EH is Back - and going Onwards, and Upwards!

EssexHebridean

Update time I think!

Grocery challenge: is going pretty well - have picked up some good reduced bargains recently and have started also to get a good clear picture of when the "best" times to shop in various places locally are. Managed to pick up 2kg of new potatoes yesterday for 60p, and also a punnet of plums for 25p so along with some cooking apples that are kicking around those will make a crumble for the weekend. Planning meals out in advance for this week worked well until I got to today as I had forgotten that it was MrEH's christmas do tonight. In a spirit of defiance I have also declared tonight as "my" christmas do as well and will be going along the way to the chinese takeaway shortly!

Money: Just checked the banking and transferred some money around. Holiday fund is looking good - the essential stuff is all accounted for and anything stashed towards nit from here on in will be spending money. The plan is that the account can be a rolling fund so anything we don't use for next year's Hebrides trip will get left in there and then added to for the next one.

Work: The senior partner of the firm I've been working from is trying to persuade the other partner to take some time off (he's taken very little this year and he really needs some time off to recharge now I think) in the run up to christmas - if she does this will almost certainly mean extra hours for me so I am crossing my fingers! I have already agreed to do them a special rate for three days worked in one week. Avon is going *alright* although this campaign is slower so far and I am finding it slow getting any more customers. AZccortding to my area sales manager there used to be about double the number so they are clearly lurking there ready to emerge, I hope! At the moment anything I earn from Avon is my spending money, so a bad campaign this time round will mean practically no spends for me in January.

Home: decluttering is actually moving on quite well - our bedroom would be looking a lot clearer if it weren't for all the christmas presents hanging around in there - I'll make an effort to start getting some wrapping done I think then at least they can be stashed tidily. I have done quite a bit of work with cleaning up the wall that is badly mould spotted too - I've discovered that facial cleansing wipes get the spots off the paintwork almost completely so have invested in a 30p pack to use for that and am working on it steadily. Will get OH to help me with pulling my dressing table out over the weekend so we can hoover round it and clean the wall behind thoroughly. I'm waiting for the sparky to confirm when he can do the storage heater, and my Dad is coming round one day next week to see if he can help sort out our leaky toilet cistern. We discovered a few days back that what we thought was a very very slow seepage was actually a bit more than that - it seems it's all been running away under the floor (solid floors and ground floor flat so at least we don't have water going through to neighbours) and now the floor tiles are lifting where the board they are laid on has swollen up. Fingers crossed a bit of Dad-magic will do the trick! Whatever happens I think we'll have to get the floor done once it's fixed - jury is currently out on whether we get some board and some vinyl flooring and just do that, or whether we decide to get the bathroom re-done sooner than planned. (Secretly going :j over that idea and keep sneaking about online looking at bathroom suites! )

Christmas: Am most of the way there with Mum's I think, Dad is still a bit of a mystery, I suspefct he'll end up with some beer and a bottle of Welsh whisky! MrEH's "years supply of" box is nearly done although I do still need to get some oddments for that. Other than that I need to get together what I have for him and double check what else I'd like to get him. However in spite of repeated nagging he has STILL not got around to doing me any form of list so he'll take his chances now! His brothers and families are done, his Mum and Dad still need sorting out (His Dad may well end up with a present which is astonishingly similar to my Dad's!) and my aunt and her gentleman friend are still to get some more bits for. Friends are done, and I think we're going to bake either cakes or cookies for the neighbours. MUST WRITE CARDS! :eek:

EssexHebridean

Meal plan:

Saturday - Lunch, [STRIKE]soup & bread[/STRIKE]Ryvita & Tesco Value soft cheese :T, Tea, Cheese & crackers
Sunday - Lunch -MrEH needs to make pastry - chicken & mushroom pie, new pots & red cabbage/apple. Tea, probably cheese & crackers again! :T
Monday - Rest of the chicken pie!
Tuesday - Pasta bolognese & garlic bread
Wednesday - Soup & crusty bread
Thursday - probably pasta & pesto for me & an omlette for MrEH
Friday - not a clue, we're both out all day so something quick & non-taxing!

taxi73

All sounding good.

Lemon_Tree

blimey a lot things you say about your ground floor flat ring so true for me as well!
i like the sound of your meal plans do you have space for a guest or two on any days?

EssexHebridean

LOL - well after the amount of yummy cheese we brought at the food show we could feed an army with that!

I really MUST continue to do the meal plans as it does help so much to have that level of organisation in place.

Re the flat - we're a small block, four stories high and 24 flats in all - accessed via three separate doorways. We're the middle door. The flats here were built in the mid 1950's so walls, floors and ceilings are all solid concrete, although the outside is brick-skinned. The advantage is that relatively little sound travels in any direction. The disadvantage is that it IS hard to heat - no cavity wall insulation as we have no cavities, and if you want to hang a picture it has to be done via a hammer-drill, rawlplug and screw as picture hooks just bend!

Pippajo

Morning EH, those lists are really keeping you focused. Well done and any extra work this time of year is definately a bonus - I do like the idea of the 3 day special rate, makes them go for the extra one just like we do when shopping .

When our toilet we broke we could only afford to replace just the toilet so we have a white toilet and champagne sink and bath, but the toilet cost us about £80 with all the bits to fit it and we did it ourselves. Next will be to do the sink as this one is huge, far to big, so a nice white smaller one preferable built on to a cupboard like a cloakroom type unit would be great. The bathroom is the width of the toilet, sink(which flares out so wide it overlaps the bath) and bath and the length of the bath :eek:

Lemon_Tree

i live in a 1970's concrete built flat, we have 4 in the block with two blocks adjoining each other. We do have a cavity but i can't see how we could just insulate just our bit, so i guess we'd be at the mercy of all four owners agreeing to have it done when we can't even get an agreement on the falling down porch. The internal walls are just plasterboard but even the floors and ceiling are concrete.
Since i bought this flat we've had a new kitchen and a new bathroom. Our bathroom is tiny, and for once i'm glad we decided to not try and go 'cheap' and just replace like with like, in the end we got some unnecessary partion removed and shuffled things back, we even went for a slightly smaller bath so that we could still have a bath but also have a cupboard in the room.
Pippajo you have my sympathies, when i was planning our bathroom and i looked at the size of the room and the size of the three major pieces of furniture i couldn't see how the heck they would all fit in, but we already had them in there, it was just insane.

EssexHebridean

Pippajo wrote: »

Morning EH, those lists are really keeping you focused. Well done and any extra work this time of year is definately a bonus - I do like the idea of the 3 day special rate, makes them go for the extra one just like we do when shopping .

When our toilet we broke we could only afford to replace just the toilet so we have a white toilet and champagne sink and bath, but the toilet cost us about £80 with all the bits to fit it and we did it ourselves. Next will be to do the sink as this one is huge, far to big, so a nice white smaller one preferable built on to a cupboard like a cloakroom type unit would be great. The bathroom is the width of the toilet, sink(which flares out so wide it overlaps the bath) and bath and the length of the bath :eek:

LOL at the shopping comparison - if they think I'm going to start doing BOGOF's they have another think coming! :rotfl:

Similar sized bathroom here - we have a slightly short bath - I'm guessing it's a 1600 when the standard is 1700 - the right next to that is the toilet, and then the sink & vanity. Because it IS such a small room (the space between the door and the bath is just big enough for a laundry basket and rubbish bin) the vanity is almost essential as otherwise you'd have no storage at all. Might be worth having a look at https://www.tescobathrooms.com for sinks & vanity units - they aren't exactly cheap, but equally they are far from the most expensive I've seen!

LT - how similar do our living arrangements sound?! I'm with you on the bathroom thing - one of the things I'm looking for is how I can get the best possible quality (ie I want a steel bath not an acrylic) for the lowest possible price. Currently have it to a little over £400 for the bath, sink/vanity and WC. It'll all have changed by the time we can actually get it done, although MrEH is now talking about it as something which we intend to do sooner rather than later.

Been to Lidl and the market this morning - Lidl are doing their grocer's case of clementines for £1.74 and having just has two of the fruit from it I can confirm that they are really lovely ones! :T Also got a bag of parsnips (29p) 6 x limes (90p) 1kg onions (59p) and a bottle of blackcurrant high-juice squash (99p). The market has two "approved food" type stalls and we usually buy crisps from there - todays bargains included 10 packet bags of wheat crunchies on 2 for £1, and a 7 packet bag of Frazzles (now THERE's a guilty pleasure! ) for 75p. Also got 2 x Ryvita (the nice seeded ones) for £1, 2 x packs of Carrs crackers for £1.20 and a box of Jacobs assorted crackers for £1 which I have stuck aside to use at christmas.

I intend to do some looking at biscuit/cookie recipes later on and see what I can come up with which will work for small presents for people - neighbours etc. I was watching a Nigel Slater thing last night and he made some fantastic looking chocolate and hazelnut cookies but they are a bit out of my budget I think as he used 200g of good quality plain chocolate, 75g of butter, and about 100g of hazelnuts, and only made 6 Biscuits! :eek:

Right - off now to collect Avon books. Will swing round via Tesco and see if I can get the final couple of bits for MrEH's "years supply of" box sorted too.

Lemon_Tree

well we went to Asda and i don't think we did as well as yourself but i did stop OH picking up eggs and parsnips as i know they're cheaper in Lidl.

taxi73

you got some good bargains there...well done