Bonjour from France 21-22 September

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the delay in posting but I finally have started.

21 SEPTEMBER

Around 1:30 pm on the Friday before we were due to fly out of Sydney, we received a text (and an email) from British Airways advising us that our flight was being delayed by 5 hours. Having this delay from Sydney meant that we would miss all our connecting flights in Singapore and London.
Thank goodness for Leesa at Flight centre in the Canberra centre. Leesa managed to change our flights to Qantas for the next day which left from Sydney, flew to Dubai then London and then to Paris.

Declan and Liam dropped Brad and I off at Jolimont Centre. Some tears (ok, a lot of tears from me). Caught the bus and waited for about 4 hours until our flight to Dubai. It was a great flight, the air hostesses were fantastic. They couldn't do enough for us.

On the bus to Sydney (after having a few tears)

We waited in Dubai airport for about 2 hours and then boarded our flight to London. Arrived at London and had about a four hour wait in Heathrow Airport. It was long and we didn't have any English money and we were so tired. The flight from London to Paris was quick and very short (about the same from Canberra to Sydney).

Our plane, double decker (we were on the top deck)

22 SEPTEMBER
Arrived in Paris and had no trouble going through customs.

Caught the RER train to near our apartment and walked for about 25 minutes (it would have taken about 15 minutes but we got lost a few times). We turned up our street, OMG, there were so many people in our street. It turned out that it was some Jewish celebration and our apartment was in the middle of the Jewish area.

Our street - Rue de Rosiers

We were met by a lovely lady who could speak English very well and showed us to our apartment. There was scaffolding around our apartment as they are 'updating' the outside which was a bit disappointing. Then we had to carry our bags up four flights of stairs. Now these stairs are very steep and narrow. It was very hard with our bags. We arrived at our apartment, which was very small but nice.

Brad is on the stairs above where our apartment is. Look down and you can see the ground.

It was about 3:30pm, once we had settled in for about half an hour we decided to go for a walk to see what attractions there were nearby. We walked and found some many amazing places. We went to Saint Paul-Saint Louis church which was only about 10 minutes away. It was beautiful.

Inside St Paul-St Louis church

St Paul-St Louis

There are so many yummy pâtisseries in Paris. Here is one with lots of macrons in the front windows. YUMMO! I tried to have a chocolate eclair a day, it was a difficult task but I did succeed.

yummo

We also walked around and found we were only 10 minutes (the other way) from the Pompidou.

Paris is amazing. I have realised several things about people who live in Paris:

• they like to ride bicycles and motor scooters (not at the same time of course)
• it appears they smoke (alot)

Brad and I had dinner at a small cafe (crepes) and then came back to the apartment and went to bed around 8:00pm (we both didn't sleep much on the plane). The bed was so comfortable and there wasn't much noise around (the windows are double glazed and we faced a court yard). 

That is all for the 21-22 September.

Pauline

Challenges

It has been a long time between posts. Nothing exciting has happened just been very lazy.

I have decided to set this family a very hard challenge for June. I am planning to budget $80 per week for groceries. I will be cheating a bit with some of the already in the cupboard but I am trying to prove to myself that I don't need to buy everything that is on sale.

Also, my husband and I are saving like mad for our trip for our 25th wedding anniversary. We are planning a trip to France for 4 weeks.

Budgets, Budgets, Budgets

Hi,

Have been feeling unwell for about two weeks and ended up in hospital for a few hours today. Really bad pain in my left  arm, nothing to worry about (thank goodness) apparently just muscle pain.


My biggest issue at the moment is trying to keep to a budget, not really me but my DH is finding it very hard. For example, I sent him to Aldi to buy a few items that we needed (eggs, milk and bacon), he came back with so much stuff (different vegetables, nails, a container, baked beans), the cost was around $73. OMG!!!! That is almost what I spend there for the weekly shop.

http://savingissexy.info/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/How-to-Cut-Your-Budget.gif

I remember reading Rhonda's book, Down to Earth, (worth to be bought, great book) that it took a little while for her husband to 'come around' to her ideas. She just kept going, making the small changes and her husband started seeing the benefits. Fingers crossed that my DH will eventually 'come around'. I keep leaving Rhonda's book lying around and hope that he will pick it up and start reading. Please, please purchase this book it is a book that I believe every house should have.

http://www.penguin.com.au/covers/catalog/9780670075928.jpg

I know it will take sometime to change our habits, especially as we both are spenders.

There has been some many tomatoes coming off our vine, it is amazing. I have made loads of tomato sauces for our pasta. I really get a kick out of cooking things fresh from our garden. Also, I bought a goji berry plant about four years ago and it has never produced anything fruit, well I has started flowering and now has four red berries on it. I am so excited.

Have a great night and happy valentine's day.
xxx

Productivity

Good morning,

The last few days I have not been too well but I am feeling so much better today, probably because it is Saturday.

I love the productivity from the vegetable garden at this time of the year. Although it has been very hot, I have been picking many vegetables and they keep coming. Just this morning I have picked tomatoes and capsicums, which I proudly paraded in front of my family. There are still so much more to come.

Last night I decided to do my grocery shopping after I ate dinner. I needed to buy lots of meat and several other items (tandoor paste, rice wine vinegar etc) as I have planned out my menu for the next two weeks. I was really surprised how little it costed for so much food as I always budget $210 per week for food (I have two teenagers in the house, both boys). For the all the groceries I got it only have cost me $210 so in theory I have another $210 left over and I am sure I won't use that much for the essentials (bread, milk etc).

As it is much cooler here in Canberra today, I plan to do so much cooking so that there is food in the freezer and I can get it out in the morning and don't need to do much when I get home.

As this is the year for me to really curb my spending, I am tweaking my budget really. Come February, I will really look hard at what I am spending my money on and what I have been saving. With the $50 per week for my spending on lunches, I didn't use any of it this week except another colleague had her baby (I have three more colleagues due in the next two months) so I gave $5 towards some flowers. I think I have $81.50 left in the kitty, I haven't checked.

Will post photos of my lovely overgrown vegetable garden very soon.

Have a great day.

xxx

Fruits of Labour

Hi everyone, especially the ones that have come from Rhonda's blog,

This morning I have been outside picking carrots, squash, capsicums and tomatoes before it gets too hot  (around 37 degrees). I plan to make a pasta sauce out of the tomatoes and capsicums, not too sure what to make with the squashes, any ideas? My garden is getting so overgrown, I really need to make another garden bed for more yummy vegetables.

My biggest problem in my garden are earwigs.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Earwig_on_white_background.jpg

I put scrunched up newspapers every night and each morning I put the newspaper into a bucket of soapy water. I do get some earwigs but not too many. If anyone has a great idea how to get rid of them I would be grateful. I really don't like them.

With my $50 a week challenge, I only spent $13.50, one day I bought my lunch for $8.50 (I didn't make lunch the night before and was running late the next morning) and I put $5 towards some flowers/gift for a colleague who just had a baby. I am now left with $36.50.

The reason I why I am challenging myself is I would just go to the atm and get $20 nearly everyday. I know it was wasting money but I am changing these habits. Yes, my friends would understand if I didn't go to lunch with them however, my biggest problem is I have many friends who are not in the same group therefore lunchtime is usually very busy for me. I am hoping that within two months I have really settled down to bringing lunch in and are saving heaps.

I hope everyone is ok and keeping well.

Keep cool (for those in the hot weather).

love

Pauline
xxx

Challenges and budgets

Today I read a wonderful, Rhonda's, her wise words and helpful hints really helps me with my desire to be more self-sufficent. This is why I have decided to really stick to a budget as well as challenging myself with saving more money. Rhonda's blog, Down to Earth can be found here: http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com.au

Brad and I have decided to save his wage and live off mine. OK, he does earn over double what I earn however being a contractor he could be out of a job tomorrow. If we can live off my wage, I know that we would be ok.

With my fortnightly pay, I have decided to have $200 to be transferred to another bank account as savings. I am hoping that eventually I can increase this savings but at the moment I am erring on the side of caution. Also, we need to learn to live on one wage.

http://resources2.news.com.au/images/2011/03/14/1226021/379598-pay-packet.jpg

I have decided to challenge myself by only giving me $50 for lunches.

http://currencyguide.eu/aud-en/aud50front.jpg

Yes, I know that is $10 per working day and it seems a lot but sometimes I go for lunch with friends and it can cost me $20. Sometimes I go out two or three times a week. I am starting to take lunch with me on a regular basis and will save what I have left over at the end of the week. Hopefully I will be able to save more money this way.

Have a great day and please have a look at Rhonda's blog, it is an amazing blog.

xxx

Fires

Hoping everyone is safe where there are fires. Thinking of you.

The wind is very strong here and we have small fires which were quickly put out.

Take care.

xxx

2013

Take two (or three)

Happy New Year everyone. I have tried at least three times to post this post but something has happened to my computer.

I hope you all had a great Christmas and are enjoying the new year.

My Christmas was very quiet, friends came to visit on Christmas eve with some of their boys. Christmas day was good, I had to wake the three boys to open their presents. Breakfast was the usual affair, then lunch and then went to other friends home for Christmas afternoon. Was very nice.

New year eve was also very quiet, DS1 went out (being 19 he went to a friend's house to bring in the New Year). The rest of us spent it at home, DS2 in his bedroom, DH playing a video game and me just watching TV. We did watch the fireworks together.

I had a few extra days off over the Christmas/New Year period, only went back to work today. I did go to Jervis Bay to visits some amazing people. Really enjoyed it.

That is enough for today. Will come back to write about what my plans are for this year.