The Matrix - Re-Evolution!!

Memory_Girl

I'm all for keeping it simple hon - and with DS2 in full "party" flight at playgroup have got the mums to agree to K*I*S*S parties.

Did a party for my friend last Sunday (she has MS and is not so good at the mo). For 20 I did

HM Scotch pancakes (teeny sized)

4oz SR FLour
1 oz sugar
1 egg
Milk to make a batter that drops from the spoon

Cook on greases frying pan until bubbles appear then turn and cook for a couple of minutes till golden brown on both sides.

Then FROZEN for the day

HM Sausages - 1 pack of pastry and four sausages

Cooked and FROZEN for the day

1 dozen jam tarts - again HM jam and frozen
1 dozen apple tarts - windfall apples

Batch of twinks hob nobs

Banana cake traybake covered with butter cream and smarties for the birthday cake. They are only interested in the candle bit anyway. Traybake made on Wednesday and iced Sunday. Cake divided at party and pieces pt in plain brown bags for party bags.

1 loaf of 47p white bread (thin cut) made into ham, spreading cheese, jam and chocolate spread sandwiches. Made and frozen in advance too.

Tetra packs of juice from LIDL
Party bags were:

Brown paper sack
Banana cake
Balloon
Glittery pencil
rubber
sweetie necklace (remember those???? Her granny ordered them from ebay so must have cost more than the whole bag)

MY budget was les than a tenner for the 20 kids - and squeaked in.

MG

crickett1234

I love those ideas MG - I will file away for the day when I am a Mama and am catering Birthday Parties. See, I am being positive.

Feeling a bit better than I have done for a few days. Not entirely sure why... might be the fact that I was in bed for 9pm last night and I slept right through until the alarm went off at 5.45! I did wake up to a black and white cat with his whiskery face in mine who was saying "MEOW?!" at me. It gave me quite a turn, I can tell you!!

Got a day of rewriting CIPFA Portfolio stuff. Then I am going to print it all off, read it through again, make any amendments needed and then send it off to them for marking again. I hope I have got it right this time!!

No news from the estate agent. I am assuming the buyer has gone with the other house. Never mind; we learnt some valuable things about showing the house and we know the house is attractive. It will sell when the Universe is ready for us to move on.

Souk08

Crickett, you sound VERY positive today lady. Great to read for sure!

I too have decided to be uber positive about things. I sent the agency an email last night which was very breezy and assuming that I start training on Monday! They'll have to respond and I'll know a bit more about where I'm at when they do. If there is no sign of anything by Friday I have decided to sign on. It's a complete PITA but I just feel I've paid enough in and we all need a wee hand at times. Will also then start making calls and pounding pavements to get temp work or ANYTHING until the manager job comes up. And I know that it will. I only have two more days left in my current job. I'm glad to be honest, although I've learned a lot.

WILD weather here today and I'll be glad of a rare night in tonight. Have a good one all X

Betsie2010

MG - I have been reading one of your original threads, make do and mend, and am really having to restrict to only read in the evenings as I would get NO work done at all!
Upto about page 25 and just wanted to say how inspirational I am finding it. So now I have settled down to some work, put on i tunes and the 1st song to play randomnly is "an Innocent Man" which you were singing/humming a few posts ago. Weird!!
Anyway, thank you. I feel motivated to sort me out. Not just fianancially but a kick start to new beginnings.

Horace

Morning peeps.

Marru - if you want a hand then give me a shout, I am only down the road. If I had realised you wanted a birthday cake I would have bought the one from the whoopsie shelf in Tesco yesterday (it would have gone in the freezer until Sunday). I know that at parties I have been to (as a child and adult) we had cocktail sausages on sticks, cubes of cheddar on sticks with pineapple and/or mini silverskin onions. As a base we would use a cabbage cut in half and then the cabbage was used after the party for soup.

I was looking in my chest of drawers last night - looking to see what room I had and what I could get rid of and espied my old purses (I am not chucking them out as there are times when I need a larger purse) so I decided to look in them to see what I could find..well I nearly wet myself with excitement when I found a fiver tucked away in the bottom of one of them..the fiver has now gone into my moneybox to be used towards my road tax at the end of December.:D

Today is a day of jobhunting, letter writing and typing up auction catalogue which now has to go online with pictures and offline without. Must go to the village to get the rest of my prescription (this means another full fridge with little space for food)..might just walk there and back although taking the car would be quicker.

Memory_Girl

Betsie2010 wrote: »

MG - I have been reading one of your original threads, make do and mend, and am really having to restrict to only read in the evenings as I would get NO work done at all!
Upto about page 25 and just wanted to say how inspirational I am finding it. So now I have settled down to some work, put on i tunes and the 1st song to play randomnly is "an Innocent Man" which you were singing/humming a few posts ago. Weird!!
Anyway, thank you. I feel motivated to sort me out. Not just fianancially but a kick start to new beginnings.

Ah!!!! see we don't believe in coincidences - that's the Universe telling you that you are on the right track.:D

Remember yesterday when I was :eek: over spending £20 on a carpet for DS2's bedroom? Went to collect it today and the guys had been srting through and had found 3 balls of the fancy smanchy ribbon yarn that I am making one of my Christmas presents from - which they gave me as I was leaving.

So I spent £20 on carpet and got gifted £21 in yarn??:j:j

Abundance I tell you - Abudance :rotfl::rotfl:

Now some sofa work!

MG

Firewalker

Can you teach me some of that? People only seem to chase me for stuff lately and this tells me I am doing something wrong. How do I change my position from 'provider' to 'receiver of gifts and good will'?

FW

Memory_Girl

I really don't know FW - it seems to be that when I am in "bunker" mode - obsessively watching pennies everything gets stuck and all that comes my way are bills and nasty surprises.

This week I got to the "F*** it" stage with the house and gave myself a good talking to. There is no Prince Charming coming with a nail gun so I had better do it for myself - also as Greenbee says I worked out the opportuity cost of NOT having the rooms ready for letting OMG!!!!:eek:

So I have reframed everything as a fun challenge (bear in mind I am a person who loves a challenge - I love people telling me it can't be done then telling then "Did It!!!" :rotfl:

So the "£10 sofa challenge" is about doing something different to shift my mindset ...................... its not strictly necessary for our day to day living - but the beauty it creates will lift my spirits and make my heart soar. I deserve to have lovely things around me - especially if I can get creative and think around the corners.

So as I begin to see opportunities to Make Do and Mend - the Universe sends me more opportunities IYSWIM.

I'm waffling now I'm sure - but having fun being "stitchy" for a while trying to figure out how to do this sofa monster - but this girl does love a challenge.

MG

thriftyscotslass

Morning all, thank you for all the positive comments yesterday. In the end, had a mega-busy day so didn't dwell on it and just cracked on.

Firewalker wrote: »

Thrifty, this is The Boot...Please do not feel frustrated - spending £500 on celebrating someone else's birthday (not your loved one's and again I would consider even that as extreem hedonism) is plain silly. Feeling deprived and frustrated because of that is not worth it.

My feeling is that you still have a bit of the 'discipline' and 'external' element in you. Aim to move to 'motivation' and 'internal' elements. What I mean is: you have a bigger goal and you can even make sacrifices for it (spending this £500 I do not consider a sacrifice, mind); you are so certain about it, it feels so right that you have the animal focus on it - yep, the one where either you eat or you get eaten.

And sorry about typos - I'll deal with this one day.

Firewalker

This is really inciteful FW (and a little scary that someone I have never met can read me so well :rotfl:).

Am happy to report progress :T, yesterday I did not feel deprived, envious or sorry for myself, not even a teeny, tiny little bit :T. Still feel like that today . Frustrated yes - this may be the death-knell for the friendships but you know what, that is okay.

So yes, I agree, I am far, far too affected by external forces and need to re-discover my internal animal . Interesting observation about discipline vs motivation - my (strong) self-discipline has developed in response to life's knocks whereas my motivation has been on the back-burner for the last few years. Need to ponder this some more :think:.

That was a good buy on the carpet for ds2's bedroom MG especially with the added extras .

Firewalker

thriftyscotslass wrote: »

This is really inciteful FW (and a little scary that someone I have never met can read me so well :rotfl:).

Am happy to report progress :T, yesterday I did not feel deprived, envious or sorry for myself, not even a teeny, tiny little bit :T. Still feel like that today . Frustrated yes - this may be the death-knell for the friendships but you know what, that is okay.

So yes, I agree, I am far, far too affected by external forces and need to re-discover my internal animal . Interesting observation about discipline vs motivation - my (strong) self-discipline has developed in response to life's knocks whereas my motivation has been on the back-burner for the last few years. Need to ponder this some more :think:.

.

Glad to hear this - and please do work on motivation. Often this doesn't mean that you end up doing something completely different - just that you get to make the things you do more attractive.

Now, could I be officially appointed to be The Boot, please!

Votes will have to be collected - I am not off to order the robe and the necklace yet.

Firewalker