Building The Burrow!

Pearla*Merle

Yesterday ended with lots of mini naps, frantic present wrapping and overdosing on chocolate. Today will be much of the same (though thankfully all wrapping is done so no more sellotape injuries for me!). Mr M terrified me yesterday by arriving home laden with presents, he said he was going to be a bit more restrained this year as I've just had a big birthday but apparently not! I thought I was going to have to dash into town today and pick up something else for him but then I remembered some of the other bits I'd gotten him so his pile is almost as big as mine, crisis averted. Why is it so hard not to fall into that panic trap though?! Ahh! In other news, my freecycle person didn't show up yesterday, I was on tenterhooks all day waiting for them, oh well.

Mr M is working today, he's supposed to do a full day but usually security come round and chuck them out before lunchtime so I'm waiting to hear what the plan of action is. If he gets out early enough we'll head to the cinema this afternoon (cineworld cards ).

TCB payment confirmed, so that's another £8 amazon voucher winging its way to me. Where are people at with the £5 admin fee? I can't see where to opt out, but then I'm not sure whether it's worth doing if I just lose out on cashback rates?

The below seemed rather apt for this corner of the interwebs. Merry Christmas everyone! :rudolf:


And a little Christmas gift from me to you... click click click!

megela

Just popped by to return the Seasons Greetings .
Hope you have a lovely Christmas!:xmassign:

newgirly

Wow love those photos pearla! Hope you have a great Xmas :xmastree::xmassign:

Pearla*Merle

Thank you, ladies! Hope everyone's had a lovely holiday

Had a smashing day in the sales - broke a plate in Dhams. :rotfl: Their own fault - they'd stacked the shelves in the most ridiculous manner. It all got a bit Greek restaurant in there for a moment though. Town was generally a bit bizarre, some of the big chains were shut, can't figure out why & it was most annoying as I'd had great plans to relieve Wilkos of their goods. Maybe they thought everyone would be going out of town to shop? Anyway, picked up two birthday presents in Boots for £8 (used points, so free!), £2 on another birthday present (nice candle holder in M&S, loads left, think I might go back for more!) and then I stopped before I went overboard. I need to write up a list of who needs what before I go into a present-buying frenzy and ponder what I could make/use that I've already got. Nephew and goddaughter sorted out until 2015 though, hooray for 3 for 2s! Other than that I picked up some toiletries I'd buy anyway but half price (tempting to go back and buy some more, hmm), and then treated myself to a feather duster. Hopefully that'll help keep things look a bit more sparkly around here.

Mr M came back from the shop this morning with a selection pack of mini pain au chocolat & croissants - 15p! We thought we'd head back to see if they had any more before we came home and found they'd reduced them all to 2p! We bought five packs. So that's the freezer full of breakfast treats for the princely sum of 10p, should keep us going for a fair amount of 2014. In other happy news, I found 20p on the bus! That'll join the change jar, need to remember to bank that next week, it's getting quite heavy.

Christmas was good but tiring, so happy to now be in front of the TV doing nothing but selecting what treat to eat/drink next. Lots of seeing people and incessant chatting for the past few days - was at neighbours all afternoon on Christmas Eve (which was lovely, so lucky to have them!) then yesterday was all family here, there & everywhere. So unused to being so social, definitely having a rest day tomorrow before our day trip on Saturday. Hoping to kick back and read some of the lovely books that Santa brought.

I got so many random and unusable gifts though... eBay here I come. It's seriously making me think about what I probably inflict on people as well, eek. I don't know why people keep buying me huge ceramic kitchen objects though, especially when I live in such a tiny place? Madness. And then vouchers, why do people do it?? Surely you might as well give cash at that stage? It's always such a faff to have to deal with all this stuff... I'd rather people didn't bother. Might have to send out a plea next year to stop this insanity.

Things I need to do/check out & make the most of....!

• Cath Kidston Sale - have about £65 in vouchers! (had a big bday this year)
• Use Nectar Points for Mr M's bday? Argos Sale etc?
• What other sales to check out for Mr M's bday?
• SIL birthday
• FD Account
• Switch Energy
• Find someone to buy vouchers off us that we can't use(!)

Pearla*Merle

The weather outside is frightful... :eek: The rain seems to be coming at us from every direction, so happy to be tucked up inside. There's mention of going out to the pub tonight to see a friend, I'm not currently convinced it's going to happen(!)

Today I will mostly be constructing that present list and looking through pinterest for crafty ideas. Then doing a stock take of the cupboards and writing up some meal plans. A listacular day ahead then.

Forgot to say yesterday, the reason we were looking for plates is that we could do with some that have borders (if you know what I mean), to control portion size. We're quite good at weighing out some foodstuffs, but it's so hard not to just fill up the plate. In other meal-news, I was going to take out some roast veg and a mystery packet of what I thought was stew, luckily I realised in time that it was the sticky toffee pudding I'd made the other week, that would have made for an interesting dinner. Really must get better at labelling things. :rotfl:

PS. Mr M found something amazing last night, a free Learn a Language app/website called Duolingo, it's so good/possibly addictive. It lets you track your progress and set yourself goals, it even tests your pronunciation! I did a German course ages ago, it was so much fun have a little refresher, I really must stick with it and do a little every day. They've got French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese courses on it as well. Such a great resource, love the internet so much sometimes.

apple_muncher

Go girl, with your listacular day planned!

Pearla*Merle

Halfway through the cupboard inventory, stopping for a much needed mince pie. Started to write up a bit of a meal plan as well, so far have found a few odd things kicking about and with the purchase of an additional ingredient here or there I'm going to try my hand at Cuban Black Bean Soup, Yellow Split Pea & Frankfurter Soup and Spoonbread with some sort of BBQy pork dish. I couldn't figure out why I'd bought malt vinegar and then I remembered the Spiced Pear Chutney, yum!

Plum cake, chocolate pear pudding, apple tart, a dozen lasagnes and about a million rice dishes are on the horizon as well. Lets just say I don't think we'll be going hungry any time soon. Definitely need to see how long we can go with minimal grocery spends, I can't keep avoiding all these tins in the cupboard, it's highly irritating seeing the same old things in there.

edinburgher

it's highly irritating seeing the same old things in there.

I find the same thing, but certain staples will always be with us.

I suppose the litmus test should be - can I think of two recipes to put it in? So chopped tomatoes are fine, but that goose pate really needs to get used up

Pearla*Merle

But Ed, what do I do if I have two jars of goose pate? :rotfl:

I just lost a big post ...and now Mr M has reminded me that we were going to go for a wander around the shops this afternoon. I will only spend vouchers and maybe a pound on some plastic tubs (batch cooking). Shall return anon and try and remember what on earth I was going to post about before...

Pearla*Merle

Such a busy few days, quiet night in tonight thank heavens! I quite like quiet New Years, I'm not really one for countdown crowds Have got Quality St chocs & a fridge full of booze, leftover Christmas crackers and I think I have some party poppers somewhere, think we'll survive somehow.

I failed spectacularly with no spending yesterday. And, erm, today. And the day or two before that. But all insane deals and/or stuff I needed anyway, so I'm not too fussed about it. I've probably spent more in the last few days than I have done in the last several months, that'll teach me for starting a diary on MSE.

Saturday I managed to wade through all the sales and resist temptation (apart from mistletoe fairy lights for £3.25, I'd wanted some for a few years but they were never under £15, so rather chuffed with that). A bit of a spendy day in all as we were making the most of travelling to another city for a concert in the evening, so lunch, dinner and a coffee stop were had but we haven't been out and about for ages so hey ho. Just need to remember that day trips are always easier in the summer with better weather; warm pit stops always trump picnics in the depths of winter. Sunday we were seeing family, had a quick wander around the shops with them and finally found some decent plates (seconds, and on sale to boot!), so we can retire our overly large, chipped ones for a while. We should, in theory, pay them off in no time with the amount of food we'll save thanks to better portion control. Might mean I have more energy too (I'm carbohydrate girl, eek), therefore more up for taking walks and less likely to take bus = more money saved?! :rotfl:

I was all up for hanging around the house yesterday, but we ended up going to the next town over and investigating the sales there. Quite profitable trip in the end, found some wintry tights and a whole bunch of presents for people next year - a couple of recipe books and some decorations, all around £3 each but everything was originally around £10+ I'll just need to put a little something extra with them (that I'll make) and that's a lot of people sorted. :T Probably only spent about £20 all in. We ended up hitting the shops again today (Mr M is seriously into bargain hunting...! And yet it's me that's found loads to buy? Ah!), we popped into Sainsbugs and I found a jacket in the sale (£10), which will do for spring (seriously needed one, so glad that's sorted) and then we found some festive cookie cutter sets that'd been marked down to 60p! Ended up buying six sets so that's another batch of presents done & dusted for next year Still haven't got my flipping plastic tubs though(!)

I managed to put together a great list of ideas of crafty things to make for presents the other day, so reminder to self: write up a post about them here sometimes soon so I don't forget/have easy access to them.

The house is a right sight, haven't really been here for days. Tomorrow we're off to Mr M's parents for dinner, but otherwise there will be a lot of lazing around interspersed with frantic tidying and washing various things.

Should probably think up some Plans of Action for 2014... maybe tomorrow! Happy New Year everyone! x _party_