Wednesday 23rd December. What small DFW things will you be doing today?

foxgloves

Good afternoon Christmas Campers,
Well, I'd like to be able to tell you that I've caned it with the festive money-saving today, but it would be an outrageous fib. We have blown the December food budget despite me allowing an extra £100. I'm not unduly worried about this as we will be eating from stores/freezer well into January, but it's still a bit annoying. Done now though. No point fretting about it or feeling like greedy pigs. A few things on the list though:
*No downstairs heating on at all until later. Even towel radiator turned off, just not cold enough to waste money on it. Would rather be careful while it's mild & feel able to use more if we get a cold snap in the new year.
*Everything taken out of freezer for cooking/baking we need to do tomorrow.
*Conservatory scrubbed (it's our dining room) using just my spray bottle of diluted Stardrops & washable cloths.
*mr f making big lasagne tonight that will also do for tomorrow so we don't need to cook anything else or be tempted to send out for takeaway. We are planning on getting one on New Year's Eve & we get one so rarely now, we enjoy it much more.
*Treated myself to some utterly unessential Yankee Candle wax melts today.....but am getting the most out of them as always. Am breaking in half & burning each half twice. This works perfectly well & they last 4 times as long as probably intended.
*Did ironing & switched off for final garment.
*Do a couple of surveys.
*Had a breakthrough this morning when mr f conceded that we have bought enough cheese for the festive period!!! I told him yesterday that we didn't need all that he was putting in the basket, but he wasn't having it & with all the seriously awful things happening in the world, I was not prepared to get into an argument in the shop about something as trivial as cheese. We do both really like cheese & it's nice to have different treat-y ones this time of year, but unless he is hatching secret plans to build a full sized Angel of the North or something out of cheese, I can pretty much guarantee I will be using cheesy leftovers for dishes into January.
*Being tough on cat. He is still looking at yesterday's meat. We have put a little new meat on top but he doesn't like it & so far he hasn't caved in & eaten it. Am going to hold out a bit longer. We don't waste our food, so I'm reluctant to throw perfectly good meat away because he's being Mr Picky.
Bum-in-Chair time now. Wishing you all a Happy Christmas. For people having a difficult time at the moment, I shall say 'Peaceful Christmas' instead & enjoy little moments of happiness as they happen. I shan't post tomorrow. I'll be putting a Christmas post on my blog but that's the only online time I'm really planning unless I find myself with more time than I think I'm going to have.
Will be back to bore you all with tales of my leftovers.
F x

Bobarella

Hi All

Late check in from me.

Foxgloves - it is hard not to go a bit crazy this month on food. How much over your budget did you go? Our cheese board is very much squewed towards blue cheeses. We both love them and having had to abstain for best part of a year I plan to indulge now!

CCL - I second what Determined has said. Try and knock a few things off your to do list. You are under so much strain you need to try and let something give. Huge hugs.

Zig - sorry you feel bad.

Dawn - your game sounds lovely. Hope the meal planning goes well.

Chocolate -hope it is just nerves and not a bug

So today for me.
1. Finished my Christmas food shopping. I qualified for £20 worth of credit on my nectar card for the number of £40 shops done this month. Super pleased about that.
2. Also had another £2.50 in nectar points anyway due to wombling.
3. Scanned a 40 point voucher for eggs
4. OH got the 2 enormous laundry bags down from the loft which were full of girl baby clothes passed along by our friends with 2 girls. Started putting them through the wash in batches. Honestly don't need a single clothing item for her.
5. Used up some bacon at dinner time.
6. My Auntie had sent £20 in a card for the children so I split it into two £10s and put it away in their saving books for next trip to the bank. That's £25 each so far this Christmas. Incredible generosity from relatives and far more appreciated than stuff they break in weeks.
7. Walked all journies.
8. Used drying rack instead of tumble drier.
9. Must use the pastry I made for mince pies
10. Bought store own brand cranberry sauce which was ££ less than big brand jar.

That's it for today!

Night

Bob

crazy_cat_lady

Hi everyone - thanks for advice and support. I am a massive stresshead always on a huge guilt trip about doing nothing. Today I ended up losing my temper with the mental health team at the hospital because I still can't get any straight information out of them. Blimming useless.
Ziggy - I hope you're feeling brighter soon...

crazy_cat_lady wrote: »

Good morning all
[STRIKE]:) Check banking and sort budget for next month[/STRIKE] Banking fine but I still haven't put a budget together for Jan. Naughty...
[STRIKE]:) Read Martin's email[/STRIKE]
Delivery of Christmas veggie box Apparently now coming tomorrow - this is also stressing me out
[STRIKE]:) Smart gas and electricity meters are due to be fitted today[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]:) Visit my sister's family as it's my niece's birthday (this is stressful enough without everything else going on)[/STRIKE] This went much better than I thought it would...
[STRIKE]:) Present wrapping - this is becoming like having a nap. On my list every day but never getting done.[/STRIKE] Did some!!!!!! But not all...
[STRIKE]:) More work on the unicorn toy[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]:) Visit dh[/STRIKE]

Believe me - I wish I could bin everything off. The house looks as though a bomb has hit it and I could cry. And I can't remember the last time I ate or prepared a decent meal... for any of us - which is a bit embarrassing, although the kids are loving it. I will need another fortnight off by the end of it. I wonder why school holidays never end up being very relaxing for me...

Bobarella

Cat -you do sound up to your eyeballs. It's so hard when you feel you can't stop. All I can say to try and be helpful is, your doing the best you can. If your children have the odd ready meal or don't go to bed on time for a few days it won't kill them. Just keep on keeping on. That's all you can do.

chocolatelover93

Bob - thank you feeling a bit better now. You're doing really well with the debts this month

CCL - sending you massive hugs, you need to take some time out for yourself to relax. What about having a nice bubble bath when the kids are in bed or something?

Actually achieved everything on my list today rather pleased with myself
Was lovely seeing my friend, her other half and their baby, had lots of cuddles. He is 3 months now and starting to gargle and make noises. He even smiled at me it was the CUTEST thing ever!! I can't wait for me and hubby to have a baby

Now chilling with this little one:

Bobarella

What a cute cat!

allydowd

foxgloves wrote: »

Good afternoon Christmas Campers,
Well, I'd like to be able to tell you that I've caned it with the festive money-saving today, but it would be an outrageous fib. We have blown the December food budget despite me allowing an extra £100. I'm not unduly worried about this as we will be eating from stores/freezer well into January, but it's still a bit annoying.

Don't beat yourself up. As you say you'll still be eating it in January.

allydowd

crazy_cat_lady wrote: »

Believe me - I wish I could bin everything off. The house looks as though a bomb has hit it and I could cry. And I can't remember the last time I ate or prepared a decent meal... for any of us - which is a bit embarrassing, although the kids are loving it. I will need another fortnight off by the end of it. I wonder why school holidays never end up being very relaxing for me...

Sometimes when I've been low I've felt the same. How about starting with a sit-down breakfast at the table together and then tackle one room, maybe your bedroom. Can you get the kids to help tidy? Set them a challenge "who's first to pick up ten toys and put them away"? Then reward yourself.

crazy_cat_lady

allydowd wrote: »

Sometimes when I've been low I've felt the same. How about starting with a sit-down breakfast at the table together and then tackle one room, maybe your bedroom. Can you get the kids to help tidy? Set them a challenge "who's first to pick up ten toys and put them away"? Then reward yourself.

That's a great idea thanks Ally
I will attempt it. DS room needs an awful lot of work or I don't think Santa will visit him...