I have lost my OS ways, help!

moments_of_sanity

Hi Caterina and all other OS followers. Caterina, a belated Birthday wish for you wonderful DH, I hope you had a lovely meal out.

Been AWOL for a bit as health got worse for a few days but am now trying to catch up on the outstanding jobs. I have the airer outside the back door directly in the sunshine so hoping it will dry before I bring it in, I would have used the washing line but the lawn is still rather muddy so didn't want to chance it. I have the oven racks in the cleaner bags with the cleaning fluid and will leave them there until the morning. The base of the oven is also getting the same treatment, has pot holder thingys from the top of the cooker are in the dishwasher and glass bit out of the oven currently soaking in hot water and will them clean it. I don't use my big oven very much so I am very surprised at how grubby it is! :eek:

DD1's halls finally accepted the Doctors letter and have allowed her to move home so she is very relieved and the change in her is lovely, she now wants to get out and do things, doesn't even mind walking 10 mins to Uni which before was more than she could be bothered to do, funny how stress affects you isn't it. This move has had an impact on our finances though as she eats very well (can't complain at that really), gets through milk like we own our own cow and quite what she does to get through so many toilet rolls is beyond me. I did manage to pick up a few of the half price chicken thighs from L!dls at the weekend, a kilo for £1.32 which makes each chicken thigh about 17p each

I am trying not to get too worked up about our mortgage as the stress makes me worse but can't help wondering if I will be able to go back to work anytime soon so that we can make it a repayment instead of interest only, maybe I will need to play about with our finances over the next couple of weeks and see what additional payments I can make

Right, enough time spent looking on the computer and watching 'Ice Age 2'................do 17yr old DD's ever grow out of kids films? :rotfl:

Have a lovely OS day all

CyclingLondonSaver

Evening all! Apologies for my few days absence, been pretty busy.

Not been very MSE or OS over the last few days. Today in particular I had to buy train tickets - came to just over £40 :eek: I am going to see if work will reimburse them as its work-related, but I highly doubt it. If not, I shall have to scrimp and save elsewhere.

Also had to get a Valentines card today - need to pick up a present at some point this week too! Expensive week for me.

Edit: Just transferred £100 to my savings and I've crossed the £22000 mark. Really pleased

Caterina

Sorry for long absence, popping in to say hi and check with all of you, will be back tonight and will post a bit longer. Hope all is well with everybody and that we are still all on the OS bandwagon! See you later all x

Caterina

Good evening,

Here I am, after a good few days MIA. Life gets a bit stressful sometimes and I don't manage to catch up.

Ailz thank you for sharing the gardeners measurement, it sounds like a very sensible way and very OS too!

MOS Belated thanks for your belated birthday wishes for my DH, sorry to read that you are not well, I hope that when you read this you are better. I am very glad that your DD is happy at Home and that finally the Dr letter obtained a result, and so it should.

CyclingLondonSaver don't worry about the odd non-OS day, we all have those, today I spent nearly £7 in magazines, I was feeling down and needed a quick pick up and distraction. Not wise. But not the end of the world either, tomorrow is another day! Rather, congratulate yourself and be proud for your savings, well done!

I had a few manic days, with childcare, mystery shopping and general busy times.

I had a disaster today, had to throw away a big pan of plum jam in the making, I had cooked the plums a few days ago and left them in the pan. So they were in urgent need to be turned into jam. I started cooking them with sugar, then as they boiled away I thought the pieces were too big, so I decided to use the hand blender, only to hear a lot of crunching noises, and ended up crunching the stones (which I had forgotten to remove) into shards. I did not trust sieving it, so it was all thrown away, more than 2 Kg of good jam. I was so upset I cried about it.

I have a couple of Kgs of quinces which I might turn into jam tomorrow for consolation.

Some you win some you lose. I am so stressed at the moment that I don't always think clearly, as demonstrated with the jam disaster.

I am really looking forward to our planned trip to Yorkshire this weekend, I hope we manage to relax a bit. Even if DH will have to do most of the driving as I hate driving on motorways.

Good night.

sashanut

Oh Caterina don't worry about the jam - it's just one of those things that happen....for my Christmas hampers I made HM Lemon Curd, then thought, well I have loads of mandarins, I will make some festive Mandarin curd. What a disaster, it was foul & I had to chuck all that butter eggs & fruit. Our family never got any lemon curd as I had to put that in the hamper instead, I'm still getting stick for it...


I'm insanely jealous of your quinces, I have never even seen one let alone have enough for jam..


So you are visiting Yorkshire? Dare I ask whereabouts?

Caterina

Hi Sashanut, thank you for your kind words of consolation, sorry to hear about your curd disaster.

I buy quinces in the Turkish shop, in Lewisham, South East London. Where are you? Can you not order any online?

Check this link, it might be on interest: http://www.realfoods.co.uk/product/21504/organic-quince

I shall be staying near Doncaster, with DH's relatives, but will travel out every day, we hope to pop into York one day and on the coast for real Yorkshire fish and chips (unbeatable!) on another day. The last day we will travel south via Manchester to visit some OS friends of mine.

I really hope that the weather will treat us well.

villagelife

Not posted this week as on Monday we had to take my dog to the vet to be put to sleep. Her back legs had collapsed on Sunday evening and hadn't recovered by Monday. Both boys came home from Uni to come to the vets. She had had a good day on the Sunday as she spent it in the garden in the sun with us.

I'm going to be keeping myself busy as the house seems so empty.

Caterina

(((((Villagelife))))) I am so sorry about your dear pet, you must all be devastated. She is in peace now, free of pain and playing on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge.

Thinking of all your family xx

moments_of_sanity

Villagelife, so sorry to hear about your dog but so glad your boys were able to get back and say their Goodbyes and give you some much needed support.

Caterina, I could well be sending my DD on a mission to the Turkish shop you mentioned as I would love some quinces :rotfl: I hope you have a lovely time in York, I have been once but it was only a flying visit as we travelled through.

I have managed a couple of very quiet days and have only just got up now after spending 14 hours in bed, I know it can't be helped but I do feel extremely guilty and am cross at the time I have to spend resting....their are so many things I would love to be doing like getting out of the house and seeing something other than these 4 walls, pottering about in my greenhouse (I could easily lose a few hours in their on a sunny afternoon) :mad: My DD1 has had some cheques arrive for her so I might try and get to the town today and pay them in, it is only a 2 mile drive and we can park in our town centre so I should be able to manage.

I am going to have to rethink how long I use my heating for, we have a bedroom extension over our garage and it gets really cold in our room (not that I mind as my internal thermometer isn't working so I don't feel the cold at all but it's not fair on everyone else), so I have been putting the heating on at 8.30am in the morning and switching it off at 4pm, this heats the room to about 17 degrees through the day. Got our bill for last month and the combined gas and electric is £131, I haven't put it on this morning and our bedroom is 12 degrees and our living room is 15.9, far too chilly for everyone here but short of wrapping them up in lots of layers, I don't know what else to do!? Do you think timing it to come on and off for a few hours/an hour morning and late afternoon may help?

Caterina

MOS at the moment any of the Turkish shops both in South or North London will have quinces, it is smack in the middle of the season.

Sorry you still feel unwell, don't feel guilty, I hope you feel stronger soon.

Thank you for your good wishes about our break.

Am off now, see you all in a few days x