Uni vs' The Beast Pt 2

Uniscots97

Morning All, how is everyone?

Omelette for tea last night was lush. OH put some chopped up bacon we had left in it as well. We were naughty though we had a few crackers and cheese later. I got German Brie from Aldi's. Don't think I'll be getting it again. Prefer the French style Brie they sell (made in Scotland). But trying to be good and using what we have rather than eating out which whilst OH isn't working really isn't an option. Once I get paid this friday I'll have enough to cover all my own bills and OH's and have some left over but I want to get car fixed. I really need to phone and get it booked in.

OH is away to glaziers today to get me a small piece of replacement glass for a picture frame I got for his nephew and his partner. They move into their new flat today, as they are expecting their first baby in November. Nephew has had his own place before but his partner has never lived away from her parents so I think it'll be a shock for her as she's been used to spending her wages on what she likes. Doing a small hamper for them of treats, picture frame and some other non-essential items that'll help make their new place home.

Once I have this week out of the way I'm going to start going after the rest of the PPI OH and I may be owed. OH has still to hear from Capital One about his from them. They are taking ages.

Dinner tonight will either be mince and potatoes or spag bol. OH is cooking it and it'll depend what he can be bothered making. Unlike me who puts oats into the mince to stretch it out, OH doesn't do this (yet!) so a pack of mince will only do tea for one night for the 3 of us. When I make it, there's enough for dinner for one night for 3 of us, and either 2 large dinner or 3 smaller lunch portions for another day.

Gifts etc, I updated my gifts spreadsheet. Doing not too bad so far. Got bottles for the flavoured vodka. Got a cheap bottle (75cl) but my 2 coloured bottles are 500 ml. Does anyone know once you put the sweeties in how much it displaces by? So I know whether I need more vodka or not?

HeadAboveWater

Morning!!

Your omelette does sound good. Our curry turned out well. Just had to make a bit extra rice and sauce to make it stretch a bit further (was a 1 portion meal). OH had bought some veg soup too so had that for starters

Mince? We started using Quorn months ago (before the horse scandal!!) When doing pasta or bolognaise, we'll either use quorn or half mince/half quorn. It's impossible to tell the difference (and our girls are seriously fussy!) We wouldn't use quorn for mince and spuds as you can tell a difference. But honestly, quorn stuff is brilliant! The girls love the burgers (as do we!) and we bulk up curries etc with the quorn chicken too! They have no idea and it saves a fortune!! :D

I have no idea about the vodka bottles sorry Just use more sweets???

Uniscots97

Morning All, well another nappy cake made, another hamper made just one more hamper to make for the do this weekend. I couldn't make the other one as SS after promising OH he'd take him to the glaziers for a bit of glass for me decided to go out yesterday (to the person's birthday I mentioned earlier in my diary, these are people OH and I don't want anything to do with and have been trying to show SS that these people are just using him). SS has said he'll take OH today but if he doesn't I can't finish the hamper. He's being really selfish. Found out he spent £100 on this person's present, now it turns out this is what the person and their cronies asked for not what SS chose independently. Can you see why we're concerned? OH got a call at the weekend from a former friend (that he's not spoken to for good reason and its to do with these other people), big sob story and after speaking to them for a while realised that this other group we don't talk to had put him up to it. We think it might be that SS has opened his mouth about me getting my PPI and these people are being nosey to see what they can get. They've done it in the past (when we were talking to them i.e. when I got a redundancy payment) they would hint for things yet if you gave them it (for birthday etc) i.e. perfume/aftershave/watch the cellophane/tags was left on and you'd never see it again. So we pulled away from that group and haven't spoken to them in about 3 years. Now to let you understand this isn't just friends we're talking about here this is part of OH's family. SS has said he's angry we would get friends gifts etc but not them (he made comment about the hamper I made)...... he got told in no uncertain terms they were getting nothing and why. Hopefully he'll realise and have nothing to do with them, but I think that may take a long time.

Well only another week till we're dog sitting and I still think it'll be too much for us. OH has an interview next week (thankfully) so fingers crossed for that. I'm still racking my brains about how we can get out of looking after these dogs for nearly 4 weeks without them taking offence. Yet I know they cannot afford kennels for that length of time.

Uniscots97

Morning All, how is everyone? Sorry I've been a moaning minnie over the past few days but things are getting to me a bit. OH and I had a row last night over something stupid (he wanted a favour from my parents but didn't think it through at all, pushed me into saying something whilst I was talking to Mum on the phone then when I was off the phone he realised just how unfeasible and difficult it would be!!! So now I look like a complete !!!! with my parents).

Money? - Well its pay day and my first direct debit has come out. I need to lend OH money to pay his bills and when he said about SS's phone (OH bought the phone as an xmas gift for SS and agreed to pay line rental for at least a year) I said I wasn't paying for his calls/internet he could give OH the money for that himself. I don't think its gone down too well but tough, when SS was in hospital he just kept going on the internet on his phone (we even offered to buy him some magazines) and ran up £25 in internet charges in 2 days. His bill in total is £63 and there's no way I'm stumping up for all that even if I will get it back.


Expenses - Well I bought some Avon stuff from a lady at work and when I took it home OH said you need to stop buying lots of stuff like this, then when he saw what I'd bought he changed his tune! I am trying to use stuff up but I'm also trying to top up the present drawer for stuff for Christmas then I'm not buying loads in one go. If I'd left it all till the last minute last year I wouldn't have had anything!!!! I got my hair done last night as my hairdresser is heading off on holiday. Just a trim for OH and a cut and blow dry for me, £20 well spent.

SS - SS was listening in on our (OH and mine) conversation with my hairdresser (she comes to the house) last night. She and her partner have just found out they are expecting their first child. She's 21, but a grown up 21 and her partner is a year older. They seem to have their heads screwed on, and although this wasn't planned are planning properly. They've just secured a house to rent and move in in a few days. I gave her a metal floor lamp we had in the loft (similar would probably be about £100 now), so they have that for their lounge. SS moaned at OH about why we're helping her when we didn't help SD (his sister). OH told him we did help her but unless it was cash or something she could easily sell (perfume etc) she wasn't interested, and if you didn't help her she told lies about you. He wasn't happy with the answers but it was the truth.


Well cake decorating tonight and putting together one more hamper. Trying to use up all my lotions and potions before buying anymore of that particular thing. Except I bought face cream on offer and then discovered I already had one in reserve! I need to really look through and see what I have. I think I might get a shock.

Uniscots97

Hampers, cakes all finished and dropped off. SIL is looking forward to it but a few of the others are starting to talk about it as though it was theirs. Waiting on OH to finish a course.

Uniscots97

Right OH said he'd be finished an hour ago and I'm still waiting, left the party just before the games started as I didn't think it was fair leaving mid-game. I sent SIL a message saying had been delayed not sure what else I could do? I can hardly shuttle between where OH is doing his things and SIL, its 10 miles!

Uniscots97

Morning All, how is everyone? The do on saturday was eventful, I went back after picking up OH but didnt stay long. I was very glad to get home and relax. I was very naughty and had a couple of glasses of wine.

Did shopping yesterday at Mr T's as where we were it wasn't feasible to go to Aldi. Saw a few more Value products this time. Got Value mouthwash (40p), opened this last night and if you like a mild mouthwash this is for you and its quite a pleasant taste. Value strawberry jam (29p), decent amount of strawberries and nice taste so can't really fault it. Saw Value scones (10 for 99p) but they were tiny so got other ones that were YS, 6 large fruit scones for 99p. I also got Value mince, 800g for between £2-3 (can't remember exact price but comparable to Aldi. 4x 4oz steaks (Value) for £3.31, now I know this is a luxury but steak, a baked potato, mushrooms and onions is just soo yummy. I am wondering whether Mr T is realising they are losing customers to the likes of Aldi/Lidl etc and trying to win people back with more Value products? I also got Value penne pasta (500g for 29p) and Value coleslaw (25p), I normally make up pasta salad with these and add a little black pepper and parsley. Its reasonably lower in fat (if you don't believe me check out fat content of value compared to other and its really nice) and makes loads, perfect for packed lunches.

Money? It'll be a little tight this week (My pay last week was late coming in which had a knock on effect). OH has an interview tomorrow so fingers crossed all goes well and he gets the job. I got another £2 coin yesterday so thats been put into my savings jar. We have all meals accounted for this week and thankfully OH is now (finally) seeing how much food really costs he doesn't want to waste it. I had to laugh yesterday when he picked up a pack of YS sausages and saw they were reduced from £2.99 to £2.49 and said 'no way are we paying that, thats ridiculous for sausages'. It was quite funny.


Spent a bit of time on my gift spreadsheet last night, OH doesn't want to buy for lots of the family this year and I said thatn wasn't really fair considering they buy for us, but told him they'll probably get HM jam/sweets etc. Do you think that would be ok?

HeadAboveWater

Morning

Well done on your shopping and :rotfl: to OH!! Was actually OH that got me into the yellow label stuffs, rather than the other way about (spot the person more used running a house and feeding 3 kids!!!)

Token acknowledgement for gifts is perfect! If you don't have the money, don't be buying. I know what you're saying though, that you feel you have to buy just because they're buying for you, but it shouldn't really be like that. You'll be putting plenty time/effort/thought into any gifts you do get, which will mean more than any amount of ££ spent.

Have a good day

Uniscots97

Morning All, how is everyone?


HAW, how are you? I'm not giving to receive (iyswim) as they never remember my/OH/SS birthday or our anniversary but we always get a gift at christmas. Generally its a gift set (we have 2 unopened from last year). But I normally do lots of little things, last year they got goody hampers. Average cost was about £8. But this year I think it'll be HM marmalade/flavoured vodka/HM sweets or biscuits.

One of my friends came over last night, she's trying to talk me into doing 'couch to 5K'. I ordered a sports bra (as don't have one) and I'm going to give it a go. I need to shift some weight and I think this is the best way to do it. I'm still doing my squats challenge but I've not managed to get beyond 40 squats in a day (2 sets of 20) yet.

OH has an interview today, fingers crossed he gets the job. Hoping that the timings will rule us out for looking after the dogs. I know that probably sounds horrible but I don't think we thought it through properly before OH said yes, and I don't think SIL has fully appreciated just how busy we are already.

HeadAboveWater

Morning

I'm well! Monday is over so it's all good :rotfl:

I get what you're saying ref the giving/receiving. Stick with your idea. I think it's a lovely idea :cool:

C25K is a great idea! I managed to get myself running 2.5 miles (4km?) on my own without following that plan, but I probably would survive the running better if I had! Think coz I only run once a week (max) I'm not able to build myself up the same if I was out a few times a week
(and I got my shock absorber for £7.99 from TK Maxx )

Well done on the squats! I really should do something like that as I've very little strength in my legs. Walk loads but when it comes to cycling (and keeping up with OH!) I'm beat

Good luck to OH for his interview

And fingers crossed you can't dog sit! :D