Bricks Not Books

VintageHistorian

It was really nice @beanielou and probably made nicer because I had no time to plan anything so it was all spontaneous. Just needed to make sure he sat on the potty before we went out

Did an OP of £4.52 after the Waitrose shop

I have booked the Christmas fair tickets for me and my Mum, and tonight I'll check my online banking and if I feel rich enough I'll book the Christmas activity for us and DS. If I don't feel rich enough it can wait until Monday, when I get paid.

I popped to Tesco while Mr VH fed DS his lunch. Found a packet of duck breasts yellowstickered to under £5! Couldn't leave them behind so they're now in the fridge. I think there's now 3 packs lurking in the drawers, we'll definitely use one at Christmas, might use another during my birthday week and save the third for when we need a treat/pick us up.

I also checked with the nursery manager and it's fine to do a small gift for the nursery staff so we'll go ahead with the hot drinks and nibbles idea. I got some Jacobs chili crackers in Tesco that were on Clubcard offer, we'll see what else I can find that's also on offer during the next few weeks.

I'm feeling hormonal today and DS has been in a fretful mood so neither of us were at our best this morning. Going to try putting a movie on for us this afternoon (possibly Frozen again, if he picks it) and see if we can reset to our usual cheerful selves. He made a "get well soon" card for Mr VH at nursery on Thursday, and also had a little climb of a tree when the staff took them out for a walk. He also slipped over and banged his head on Friday so we have yet another bruise, although at least it's smaller than previous ones.

Dinner tonight is the reduced beef I got on Monday. There's a pile of peeled and diced potatoes sitting in water, we have yorkshire puddings and some chunky veg, so a few small slices of beef will be appreciated but if we're stuffed with carbs then the rest of the protein can go in the freezer.

Have a good week everyone!

VintageHistorian

Total OPs for October - £42.15

I am £63 off my target of OPing £400 this year, which looks like an achievable amount to cover in November and December. But of course we're now approaching the festive season when money goes out quite quickly, so we shall see.

The tickets for the Christmas event for DS have been booked. They're more than last year as DS is now too old to qualify for a free ticket, might give it a miss next year unless he's still keen on the show involved. Last year there was also a themed gift shop on site so we might be able to get him one or two last-minute gifts there. I still need to get him a little chocolate teddy from M&S but otherwise I think I might be done with his Christmas buying. I bought the last gift last night, John Lewis have a wooden "car transporter" truck in their toy sale and TCB had £2 cashback with a purchase of £10. So I bought a John Lewis giftcard and used that to pay for the truck, it was originally £20 but with the sale and the cashback it was £15.34. I have also bought him a jigsaw puzzle off Vinted, still waiting for that to arrive.

Keeping up with the Christmas theme, I bought some nice sachets of instant coffee as they were on offer in Waitrose, so they'll go in the nursery hamper.

But before Christmas I have my birthday and now that we have entered my birthday month the freebies will start to roll in. M&S have already emailed me to let me know my birthday Sparks offer is available - a packet of free biscuits or a packet of free grapes. A terribly hard decision but I think I might just go with the biscuits. There will be a lot of sweet treats this month so depending on the biscuit I might put them in the nursery hamper or in DH's hamper. I'll have to see what's available in the store.

I have mentally allotted myself £200 to spend on myself guilt-free for my birthday. That does not include the cost of my dentist trip because that's not a birthday treat, that's an "I'm off work anyway so might as well use up a day of annual leave" practicality. Most of it will probably go on petrol and lunches out and about but there might be a few charity shop bargains as well, depending on what I spot. Me and Mr VH will have a day trip together, I have another day out for myself planned, and I've got the Christmas fair I'm attending with Mum.

Today we went to a book fair and bought a few bargains, including some things for DS. On the way home he was dangerously close to having a pre-nap car sleep so we stopped off at Waitrose and took him into the cafe. He was very well behaved, happily ate a cheese sandwich and a packet of "veggies sticks", and in the end didn't fall asleep for the last part of the journey so he's had a proper nap in his cot. I will go and wake him up momentarily.

Dinner tonight is chicken and parma ham pasta Have a good weekend everyone!

VintageHistorian

£4.06 TT just sent to the mortgage.

Birthday has been and gone. I am now in a new decade. Thoroughly spoiled by Mr VH and the family. Books, a new scarf, some pretty jewellery, and some chocolate that I'm going to try to make last until Christmas (aided by the additional purchase of some delicious fudge).

I got my free M&S biscuits. I have yet to collect my free sweet treats from Hotel Chocolat, Costa, and Greggs, but they'll be sorted out this week. More Christmas gifts have been purchased, specifically some artisinal food bits for Mr VH's hamper. I also got a book for DS's birthday. Charity shops were perused but not much bought, just a few second hand books for DS. I also got a Thomas the Tank Engine one for free from the nursery swap box, which he's very happy about.

My parents gifted me some birthday money as well. I have marked my landmark with a pretty silver ring, and I'm planning on buying a new notebook for myself from a nice stationery company that I already got two from previously (one as a Christmas gift from parents and one as a gift from Mr VH). The paper is lovely, smooth and very thick, and you can get a little foil symbol stamped on the front, or your name if inclined. They normally do a little January sale so I'll wait for that before making my choice.

Oh and the dentist was fine. The sensitive tooth is still sensitive but not as much as it used to be. After an x-ray and much poking and prodding the dentist declared it was probably concussed and advised I be a bit more consistant with the sensitive toothpaste, so that's what I've done.

No plans on baking this weekend as I've been very indulgent and with cake freebies still pending I do not need to make a lemon drizzle. But I have done a freezer inventory (why is is so full when I don't have much batch cooked food in it? XD) and cleaned out the fridge.

Dinner tonight is toad in the hole. I am genuinely excited for the approaching very chilly weather this week, if I had more time after work and nursery run I'd absolutely do a mid-week frozen weather toad instead, but I'll settle for "it's damp and cold and rained all day yesterday" toad instead.

Have a good weekend everyone!

beanielou

Happy belated birthday. 

Merlin's_Beard

Happy belated birthday, and may this decade be even better than the last!

VintageHistorian

Thank you @beanielou and @Merlin's_Beard 

Small TT of £1.28 this evening.

This has been an unexpectedly busy week and it's only Wednesday! The boiler has finally been serviced, some bathroom tidying works have been viewed for a quote (from the guy who did the refit when we bought this place), and today tree surgeons have given our big tree a good trim.

The boiler invoice will probably take a while as he informed me he hasn't got around to sending out invoices recently so has a backlog of a few weeks (I suspect it's done on a "when the missus yells at me" basis). The bathroom fitter is going to dig out the information from the original refit so he can check makes and models etc before sending the quote. But the tree surgeon company have sent out the invoice this evening. £700, which is a reminder of why we only get it done every other year. We might start stretching it to every 3 years but it's a big tree and it does grow back fast and with storms increasing in their intensity we prefer to play it safe.

And on top of that I did the buildings and contents insurance last night - £108. Like the car insurance it wasn't the cheapest one but did have a high Defaqto rating and was still about £30 cheaper than the renewel for last years company (which was itself £20 more than they charged me last year). Plus I went through TCB so there will be £30  (or was it £35?) coming my way in about 8 weeks time.

I recently saw a Reddit post about someone who was dealing with insurance after a house fire and have started a new project to catalogue our home contents on a Google sheet. I have joked to Mr VH in the past that we'd be a disappointing house for any burgler as we have very few valuables so I tended to err on the side of "it can't be that much" when doing the contents insurance quote. But of course with a fire you can lose a lot of small things very quickly (especially to smoke damage) and I'd be very cross with myself if we couldn't replace everything because I was being cheap.

Thus the catalogue has begun. One tab for each room, columns for the item (ideally brand included), where we got it from, and if possible when we got it, the cost, and an online order number. There's lots of gaps as I don't keep paper receipts, we've been given things by friends and family over the years, DS has lots of small-value toys that I'm not including, and Mr VH has a lot orders and invoices saved on his email. But so far I don't appear to be too far under my mental valuation for some rooms. The books will have a big impact on that though, I intend to get them all listed so I at least have an idea of their total value. And they are the thing that makes this a large project and not just a few evenings staring at furniture.

Speaking of DS's toys, one of his Christmas gifts which I brought off Vinted has been "damaged beyond repair" by Evri. I can't appear to report the issue to Vinted until a month has passed since dispatch. It was only £5 so it's not like I'm worried about a main present being lost, and I've already found the same item from a different seller so a replacement is on the way. Still annoying to have to sort out though. No idea how you damage a toddler's jigsaw puzzle that badly (she says with sarcasm knowing full well that someone probably thought it was a box with something far more valuable in it).

We had steak baguettes for dinner tonight. I picked up my Costa birthday freebie the other day. I chose a slice of a chocolate cheesecake. Cut it in half and had the second bit this afternoon with a cup of tea, it was a very nice cheesecake and I regret that it's now finished.

Have a good week everyone!

Fortune_Smiles

Cheesecake regret 😂😂😂 I know the feeling well 😂😂😂.

Fortune x

South_coast

Surely a jigsaw would only ever sound like a jigsaw 🤔? I wonder what they thought it was! 

beanielou

Chocolate cheesecake.Yum.

Merlin's_Beard

A good idea for insurance is to do a video walkthrough on your phone, which then gives you a visual record to jog your memory (especially about brands and amounts).