Sat 22/Sun 23 August - What small DFW things will you do this weekend?

allydowd

Just downloaded the free Despicable Me: Minion Rush App game for Kindle and got a £1 off Amazon Instant Video rental. Offer ends tomorrow.

foxgloves

Hello Weekend People,
Not much money saving activity here today, but not really been spendy either. Took all the cakes I baked along to the charity coffee morning first thing & it felt really nice that one of my cakes sold for £5 before it even got onto the cake stall! Yes, I bought all the baking ingredients, but for a good cause, helping people with a damn sight less that I'm fortunate to have, so did not resent a penny of it.
Well, for actual money saving stuff today:
*mr f volunteered to get the shopping & it came in at £10 under budget. Interesting, as this was last shop of the month. I cut our August grocery budget from £250 to £200 & we have spent £190. This includes quite a bit of sugar & vinegar in readiness for preserving season. So the £50 I top-sliced has stayed in the Car Fund, & we have £10 to carry forward to our BBQ next weekend. Meal planning & avoiding top-up shops are key for us.
*Swerved a pizza. Don't know why we both suddenly fancied one, but we decided to cook what we'd planned & open a bottle of wine & it was lovely. Take-away spend averted!
*Free coffees & a free 'Guardian' at Waitrose, plus a little piece of very upmarket pate for tomorrow's picnic, which we found right at the back of the YS goodies fridge :-)
*Won an expensive-looking branded mobile phone case on coffee morning tombola. I needed one & it fits my phone perfectly. 20p ticket. Result. Also bought a Christmas present on the charity shop stall. Can hardly bear to give it away (princely some of 50p).
*mr f gave me a 50p piece for my sealed pot. I'm not sure why he was overcome with such largesse & paid it in before he could change his mind!
*Free fitness clearing an overgrown corner of flower border. Planted up a few self-seeded plants.
*Watered veggies & rest of garden as stonkingly hot day here today.....needless to say we had a rain deluge an hour later.
*Picked courgettes.
*Planned a little no-spend day out for tomorrow - can get in free, will take a picnic & flask, so just the cost of 30 miles or so of petrol..
OK, well that's it, I think.
f x

foxgloves

Dawn - Sorry to hear your news. Always very sad to lose a pet. When our old cat had to be put to sleep last year, I reckon I must have cried every day for a fortnight. The place just doesn't seem the same without them, does it? As pet owners, we know we sometimes have to make that horrible decision, but it doesn't make it any easier.
f xx

foxgloves

DNMS - IS he indeed?? Then it's time to dust off my dodgy hormones & enjoy a bit of eye-candy. Should I be enjoying Viking loveliness at my age? Who cares? There's many a good tune played on an old fiddle..........
f x

maria3104

Hi All

Dawn, I feel your pain. I can not tell you how much we love our dogs. Ours are such lovely funny people!

Bob, love your day and your gorgeous weather. I got so wet turning out the chucks I had to shower and start again!. DS went to market with some fat lambs and was so wet that when he got home he showered and changed before shearing lambs bottoms for 8 hours. (He had put them in shed last night so they would have nice dry bottoms before their ablutions began:D)
I decided to help my friend go shopping in our big town so she could buy her son Uni start up supplies, so obviously I am now massively over grocery budget. But what a haul. What a magnificent pile of goodies.
Well after a marvellous day out I have massively exceeded grocery budget, but my cupboards and fridge are heaving with good things.

1st call £stretch £65 on but not only sugar for jam, it will work out at 10p a jar for raspberry jam, assuming the autumn raspberries deliver the goods!
Bisto, offer tins of mushroom soup etc etc. Boot was full.
2nd call Ald*s. £103. Including 2 bottles of port for DH £6, if left without he buys in town at £15! Likes them both the same. Also got 6 rib eye steaks to celebrate this week family event. Milk, cream and all the usual veg stuff and lots of butter to make blackcurrant pies.Also got a kilo of GB red tractor mince and have aldready made 2 lasagnes, already cut up and frozen in meal portion sizes. About 10 portions of spag bol sauce needs bagging and freezing. So for £7 will have about 30 meals.

Now I have done my first meal plan EVER, for the week ahead. Am interested to see if I actually stick to it and also whether it is a help, or a nuisance.

Tomorrow my plan is to batch bake using up egg glut and then batch cook pies for freezer. Everything is laid out ready for an early start,kitchen is cleaned, dishwasher is done, so off the bed now so I am fresh and raring to go.

Night all from a tired over spender. I can not tell you how much fun I have had today. The combo of being naughty, finding bargains, giggling as we bought friends DS cheap toilet rolls for student house was all too much for me. Had to have a McD lunch to recover equilibrium!:T

M

crazy_cat_lady

Morning all
Yorkshirelass - I would hang onto the vouchers and gift them. They aren't being missed.
Maria - £103 in Ald! is a magnificent achievement - glad you enjoyed your day.

The weather has picked up here after some tremendous storms last night - I am still massively skint so need another frugal day. This thread will keep me on the straight and narrow.
Get DS to football tournament
Make packed lunch for DS to save £
Meals from stores
Get tortie out of her cage for walking but no climbing
Do some exercise
Read my book
15 mins housework and declutter#
Tutoring (should make £25)
Find out if there are any post offices open today to post eBay parcels
Chill out a bit
Back later - have a good day all

YORKSHIRELASS

Morning everyone

Gutted. One of the Amazon gift certificates has been used and the other one has expired, it seems the plastic gift cards only last for a year. Ah well.

The joiner is coming to put my new kitchen worktops on tomorrow. Its a long story but we were lucky to be left a little inheritance, on the condition that we used the money on our dream of renovating our house. The kitchen is nearly done and we need to do the bathroom which is in an awful state. The money is fast disappearing though so we need to be careful. This means that I need to clear some of the kitchen today.

Other than that not much planned. Everyone else is fast asleep so I am just enjoying the quiet!

maria3104

Hi campers.

We have so much rain our TV reception has gone. So will not be on here long as I MUST watch gardnr wrld so I know what I should be doing this weekend if I had a lovely garden. I also would so miss my Nigel fix.

Baking kitchen is prepared and ready to go and my plan says 2 batches of flapjack should be in oven now. Can not think what has gone wrong, I am still in bed eating brekki and drinking tea! Am thinking about it so that is something.....but am not spending so that is something????
Have a lovely sunday all. I expect I will get going at some point.

M x

Bobarella

Bummer Yorkshire! With the expired one maybe they could extend it if you ask nicely?

Cat Lady - Have a good day today!

Maria - I did giggle somewhat at the sheep's bums thing, immature moi?

So this morning was rudely started at 5.45 when my son was woken by a fox barking outside his window. As it was so hot last night we'd all slept with the bedroom windows open. He thought it was some weird hawk or parrot. I can see why the hideous screech they make.
Anyway he was awake and so we're we. OH was able to go back to sleep but I felt awake for the day so got up anyway.
I decided to get ahead on some kitchen cleaning I've been wanting to do for a while. I took a tip from Ally I think and scrubbed the tops of my kitchen cupboard units with degreaser, then laid paper over them so next time I will just have to throw those away and not deal with dirty surfaces.

Next I made pancake batter and we've all just had 2 each with lemon and syrup.

I have planned today's menu & loaded my bike for the first errand of the day. I have clean cloths,frozen fruit, paper bags and coffee to get to the shop.
Later on I want to go to Mr S for some basics stock ups. Then gardening.

Questions for the lovely DFW gang today if I may

1. Do broad beans last over winter? I have one plant that son grew as a science project and it has died off now as in no more beans. Do I compost the whole plant or will it last if I bring it inside before the frosts?

2. I'm after a new academic calendar as ours (wall planner) runs out on the 31st so I can't plan anything! Best prices to get a new one?

Thanks guys

Bob

lego_mum

Morning all, another wet start to the day here, hopefully it will brighten up like yesterday afternoon.
Dh left me in bed this morning and I didn't get up until 9am - most unusual, must have needed it.

Breakfast has been ys crumpets for us all (mine topped of with wombled chocolate spread from tenants house )

Dh has been trying to fix our desktop comp this morning, its just in a recovery loop and not getting anywhere. It is very old but I was hoping that it would keep going. I've said I'll have a look at it tomorrow night when the kids are at karate when I can have a look in peace & quiet.

Going to finish my cuppa then its get the kitchen cleared before mr T delivery and then get ready for family coming over for Sunday lunch. Always nice to get together.
Bob, sorry can't help on your questions

So my little list to start with
:heart: Get washed/dressed
:heart: Make beds
:heart: Tidy fridge before delivery
:heart: Clean kitchen
:heart: Read with Ds2
:heart: Check luckyphone
:heart: Check fpl
:heart: Ring my sis with updated list for things to get using cos/shopit apps
:heart: Relax.....
I'll be back in a bit