Wednesday 4th January 2006

Aril

Hi all!
Happy New Year. It's grey and murky here so I'm putting off my trip to go to Sainsbury's for milk before the school pickup.
Am determined to put into practise some more of the money saving tips I've learnt from here this year. We're starting off by ringing a mortgage broker as per Martin's advice and then we'll take it from there. I'm also going to start on the OS cleaning as I'm not sure the budget can stretch to Ecover products all the time the rate at which I seem to get through them!
Have done a white wash today and washed all the floors. OH and I are going to start doing our new kitchen plan over the next couple of days. This time last year I was in all the kitchen places choosing what I fancied then OH was made redundant so I shall instead by repainting the kitchen doors I already have!! Oh well.
Was very pleased last night- made my first ever veggie burgers using my burger maker. They turned out really well and even looked like they are supposed to! Tonight I am having the remains of the pasta bake we had frozen from my inlaws diamond wedding party.
After much consideration I resigned from the PTA yesterday. I'm planning on using the extra time to carry on with my cross stitch which I've barely looked at in the last few months and maybe starting seeing if I can get some charity shop clothes and jazz them up a bit. It will also give me time to go for a walk in the evening as extra exercise as I definitely need to lose half a stone post festive munching.
Got given 3 huge bags of frozen gooseberries at the weekend by a friend. Have donated some to my parents who had crumble and my Dad has said he'll make us all some jam with the rest. Scrummy! My motto these days is never say no if someone offers you something even if it's something you need to pass on as if you refuse then they may not offer another time and next time it may be something you really wanted. Following that principle I've also gained some gammon aswell as the fruit this week!
Cheerio Sainsbury's is calling!
Aril

joannasmum

Hello all
Retrospective post for me today, so far I've made a batch of bannana and choc chip muffins, boiled the rice for egg fried rice tonight done 2 batches of washing and made a pasta sauce, boiled the pasta and portioned it up for meals for DD. Going to make OH pack lunch in abit then hopefully have a bath while DD is haveing a afternoon nap woke up with terrible back ache this morning so hope this will ease it.

JAMIEDODGER

just waiting for boys to come back from school ATM, actually dont feel very well this afternoon, bit sicky...another early night tonight methinks!

have potatos on the go for mash for tea with butchers sausages and onion gravy my fav! hoping i feel a bit better enough to eat it!

went to do car tax this morning......cant find MOT certificate anywhere!!!! been turning the place upside down all day looking for it but to no avail! just have to keep looking....

well better get on, have a good afternoon everyone!

tattooed_lady

moggins wrote:

Neither DH nor I slept much last night but we made the most of us both being awake at 5am so that was a bonus

Whatever do you mean??? Hehehe!!

Went to mums house and left kids with her for 20 mins while I went to Argos to return a printer cartridge so got £21.99 refunded to my card - luvely jubbley. Used my £5 voucher to get some nose studs as I keep losing them :rolleyes: Didn't bother with the slow cooker, not absolutely convinced I'd make enough use of it.

Curry Queen - all the best with your house!! :j


See ya

Kylie

Hi joannasmum,

I am wondering how you can spend only £150 per month on groceries? My partner and I seem to spend so much more than that and its only us!

Do you set meal plans or only buy things on special?

I used to be able to buy in bulk a little more, freeze left-overs etc etc, but now we are living in a house with only a half size fridge and the freezer wouldn't even fit my cat (I have not tried this).

I am at a loss...

catznine

Both oh and I have this grotty throat infection that is going around so not a lot done today. Mostly living on soups and hot lemon drinks!

DD left freezer door ajar!:mad: for about 1 hour,:eek: most of the stuff is ok but not sure about the ice cream, not liquid just very soft! It was £4 a tub (luxury buy for Christmas) so would like to be able to use it but don't want to poison everyone.

DD has just brought me a glass of sherry and is doing some ironing so have to forgive her

Hope everyone else is ok and hugs to those who are not.

Organic fruit and veg box delivered today so another £11.50 has come out of the Jan Grocery challenge total but I have Potatoes, onions, swede, mushrooms, cucumber, pears, oranges and apples, so a stew and a crumble to make tomorrow I think.

Bargain_Rzl

If you think about it catznine, your ice-cream's not been treated much worse than if you had it in a supermarket bag with all your other frozen food, and then got stuck in traffic or whatever on your way home. This happened to me when the cab I booked to take me home with my Christmas food shopping was 25 minutes late :mad: and the ice cream was fine.

jo_spanner

Back to work today after a long period of sick leave - only have to do three days tho so not too worried atm. Managed to get to Farmfoods ( what is it with those lights?) and Lidl for freezer stuff and meat.

Made a lamb and a beef casserole last night and they are being heated up as we speak together with left over potatoes......this time last year all unfinished food was in the bin...now I think nothing of putting stuff in freezer....perhaps a few years ago would have been the time to learn this skill and we wouldn't be in such a mess now.

Did ironing last night so tonight after dinner I am sure I will collapse in a heap after doing a full days work for the first time in ages!

All three young spanners at school tomorrow - at least the house won;t be as messy?

Caterina - the oldest young spanner is 16 and though he would never admit to it he will have the odd cuddle with his mum when life, GCSE's, spots and girls are all getting to him!!

kiwichick

Hi All,

A reasonably busy day for me today. DS had me up at7am despite not going to bed until 1am! Have tried to keep him on the go all day and avoid the dreaded afternoon nap. His are the stuff of legends and last for a min of 3 hours. I resorted to giving all 3 of them a small cup full of leftover xmas sweeties for a sugar hit at about 3.30 and its done the trick. He even ate his spag bol for tea.

We had our new bed delivered today(thank god) the old one was truely past it. So I have dismantled the old one and bought it all downstairs. Unpacked and put together the new one, disposed of all the rubbish from said bed and then made it up with new linen. PHEW! The hardest bit was getting the kids to NOT bounce on it. Luckily its too high for ds to climb onto They currently have the old matress as a trampoline in the front room as even a bribe couldnt entice the delivery boys into taking theold one away for me

Have done the laundry and dinner for me and the kids, dhs is ready to go for when he is home. I have a driving lesson tonight, first one in 3 weeks as instructor has been on holiday. Test on the 7th of Feb so need to get back into the swing of it.

Headache from hell so am off to find some ibuprofen.

Seeya,
Al.

Ticklemouse

Evening everyone :wave:

A late post for me today. I've been at mum's today, putting away her masses of Xmas decs. She's really gone mad this year and bought loads, but I don't blame her (except when I was banging my head and trapping my hands as I was trying to get the boxes through the loft hatch :rolleyes: )

So, all I've done here is put on one load of washing and one in TD this morning then come home and made tea (saus and mash for those 3, left over cottage pie for me) Tonight I need to attack the washing again and do some dusting downstairs. DS1 isn't back at school until monday so may ask friend and her DS's round tomorrow so they can all play/kill each other.

Other than that - not much to report. Have informed Mr TM that we have enough food in the house to sink a battleship and so apart from fresh dairy, fruit and veg, we will be living off what we have. Will also help the finances too

Bargain Rzl - don't forget the piece of string all Brownies were meant to carry. Did you ever come across a situation where your bit of string was in the slightest bit useful though? :rotfl:

MATH - no alcohol _pale_ . Goodness man, what ever is happening? I am in shock!! (Hurries off before MATH finds out I've not had a drop in 4 days either. No, I'm not detoxing (yet) just haven't wanted any)

Ok then, off to sort out argumentative boys (and that does include Mr TM) God, I wish they were back at school - you can tell when they need it.

TM