What small things will you do this week? - w/c 2nd January

maria3104

Hi all

Had a lazy start to the day and am now off for a day out with a friend. Just need to maintain control of cash whilst having fun.

Enjoy all.

M x

FatVonD

CL2009 Totally with you re still finding more decorations, I thought I'd packed them all then DSD came round and pointed out we still had a wreath on the door :rotfl:

Katy Ann I know we're not allowed to give medical advice on here but when DS was suffering after his MMR the doctor on call told me to give him both Calpol and baby Ibuprofen but overlap them (so start the ibuprofen 2 hours after the Calpol and then continue giving both at 4 hourly intervals.) It avoids the slump when one is wearing off/a new dose is just kicking in as the other one will still be half way through its dose and having full effect if that makes sense? Maybe you could ask your medical professionals if it's worth a try? Glad he is back home!

Today I need to pack up the DVDs for Zapper, I brought home a suitably sized box yeasterday.Done

I need to chase up compensation for an item damaged by Hermes. Done

DS left his new job just before Christmas, long story but it involved a manager taking a tip off him given by a customer and then somebody else pocketing it. He has decided he wants to go back to college in September but as he's now 19 I think we would need to pay for it which I am reluctant to do as he has already dropped out of 2 courses.

I have been looking at apprenticeships instead and have found one locally that looks like it could be perfect so just need to broach the subject with him, also a job that is literally a few minutes walk from here that I wouldn't actually mind doing myself but the timing is all wrong for me. I've realised I need to stick around as long as they'll have me where I am but I think I have found a solution to them letting me have Monday's off to get the soft play thing up and running.

Still nothing sold on eBay, the little flurry of cookbook sales before Christmas was clearly all for presents! I do have a lot of newly releaseD fiction (for free) which I was intending to read but I'm thinking I may list it all until a few sell then take the others down. I'll never get around to reading them all so I may let sales decide which ones I give a miss to! Done

I need to do my tax return before the end of January but not this weekend, I need to steel myself for it!

Have a great one, all

foxgloves

Morning all,
Well, I'm on Flu Day 12 & apart from an afternoon last week when I thought I felt like I was starting to pick up, there's not really been any change. I no longer have the rotten headache, but now a lot of horrible snotty symptoms have taken over & I still have the dreadful cough. I got out of bed at 1a.m, had a walk around, then went back & decided to try & sleep sitting bolt upright to help with the cough & gunk. I did get some sleep but feel dreadful today. We'd arranged to meet a friend in town today for a coffee but I felt too rough to go, so mr f has gone on his own & he's going to pick up the grocery shopping & a list of cough medicine, more flu caplets, honey, lemons, etc, etc. I am sick of feeling like this & intend to throw absolutely everything but the kitchen sink at it this weekend. As for money saving? Not much, but here it is for what it's worth:
*Groceries will be coming from Aldi instead of Sainso's which will be a saving.
*mr f has a free coffee code from the indie coffee shop where he's meeting our friend, so I know he's intending to use that & save £2.80 or so.
*Odds & ends taken out of freezer for today's lunch.
*Turkey slices in gravy taken out of freezer for a 'free' Sunday roast tomorrow.
*An NSD for me again......my January Personal Spends cash is lying in my purse completely untouched as I haven't been out of the house since I returned from London on 27th Dec. Bah!!
*Free entertainment today - knitting, reading my book (which was from the Oxfam bookshop) & probably watching a film later.
*Continue knitting current sock order. 1st pair finished & 2nd pair cast on. I would like to get the whole of the cuff knitted today & get at least as far as turning the heel. I don't see why that won't be possible as I am feeling too rubbish to go anywhere or do anything more energetic.
*Did a few surveys.
*Will check my ebay auctions later, although I am not hopeful.
That will be it for today. I am so fed up with feeling full of flu. I keep apologising to mr f for moaning about it & being so annoying & he told me this morning that the only annoying thing is hearing me keep on apologizing! He's doing stirling work of looking after me as I am not a good patient & he has a cold (very rarer for him) himself at the moment. I'd normally be outside digging the veg beds over, cleaning & prepping my greenhouse & sorting through my seed box........I suppose I could still so my seed box, as that's an indoor job & might cheer me up. After all, I'll be sowing my chilli seeds at the end of this month.
Love to all,
A very snotty F xx

foxgloves

KatyAnn - Glad to hear you baby is home. What a worry for you all. Hope he continues to pick up now he's home, poor little soldier.

-FatVonD - Loved the story of you missing your train stop but getting a YS haul. Tales of Grabby Man make me smile. We had a similar experience one night in Waitrose. The assistant was putting the reduction stickers on & putting all these trays of chicken pieces on the reductions shelves & a big bloke was just hoovering them into his basket....all of them. Even mr f (who is built like a brick privy, I might add) couldn't manage to block him. In the end, the assistant started passing her reduced items straight to me so that I could put them in my basket if I wanted them or on the shelf if I didn't.

-DNMS - The best place for YS bread around here is the local little Co-op. They seem to do final reductions around 9pm (by then, you can see that there are 2 stickers under the current, lowest one) & you can then often pick up full-sized loaves for 10p each, as well as packets of subs, rolls, etc. Our Co-op does sell its own label loaves, but most of its bread is from a local independent bakery, so it's good quality. Last time I was in there late, I picked up 3 of these 10p loaves for the freezer. They had 2 supermarket trolleys piled high with it. Co-op is quite good for YS meat, too. My best YS meat finds have been Waitrose, but haven't found anything since there was a big beef shank which I did in the slow cooker. Most of the Waitrose YS stuff is high end ready meals, expensive ready made salads, & desserts, etc, so not really things we buy as we pretty much cook everything from scratch. The best stuff for us is when the instore butchery has bagged up the last of its loose stuff & YS'd it. Have had some brilliant slow cooker stuff like ox cheek, beef skirt, etc.

La E - Hope your sock speeds up! I don't get on with toe-up patterns. All mine are knitted cuff down, seamless with just the 2 ends to darn in at the end, one at the top & one at the bottom. It does slow things up using a chart. Luckily the 4 pairs I'm currently doing for an order are all knitted in self-patterning sock yarn (King Cole Zig-Zag.....they have lots of lovely new colourways) so the pattern takes care of itself & I only need to knit straightforward stocking stitch, which is quicker. Knitting's pretty much all I'm good for at the moment, so I'm really working hard on this order, as I'd like to see the cash!

F x

katy_ann

Thanks FVD - I'll check with my doctor! I can't take ibraprofen as I have asthma so I'm not sure if it might have been passed on but I will check!

Lottebear

Right back on the MSE bandwagon!

Whilst not struggling in Debt, I feel that uncertain times are ahead and I would like to booster my savings. I have treated myself to a few bits over Christmas so I have a small credit card balance to clear.

So I have this weekend
Dropped back to Tesco with the coupons I forgot yesterday £7.25 back :-)
Purchased clothing for my daughter in the sale, basics like underwear all 50% off.
Cancelled contact lenses until Sep saving £16 per month.
Back on the surveys, I want to buy my daughter a bike for her birthday in July which is £60, I feel this is easily doable from surveys.

That is it so far.

FatVonD

That's an impressive list of wins there, Lottebear, all I've ever got from my comping attempts is lots of junk mail :rotfl:

FatVonD

Foxgloves, you'd think you'd get a better class of bargain hunter in Waitrose, wouldn't you but I once had the misfortune to be in there when they reduced the meats one Christmas Eve and it was a bun fight!

YORKSHIRELASS

CrazyLady and DNM I am genuinely quite scared of the thought of the boys leaving home and it just being myself and DH again. Because of DS1s health problems he spent 2 years at home with me and we naturally became very close. It will probably be a while before he is ready to fly the nest but who knows? Then again the constant taxi requests do get a bit tiring, DH didnt want to go to bed last night in case DS2 needed picking up and we had a bit of a squabble about it!

Been to the big DIY shop. Bought some things we needed for the house and some things we didnt. Not too disastrous. Pottering at home now.

CCL I didnt know you taught year 11s. You deserve a medal.

Anyhow, thinking about having half an hours snooze before I do some more jobs.

Bobarella

determined_new_ms wrote: »

because I went to fortnightly shopping, it was pot luck really. But I've decided to change my grocery ways this year I'm going to do a monthly shop for bigger/unlikely to be reduced items and base most meals around ys items. Our local Sainos usually do good reductions around 3 on a sunday so I am aiming to nip in there and also if passing a sm pop in to see what's to be had fortnightly shopping did reduce our gc bill to £180pm but I think I can do better!

Yes I can imagine. We live just up the road from Mr T and that is handy for YS supplies. You sound like you still have a lot in the freezer though which is great.