2012 Frugal Living Challenge (Part 1)

Barbeduk

Oh PIC that is just the loveliest dog. He's smiling already! Loving the ears! So glad he's got a home with you.

:hello::hello: Lex and Paintedlady, nice to see you both here!

purpleorchid

hi all

not been on much but have been trying to keep up to date with things. im still going well with my finances and have done a load of batch cooking today. had to clean freezer out and sort out what i had, as i really didnt know. so everything is on the right shelves now.
hope everyone has had a nice mother day.
this is the card that i made for my mum, she really liked it. i hope this works so you can see what i did.

Love P
xx

purpleorchid

ok this one worked lol, figured it out now. the reason why i did a susan magnolia is because my mums name is susan, and her mum who died of cancer, bought her one of these plants years ago. well i say plant its more of a tree. so when mum moved to her flat the tree was to big to move, so it had to stay there. mum misses it so thought i would do this, as it has two meanings for mum.

Luv P
xx

Blairweech

Purple - That is a lovely card, did you draw it yourself? Excellent, I love magnolia trees but our garden is too small for one

PIC - Loving Womble

Sorry to those I have not mentioned, my memory isn't so good these days.

Finished all my exams, now out on placement - currently lambing...lambed my first ewe on my own today. In frugal terms, I am spending no money so all is good

SandraScarlett

You know sometimes people say that the journey is often better than the arrival? Well my journey was fabulous, and my arrival was double fabulous!:j:j

The white stretch limo arrived on time, and it was fantastic! The chauffeur put on an Elvis CD, to add to the mood de jour, and an hour later, we cruised into the limo parking area at the O2. Sky had an exhibition of HD shows on screens, complete with dark glasses, and DD found out that, as a Sky customer, she could get VIP passes for us, an hour prior to the show. :T

So after a super meal in Garfunkels, courtesy of DD and family, we had our wrist bands attached and were taken by lift to the VIP suite, where you could have complimentary makeovers or (with clothes on) back, neck and head massages!

So DD and DGD had makeovers, whilst I opted for the massage, which was great! Then we were escorted to our seats, and in no time the show began, with a capacity audience (about 25,000 I think). DD had told me videos of Elvis would appear on a huge screen, and whilst he sang, live singers and musicians would accompany him - and these were the originals.

Impossible, I said, they'd be in their late 70s - but she was right, and they were brilliant! The videos of Elvis were from LA and Hawaii, in the early 70s, when he was slim and gorgeous, and it was wonderful. He must have sung 20 songs in each half of the show, and the great thing was DH knew them all and sang along with them.:)

We decided to leave 10 minutes before the end, and that was a great decision, and our driver was thrilled because he said often it takes him an hour just to leave the car park!:eek: It was a most magical experience and I kept forgetting that we were watching a man who'd been dead for nearly 35 years - I wonder how many of today's stars will even be remembered in 5 years time!

Then yesterday DD came to take my friend and I to the station, and we went to Classical Spectacular at the RAH. I go twice a year to this and I love it. I always get seats behind the choir, only £20 and the best view in the place. The first half always has an instrumentalist, and a couple of soloists, and the orchestra (London Philharmonic) plays well known classical pieces, whilst laser lights are displayed, in time with the music.

Then the second half is like Last Night of the Proms, with Land of Hope and Glory, Rule Britannia etc, and you look odd if you're not waving a flag (!), and then a male tenor sings Nesum Dorma, which is spine tingling.

And then there is the finale of the 1812 overture! This is incredible, with cannon, gun fire, and fireworks! As soon as that had finished, we left, so that we were first at the bus stop.;) On my first trip, I wasn't so canny and we queued for an hour.:eek: Then we reached the station, got the train back and DD collected us and took us home.

And then today we had a fabulous time with DD and family, with a delicious meal, flowers, choccies and other gifts, so I've had a wonderful weekend.

Sadly, DH got things a bit wrong, and gave me a Birthday card this morning (my birthday is in May), but he then found the Mothers Day card, and he did give me the Anniversary one yesterday. I'm so glad we did the limo and O2 trip because DH was able to enjoy himself, and I was especially pleased to hear him accompanying Elvis.

Sorry for the l-o-n-g post, like War & Peace, but you wanted to know the details, and I try not to disappoint!! I hope you all had a lovely Mothers Day.

xx

purpleorchid

Blairweech wrote: »

Purple - That is a lovely card, did you draw it yourself? Excellent, I love magnolia trees but our garden is too small for one

hi BW

thank you

yes i drew it myself hun, used to do a lot more art but kind of lost the patience, although i seem to enjoy it more as i know i am doing it for someone else. got my grans to do now, thats on the 4th april. someone saw me doing the card in the week while i was over my friends 2nd hand shop, and she has asked me if i will do a card for her brother who will be 9 end of the month. going to give it go, keep myself busy, hope it will be good enough for her.

paidinchickens

Sandra What a fabulous time, I am not jealous much . My Mum is a hugh Elvis fan and Blue Hawaii was my favourite film.

I bet you are exhausted today so put your feet up and have a cuppa.


Lovely sunshine this morning so I am going to take Womble for a walk to see what chaos is going on with the road closures. They are shutting one of the roads down which will cut off one main artery to the city .......hard to explain but usually it causes mayhem if one of the two are closed.

The estate is still being ran on generators and I didn't have a walk round to be nosey we happened to be walking the dawg in that general direction :rotfl: huge generators and it sounds like we are living in a fair ground. They are trying to get us back on grid but then it all fails, leccy goes off and back to the generators we go.

We had a mad panic on friday night about the freezer as we did not want to lose our whoopsie stash

When I get back I "plan" to paint two fence panels which are behind two bushes before they get their leaves on so I am hoping it warms up a little.

Update on the chooks one hopped up and sat on my knee yesterday they also follow you everywhere, they are sooooooo funny I don't know why we didn't get any sooner.

Must stop the chat DS is on work experience this week and it's near his Dads so he is staying there. Already rang to find him still in bed and they have no idea where the place is and he has to be there for 9am. After giving three months notice "Dad" forgot :mad: he also had the nerve to ask if he could stay here and I take him this morning. Never mind the two others to get ready, road works and powercuts I will just fly him there.....flap flap :rotfl:.....men


Off to butt kick on the phone

PIC X

determined_new_ms

Morning frugalisters! Just spent some time catching up on you all. PIC awwwwwwwww! So jealous! Would love a dog but we live in a flat and both work full time so its just not for us at this time in our lives, maybe one day....

Sandra sounds like you had a lovely weekend!

Purple your card is really good! And what a lovely sentiment for your ma.

I have fallen off of the way side recently. Have been having a rough time and have been spending money out of escapsim finally braved going through my sepnds and updating the ss. Its not pretty (and has been very labourious. So far I have spent 1 1/2hrs on saturday going through bank statements & cc statements, and 1/2hr this morning and still need to do a bit more). I have overspent by £200 if I take back some shoes I bought on Friday - which I am doing on my way to work in a bit. It is actually a bit more but I under spent on petrol so it evens it out a little....

So have decided to give the fiscal fast a go for a week (thread I happened across on the OS board) so will be living out of cupboards/freezer for the next week. Have run out of coffee & milk but will drink these at work and have fruit tea when at home. Have run out of bread but have some flour that needs using up. Have listed things on ebay, and am going to walk to work as much as possible to recoup some of the over spend....

Here's to a much more frugal week this week! :beer:

Erme

That reminds me - HAVE to menu plan this week :eek:

Don't do mother's day and mine is moaning her socks off right now about stupid stuff and being the general depressive she is - which I don't need. ...

So yeah...these allotments are relatively new so I just went with a friend and like got one - just a tiny one mind...

Am hoping I can get a new e-cig free - if not I'll have to spend about £20 on a spare....waiting on emails patiently...

and it's wet and cold here and I daren't have the heating on

E

seriouslyfrugal

Welcome to everyone new

Sandra : your trip sounded wonderful glad you enjoyed it


P.I.C. Womble looks adorable


Purple : the card you made your mum looks really nice


Finished my five mile swim challenge this morning :j :j so feel totally relaxed - or was shattered not sure what the next one will be

managing to keep the spending under control - just what I need ( with a few treats )