Coffee and chocolate

miggy

Thanks both of you!

satchmo1 wrote: »

Those insects in the flour are weevils. Unless the flour in the fridge was bought after the infected flour was thrown out, it's possible that the new flour will be infected. eek!

It's quite likely. I'll certainly check them before use!

Lemon_Tree wrote: »

hi miggy i don't think putting the flour in your fridge will make much difference. i was always told to store my unopened bags in plastic bag so that if you happen to get one which is infected it doesn't contaminate all of them, i then keep the opened flour in a sealed jar after i've checked it for weevils. they're horrible aren't they!

Evil weevils.

I'm kicking myself because normally I use airtight containers but gradually I've been using them for other things. I just wasn't disciplined enough about storing the flour properly and now it's gone to waste.

The reasons behind fridge use: it gets the flour out of the way of any weevils I missed in the clean up as I doubt they can get in there, and I'm hoping if any did piggyback into the fridge, the cold will slow them down!

I need to have a good sort-out but just haven't got time/brain power at the moment. Hoping after this week things will slow down at work and I can catch up a bit.

bast

Its approaching that time of year, its already in the air. Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.....................


Gosh that really touched me, x

miggy

Miggy's wonderful, totally amazing I-will-do-this-yes-I-will *declutter an item or more a day* for 46 days till 7th October list:

1. 23rd August pretty Christmas bag, plant label, handful of receipts, broken dried flowers (all rubbish shoved into a bag in a quick tidy!)
2. 24th August a few weeds, plant food bottle, 3 Avon catalogues, finally finished unpacking my suitcase - and DS2 has thrown out a carrier bag's worth of old clothes and donated a bin liner full to charity. :A Cushion cover, video, bag of screwed up wrapping paper, scraps of cloth, few receipts, two mobile phone pockets.
3. 25th August 2 catalogues, carrier bags, receipts, 3 water bottles, 4 books, assorted clothes, forgotten what else.
4. 26th August 3 small bags of flour found to have insects in
5. 27th August Just a few receipts and a carrier bag
6. 28th August Nowt :o:o
7. 29th August 1 pair holey jeans

I've had 14 hours' sleep in the last 24 - bliss! I so needed them.

Treated myself to the car boot sale this morning along with long-suffering DH and spent about £2. I lost track exactly because it was DH who kept saying 'Here's 50p' whenever he spotted me homing in on something. I am currently enjoying a 1940s book on bee-keeping. One day I will have my bees. Secondly a belt bag for when I go walking. I also got a Denby oven-to-table dish for 50p (!) ready for cosy winter dinners and I love Denby. Lastly a board game which I thought DS and I might play but then again I might be wrong as he is definitely teenagery at the moment so perhaps I will find someone else to play it.

Supermarket shop this afternoon and spent nearly £20. Two punnets of beautiful strawberries for 50p!

What is this, 50p day?! Not that I'm objecting. Just over 3lbs of bananas for 25p. Loving this. I was going to make bread but gave in and got a loaf of wholemeal for (wait for it) 55p.

So I have saved quite a bit compared to what I would otherwise have spent.

Other money matters: last month and this have involved quite a lot of extra hours at work which will slacken off after this week (phew) and I am wondering where best to allocate the extra pay. I'm inclined to say it goes directly into savings. It would be nice to start saving towards mortgage overpayment again but that needs thinking about. If DH's job goes next year we may need anything we can save before then, but as it isn't likely to be a huge amount perhaps there are better ways to invest any extras, like replacing the remaining old-glazed window, which would help our heating bills. I haven't earned enough extra to pay for a whole window, though! On the other hand our fixed rate has a few months to run and I don't know whether we will get as good next time, so I might be able to counterbalance that a bit by paying off more beforehand.

miggy

It's been a while since I did any jobs for Mum other than local shopping so this evening I've done a couple of on-line orders for her. There is so much to do... at some point I need to go through her local paper to try to find builders - all the ones contacted so far seem to be uninterested except one who says he could do the work in the winter. I suppose they may think the job's too small or something.

Tomorrow is my first piano lesson in about four weeks and I don't think I've practised more than once in that time. This working nights is ruining it.

DS2 has decided to cook for everyone tomorrow. Quite what that will do to the housekeeping budget I don't know but at least he has simple tastes so I won't be forking out for caviar.

miggy

It turns out DS does large portions and wanted to feed all seven of us but we looked int he cupboards before shopping so have the spending 'down' to under £16. I have not told DD that I bought her 'value' ketchup and cream cheese... does she realy need to know? Can I find a H*inz bottle to put the ketchup in?

Hovel_lady

No, better kept a secret. Could she tell the difference anyway?

miggy

She will probably notice! My latest cunning scheme is to try some myself and tell her how good it is.

I have gained several stone today... realised I was passing the chip shop just as it opened and mum loves fish and chips so I got some for her despite knowing she would give half to me, which she did and they were very nice.

Of course mum wanted me to stay longer but I had to get the shopping for DS and even so got it to him later than I'd hoed to. (Not entirely blaming myself forthis, though, as he took a while to give me the shopping list). Of course he's not such an experienced cook (yet!) so we didn't eat till about eight but he did a really good job. I mean, at 15 I couldn't have cooked an entire meal for myself, let alone seven people! He made some gooey-middle chocolate puddings to finish with which were gorgeous so I've copied down the recipe.

What a nice evening. I always love it when 'everyone' is round (DH and myself, our three kids and the two 'other halves'). In between courses DD put 'James Pond' (the old Sega game) on You T*be which was fun. DS2 and I sang along and did the actions... who needs wine?!

Tomorrow is another day and I have decided to find good in it. I'm at work from 9.30 till 4 and then overnight. Unfortunately my work isn't covered by working time regulations. Seventeen hours with a five-hour break, then I'm working the following two nights as well, which reminds me I need to get some sleep SOON.

Edit: I haven't managed to declutter anything today, but DD and her B/F 'decluttered' a box of brownie mixture which I had found stashed in with some presents in the bedroom the other day! I hope that counts, haha.

miggy

I thought of something I'd decluttered last night and now of course I can't remember it!

Have had a heavy day so far and am back in later for the night shift and just feeling the need to talk to my diary to try to get rid of my headache. I'm feeling a bit guilty as I've just turned DS2 down when he asked if he could Ebay some things using my account, but I told myself last year after DD and her friend used it and I had lots of glitches to sort out, that that was it - no more lending my account. I do feel a bit bad though because I've allowed him to sell stuff before (supervised of course) and he did a good job. Just today I feel it wouldn't be wise for me to take on any more.

Went food shopping - the week's budget is seriously under threat for the first time and off-budget I bought some socks and pens which was another £8 and I think they may have made a mistake charging me but my maths being what it was, complete with headache, I will have to check that later. Did I really need the socks? Probably not , it was a way of cheering myself up after work .

Moan over for now, the washing machine is spinning so I should be able to get some things out to dry, put the animals in their run, clean their hutch and generally do something with today. Still too hyped up to rest so I must keep an eye on that and allow myself some down-time before I go back in.

Horace

Miggy I was attracted to the thread by two of my favourite things coffee and chocolate:D

Hope your headache disappears soon.

miggy

Thank you Horace.

Welcome and please help yourself to biscuits, er... sorry there's no chocolate left but I am just going to make a cuppa if you'd like to join me?

Chocolate and Coffee... yes, I definitely named my thread after a couple of influential factors, without which my diet and my bank balance might both be a little healthier.