Post Seven: Monday Blues

Good afternoon lovely readers!

I'm suffering a little case of the Monday Blues so I thought a little progress check might cheer me up! Starting with a look at my efforts this weekend.

My weekend was very chilled out - I started making some shorts as per my last post (although I forgot to take before pictures, oops!), did a lot of reading and made Chicken & Lemon soup which was yum! I also tried the Superscrimpers cleaning tricks I saw on the programme last week, which worked a treat.

Tom had made a start on cleaning the oven, but we didn't have any proper oven cleaner so it hadn't worked too well. I'd seen a simple method to clean the oven on Superscrimpers and decided to put it to the test. All you need is Bicarbonate Soda (88p in Asda) and a teeny bit of water - mix the two into a paste, rub it into the glass door of the oven and leave it to work its magic for at least 15 minutes. I left it for about an hour. Then you take your scourer and just scrub it all off. If you need a little help cutting through the grease you can make up a solution of white vinegar, water and lemon in a ration of 1:2:0.5 which should cost you less than £1! Remember the lemons are only for cleaning, so grab the cheapest ones you can lay your hands on. :) The oven door went from pretty gross to completely spotless in just over an hour - magic!

I've also started to notice the difference in my fuel consumption since emptying my car down to the bare essentials. On average I've been getting about 70 miles to 1/4 of a tank since using the driving tips I outlined in this post which has really helped cut back the petrol spend. My car wasn't really that cluttered, but I did manage to throw out some random bits & bobs, rubbish that had built up and take out some Aquarium Filters that Tom had forgotten to put in the garage. Since then I haven't had a huge increase in efficiency, but I'd guess I'm getting about 75 miles to 1/4 of a tank now which isn't bad going for just a little less weight. At an increase of 20 miles per tank, I'll be saving a 1/4 tank of petrol every 4 times I fill up - not bad. :)

To add to my driving efforts, I'm going to be planning my daily trips a lot better to cut down the number of times I have to drive in a day. For example today I need to pop to Asda for a few things on my way home from work, so I'm planning our meals for the next few days to get anything we need for them too. On average I can be in Asda between 2 and 4 times a week, so if I can cut it down a little that'd be great! I'm hoping to do just a weekend and mid-week shop.

What did you do with your weekend? Have you picked up any new tips that you'd like to share, or got some questions you'd like me to answer? I'd love your feedback. :)