Heading into February - W/E 1st February 2026

This week started with my going off out of town shopping on Monday. I went on my own this week, as LB didn't fancy it. I had a bag of donations to drop off at my favourite charity shop whilst out, so of course, I had a little look around whilst I was there, but came away without buying anything.

The grocery shopping went okay, although I did spend a bit more than I anticipated, mainly because I found a few things that I use regularly that were on offer, which was too good to ignore. They will save me money in the long run, but I had to use some of the extra money I found I had last week.

For a treat, I made us beef burgers with wedges for supper. We don't have them often. I'm still working my way through two bags of potatoes, that I bought for 5p each at Christmas, taking advantage of the supermarkets vying for everyone's custom over the festive season. They are sprouting slighly, but nothing that can't be nipped off before use. They'll probably last at least another month, if not longer. Well worth purchasing.

On Tuesday, I headed to a Zumba class in the morning which was good. When I got home, I decided to start a new sewing project after lunch and spent a pleasant couple of hours working on that. Later, I popped to the allotment to put the garden waste bins out, to be emptied the following day. 

We're currently watching the new series of The Night Manager, which is good.

I had a lie in on Wednesday morning, as I hadn't slept well on Monday night. I read for a while in bed. I'm currently reading the book I got from the exhibition last week. It's very good with lots of social history about clothing, women, work, fabric, etc. It's right up my street. It's not a particularly easy read, as it's dense with information, but I'm really enjoying it.

It was a lovely sunny, dry day on Wednesday, which is rare at the moment, as we've been getting so much rain lately. After lunch, I decided to go out into the garden and do some work. The main job I did was to clean all the dirty pots in the greenhouse and re-organise it a little. Once the pots had been cleaned and put away, it did free up quite a bit of space and make things easier to get to.

I also decided to plant the bulbs I bought last year and some that OH had bought me for Xmas. Luckily, we had some compost to pot them up in, so I didn't need to go out and buy any. I'm definitely a bit late planting them, but hopefully they will still grow.  I'm starting most of them off indoors to give them a better chance and to keep the squirrels off them. I've still got a couple of packs to plant, which I will do another time.

I also did a little bit of pruning and tidying up and by the time I'd finished it was getting dark. It was lovely to get out there and get started for the coming season.

OH made us a lovely chicken curry for supper, which was nice and then he and I watched a Ken Burns documentary on iPlayer. It was called The Great American Buffalo and is in two parts. We watched the first part, which was harrowing. I've not watched anything as painful to watch as this in a long time, but it was very good, as is the case with of all Ken Burns' work. If anyone is interested in watching it, it was broadcast on Channel 4 earlier this week.

Thursday morning, I went to my now usual Soca class at the gym which was good. I did my usual of taking the long route home to get more steps in. To be honest, Thursday afternoon was a bit lazy, as I didn't do much. I finished watching a series on Netflix and then watched a movie which was quite good. After supper, OH and I watched a Netflix documentary about the Art band Devo together, which was great. They recognised the direction our world was going in way back in the 1970's. 

I've never watched so much TV as this month. I'm really not very motivated to do anything much and it's my fall back in a quiet month. It costs nothing.  Some things I've watched have been enjoyable and others very informative. I do need to be a bit more productive going forward though.

On Friday, after getting up and ready, I decided to walk to our local Lidl, which is just under 2 miles away, and do a top up shop, mainly to hit the target for the 10% discount this month. Seemed silly to waste it. By buying the things we use regularly a few days early, I'll get 10% off my shop next week and I intend to use it for a bit of a stock up of pantry staples. I came across a really good recipe for a lentil curry and a chickpea masala on YouTube this week and I'm keen to try them out, but did need the odd inexpensive ingredient to do this. If they work out, they will be much cheaper to make than buying sauces from the supermarket and they will also be meat free.

Walking to the store was a good way to get a bit of exercise on a day I don't go to the gym and also I decided to try out my new trolley bag, as I wasn't doing a full shop. The trolley worked really well. I was half expecting it to collapse under the weight of the shopping, but it stood up well to the test and I decided to walk all the way home too, which was harder with a bag and trolley full of shopping. It saved on bus fares though and I did over 8,000 steps, which was a bonus. I wasn't able to do the full weekly shop, as I steered away from the heavier items, such as tins and bottles, but I'll use the voucher when I buy those and the remainder of the weekly shop on Monday.

I had another lie in on Saturday morning and read another chapter of my book. I spent the morning doing laundry and putting away clean laundry, catching up on blog reading and doing a bit of blogging. In the afternoon, we had a special visitor, i.e. next door's dog Toby, who was coming to stay with us until the evening, as his owners were going out until late. It was the first time we've looked after him this year and it was nice to see him again.

Before he arrived, I spent an hour or so working on my latest denim scrap project and then I put it away as I wasn't sure if the sewing machine would upset him. It's coming along nicely. I'm now one third of the way through it.

OH and I took Toby for a walk in the late afternoon and stopped off at the pub on the way home for a drink which was nice. 

We started watching a film about Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein tonight on Paramount, but only got half way through before OH headed off to bed as he was up early to go cycling the next morning. He dropped Toby back next door before going to bed. He was happy enough to go.

On Sunday, it was my usual gym session of the week which went okay. When I got back, I did another couple of hours sewing on my current project. I'm posting separately about this. It is now half done. Progress is slow, but it's definitely coming along. It actually looks better the further I get on with it. I think I've just about got enough fabric scraps to complete it, although I will probably run out of some colours of denim as I get towards the end.

I then spent an hour or so cutting up some of the remaining pieces of scrap from the jeans I used for LB's pouffe, mainly the flies, which I didn't have a use for. I managed to salvage a few bits of scrap fabric to try to use, a couple of small brass zips, which may come in handy for purses or pockets or something small and I used part of one fly to make a pen holder for my handbag. The rest was cut up small for stuffing and the only bits I threw away were 3 metal fly buttons which I can't re-use. There has been very little actual waste from the denim I used, thankfully.

On Sunday evening, OH and I finished watching Mary Shelley which was good and then watched a bit of Frankenstein, which is currently on Netflix, until OH decided he couldn't stomach the cutting up of cadavers to make the Monster. Thankfully, it didn't give me nightmares.

Hope you've had a good last week of January.

A New Make For February

Towards the end of January and moving into February, it was time to come up with another sewing project to work on for the month. I'd had a scrappy project in mind for a while, to try to use up lots of leftover offcuts from the denim material I'd used to make LB's pouffe. It was an idea that I got from a video on YouTube and involved stitching all the small pieces onto a piece of fabric using a zigzag stitch.

The aim of this project was to use the created fabric to repair a cover that we use on OH's favourite chair in the kitchen, the one I re-upholstered during Lockdown.

The cover in the above photo has been used on this chair for years now to protect it, but the underside of it is made of silk, I think, and it is slowly perishing with wear. As a consequence, I thought I would cover it, using the denim scraps, to keep it in use a bit longer, as this would be more hard wearing.

I started by finding a piece of fabric, in this case the lining from some curtains I took apart, to stitch the denim scraps to and then cut it to the right size. I then proceeded to stitch each small piece of denim onto it, each one overlapping the one before, using a wide zig zag stitch on my machine to minimise fraying. 

It took a couple of hours to get a few rows done, as it's quite fiddly trimming off the bits of thread, but by the end of my first session, I was probably a quarter of the way done which was quite satisfying. Here's a picture:

It's not perfect, as theres a bit of fraying and overstitching here and there, but it's fine, as it will probably be the underside of the cover in any case. 

I continued to work on this project over the next week or so, adding a few rows every few days or whenever I felt like it. It's now half way done and here's a picture. 

I'm liking the overall effect. It's interesting what you can do with even the smallest pieces of scrap fabric.

It is a great project for this month, to use up not only scraps, but thread too. I'll post again when I've  completed the project.

Monthly Finances - January 2026

It's been a pretty low spend month this month, which was the intention after all the expenditure of November/December. All I wanted was to get through the month relatively unscathed and thankfully that did happen. 

I did have to put off making a dental appointment though, so that might have to be done this month, which will cost £60, to pay for half of the checkup and clean up front. I think that I am also due an eye test, but this may have to wait until March to spread the cost.

We did have a lovely week away in Lanzarote in January, which we both enjoyed, despite the not so good weather.  We didn't spend a whole lot whilst there, eating out just once per day. Since getting back, I've been trying to keep spending to an absolute minimum to get through the month.

I did treat myself to a book from an exhibition I went to, which cost £10.99. I'm currently reading it and am happy to report that it is a very interesting read. I'm currently reading about the social history of the cotton growing, processing industry, which is an eyeopener.

I didn't buy any clothing at all in January, which was progress for me. I have way more clothing than I can actually wear, I don't know why I continue to buy more all the time. It's madness.

I did spend £50 to join a new gym this month. Paying for a monthly membership isn't ideal and is painful financially, when I've been spending a quarter of the cost to go to the gym for the last two years. As my local gym closed recently, I'm left with very little choice, if I want to continue exercising regularly. I have been enjoying the classes at the new gym though and getting a few more steps in walking to and fro.

I did also spend about £30 on various bits and pieces this month, i.e. gifts, bits for the house and a few small crafting items, but otherwise I kept it strictly to groceries and household products. I was underbudget for food this month, but this was more due to being away for a week and using the grocery budget as spending money, than any economies on the food front.

I spent £150 on LB's birthday this month, but this money came from the birthday/gift fund, which I continue to contribute to, as it's the only way that I can afford Xmas presents when I'm not working, without delving into longterm savings. I have a few expensive gifts to save for this year, i.e. a 21st birthday and a wedding gift, so I've got a separate sinking fund to save up for these. These funds are thus limiting the cash I have available to spend on anything else, making it a super frugal year for me.

I'm planning to continue in a very low spend vein going into February. There is slightly more room in the budget, due to it being the shortest month, but there isn't really much I need, so there's no point buying things needlessly. I would like to keep within my food budget this month, whilst still stocking up the pantry a little, as we have eaten it down pretty much to nothing. 

I'm continuing to enjoy trying to stay within my means, whilst still keeping myself occupied, as I consider it a challenge and I do like a fiscal challenge. I have been very demotivated in terms of making or doing anything useful this month, save for renovating my shopping trolley, but I'm hoping my motivation comes back at some point and I get more productive. I think that the abysmal weather has contributed, but I can't put all the blame on that, as I am to blame for the most part.

I hope that you've survived January and like me are looking forward to a new month.

Working Through My Stashes

Well, we're almost through January, and I can't say I'm sorry. It's been a bit of a meh month here and it has felt so long. We've been lucky, in that we've had a holiday and a few other events to look forward to, but otherwise it's been a bit financially restrictive.

Having said this, I do think that I'm finally getting used to having a much lower budget each month. I've definitely been using up things we have in the house, particularly toiletries, freezer, pantry and food cupboard items, and craft items in my stash, and in particular, some things that have been hanging around a long time. 

There is now quite a lot less food just kicking around waiting to be used. I've been slowly working my way through the pantry stash and also using other things in the freezer and food cupboards that have been there a while. I do probably need to work on the baking drawer though, as there's stuff in there that I could easily use if I put my mind to it. 

It does make me feel slightly vulnerable not having a food stash, especially in the midst of current world chaos, and knowing what happened when covid hit, but I can't really afford to overstock at the moment, especially not with things we don't eat regularly, as it just sits there. Having said this, it's not empty, I'm just trying to buy things as I need them, so that I don't unnecessarily tie up money in unused items.

Toiletry wise, I'm still on Project Pan and trying to use up items in my toiletry/makeup stash. I'm using up small gifted shower gels, skin care and makeup products that I had way too many of and making my own deodorant is working well and I'm intending to continue doing this. I did stock up on some toothpaste that I use, as it comes from the US and is not sold in stores here, so I'm concerned about it going up in price due to tariffs in the future, but otherwise I'm just buying as I need, with no extras going in the basket. I'm going to do another Project Pan update soon and see if there's less items than in my previous post.

I'm also trying to use up household products I've got in the undersink cupboard, before buying more. There's still quite a few products to work my way through. In fact, I just realised that I've been needlessly buying bottles of washing up liquid, when I have a 5l bottle in the cupboard unused. Madness. I'd like to simplify and reduce the amount of products I use, partly to reduce the amount of space they take up and partly just to make life simpler.

I haven't bought any clothing this month, for the first time in I don't know how long. In fact, I've not bought a single thing from a charity shop this month either. I'm hoping to keep spending extremely low in these categories going forward and maybe try to make some items using my fabric stash. I have been donating some clothing items to the charity shop, that I don't reach for, or that I don't like the fit of, as they are taking up precious wardrobe real estate. I want to simplify my wardrobe, so that it's easier to make choices about what to wear each day.

In terms of my sewing stash, I did use up quite a bit of leftover denim renovating my trolley bag in January and hopefully the remainder will get used at some point. There's very little left, mostly just small pieces, but I do kind of have a plan for these, I just need to execute it or try to at least. 

Other decluttering is happening very slowly, but I do have plans to go through a lot of stuff stored in various parts of the house and have a thorough declutter of it. Hopefully in the next few weeks. I'll keep you posted with progress in this respect.

One good thing about this January, is that as a consequence of it being quiet and uneventful, I've been doing a bit of reading and have finished reading 3 books this month and started another one. I'm going to try to get through some of my stash of unread books this year and then I can donate the ones I've read and don't want to keep.

Keeping on Track - W/E 25th January 2026

This week began with what has commonly become known as Blue Monday. I didn't realise, but it's a name conjured up by advertisers in 2005, to try to coax people into buying a holiday. It usually falls on the third Monday in January and is typically the day when, due to the overindulgences of Xmas and the long month of January that follows, people have very little money to spend and probably feel most depressed. I think the last thing you might need when you're feeling broke after Xmas, is to blow a whole lot more money on a holiday, but as I've just been on one, I'm not really in a position to comment.

Anyway, for me, so far, I'm keeping on track with my plan to try to just get through January as unscathed as possible. My spending is being kept to an absolute minimum, with spending being solely focused on food and household stuff, avoiding going too much over budget, despite buying a few things on offer when I saw them. It was the same story again this week, with regard to yellow stickered items, they were few and far between.

When I got home and updated my finances, however, I realised that I actually had £50 more than I expected in my account, I think due to a miscalculation in relation to the Xmas Gift Fund I'd saved up and spent over Xmas. I'm not going to spend it for now, just in case I'm wrong, but at least it gives me a bit of a buffer this month. Even without it, I should have enough money to do the grocery shopping next week and get to the end of the month within budget. Anything left over, I will put aside for Xmas next year, just in case I don't find a job in the interim. Needs must.

Tuesday, was a much more productive day. In the morning, I was booked into a Zumba class at the gym. It was the regular teacher this week and the class was good. It passed pretty quickly, which is a good sign to me. 

When I got home, I finally decided to get my sewing machine out and machine sew some bits for my trolley bag renovation. I continued working on it for the rest of the day and got it almost finished, save for a couple of smallish bits I still need to do. It felt like progress anyway. 

In the evening, I binge watched Harlen Coben's Run Away on Netflix, which was good and kept you interested all the way through. Ruth Jones was great in it too.

I was late getting up on Wednesday, due to the Netflix binge watching into the early hours of the morning, so I had a bit of a lie in before getting ready. LB and I were going out to an exhibition at the Barbican, called Dirty Looks - Desire and Decay in Fashion. It was the last week of the exhibition and it was one that LB really wanted to see, so OH generously bought the tickets for us, as they were £20 each, which was super kind of him.

I'm going to try to go to at least one exhibition or show (i.e craft show) per month this year, as there's a few I am wanting to go to, including the The Stitch Festival in March, the Marie Antoinette Exhibition at the V&A and a Liberty print exhibition at the William Morris Museum. Some of them cost £20 ish per ticket, some are less and just ask for a donation, but I think it would be a good challenge to try to get out more and see more of what is going on in London, especially when I'm not working. It doesn't have to be hugely expensive, especially when there are so many free museums to visit here in London too.

Today's exhibition tickets were for 2.15pm, so we were able to have lunch at home before heading out and the only cost was bus fares, which wasn't expensive, as it cost £3.50 for a return fare.  We did set off a bit late though, as I underestimated how long it would take to get there, but it wasn't a problem. The exhibition itself was good. I did come away with this book from the shop, which was a bit of an impulse purchase, but it looks really good. I spent £10.99 on this, but I've been pretty good this month, so I'm not going to give myself a hard time over it.

We called into a new to us charity shop on the way home, and I was sorely tempted by some sewing patterns, which I resisted the urge to buy. I kind of regret it now, as at least one of them might have been really useful, but never mind.

On Thursday, I was booked into the (Soca) Aerobics class at the gym which was really good. I was, however, told by another gym goer that the company that runs the gym which runs quite a lot of gyms in London and other parts of the country, is planning to stop instructors using Zumba or other music for classes and are going to issue a generic playlist for all classes as they don't want to pay the license fees for the Zumba music which is apparently £4 per class. I'm very disappointed by this decision. I think there has been some sort of petition forwarded, but I'll just have to wait and see what happens. Yet another cost cutting measure in our current climate. There's no end to it.

LB got some good news this week, i.e. the chance of some freelance work with a local artist who she worked with as an intern. I'm hoping she'll enjoy it and it will be good experience for her.

I finally finished renovating my shopping trolley today and have posted separately about it. I'm very happy with how it turned out and it was fun to work on and used up more denim scraps which is all good. I now need a new project to work on next.

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful. I did go out on Friday to meet some people for coffee, but the venue was a bit noisy, so it wasn't easy to hold a conversation. When I left, I walked home, which was quite a long way, to get some steps in.

Saturday was quiet, spent at home, having a lie in, chilling, watching TV, having an afternoon nap, reading. I then watched a film on Netflix with OH.

Sunday morning I spent at the gym again, having a good workout and then chilled in the afternoon. I didn't do a whole lot this weekend. Most weekends are like that, just homey, which is how I like them. The weather doesn't help either, as there's been a lot of rain. Mentally, there's a lot going on in my head, thinking about the things I want to do at home, but I didn't get started on any of them just yet.

I hope you've had a good week.

Making/Upcycling Things Every Month - January - Renovating A Shopping Trolley

This year, I want to try to make something or upcycle at least one item every month, just as a way to keep me being creative throughout the year. In addition, I have so many craft supplies, that it will be a good excuse to use them and reduce my stash.

The first project of 2026 was to renovate a shopping trolley I bought for £5 from the Tip Shop, when we were last in Yorkshire. I'd been thinking about buying one for a while, with the intention of adding my own twist to it, as a new Lidl store is opening this year within walking distance of our house and I wanted to do some of our shopping there and thought a trolley might be useful. 

I don't know exactly when the store will open, as it is being built on the site of a petrol station, so there will be lots of decontamination work to do before it can actually be built, but it will be built at some point this year and when I want to shop locally, it will be my store of choice.

Anyway, as a consequence, when I saw shopping trolleys for sale in the Tip Shop for £5, I decided to buy one. The one I bought was a bit boring and a bit grubby. I machine washed the bag a couple of times, to get it as clean as I could, but I still felt like it needed a bit of jazzing up. Here's a picture of the original trolley:

I had lots of denim fabric left over from making LB's pouffe, so I decided to use it for this project, as I thought it would be pretty hardwearing and I enjoy working with it.

I began by making a hexi patchwork piece to cover the front and sides (excluding the zipped pocket). I hand stitched the large hexies together, having made them out of different coloured pieces of denim. Once I'd finished covering the front and sides, I was able to stitch them to the original trolley bag.

I then stitched some other pieces of denim together on my machine to cover the pocket on the front of the bag and also added a jeans pocket to this, just to use it up really and to create an additional pocket for my bus pass or shopping list.

Once the front was finished, I could turn my attention to the top flap and the back of the bag. I found  strips of different denims and machine stitched them together before hand stitching them to the loops that go around the frame of the trolley. I then covered the back of the trolley bag with a jazzy star print denim piece that I made into an extra deep pocket on the back and added another jeans pocket for added interest. 

I also needed to cover the flap at the top of the bag and I used  the same stretchy star print denim fabric I had in my stash for this job, as it was a little more funky. 

I decided not to line the bag, as it was currently wipe clean and I wanted to keep it that way, in case of any spillages/breakages. I did cover the board in the bottom with more star print denim, but otherwise left it as it was.

I was pretty happy with the finished trolley bag, as it looks a lot more individual and it was quite a fun project to do. Here's a picture of the finished bag:

I'm now looking forward to using it and may just have to do a shop locally to give it a trial run.

Swedish Death Cleaning and Other Things

The current book I'm reading is about Swedish Death Cleaning, or removing things from your house and life as you get older, so that your children don't have the weight of all your belongings to deal with when you die. It's a book that's been on my want list for a while and I was given it for Xmas by OH. 

It's a small book, very easy to pick up and put down, with short chapters about different aspects of clearing your stuff, who to pass it on to, how to downsize/simplify your life, etc. It's written by a Swedish lady, a widow, who describes herself as being between the ages of 80 and 100.  It's quite thought provoking. 

Lately, I've been trying to wear things that I don't really reach for in my wardrobe, to give them a chance and see if I still want to keep them. It's helping me to decide whether to donate certain items. 

I no longer have the patience to keep items that are synthetic (unless I really like and wear them often), uncomfortable, or just look unflattering when I put them on. I'm less bothered about how long I've had them or how much they cost me, as most of my clothes have been thrifted, I'm more bothered about whether they are worth giving wardrobe space too, as the more things I have in there, the longer it takes and the more difficult it is to see exactly what I have and make a decision about what to wear.

This week, for example, when we went out to an exhibition, I wore a top that I've not reached for in a long time. It was one that LB was throwing out, but I decided to keep as it's leopard print. It's just a long sleeved, crew necked top, but it is made from a sythetic mesh fabric, which is all the rage amongst youngsters, but not so comfortable as you get older and less tolerant of synthetic fabrics. This particular top is cute, but it chafed my armpits and made them sore, this could be because it was a touch small, but I think it was also because it was synthetic, so when I've washed it, it will definitely be leaving the house. Hopefully, it will find a new home.

Various other things have been donated too. I'm slowly working my way through and only keeping those items I actually enjoy wearing. Life is to be enjoyed, it's too short to wear things that make your skin chafe or feel at all uncomfortable.

Talking of the exhibition we saw at the Barbican, it was also very thought provoking, especially a film about how western fabric waste is being shipped out to Africa to be recycled, flooding the market there and then much of it being dumped in landfill and rivers.  It's criminal how we are happy to send our waste to another country to be disposed of. Shameful. I know it's common knowledge, but how many people actually change their shopping habits as a consequence. I'm glad that I rarely buy any new clothing, as it would weigh on my conscience. There is so much second hand clothing available in this country to buy. 

Some of the clothing in the exhibition was made from recycled textiles and other recycled materials. These were the bits of the exhibition that resonated with me the most. Some of the exhibits were quite humorous or challenged your perceptions about stains, bodily fluids, etc.

Thankfully, my charity shop purchasing of clothing has ground to a halt this month and I'm glad. Unless I see anything that I really like or need, I don't really want to buy anything else for a while and to be honest, I can't really afford to buy much in any case. I think I'll concentrate on whittling down my wardrobe to only my trusted favourites, making my own clothes from fabric in my stash or adjusting things I already have to make them more wearable. It will keep me out of the shops too.

Another area that I need to attend to is definitely my (costume) jewellery. I did donate some necklaces the other week, when the hook they were hanging from fell of the door of my wardrobe. To be honest, I hardly ever reach for costume necklaces any more, but there are a few old favourites that I'm not yet ready to part with or have sentimental value, so I kept them. Earrings, however, and brooches are a whole other area I need to focus on. I do occasionally wear brooches on jackets and I do like them, but I think there may be some in my collection that I can part with now. 

I also have way too many earrings and only tend to reach for a favoured few that more often than not are sterling silver, so there is probably a whole raft of earrings that I could donate if I put my mind to it. Obviously, I will clean any I do donate with surgical spirit, as I do when I buy them second hand.

These are just a few tasks to be getting on with, especially whilst I'm not working. I just need to get started. I'll keep you posted with progress.