Light the fire...

woodfired

Morning.

Feeling better today after a much more restful night's sleep. I was so tired Monday and yesterday after dreaming/fretting about the cat all of Sunday night, I kept wondering if I should have got her to the vets sooner.

The customer finally coughed up yesterday (still waiting on another, smaller, payment) so order is restored to the accounts. I had 'lost' £600 in my spreadsheet somewhere so the savings looked fairly pathetic but I've managed to track it down and correct the mistake, looking much better now. I don't think i'll hit my end of year target though as its all so volatile with our new venture at the moment. We are OK/great til the end of Feb but who knows after that. Hopefully we will remain busy but only time will tell. For this reason I need to keep my assets liquid (:rotfl:) so daren't OP too much in case we need the cash. The cash is sat there so the target could be met theoretically but I just daren't at the moment!!

In other news, I am used up some out of date chicken and veggies at the shop to make a chicken casserole for dinner last night (using shop's electricity too ) I had some left over potatoes in the fridge at home to have with it so roasted them with some seasoning and it was lovely.
Lunch has been scavenged from the shop's kitchen fridge all week (corned beef sandwich anyone? ) so has cost me nothing (well, almost nothing). I haven't been shopping properly for about 10 days so must order an online shop, we are running out of fresh fruit/veg.

Tonight's dinner will be an eat-up of the chilli con carne from sunday and last night's chicken casserole. Quick and easy as I am out at boxing at 6pm.

I have decided I am going to continue with my little cash envelope savings (kept at work) next year. Cash at home just disappears but if I empty my purse each week at work and leave it there, I will see how much I can save without noticing (or dipping in to it!). It worked really well for the cash Christmas presents and I didn't miss the bits of cash at all. I suppose its like tilly tidy for your purse?! :T

Hope everyone is prepped for christmas and enjoying the run-up.xx

woodfired

Hello All,

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Been very busy round here (as I suppose it is everywhere!) but finally pretty much finished for Christmas. Phew. Most jobs done, just a bit of wrapping left to finish and a few cards to post by hand locally. It's been tricky at work, ensuring everything has been ordered and enough to last us through the period of reduced deliveries. Hopefully I have managed it but only time will tell if my guess-timates were accurate enough!! I have a few hours to work on Christmas eve and an hour on boxing day but aside from popping in and overseeing things, I'm done now til the new year.

In money news, the grocery spends seem really low this month, only £155 spent so far, including the Christmas "big shop". I put this down to me using up out of date stock quite a bit and making use of wholesalers and their offers eg. 48 toilet rolls for under £10 (good quality ones too). I must carry this on as it has made such a difference to our budget.
Other spending seems to have been really low too, we seem to have sorted most of the xmas presents in Nov, so activity on the accounts has been really reduced this month (and much easier to track!)
Both businesses seem to be doing ok finally. A last minute order for DHs business that was paid for immediately put us firmly in the black just before the christmas shut-down so things are looking good for the new year. Our main customer has confirmed large orders for Jan and into Feb so hopefully things will be less bumpy in the near future.
My little shop is also ticking along nicely. We are starting to see the effect sacking the member of staff that was stealing is having on the bank account, it seems to be a marked improvement. This makes us ponder just how much was being siphoned off. Very frustrating but too late to rectify now. At least we did eventually realise and put a stop to it.

Finally, we have welcomed a new member of the family. A 10 week old Blue Short Haired kitten called Ralph. He is gorgeous, loving and playful and the children love him (as do the adults!). He has settled in really well but is very cheeky and makes it very hard to type at times (sat on the keyboard!).

Right, I have cards to deliver. I hope everyone has a peaceful and happy Christmas. All the best.xx

greent

Happy Christmas to you and yours x

woodfired

Thanks greent, hope you had a lovely christmas with your family too.

Just a quick check-in, not very much to report at all from this twilight zone that is the period between Christmas and New Year.... quality street anyone?!!

We have had a ridiculously busy Christmas, tonight will be the first evening spent at home in 9 days and I am so ready for it. It has been crazy. On the plus side we have had a lovely time and most of it has been parties at family and friends so fairly cheap.
We did have a family meal out on Friday but Mum and Dad had a voucher for £100 which they kindly knocked off before we split the rest so only £50 for four of us including drinks and desserts and a decent tip.

The shop has been really busy over Christmas with fab takings which will put us in a strong position going into the leaner months of Jan and Feb where everyone has given up their profitable habits such as drinking/smoking and eating!! I have also only had to work the bare minimum so I feel like I haven't missed out on the school hols and am well rested.

I have yet to do any food shopping since the 19th of Dec, bar milk and bread. This is thanks, once again, to the hospitality of our hosts this week. I have just cooked a ham I bought for christmas and glazed it with treacle, this will be dinner with baby potatoes and salad. I also found 5 king scallops whilst freezer diving this morning, so I fried them with bits of bacon and garlic in butter and had with a glass of prosecco for lunch did I mention this weird time of year when anything goes??! :rotfl: They were delicious!! I shall have to venture out for some shopping soon, although I may be able to stretch it til Wednesday. We'll see.

Tomorrow's plans are dinner out then back to a friends down the road for drinks and dancing to see in the new year. Then my detox must begin .

Happy new year everyone!xx

woodfired

Happy new year to everybody!!

Phew, back to work after a very busy but lovely Christmas. Lots to sort out/catch up on at work but I have got on with it today and am almost back on top of everything!!

We had a nice new year's eve, dinner out then a few drinks and nibbles at our friend's down the road. Yesterday I was tired and a little delicate but made it to @sda early-ish so as to get organised for back to work. We had spent very little on food (shopping) in December so yesterdays was a big shop to re-stock for batch cooking and back to work etc.

Yesterday afternoon was spent making big batches of chilli con carne, pasta bolognaise and corned beef hash. These will be lunch/dinner for the next couple of weeks with a few quick meals such as omlettes thrown in for variation! At least there is food in the fridge for when we get back from work cold and tired. I love feeling prepared. They are all healthy versions too, which will hopefully help me get back on track with my eating, it's got a bit out of control over xmas!! :rotfl: I am also going to do dry January to help the bank balance and waistline (hopefully anyway!).

In other news we have booked our summer holiday 10 days in our caravan on a beautiful site in Norfolk. We plan to take our bikes, hire boats on the broads and generally have a 'doing' holiday rather than sitting by a pool/on the beach (which the children were bored by last year). I am so excited about it! The best bit is it was only £550 on a premier pitch with water hook up and grey water drainage. Bargain. We got lots of kit for our caravan off the in-laws for Christmas so are prepared for longer stays away from home. :beer:

I am not doing resolutions as such this year. Not yet anyway. I am going to see what the accountants say about or tax position at the end of Jan and plan from there. There has been so much upheaval these past 12 months that we could owe thousands or barely anything. This makes it hard to plan financially so I am going to hold off and set some goals in early Feb. I do resolve, however, to keep on being frugal where possible, without impacting too much on our family life and experiences. Its a balancing act, but a worthwhile one.

Happy new year all.x

woodfired

Afternoon.

Busy day today. The children are still off school and were itching to spend some vouchers they got for christmas so we have ventured into town this morning. I have exchanged a smart watch I got for xmas off DH for one with a HR function, taken a top back that Mum bought me (£35 on a gift card - not ideal but didn't have Mum's card for a refund) and spent kiddies gift vouchers. I also bought some large storage boxes for my decluttering mission in kids bedrooms and the office.

I have also tackled the cupboard of doom in the kitchen today, which is a large dresser packed with about 4 years worth of junk/paperwork/cards/electrical cables etc. It took ages and certainly looked worse before it got better but I'm so glad it's done and all of the paperwork is sorted through and filed away. I am determined to not let it get so bad ever again!!

I now have the weekend and Monday to do the 3 rooms mentioned above. I got a good deal on a nice new wardrobe for DS's room which is badly needed. It arrives Tuesday and I want the room decluttered, rearranged and ready for it to go straight in to. It will give hanging space for clothes storage and he will be able to store toys and games at the bottom under his hanging rail. The spring cleaning has really got underway.

woodfired

Success today on the decluttering front. I tackled DS's room last night, emptied every drawer and toy box, rearranged furniture and liberated 3 bin bags of junk/old toys/clothes. All ready now for his new wardrobe and a much better layout.

This morning I did DD's room. Shifted some furniture from the office (never used as an office!) to give her a desk for her new laptop and all her stationary bits. We got 5(!!) bags of junk from her room and a further 2 from the "office" next door.

DH thought I was crazy but I've taken it to the tip this afternoon (he thought I should do it on Mon) I just wanted the junk gone, not piled up looking at me for another 2 days. Some of that stuff has been waiting for the tip for 2 years so it needed gone asap. I have 2 bags of clothes for CS but they will wait til Monday. The whole place just needs a good wipe down and hoover round and we are straight, which is lovely. :beer:

Whilst at the tip a guy had a load of large builders tonne bags, I asked if I could have the and he shoved them in the boot for me. DH uses them at work for scrap wood and they cost £3 each, I got about 10 for free.

So Monday is now looking like a pretty free day given that I've done all of my clearing out by Saturday evening . I'm off to hoover round and finish off whilst I'm on a roll!xx

woodfired

Felt a bit under the weather today but carried on with my decluttering. I thought I'd finished but seem to keep finding drawers to empty and sort through. I've also tackled the washing mountain that had grown in our room following the emptying of the office that I use as a laundry room. I spent a relaxing couple of hours in our room with the TV on, ironing and sorting it all before finally putting neatly away. I think DH is worried I'm pregnant and nesting. I bl00dy hope not! :rotfl:

Tomorrow I have the day off and it's back to school. All uniform and lunches ready to go. My plans include nipping out to buy some bits for the house including coat hooks, storage boxes and light bulbs. January sales here I come :rotfl:. Mum has also heard of my clearing out successes and has now roped me in to help her so will have to spend a couple of hours sorting through Mum's junk at some point tomorrow. As if I haven't enough of my own to organise!!

woodfired

Wednesday afternoon already!
I had a productive day off on Monday, bought a few useful bits for the house including new ceiling light fittings to replace a couple of broken ones (cheap ones fitted by the electrician) which DH installed. I also picked up a couple of shower curtain rails very cheaply to use as hanging rails in a built in cupboard in the office where I dry my washing. This means i can hang stuff on coat-hangers to dry then put straight into wardrobes, they are placed near the hot water tank so lovely and warm and things are drying really quickly (and out of sight) Result.

We have been making an extra effort to use up all food and so far nothing has been wasted. I used up some ancient broccoli and cauli with some out of date Stilton to make soup for DH. Manky veg was roasted with onions and sweet potatoes and eaten with other meals then the remainder of that went into a frittata with frozen, out of date, chorizo, some peas and sliced new potatoes from a tin. That was dinner last night and today's lunches with salad. Tonight I'm planning on stretching out a YS rump steak with lentils and some more roasted veg and maybe a few sweet potato fries that the wholesalers had mistakenly priced at 48p (so I bought 8 bags!!).
I still have loads of sprouts to eat but I love them so that won't be a hardship.
Then I will need to do a food shop I think as we're running low on fresh fruit and veg. And cat food!

Hazelnutty

Great effort on making the food stretch out, Woodfired!