Live on £4000 for a year - Part 3

sophiesmum_2

Good morning frunchkins:D
Well it's a lovely sunny day here today, first sun we have had for ages. Have a lot of stuff to get done here today so need to get going.

• make a loaf
• check veggies and greenhouse
• clean house with stardrops and microfibre cloths
• share a trip to hospital
• nip to mums and check her veggie garden
• stick something in slowcooker so don't have to think about tea later;)
• try and make time for a swim and jacuzzi tonight
• Treat DD for her GCSE results, passed 12 mostly A,B's and some C's:T :T Think new clothes for college will be the way to go as a reward;) will send her off to town with a budget.

Enjoy the weekend everyone:D

Mollymop5

nykmedia wrote: »

MollyMop, Janey & I live in the same county and it'll be the first one that LyndaSharp sees as she crosses the border for her hols! Janey, we should have met at Gretna and hung out some flags of welcome then watched for Betsy Belle! (Apologies if my mush-mind has this completely wrong and it isn't Lyndasharp who is holidaying up here )

not too far to travel then

I'm in Northumberland and travelling as far as the Borders to Holiday at Berwick next Saturday lol

lyndasharp

nykmedia wrote: »

MollyMop, Janey & I live in the same county and it'll be the first one that LyndaSharp sees as she crosses the border for her hols! Janey, we should have met at Gretna and hung out some flags of welcome then watched for Betsy Belle! (Apologies if my mush-mind has this completely wrong and it isn't Lyndasharp who is holidaying up here )

You're right, I am.... but flying up so no Betsy Belle to wave at I'm afraid I'll wave as the plane passes over. I'm going north of Inverness so it'd be a bit too long a drive!

I'm really going soon - just waiting for housemate to get herself ready! Bye again!!!!

Frugaldom

Mollymop, you'll can wave to Janey en route depending on which route you choose to travel

Well, I have just waved off a toy kitchen, a tricycle and a buggy, all now collected after yesterday's Freecycle advert. Only the little pushalong fire engine to go, then I can start raking for more stuff. This has been an excellent week for decluttering, I am pleased! Especially as I also managed to get something that I had just been pricing! The cheapest I could get this specific item was going to be about £200 by the time I bought all the 'matching accessories', however, Freecycle to the rescue! :j Sorry I can't say what it is at the moment but will tell as soon as I can again

bails

Hope the meeting's gone well Janey and Nyk, look forward to hearing about Janey's sugar crash from pink wafer overload And 'the plan'!!
Off out for a curry and bottle of wine tonight as OH has returned to the fold. Thank good ness entertainment isn't coming out of the 4k this year as this is a much needed treat!
Have a great evening all x

Frugaldom

Hi guys! I can now confirm that Janey51 is a real live person, great company and we both 'turned up' with the exact same biscuits, so she has excellent taste! :rotfl: We had loads in common, so now I know that I'm perfectly normal and not in the least eccentric or crazy... unless we both are. The most coincidental part of day was in finding out that we both share the same birthday!! :cool: I am now the very proud owner of a bottle of Tom's hm wine, which will be kept until our birthdays. It will be an honour to open it in celebration of the 4k challenge thread and everything that it means to each and every one of us - the good, the bad, the happy and the sad - and a fitting tribute. Who knows, perhaps, one day, if we can tempt that book out of Janey, we'll all get to read about it. :beer:

Meanwhile, back on planet Fruge, the washing dried nicely outside in the sunshine and I managed to track down marshmallows & smarties for making the top hats tonight.

Marru, your DD would have had a great time here today as there have been 3 weddings locally, so kilts everywhere. I cornered DD and SIL2B for a photo and will let you show it to your DD so she can see it's not just on TV they wear them. Come to think of it... this place is a bit like Balamory! :rotfl:

bails

nykmedia wrote: »

I know that I'm perfectly normal and not in the least eccentric or crazy... unless we both are.

Yep, I'm going with the second one...and lovely you both are with it! How can you be a 4ker without a little of both?!
Glad you had a great time, so spooky that you share a birthday! Could you be twins?
I know we're from all over the place but I'd love to have a 4k frarty - that's fRarty (frugal party) one day; would be so funny to meet everyone!

Got a busy day planned tomorrow, in the garden and kitchen:

• batch cook chilli
• chop and freeze box of normal mushrooms
• stuff and freeze box of flat mushrooms
• make houmous (and bread if I can persuade OH)
• make muesli
• dig up broccoli plants, pick last heads and feed rest to pigs
• pick up all windfalls, cook and freeze
• slug proof the veg patch (again! :mad:)
• plant out courgette plants
• cover potatoes
• pray to the Tomato God to ripen some...any...just one
• go for a walk

I'm sure there was more but if I manage a little of this I'll be pleased.

Frugaldom

Bails, what a busy day you are going to have!

I've just had a disasterous evening in the kitchen supposedly preparing for DGD's party tomorrow! I had trouble finding marshmallows and thought my problems were solved when I found some in the local chemists. (I know! last place I'd ever have thought of looking, but that's where I got them!) I did notice that they looked slightly smaller than the normal ones but thought nothing of it until the part where you have to juggle small cake cases, melted chocolate, 2 teaspoons, a small butter knife, marshmallows and Smarties. That is when I noticed that the marshmallows weren't 'real' marshmallows! They were just mallows, of the foamy sweet variety! :eek: I do NOT recommend anyone ever tries making marshmallow top hats with these, as they end up looking more like tartan berets! The mallows melt as soon as they touch the hot chocolate!!!! Not to be beaten, I reckoned that if I worked faster with 2 of us on the job then we could beat the melt-down. Sadly, this is not so, as the chocolate begins to go lumpy and melts the mallows from both ends! So, I have a plateful of really pathetic looking pink and white splurges sitting all lop-sided with lumpy chocolate bases and Smarties that are all skewiffy and now halfway down from where they started! I'm not even sure these will pass as edible for 4-year-olds, let alone their parents! Hopefully, the 50 mini-sponges that have just been iced and sprinkled will make up for it but I'm not convinced!

Now it is pouring with rain and I'm convinced I can hear dripping in the hall! Trouble is, it shouldn't be able to reach the hall ceiling as there's another 2 floors above that, but it would explain all the dampness in there. I'm guessing that all the chimneys on the roof may not have been sealed off completely but I can't, for the life of me, work out why this place has so many chimneys on the roof... must try to do some [strike]hysterical[/strike] historical research.

Bails, thank you for the vote of (mental) confidence. Janey and I worked feverishly hard today to become fully fledged members of CELTIC (Crazy Eccentric Ladies' Talk Incessantly Club) and you are now all free to join us. :rotfl: Initiation rites shall be drafted soon.

Janey51

Hello from a wet corner of Frugal Land :hello:

Can I make an observation? Do not attempt to use a laptop while a wet cat is sitting on your arms
If you are fluent in Serbo Croat, you may be OK :rotfl:

I can also confirm that Nyk is a real live person and does not live in a yurt wearing homespun robes :rotfl:
She didn't tell me how many units of electricity it took to boil the kettle but it must have been fairly frugal as she kept asking if I wanted more and even if I wished to eat :eek:
I restrained myself with the pink wafers I notice she neglected to mention I turned up clutching a packet of Milk Chocolate Digestives and they were the real thing....but they were 25% extra free :T

I was introduced to Big Jim and I also have to give her top marks for her pink pig money boxes :T

Spooky about our birthdays being the same day....although I have to confess I am a trifle older than her which she was diplomatic enough not to mention.
Frugalitis is not age dependant.
We are obviously from the the same gene pool :beer:
Somehow, I don't seem to remember working feverishly hard but I am pleased to be a member of the CELTIC club. Nyk's OH did display a slightly glazed look at times and had to keep leaving the room.

Today, I have visitors morning, noon and night. Some friends are coming at 11ish with a view to re-homing some of Tom's tools which I am really pleased about as I know there will be no hassle.
A friend is coming after lunch to bring me loads of gossip Always good for the soul.:rotfl:
I am going to make some scones with the cheapie butter I picked up and froze some time ago.

I have been given a double duvet cover circa 1980 but it will do fine for the coming blizzards to wrap around my knees while watching TV.

I have also had a pair of heavy, lined curtains donated for my bathroom. This room faces North and is a little unwelcoming when the wind blows (probably the wrong phrase to use ) so I am hoping the curtains combined with the bargain roller blind I picked up will make it cosier.

All I need for life to be complete is for Tom to walk back in :rolleyes:

sophiesmum_2

Good morning fellow frugallers:D

Janey and Nyk glad the meeting went well:D still waiting to hear about your money making venture and the freecycle acquisition;)

Bails - busy day ahead for you hope you manage to get most of it done:D

Today I need to:

• Make another loaf in breadmaker, OH is terrible for eating all the HM bread when I am not looking:rolleyes:
• Go to hospital for visit
• Use up some runner beans and spuds from garden at lunch
• Make a batch of tomato and basil soup, and a batch of pasta sauce for freezer from HG toms
• Try and find time tonight to fit in a swim and jacuzzi - good for stressbusting:p
• Need to go and buy eggs and mushrooms so will be dipping into contingency fund later

DD went to town yesterday with a budget of £150 for clothes as reward for GCSE results, she did quite well and now has plenty of new jeans, tops, etc for when she starts college next month. Previously she would have been in river island and next but is now amazed at how much stuff she can get from primark and internacionale. Today she is off to local pub/restaurant to see if there are any weekend/ evening jobs going for waiting staff.
Not cooking tea for oldies today as i will be going to hospital around that time so they will have to fend for themselves today but they have been very supportive:A, i have promised to do them a brunch tomorrow to compensate;)
Have a good day everyone