What small DFW things will you do this week? w/c 06/02

determined_new_ms

Happy birthday to Mr ziggy! x

DawnW

Afternoon all
Today I have / will:
Dog walks x 2, free exercise. It was snowing during the morning walk, not much, but not nice as it stung my face walking along. Still snowing a bit every now and then, but at least it is not laying.
Ironed kitchen curtains and put in airing cupboard to finish drying
Washed net curtain from bedroom. I hate net curtains, but it is necessary for privacy in this bedroom overlooking the street, with houses opposite. Now need to get it dry and put it back up before bed time!
Cleaned window in bedroom while the net curtain was down, also washed window frames and sill.
Also washed a couple of cardigans which have been lurking around for a while - I didn't want to just put them away without washing them.
Find and price up some items to take to sales unit on Monday. I am approximately half way through this, must get it finished.
Cleaned the glass on my lovely rosewood book case, as it looked grubby and I had the glass cleaner out anyway, for the bedroom window
Finished off curried parsnip soup for lunch
It will be jacket potatoes and salad for dinner, as there will only be OH and I (DS going to his gf's) and I have salad bits to use up. DS is taking his dog with him, thank goodness - I don't dislike the dog, but he is big and boisterous, and this is a little house, with a little garden. There is a good reason why our dog is a micro mutt!
Waiting for payment for 2 ebay items, if / when they pay up I need to package them ready for posting, which won't happen till Monday now (had they paid yesterday or first thing, I would have taken them this morning, but our post office is closed for the weekend now.)
Not planning any spending today

angelpye

Hi all,

Yes FVD you can have mine! Even the thought of those things make me not hungry!!

Today I have/will:
*Surveys
*Washing mountain...
*Use gym membership with DD
*Little spruce up around the house
*Get my creative head on and finish a project thats been lingering
*Meal plan and finalise shopping list
*Overview financial situation

Well, confession of emotional spending yesterday after a difficult meeting. Bought a bottle of wine (drank 1/3) and a TV dinner plus sweets, dessert...! Under £20 but was a little peeved with myself afterwards, woke this morning thinking its done now so move on. I did have extra money put in account yesterday but thats no excuse and at over half my weekly shopping budget it is extravagant (although before LBM would do this at least weekly). Anyway no excuses, I made a bad choice and will learn from it.

Hope you all have a lovely Saturday

foxgloves

Afternoon Campers,
The coldest greyest day here.....snow showers overnight which have now turned to sleet. Just a few things today:
*Bought kilo of the beef I need for my slow cooker-based Valentine's night meal. Butcher only charged me £6. I must have looked surprised it was that low as he said "Well, I'd only have minced it, so I've just charged you the same as for our mince". Defo worth using local butchers.
*Managed to use so many Nectar point coupons on our grocery shop this morning that our total went up by about £5.
*Abandoned our plans for a long walk around the grounds of historic house. Too wet to enjoy it so would have wasted 50 miles of diesel.
*Quarter-pounders tonight which I made last week from surplus mince & froze. Am going to mske chunky coleslaw for a boost of vitamins.
*All free leisure activities today - going to finish watching Icelandic crime drama, discuss festival tickets & how this will impact our holiday fund & generally relax.
*Knit more of current project.
*Check ebay progress.
Not so good:
Our grocery spend was higher than target today. Was expecting this to a degree as we are entetaining friends tomorrow & I"m also cooking for Valentine's as it works out much cheaper than eating out. But, the last few shops have been a bit over. I meal plan resourcefully & was pondering this over coffee when mr f suddenly reslised what's probably caused it. We usually shop at Sainsbury's once a month, ususlly if we happen to be in the vicinity on our shopping day. The majority of our weekly grocery shops are at Aldi (for the bulk of it), at our local market for some of our fruit & veg and at Waitrose just for 2 or 3 items I can't get at Aldi. This year, most of our big wrekly shops have been done at Sainsbury"s........a store I like very much but that is clearly more expensive than Aldi on the stuff we buy. Anyway, there's good potential for leftovers this week so have told mr f that the rest of Feb needs to be low food spend. He's up for this & immediately requested jacket potatoes & beans which apparently is one of his faves & he never ever has it anymore! Also have to add into the equation Brexit-induced food inflation......have seen a few extra pennies going onto quite a few things.
Oooh, I"ve just been brought a huge mug of coffee :-)
Cheers all. Stay warm this weekend,
F x

PurpleFairy26

foxglove I too think food has crept up more noticeably recently. Boo!

Grey here and icy cold outside following a smattering of snow and some sleet. Was up and out before 8 though, glad I'm back and not planning going out again today. Today I will/have:

Smalls to 2 x activities, all Pre paid. Snacks taken so no spends
Washing on overnight, drying on rads
Meals from stores
Make a cake, thinking another sugar free date as it'll help with use up box
Sort through pile of paperwork and put some date s on calendar to be organised
DH just been asked to do 8 hours overtime tonight. Too good to say no to.
Sort through fridge, meal plan based on what we've got. Only need meals until Thursday.
We're not going out now as we may have done as DH has gone to bed for a few hours so will try and get some knitting done
Early night to catch up on some sleep
Make list of things we need to take away with us, message mum and ask her to bring a few bits so we don't double up
Set DH online banking up
See if I can get a company on an onlin chat to see if I can cancel as they've put their prices up and I'm not impressed. Investigate alternative.

Stay warm folks. Purps.

FatVonD

Angelpye, don't beat yourself up too much about the spend.

Foxgloves, I find Mr S really expensive but Mr T have really hiked their prices too. The salami I used to buy at £1 per pack has gone up to £1.70 (in one jump!) How can that be and how come it's always a round number?! I noticed their value wu liquid is reduced to clear so bought a few as no doubt the replacement will be more expensive.

Well, it is snowing here, really pretty big flakes but not settling. I have put some leftovers under a tree for the fox in case it settles and will check the bird feeder in a minute.

I did a trial 'trying to spend less than £50 on food' shop and would have made it had I not bought a crepe pan each for myself and my mum

I tried to meal plan around my YS bargains so tonight we are having the pastrami cooked into noodles favoured with stock and peanut butter with the free spare ribs from work on the side. The teens seem to be happy to eat toasties during the day so I've made sure we have fillings for that and they have one pack of DS's favourite tortilla chips (as they were half price) and then after that its value snacks. I've bought a couple of packs of value ginger biscuits to sate our evening sweet cravings which will be cheaper than buying chocolate. I did splurge on some chicken breasts wrapped in bacon with stuffing balls, sausages and gravy which cost £6 for the four of us, I just need to do potatoes and veg to go with it.

DH and eldest DSS are moving middle DS but I got out of going as DSSGF's dad had hired a van so my car wasn't needed. They are not happy as middle DSS has gone to football (the ticket was a very expensive Xmas present) and DSSGF and her parents are playing with the baby and faffing with the radiators and leaving DH and eldest DSS to do all the lifting :mad:

My BFF who I rarely see just called for a chat which was lovely, I really should make more effort to go and see her.

I'm going to go and make some cheese scones now which will delight my DS (and me :rotfl:) as we both love them!

Hope you are all warm and cosy!

FatVonD

Quick question, is the wood used to make pallets okay to use as firewood? I know wood needs to be dried so you don't get a build up of creosote but I've never noticed pallet wood being particularly sappy?

We live near an industrial estate and there is a constant supply of pallets being dumped (plus our local Garden centre are always keen to get rid of them.) I might need to invest in something to chop them up.

Bobarella

zippygeorgeandben wrote: »

I've managed to sell part of my beloved candle collection for £190. Knock it off the CC!

Wow that's a lot of money for candles! Well done.

Bobarella

Hi Gang

Been busy today. We have an event on so I was up and out early to cycle to let them in, and make sure everything was ok at the venue. Cycling in the snow was quite an experience! Thankfully it had petered out by the time I rode back. Went out with the family for a couple of hours, then went to check on the furniture I'm borrowing from a local pub in a couple of weeks.

Small things today

1. Cycled an hour so far, no travel spends.

2. Sandwiches at home for lunch made with a pack of cooking bacon. So much cheaper and although some of it is a bit thick you can still slice it all up anyway.

3. Prawn stir fry for dinner, quick to cook so good for keeping the bills down.

4. Wombled a delicious bag of home made biscuits.

5. Used a charity shop bag as a bin bag.

6. Book marked The Mins documentary on Netflix to watch tonight.

7. Borrowing furniture from the pub will mean I don't have to buy any more yet.

8. Gas and electric bill came for the month. £95. This is up from £56 in our non heating on months. Pretty pleased with that.

9. £3.50 in Mr T vouchers came through the post.

10. Took the kids into Pets at Home and Toys R Us for a free warm activity. Didn't spend anything

Have to do a round trip again tonight after the event. Could be 1am before they are done and ready to leave. Will pop another pot of coffee on

Bob

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi all

Bob I am on taxi duty tonight so will be up late too. DS1 was contacted by an old school friend who is having a birthday party so is going there and DS2 is out, some vague plans about visiting a friend I have never heard of. To be honest he could be anywhere, when I was his age we had a friend called "Hayley" who was a fictional person we all used to be visiting when we needed an alibi. Wonder if my Mum knows that?

Anyhow, 3 hours paid stuff done. Laundry dried over the airer, spag bol for tea, lunch was one of DHs special brunches.

FVD we have burnt pallet wood before, but I can remember whether it was OK on the open fire, cant remember if it spits? Sorry, not much help.