Jem's field notes

Due to continued problems with Feedburner and the ever-present rumour that Google intends to shut it down, I have moved my feed provision (both normal subscriptions and email) to FeedBlitz. Please can you ensure that, if you subscribe to my feed, you are subscribed to www.jemjabella.co.uk/feed as this will always point to the right place…. read full entry »

Just testing the WP android app.

I was thinking the other morning (in the shower, again) about how we save money in so many ways every day… stuff that Karl & I have been doing for that long that we don’t think about it; thus it never makes a budgeting blog entry. So, I’m challenging myself to put together a list… read full entry »

When I was pregnant with Oliver, I was a little worried about how Isabel would take to a new sibling. She was – still is – very attached as a child and I thought that having to share me, especially after she weaned unexpectedly during my pregnancy, would be really hard on her. (I’ve probably… read full entry »

I’m taking a moment to moan. “What’s new?” I hear you cry! I know, I know, so much for the ‘Acknowledge one positive from every day’ goal in 13 things for 2013 (and I still haven’t told you what I decided to do for #13!) Must fix the tiny text on that post. And the… read full entry »

I’m sat here with Isabel making noises in my face, a half-naked baby under my chair, two work projects several months behind for various reasons, another couple due to start any day now and an ever-increasing portfolio of websites in various stages of completion. I’ve got a variety of blogs which are taking up time… read full entry »

Before I even look at the figures, I’m feeling a little more confident about this month. There were a few ‘cheats’ but I’ve mostly stuck to a £100 cash budget for everything. Let’s see what that tallies up to… Joint account expenditure Non-negotiable outgoings Mortgage: £412.97 Childcare: £222.00 Energy: £99.00 Internet: £11.49 Phone: £60.61

I have seen this picture doing the rounds on Facebook recently, mostly among parents who hail it as the right kind of thinking, not sexist, none of this “boys is blue, girls is pink” crap (which ironically LEGO embrace these days, sigh): Now, don’t get me wrong, I like LEGO & I’ve talked about how… read full entry »

I think I’ve probably mentioned before that I get a lot of PR / “blogger outreach” emails. There’s something about having squeezed a baby out of your nethers that makes companies think you’re happy to hawk their wares. Most of these mails go straight to the bin. Either they’re generic “hi pls link our product”… read full entry »

Apologies for another boring meal plan entry. Drowning in work and house chores and kids and general ARGH at the moment. As expected, I’m finding that breaking my meal plans down in to stages and basing what I serve off the veg box instead of the other way around is not only helping me stick… read full entry »