Frugal skincare

I used to spend way to much on skincare/make-up/bodycare products, 60 euro's a month was not uncommon. I still had breakouts (mostly because I didn't stick to my routine) and was looking for a more simple and definately less expensive option. I started researching how to make my own skincare products. I found an article online called The Oil Cleansing Method and after reading it through I decided that this was something that I could do, however I was scared I would break out because of all the oil. I decided to give it a week and if I had rash or breakouts I would immediately stop. Almost 3 months have passed and I have beautiful skin no rashes no acne and the blemishes of the acne in teens are disappearing, even the lil whole's are filling up!!! All of this without spending one dime! I cook with olive oil and I use castor oil for my locs. I use a mixture of 50/50 for the "oil wash" and rub a lil of that same mixture for skincare.

If you are looking for a frugal working way to take care of your skin, click on the oil cleansing method and read the whole article.

Tackle it tuesday!

I found this site while surfing ;-) I haven't fully explored it yet but I like the sound of tackle it tuesday!



I have to move mountains today, or at least that is how I feel. It's after 9 a.m. and you guessed it I am not dressed yet, ofcourse I have an excuse I have to scrub the bathroom and figured I could do that right before showering. (yes I remember saying no excuses allowed LOL)



My to do list:



take 2 loads of wash off the clothesrack and fold them Done

hang the one that is in the washer now

clean breakfast cupboard

clean shelves kitchen

clean cutlery drawer

clean bathroom

clean tiolet

vacuum downstairs

vacuum eldest son his room and make the beds caus my auntie is staying in there. Edit: The room was a bit more work then just making beds. I dusted and cleaned the windows and after my lil break I will head back upstairs and finish it.

Make livingroom clutterfree (I am doing this after the kids are in bed)



That's enough more might have to be added to the list but this is enough for now any more would depress me.



Will be back with progress (I hope)

Edit: Thanks for the comments ladies! I was able to do all the things on my list but my internet was cut off because of a mistake the phonecompany made. They promised to reconnect it right away but right away turned out to be 20 hours later. I wasn't able to come and update :-(

Flylady?

Some members of my forum and I started using the flylady system to get organized in april of 2006. We all started with babysteps and after that we all had a simple morning/afternoon/night routines in our control journals.

Some of the ladies have since than kept their home in perfect condition. They get up in the mornings make their beds, groom themselves while swish and swiping the bathroom, get dressed (shoes and all), have breakfast and start their days. I am not one of those ladies, everytime I am in pain and/or get hospitalized(wich both occur far to often) I fall off the routine and have to start the babysteps all over again. There have been times that I even had to restart babysteps in the midst of doing them because I was out of routine again.

There are 2 habits that I have taught myself to really stick too the first is making a menu and the second is shining my sink every night now I am not able to do the second one always and my sweet dh has made that his fly-task

As christmas gift to myself I am making a brand spankin new control journal. The one I have now is just not functional for this family. I am planning to make it extremely cute so I will want to look in it daily. I am also promising myself that even if I am in pain I will make an effort to get dressed and groom myself every morning before 9 a.m. no exeptions!!

If you are looking for a way to get organized and stay that way i highly recommend this system! Next to the daily routines the house is divided in zones and each week another zone is focused on this way all zones get thoroughly cleaned once a month. The zone is cleaned from ceiling to floor focusing on not just cleaning an decluttering but making the space more inviting for the familymembers and guests. This week is zone 2 the kitchen, last month I gave my tiny lil kitchen so much love I am still feeling it every time I walk into it. I started in the zone today and because I have a raised temperature (due to inflamations) and a hecke lot a pain I decided to do 2 cupboards today. I went inthere set the timer for 15 min and before I knew it I had cleaned 3 cupboards, one shelf and my messy drawer (you know the one I know you have one too :-D ) I might be in too much pain to go to yoga today but i got my zenn from spending time in the heart of my home

Babysteps to healthy eating

This post was a comment that I left on Micah's blog Since I fell off the wagon I decided that it would be a great day to start with babysteps again. I have been taking antibiotics again so fasting is not an option so it didn't really matter wich day i started. No time like the present right? OOOh and I am so excited dh decided to join in

Are you familiar with the flylady system with babysteps to teach you new habits for keeping your home in order? I made babysteps in order to teach myself new eating habits simular to the flylady system. The members of my forum and readers of my website used this system along with me and all of us lost a minimum of 5 pounds in the 30 days!

The steps with a * are to be repeated everyday.

For example day one drink 1,5 liter of water day two drink 1,5 liter of water and eat 2 pieces of fruit. These steps are going to become your habit and doing these lil things daily will change your way of eating forever.

Day 7, 14, 21 and 28 are fasting days on those days you are only allowed to drink fresh fruit and veggie juices, water, veggie or chicken stock and herbal tea. I fast as a way to release the week and prepare for a new week mentally and spiritually, it also helps the body to release toxins (wich cause weight gain) and to heal. I fast with water only but that is not recommended when just start! (Read this for some more information and tips on how to start http://www.healingdaily.com/juicing-for-health/how-to-fast.htm) I fast on sundays but you can choose any day that works for you.

Day 1) Drink at least 1,5 liter water each day *

Day 2)eat 2 pieces of fruit *

Day 3)rub yourself from toe to shoulders with firming bodylotion *

Day 4)replace one snack with a healthy snack of choice *

Day 5)get up 15 minutes earlier and eat a healthy breakfast *

Day 6)prepare yourself for fasting tomorrow (light meals non-fat)

Day 7)fastingday

Day 8) make a control journal ( I use a a5 map with plastic cases inside to slip in ideas, recipes etc and some lined paper to journal)

Day 9)search the net and magazines for healthy snack ideas and put them in your controle journal

Day 10) weigh your dinner *

Day 11) go on and find some more recipes and ideas for your controle journal

Day 12) make a healthy filling lunch for example 2 slices of whole grain bread with some cheese (or lean meat if you eat meat) tomatoes, lettuce and on the side a nice cup of tomato or other veggiesoup*

Day 13) prepare for fasting (see day 7)

Day 14) fastingday

Day 15) go on and find some more recipes and ideas and file in your controle journal

Day 16)no more solids after 8 p.m. (get some different flavors of herbal tea to help when you feel a urge to eat)*

Day 17)build up a sweat for 20 minutes a day (doesn't matter how, go jogging, go to the gym, do jumpingjacks at home, just break a sweat!)*

Day 18)write away negative thoughts (seeing these horrible things our minds tells us on paper will soon help to shut up up the negative innervoice)*

Day 19)ask your partner to give you a nice massage (or splurge and get a proffesional massage)

Day 20)find inspiration for your contole journal. prepare for fasting

Day 21)fastingday

Day 22)find pamperingmissions for your controle journal. Make it a habit to pamper yourself at least once a day *

Day 23)walk around the corner on your break the fresh air will help you concentrate better at work, if you are a sahm take the kids to the nearest park for a quater of an hour. It will do you and them a world of good!*

Day 24)take 1000 mg of vitamin c daily (this will help the skin to stay firm while loosing weight)*Day 25)on the right track? Check here to see if your daily intake is what it should be (http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/pyramids.html) and pls remember portion control!

Day 26)Try a new veggie!

Day 27)Yeah you have been moving for 20 minutes daily for 10 days now! Time to kick it up a notch and make it 40 minutes a day! * (prepare for fasting)

Day 28)fasting day

Day 29)find some new inspiration for your controle journal

Day 30)congratulations you've build a health routine for yourself! Keep up the good work!

Because this is a refresh course ;-) for me I decided to do more than one step at a time.

So far I drank 1,5 liter water today and it's only 1:30 pm. I was dreading fruit again (I think it's the antibiotics everytime I take them I loathe fruit) but I forced myself to eat some anyway. So I made a fruitsalad with peer, apple and banana and shared it with my lil man. It was fun eating it since lil man decided that he would pick wich fruit we would have in wich order before I knew it the plate was empy :-D

I had 2 slices of wholeweat bread toasted with aioli ( I am so addicted to this stuff poor dh I smell of garlic all day) and I am going to make some tosti's for me and the lil man now. Right on track not bad for a strayed weightloser (<---- is that a word lol)

Okay my coffeecup is empty, time to get moving again. (As you can see I am taking this blogging thing a bit more serious now

Blessings!

Fallen off the wagon

Okay so I fell of the wagon, I have had no portion control for the last week and a half and I have not been moving enough. Just yoga once a week and sporadicly a bit of pilates at home. I studied my habits and motivation and came to the conclusion that I am not motivated when I have no goal. My initial goal was to reach a healthy BMI now that I accomplished that I am suffering from lack of motivation. I decided to reach for an old hearts desire. My ultimate goal is to take up ballet again. I haven't danced in 11 yrs!! I used to dance a few times a day (jazz ballet, african dance and my favorite classical ballet) then I got pregnant with son#1 and got really really ill. I never fully recovered since the pregnancy triggered my anemia. Anyway I am straying from subject. I will start balletlessons in september of 2008. Wich means that I have 8,5 months to get lithe!

1st goal is to re-teach myself this stretch

2nd goal is to re-teach myself this one

Well enough goals to reach for now, I will be keeping you posted on the progress.

I am soooo exited by the thought of buying a ballet outfit next summer! I used to visit this lil shop almost weekly when I was a dancer and I was shocked that they didn't go bankrupt when I stopped dancing LOL

Blessings,

Groceries 12/8/07 till 12/14/07

I try to spend a max of 100 euro's weekly on the groceries (food, tioletries, cleaningsupplies etc) In about six months time I want to spend a max of 75 euro's. Sadly enough groceries especially biological/organic fruit and veggies are extremely expensive in NL (not all but most of the tropical fruits and veggies and as a caribeangirl I like my okra/stringbeans and what nots ;-)

Market 6.99 euro's

1 kilo tomatoes

1 cabbage

2 zuchinni's

1 cucumber

1 kilo banana's

Healthstore 3.59 euro's

1 biological/organic tioletcleaner

1 roll of biological candy

Grocery store 37.62 euro's

Gouda cheese slices 2x

biological/organic patatoes

spinach

kitchentowel

juice

cola for dh

muesli

strawberry and vanilla custard

e.v. olive oil

smarties

bulb

paper hancherchiefs

tomatosoup 2x

coffee

biological/organic handsoap

seasalt

veggie sausages

whole weat bread

corn (can)

lettuce

Xenos 9.83 euro's

casa fiesta wraps

naanbread 2x

salsa mild

joy strawberry (healthdrink for kids)

green punch soda 2 lil cans for sunday after dinner treat

sweet and sour saus

capri sonne 4x

Total: 54.63 euro's

That leaves me with 45.37 euro's I still need to buy fish and milk/bread for the rest of the week.

Update:

Grocery store 17.95 euro

Tilapiafilet 1500 grams

2x whole weat bread

1 plant for fishtank

vanilla yoghurt

Budget left: 27.42 euro I am probably going to overspend this week because I am getting guests. My auntie and niece are coming to spend a few days with us so I need to adapt the budget to 6 ppl instead of 4 wich is perfectly ok caus it's going to be fun the kids love having family around and I haven't seen my aunt in 2 years (she lives in surinam)!!

Edit:

Grocery store 15.36 euro

caprisonne 2x

low fat milk

whole weat bread

cookies

gouda cheese

pancakes

prunes

stroopwafels this is actually a gift for my dh his american collegues, I send some over for them when dh was last there and they have all become somewhat addicted lol

Market (wednesday) 4.25 euro (auntie paid the fruitman she was so quick I could not even protest)

1 kilo banana's

5 pears

5 apples

10 tangerines

2 zucchini's

1 cabbage

Budget left: 7.81 euro I fed a family of 6 and still stayed within my budget. The 7,81 one will go straight into my saving can.

Friday Menu's

I decided to share my weekmenu's with you. I will do this on fridays but since I came up with this brilliant idea today this one time I will do it on a saturday. I make my menu's every friday and go to the market and grocery store every saturday.
* We don't eat meat or poultry, however we do eat fish and animal by products like eggs and milkproducts. The only time we do eat red meat is when I am anemic and need the iron.

Saturday: Rice with steamed cabbage and fried fish
cabbage
butterfish
tomatoes
onion
garlic
rice

Sunday: wraps with tilapia
tortilla's
salsa mild
grated cheese
tilapiafilet
spinach
onions
garlic
burrito seasoning

Monday: tomatoe soup and grilled cheese sandwiches
bags of tomatosoup 2x
whole weat bread
cheese

Tuesday: chile con "carne"
kidneybeans
ground mushrooms
tomatoes
bayleaf
onions
garlic
rice

Wednesday: homemade fries with vegan or fishnuggets and salad
patatoes
fishsticks
lettuce
tomatoes
cucumber
corn (canned)

Thursday: spaghetti with zucchini
Spaghetti
Canned tomatoes 3x
courgette (zuchini) 2x
grated cheese 1x
dried italian herbs
onions
garlic

Friday: dhal (yellow split peas) with naan (indian flat bread)
yellow split peas
onions
masala spices
garlic
gira
naan

Blessings,