What small DFW things will you do this week? w/c 26 Dec 16

DawnW

Evening all
I'm back from my travels, and catching up with everyone's news. Nice to see Katy Ann back with us
Well, that is Christmas done, more or less, for another year. I am going to have to watch my spending carefully over the next few months. I have let things slide a bit over the last few months and we have DS moving back in with us for a while, after a change of job and other stuff that I can't go into here. He is in debt and has a lot of unavoidable commitments at the moment, so we will need to help him out a fair bit I think. In other news, my brother has just turned up for one of his open ended sojourns, with a nasty cold to share around :doh:So, if nothing else, lots of food needed, good thing I have full cupboards and freezers - luckily I stocked up before Chistmas!

In other news today, I have:
No heating downstairs, but it was so cold when we got back from DD1's this morning that we lit the stove immediately. Usually we only have it alight in the evenings.
Wrapped 4 ebay parcels ready for posting tomorrow, if the post office is open.
All HM meals from food we already have, nothing spent
Annoyingly though, GD1 didn't receive the birthday present I posted in good time for her birthday. Hopefully it will turn up in the next day or so, but as it was posted on the 12th, my hopes aren't high. I shall have to replace it and try to claim the money back from the post office. They aren't great at this in my experience, especially as I don't have the receipts now (lots of little bits bought over a couple of months rather than one big thing) Might see if I can replace some of it via the sales. Pity it was her present that went adrift, the ebay bits posted at the same time seem to have reached their destinations ok. Disappointing it was a child's birthday present rather than an ebay item that could just have been refunded, if anything had to go missing!

1LuckyLady

Dawn, that's a shame about the missing present. We did have 2 letters in the last couple of months that have taken 2 1/2 weeks to be delivered, luckily for us though it wasn't anything important either time. I hope that your parcel reaches its destination soon.

crazy_cat_lady

Just a quick welcome back to KatyAnn. Hope you're doing ok - I suffered with PND after my first child was born and it is such a difficult thing. Remember to celebrate the small things.
And welcome back to everyone else who has been away over the hols.
Finally finished the last crochet blanket with 3 days to spare :j

FatVonD

crazy_cat_lady wrote: »

DNMS - when I was in the butchers the other day the woman serving said to me that a rough rule of thumb is 250g serving of meat per person. That seems like loads to me - half a pound at a time!!! :eek: I ended up coming home with a joint of beef that is about 2kg to serve 4 of us with leftovers. Some leftovers...

CCL I have read a couple of times that the recommended amount of protein in a single serving should be about the size of a pack of cards. I'm not sure what that is in old money but I'm pretty sure it's not as much as 250g!

Come to think of it I think I only use 250g of mince to make spaghetti bolognese for four but that is with an equal amount of grated carrot and peppers and stuff.

FatVonD

Welcome Back, Katy Ann, hang on in there, things will improve really soon (I've always said I'd rather go through childbirth again than that first three months!) I don't think health visitors (as there is no evidence that it actually works) are allowed to recommend it but my DS was a bit of a whiny baby and just one session with a cranial osteopath made a huge difference.

Today has been a lovely day, we went to visit middle DSS and his GF and baby and the baby was in a lovely, chuckly and sociable mood. We helped set up his baby walker which was his Christmas gift from us and he loved it!

We did however end up going halves on a Chinese for dinner which wasn't especially money saving BUT I have avoided all sales so far both online and in person I may make a trip to Mr S tomorrow for cards and wrapping paper for next year but that's it!

My mum was cold called the week before Christmas about a 'free' electrical check which she agreed to. They then of course told her she needed £700 worth of work doing (after a 'visual' inspection of the fuse box and one wall socket) which she signed for. She has been calling them to cancel but getting no reply, I finally got a reply tonight and have emailed the correct cancellation form (she is still within the 2 weeks cooling off period) from the CAB website.

It is amazing how many con artists crawl out from under a rock when they see an old woman on her own :mad: So far her gardener borrowed £200 and showed no signs of giving it back until I called and threatened to walk up and down outside her children's school with a placard detailing what she'd done (I admit it was almost a disappointment when she gave it back ) and her neighbour charged her £10 to change a light bulb :mad:

Tomorrow DH goes back to work but I am still off for another 6 days, bliss! :T

foxgloves

Lergy
F x

determined_new_ms

Morning! Oh no foxgloves! Sorry to hear that. we've all had a cold virus. Mine started on Monday of last week. It was quite savage the first day, better the 2nd and then after that it's improved although in the last day I've started to develop a cough. Poor oh always gets virus'/illnesses worse than lo or I. Hope your trajectory is similar to mine rather than oh's!!

katyann sorry to hear that the first few weeks of your new arrival have been hard. The first month often is really difficult and overwhelming - you have no idea why they are crying and are exhausted to boot. Hope with good support you will recover from your PND xxx

Dawn what terrible luck really hope it turns up in the next couple of days

Well another day of holidays :j think today we will go to the wild life park and use membership cards. Will either go after lunch or take sandwiches and snacks with us

Dinner will be salmon that I got out yesterday and cba to cook, so we had soup instead

could do with vacuuming and cleaning the bathroom today. Might finish my coffee and just get on with the bathroom to get it out of the way....

Absolutely must get milk today! Will get it from the little coop near us, while slightly more expensive that Lidl will be less tempting to buy more food!

Going to slice up and freeze millionaires shortbread as too much to eat left!

currently it's very frosty outside but am tempted to go into the garden and do a bit of work in the greenhouse/veg patches. Will see how it is when the sun comes up... nipped to the allotment yesterday and picked a load of turnips. Have not planted garlic yet. So might nip to the garden centre up the road and see if they have any bulbs for sale....

reading/playing monopoly with oh this evening for leisure anything to stay away from tv/screen time!

Ok that's my lot I think! Have a good day guys x

YORKSHIRELASS

KatyAnn lovely to hear from you. I echo what everyone else says. I dont think anything can prepare you for suddenly being responsible for this little person who just screams his head off for no reason, the overwhelming feeling that you haven't a clue what you are doing, the physical and mental effects of childbirth and the way that life is just suddenly turned on its head. I used to hate people saying to me that it will get better but it does, just be kind to yourself, I am sure that you are doing a great job x

Foxgloves hope you get better soon. I am going to wake DS1 up in a minute and see if he is well enough for work. He shouldnt have gone yesterday but we were out with family on boxing day and he didnt want work to think he was hungover.

Fvd my husband is self employed and has a lot of elderly customers and he is always says that he cant believe how trusting most of them are. A different generation I guess.

So - I have finished my spreadsheets for December. I did OK with Christmas but the damage was already done by spending way too much on DS1s 18th birthday. There are some positives but 2017 is going to be a challenge financially and I am trying to face this with the right mindset. The great news is that DH is starting to really get on board with this moneysaving lark!

PurpleFairy26

Morning all :hello:

KatyAnn sending you lots of lovely vibes. I too had pnd after my second (now 4) it was incredibly hard and I have found I'm more prone to depressive moments since. Be kind to yourself and offer help whenever given and find a 'thing' that works for you, be it exercise, bath, reading a book, journaling etc.. for you to have an outlet. Of course you can always come and 'talk' to us lovely lot on here. Let us know if we can help at all.

Foxgloves feel your pain welcome to my last 3 weeks, hope yours doesn't last that long

Today looks like :

Check banking and update sheets - done
Moved contactless bonus to savings - done
Paid plasterer - done, think I may have paid £10 too much as he gave two different amounts, oh well the job he did was amazing
Look for recipe for pea and ham soup
Ys lamb shanks in slow cooker for tea, last of mint from fridge in to. Will use free sprouts and potatoes DH got from work to go with
Slice and freeze rest of ham not used in soup
Make list of food for two meals cooking at the weekend, shouldn't be too much as I have some in freezer, some left from Christmas and Mum giving me a leg of lamb for main part
More knitting later
Quick hoover round
Washing on rads when on

Think that's about all, check back later. PF.

Cheery_Daff

Morning :hello:

KatyAnn - I can't imagine what it must be like to have responsibility for something as small and delicate as a baby, let alone when you're feeling rough yourself. You're doing an excellent job, I'm sure xx

FvD - how dreadful people are taking advantage of your mum! :mad:

Hope you poorly folks are feeling better soon xx

Lovely sunny day today :j Quite frosty though. Yesterday I wrapped up and took a picnic and went for a 9 mile walk out in the countryside - it was glorious :j Bought a (reduced) kettlebell on the way home, that will go some way to replacing my gym membership :j Then a friend came round for tea, and we contemplated a takeaway (or at least popping to the shop for food) but I ended up making soup/stew instead :money:

Today I've

* walked to newsagents for milk (trying to curb my 'popping to the shops in the car' habit )
* made scones for breakfast using 2 of the four reduced-to-10p tubs of raspberry quark I bought the other day
* Mr Cheery and friend (who stayed over) have now gone out so I've turned the heating off for an hour or so (will put it back on when I'm ready to hang the washing up!)
* got to the end of a sw@bucks survey :j which then said I didn't qualify and booted me out with no points :mad:

Other small things I'll do today

* YNAB (didn't get round to it yesterday)
* investigate bike light situation and maybe use voucher to buy new ones

Not sure what else, it's lovely and sunny so I'm feeling a need to be outside again :j Might go for a bike ride

Hope you all have a good day