Tuesday 6th January 2009

Bargain_Rzl

Evening everybody :hello:

Cheapskate - sorry to hear about your dad

Sweetpeanut - welcome :hello:

redruby - is that the same nephew who has all the stress with his family? Poor kid. Hope justice is done.

Pooky - I'm with you on loving the freezing cold weather. It's the only time of year when I can walk to work (45 mins brisk-ish walk) without working up an unpleasant sweat in my decent work clothes - while keeping myself fairly toasty with lots of layers, and ensuring I'm wearing nice grippy shoes so as not to fall over on the ice.

Have been AWOL lately - sorry

In a moment of boredom this afternoon I created an Excel spreadsheet of all the things I want or need in this January's sales. Some is necessary clothing, and some is stuff I have wanted for ages (kitchen things mostly) which I figured I'd be able to afford this month as I always get some money off my dad for Christmas. When I finished the budget list it exceeded the available funds by almost £100 - but this month I'm barely going out at all, and have so much stuff in the fridge and freezer I hardly need to do any grocery shopping, and I've worked out that if I behave myself and don't waste unnecessary money I can make up the shortfall from my regular "grocery and miscellaneous" budget by the end of the month.

I then bought a lovely pair of boots this afternoon at Jones Bootmaker. They are brown leather and have a lovely warm fleecy lining - £42 reduced from £85. They weren't quite what I was looking for, so I need to figure out whether they are the "all purpose smart leather ankle boots for work" I had allowed £40 for, or the "trainers or general all purpose leisure shoes" I had allowed £25 for. Either way, I have £23 left over from the two budgets combined, and I still need to find a pair of whatever they're not - if you see what I mean!

Went to Robert Dyas as well. I've been a fan of RD for ages but recently I've been comparing their stock with Lakeland and have found they stock much of the same stuff (or if not exactly the same, then with a similar function) at lower prices. I do need to go to, or order from, Lakeland later this month as there are a couple of specific things I want/need that are genuinely only available from them, but I figure if I can get as many of the things on my list for less money, I won't be so tempted when I do get to Lakeland Also, one of the things on the list is Klippits, and I see the Lidl version is coming up on a special offer next week, which will be a lot cheaper than Lakeland.

Anyway I'll stop waffling - I'm currently watching the documentary about fat mums and their huge newborn babies, while enjoying a lovely glass of wine or three (no official new year's resolutions for me this year ) - over Christmas both Asda and Majestic have had one of my favourite wines reduced from £7.99 to £4.99 a bottle, so I stocked up - normally I enjoy it in extreme moderation because of the price. In fact the offer's still on at Majestic, here's the link if anybody's interested but I doubt it'll be that price for much longer (you get free delivery at Majestic as well ).

Butternut squash risotto for tea tonight

Love Rzl xx :wave:

EssexHebridean

:hello: All - hope everyone's had / having a good day.

I can hardly believe how cold it was this morning! There was frost on the inside of the car windscreen where it had steamed up slightly last night, and as I was running late I had no option but to scrape the outside - couldn't leave the heater to do its thing. Brr! Interesting day at work - my colleague admitted to our Area Manager that he was finding it hard to cope with the workload and the stress was getting to him - considering we work in the construction industry I'm not sure I'd have wanted to say that at the moment - still, makes me feel a little more secure than I was although I do feel sorry for him. That sounds awful - and I don't mean it to, but I know that our Manager realises that I could go back to doing the job on my own if I had to and that's reassuring. I've been made redundant a number of times in the past and you learn to take comfort where you can!

Another NSD for me - not that those are unusual for me during the week - it's rare I spend money other than Fridays and weekend days. The TV has gone on briefly tonight just for MrEH to Sky+ something, he then switched it straight off again and it's so nice sitting here with it quiet.

Dinner was the chickpea and chorizo soup with shredded greens from a recipe in my diary - all from ingredients I had in too although I cheated and subbed bacon for chorizo. It was lovely, and meant I used up half a pot of chicken stock from the soup I made at the weekend, a savoy cabbage from the veg box before christmas, and half a tin of leftover sweetcorn. I did thick cut toast with it and that was leftover bread too - I feel very virtuous! :A I've also had a go at some of the Flylady tasks when I got in too - nice to have a clean kitchen this early in the week. It would be nice to not have to spend half of saturday morning cleaning too - or feeling guilty about NOT cleaning! :eek:

Right - off now to do an inventory of our storecupboard - will be interesting find out exactly how many jars of what I have in there!

redruby

Bargain_Rzl wrote: »

redruby - is that the same nephew who has all the stress with his family? Poor kid. Hope justice is done.

Hi Rzl,

Nice to see you, yes it is the same nephew, poor boy has really been through it, I know he is a s*d, but no one deserves that. The trial is carrying on through tomorrow.

Thanks all for the kind thoughts xx

Bargain_Rzl

Well to be fair redruby, I'm not at all surprised that he is a "s*d" given the start he's had in life

Churchmouse

Good evening all.

Firstly may I say yet more thanks for all the lovely PMs and messages of support I've had. It really has meant a lot. You are such lovely people:D :A Dad's funeral is on Thursday, but I'll be travelling down tomorrow.

I have read the thread, started at a reasonable pace, but embarrassed to say I've speeded up as I've gone along:o It really is very long, so if I've missed anyone's important news I really am sorry.

Liberty, good luck with giving up the ciggies. Nearly three years for me and so worthwhile.

mrsmortenharket, hope the pain was less today.

So sorry Cheapskate for your loss (hugs)

mudgekin, given the bad news you’ve had, I think sobbing was very restrained. You must be feeling overwhelmed. Thinking of you.

Aussie, (hugs) to Benny. I’m sure he’ll be fine once it’s all healed. But rather you than me on the 2 hourly eye drops. That’s worse than having a baby.:rolleyes:

red ruby, thinking of you and your family this week. Fingers crossed for a good result.

Enjoy the wedding, meanmarie, and your meet.

Glad to see you back tiredmum

And now I've written an epic:o

See you all soon, CM x

Cheapskate

Evening churchmouse

So sorry to hear you've lost your dad as well (& sorry I missed the details somewhere - not been here for weeks!), & thanks for your message as well. Hope the funeral is as bearable as it can be - we managed (2 weeks ago now) even though we dreaded it. In spring we're going to take his ashes to his childhood village (where he wanted to retire to, but didn't get the chance) & leave him wherever the winds & fates see fit.

((hugs)) to you!

Anna x

Happyroly

Evening:hello: all decorations down but, same as every year, not all in the loft!
How does it happen? We both walk round the house saying "check that everything Christmassy is down", we both agree "definitely, this year we've cracked it". Up I go into loft, up come all the boxes, the bags, all neatly stacked, down the ladder, put ladder back up, go into the kitchen............. :eek: who put those ornaments on the windowsill!! Unbelievable.

Happyroly

beemuzed wrote: »

Good Morning Everyone! very cold in this corner of NW Essex too - have just walked younger dog and come home freezing. Reminds me of when I was a child - no girl wore trousers to school and we only had knee socks. Very cold legs! Need to do some cooking today and bake more bread. really glad I don't have to drive in to work anymore, the roads are like ice-rinks. Take care everyone.

This brought back memories....... I had/have very thin legs (DH often remarks "last time I saw legs like those they had a message tied to them" :rolleyes: ) and I could never keep my socks up, elastic garters didn't work, still slid down to my ankles, I solved it in the fifth form though........ wore over the knee socks and kept them up with suspenders (now that was a sight to behold )
Freezing cold days like today I bet I am not the only one remembering their liberty bodices!!!

bullet_2

Good evening everyone. Today we had the remains of the vegetable curry for lunch, then for dinner we had a sausage, potato and bean bake. Got some left over for lunch tomorrow as well.

Reverbe

Evening all. Hope everyone is safe and warm and well. Just popped in to cheer myself up. It is my friends birthday today and not only do they not reply to any of my texts, their phone keeps going on voicemail.I am getting very sad with this as they continually did this over the holidays when they knew I was on my own.I have been friends with this guy for over 5 years now and I have a lot of stuff at his house. Tho I haven't seen him since May I used to go see him regularly.It only takes a few seconds now matter how tired or busy you are and on Xmas Day and Boxing Day and New Year's Day he wasn't working barring emergencies.