My Busy Life

sidneysmum

Wednesdays are the worst day in the week for me. I hate them. Firstly I go to work and secondly I start at a ridiculously early hour. By early evening I am ready to go to bed. However tonight I went to my WI meeting. Managed to get a great bargain off the bring and buy stall - An unused DMC tapestry plus wools for 50p. That should keep me busy. Paid £1 subs and had a couple of pieces of home made cake. Very nice treat.
I am still managing to plod through the food mountain in my home. Had weetabix for breakfast, jam on toast for lunch (at work and wanted something quick) and home made green Thai curry for tea with rice which was wonderful. All from stores. Tomorrow i think i might do a very small shop at the local bargain store and get some milk and a few bits for Christmas. I think milk is the only consumable I need to buy for myself.
Used up another item of toiletries today - a pack of face wipes - which I will add to my signature. Hurray !!! Also paid another £20 to my energy provider today. Hoping to sign up to direct debit in the next day or so.
Hope everyone is having a great moneysaving day x

sidneysmum

Had a nice day today visiting a friend to look at her new puppy. I am very jealous !! I just love dogs. Had a quick session in the gym and went to the cinema to see "Silver Linings Playbook" which was fantastic. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Did my food shopping today and spent £1 LOL. All I bought was some milk which I couldnt manage without. I didnt bother going to the local bargain shop. Decided to wait till another day to do that. Got some cash out of the bank which I am going to use to pay some bill soon. Used up yet more toiletries today (a deodrant). I have used up something almost every day this last week or so. Things will slow down soon as I as starting new bottles and tubes of everything !!

Anyway I hope everyone is having a great moneysaving day x

sidneysmum

Had a day off from diary keeping yesterday but not a day off from moneysaving. Spent the whole day out with my young man!! and we had a lovely quiet day together. Just a lovely happy day together which I thoroughly enjoyed. Didnt spend a bean. Had prawn and mayo sandwiches for lunch and home made chilli and rice for tea. So a NSD for me.

Today, things are back to normal. I have made good use of my morning by leaf collecting in the garden and washing bedding, amongst other chores. Spent the afternoon chatting at a relatives home. Actually visited the local bargain shop and bought a few bits and pieces, mainly stocking fillers for my grown up children. Spent £11.10. I was really pleased today as my aunt has offered to buy me an electric meat / bread slicer for xmas. Its something I`ve wanted for ages and i know i will use it a lot. I often cook gammon joint and struggle slicing it, so here`s the answer.
Food wise today I ahve had scrambled eggs for lunch (eggs from my own chickens) and yet another chicken curry for tea. I have curry a few times a week but I just love it....never get fed up of it.
Tonight the plan is to have a chill out having a glass of home made wine and just relaxing.

Hope everyone is having a great moneysving day x

vasseur

What a lovely diary and what a lovely life you are leading. It is so nice to read of someone who is happily single (at least you appear to be from your posts).

I'm a bit similar to you - I'm very recently debt free but hoping to stay off the slippery slope and also hoping to start overpaying the mortgage in the new year. I also love A1di and do my weekly shop there and love exercising too! Your gym sounds extremely good value!

EC12345

Hello sidneysmum.

Good job with the diary. I started ready it this morning but I thought I would get all of my Sunday house jobs over with before I post. Well done with the gym. You are doing a fab job.

I have no debts whatsoever, just a mortgage, but am always looking at extra ways to save money. I signed up for the 12K in 2012 savings challenge (it is on the savings and investments board). I'll never make my £5K, but am at £3,222 which I am really pleased about. I save jointly with my husbamd but this is my own little project. I am always trying to cut down on our grocery shop (there is only two of us in our house) and this year am really cutting down on Christmas this year. Like you, I also love exercising. I just run, am in a netball club and have a cross trainer at home and go swimming. £20 for your gym in great. I sometimes go to odd classes which can cost £5 a time so that is really good value.

Anyway, keep posting. I love reading the debt free diaries. They are so inspirational.

Love ECxx

PS. I think that I have read and replied to some of your previous posts on other boards.

sidneysmum

Hello Poleslot and EC12345 - Lovely to hear from you both. We definitely sound like we have a lot in common All savers and all fans of exercise. As for being single, lets say I was unexpectedly made single about 2 years ago.......and its been the making of me!! I would never have chosen to be without my husband but now I love it. I love being able to do what i want, when i want, and with who i want, and not having to ask anyone their opinion (except Sidney the dog LOL) Being ditched is the best thing that has happened to me. :rotfl:

Anyway I had a quite productive day yesterday. Had my usual zumba class at the gym then did a few household jobs - made some soup with leftover veg and also did a spot of painting in my kitchen. My built in microwave has recently packed in and rather than replace it with another built in one at a cost of £450+, I bought a freestanding one for £50 to put in its place. To make everything look good in the kitchen i have had to paint the wall at the rear of the microwave as it looked a proper mess. Anyway all looks well now and i feel happy at having saved some money and also my kitchen looks great again. Had another use up as regards toiletries, this time some facial wash. One more bites the dust thankfully.

Had a bit of a treat yesterday afternoon and popped out for a curry with my friend. We had a great time, just chatting and putting the world to rights !
Hope everyone had a great moneysaving day. x

vasseur

sidneysmum wrote: »

Hello Poleslot and EC12345 - Lovely to hear from you both. We definitely sound like we have a lot in common All savers and all fans of exercise. As for being single, lets say I was unexpectedly made single about 2 years ago.......and its been the making of me!! I would never have chosen to be without my husband but now I love it. I love being able to do what i want, when i want, and with who i want, and not having to ask anyone their opinion (except Sidney the dog LOL) Being ditched is the best thing that has happened to me. :rotfl:

Exactly my attitude . I've never been married (or really lived with anyone for that matter) but I really am OK with being single. I do like men, I do love the attention but I do so much (on my own and with my dd) that there isn't much time for one at the moment - but I never say never

sidneysmum

Hi Polesalot - Great that you are stopping by. You sound a very contented person. Good for you !! :beer:

I have had a busy couple of days, which I have enjoyed - apart from work today !!! Yesterday for me was zumba, coffee with a good friend and a spot of shopping. I decided to drop by the home brew shop and buy another wine kit. This time rose. The kit costs £16.99, plus 3.5kg sugar and makes about 28 bottles. I call that a bargain. I had to have a spend at Aldi for part of my shopping and spent £12.94 on basics which included - chicken, new potatoes, yoghurt, bread, milk.

Today I feel really tired. Went to work very early and did some more food shopping on the way home at Mr. M. I spent £27.92 but that included a couple of tins of chocolates as gifts for xmas, so my bill can really be reduced by £10. I just bought prawns, lots of sugar for the wine, rice and some frozen meat and veg. Everything I bought today and yesterday food wise was a need rather than a want. I will be able to use what I have bought to add to stuff in my stores to make some great meals !! I have been pricing up tins of coconut milk recently as I use a lot of it in my curries. The cheapest tins I found were Aldi at 79p (I think) and Mr M at a whopping £1.99 per tin. No thank you. Anyway I decided to call at my local Asian shop. The staff were brill and very helpful. I bought 10 tins of coconut milk for £6. One happy bunny. If you are reading this Mr. International foods......I will be back. Gold star.

Think I am just going to get my feet up with my book tonight as I feel exhausted and have got work again in the morning.
Hope everyone is having a great moneysaving day. x

Jazee

What a lovely diary sidneysmum. I am going to subscribe and have decided to adopt some of your positive attitude, so thank you.

sidneysmum

Hello Jazee - Nice to meet you and glad you have subscribed. I have done the same with your diary ! Positive attitude !! Me !!

I have actually been giving myself a talking to these last few days because I feel like I am getting a bit lazy and letting things slide. However I seem to be doing better today. I have been to work today and instead of just sitting about after work, I have done a few chores / errands so I am feeling like I have achieved a few things. I filled my car up with petrol then went into Mr.T to buy 2 pressies for Christmas - Bottle of lime vodka and a large box of Thorntons. Yum ! I have pretty much got all my presents this year already - Mind you I only have a few to buy as I give my grown up children money and just a few "stocking fillers". I know they are grown men but I just never stopped buying them bits and pieces !!! Anyway I feel like I am trying to get ahead with things for this Christmas.....so I have wrapped quite a few presents up and am thinking I might write a few cards over the weekend. I also decided to put my second wine kit on to brew (rose) and that should hopefully be ready in a few weeks time. I havent made rose before so I just hope I like it as the kit makes about 28 bottles. Lastly I tackled a job I have been putting off for ages. As I have a few trees in my garden, I own a garden vac which is invaluable when all the leaves fall. Anyhow the vac has been playing up for a while now and I was going to dump it. But today I decided to have one last look at it, and guess what, it was just blocked with leaves. I have now cleared it out and its running like its brand new. Fabulous. I am hoping that I will be doing some more leaf collecting over the weekend.

I am keeping my fingers crossed about the weather also. As I live very near the Pennines we can often get caught out with the weather and often have a lot of snow when everywhere else has none !! Luckily I have still got 3 bags of salt left from last year.

Hope everyone else is having a great moneysaving day x