I have lost my OS ways, help!

Caterina

Good evening,

Update for the day: the tai chi was lovely in the sunshine and the teacher showed me more chi gung exercises, not that I remember much, mind you, but will try. I hope it does not rain tomorrow so I can do another lesson. If rain, I shall try to practise at home.

Babysitting was lovely too, the baby is gorgeous. Very calm and full of smiles. The 4 hours went very quickly, pity that it was only a one-off, as the mother works part time. But she will want me for some evening babysitting, which is ok. Another family has contacted me so there is more work coming my way, hopefully.

No allotment after work as I was tired, but I cooked a super cheap, delicious and simple meal tonight, which we all enjoyed very much: chick pea and chestnut soup. The original recipe hasn't got other veg but I only had a handful of chestnuts so added some kale, squash and a carrot. It was almost free, because the chestnuts were foraged, the squash and kale from the allotment. The chick pea tin cost me 25p and between carrot, onion and oil I could not have paid more than 30p (that much because it was olive oil). The herbs were also free from the garden (sage and rosemary). The bread for the men was from a YS loaf out of the freezer. 60p in total for the three of us.

Apple (free apples given by a friend) and rhubarb (from allotment) crumble with oats and coconut oil, served with (AF) custard made with hm hazelnut milk. Oats, coconut oil, sugar and hazelnuts could not be much more than £1 in total, so overall a very cheap meal, and it was delicious, the hazelnut milk custard tasted a bit like Nutella, yummy!

I babysat in the evening as well, so got a little more cash. I have now enough cash for DH to pay his 12 weeks bootcamp from next week. And some leftover cash to do a market shopping and get beer for the men next time I go to L1dl.

Edited to say: last but not least, today was a NSD.

Good night.

tatabubbly

Hi all!! Quick update before I head out to play some football, however badly ��

Really wanted to count my change jar for my not - so sealed pot challenge and proud to say I'm only €25 away from my goal! Absolutely thrilled with that and it means I'm going to change it to our local currency and keep it stashed to pay for the wedding singer!!! Thinking now if I put my mind to it between this November and next September I could have the same saved and something else nice paid off! (Perhaps the photo booth we were going to have?)

Anyway, as well as that I am saving up for a very special present for my OH for our wedding and trying to reach my target ASAP so I can have it stashed away for him! So far, €67 outta €6000 so my target.. It's not a OS purchase and I know I'll get berated for it but I'm gonna give him his dream..

Other than that, a small spend today for lunch. Planning on making some pasta tonight to take into work for lunch tomorrow and have a NSD. Two more days left of this week and then I'm off till Monday! Wages should be hitting the bank on Thursday and hopefully I should see a great increase due to my promotion recently! Well that's all lovely folks..

Hope you are all keeping well!

moments_of_sanity

A nice quiet day for me today. I have chicken stew in my thermal cooking bag so only 10 minutes of gas needed to heat and then 4 hours of free cooking. Dinner cost is going to be £1.49, £0.75 (ish) per person so very pleased with that.

My DD wanted an Owl doorstop for her Uni room so I have been making that today, I will give it to her for her Birthday next month and am sure she will love it. Not a NSD for me, eldest DD is interested in the First and Second World War and recently went to look at all the poppies in London and said she was really moved by it as it was so sad to think that every poppy represents a life that was lost and she said it just seemed to stretch on and on, so I have bought her a commemorative Poppy £5 coin (she is a collector of unusual coins too) and will give that to her for her Birthday, it was £5.00.& free postage and I know she will love it.

I have also melted all the 'dregs' of my burnt candle wax and made it into another candle and now have one that should last about 8 hours

Hoping to not need to go food shopping until Friday so the next few days should be NSD's.

Hope you are all well and no one has suffered any damage due to the high winds today x

northwest1965

It has been a while since I popped in.

My kitchen is finally finished and ready to use. Yay!:T

The meals I made have seen us through, along with the slow cooker. Not a takeaway in sight, so proud!

motomoto_2

Hi I'm a lurker !

I read that a few on here have had new kitchens lately. I am having my first ever new kitchen and would love any advice - where did you get yours and how did you find your fitter ? Is there anything you wish you had done differently. Does anyone have any advice / tips for me please ?

Thanks

Caterina

Good evening,

Tatabubbly good luck with saving for your wedding and gift to your OH, you are on the right path.

MOS the owl doorstop sounds lovely, your DD will be delighted I am sure. How do you make a candle with old bits of candle? We have quite a few of those. What do you use for wick, how do you keep it straight? Thank you.

Northwest1965 congratulations on getting your kitchen back and well done for managing without a takeaway!

Motomoto hello, good luck with your impending kitchen works. My advice is: research your builder very carefully. If I had to change one thing it would be:the builder. NEVER USE A FRIEND, whatever they promise!

Today I bought myself a gift (and the family of course, but it started from me), a mini hi-fi. I decided to look on Gumtree for one and what do you know, someone had just posted the perfect one for sale, easy reach on the Tube for collection. For the grand sum of £10! It is lovely, perfect for our kitchen. DS is also delighted.

Shopping this afternoon, spent £25 and need to update sig. Before that I met with a future possible babysitting client. With toddler so am not overjoyed, would have preferred a baby. But she is expecting so in the future I might have the baby while she gives quality time to the toddler. If I get the job, that is.

Late evening so I am hoping to sleep. Good night.

Caterina

Good evening,

Update on latest OS adventures:

Yesterday at the market, among other goodies, huge caulis, big bag of salad, tomatoes etc...I got a lucky strike of loads of punnets of raspberries that were being sold very cheap because of some of them having a few dots of mould. Not all of them, only a few each punnet, just like it happens in my fridge when I leave them for more than a couple of days. So I bought a dozen punnets for the grand sum of £2.

At home, before DS could spot me, I picked out all the bad ones, put them in the compost bin at the bottom of the garden so he could not see them (otherwise he would never eat the jam!) and put the fresh ones in a bowl, covered with sugar. I must have got 2 lbs of good ones.

This morning they were soaking in a lovely deep red juice, so I added a bit of water, a bag of pectin and a bag of sugar and now I have two humongous jars of freshly made raspberry jam. I don't eat much of it because of the sugar, but DH loves it for breakfast and DS as a snack on toast.

DS has taken to baking banana cakes, but he follows the fancy recipes that use loads of sugar and butter. They taste nice but ever so rich and heavy, so today I said that maybe next time we can use less sugar as bananas are sweet anyway. Instead of so much butter we could add just a few spoonfuls of oil and perhaps an extra egg for more rising power. He agreed. We also thought we ought to give Victoria Sponge a try, as we have so much raspberry jam now.

I also bought a few YSd packets of shortcrust pastry, so I might make an apple and raspberry jam tart soon, or even an apple and plum pie. I have apples in the freezer that need using and a bag of plums from my market trip, which I have already chopped and stoned while the raspberry jam cooked.

Today's L1dl shopping was good, £20 worth of food and £15 beer (the boys pay for it with their saved up change).

Dinner is going to be parsnip and cauliflower soup with chilli and fresh coriander, roast squash with feta, recipes adapted from MrT magazine, and a salad. DH can have a piece of banana cake too. I have already had too much!

Have a good evening.

moments_of_sanity

Caterina, I bought some wick and the metal base bits from Hobby Craft and cost £5.00 but I thought it was worth the investment. I clean out a jar and put all my little bits of was in it and then place it in a saucepan with an inch or so of water in the bottom and melt it down. If I a, feeling adventurous, I melt down each individual piece at a time and let that set so that I have a multi coloured candle. The wick has a waxy type coating and remains upright on it's own. I have a couple of candles burning each night so can easily have enough to fill another glass/metal candle holder with enough for another candle every 2 weeks or so.

It has been a very quiet NSD for me today, I managed a small piece of stitching but need to have a look at the best thing to put in the bottom of my DD's door stop, I am thinking rice with a little lavender oil?

Dinner was my favourite, egg and chips a very cheap meal for us both at 70p! :rotfl: I must remember to get the Mirror tomorrow for the Aldi £5.00 voucher and will then go shopping on Friday. I think I will start putting £10 a week away to go towards bulk buying of meat and see how that works over the next 2 months. Does anyone else do this?

Caterina

Good morning,

Thank you MOS for the candle instructions, please allow me one more question, do you put the metal base and wick in the jar with all the bits while the wax melts? BTW egg and chips is yummy, I should do that more often, but mostly we have egg for breakfast. Now that it is getting colder and I shall make porridge often, I can use eggs more for dinners.

Today I am meeting some lovely OS friends for a long awaited reunion after summer, so we will have some fish and chips in a local place, lovely and reasonably priced, then we will all come back to mine for tea and scones with my freshly made raspberry jam. If I can get organised I am going to make the scones, but if not I shall buy them.

I am going to text the woman with the toddler and say I cannot work for her as yesterday I hurt my back, not too bad but enough to make me feel uncomfortable, lifting a bag of rubble. I don't think I can lift a toddler or take a buggy up and down stairs. Also I cannot offer the continuity that she requires. Toddlers are not my favourite age and I am sure she would be better off with someone younger and more enthusiastic.

Ah well, pity as it would have been a bit more money coming in.

Have a good OS day.

moments_of_sanity

Caterina wrote: »

Good morning,

Thank you MOS for the candle instructions, please allow me one more question, do you put the metal base and wick in the jar with all the bits while the wax melts? BTW egg and chips is yummy, I should do that more often, but mostly we have egg for breakfast. Now that it is getting colder and I shall make porridge often, I can use eggs more for dinners.

Today I am meeting some lovely OS friends for a long awaited reunion after summer, so we will have some fish and chips in a local place, lovely and reasonably priced, then we will all come back to mine for tea and scones with my freshly made raspberry jam. If I can get organised I am going to make the scones, but if not I shall buy them.

I am going to text the woman with the toddler and say I cannot work for her as yesterday I hurt my back, not too bad but enough to make me feel uncomfortable, lifting a bag of rubble. I don't think I can lift a toddler or take a buggy up and down stairs. Also I cannot offer the continuity that she requires. Toddlers are not my favourite age and I am sure she would be better off with someone younger and more enthusiastic.

Ah well, pity as it would have been a bit more money coming in.

Have a good OS day.

Morning All

Caterina, i put the metal base and wick in place and then melt the wax. If you are melting a lot of wax in one go the wax can 'sink' around the wick but this isn't a problem I have encountered when doing them. I use different scented candles and it's lovely to have all the different smells in layers but equally when I am pushed for time and have done a whole melting session in one go, they have smelt equally as good. You can get the wick and bases from the land of Bay if you don't have a Hobby Craft near but I find it a little confusing knowing what size the wick is as they all seem to have a different way of measuring them! :eek:

Just back from an early morning shop at Tesc0's as DD2 is a vegetarian and a fussy one at that! The problem is, she isn't bothered by food and has no interest in it at all so would gladly go without. So I popped in as they had an offer on their Quorn lasagne's, £2.80 for 1 or 3 for £5 and as much as I hate spending that much on food I think it is worth it because she will eat them. I have tried cooking for her on many occasions and bought her a couple of second hand vegetarian books and a Good Food vegetarian magazine but nothing sparks her interest . She has virtually no sense of taste either so think this compounds the problem as it all tastes the same to her, we did take her to the Dr's about it but they said it was 'just one of those things'.

Dinner tonight will be home made sweet and sour pork with rice and will work out at £1.50 for 2 of us so a lovely meal for a small price.

Wishing you all a lovely OS and NS day