I've had a few blogs over the years ... I'm almost as hard to keep up with as a certain lady I know !!
I've enjoyed sharing our lives and what we get up to, but every now and then it can get a bit much and in a fit of simplifying everything I shut down and deleted most of them a couple of years ago.
Big Mistake.
Luckily I kept the diary that I stuck all the printed out pages of this one into, for me to be able to read through in the future. I'm so glad I did. The future was here the other week, as I posted about here, and I started reading through it, thinking that once read it would be thrown away. But it's making for fascinating reading even if I do say so myself. Now I'm really annoyed that I deleted all those other blogs, I should have just hibernated them.
Drat and double drat!!
This particular blog was called 'A Year Without ... Clothes, Books and Housekeeping Money' and followed our progress living off the proceeds of the Sealed Pot and vouchers, coupons and points for all our food shopping.
I soon got into the hang of keeping receipts, shopping for the best bargains and the main one ... staying out of shops unless I really had to go in. It seems that temptation and clever sales tactics were the hardest things to conquer.
Being able to read back through the year is fascinating. Far better than just a normal diary.
Seemingly between 1st January and 6th December when I closed all my blogs down we spent just £729.35 on food (£377.60 in cash and £351.75 in vouchers, coupons and Nectar points) an average of just £14.88 a week to supplement the homegrown fruits, vegetables and eggs.
Wow ... I need to set to and do something very similar again.
I've even found recipes that I haven't used for ages in amongst the pages.
Now I'm wishing I had all my old blogs back to read through, gosh I don't think I can even remember the names of some of them. Off the top of my head, there was -
Lavender's Blue
Our New Life in the Country (still up and readable ... phew!!)
£365 in 365 Days
The Vegetarian Farmer
A Year Without ...
Challenging Myself (still active)
... and of course, now I have this one.
I wonder what I would blog about now if I were starting all over again? It's very exciting starting out with a brand new blog, you're full of ideas, you plan out a new template, set everything up, build your sidebar and then write and write some more. Eventually, people find you and you have comments and Followers and things get even more exciting. It's still good fun even if YouTubers and Instagrammers are more in the headlines these days.
Note to self ... do not delete old blogs, keep them for posterity.
Sue xx
Did you see Frugal In Norfolk on Monday? https://frugalinnorfolk.blogspot.com/2019/09/spam-blog-appearing-on-my-reading-list.html She gave instructions on downloading your blog to your computer. Guess what I've just done with mine! I didn't know that it could be done until I read her blog. (Too ate for your old ones though.)
ReplyDeleteHa Ha, you did put a smile on my face this morning Sue, it is lovely how friends will always find me and stick by me again, I have had a lot of issues to deal with I guess and been a a dark place several times, but I keep all that crap to myself, but everything is all hunky-dory now, and I really ain't going no where now.
ReplyDeleteOn to your blogs, I have always found all of your blogs really interesting, I love/loved them all I read Our New Life in the Country right through a couple of times. I think this one (A smaller & Simpler Life) is my favourite. xx
I've thoroughly enjoyed all your blogs that I've come acress although some of those names are not familiar so I obviopusly didn't catch them all. A shame they have gone - I'd have enjoyed re-reading, and I'm glad you have the diaries to remiond you.
ReplyDeletexx
Just been given a load of rhubarb. Upside down cake will be on the menu tomorrow! Thankyou
ReplyDeleteI've got diaries going back quite a while, long before I knew about blogging. I think I shall instruct children to donate them to a museum for posterity! (can't really imagine anyone would want them but maybe in 200 years time they might be interesting)
ReplyDeleteMeant to say - Lavenders Blue? when was that........ Dilly Dilly
DeleteLavender's Blue was the name of my gift shop in Ulverston, Cumbria and the blog was about day to day life in the shop. It's where I learnt how to blog and was quite basic at first. It would have been nice to read back now though 🙂.
DeleteI guess it was 2008 and ran up until the start of Our New Life in the Country which it introduced on the last post.
I used to blog publicly and thankfully I kept them. I love rereading them at times. Now I have a blog but it is for my eyes only. I just find it easier to use the blog setup and after a few minutes my handwriting becomes illegible so a 'normal' diary is useless. I've thought of starting a new public blog on various occasions but it's not happened yet. I've read all your blogs except Lavender's Blue and I don't think I remember The Vegetarian Farmer. I'm glad you're still enjoying it, I'm enjoying reading it! x
ReplyDeleteHi Sue
ReplyDeleteHave you looked for them on Wayback Machine? I just looked for Lavenders Blue and although they say 'blog shut down' there were 29 captures from various times. I can't show you a screenshot here but read this - familiar??
You are cordially invited to join me on our new blog
Our New Life in the Country
everyone is welcome!
Follow the ongoing story of our conversion from town dwellers to country folk, with the guaranteed mishaps, the tears and the laughter and the love but always with our usual zany, wacky take on life, (and by the way the lavender story will continue, as soon as I get it planted).
Thank you for reading Lavender's Blue.
Sue xxx
Brilliant, I'll have a look for myself later. Thanks 😃
DeleteI'm glad you kept the diary. They are fun to re-read and often contain things or photos we don't remember. My blog which is now ten years old has photos that exist nowhere else. Happy reading!
ReplyDeleteWhat was 'the sealed pot'?
ReplyDeleteIt was, and still is, a savings system initiated by a blogger nicknamed Sft. You have a sealed container into which you put all your change or coins of a chosen denomination from one 4th December to the next. On that date you see how much money you have been able to save during the course of the year and use it for whatever you have chosen to save for.
DeleteIf you put 'Sealed Pot' into the search box on my other blog 'Our New Life in the Country' it will bring up all my posts about ours.
We switched the opening date to the 7th December as that's our anniversary, and now as I use my large enamel teapot it's not actually sealed, but we are in such a routine with it, it doesn't need to be 🙂
I lost my first blog, I think it was hijacked and so hope I don't lose the one I have now. It is lovely to sit back and read through a few of my first posts.
ReplyDeleteSo glad that you had the diary to remember one of the older blogs you wrote.
God bless.
I do a similar seal pot thing from one craft show, this month, to other one, in January. It's amazing what spending money I accrue, especially for the September one!
ReplyDeleteI have a friend who deleted a couple of old blogs rather than just hibernate them, something she bitterly regrets.
ReplyDeleteI do remember your "Year Without" blog very well, it was a huge eye-opener in our consumer-based society.
I have read all but the two earliest blogs and I always enjoyed them - the different challenges were always a revelation and always inspired me - glad you've still got some of them.
ReplyDeleteYour blog about feeding yourself from the sealed pot and vouchers was almost the first I read. I'd read about Ilona (meanqueen) in the newspaper and, I think, found your blog after looking through blog's she had listed. I'd discovered a whole new world! I was amazed and full of admiration for what you were doing and went back and read all your posts from the beginning of the year.
ReplyDeleteI think I found you on the blog list of a different blogger. When I read about your sealed pot I was hooked. That was a really good and eye opening blog.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your A Year Without... blog. It was both fascinating and inspirational.
ReplyDelete