Light the fire...

lucielle

yum! Tea sounds delicious

L

woodfired

Today I am battling the perfume shop & royal mail. I returned a parcel at the start of Jan, a bottle of perfume for DD that was the wrong one. Heard nothing from them despite emailing several times. Royal mail says parcel held at sorting office as unable to deliver (delivery address not accepting deliveries!) No new tracking info since 12/1. Now tried to claim compensation as getting nowhere with perfume shop but can't as over 30 days since posting. Very, very frustrating. Rang royal mail, 60 + min wait to speak to someone so eventually found an email address and will see if they can send the parcel back to me but not very hopeful. What a nightmare. It was £50 so I'm not giving up despite DH saying it might be a lost cause. If I get it back I can return in person to a shop as returns are within 90 days - if it turns up in time that is. Grrrrrr.

@Lucielle tea was really good if I do say so myself. I found some red shrimp in the freezer and fried up in garlic & paprika butter to top my pasta, they were delicious and from @aldi I think. Rest of the family had with chicken as planned and it was a hit.

Tonight's dinner is less fancy; egg, chips & beans with buttered white bread. A real northern nostalgic tea but good for when the fridge is bare!

Bargainhunter30

Can you claim via bank? Did you pay by card,?

woodfired

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81877443#Comment_81877443

Thanks BH, I did pay by debit card. Unexpectedly, they reimbursed me for the whole order (it was buy one, get one half price), not just the item I was trying to return. Feel a little guilty about that but also feel like I earned the extra after all the hassle. At least it was resolved and hopefully the last of my issues with refunds/dodgy retailers.

woodfired

Back in cold blighty after a wonderful and warm holiday in Fuerteventura. I did not want to come back!

Not a very MSE week, two growing offspring mean we now effectively feed 4 adults which gets expensive but it was sunny and warm and we walked, swam and relaxed. It's been blissful.

A delay on the way home though meant that we didn't get to bed until 4.15am so I'm feeling very grateful for my preps today. I'd frozen bread, milk, and bacon for breakfast before we left and had a homemade lasagne in the freezer that we have enjoyed for tea tonight. It was good to have home cooked comfort food with zero effort when we are so tired.

I spent the rest of today washing clothes, doing the payroll, paying invoices and generally catching up on life & work. The 'clean' suitcase is unpacked and put away and the dirty is 50% washed. I often leave the cases half unpacked on the landing (its a big space so easy to ignore items & clutter as they are not in the way) so I'm making a conscious effort not to do that, everything will be clean, dry and put away (including the cases in the attic) by tomorrow evening, I promise!

Right, I've held out long enough, off to bed for an early night.

woodfired

I am doing well with my washing & putting away, final load in the machine now and the rest is drying. Put away all the dry stuff and toiletries/shoes/other bits from the cases so the house feels much more organised once again..

I have also decluttered some paperwork in the office whilst looking for DH bank login details. Came across a financial statement that I had done back in Jan 2023 of all our loans and assets, working out our net worth. It was interesting to do the same exercise this morning. Our liabilities have dropped by just over £101 000 in that time but our net worth has increased by £400k! Helped by us buying the workshop with only a small loan that is now only £20k and the new roof and renovations helping to double it's value. The house value has also increased significantly since we bought it and I was probably undervaluing it a bit back then. Anyway a 7 figure net worth has made me feel much better about increasing our borrowing last month. It's amazing how chipping away at these debts adds up over time.

South_coast

That sounds fantastic, glad it's given you a boost 👍

woodfired

Thanks Southcoast! It was another little boost.

Just meal planning for the week, going to nip to the supermarket shortly and have a very limited list that I am determined to stick to. Planning to make a fridge bottom cream of veg soup today to use up some veg that was left whilst we went on holiday and is looking a bit wrinkly now. Tea will be yellow sticker steak from the freezer with cauli cheese I made yesterday. Trying the roasting cauli method to hopefully prevent the watery issue I get with boiled veg. Not sure the children will be keen though, it tastes very 'cauliflowery' :lol:

All my holiday washing was completed and put away along with all the other bits, we are back to normal and the sunshine seems a lifetime ago as is always the case when you come home. Had a lovely catch up with friends in the local yesterday and I'd left a minted lamb stew in the slow cooker so avoided a take away, just chucked some chips in the AF when we got home and it was delicious. Going to freeze the rest to make a hotpot at a later date.

All the back to school stuff is prepped & done so once I've been shopping I can light the fire and relax. Happy Sunday x

woodfired

A quiet five minutes for an update.

I've made a quick tea of meat and potato pie to use up leftovers from a roast this weekend. DH and DS have popped to the golf club to play a few holes in the nice weather now that the evenings are a bit lighter so dinner will be served when they get back in the next half an hour or so. Thought I'd nip on here whilst the pie bakes and I have a bit of peace….

Sunshine!! Oh how lovely it is to have some sun. I've dried 3 loads of washing over the last couple of days and there is no smell like line-dried laundry. It's a shame I'd only just changed the bedding on Sunday, I was tempted to strip and re-wash it but that seemed a bit ridiculous!

We have been making the most of the good weather sorting the motorhome, garage and some of the garden. Garage is now all tidy and organised, in the garden some furniture has been relocated and overgrown areas cut back, cleared and swept. I've brought my 'bulb lasagne' pots out from behind the garage and placed by the front door, I'm excitied to see how they look over the next few weeks. The citrus bushes are also doing really well by the window in the garage with lots of new growth, they were badly damaged by frost last winter despite being in the greenhouse, the garage must be much warmer as they seem to have loved being in there. I'm hoping for some fruit this year as they spent all last summer recovering and didn't do much at all.

DH has been cleaning the MH, it goes green on the roof due to being parked under the huge trees that surround us so now all cleaned up, MOT and service done last week and some jobs done inside too, looking forward to getting away in it now.

Not much happening on the money front, all ticking along so good news I supppose? Anyway, I shall go and bring in my washing and light the fire as it still isnt all that warm yet.

woodfired

I'm enjoying this milder weather, even if the sun is a bit scarce. Still makes me want to be outside and 'doing'.

Friday we had our annual garden centre trip to the big one about 45 mins away. Bought the greenhouse veg plants for the summer ahead. Strictly limited myself to 5 toms, 3 cucumbers and a couple of chillis, I have learnt the hard way over the past few years that I don't have room for anything else!

Picked up a couple of trays of sweet peas as part of Mum's birthday present, some tiny baby fuschias for future hanging baskets and some in-flower primroses that were on offer. The latter have gone into pots by the front door and into the corner border that faces the drive entrance on the front so the most visible bits of the house have been cheered up by some pretty flowers. Many of my autumn planted bulbs are also now making an appearance and some are flowering, it's nice to enjoy the fruits of my labours as I remember planting them on a damp, grey November afternoon last year.