Hello April..

 

Hello everyone , how are you?

Well, i am glad that a new month is starting and the weather should be improving. This means  hopefully, fingers crossed we can get going on the Allotments and garden. We already have our Potatoes chitted and lots of little seedlings all hardened off and ready to be planted out..the weather is not playing ball. We see lots of people planting out their potatoes in damp wet ground..not ideal as the poor things will rot. It almost feels like we are on a starting line of a hundred metre sprint and we keep having false starts. The ground is too wet to do anything. Everyday we get up and hope we can get something done but then it rains and hopes are dashed once again. I am sure we are not the only ones to be late with all the veg planting this year. It will mean late crops but as long as we get something then we will just have to be patient.

We are now just adding up how much we will have to pay out every month thanks to the April rises in just about everything.

Council Tax

Rent

Water Rates

Gas

Electric

Broadband

Sky

Mobile Phone 

Prescription 

Dentist

TV License

All in all even with the Basic wage going up (which i think is an April Fool for just about everyone)..it doesn't add up to very much help at all in the end and we will be worse off.

O i forgot to add Groceries. Since when does it cost £5.99 for a tub of bloody Gravy Granules. Supermarkets should actually be ashamed of themselves. We haven't bought any Beef for months because its too expensive and we are a debt free family, so every penny we get after the bills are paid is all ours and that is shrinking rapidly. . My Grocery bill has shot up over the last  6 months..i don't buy anything fancy or luxurious just your normal basic family food and i dread it everytime. I do a big Pantry Shop every few months for Flour, Rice, Pasta Tinned Goods and Packeted Foods but even they are going through the roof. My heart goes out to anyone struggling.

I, like a lot of other people love to cook from scratch ..my homemade KFC is delicious but now its not cost effective. Iit used to be about £3.99 for the chicken breast sometimes cheaper if it was on offer, now i am just as well to pop to the Kentucky and buy a bucket. Last time i bought chicken breast it was £6.99 for 2 of the smallest pieces .Not worth it anymore. Its hard to get the balance of good food right when the prices are in some places unattainable for normal people.

Mince is another thing that has risen in price..lordy , it used to  be a cheap way to bulk up your food and now with the price and the cost of certain Gravy Granules Mince Gravy and Mash is going to be considered a luxury meal. Just to be clear i do not buy the expensive Gravy..and companies are going to wonder why trade is down..gee i wonder why?

Don't even get me started on the TV License..why the hell should i pay for the same old stuff that has been recycled for years and to be honest i don't even watch BBC..i watch Netflix, Prime and Disney, a small monthly payment and i can cancel anytime. All together they add up to less than £15 a month and i get new films, shows all sorts, so why should i keep paying the BBC . I will have no choice but to pay or you end up in Court with CCJ against you. Its about time they came up with a plan so you can opt out and just pay your TV monthly.

I love Lidl..but even their prices are going up.

So making a meal plan is now a very carefully considered practice. What do i have versus what would i like. I have already told the family that sometimes you will have no choice and will definitely just have to suck it up and eat what you are given. It didn't go down too well but that's the way its going to end up i think. Thank god for our allotments and all the veggies and fruits that will be coming our way. My back Pantry is going to be full and this year more than ever i am determined to use every last scrap i can.

Enough of that for now..its not a problem that is going to be fixed anytime soon and all we can all do is help each other as much as possible.

So what is going on at FTM Mansion..decorating is what's on the agenda.  That is what all our spare money went on last month. Over the Winter we developed mould on the ceilings even though we cleaned and dried them daily sometimes twice that bloody stuff was always there. 

Methods that don't work to remove mould are as follows.

Vinegar and water.👎

Alcohol and water👎

Bleach and water👎

Whilst the above promise that it will work either i didn't follow the instructions properly or it was a different kind of mould, as none of it worked.

We had windows open to dry the ceilings and i have a little condensation hoover to clean the windows and dry them ..it honestly was a never ending battle.

What does work 

A proper spray of Mould Killing Chemicals for £7.99 . This stuff is bloody awesome and within 15 minutes it had all gone and no stains. 

We have invested in Paint that is totally Mould Resistant. We put it on the ceilings and walls where we got the Mould so fingers crossed folks we won't get that again.

The Bathroom and Iris's room are the main culprits. But they have now been cleaned, stripped back and painted with the special paint. As the paints were on offer we decided to completely re do the rooms upstairs. The downstairs area at the bottom of he stairs needs redoing as my leaky, not closing properly front door let water in and moulded the paper around it. 

So its all guns going in one area but waiting for the weather to clear in another.

I finally sorted out my Back Pantry..it had become a huge dumping ground for everyone and everything. It looked awful and messy. I spent a whole morning just emptying it out and cleaning shelves, sorting out tins and packets to go into new places. All the rubbish got sorted and recycled and we even found bits that had been lost or so we thought. Now it is clean and tidy with nothing on the floor and everything is in its place.

At some point this week i will sort my daily Pantry out.

So right now i am looking for the little things in life that are free and bring a smile to my face.

This week i went to the Library to return some books. I was determined to not get anymore until i have read all the new ones i was gifted for Mother's Day. I discovered that i have

absolutely no will power at all. Upon walking in i immediately saw a book i have been wanting to read for ages and conveniently next to  it was a book by one of my favourite authors. Will power 0 Library 1.

I can't help myself. I even dither about buying books i know i already have..should i / shouldn't i ?

Thank the Lord for Fern who gently reminds me that i already have  it and to leave it, bless her.

 I did my own nails and had a little facial in the bath with a lovely sheet mask, i added some scented soap flowers and just read my book whilst i laid there. I felt a million pounds when i got out the bath.

I moved some houseplants around to see what arrangement i liked the most and they ended up back where they started.

 I have printed off some little Easter Cards and also a Bunny Banner for the mantle pieces. The girls and i are going to make an Easter Cake and some little treats this week.

We are on school holidays now so we have a movie day planned with popcorn and sweeties.

I have some shopping to do so we will make a trip to town and go window shopping for ideas and bargains.

If the weather holds out we will go on some nice long walks to Belton and up to the Allotments to give hubby and dude a hand up there.

Also on that note i really want to get my little wildlife pond up and running yet the ground is to wet to dig. Sooner or later the weather will give and we can finally get on with it all.

So i have some nice things to look forward to doing.

Hope you are all ok .

Take care all

Love FTM🌼