Cherry takes the reins

Days off are tiring! Going back to work for a quiet life tomorrow.

Today a friend came round in the morning which was good, then after a very MS lunch of the leftovers of yesterday's leftovers pie, I took DFiL for a check-up followed, as it was a beautiful day with a bit of warmth in the sun, by a jaunt involving a coffee shop and a raid on B&M. I haven't managed a run but all that wheel-chair pushing counts as weight-bearing exercise even when helped out by coffee & cake.

I dropped him off at his sheltered housing and rescued his neighbour who couldn't find her key (it turned up in the laundry: not difficult to deduce as it clearly wasn't anywhere on the upper floor where we met her and she thought it might be in the lift, and at the bottom of the lift I'd heard washing machines running and she was telling us about washing out a shopping bag... sad though. She was clearly very forgetful and couldn't work this bit out). After that I went home via 2 supermarkets to add to the cheap goodies I'd already got, and have made 9 portions of assorted pasta meals, of which 5 are already eaten.

Spends:
Coffee and cake £8.20 (not from the account I'm trying not to spend from)
Cleaning/ toiletries/ Easter Egg /carrier bag £8.52
Food £11.18

Sunshine and good company - free.

Not MS stuff:
Coffee & cake but it was my turn to buy and I felt he probably needed something. Maybe next time I will suggest somewhere cheaper, there are loads to choose from.
Left my carrier bags at home and had to buy one.
Make up remover wipes - why, when I bought the cloths (see below) at the same time?

MS stuff:
Bulked out chicken pasta bake with chickpeas, tinned toms, onion. Fed 5 with a bit over for approx. £5.80. Next time maybe I'll forget the chicken and substitute another tin of chickpeas, thus reducing the cost by the life of at least one birdie and £3.38.
Used pasta bake that's 4p less than usual one
Cooked too much pasta as DS decided at the last minute he wasn't eating at home, but turned the extra into 3 lunches so nothing wasted
Bought cheap washing liquid - £1 for 24 washes instead of my usual approx. £5 for 40 washes. Smells nice and if it isn't brilliant we probably won't notice because most of our clothes don't actually get properly dirty anyway.
Noticed B&M selling 4 fancy microfibre clothes for £1.99 and they seem to be identical to one DD bought from her up-market shop which is a special skin cleansing one - so I got some. If they save on makeup remover, all well and good and if not they will be pretty cleaning cloths.

Haven't had time to find the missing utilities bills.

TBH that coffee and cake is slightly haunting me. Not indigestion or regrets, just the cost of it. Wish I got £2.40 for every coffee I make at home!

Well the bank can't find another ISA and gave us another printout of Mum's accounts, so maybe that WAS all a dream! Very odd though. If there is anything it will turn up eventually as I haven't thrown out any banking paperwork.

This means we are close to applying for probate which will be a huge step forward.

I emailed my sister and her husband (they who live abroad and have dodgy internet access and no postal address!) a few days ago looking for some hints on what she wants to do about various things in the estate, but no reply so DH and I had a discussion this morning and have decided on the reduced cleaning hours for the house and to wait repairs on the washer until probate goes through unless I hear before I go to the house this week that my sister is planning a trip over soon.

(The washer needs an engineer and there's no laundrette for miles around. I've brought home enough bedding and towels to wash for my own use but can't carry enough to do some for her and her DD as well, and everything that's been left in the house smells of damp).

In other news, I did DH's hair cut this morning which I've been doing so many years it doesn't seem like MS anymore, but in fact that's another £9 we don't have to pay out.

Also... I am mega-pleased to find I've only spent half my food budget this week, so I'm hoping to nip out before going to work and spend carefully on things that will cut costs this coming week - flour and stuff like that. The cream I bought to make tiramisu is going out of date (no tiramisu as last weekend was too full of other stuff) so this afternoon I'll sniff test it and if the sniffs are okay, the new electric whisk gets pressed into service to see if I can make butter. I never thought I'd do that as I realised that once I could make my own scones and jam, the butter would always be shop bought as I wasn't interested in getting a cow. How things move on! Things that were never on the horizon become possibilities thanks in this instance to a facebook group.