Keeping up appearances.......

PinotGrigio41

The crazy things we do now to control our little stash of cash eh ? Mine is hidden in a secret drawer in a big old wooden chest Mr Pinot had shipped back from Pakistan in the good old days !
Mr Pinot knows the cash is there but I don't think he would dream of touching it, his life wouldn't be worth living !:rotfl:

HappyNow

Update time.

Nothing much has actually happened, other than that my kettle blew up. Well not literally, but when I turned it on there was a loud bang and all the electrics in the entire house tripped. When the trip switches were flicked, the kettle was completely dead and I was without tea :eek:.

A kettle is emergency kit in my house. I found its receipt just in case it was under guarantee. It wasn't, that ran out last month. Grrr.... Anyway, I saw that it had cost me £29.97 from Tesco. It WAS a pretty kettle - Russell Hobbs, chosen because I liked the logo and it had a blue light! Anyway, the new Tesco own-brand replacement has no logo or blue light, but it is equally shiny, boils water just as effectively and cost £9.97. I could have gone even cheaper with a plastic one, but I'm still Keeping Up Appearances and this stainless steel one looks very posh. Emergency averted, but my Emergency Fund was empty and I have had to steal from the Petrol Tub. I hope the cars don't notice.

Home working today so must crack on, but I will be back at lunch to catch up with other people's diaries.

PinotGrigio41

I too chose my kettle for the blue light ! I love it so much that when the kettle is boiled in the evening I turn all the other kitchen lights off and let everyone admire the pretty blue light ! I don't think the rest of the household are as thrilled by it as me though ! The novelty has worn off a little now as we have had it a while ! I think we must have the same kettle as I have just run downstairs to look and mine is a Russell Hobbs too ! I am so glad though that your new posh and still Keeping Up Appearances kettle boils water equally as well !!!:rotfl:

I will keep my fingers crossed that the cars won't notice that their petrol fund has been raided !:D

HappyNow

Woah - we're Kettle-twins Pinot! Or at least we were. And I used to turn the kitchen lights off too to admire its blue light. Hey, free entertainment !! Just watch out for yours exploding the minute its guarantee runs out - mine went with a REAL bang, frighened the cr*p out of me!

In other news, Mr Happy's speeding ticket paperwork came through yesterday. Thankfully they've offered the option of a Speed Awareness Course instead of penalty points/fine, so it won't affect our car insurance premiums. It still costs £75 though, and I've had no choice but to pay by credit card. Two steps forward, one step back, eh.......

I know it's unfair (he's got to age 54 without a single brush with the police, and he was only slightly over the speedlimit at temporary motorway restrictions that he didn't even see) but I have an overwhelming urge to moan and nag at him about it and really give him a hard time! It won't help of course, so I'll try to control myself and just nag about him, on here!

PinotGrigio41

Oh no, I'm still recovering from the Microwave blowing up the other week, don't think my nerves would deal with an exploding kettle as well. And I would so miss the blue light !:eek:

We had a similar thing with Mr Pinot last year and the speeding fine, he was rushing from Scotland to home, via Lincolnshire where his brother had been rushed to hospital with a life threatening condition and he was caught just a couple of mph over the speed limit. It was so annoying. Unfortuantely he couldn't go on the speed awareness course which would have been our best option as he was leaving the country to work for 3 months and they wouldn't delay it until he got home, so we had no choice but to accept points and fine :eek:

I feel its far more therapeutic to have the odd moan on here than to our lovely DH's faces, I think we get far more of a reaction from our virtual friends, than we would from our real life hubbies !!!:rotfl:

HappyNow

PinotGrigio41 wrote: »

Unfortuantely he couldn't go on the speed awareness course which would have been our best option as he was leaving the country to work for 3 months and they wouldn't delay it until he got home, so we had no choice but to accept points and fine :eek:

I feel its far more therapeutic to have the odd moan on here than to our lovely DH's faces, I think we get far more of a reaction from our virtual friends, than we would from our real life hubbies !!!:rotfl:

Oh no, from a MSE point of view that's terrible because of the impact on your insurances. Did they go up massively? Mr Happy is booked on his course next week because our insurance renewals are due in March and I want it all out of the way by then.

And whilst really I KNOW there's no point in moaning at Mr Happy, I just feel like I want to punish him for wasting £75!!! Maybe tell him he has to walk to work (30 mile round trip!) until he's saved £75 worth of petrol, or maybe no biscuits for the next two years! Or perhaps I should serve up a really horrible meal like you did (:D) and FORCE him to eat it!!

HappyNow

Just a quick note to say that I have today made my first EVER homemade rice pudding!! I've been struggling to find pudding rice round here, but yesterday Tesco suddenly remembered that they DO sell it, so I bought some along with a ridiculously large tin of Carnation milk. I put it in my slow cooker this morning and it's now ready and IT IS WONDERFUL!!! It took me right back to my childhood and I feel really guilty now for not making it for my own kids. I will make one for next time they're back from uni. .

HappyNow

Well just look at the time! Half past three and I'm sat here in my jammies with a cup of tea. Quick update on the diary, but it probably won't make sense as I can barely focus my eyes!

Mr Happy continues to be a drain on the finances with his accidents! He has dropped his phone and smashed the screen, and as the smash is right over the important bits we have had to send it to be repaired. We do have phone insurance included with our bank account fees, but the excess for an iphone is £100!!!!!. We have a friend in the industry who has offered to do the repair at cost, but it will still be about £40. And that's £40 we don't have of course!

Then, to complete my day, he has broken his reading glasses! He's completely useless without them, so they had to be a priority. Luckily, he's found an 'off-the-peg' pair at Tesco for £6 which actually look rather nice and not at all cheap, so they will do for now.

And he has bought a pair of new trousers. They were only £16 from Matalan, and he really did need them, so I know I shouldn't complain.

So, those three things plus his Speed Awareness Course fees total £137 unbudgeted expense this month so far, courtesy of the lovely Mr H. I really don't know whether I can afford to keep him ........:D!

Right, back to bed to try and get a bit more kip, and if I happen to elbow Mr Happy hard in the ribs as I get in it will be a total accident :rotfl:!

Hopelessly_Hopeful

HappyNow wrote: »

Just a quick note to say that I have today made my first EVER homemade rice pudding!! I've been struggling to find pudding rice round here, but yesterday Tesco suddenly remembered that they DO sell it, so I bought some along with a ridiculously large tin of Carnation milk. I put it in my slow cooker this morning and it's now ready and IT IS WONDERFUL!!! It took me right back to my childhood and I feel really guilty now for not making it for my own kids. I will make one for next time they're back from uni. .

Really pleased to hear that. I have never done with condensed milk. Have done with cocounut milk but decided I preferred the regular semi skimmed stuff. What a joy and treat to come home to.


Hope Mr Happy woke up safe and sound!
HHx

Newbeginnings

HappyNow wrote: »

Just a quick note to say that I have today made my first EVER homemade rice pudding!! I've been struggling to find pudding rice round here, but yesterday Tesco suddenly remembered that they DO sell it, so I bought some along with a ridiculously large tin of Carnation milk. I put it in my slow cooker this morning and it's now ready and IT IS WONDERFUL!!! It took me right back to my childhood and I feel really guilty now for not making it for my own kids. I will make one for next time they're back from uni. .

I love rice pudding and have read so many posts about it on here, that I too bought pudding rice, carnation milk, single cream, clotted cream, caster sugar and full fat milk yikes! Cost me about £7 all in (because I bought risotto rice first, then found pudding rice in another shop - not to mention all the other "creams"). Will need to make sure I make a massive batch to make it all worthwhile lol. Suspect I failed miserably in my DFW goal today, but hey we're all entitled to a treat every once in a while