greent's mfw journey

smallholdingsister

I adore Slimbridge. Especially the Ruddy Ducks!

Karmacat

Hi greent

Hope you have a lovely time out tonight.

I agree with SHS - that teacher sounds a nightmare! Chaotic timetables for the teens doesn't sound too great either.

greent

Fab time out last night, thanks Didn't make it to neighbour's party as meal went on much longer than expected so went for a swift drink in bar around the corner with meal people instead. They were then going back to one of their houses and continuing! - we were invited but they all live around the corner form each other (about 5 mins walk) and we're about 40 mins walk - and I was wearing 4" Iron Fist shoes, so not equipped for it! However, as we arrived home our neighbour and hubby arrived home in a taxi - and invited us in, so we were drinking champagne (and cherry vodka) with them until gone 2.30am! Very pleasant evening!


Absolutely gorgeously beautiful day here - very warm and sunny. Went to Slimbridge WWT and spent a lovely 3 hours finding the Lego exhibits, watching and feeding the birds etc. Very gentle meander around, with a stop for icecreams at one of the playpark areas


Scratch food this evening for everyone. I made a baked risotto this morning to use up the open Arborio rice - also finished off the frozen spinach and frozen chicken scraps from last week's roast and used some previously frozen leeks and a large tub of chicken stock - so definitely helped with freezer contents If people didn't want that I threw together a pasta dish (we have lots of lasagne sheets and have gone off lasagne, so I part cooked some of them and cut them into thin strips to make a short taglietelle! - success, so will do that again to use more of them up) Rocky road type stuff for pudding for those who wanted it. (Also good at using bits up - had all the broken biscuits in from the bottom of the jar, the bottom of a cheerios packet, the dusty ends of the rice crispies and coco pops packets, a half box of Smarties left by someone - along with some chocolate which we'd had in the car and had melted in the glove box and no one wanted to eat - and the usual marshmallows etc.)


An ironing mountain awaits me this evening - so I shall catch up on Casualty and GBBO extra slice whilst doing it


Hope you've all had a lovely weekend


xx

tattycath

greent wrote: »

Scratch food this evening for everyone. I made a baked risotto this morning to use up the open Arborio rice - also finished off the frozen spinach and frozen chicken scraps from last week's roast and used some previously frozen leeks and a large tub of chicken stock - so definitely helped with freezer contents If people didn't want that I threw together a pasta dish (we have lots of lasagne sheets and have gone off lasagne, so I part cooked some of them and cut them into thin strips to make a short taglietelle! - success, so will do that again to use more of them up) Rocky road type stuff for pudding for those who wanted it. (Also good at using bits up - had all the broken biscuits in from the bottom of the jar, the bottom of a cheerios packet, the dusty ends of the rice crispies and coco pops packets, a half box of Smarties left by someone - along with some chocolate which we'd had in the car and had melted in the glove box and no one wanted to eat - and the usual marshmallows etc

xx

Pleased you had a great time. Loving the idea for the lasagne /pasta sheets. I have some in the cupboard and we fancy something different too. So I shall try this. Thank you for sharing.

greent

Stayed the same weight at fat club today - which isn't a bad result after the weekend!:p Would really like a 3lb weight loss next week to kick start me back in. Have a school reunion night this weekend, but it's only drinks, not food - and if I drive I can easily stick to sparkling water all night, so no hiccups there. Have just made a huge pan of lentil/ carrot/ bacon soup, which is very yummy and have got mince out of the freezer to make chilli for tomorrow (I always think it tastes better the next day after the flavours have matured) Haven't a clue what to eat tonight, though! My downfall isn't usually meals - they're quite good - it's all the unhealthy snacks which are so easy to eat! OH has decided that he needs to lose weight, though, so he is cutting back on snacks, which means less temptation for me.


Talking of OH, he has a telephone interview today and a face to face one tomorrow for two contracts. Not sure I'm a fan of today's (means Mon-Fri living in London) but let's just see how it goes!


We have had some serious CC bills this month to pay:eek:. That and back to school expenses etc means we are skint (it's all relative, I know - I just don't want to spend as much on the CCs this month). The final bill for the boiler is due this week sometime - and the windows and doors are being done next week (fingers crossed). I'm trying to pay the odd £££ from cashflow, as opposed to the earmarked savings, just to keep as much in there as possible.


We are moving one of our c/acs to Co-op for their cashback - temporarily - will move to another provider ultimately. May move another to M&S. Now that we're mtge free I want to overhaul all of our finances and I don't mind shuffling money around more now My head just feels clearer I also need to review where the children hold their accounts - I know there are better rates to be had. We're also booking a pension review. I suppose it's a personal finance MOT Am booking some work on BTL (heating system needs upgrading) and will look at timescales to start repaying the IO mtge for that slowly - we're 99.9% sure we're keeping it (the property) now.


I need to submit my timesheets for one of the schools I invigilate for for the whole of the Summer exam period - have decided to earmark that (and all future invigilation money (the other school pays you as you go)) to the Florida Fund :D - which I also need to really start looking at to book - although I need to ensure it doesn't clash with any important dates for DD and DS1.


My goals for Sept (bit late!) are:

• Keep grocery spends to <£350
• Lose 5lb
• Increase Florida Fund by £200
• List remaining items on ebay (only about 4 to do, I think)
• More decluttering!
• Start Xmas preparations! :santa2:

tattycath

Fingers crossed for the contract.
You seem so organised.
Speaking of Christmas, I've bought ingredients today for my Christmas cake. I've just got to make it now.

greent

I've tried posting a couple of times recently- once I lost my post and the other time I was interrupted by children and never finished it!


Life is a bit busy here at the mo. New boiler finally finished and still awaiting bill (not complaining - that money is earning interest in the meantime) and also had new doors and windows fitted this week - love them! We had leaded windows before and it's surprising how much lighter it is without the leading! And I love my new front door! :smileyhea Haven't paid for thise yet, either - despite chasing the fitter!


Biggest news - and impact on how busy we are - is that OH's mum died unexpectedly on 10th Sept. 5pm the evening before we though she was attention seeking (was somewhat of a hypochondriac) but just after 5am on Thurs morning she was dead - at only 64. OH spent the last 15-20mins sat by her bedside after A&E docs had made her comfortable and said there was nothing more they could do. Funeral is this coming Fri, so we are organising that, sorting out all of her stuff etc - and dealing with day to day life, which has been busier than normal with some extra work for me invigilating !!+ and CATs tests and lots of activities and trips for schools and Cubs/ Beavers to sort too. There's so much stuff to sort - all the standard admin re a person's life, such as electricity, tv, phone, motability car etc and then all of her things. Have donated most of her clothes straight to charity but still several black bags worth - and then there's photos, trinkets, household goods. OH's siblings live in London and none of them truly get on, so there's already been a bit of nit-picking which is stressing him out when he has suggestions from 5 different people as to what they want her to go out of the crematorium to - not everyone can be pleased - and we're the ones sorting it all - and paying for quite a bit of it (no real estate to speak of) and will be the ones blamed when people don't get their wishes.:( Grr! (But on a note re: 'stuff' it just emphasises the need to have your affairs in order, as you never know) (and Kondo everything!)


Aside from that, it's a lovely Sept day here. Our kitchen man appears to have gone awol though and is not replying to anything , so after 3 cupboards have been ripped out for the boiler (rendering part of my kitchen extremely unattractive!) we need to try and sort a new one


Couple of bank account shifts coming up soon - all agreed in principle, so that should hopefully net some cashback from the one and M&S giftcard from the other :T Not sure how long the M&S one takes - knowing my luck the giftcard will arrive in Jan!:D


Need to update Sept targets - will aim to look at that later


x

Goldiegirl

Wow, sorry to hear your news, it must have come as an awful shock being so sudden.


I know from experience how much there is to do with all the administration and sorting. At least I'm an only child, so I didn't have to try and please everybody else too, I was free to do it my way.


The way I dealt with it, was to make a huge list of everything that needed to be done, breaking it down into sub tasks if necessary.


Then, as long as I could tick at least one thing off each day, I knew I was making progress. Although I obviously preferred it when I could tick loads of things off!


Hope the funeral goes ok - I found it a lot easier once to public side of things had been done, then I was free to be 'me' again in private, and grieve in my own way

Goldiegirl

I meant to say, please let us know when you get your M&S gift card. I'm planning a switch to M&S Bank next month, and I'm hoping to get the gift card in time for the sales after Christmas

HelenDaveKids

Sorry about your news. xx