Managing the mayhem in March - who wants motivation to babystep through the month with us?

[carrotsandcelery]

Starting from March 1st lets babystep our way through the month, throwing in the odd mission.

Sign up here if you want to join in.

We have pointy sticks -> to get you off the sofa and chocolate and stickers as rewards.

Let's end our CHAOS and enjoy our sparkly homes.

I am making SLOW progress.
I have done:
Made beds
get everyone dressed, breakfasted and to school/nursery
1 x drying up
1 x washing up
decluttered some chocolates.
Made a phone call.

oh.oh.oh

i think i have found something for my room-leather effect ottoman in the argos catalogue...it will fit with just a slight overhang on the stairwell "step" and give me somewhere to put my clothes

some hastily made bags for toiletries/make up etc hung on the back of the door

by the way todays menu;
lunch-bogeyman soup.cheese and beet sarny
snack-breadstick and carrot sticks with cream cheese to dunk
dinner-parsnip cutlets,salad of purple sprouting broccoli,black eye beans and red pepper.banana and apricot muffins and custard for pud

soups on
found some white pillow cases

I'm sort of here. I have just been busily building a train track for DD at her request.
Next I need to do lunch, --lacking inspiration on that front--.

Hi, I made beany spaghetti for lunch & chucked it in the slow cooker to keep warm while I did 15mins in the garden & then took DD2 round to see the oldies. (my nose is still blocked, but I'm not coughing or sneezing so decided I wasn't too contagious)

Just finishing lunch now (DD2 is having fun playing with spaghetti still) Hope to pop out in the front garden with her in a bit to collect all the rubbish that has blown in. When she naps I need to fill in some development forms for DD1 ready to hand in when I pick her up tonight. Then I'll take twilight for a walk & clean zoos house

Someone we know is something (not sure what to do with those "sheds". Ours is just a little bit more basic than that!

gives poorly zoolets lunch-refusing soup so cheese sarnies,carrot and baby corn sticks and some crisps

whats your plan for cleaning hour bc?

Hello girls. Sorry to have appeared and gone quiet but I went down with a really nasty virus (I missed a close friend's hen night as a result ). More or less through it now and might consider a babystep

There's a lady on here whom I'm going to invite to join us...

I will be starting late again - 1.30 ??

I have just sat down with cheese and pickle sandwich and given DD a variety style lunch (butty, cheese, a few breadsticks, and a few crisps maybe followed by a yoghurt).
We are reaching desperation stakes on some essential food items . I had to scrape round the marge tub which is now empty.
I will have to go shopping later unless DH offers.

Zoo we are X posting again - Spooky!!!

1.30 fine bc

i struggled with dd2 lunchbox today...she ended up taking "illegal" offerings-one my rocky road kellogs squareslast of bread(luckily found some crumpets to have after cereal.zoolets eat loads)crisps and slightly bendy carrot
that why i had shop...only went sunday.glad we gave up meat...food bill would be astronomic...its already verging on that

can i be very cheeky and ask how much does your weekly shopping bill come to?to everyone

Hi Longtalljosie. Glad you're well-ish again.

Waves to zoo, bessie, BC and carrots.

I've just done, more or less, and hour since we've been back from swimming so I'm going to pause and have a bit more to eat (the soup wasn't quite filling enough).

Feels silly but I have boxed up an entire box of governors and scout things from 2005-ish. I so want to just toss the lot but know there will be hell to pay so have boxed it up and took it upstairs by the loft trap. Still need to do loads more but only have three boxes left....

Have a decent amount of recycling to take out, condensed all of the packages of envelopes, laminator sheets, notebooks, etc.

So much to do!

It's £80-90 liveinazoo. It probably ought to be a bit less really. At present, though, DH and DD eat at MILs once a week when I'm on a late shift, so it would be more if that didn't happen.

I shop at Tesco online. The received MN wisdom is that Ocado is the same price but that's not been my experience (and the veg are tiny there)

Ours ranges from £50 to £80 usually but that doesn't include any extra bits during the week.

i spent £100 sunday-50 of that on fruit and veg

we have already eaten through-
1kg bag frozen broccoli
500g green beans
1kg carrots
1 cucumber
2 packs cherry tomatoes
punnet grapes
2 bunches bananas
bag apples
2 punnets blueberries
punnet strawberries
pack baby corn cobs
bag sugar snap peas
500g bag frozen peas
500g frozen spinach

dont get me started on the rest..we must be cross bred with gannets

whats your plan for the hour bc?

Ours is £60-£80. That usually includes a pack of nappies (we use store brand ones that rarely go on offer or I'd stock up) but doesn't always count for extra baking or cooking supplies (lots of cakes, cookies, chutneys, etc., especially around Christmas). If there's one of the quarterly baby/toddler sales I stock up on boxes of wipes, swim nappies (though one package lasts a term), etc. We usually require a milk top up. MrScout is a carinvore to the max and thinks that every dinner should have meat, meat and more meat. Me, I could do with less. We eat a lot of chicken thanks to me cooking. I've noticed a decrease in our food spend since I started meal planning for a week at a time and doing one big food shop.

For my cleaning hour I need to: wash up, do shopping list, "Whats for dinner?".
That's probably enough.

How about you?

zoo do I need to bring my loo brush & bleach to do the garden or has your "feature" been removed?!

Our sains bill is well over £100 a week. we don't often buy meat/fish but we do have organic dairy stuff (I hope that the animals are treated better this way)

more "dreaded washin up" im afraid

bought some more daffodils today so i have 3 beetroot jars on the windowsill by the sink to give me somethign nice to look at while i sud away

tonight may get kids making the decorative sleeves carrots suggested

bessie am i looking in the wrong place or is veggie cheese hard to find?

lav went yesterday and one inside is sparkling so can leave it at home

BC I love that you decluttered a box of chocs! Might have a go at that in a bit!

To be fair, I had been up since 5am and Hubby has really got on board and did the beds. The washing got put away from last night so I only had todays breakfast stuff. I am just loving getting organised!! It's clicking into place this time!

Ok, menu plan:
Thurs: hot dogs
Fri: Chips from chippy - Lol is at nursery on a Friday so this is ritual cast in stone!
Sat: home-made pizza
Sun: eating out with GPs
Mon: chicken kievs and chips
Tues: slow cooked curry
Wed: chops and mash
Thurs: soup and sarnies
Fri: Chips
Sat:sausage casserole
Sun: out with GPs
Mon: Beef stew
Tues: chicken and rice (nicer than it sounds! There's all veg and stuff mixed in.)
Wed: Spag bol

I shop in several different stores. I usually do Morrisons for meat and fruit/veg. Then Aldi and/or B&M for cupboard stuff like tins of toms and sauces. I tend to buy packet sauces and add a tin of toms or beans rather than buying a jar of sauce. Works out alot cheaper if you use the basics stuff. I could probably make a £45 shop last a good couple of weeks with top ups on bread/milk and a bit of veg. We have cereal or toast for brekkie and pasta/beans on toast/type thing for lunch and there's always fruit/cheese/veg for snacks. Also, close to us is a chicken processing factory that has a 'staff' shop where you can go and buy any extras that they have made, so chicken is quite high on our menu and dead cheap too!

zoo DH does the weekly shop at sains & gets their own brand organic veggie extra mature cheese.

I did try shopping in different stores like Camper a few years ago (when on mat leave with DD1) but didn't save much money. The only other big supermarket we had was Tescos (which was crap for fresh fruit & veg) Asda is a 20-30min drive away. There is a very small Aldi about 5 min away, but you can't get much & it didn't seem worth the effort dragging the baby around supermarkets at the time. Perhaps now prices are so much higher it would be....

Had better get on & do something!