I have lost my OS ways, help!

ginnyknit

Tata I use baby bath gel for everything in the bathroom, I did get 20 bottles at 9p so they lasted nearly 2 years. We only use bar soap for after gardening and when hubby has been building his model railway a 60 year old who still gets paint on towels!

MOS double up those vouchers hunny, free money doubled :j

3 nsd's apart from tissues for Dgs this morning. Cupboards and freezers groaning still, do need to buy granola for hubby but will get that tomorrow.

XSpender

Hi everyone I haven't posted for a little while though I have been reading. I have been preoccupied with the final stages of a job application process I have been going through the last week and a half which included 2 trips to London (I live in the NE). Pleased to say I got the job!


My OS ways are going to be put to the test as I will be away 2-3 nights a week and will need to ensure there are suitable foods in the freezer for DH otherwise he will live on sarnies! Good job DS has school meals and gets fed at DMIL!

tatabubbly wrote: »

Been busy doing OS shopping yesterday. Anyone give up shower gel for good old soap? Were I live shower gel is a ridiculous price, soap is so much cheaper so I'm gonna head back to soap bars and see how it goes!

I have just gone on to soap from sower gel and face wash. I only use S1mpl3 and couldn't find it on offer any where so bought 2 soap for 99p instead of 1 shower gel for £2. When my face wash ran out I thought I would try it on my face and I like it so no more face wash either.


I caught DH using my soap quite a bit so he has given it up to and I have bought 4 bars of Pure soap from Aldi for 89p to try.

moments_of_sanity

ginnyknit, going to have a look at the Te$co website today and see what i can find with my doubled up vouchers :-)

Xspender, my 18 yr old DD swears by Imperial Leather soap and you can normally get that for 99p for 4 bars.

Not a busy day yesterday, a quick shop at L!dl's, popped DH's time sheet off and popped into the fabric shop as I am making some Christmas place mats for a friend and needed a small amount of felt to finish them off, trouble is the cat has been asleep on it for hours yesterday and today so might have to finish the final one off tomorrow!

We have lovely sunshine here today but temps of only 8 degrees so I have hung some washing on the airer and put it out on the patio to try and get is dry or at least dryer before I have to leave it in the house.

Dinner today is roast beef, a small 320g piece so hoping that will be enough for 2 of us once cooked, might do some extra veg 'just in case'. House has been hoovered and the dusting has been done so going to sit down with a nice cuppa and a value mince pie (I don't like deep filled so the value ones are perfect).

Hope you all have a lovely OS day and Caterina, I hope you are having a wonderful break in Italy x

moments_of_sanity

Morning All,

I finally managed to remove the cat from the felt so have now completed all 14 of the Dresden plate mats I have made for a friend. She paid £5 per mat and the material for each one cost me £2.80 per mat, excluding my time. Each place mat took me about 5 hours so in terms of payment, I got about 44p an hour! :rotfl: I did enjoy making them to start with but they are so fiddly and sooooo much sewing that I have said i won't be making any more for a while!

Today I am going to try to finish my DD's BF's advent calendar as she is back in a week and a bit and I want to be able to give her it to take back to her BF. I also have a Christmas stocking to make but that isn't as urgent (yet). I also have an Owl doorstop 3/4's finished, I just need to find something to put in the bottom of it to weight it down. I think I need to make a New Years resolution to only have one project on the go as when I get too many I end up doing nothing as my brain can't cope! :rotfl:

DH has had a weekend of being poorly with a cold and sore throat but he has had to go to work today as he is a temp and the only one working at the moment. I feel so bad not being able to work and bring in some money, 2 years ago I was working as a Personal Assistant earning £22k so losing my salary was a huge loss. Hopefully my CFS Fybromyalgia will settle and I can go back to working at least part time to help out. This is also the reason I have so many 'projects' on the go, I start them and then can't finish them for weeks due to being unwell.

Wishing you all a lovely OS day x

tatabubbly

Gah, what a waste of an afternoon!! Got a call this morning about a job interview and I managed to duck out of work an hour early, only to find out that the interviews were cancelled, half an hour before hand!! Very annoying! And meant I had to get a taxi there and back again! What a waste of money!!

Anyways, got some lettuce and tomatoes on the way home so I won't have to pay for any lunch this week. Hoping it will do for OH as well.

A tad annoyed that I can't download YNAB on my iPad as I don't have a computer anymore! Would love to try it out and see if it helps me at all save some money!

Still haven't been to the charity shop to pick up some reads but there is a wee jumble sale on at the weekend in the gym beside me so I shall be going!! I also need egg cups and for the life of me, they aren't available here! Gah! So annoying! How else does one eat hard boiled eggs? Lol!

moments_of_sanity

tatabubble how annoying and out of pocket too! :mad: let's hope the reschedule is sorted out for you soon.

I managed to get all of my Christmas sewing done yesterday, 2 Dresden plate table mats finished off, 1 Advent calendar & 1 Christmas stocking for DD1's BF and DD1's doorstop Owl finished off, I needed to use a 1kg bag of rice to weight it down but it looks really good now. DH laughed at me using a bag of rice, heknows how twitchy I get if my stock of rice falls below 5kgs and I now only have 4kgs! :eek:

Today will be a much quieter day as worn out from yesterday and very very achy, still have 2 loads of washing to do though and as we have rain forecast tomorrow, I need to get it out on the line and dry especially as I have DD's king size bedding! I had my Approved Food order yesterday and I managed to get 60 x 40g of Percy Pig pink porridge at a cost of 99p so that is breakfast sorted for me for the next few months and less than 2p a serving! :j

Not sure what dinner will be tonight but have a feeling it will be something very simple, egg and chips possibly as not got enough energy in the tank to stand for any length of time. I am sure DH won't mind as long as I add a burger/sausages/bacon and I have all of these in the freezer.

Wishing you all a lovely OS day x

Caterina

Hello all,

Ginny, thank you so much for keeping the Home Fires burning!

Tatabubbly, I still have some shower gel from my time of getting redeemable goods for my Aveda treatments, now long in the past but I had so many that I have shampoo and shower gel for a long time. However it is used mainly by DH and DS, I use soap most of the time and when the gel is gone it will be soap only. Re. cancelled job interview, how annoying! I hope that you get it when they reschedule it.

MOS, thank you for your good wishes for my holiday, and I am sorry to read about your collie being ill too like the other one, I hope they are not in too much discomfort, poor loves. Also I hope your DH is feeling better now.

Villagelife I salute you for your effort in increasing your NSDs and will try to follow suit. I definitely need to stay low on the budget now!

XSpender, many congratulations on your new job! I hope you will enjoy it and I am sure your OS skills and organisation will see you through sucessfully, having to be away from home and planning in advance.

I just got back and am very happy to be back home, although I had a really good time. I spent time with my family but also time out and about with DH. The weather was fab, warm and sunny and we both ate far too much, so from tomorrow it is DIET!!! But it is always lovely to get back to my own home.

I am pleased to announce that we have stayed bang on budget, in fact we came back with 10 Euros in the wallet. Even the gifts and flowers came within this budget. But we had a bit of an expense, I had promised DH that I would buy him a wedding ring in Italy as gold seems to be less expensive. He had lost his after leaving it in a gym and never finding it and really wanted one, so we got him one. In the evening we went out with my Aunt and cousin to celebrate our wedding anniversary, which had been in September but any excuse to take them out was ok, so we paid for the meal too, these two expenses were on the credit card, and planned to be out of our daily budget. But the credit card still needs to be paid! So, from now on, frugal lifestyle ahoy!

Luckily I have come back to a lot of bits and pieces of mystery shops, tomorrow one, then a few more in the next few days and then a bit more babysitting coming up. I am sure we will be ok.

Lovely to be back on this thread too, it was great to read about your adventures while I was away.

Have a good OS evening.

moments_of_sanity

Caterina lovely to see you back here again. Sounds like you had a wonderful time in Italy with family and friends. Lovely to get your DH a new wedding ring, is there anyway you can secure it to him, maybe like the small children who have gloves on a string? :rotfl:

DH is recovering but we all know how bad man flu can be! Both dogs are well, on painkillers and running around like mad things.

I made the Christmas cake today as time is running away from me, just waiting for it to cool down and then I can wrap it up and put it away for a few weeks until I need to add more alcohol. DD has just text me to say she has filleted her fish for dinner and she is going to dissect the head, organs and spine! I am sure this isn't part of her Uni vet curriculum! :rotfl:

Have a lovely evening all x

Caterina

Good morning,

Thank you MOS! Re wedding ring, he lost it by forgetting it at his martial arts class and we are sure it got nicked by the caretaker, the same thing happened to his teacher. You would think that if someone found a wedding ring on the windowsill they would have the decency to hand it in. Fat chance.

Good to be posting again. Even a short break seems to destabilise me these days, am getting to be very attached to my habits, maybe this is what getting old is all about! But OMG it is sooooo good to sleep in my own bed!

Anyway, here is my OS plan for the day:

Hoping for it to be a NSD if I can do all my moving about on public transport (as I don't pay for buses and tube - DH is TfL employee). Getting up in a mo to do breakfast and DH's packed lunch, then off to do a mystery shop, optician visit so nice and easy I hope.

Then if time permits I would like to take a zumba class, then quick lunch at home. Later, meet friend, then a bit of home tidying, undo luggage etc, cook dinner, then babysit.

I am planning to knit during my babysit, start the front of the jumper.

Have a good OS day, it's good to be back!

bellaquidsin

Welcome back Caterina I hope you had a good break. You seem to have an incredibly busy life for an 'old 'un'.


My life is mostly spent in the home paring everything down to the bare bone which is eye wateringly uninteresting hence the reason why I don't post very often. For the most part what I am doing each day is what I did the same day of the previous week.


However things may be about to change. We are thinking of moving into a retirement village. It will take all our money but then allegedly everything we need will be provided. For example we will pay a set amount for heating and lighting which is there whether we use it or not. I cannot imagine at the moment hurling my towels into the tumble drier and I don't think I will ever loose the habit of switching the light off when I leave the room. There will not be space to stockpile as I do now and the freezer space is minimal.


I wonder if anyone has experience of retirement village living? Perhaps I should start a separate thread but I'll wait until we have talked over the finances with the powers that be next week.


Bella.