Keeping up appearances.......

Hopelessly_Hopeful

chevalier wrote: »

Nice to see that you are getting to grips with budgets. It takes a little while to remember EVERYTHING though. But at least next year you will have your pots of money to pay for the yearly things.

Nice to hear your horse is getting better too
chev

Know what you mean Chev. I still feel like I am lording it up paying for 12 months car tax in cash!

HHx

PinotGrigio41

Hopelessly_Hopeful wrote: »

Know what you mean Chev. I still feel like I am lording it up paying for 12 months car tax in cash!

HHx

I feel very posh ( oh and smug !!) everytime I get a bit of cash out of my purse to pay for anything these days. Sometimes the shop assistants are unsure quite what to do with it, ( in clothes shops for example!) as they say its so rare that anyone pays in cash these days !

HH, you are an inspiration in the kitchen, I bow to your organisational skills. Could I maybe hire you by the hour to help me out because you know I can afford to pay ......in cash ?!!! :rotfl:

Hopelessly_Hopeful

PinotGrigio41 wrote: »

I feel very posh ( oh and smug !!) everytime I get a bit of cash out of my purse to pay for anything these days. Sometimes the shop assistants are unsure quite what to do with it, ( in clothes shops for example!) as they say its so rare that anyone pays in cash these days !

HH, you are an inspiration in the kitchen, I bow to your organisational skills. Could I maybe hire you by the hour to help me out because you know I can afford to pay ......in cash ?!!! :rotfl:

But of course, amongst other things the money saved goes to the odd bottle of errr Pinot!

HHx

PinotGrigio41

Hopelessly_Hopeful wrote: »

But of course, amongst other things the money saved goes to the odd bottle of errr Pinot!

HHx

And quite rightly so I feel !!! :rotfl:

Wobblydeb

Just read through this diary from start to finish, and totally enjoyed it.

Just one question ....... I understand that you don't get your water from the "grid" but what about getting rid of waste? Do you have a sceptic tank?

Sorry to disrupt the pinot flow ....carry on!

HappyNow

Thanks for dropping by everyone . I didn't manage to get on at all yesterday (silly husband, wanting a go on the PC, grrr!) so I've had a lovely long catch-up just now.

Another vote for the take-away containers here. Not only do I use them for freezing/storing food, they are also the little 'pots' for my various monthly cash stashes. Notes fit flat inside perfectly, and on the top of each lid I stick a bit of masking tape and write on it what the pot is for and how much I've put in for the month. And yes, I DO know that makes me a nerd !

Hopelessly Hopeful - you are my heroine! An inspiration in the kitchen AND paying 12 months car tax at a time, in cash.
Brizzle - yes the soup was a success. Which is good as I made three litres of it. Funny though, I use the same recipe evey time but it always tastes different and is always a different colour.
Hopeful1 - I've never cooked and frozen like that either. The nearest I've ever got is a shop-bought readymeal, but I suppose HH's version ARE frozen ready-meals - except delicious, nutritious and a fraction of the price.
Pinot - ooh I love paying in cash!! I do it for everything possible nowadays (apart from my occasional month-end credit card failures!). I've taken it a step further this month and started paying in COINS! I'm getting rid of all the bits lying round the house and that we've chucked into bowls. I spent £3.38 in pennies and tuppences at Lidl the other day. The cashier looked surprised but didn't say anything .
Chev - The budgeting is actually my favourite bit of the month! It would be even better if there was a bit more money to play with, but even now it is so satisfying to do! And by this time next year it should be even better and involve a bit of back-up money .

In other news, the Happy Horse is still getting better but it is taking longer than I'd hoped and he is still slightly lame. I think that means his abscess hasn't completely drained (it oozed rather than burst) so it might fill up again. We just have to wait and see, but he is much more comfortable now.

Another home working day which I love. I will have a catch-up with everyone's diaries at lunchtime because I'm feeling a bit out of the loop!

HappyNow

Wobblydeb wrote: »

Just read through this diary from start to finish, and totally enjoyed it.

Just one question ....... I understand that you don't get your water from the "grid" but what about getting rid of waste? Do you have a sceptic tank?

Sorry to disrupt the pinot flow ....carry on!

Hello Wobblydeb, thanks for reading and posting .

Yes, we do have a septic tank. We live right out in the middle of nowhere, so there's no mains water, no drainage and no gas. Just sheep and us ! So we heat the house with coal and electric, water is from a bore hole and waste goes via the septic tank. The septic tank isn't as revolting as it sounds, honestly! It's quite discreet and it's about 100 yards from the house. It just looks like a two-metre square hole in the ground, covered with limestone chippings for safety, and there are various other filter mediums hidden deep inside it. The waste enters the tank underground rather than from the top so it doesn't smell and people seeing it wouldn't actually know what it is.

I hope you will stick around, you will be very welcome x

PinotGrigio41

Morning, goo to see you managed to throw Mr Happy off of the PC so that we could catch up on your news !

Just had to say Mr Pinot has a bit of a thing about paying for things in coins, always has done and thinks absolutely nothing of holding up a big long queue in the shop or supermarket ( well anywhere really ) while he slowly and patiently counts out his change down to the last penny. I on the other hand have always found it very embarassing , as people huff and puff at him , and I have to walk out of the shop and wait outside. I would rather pay with a note and sling the change in my Sealed ISH Pot !:D

Wobblydeb

HappyNow wrote: »

Hello Wobblydeb, thanks for reading and posting .

Yes, we do have a septic tank. We live right out in the middle of nowhere, so there's no mains water, no drainage and no gas. Just sheep and us ! So we heat the house with coal and electric, water is from a bore hole and waste goes via the septic tank. The septic tank isn't as revolting as it sounds, honestly! It's quite discreet and it's about 100 yards from the house. It just looks like a two-metre square hole in the ground, covered with limestone chippings for safety, and there are various other filter mediums hidden deep inside it. The waste enters the tank underground rather than from the top so it doesn't smell and people seeing it wouldn't actually know what it is.

I hope you will stick around, you will be very welcome x

I've subscribed so I reckon I'll be around Nice to "meet" you!

Sounds familiar - one of our family friends has one. I was surprised not to see the costs for emptying it in your SOA. Is it something newfangled that doesn't need emptying?

HappyNow

Wobblydeb wrote: »

Sounds familiar - one of our family friends has one. I was surprised not to see the costs for emptying it in your SOA. Is it something newfangled that doesn't need emptying?

Hello again . No, it doesn't need emptying regularly - I think we've only had it done once in the 22 years we've been here. It's not sealed at the bottom like some, and apparently if we avoid biological washing powders and are careful what cleaning products we use, the enzymes break everything down naturally through the various filter mediums and a natural balance occurs! I'm far from an expert in these matters, but I'm told that while it looks healthy and doesn't give off a smell everything is working fine! I'm frantically touching the wooden table as I type !

Sorry to anyone eating breakfast :rotfl:!