Keeping up appearances.......

Honey_Bear

• Brain training. Nope. Yesterday was frantic and today has started off much the same, but I will do this later. It's an optional extra part of the Alzheimer's Study that OH and I volunteered for a few months ago, rather sensibly given our age, because early diagonsis improves the treatment outcomes.
• 15 minutes a week research on the micro-business. The independent stockists of the things I produce buy in January and February, apparently. I need to hit the phones early in January to maximise the possibility of people wanting samples. From the work I did this year I discovered that it's relatively straightforward to get people to accept samples, but now that I've worked out how much they cost to send out I need to be more selective about who I offer them to. That's the research bit and I can do that now.
• Practise the skills that I'm being taught at evening classes. Rather surprisingly, by the end of the first class I had cut two bits straight and have been able to do so ever since. We're now making halving joints. Two of my three made so far are a bit wobbly, like a loose tooth because my straight sawing isn't quite accurate enough.
  

I'm also doing a hair-up course but the key to that, apparently, is curling the hair first and I have absolutely no idea where my curling tongy things are in the attic. If, indeed, I've still got them.

HappyNow

chevalier wrote: »

Why not just start paying money to them anyway. Then you will have less to pay when they finally get around to it. Or would they not be amenable to that?

I'm not sure if they would or not, and I'd have no idea what to pay. Plus they only accept payments by phone or cheque, and I still get upset talking about it so I don't want to ring. I've got a vet fund in my YNAB with £120 sat there, waiting, and if I don't hear anything this week I will get Mr H to ring and chase it.

Honey_Bear wrote: »

Sometime ago you said you didn't really do pulses (weird, with you being veggie and all, but there you go) so I wanted to pass on a nifty thing I discovered completely by accident. This mustn't, absolutely mustn't be done with dried kidney beans, but for chickpeas the fastest way to get them ready for use is to bung dried one in cold water in a slow cooker with at least three times the volume of the chickpeas, more is even better. If you've got them, a whole peeled onion,some black peppercorns, an unpeeled garlic clove and a bayleaf will boost flavour but no matter if you haven't. Switch it to high and walk away.

About two and a half hours later you'll have lovely buttery soft chickpeas with no hassle, no standing over a pan wasting gas or hobtype electricity. It's considerably quicker than soaking them overnight and boiling them for hours. It would probably work on low, if you wanted to leave them for longer.

If you're going to do kidney beans you absolutely must, must, must boil them hard for 10 minutes before you shove them in the slow cooker.

I've got back into using them because I'm a burger addict and as even OH loves gently spiced veggie burgers that's one of our weekly treat meals. And cheap as chips.

Mmm, sounds delicious and I DO like cheap. I will buy some at the weekend and give it a go, thanks

Honey_Bear wrote: »

• Brain training. Nope. Yesterday was frantic and today has started off much the same, but I will do this later. It's an optional extra part of the Alzheimer's Study that OH and I volunteered for a few months ago, rather sensibly given our age, because early diagonsis improves the treatment outcomes.

Have you remembered to do it? :rotfl::rotfl:

• 15 minutes a week research on the micro-business. The independent stockists of the things I produce buy in January and February, apparently. I need to hit the phones early in January to maximise the possibility of people wanting samples. From the work I did this year I discovered that it's relatively straightforward to get people to accept samples, but now that I've worked out how much they cost to send out I need to be more selective about who I offer them to. That's the research bit and I can do that now.

Interesting. Good luck and here's to a successful Jan 17.

• Practise the skills that I'm being taught at evening classes. Rather surprisingly, by the end of the first class I had cut two bits straight and have been able to do so ever since. We're now making halving joints. Two of my three made so far are a bit wobbly, like a loose tooth because my straight sawing isn't quite accurate enough.

Master Happy qualified as a joiner/carpenter a few years ago, although he then went to Uni for a complete career change. I remember helping him with his college essays; wood working is sooo technical. And that's just writing about it.

I'm also doing a hair-up course but the key to that, apparently, is curling the hair first and I have absolutely no idea where my curling tongy things are in the attic. If, indeed, I've still got them.
Well that's a bit of a girly contrast to woodwork and plastering!

HappyNow

Update for yesterday.

• Make every penny count. Spent £23 of my non-existent grocery budget at Tessies on essentials of cat food, cat litter, milk, bread and dishwasher tablets. I borrowed it from the petrol fund. Hope I can put it back before the cars notice.
• Healthy eating on a very cheap budget. Well I managed the cheap bit. More feeding the family on scraps, but then Master H and his girlfriend came and they'd brought Gu cheesecakes - enough for all of us. I love Master H!
• Use the Fitbit Burnt 1600 calories apparently. Ate many, many more. I stopped even counting when I saw the Gu's - they are LOADED . 10526 steps, but only 4 hours 28 minutes sleep . I'm going to bed right this minute.
• Neat feet Think it's me that needs the brain training. I forgot again.

Honey_Bear

HappyNow wrote: »

Update for yesterday.

• Make every penny count. Spent £23 of my non-existent grocery budget at Tessies on essentials of cat food, cat litter, milk, bread and dishwasher tablets. I borrowed it from the petrol fund. Hope I can put it back before the cars notice.

Is taking the cars' pocket money akin to 'borrowing' money from the kids' piggy banks to pay bills? Apparently there are quite a few parents who do so, so you're not alone.

• Healthy eating on a very cheap budget. Well I managed the cheap bit. More feeding the family on scraps, but then Master H and his girlfriend came and they'd brought Gu cheesecakes - enough for all of us. I love Master H!

You have brought up a son of excellent taste. You should be very proud of both him and your parenting skills.

• Use the Fitbit Burnt 1600 calories apparently. Ate many, many more. I stopped even counting when I saw the Gu's - they are LOADED . 10526 steps, but only 4 hours 28 minutes sleep . I'm going to bed right this minute.

It would have been unbelievably rude not to eat what your guests had so kindly contributed to the Now Family Grocery Challenge this month so I think you should stop feeling bad about it. I hope you got a decent night's sleep.

• Neat feet Think it's me that needs the brain training. I forgot again.

Yeah, well, it's easy enough to forget something apparently ....

Honey_Bear

• Brain training. ... because in all the excitment yesterday, I did, too. It's becoming increasingly obvious I need this rather more than I thought.
• 15 minutes a week research on the micro-business. Had a very heartening email from the online outlet yesterday, firstly to say that the massive order had arrived, but not to hold my breath because it can take some time before the sales start trickling in. At close of business I had a second email to say they'd sold two. Get in!
  
• Practise the skills that I'm being taught at evening classes. Not yet this week; rather busier than I'd hoped on other things. I'm very, very jealous of Master Happy's carpentry/joinery abilities. And yeah, the Hair Up thing is because I'm not exactly a girly girl. I think one of the reasons OH likes me is that I don't seem to care about my appearance - his whole life has been spent working in an industry where appearance matters almost more than anything else. But secretly I'd quite like to look 'tidy' in the Gavin and Stacy meaning of the word. Judging by my lack of application to homework, that won't be happening any time soon.

joeyjimbles

Hello all.
May appears to have hurtled in without me really being aware of it starting. I had 3 cakes to do at the weekend, plus the job of doom and it was Bank Holiday and we had friends to stay - just writing that down makes me feel like yawning.
Anyway this month is about reigning in the spending which had got a little too liberal during April - partly because of annual bills and a new car, new work clothes for OH and garden stuff, and partly because it was holidays and a tiny bit of 'sod it, we're overdrawn anyway' - though thankfully the latter was on the 'free' overdraft and only to the tune of £35.
So the cheeky glasses of wine in the week have gone, I have not done any top-up shopping but there is still more than enough food to last the week. I will have to get milk but I need to vote and do some bank stuff so I can get the milk first which will mean it will be heavy and I will be put off going and buying other stuff. I'm not particularly an impulse shopper and have learned to be frugal but we've been a bit too relaxed recently and I need to draw a line.

HappyNow

Quote:
Originally Posted by HappyNow
Update for yesterday.

• Make every penny count. Spent £23 of my non-existent grocery budget at Tessies on essentials of cat food, cat litter, milk, bread and dishwasher tablets. I borrowed it from the petrol fund. Hope I can put it back before the cars notice.

Is taking the cars' pocket money akin to 'borrowing' money from the kids' piggy banks to pay bills? Apparently there are quite a few parents who do so, so you're not alone.
I used to do it with their Easter Eggs. They always got far more than was good for them, so for the sake of their health I would help out when they went to bed at night. There was only a narrow window of opportunity though. Once they went to that pesky school and learned to count it was all over......

• Use the Fitbit Burnt 1600 calories apparently. Ate many, many more. I stopped even counting when I saw the Gu's - they are LOADED .

It would have been unbelievably rude not to eat what your guests had so kindly contributed to the Now Family Grocery Challenge this month so I think you should stop feeling bad about it.
'Manners maketh man' and all that. As a parent, I have responsibilities

• Neat feet Think it's me that needs the brain training. I forgot again.

Yeah, well, it's easy enough to forget something apparently ....

HappyNow

Whoahh, apologies for the formatting tragedy above. It's all gone to pot. Anyway, moving on......

Honey_Bear wrote: »

• Brain training. ... because in all the excitment yesterday, I did, too. It's becoming increasingly obvious I need this rather more than I thought.

On this month's performance to date, I might join in next month

• 15 minutes a week research on the micro-business. Had a very heartening email from the online outlet yesterday, firstly to say that the massive order had arrived, but not to hold my breath because it can take some time before the sales start trickling in. At close of business I had a second email to say they'd sold two. Get in!

'Get in', you say? I think you mean
GET IN!!!

• Practise the skills that I'm being taught at evening classes. Not yet this week; rather busier than I'd hoped on other things. I'm very, very jealous of Master Happy's carpentry/joinery abilities. And yeah, the Hair Up thing is because I'm not exactly a girly girl. I think one of the reasons OH likes me is that I don't seem to care about my appearance - his whole life has been spent working in an industry where appearance matters almost more than anything else. But secretly I'd quite like to look 'tidy' in the Gavin and Stacy meaning of the word. Judging by my lack of application to homework, that won't be happening any time soon.
• I'm one of the few people who've never watched Gavin and Stacey. I'm going to have to watch it now, to see if I look 'tidy'. I suspect I don't (apart from my feet of course)

joeyjimbles wrote: »

Hello all.
May appears to have hurtled in without me really being aware of it starting. I had 3 cakes to do at the weekend, plus the job of doom and it was Bank Holiday and we had friends to stay - just writing that down makes me feel like yawning.
Anyway this month is about reigning in the spending which had got a little too liberal during April - partly because of annual bills and a new car, new work clothes for OH and garden stuff, and partly because it was holidays and a tiny bit of 'sod it, we're overdrawn anyway' - though thankfully the latter was on the 'free' overdraft and only to the tune of £35.
So the cheeky glasses of wine in the week have gone, I have not done any top-up shopping but there is still more than enough food to last the week. I will have to get milk but I need to vote and do some bank stuff so I can get the milk first which will mean it will be heavy and I will be put off going and buying other stuff. I'm not particularly an impulse shopper and have learned to be frugal but we've been a bit too relaxed recently and I need to draw a line.

May has been proper sneaky this year. Still time to pull it round though, it's only 5th. Hope the job of doom wasn't too doomy/gloomy, it seems to come round far too often for you.

HappyNow

Yesterday's May Modifications update:

• Make every penny count. I worked from home so spent absolutely nothing.
• Healthy eating on a tight budget. Do chips count? If so, I did great. They were out of the freezer so they hit the 'tight budget' bit.......
• Use the Fitbit 10723 steps taken. 1672 calories burnt, no idea how many I ate because I didn't enter them from lunchtime onwards and now I can't remember. I think two portions of chips will be pretty low calorie though.............:o
• Neat feet. Sanded and E45'd before bed last night. About time too.

HappyNow

So, Mr H is working this week and next . The administrators of the failed business are responsible for minimising loss, so they have authorised a few ex-employees (including Mr H) to complete some half-finished orders which will bring money into the company. After that, no idea. He has completed his online claim for redundancy pay, and that apparently takes around three weeks to come through.

We have decided that the holiday in mid-June goes ahead. It's already paid for and we will need very little money while we're there. Also we haven't taken insurance out yet :cool:.