Cherry takes the reins

So yesterday I nipped into town and spent £7.30 of which £6.75 was food basics designed to make it easier to stay in budget this week. As it is, turns out DH has promised a cake to some people and, unusually or him, two attempts have gone wrong. We may be living off cake for a while! The other 50p is now replaced by a lilac bush and a philodendron... both favourites of mine so I couldn't leave then languishing reduced to 25p each, could I? I did manage to resist some others.

So there is £8.87 food money left to carry forward. If I count that as the first £10 of next week's food money I will possibly save £11.13 by the end of next week... have I got that right? It sounds like a nice little sum that could possibly go towards the mortgage overpayment. Also next week I'm spending a few days doing up Mum's house so food spends will be atypical. I have some bits & bobs there and am planning to take stuff to make a pasta bake and some sandwiches/toast...

Today: NSD.

In other news, my sister has managed a partial reply to my messages, including saying she's coming for Easter. Her husband helpfully sent a separate message giving more details! I therefore need to see if I can get the washing machine at the house fixed so she can have clean bedding.

DH got me to sit down long enough to go through all the work he's done on probate forms. We found a few bits still to query but a lot of it is out of the way now. Been looking for the missing utilities bills but no luck so far, and I still have the insurance DD to set up.

No runs for the last few days but quite a bit of walking including a relaxing hour out on the moors this afternoon.

Plans for the coming week: Monday late shift/sleep in at work. Before that try to phone the utilities people and sort out where we stand for Mum's house. I hate phoning people but I'm getting better at it. Also phone Meile about the washer and draft a letter for the lady who cares for the house about her new hours. (Glad of DH's management experience as he suggested we offer her the hours on a flexible basis - so if she needs 3 hours to do a project, she can have that).
Tuesday - day off, haha. Actually DH has a hospital procedure. DS2 has kindly offered to be transport and I'm sticking around later in the day to keep him safe while sedation wears off. Earlier in the day I'm shopping for my little trip to Mum's.
Wednesday/Thurs/Fri am - clean and sort at Mum's
Friday pm - back to work.
Saturday/Sunday/Monday - work.

Good job I had the day off today.

Thanks Macey

Yesterday would have been an NSD except that I made some progress on Mum's gas & electric bills. As they will have to come out of the estate and I can claim them back from myself (sort of!), I've paid part of them from the N account (as opposed to the H account which is where my wages go and my share of the bills come from and which can't take too much of a hit right now). The rest is frozen till probate is sorted. DH rang the probate advice people yet again this morning to check and those don't count as debts for their purposes, so we don't have to declare them.

MS things done yesterday:
Made butter from the cream that's been sitting in the fridge. I am very pleased with myself though it's so easy (ten minutes with an electric whisk). I would love to say it's a fantastic taste experience, right back to the organic days of our ancestors, but really, it just tastes of butter. What more did I reasonably expect?!
Made banana and ginger cake to use up some bananas. I wonder if anyone ever bought bananas specially to make banana cake?
Went to work.

No run - again Not sure if I can fit one in today as I have to make as hopping list (I mean shopping list) and get to the shops before DH gets home and needs supervising.

I had to look up 'deadset', Velvet! :rotfl: It's not a phrase I've come across here... glad you enjoyed the banana comment.

So today... I think I must have been living on the moon because I was so totally unprepared to see toothpaste priced at £6 for 75ml that I grinned and wondered whether to point out the mistake to the staff! Alas, it really is true, though I can still get one I like for less than £1. When did that happen? Is it the tide of Brexit? I think my dental hygiene is going to rely on brushing more than posh products. Then I remember that in Jersey in the war the shortages were such that someone had a toothbrush with only one bristle. Can't remember where I read that but it puts things in proportion.

To more important things: DH's hospital visit went quite well though as usual they couldn't get a perfect reading. At least he seems to have recovered really well from the medication, though I know from someone else's experience that tomorrow he might get some backlash. He is insisting on going to work, where at least there will be colleagues and they are having a meeting in a building directly opposite the hospital, should he take a turn for the worse.

I wondered whether to stay around for the morning but if he's in work there's no point so I'm going to Mum's house as planned for a few days.

MS things today:
Fed the guinea pigs some dandelions - I can probably stop buying greens for them now that the garden is growing again.
My phone ran out of data and I didn't top it up. The automatic top up is tomorrow so I used our home internet instead.
Bought tomato puree and onions to cook with pasta instead of a jar of sauce.
Finished Sunday's cake for lunch, had birthday cake with a friend this evening and tried some of DH's cake that he made the other day for supper. Okay, that saves nothing, I don't even look slightly virtuous on the back of it. I'm just astounded how much cake went into me today. Maybe I need that super toothpaste after all.

Non-MS things today:
Salmon for tea to help DH feel better, and it was delicious.
YS asparagus to go with the salmon. That was delicious too.

Spends:
Cake for friend: £2.65
Food: £11.59
Cleaning stuff £5.90 (some of this goes to do Mum's house but I'll just reclaim any unused eventually so I'm not billing the estate for it)
Stuff for the house (cleaning/decorating) to reclaim £6.86

I'll be offline for a few days but I'll try to be accountable and post when I get back.

Saturday spends:
20p car boot entry
75p 2 cookery books
50p old coins for my collector son
£5.39 - kindle book (paid using gift card so no cost to me )

Argh!
I checked the bank account and found that the Amazon Prime cancellation hadn't gone through for some unknown reason so I've been charged £7.99. I can't find how to query/challenge it either.

MS:
Took overnight oats to work so a cheap & healthy meal.
My teacher has cancelled Tuesday's piano lesson.
Still have £17.04 of the £20 food money I took out this week!!! DH also has some left. I think that's a record low spend, with the double benefit that there's now a bit of space in the freezer. It doesn't mean I spent only £2.94 though: I had £8-something left from last week which I carried forward.
If I carry forward the £17.04 and only get £10 out this week, I will have a lean week and I'm not sure it will work, but I'll try. There are a few bits I know I need to get in the next few days in addition to actual meals.

Hi Velvet! *Waves* Weekend is going fine thanks though I've been at work.

NSD today