Love
Claire xxx