Five OS Pleasures in your day today

helyg

1. Apple chutney made with windfalls from a friend's garden
2. Showing my friend how to freeze green beans that she had been given
3. HM Cheese and onion pasties for OH's lunchbox tomorrow (and DD and I's lunch today)
4. Swapping chutney recipes with friends on Facebook (we used to get drunk, now we just make chutney. Must be getting old!)
5. Not spending anything!

valk_scot

1) Freecycled the bread machine my BIL gave me. I've been making my bread by hand (or rather, by Kenwood Chef) for nearly two years now, since my Panasonic wore out. I don't need a basic bread machine, fgs! The lady who picked it up was touchingly appreciative though.

2) Found one of our cats asleep under our duvet this morning, after OH had left to go to work. He's a recycled cat, as in we adopted him as a scraggy miserable heap of fur from the rescue a year ago. Now he thinks he owns the place...and us. He's right too!

3) Found a cache of unused tins of paint in the utility room while looking for some varnish. Well pleased with this...paint has got bloomin' expensive lately, have you noticed?

4) The apples on the nameless tree in the garden are starting to drop. This means they're ripe enough to start eating them, yum.

5) Bought some thermal blackout lining to line the bedroom curtains. I've been putting this job off for a year...no excuses now!

Olliebeak

Good morning :wave: - what a horrid day yesterday turned into yet again - rain and high winds. Today has dawned very pleasant and no clouds to be seen and the sun is actually shining already.

Blimus - What a great weekend trip you all had .
Louba - Sorry to hear you had a rough night with your neighbours - makes us realise that our own OH's aren't too bad after all, when things like that happen. We get the occasional 'Jeremy Kyle moments' around here too :rotfl: - and occasionally it's a couple of my elderly tenants who cause them .
newlywed - This board/forum is a great thing to be grateful for - so many ideas and so much support from everybody. Good to hear your plant arrived safely .
Wee Pilsbury - Well done on the draught proofing :j- it really does help in the winter months. Don't forget the fridge magnet over the keyhole too.
Rainy Wednesday - Mammogram now re-arranged. I missed it due to having so much on my mind recently with DD moving and looking after her kids etc. Congrats on the weightloss :j. I lost loads of weight a few years ago (all back on again since - but that a different story ) and I noticed that I felt much colder that first winter afterwards, so you'll probably need to wrap up more than in the past.
Patchwork - 'Free meals' and 'free heat' :j brilliant.
helyg - :T on your 'nsd' - no spend day!
valk_scot - well done on passing on your unused breadmaker. Maybe that lady will also be inspired to go down the 'hand-made' route eventually. :rotfl: at your rescue moggie - he must have felt really safe under your duvet - compliment from him really.

1. Visit from DD and her boyfriend yesterday. He came to 'tweak' my comp. It's now running much quicker and he's installed a couple of things that I was missing. Why can't new comps come complete with an 'Idiot's Guide to Setting Up' ? Those technical fellas who sell them think that everybody has real technical know-how!

2. Roast Chicken, mashed pots, roasties, carrots, leeks, peas&sweetcorn and gravy all round for evening meal. Did intend to do sausages for the dgk's but managed to burn them so had to make the chicken pieces stretch to the kids as well - but nobody went hungry.

3. dgd1 (age11) asked to stay the night here and her mother said yes - so we had company last night. She's a good girl though and I think she enjoyed being 'younger brother free' for the night. She got off to school on time this morning.

4. Really noticed the difference in the speed of my comp when I switched it on this morning .

5. Liver and onions for evening meal tonight.

Looking forward to a good day in work today - hey the week is now half way over :j:j - hope we all have a happy day with lot sof os money-saving going on - love Ollie xxx

Reverbe

Sunday

1. early start lead to - Macdonalds Bacon, egg & cheese bagel(just as nice as a mcMuffin but a lot cheaper) for brekky with Mr S fresh aldmond croissant to pick on

2. Cuppa tea for 99p in Wetherspoons to kill time before

3. free screening of Away We Go

4 sample of chilled cranberry tea in Whittards

5 finding a cheap cotton fashion scarf in the street while going for a walk - used it to brighten up my bag

6. mini makeover at Estee Lauder with samples in Westfield and makeover trial of some new powder in my local Boots

7. Samples of Estee Lauder 14 days worth of Advanced night Repair in Boots, She Uemura creams and cleansing oils in House of Fraser

8 US Glamour - a rare treat

9. Stripes on Tv - havent seen it since I was at school and saw it with mates at the pictures.

10. Treated myself to Origins Mega Mushroom lotion and got the following free - full size jar of Modern Friction, samples of mega mushroom face cream, skintone serum, Mega mushroom face serum, 30 ml tube of modern friction and 30ml mega mushroom face cleanser.

Tuesday

1/ reading in bed with tea when I woke up

2. £5 Waitrose or John Lewis Voucher to make up for not getting the token for free trial of kebabs they sent out recently

3. mens facial serum and shampoo from Boots

4. Broken Embraces - LOVE LOVE LOVE Almodovar films.. nice of him to bring one out this time of year... loved the cameos of his old stars and the takeoff for Women on the Verge...

5. 3 papers, 1 HMV mag, 1 M&S mag and 2 cinema mags

6. YS M&S chicken & broccoli crispbakes for £1 - went back in 10 mins before closing and they were throwing out huge baskets of food. I couldnt believe it n asked them were they really throwing it away - they said yes. Wish I had the nerve to ask if I coulda had one of the Rhubarb crumbles they were binning - I should have cos its not my local and I'd probably never see those peeps again..

7. Gill Holcombes first book in Amnesty international Books for £2

8. Primark bargains - slouch socks and scented candles - got some tights but picked up some too small by accident so will charity shop them as it will cost me over £2.20 to take them back..

9. Bewitched series 7 for a pressy- £17 - cost £7 with token from Valued Opinions and used some of the £70 focus group money

RainyWednesday

Hi everyone

Been a bit gloomy again today, I think it's the weather. Anyway, some lucky OS star counting...

1- Getting a beautiful dress for work in the BHF for a mere £3.30 and a zara cardigan for £2.50. I am saving it for a big meeting next week
2 - buying some hair dye with advantage card points and now have a cheery (well dark but psychologically cheery) new hair colour
3 - a tasty moussaka made with HG courgettes and 'bedrock' mince
4- OH buying me a beer and a chocolate bar to have in front of the football
5 - having another good tidy up of my wardrobe

Mutantk

Hi there - haven't posted on this thread before but have just read this current page and it's great, very inspiring too....so here goes with my first 5 OS pleasures (hope have got the right idea):

1 - Having enough pastry left over after I'd made kids tea to make extra patties for the freezer with the ham that had to be used by tomorrow.
2 - Receiving in the post my Chessington passes, Pizza Express tokens and RAC membership all paid for with Tesco points. (not strictly OS but moneysaving!)
3 - Enjoying a slice of plum pie from the freezer with the plums from MILs tree so were therefore free
4 - Planning my day this morning and writing down my to do list - and actually finishing it! Very nice feeling to be so up to date with chores with 4 small children! Just hope I can keep it up!
5 - Sitting with a nice cuppa reading OS board and noting down some new recipe ideas

New target - make a jar of chutney...off to look at some of your lovely recipes now x

mineallmine

Evening all,

1. Eating out with my loved one, finding somewhere really nice and inexpensive to eat (after the first place we tried wasn't serving food yet but recommended somewhere else). Not quite OS but a real treat.

2. After a long day, relaxing in PJs early. (Reverbe, like the sound of your Primark bargains).

3. And that's all so far.

:A

PS: Welcome Mutantk!

Olliebeak

Good Morning all :wave: - wow what a lovely day yesterday turned into - almost a heatwave in the afternoon. And today looks quite promising too .......

Reverbe - some great samples and bargains there - you've been a busy bee .
RainyWednesday - sorry to hear things have been a bit 'gloomy' but that new hair colour sounds like a booster. It sounds like you're the girl in the 'She's got Bette Davis eyes' advert .
Mutantk - :hello: and welcome to the thread - good to meet you! Like the sound of your 'freebie patties' - left-over pastry and 'need to use ham' those're MY kind of 'goodies' too. Well done on using your Tesco points so well :T.
Mineallmine - :j well done to your OH for taking you for a meal out - not done much dining out ourselves this year (apart from a couple of times on holiday back in May - oh that seems so long ago now ).


1. Another quiet day in work yesterday - think the sudden warmth knocked them all out .

2. OH went for some shopping and found bargains in HomeBargains - he treats me to marmalade from there as you can get 'the good stuff' for around 50p a jar :drool:. I normally pay 27-35p for SmartPrice - which I do have to say is rather pleasant.

3. Washing all dried on the line during the afternoon - but I forgot to bring it back in again :doh:. It's now very cold and damp feeling so will have to stay out a bit longer :rotfl:.

4. Visit from DS2 with dgs3 (1yr old) - needed to go to the bank and would I entertain dgs3 while he went in. Sat in the back of the car and kept him occupied for half an hour then DS2 treated me to a posh coffee in 'Costa' - one of my fave places that I don't go in very often due to the price :rolleyes:. It does feel strange to be taken somewhere by your 'offspring' - especially the one that gave you 'the most aggro' when growing up .

5. Liver, onions, mash, steamed cabbage and gravy for evening meal last night. Not a good choice in the circumstances, but I wasn't to know that the day would turn out so warm when I got the liver out of the freezer in the morning.

6. Salad for evening meal tonight .

Hope we all have a good day - I'll pop in again later and check what folks have been up to - love Ollie xxxx

Louba

Morning!

A quick round up:

1 - packing almost done
2 - a very kind colleague has offered to take some bits of work from me which sit better in her area
3 - to balance tht out.........I've been asked to make a business case to move another department so it reports to me. Ahh Scary! But a guess its a vote of confidence!
4 - catching up on everyones posts, has made me smile this morning
5 - making plans to see friends for a girls weekend away

Lx

Olliebeak

:rotfl: at your No.3, Louba! When we have Team Meetings and we hear that dreaded phrase 'I have total confidence in you all .....' we all groan out loud - we always KNOW it's going to mean extra work :mad: for us. Our Line Manager is absolutely wonderful at delegating - so good in fact, that you don't realise that you've just 'BEEN HAD'!