Wednesday 15th January What Small DFW Things Will You Be Doing Today??!

Bobarella

Hi All

Wet & miserable here, the weather that is, Although I would also fit one of those descriptions today.
Checked my bank account to find that the bank had in their wisdom reversed the overdraft so we were showing as very overdrawn. Rang them & was told they were sorry, it would be put back & hopefully nothing will bounce.
Had a couple of suppliers hassling for payment today as well. Sigh.
Trying to think of a good thing to post, but even poor OH text me to say he'd had a mishap at work with his lunch whilst taking it out of the micro & hence had to go without today, no money in his pocket to get an alternative.

Off to do the soggy school run.

Bob

Decluttering

I'm going to join in today, usually I just lurk but I think interacting with some people might spur me on a bit!

Today so far I have agreed to some dogsitting work for a neighbour, they usually give me free rein to eat the contents of their fridge, watch their DVDs and use their TV so it'll keep me out of trouble for a couple of weeks.

Now I'm trying my best to stay indoors and not go on any websites where I can buy anything - firstly because I don't need anything and more importantly because I have a lot of Uni work to catch up on and it'll only grow the longer I leave it!

Hope everyone's days go to plan.

determined_new_ms

Afternoon!:D Hurrah for hump day :T up with the larks (AKA dgd!)

My post didn't post this morning!

Perni lovely to see you back on the thread! I'm with you! No room for moping no matter what is going on, it doesn't help. A pound of worry never bought an ounce of anything!

DFW plans for today:

* checked banking
* updated ss with dd's & recent spends
* all meals from stores
* jacket spuds & tuna for dinner
* hang up 2 loads of washing before work
* had a free lunch at work
* going to sewing group tonight

Think that's all I'm going to manage to do today! Happy Wednesday everyone x

foxgloves

Hi SettingIn, Here's the marmalade recipe you requested. Just so as you know roughly how many jars to sterilize, mine made 5 big jars (think honey size), 7 of the half size jars & 2 tiny ones.
You need:
*2lbs Seville oranges (in supermarkets & on markets now)
*4 lbs ordinary white sugar
*Juice of 2 lemons
*4 pints water
*A packet of jam-pot covers (the waxed circles/cellophanes, etc)
*Square of muslin & piece of string (you can use a clean square of tea towel instead......I'm currently using clean IKEA muslin curtains cut into squares cos I don't like binning stuff off if it looks useful!)
HOW TO DO IT:
Wash the oranges. Cut them in half, squeeze out the juice, remove tough membranes & thick white pith, then carefully slice the peel into very thin pieces. Put any fruit pulp, juice & sliced peel into preserving pan. Save all the pips & some of the pith & membranes & collect on the muslin square as you go along.
Add the lemon juice to the preserving pan. Tie up the muslin square tightly with string to make a little bag & add it to the pan. (The pips & pith will help the marmalade to set). Now add the water. Bring the pan to the boil, then simmer for about 2 hours, gently, until the peel is very soft & the water has reduced by about half. (To test it, fish a piece out & rub it between your finger & thumb. If it's ready, it will just rub away to nothing). In the meantime, get your jars prepped. Wash in hot soapy water, rinse then lay them in a roasting tin & pop in a very low oven.....Gas 1 is plenty hot enough.
When peel is completely soft, remove the muslin bag & squeeze any juices inside it back into the pan. Add the sugar & stir to dissolve. Now bring it to a fast boil & boil it hard for around 15 mins till setting point is reached. (If you have a sugar thermometer, that's about 105 degC) If you don't, don't worry, it's easy to tell if jam/marmalade is ready. Drop a few blobs onto a clean plate & leave on a cool windowsill for a couple of mins, then push your fingertip across each blob & see if you can see a bit of a 'skin' wrinkling up. If not, keep boiling! Start testing after it's been boiling for about 8 mins & bear in mind that it can sometimes take a lot longer than 15 mins, so test every couple of mins until it's done. The other test is the 'flake' test....let some marmalade run off your wooden spoon to the last drop, which will start to drop off the spoon but will set mid-way. When setting point reached, turn out heat & skim any white scum off surface with a slotted spoon. Leave pan to cool a little for about 5 mins while you get your jars out of the oven. Give the marmalade a final thorough stir to distribute the peel. Now ladle it into your clean warm jars. A jam funnel is helpful for this but not essential....my Mum uses a little milk jug! Have a hot dishcloth ready to wipe the jars before you cover & label them. And that's it! Provided the jars were clean & sterilised & the marmalade's been covered properly, you'll be able to store this easily till next Christmas if you fancy tarting up any jars to give as presents. Hope this is helpful. I didn't know how much info to give because I didn't know if you were a new marmalade/jam maker or not. Hope it works for you, anyway. I love doing 'seasonal' things, so when the seville oranges appear in the shops, that's always a New Year sign for me.
Cheers,
foxgloves x

its_maths_not_magic

Evening lovelies

Well today has been a good day for not spending. Today I've:

1. Come here, keeping my motivation high and my mind firmly on saving money.
2. Cooked all food for today, very yummy veg burger and noodle dish for very cheap.
3. Starting making an emergency response checklist and have done my dog - so should anything happen to him in the future, I'll know what to do and have all pertinent numbers right at my fingertips.
4. Practiced my guitar.
5. Going to look for inspiration for my drawing.
6. Took said pooch for a walk in the forest.
7. Looked after my teeth.
8. Helped a sinus infection by irrigating my sinus cavity.
9. Had a no spend day.
10. Am going to find some good TV to download.
11. Am looking at getting my will drawn up for free or cheap as I can.

I think that's about it, happy hump day everyone.

SettingIn

Foxgloves, thank you so much, I will make some on Friday & report back.

Olliegami

Hello everyone!

It's been a pretty miserable day, but turns out those are pretty productive!

I ended up having dinner at work today. It was all day breakfast, how could I resist? The lady who works in the kitchen gave me two chelsea buns and some potato and cheese muffins that she made to bring home a freeze though, so that was awesome!

- Paid up my school dinner debts - £16.80 so it really wasn't a NSD.
- However, I got £211.26 back from the company who used to manage the property we live in!
- Breakfast and dinner from stores.
- Did some surveys and earned myself more money! =D I *could* cash out on MySurvey, Panelbase AND Opinion Outpost, but I'm going to hang on until the end of the month I think.
- Stuck some things on Z@pper! and I think I'm going to get about £22!

Hope tomorrow is less miserable, weather wise!

xJOJOx_2

Been a very long today! Hope everyone ok and your feeling better soon today foxgloves

Today I have

1. Checked online banking, all good
2. Walked to and from school (2 hour walk, nip into mil for brew whilst little one in nursery)
3. Tidied up whole house to keep on top of the new improved me
4. Organised bottom of wardrobe, so no junk and wrapped parcels only ready for when sold on eBay. (Another item listed today)
5. Free curry, coke and coffee from work
6. Nipped in garage for some fresh reduced veg, it's always getting marked down to 10p (a nice little discover) so chose what I wanted to go with tea and kept the frozen veg in stock
7. Used up some random spinach from freezer (trying to use up all the rubbish oh bought, that's why he's barred from shopping)
8. Found a connect 4 game (was going to be raffle prize for school but dd was ill so didn't send in) going to wrap this for a birthday party on sat, just need to get her to make a birthday card, then all sorted, hadn't planned birthday party in as forgot but pulled it back
9. Meal planned for next week, only need 3 things, so will add a couple off things to list just to keep on top
10. Empty shampoo bottle filled with water to get last bit out :-)
11. Put carrier bag into bin instead off bin bag, stops it getting smelly as not in as long and saves pennies on bin bags
12. Sister ordered a kindle book (we share same account as she's internet paranoid so I handle it all for her) so I now have another free book to read this evening
13. Didn't salt veg this evening, kept some aside and bleeder and froze for baby food
15. Found 3p on school run, every pennies counts :-)

Think that's all for today, night all x