would love to be mortgage free!

coldcazzie

I was hoping today to make a very happy post about how the cavity wall and loft insulations were doing an amazing job, and that the heating hasn't been on as much or as high...

Unfortunately I had a bad day today, and despite wearing an extra top and an additional thick pair of socks under my huge fluffy slippers (one of my Christmas presents, they go half way up my legs! ), I was still shivering and put it on two hours early

Nonetheless, I have noticed that the heating is on for less time - it takes less to get the house warm. It's keeping the heat better overnight too. However, I'm unsure whether I can attribute it fully to the insulation, or whether at least some of it is to do with the mild winter so far. We'll see.

The reason this post is entitled as such is simple. I'm always cold. When I first started to use forums my username was CoLD. It's since morphed, but the basic premise remains :rotfl: I asked for slippers that would keep my feet warm and knee high socks for Christmas. I was also given a slanket, and I quote "for the lady who is always cold". The slippers are excellent actually. So's the slanket. But I'd like the house to be warm as well as me being warm. Especially with J'raff, who, as I have mentioned before, has an aversion to clothing and likes to spend as much time at one with nature as she can :rotfl: I guess I need to find the balance between the house being comfortable for everyone else (the household males are polar opposites to me and suffer from the too-hots) and me wearing enough clothing to keep warm, but not so much that I can't move.

On a related note, I am going to keep an eye out (charity shops, eBay etc) for some bargain jumpers for myself. My favourite jumper cost a grand total of 20p from a church sale, and is almost perfect (goes down to mid thighs, so keeps the midriff warm, but only has 3/4 length sleeves); so that's my aim to replicate! :rotfl:

Peonie

Getting the loft and cavity wall insulated is good news and that your heating bills should go down.
I get very cold as well; I am wearing the fluffiest boot slippers you have ever seen.

coldcazzie

Peonie wrote: »

Getting the loft and cavity wall insulated is good news and that your heating bills should go down.

I hope so!

Peonie wrote: »

I get very cold as well; I am wearing the fluffiest boot slippers you have ever seen.

I'm glad it's not just me!

I have to go into town tomorrow, so I will be going to the butchers for cat food and a couple of extra bits of meat for the next 10 days. Next trip after that will be the 16th Jan. I'll also be going into Asda Living and hopefully (if it's in stock) be buying a bracket to mount our TV to the wall. Last time we looked the bracket we want was about £40. While I'm in that part of town I'll be buying some gerbil food and hopefully using up a gift card I got as a birthday present. If I can find it...

coldcazzie

Ok, so I've been thinking about ways we can reduce spending on Lumpy's birthday party. I host all our parties at home, and hand make invitations, cake and food, but I'd like to be able to cut my usual £40 food budget and £30 everything else budgets further this year. This will mean our Jan-Feb credit card bill is less, which will subsequently mean we can reach our hoped-for buffer in our current account quicker (which then means I can start savings excess money for savings/ops).

Here's my ideas so far, if anyone has any ideas then please pitch in! He's chosen an underwater theme. If it were warmer I'd suggest they all came in swimwear, but January isn't really a good time for swimming cossies! Shall ask for everyone to come wearing blue.

Decorating
Blue fabric draped around the room, with fish decorations all over (we already have the blue fabric leftover from our wedding and fish decorations in our bathroom).
Blue and white balloons on the floor, enough for one per child (plus a few extra in case of premature poppage) so they can all take one home.
Bubble machine.

Food
Hm fish burgers with seaweed (salad) and chips. (got a recipe already, just need to tweak it slightly)
Cupcakes baked into ice cream cones (the ones with the flat bottoms) with white icing piped onto the top to look like ice cream.
Hm birthday cake in the shape of a fish - different coloured icing etc.

Games
Pass the shark (cuddly toy shark we already have).

Pin the tail on the fish.

coldcazzie

Oh damn. Our living room window is leaking :eek:

coldcazzie

Fella #1 is going to ring back this afternoon with 2 quotes for possible work. Flashing replacing alone, or flashing plus the wood underneath replacing too. (ETA: Still no phone call 4 days later, obviously isn't that desperate for work!)
Fella #2 says £240, reattach flashing to wall, reglue top layer to bottom layer, possibly recoat with tar.
Fella #3 says £235, replace flashing and wood underneath.

*sigh*

Peonie

coldcazzie wrote: »

I will be going to the butchers for cat food

Do you give them meat scraps?

coldcazzie

Peonie wrote: »

Do you give them meat scraps?

They're raw fed Peonie they don't have whole prey as to make the ridiculous postage charge worthwhile (ie, better value than buying whole prey from a local exotic pet shop) you have to buy many months in advance and store it in the freezer, and I don't have enough freezer space at the moment. However I do hope to in the future (chest freezer!)

I do what's called pseudo prey, where you try to replicate the make up of an animal with meats. So their meals are made up of 5% liver, 5% other organ (usually kidney), the rest muscle (which includes heart, gi tract, tongue, leg etc) with some fat, skin, hair, bone etc all included if possible.

I buy chicken, beef, pig, lamb and duck hearts, whole turkey legs (some of which goes to the cats, some goes in the freezer for us - makes lovely casserole!), and then either chicken or beef liver, and lamb or pig kidney. For bone I do chicken wings or ribs (from carcasses from the butcher or free, or from whole legs if I've a need for those for a recipe), I'm trying to source chicken necks but they're proving difficult to get hold of. If I can't get any bone then they get a pinch of washed ground egg shell over their meal.

I portion the meals up in advance in little tubs, and then freeze them. I usually do 2 week's worth in advance. The two of them have different amounts as they are different sizes, and get their daily tub in 3 small meals.

That was probably way more information than you wanted, sorry about that!

Peonie

coldcazzie wrote: »

Here's my ideas so far, if anyone has any ideas then please pitch in!

Shall ask for everyone to come wearing blue.

How old is Lumpy and friends?

They might not have an outfit only of blue but most kids will have blue jeans so you could ask them to wear a blue item of clothing.

You could make hats in the shape of boats, think origami, or cut a paper band to go round the kids heads and staple a water associated shape onto the band like a fish or a boat. Have an arty 15 minutes for them to colour in the hats and they can take the hats away at the end.

Fishing. Get out the paddling pool; a couple nets or rods (sticks with string and hooks); plastic fish and water and they can go fishing.

Boats on jelly desert. Fill a bowl with jelly (this is the water); cut melon into slices (this is the boat hull). To make the sail cut edible paper into triangles or a rectangle and pierce the paper with a tooth pick and then stick into the middle of the melon slice and place on the water.

If I think of anything else I'll be back.

coldcazzie

Those are great! :T Thankyou! He'll be 5.

He came home with a list of 13 school friends he wanted to invite. I think that pretty much rules out inviting non-school friends as with ours that's 16. If we invited out of school friends it would jump to 22 :eek: plus their parents... I'm not sure my house is big enough!

I'm thinking about finding a bundle of sea animals on eBay, these will go in a big pot in an "ocean". Similar to what you said Peonie, it'll be blue jelly, or water with blue food colouring and something to make it gloopy, then when a prize is won they get to go fishing around for an animal.

and yes sorry, that's what I meant about the blue clothing - didn't make that clear.