Cherry takes the reins

Cherryfudge

I had a brief panic when paying for the groceries for tonight's meal, as it nearly emptied out my housekeeping money for the rest of the week. Then I remembered it's not a normal meal, it's entertaining - which thankfully is under its own budget. I think the way to make it fair is to cost the whole meal, divide between the number of persons eating and multiply by two, that two being DH and me. Then that much of the meal comes out of our feeding ourselves at home, and the rest is entertaining. Of course, that doesn't entirely hang together as we are having a meal out tomorrow which will all come under entertaining... I'm not sure I've got the hang of this but I'll stick with allocating it that way for now.

I also bought a big pack of loo rolls (small packs don't last long in this household) then bought another later as it was marked down considerably for having one roll missing - so that's £3 spent that strains the budget this week but gives us more slack in future. Oh, and a bottle of wine for the recipe - I don't like it to drink but it goes well in a meaty casserole and there's plenty left for next time (and the time after: could be a lot of meaty casseroles coming up!).


I spent the afternoon cooking and the meal went down as well as my abysmal pastry will allow! I made a huge vat of custard to wash it down so will probably be eating that for the rest of the week, but it was useful as the custard used up some short-dated milk and a treacle tart got through some spare bread.

I realised not so long ago that I am actually at work tomorrow, which is weird when I thought it was a day off but there's nota lot I can do about it apart from try to get to bed quite soon.

Spending:
Entertainment £11.83
Housekeeping £13.46
MS:
Cooked from scratch including the pastry, so saved a few pence somewhere.
Used up sundries from the kitchen
Gained other sundries (wine, onions, potatoes) for the kitchen
Bargain loo roll

Cherryfudge

That was a sufficiently long shift to justify buying chocolate afterwards!

I've also made a £1 payment through to the builder to check I have the correct account details, and when he's confirmed he's received it, the rest of the deposit goes through. I've just checked the account it will come out of and DH's pay is in. I haven't put any into savings in October, just the mortgage OP, but that's planned because it means there will be enough in the right place to pay the stove bill. After that I need to think about Christmas, so there will definitely be some coming out of savings one way or another, though I'm hoping most of it will be back in there by the beginning of December. We really have made a dint in the savings with this work on the house on top of our big holiday, so I need to continue to be deliberate. I've remembered, however, that the laptop and Kindle both need new batteries - the Kindle's one is deteriorating day by day now - and I've promised us a really nice new bedsheet so we can sleep in as much comfort as possible.

Tonight we are going out for pizza... DH decided this so I don't have to spend time cooking after work and I must admit I am looking forward to it. We are taking our guest plus H and A too so it should be nice evening with minimal stress but I am going to wash my hair and have a lie down when I've finished this post so I don't get too tired and beyond being sleepy later. Another early start tomorrow and every day till Monday - early starts are not my thing.

Spending:
Housekeeping £2.73
MS:
Yellow stickered dried egg whites to make royal icing in December (which reminds me I must feed the cake!)
Wombled 20p
10th coin savings £1.20
Decluttering
None

Cherryfudge

H and A very kindly paid for our meal, so a free evening out! It was nice, too.

We've since cleared what we can of the lounge, ready for the builder, and I paid the deposit for the work. I got my hair washed but not my lie-down so I'm fairly tired now and about to head off to bed.

Onebrokelady

I sympathise with your son and student finance,my daughter was also hoping to work but has placements which make it hard,luckily she manages to get bank shifts at our hospital,she worked there before she went to uni,she normally covers holidays and luckily her placement finishes at the beginning of December so she should be free if any shifts come up
It is hard for them though

Cherryfudge

Onebrokelady wrote: »

I sympathise with your son and student finance,my daughter was also hoping to work but has placements which make it hard,luckily she manages to get bank shifts at our hospital,she worked there before she went to uni,she normally covers holidays and luckily her placement finishes at the beginning of December so she should be free if any shifts come up
It is hard for them though

DS is convinced it will take an impossible amount of time to get on bank (that's just how he thinks). It's his final year so I wish he would get his name down even if he only gets a very small amount of work, and hopefully that will give him more experience as well as income.
On the other hand I do see his point that he needs to be able to study as much as possible.
I won't get on my high horse about funding to train nurses, suffice it to say the word 'short-sighted' comes into it somewhere.

Cherryfudge

A positive day at work and I came home to an amazing transformation: the lounge is now minus the old fireplace and looks much more spacious as the workmen have opened up a very generous cavity lined with old bricks. It's rather beautiful even as it is, in its unfinished state, and everyone keeps going to stare at it! Tomorrow they hope to finish and have the stove up and running for us by the end of the day.

On the downside the raddled plaster took one look at them and dropped in a large sheet! The brickwork is visible rather further than we'd intended. As some of that room has already been replastered, it's not surprising.

I had to pop to the shops for tea and biscuits, having forgotten those basic necessities, so no NSD today.

Spending:
Housekeeping £5.77

HairyHandofDartmoor

Your new fireplace cavity sounds lovely. We had a similat experience when we opened up a boarded fireplace in our breakfast room and found a false lintel concealed a much larger opening . What were the extras that cost £500? It's probably worth getting it perfect I think or it would have niggled you.

Cherryfudge

How exciting that must have been, Hairy! I must admit I would love to use a particular very large fireplace at Mum's old house for a woodburner, those huge old fireplaces are so lovely.

The stove is in and looking lovely. The boys are trying to relight the fire in it, to great hilarity. I think it's a good job the man is coming back tomorrow to finish various bits of wall and chimney and install the multi-fuel insert, because I think we have a bit to learn about stove fires!

The multi fuel insert was £150, the logstore was £100 and then the electrician and downlighters were another £280... £530 more than our original spec but the lights double the effect and the whole thing has opened up the room noticeably.

I got in from work to find they were still busy, so I decided to get out in the fresh air (it's still dusty here despite them cleaning up after themselves) and had the choice of going to town for a coffee, having a nice healthy walk somewhere or going to the shops. I did manage to save a couple of pounds or so by going to BeeandEm, and bought some bits towards Christmas as well, so now I need to sort out what comes off which budget.

The lounge is semi-habitable (but rather smokey as the first few fires are meant to burn off residue and somehow temper the stove for future use, if I've understood rightly), the dining room is a complete mess of things moved from the lounge including stacks of dusty books which we didn't expect to have to move at all, and the garden is covered in boxes, dust and ladders. I'm headed for the bath then bed!

I think the cold that's been going the rounds may have reached me, so it's going to be an early night tonight.

Spending:
Housekeeping £4.84
Gifts £10.49
Donation 20p
I have transferred some money to DS from the account that DH's wages pay into - it turned out to be timely as his phone has stopped holding charge and he needs it, so he's replaced it today. I think we will be picking up MOT costs in a couple of weeks, too.
MS:
Dinner from stores.
Resisted coffee 'out' and got a 49p drink instead.
Wombled 1p.
Confession:
I'm spent up for housekeeping already this week. in fact I may be 1p overspent, but I paid some change out of the wrong pot in order to have the right money earlier this week and decided it all evens out in the end, then a couple of coins fell out of my purse and I couldn't tell for sure where they came from either, so this isn't going to be accurate. The good news is DH should be picking up the tab for weekend meals.
Decluttering:
I've vaguely thought about it haven't actually done anything.

HairyHandofDartmoor

Your new stove sounds lovely Cherry. You'll be able to enjoy it more when everything else is clean and tidy.

I meant when the mess the builders made is gone :rotfl:

Cherryfudge

HairyHandofDartmoor wrote: »

Your new stove sounds lovely Cherry. You'll be able to enjoy it more when everything else is clean and tidy.

Ah... that will be while, then