Sat 11th/Sun 12th July - What Small DFW-style Things Will You Be Doing Today?

1HANNAH

Morning all, I will try and catch up on yesterday's posts in a min.

Hope everyone is having a nice weekend. We had a lovely time at my parents for the airshow yesterday but decided not to stay over for the 2nd night as none of us slept really well. (although ds1 did stay over) We came home put ds2 to bed then hubby put a film on from our stash, it was a lovely chilled night as I'd left the house spotless on Friday before we left
My parents are bringing ds1 home at lunchtime and we are going to have a full English breakfast for lunch as we didn't stay over
I've made American pancakes for breakfast, cooked a few extra to go into lunch boxes tomorrow too.
Ds2 has a swimming lesson at 11.15 but then hoping that the weather picks up so that we can get out in the garden this afternoon.
Mr T delivery booked for this afternoon just the essentials for packed lunches etc
I've started to write a list of the things I need to get done this week as its the last week of school. I've got to make sure I don't get sidetracked!


Todays small things are....
wear my glasses, have a break free daily disposable contact lenses
Swagbucks (claimed £5 yesterday )
check fpl/lucky phone
continue making my list of jobs
Check on o2 priority as looks like a couple of good freebies coming on tomorrow
Check spreadsheet
Reading with ds2
Read some of my library book


That will do for now.


Have a good day all

Bobarella

Maria - lol, I bet you are lovely and slim with all the work you do!

KayAnnie - oh gosh your poor mum must have wished the ground would open yes we always seem to get early fruit in our part of SE London. I wonder if it is because we are only 7 miles from the Kent border and they get good early fruit there too? Hard to say.

Hannah - your weekend sounds lovely. Yum to American pancakes!

Some small things done so far today.
1. Took 3 reciepts to Mr T a very short walk away to be added on. Does anyone know when the next points cut off is?
2. Uploaded a reciept to shoptize. It didn't have any of the offers on it but they give you 1p per entry for entering their win a kindle competition which you can do just by uploading a reciept.
3. Took the Mr T monthly customer survey for 25 points
4. Did the Sains your views survey for entry for a £500 shopping spree.
5. Paid £5 off CC2 (I earned a small extra amount from the party yesterday so may as well offer it to the gods of PAD)

Bob

Red-Squirrel_2

Hello all!

I don't post on here very often but I'm very pleased with myself this morning so hope you don't mind me barging in to share!

Its car insurance renewal time, and I've knocked £100 off last years premium, so pretty happy with that.

I've also cancelled my daft expensive AA cover for £16 a month and signed with Green Flag. £83 for the year for really good level of cover, but through Quidco for £50 cashback, so as long as that goes through it'll only be £33 for the year compared to nearly £200 a year for AA!!!

One less direct debit too, that's always nice!

Thanks, enjoy your weekends everyone!

determined_new_ms

Hurrah just back from the bootie and glad I went managed to get dgd a gap hoody in a lovely violet/purplish colour for £1. She's quite tall at 2 years. The top is 3yrs but will fit her lovely come autumn/winter :T

A lovely little swimming costume for 50p :T, a dress/top for me for £1 and a lovely photo frame for £1 still in the box. Need to decide whether to keep it for myself or put in the present stash box. And also a redcurrent plant for £1 :T

Then popped in to Morrisons and got a load of ys items or things that were on offer and then bumped into a friend who has a staff discount card so got a further 10% (£1.84) off :T so in the end managed to get meat for a further 5 meals, a 12.5 kg sack of potatoes for £1.25 :eek: (bag was ripped), 2 packs of puff pastry @49p e so have frozen 1 and am making potato, cheese & onion pasties & jam tarts for dgd's packed lunches during the week , cream (going to make eton mess and an apple crumble), bread and some other bits all for £16.59 :T

Must now not buy any further food until stores have run low!

After

determined_new_ms

Red-Squirrel wrote: »

Hello all!

I don't post on here very often but I'm very pleased with myself this morning so hope you don't mind me barging in to share!

Its car insurance renewal time, and I've knocked £100 off last years premium, so pretty happy with that.

I've also cancelled my daft expensive AA cover for £16 a month and signed with Green Flag. £83 for the year for really good level of cover, but through Quidco for £50 cashback, so as long as that goes through it'll only be £33 for the year compared to nearly £200 a year for AA!!!

One less direct debit too, that's always nice!

Thanks, enjoy your weekends everyone!

super duper MSE-ing there Red-Squirrel :money:

Bobarella

Red-Squirrel wrote: »

Hello all!

I don't post on here very often but I'm very pleased with myself this morning so hope you don't mind me barging in to share!

Its car insurance renewal time, and I've knocked £100 off last years premium, so pretty happy with that.

I've also cancelled my daft expensive AA cover for £16 a month and signed with Green Flag. £83 for the year for really good level of cover, but through Quidco for £50 cashback, so as long as that goes through it'll only be £33 for the year compared to nearly £200 a year for AA!!!

One less direct debit too, that's always nice!

Thanks, enjoy your weekends everyone!

Great work :T:T

maria3104

Hi All, especially new posters.

Red squirrel,awesome savings on car insurance and a good reminder to us all to check annually. Impressive.
Bob, you made me laugh out loud. Slim indeed!!! Hee hee still chuckling to myself. I look and feel 9 months pregnant, and that is on a good day! So funny.

Which reminds me, Kayannie, I think asked how yesterday went, well it was fabulous. My friend has 4 lovely daughters and they bought her a vintage afternoon tea in a big house for a birthday treat. It was stunning. The place had a range of gardens to explore, the gift included free parking and entrance. The tea tables were covered in old fashioned embroidered clothes, the tea sets were antiques but mismatched and quite charming. The strings trio played love music and were entertaining and the staff were very attentive and kept bringing us fresh pots of tea. Stunningly lovely. It has made me think of anyone in my family with a special event coming up to do as a gift. It really was lovely.

Am in a muddle over my blackcurrants, as not much of a gardener I have been so grateful to these things for growing and make them into jam. The crop is diminishing annually. I do prune them each year. I think I am attached to them. Maybe I should refer this to the Marie Kondo thread, who says we should thank things, and say goodbye if we no longer get joy from something. But, I am not sure if they still give me joy, probably they do.Hmmm, a puzzle.

Have a lovely sunday afternoon everyone.

Bob, get them feet up and rest.

foxgloves

Hi Bob - Yes, here's how to make cheesy lentil squares. It's a recipe I've been making for years & adapted from the old 'Crank's' vegetarian cookbook.
You need:
225g red lentils
450ml water
1 big onion
25g of butter or margarine or 1 tbsp of oil - whatever you've got, it doesn't matter.
2 tsp herbs of your choice - I like to use sage or rosemary & thyme, but use what you've got.
100g cheddar cheese, grated.
1 egg
25g breadcrumbs
salt & pepper to taste.

Thoroughly grease a shallow square baking tin, the sort you'd use for flapjacks or similar. Pre-heat oven to gas 5 (sorry I don't do electric ovens) Rinse the lentils & cook them in the measured water until soft & they've absorbed all the liquid. Meanwhile, chop the onion finely & cook in the butter or oil until transparent. When the lentils are ready, stir in the onion & all the other ingredients, seasoning well to taste. Transfer to your greased tin spreading it well into the corners. Bake it for about 30 mins. It should be quite golden but not dark brown on top. Cut into squares & serve hot or cold. We like it cold in packed lunches/picnics as it's very transportable & sustaining because I guess the protein/carb mixture in the lentils is quite slow release for energy..

Hope this is helpful.
f x

foxgloves

Kayannie - Thanks for the suggestion re family history websites. Yes, I do know about free use in most library authorities (I'm a librarian!) but it wouldn't really help me at the moment as the project I'm currently working on (I belong to an online group all researching families in the same part of a specific county) as I need to use it so intensively & library use of computers is quite rightly limited for fairness of access. I've successfully traced my family back to around 1715, but I'm now looking more widely at the origins/spread of the family name across a whole county. I love history though, so it's a great interest for me, & sharing research with the online group means we all benefit from each other's work. I don't live near the relevant record office which is over 150 miles away, but one of the online group members who lives nearby very kindly pops in & looks things up for us.
Thanks for thinking of me.
f x

foxgloves

Afternoon Campers,
Well a bit of a mixed day for money-saving today. mr f announced that as I haven't left the house for 2 weeks due to the flu, he was going to take me into town for a coffee. I did enjoy it, though I was so slow walking about. I'd give anything to have my energy levels back to normal....bloody flu! So here are the few things I've achieved:
*We found free Sunday parking - very rare in our town - I'm surprised we are not actually charged for merely driving through it!
*Filled coffee loyalty card with stamps so that's a nice free one for next time. Shared a cake to make our money go a little further.
*Needed a few toiletries from 'Superdrug'. Remembered to use the double loyalty points receipt voucher they gave me last time. My hot cloth cleanser was bogoff - nice surprise.
*Treated myself in the 'Monsoon' sale - a top I'd tried on twice before but couldn't justify paying £55 for was reduced to half price, so I had it. Also a long-sleeved black slinky top which will be great for Autumn, reduced to £5.70, which I thought was an amazing price. Found I'd got £1-50 left on an old giftcard, so used that to reduce bill a little more. I used to make some poor, impulsive decisions buying clothes pre LBM, but now I like things which are very versatile & earn their keep. The top I bought (a bit like a jacket) will be great over a black top & jeans, but I could also wear it over my 'going-out-black-dress' to the opera. If I buy well, I find I really get my money's worth out of clothes.
*Was not tempted by the reduced stickered section in Waitrose. Easy to buy just cos stuff is reduced, isn't it? There wasn't anything really that shouted 'bargain'. Picked up free 'Observer', free cappucinos & free very posh little tin of food for Cat though (courtesy of 'My Waitrose card') plus lovely treat as the florentines on the bakery counter had inexplicably been reduced to 5p each!!
*All free leisure today - we'd planned a trip up to North Yorkshire, but decided we'll wait until my energy levels are restored to normal - no point paying 164 miles round trip worth of petrol & I can't walk anywhere while I'm there. Am going to read, knit & have a gentle strolll around the garden with the secatuers.
*Plan food for Tuesday when I have guests.
*Make tomorrow's packed lunch & work snacks,
*We've swapped back to tins for cat food at the moment - the standard size tins which do 4 meals are much better value than the pouches. I think we got suckered into buying pouches because of the convenience of opening one meal at a time, but it seems to be a more expensive way to buy. Thought Cat might kick off, but he's loving the tins. Wolfed his breakfast straight down & was looking for elevenses again.....& twelvsies.......& most definitely ten to onesies. Have not caved in though.
*Water greenhouse veggies to keep those food crops coming - the rain showers have dealt with the rest of the garden today.
*Load washer for cheapo overnight laundry.
Enjoy the rest of the weekend, everyone.
f x