New Years Resolutions.

Happy New Year!

I've never really been one for new years resolutions, I kind of just go with the flow and don't give much thought ahead to the coming year, but now I'm a grown up with my own house and child, I don't think that would be the brightest idea to just wait and see.

#1. Plan ahead.
Especially meals, I started to meal plan at the end of last year when money was tight, I sat here, cupboards bare with £12 in my pocket, 3 mouths to feed and 2 weeks until pay day, I pulled everything out of the cupboard and listed everything I had, to my surprise I managed to make 16 separate dinners and was able to easily make my £12 stretch for lunches too, I won't lie we ate a lot of pasta that week, but we ate.

#2. Cut the crap.
Food wise, sometimes when you're skint it can be all to tempting to buy crap, over processed, packet mix, tinned everything, I cook mainly from scratch so we don't have many dinners that come out of a packet, but when it comes to chocolate, breads or refined carbs, we do eat a lot, which is something I'd like to get away from. So we'll be swapping regular pasta for wholewheat versions, baking our own breads, replacing regular treats with a small treat once in a while, cut down on refined sugars and try to completely cut out anything highly processed and eat much less meat.

#3. Move more.
I won't lie, I'm a lazy Badger, I'm a fan of staying in where it's snug and warm and like to save adventures for when it's nice and dry, so I'm going to buy myself a mac and some wellies and brave the storm whilst reducing my carbon footprint.

#4. Be a gentler person.
Sometimes in life I find myself being a little harsh or a little thoughtless, whether that be to others, the earth or even myself. I often catch myself after a using a harsh tone, throwing out something that could of been recycled, criticizing myself and think to myself  "why did I do that?" It doesn't take much just to me that little but more mindful.

So these are mine, now what are yours?

Every Penny Counts..... Literally.

No I really really mean it, you know all those pennies that you just misplace, throw out, accidentally wrap up in the carrier bag and put it in the recycling? The could add up to £100's.

Over the past year every time we find one of those pesky little pennies knocking about the house it's been thrown into a pot.
This morning we emptied out the pot onto the table and set about sorting through the bronze and the silver and bagging them up.

We are a card family, we rarely carry cash (this totally needs to change but that is a whole other blog) so imagine my surprise when we counted.......


£99.10!!!!!!

We have used this to open a savings account for Baby Badger as we have never got round to it when he was born.Let me warn you though, don't try to sort your pennies if your toddler is awake! Not only do will you have your neatly sorted coins scattered all over the house but you will also have grimy hands leaving you unable to fish bits of floor fluff from your toddlers mouth with out rigorously scrubbing your hands first, by which time that floor fluff will be no more.