I have lost my OS ways, help!

Caterina

Good morning,

Ginny thanks for the quidco info, I did not know that Amazon was on that, it must be a new thing. I try not to buy from them if I can avoid it, because of their horrid treatment of staff, but sometimes buying from them is just the easiest way, much to my shame.

DH is still under the weather and not going to work, so in a minute I shall get up to make some breakfast and bring it to him in bed.

This morning I have a babysitting for a couple of hours, then back home to make lunch and perhaps iron a couple of shirts. If DH is out of bed I might even change the bedding.

Then work with the boys, back home to sort some dinner then babysit the girls. Not much time to myself, but never mind, I will have very little work in a couple of days when the boys go away for their long Christmas holiday, so am making hay while the sun is shining!

Have a good OS day.

amandaatnumber7

Hi everyone,

I've just been catching up on the thread, its been a crazy few days around here.
I hope your feeling better now Cranky and Mr Caterina is also

I feel like all I've been doing lately is spend spend spend,, groceries, xmas shoppng, bday pressies, medicines... money money money Argh!!!

Not a single nsd amongst them

New week and officially the start of summer here today and its turned out to be a nsd :dance:

I had a girlfriend over for a catch up today and served a mini buffet for lunch with what I had in the fridge.

DS2 and I have start putting the Christmas decs ups, he's three and soooooo excited for xmas and it's contagious lol

Our finances are not looking to healthy atm though and I have to admit I'm a little worried as I still haven't bought all the xmas pressies yet or any of the food. Plus our eldest sprung on me that he needs money for an end of year excursion!!

I've been selling a few bit on gumtree and face book buy and sell to put in the kitty but I think Hubby and I are going to have to sit down and do some sums

DS3 has been feeding heaps today so I'm thinking for tea it'll be baked potatoes with left over chilli

Hope everyone is having a lovely OS day

moments_of_sanity

Caterina, I hope Mr Caterina starts to feel better soon. How lovely to get lunch with your DS.

Amandaatnumber7, I know what you mean about money running away with you. Even though I never seem to spend a lot on Christmas December always seems to cost me more. My DD19 has requested that we don't put the Christmas decorations up until she comes back next Saturday (for me, that is still too early).

Saturday evening was disappointing in terms of the event we went to. It certainly wasn't as billed, much smaller, less Christmas stalls to look at and fewer Ice sculptures than we thought but it was lovely to get a couple of hours with my DH as we never seem to get 5 mins together

DH's employment becomes permanent in 2 weeks time which is fantastic after temping since 2011.... The down side is, we go from weekly pay to monthly pay and although I know we will be fine, I can feel myself getting tense about it all. January is going to be the worst month as we will get pay on the 31st December but then nothing until the end of January. Still, I have a freezer full of food and will only need 'top up' items so it should all be fine in reality.

Not sure what we will have for dinner tonight as I really don't have any motivation today, need to get my thinking cap on!

Today's chores will be more washing, hoovering downstairs and dusting. Once all my jobs are done I will carry on with a bit of stitching.

I hope you all have a lovely OS, possibly NSD x

joedenise

Used the Morries voucher yesterday to buy some stew veg and am planning on prepping and freezing in meal sized batches for use over the next couple of months.

Although it takes quite a bit of time peeling and chopping the veg it certainly saves time in the long run when I want to make a stew I just have to take a bag out of the freezer the day before and defrost overnight and then chuck in the slow cooker, add some meat if having a stew or just leave as is and have a soup.

Denise

Caterina

Good afternoon,

Amandaatnumber7, I am sorry you have these money worries, it is difficult, especially under the pressure of Christmas. We are all here to support you and if you need ideas re. cheap menus etc, the forum is full of great resources. Best wishes for a productive talk with your DH and I hope things will improve. It is so sweet that your little boy is so excited about Christmas, it makes all the difference when you have little children, then Christmas is all about their joy.

MOS, lovely news about your DH's permanent employment! Of course you would feel nervous going from weekly to monthly, but as you say, you got stocks of food, so the basics are covered. And you have a roof over your head. And it is an OS head, so you will be ok, I am sure!

Joedenise, did you have any troubles from the cashiers at Morrys? I had one that made her own rules, said that the whole £10 had to be spent in the veg department in order to get the discount. Luckily I stuck to my guns and eventually another cashier intervened and told her that it is incorrect! But I was silly as I understood that you have to spend £10 PLUS the £5 worth of veg, so I spent £15 to get the discount. Never mind, it was all stuff I needed anyway.

Thank you all for your kind wishes about Mr Caterina. He is on the mend, still not well enough for work but he is up, and even put the bedding in the washing machine! He won't be back into work until at least Wednesday, but you know what, he gets like this because he overdoes it, he works himself into illness, refuses to see the signs and then crashes hard - always the same. I am almost glad he has this bad cold so he has a reason to slow down and rest a bit.

I did my babysitting this morning, nothing much to do as the baby slept, so I made a leek and potato soup for the family.

Back home, lunch was jacket potato with hm baked beans and a Chinese leaf and grated beetroot coleslaw in mayo. Nice!

Shortly it will be time to go pick up the boys, so I am going to go and make another pot of tea for all.

Have a good rest of the day.

joedenise

No problem with cashier over the voucher. I actually spent just over £13 but that did include over £7 for an extra large chicken which has gone into the freezer for Christmas dinner - we don't like turkey particularly! The leftover chicken always gets used in a variety of ways for Boxing Day onwards, including cold meats & salad, curry, risotto etc some of which will end up back in the freezer to use during January so always a good buy!

Denise

katkin

Ock I missed that Morries veg voucher :mad:

Really nice to read through your posts here - its such a lovely supportive thread. Caterina you are doing a fantastic job keeping us all going. Many thanks xxx

I've managed to baton down the hatches with my budget this month putting away £600 savings than the usual £200-£300 (unemployment and redundancy looming in the next 4-6 months ). However, the car has been playing up and its going into the garage tomorrow. It's a bit open ended in terms of how much it will cost, but we need a car just now. My job relies on it.

Money has been tight but I've done well with shopping and menu planning so all is well there. Now onto researching ways to cut our mobiles and internet costs down. The rest of our direct debits are as low as I can get.

What I'm not getting on with is the laundry and housework. I'm so behind on everything I feel like I'm constantly chasing my tail...

Ho hum, maybe I should lower my expectations. I'm so very tired and demotivated right now which isn't helping.

As for Xmas, can I hibernate through it please?

greenbee

katkin wrote: »

As for Xmas, can I hibernate through it please?

As long as I can too :cool:

I've been tired and demotivated recently. And then realised that with the shorter days I'm getting less exercise, so I've fixed that and changed my day around so I can run during daylight. Hopefully I'll see the benefits soon.

katkin

greenbee wrote: »

As long as I can too :cool:

:cool: So its not just me!

My kids are grown up and I loath the commercialism of Xmas. It's a real non-event for me as I'm not Christian. My body and mind wants to hibernate to prepare itself for longer days and being outdoors more lol.

I've been tired and demotivated recently. And then realised that with the shorter days I'm getting less exercise, so I've fixed that and changed my day around so I can run during daylight. Hopefully I'll see the benefits soon.

Yes, you are right. I'm hardly getting any daylight or exercise just now and its really getting me down. My days are spent indoors. The weekends are dark, wet and putting me off going for longer walks and just generally getting out and about. Knowing its going to be like this until March / April is really depressing

I need to get to a swimming pool

amandaatnumber7

Thanks Caterina
I do love this site and everyone is so kind, already I have found loads of great recipes and hints.
Its our first xmas with 3 children and although the littlest doesn't need anything I still find myself wanting to buy for him and my eldest who is almost 14 is so hard to buy for!
I haven't spoke to hubby yet as he was in a mood last night but its on the cards for this week sometime

I've got few more thing to try and sell so hopefully that will go well and its a bit more in the kitty and I'm going to cut back on the groceries over the next couple of weeks and put what's left out of my budget away for xmas dinner and DS1's bday as that is a week after xmas

Right I'm off to do a bit a of house work and a food inventory
Have a lovely day