Coffee and chocolate

miggy

I'm really sleepy tonight but if I don't update I'll forget something.

I spent some of my garden centre vouchers today on plants for autumn/winter (though 'winter flowering' is a bit of a misnomer here). I went 99p over budget (i.e. paid cash) but also got various plants on sale prices so some savings but they're out in the garden so they'll have to wait.

The food delivery came - fab! For some reason I got an extra jelly and more noodles than I'd paid for I'll follow that one up tomorrow. Other than that, I'm delighted.

Work wasn't too bad...

After work I dropped in at the supermarket and got some marked down fruit & veg (Why is it never 'veg and fruit'?) I'm again very happy, though it occurs to me I always miss the marked down meats nowadays. I wonder when thy appear?
Here are my evening's bargains:
4 stems lemon grass, were £1.36, now 38p, saved 98p.
Apricots, were £1.74, now 44p, saved £1.30.
'Supersweet' nectarines (gorgeous!), were £3, now 76p, saved £2.24.
Broccoli, was 87p, now 22p, saved 65p.
2 packs flat leaved parsley were £2.56, now 67p, saved £1.89.
Turnip, was 39p, now 9p, saved 30p.
Lettuce, was 69p, now 19p, saved 50p.
Marrow, was £1.48p, now 39p, saved £1.09.
Cappuccino, was £2.40, now £1.20, saved £1.20.
Red cabbage, was 37p, now 9p, saved 28p.

Not taking into account what I would realistically have spent (i.e. if these items had been on full price, in which case I wouldn't ave bought them all, and might have bought cheaper versions of others), I've spent $4.43 and saved £10.43.

Tomorrow, all else being equal, I'll try to work out real savings.

P.S. It's only a small marrow, too - how come they cost so much?!

miggy

Time to work out my 'real' savings:

miggy wrote: »

4 stems lemon grass, were £1.36, now 38p, saved 98p.
Don't normally buy - but because I love plants, I'm planting them and letting them grow in case I ever need them! LOL. So either they count as 4 plants for 38p, which is good, or four veg for 38p - ditto - or as an indulgence, which is where they belong. So - savings zilch .
Apricots, were £1.74, now 44p, saved £1.30.
Might have paid £1 for them at greengrocers'? So really saved 56p.
'Supersweet' nectarines (gorgeous!), were £3, now 76p, saved £2.24.
Four for a pound at greengrocer's so saved £1.
Broccoli, was 87p, now 22p, saved 65p.
2 packs flat leaved parsley were £2.56, now 67p, saved £1.89.
Turnip, was 39p, now 9p, saved 30p.
Lettuce, was 69p, now 19p, saved 50p.
Those are about right.
Marrow, was £1.48p, now 39p, saved £1.09.
Say £1 in greengrocer's? So saved 61p.
Cappuccino, was £2.40, now £1.20, saved £1.20.
Red cabbage, was 37p, now 9p, saved 28p.
Fair enough.

Not taking into account what I would realistically have spent (i.e. if these items had been on full price, in which case I wouldn't ave bought them all, and might have bought cheaper versions of others), I've spent £4.43 and saved £10.43.

So total savings probably not £10.43 but £6.79. Still !

MatyMoo

A saving is a saving in my book Miggy, so well done you :j

miggy

And a new score of 2990 for me on the site game!

miggy

I have a couple of days to myself while the family is off gadding about, though tomorrow's pretty well committed already.
Now you would have thought that was a marvellous opportunity to eat off the fat of the land, or at least the stash in the larder, but no... £20 at the supermarket, and I only went for some ham & some basil.
I've located various part-packets of flour (having baked very little since I went on a diet earlier in the year) and shoved some in the bread maker along with some sultanas and a couple of handfuls of soy-sauce-coated seeds from a jar my sister gave me for Christmas and of which I ate far too many at first and not enough since...
Anyway it tastes good even though the flour was old, but for some reason the crust is erm, crusty in the extreme despite me using what I thought was the right amount of water.
I don't think there'll be time to experiment further tomorrow but I can be eating the bread I've just made and at least I have the ingredients ready for next time.

miggy

Not long back from the car boot sale, this time without my family in tow, so I admit I have more (and bulkier) 'bargains' than usual!
Normally I look for plants and things to stand plant pots in, cookery books (though I'm getting more discerning due to lack of space), kitchen gadgets, necklaces and clothes/shoes/bags.
This time I managed to avoid nearly all of these.
The exception was a box of microwave plate warmers because we rarely organise ourselves to get plates pre-warmed and, well, it will be winter eventually. (Talking of which - it's dull, cold and breezy here. DH has just rung to say it's baking hot and the sky is cloudless where he is, two hours' drive away. Perhaps it's on its way over to me?!)
Here's what I bought with the prices, as best I remember them - everything was 50p or £1, but which was which? Hopefully errors will balance each other out.
Microwave plate warmers - 50p
2 short shelves £2 total - oh bother, they are too long for the space I envisaged.
wall clock 50p (now hanging in the hall and looks good)
mini garden shears £1
pyrex-type bowl £1
and (drum roll please!)...

curtains £1!

I must admit these have gone in my estimation from being 'pretty' 10 minutes ago to being 'beautiful' now that I've discovered how perfect they are for the living room window! I also had a freebie recycling bag thrown in with them.
Story behind curtains: when we moved in, we didn't expect any curtains, then all but two sets were left with the house (this was years ago). I recycled mum's neighbour's old curtains which were fab quality but not such a nice print. Eventually I dyed them, which I think cost £20 - much cheaper than replacing them but now quite dark in order to cover the pattern. The room is dark blue and cream so dark blue curtains really made it - what's the word? Dark.
I priced up replacements a while ago and couldn't do it for less than £70 so the dark blue has stayed.
These new curtains are cream and blue! They're also good quality and caught my eye because I liked the pattern. Now when I held them up against the window - they are slightly bigger both in length and width than the old ones but I don't think I'll be taking them in in any way as they will probably be fine. The extra length will help keep us warm and the width may just gather in luxuriously . Or it may not - I can't find out right now as I've stuck them in the washing machine to get rid of the slightly musty smell that makes me suspect they were put in someone's garage not so long ago but long enough to need a wash.
I don't know about current prices - will have to have a quick look - but can I really justify recording savings of £69?! Maybe not, as I'd already decided I couldn't spend that. Still, no way am I worried about that - the fact is we have these lovely new curtains which should lift the mood of the room and hopefully ours too.
God is good (I know lots of other people on here attribute the arrival of good things to the universe, but I don't see it that way).

miggy

Oh, and I have a new problem - or maybe an incentive to fit as much housework in as possible in 2 1/2 hours.
Curtains are in the machine - will take just under an hour. That's fine as they will come out gorgeous and can go straight on the line to dry.
Allowing about an hour for them to get mostly dry (we don't have a tumble drier) can I then iron and hang them before the family gets home? It would be so nice to surprise them.
On the other hand, there are all the last minute bits of tidying up that need to be done as I've had the place to myself for a couple of days and have left my stuff all over the place. Well, I do anyway, but now it includes things that I mustn't lose track of like work papers.
I think I'd better get stuck in to tidying now and save the later time for the curtains.

Poosmate

Hi Miggy, glad to see you're still at your thread and making loads of savings.

Congratulations on the curtains, they sound perfect for you and you know what they say, "Good things come to those who wait".......... I'm still waiting!

I went shopping today- nipped in to Morrisons for some sweeteners and milk. My bill ended up being £31.01 - only 45 more items than I'd originally gone in for! lol! They were all bargains though and I will use everything (or most of everything).

I bought some chicken flavour noodles (well plain noodles with a sachet of chicken flavouring) for 10p each (I bought 10). I also bought 3 boxes of 4 value cup-a-soups for £1.50 (making each cup-a-soup 12.5p). I usually make the noodles then add a cup-a-soup so combined they are just a bit more substantial than seperate - nice little meal for 22.5p

Didn't get any 50p milk (yes 4 pints for 50p!!!), it's the purple milk which is only 1% fat but tastes absolutely no different to semi-skilled (green) milk. I guess that must have been an introductory offer to get people hooked on the low fat purple milk. I did get a couple of 2ltr milks though that were £1 each (although receipt shows them as being 90p - guessing it's because the sell by date is 1st Sept).

I reckon I have enough food in now for at least a month. Granted it's not the most nutritional of foods but at least it's there's not a ready meal amongst it!

Have you been to the docs yet? Hope all is ok if you have or hope all turns out ok if you haven't.

Best get off, keep saving!

Poo

miggy

Hi Poo, thanks for dropping in!
I'm so glad I'm not the only one who goes in aiming to buy a couple of items and comes out with tonnes! I still have quite a few of my veggie bargains to use and am trying not to overindulge on carbs, of which I have too many... however I'm impressed with you having a month's worth of food. You can always add the 'healthy' bits on a day to day level but the fresh things wouldn't last a month out of the freezer anyway so that's fair enough. And we have to allow a bit of space for unexpected bargains, LOL.
My curtains are looking lovely - I had one up in the window and the other on the ironing board when the family got home and DH liked them. Unfortunately the kids don't! DD saw them in the evening and decided the pattern was overwhelming, but then we don't tend to have patterns on anything much so I suppose a whole bay window full was a bit of a shock! It's just stripes of mid-blue leafy things with cream in between, though - hardly Jackson Pollock.
DH treated us to a new PC monitor which everyone thinks is wonderful though it cost 100x what the curtains did! But then we spend 100x more timne looking at it...

miggy

Poosmate wrote: »

Have you been to the docs yet? Hope all is ok if you have or hope all turns out ok if you haven't.

That's tomorrow's job - I'm not looking forward to it, I'm stressed between mum's health and problems at work and basically not coping too well. I went some months ago and she wanted to see me again so I'm finally getting there! Last time she recommended some books on CBT which has been some help but not quite enough.

Today... more work in the garden, which looks rather as if the lawn has been dragged through a hedge backwards but once I get round to raking bits away and mowing it should be approaching normal.
I also trekked into town and spent £8.50 on materials to reupholster the piano stool. It's been in need of this for ages.
Once I launched into the reupholstering I realised I didn't actually know how to do it but I have a useful Reader's Digest book called 'How to do just about anything' (car boot find - where have I heard that one before?) which gave me enough info to finish it. It's more smart than pretty but is certainly a lot nicer than before and I need no longer be ashamed to let my friends see it. Result.
Other than that - the carbs have their revenge: I've gained 1lb , though on the plus side I've restarted my piano lessons and considering I haven't played for 5 weeks, it wasn't disasterous. I really need to put more time towards the piano because it's costing us £10 a week and that's thrown away if I don't practice.

So two important bonuses today really: I can now say I have done upholstery (!) and I have evidence that my piano playing has reached a stage where 5 weeks away from it doesn't reduce it to zilch.