Live on £4,000 for a year - 2009, Part 4

cw18

*** waves to all ***

Had a great 24 hours with friends at my crop, but am now totally shattered!! Couldn't find bits I wanted to 'pack' on Friday, which resulted in me only getting 4 hours sleep before heading out Got home middle of this morning, switched the kettle on to make a brew, sat down on the couch, and promptly fell asleep for 3 hours !!!

Have since been down the shops for the bread we needed and milk we were close to needing (so tomorrow, Tuesday and probably Wednesday should now be NSDs )

Lynda - those boquets are stunning :T

SM - Save me a slice (or three) of each of those cakes...... I'll be over later if I can stay awake enough to be safe driving :rotfl:

savingfortravel

Lynne-well done on pay rise. I got one at school and am very grateful for it too.
Nyk-Hope your back feels better. Well done on the pasta mountain and the Christmas presents. Everyone is getting so organised already.

SM-Your cakes look delicious. And I wish I could try some of the lemon marmalade. Is your LETTS group the same as Nyks? I am very envious. I agree with BB, well done on fulfilling your life plans. That’s what it is all about. I’ve been sorting out our bedroom this afternoon. Have to confess that we moved here in June and I’m only just tackling stuff now. Found 3 more blouses I could wear for school if I get down a dress size. Maybe my frugal nature will prove the incentive I need! Just hope Mr SFT keeps what I’ve tidied tidy. IYSWIM. He is not the neatest person. Found a rucksack to put on ebay..got a little time before France to raise a bit of money.

Blairweech-Yes the shops in Rochester are great. Although I’m finding myself increasingly drawn to charity shops. Didn’t buy anything for me..only spend money on the Big I55ue, a donation to the Cathedral , 30p on a walking guide of the city and £1 on 3 birthday cards. My hostel meal of veggie sausages and mash was £5.45 and my lovely mum paid for our ‘all you can eat breakfast’ (did they really know what they were doing – Mr SFT is still not hungry):eek:. This morning we went for a walk around the country park opposite Medway Youth Hostel. Lots of chestnuts on the ground and we have managed to find 10 more cans for Dad’s recycling (he is really enjoying seeing his T*sco points go up-I’ve even got a few lovely ladies at school collecting them for me). My dad is 75 years old but has the energy of someone half his age. On Friday he came round to our cottage and spent 4 hours in our front garden. I returned home and saw for the first time we have a fence on one side.

BB-You are doing so well with your house projects. Well done. Hope you get the lovely lodger you deserve. Yes I love working out deals for trips. Looking to take mum (and dad if I can persuade him) somewhere in the spring, courtesy of Mr T points.

Lynda-What beautiful flowers-you are so clever. Love hearing about your wedding plans.

Whitewing-Congratulations on citizenship acceptance for DH. That must be a huge weight off your mind.

Cheryl-Sounds like you hgad a great weekend.

Sorry for the long post everyone.

SFT

ram_murdock

ah... i'm on page 84 of part 3!!

must must catch up!! hope everyone is well!

cheerfulness4

SM - those cakes look scrummy. I love the pretty traybake. Forgot that I've got lots of the cheapy cake decorations, too. Will have to decorate my own traybake with some next week. Might stop me nippling on the little orange & lemon slices in the cupboard.
Watch out for those silver balls tho, nearly broke a tooth on one of those.

cheryl - I love scrapbooking too and would never be able to decide which bits to take to a crop. I'm really disorganised when I work and take ages to decide.
Bought an old writing bureau for £5 from local CS, which is brilliant to store it in and work on, but when opening one of the drawers a couple of weeks back a HUGE spider was in there. Daren't go back in since then.

cw18

cheerfulness4 wrote: »

Bought an old writing bureau for £5 from local CS, which is brilliant to store it in and work on

I'm lucky, in that when elder DS moved out I took over his bedroom as a craft room - and about 18 months ago I had a savings plan mature, so used a chuck of the money to buy kitchen units and worktop (in the Ike@ birthday sale) to fit it out.

Only problem is that I need to pull all my stash back out of there to do the last installation bits and bobs - but with stash already overflowing into 4 other rooms in the hous ( ) I don't really have anywhere to put it.

but when opening one of the drawers a couple of weeks back a HUGE spider was in there. Daren't go back in since then.

I could lend you my personal 'spider catcher' - he clearly thinks a low-protein diet isn't for him, as he hoovers them up to get extra :rotfl:

sophiesmum_2

Transformed the unused portion of yesterdays yoghurt into some soft cheese, added some garlic puree and a few herbs and it is lush.OH and I just had a bit on oatcakes with homegrown toms and cuke - yummy. Good job we aren't eating until 8ish;)

Nyk - about 3/4 litre of yog made one of your lemon curd jars full of garlic and herb "philly" and there is lots of whey to add to baking etc,( or for your DS to add to his protein shakes. ) so 1/4 litre of yoghurt and a pot of philly for 45p

Just ordered some new kefir grains from e bay - kefir makes good soft cheese,sort of cottage cheese type.I stopped doing these last year but need to start again.:D

cw18

Yessssssss!!!!

Just checked my cashback account, and the entry for my car insurance has changed from tracked to validated since Friday :j:j:j

So that's another£6 freed up to help balance the "iffy" areas :T
(Was getting worried I was going to have to find another £14 for this category, as it was originally scheduled to be validated and paid by the end of September!!!)


(And I've just found the dog collar I wanted for £12.95 including postage - and then a 10% discount for becoming a 'follower' on Tw1tter, so down to £11.66 - against an RRP of £15.95 plus postage)

cheerfulness4

cw18 wrote: »

I could lend you my personal 'spider catcher' - he clearly thinks a low-protein diet isn't for him, as he hoovers them up to get extra :rotfl:

Yuck!
I miss my poor old cat this year as she was onto them in a sec.

Green with envy over the craft room too. I'm already planning DS1's bedroom but he won't budge yet. :rolleyes:

SM - where did you learn how to make cream cheese? Is there a blog or a book that you've used? Am intrigued as we love it and didn't make the association with HM yoghurt before.

sophiesmum_2

There is a basic tutorial on here that explains it okay.
http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/2007/11/yoghurt-and-quark.html

cheerfulness4

Thanks SM - will have a look-see over a cuppa.