The Small Things thread - can't keep us down!

DawnW

Morning all
Up early and went to a flea market. It was really cold :eek: Didn't find much to sell on, unfortunately, but did buy a nice garden (plant) climbing frame / obelisk thing for £8, a cucumber and some bargainous cheese for ourselves. OH was well enough to come too, first time for ages
Must do some cleaning today, starting with the kitchen, as OH managed to leave the grill on after grilling some bacon and filled it with smoke :eek: Did kitchen and stairs
Apart from that:
All food from home Lunch was bits from the fridge / use ups, for dinner I made a mixed bean chilli with potato wedges, which was gorgeous, much nicer than the meat version IMHO. If anyone is interested, the recipe is at https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=mixed+bean+chilli+with+potato+wedges&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-ab&gfe_rd=cr&dcr=0&ei=N1B3WqPEDob98wfP1r3QCA
I added some mushrooms, as I have some, and used yogurt for the topping instead of soured cream, as that is what I have. Don't on any account skip the dark chocolate though! I always have a bar of the stuff from Lidls in the larder, for cooking (it is only 35p or thereabouts )
Clean / sort out bathroom cabinet, as something sticky seems to have been spilt in there Done, managed to declutter / condense a few items too, much tidier now
Check banks Done
Check for surveys Not found any so far
Dog walk later, free exercise, but hope it warms up a bit :eek: OH and I did quite a substantial walk, which was great, as OH hasn't been able to do this for several months due to his back injury :T
Wood stove alight, used hot water from the kettle on top for the washing up, or at least the bits that don't go in the DW. Next lot will be for 'free' tea
Remind brother to look online for accommodation - again - doesn't seem to be having much effect :mad:. I fear he will end up sleeping in his car again, even though I have offered to pay any deposit on accommodation Am I being a rescuer again DNMS? Any suggestions for different strategies?? Apart from letting him stay here, which isn't possible as he drives us mad, and OH might end up murdering him :eek: No progress there And he is sitting opposite me breaking wind loudly and frequently, alongside other unsavoury habits, which I won't mention due to the risk it will put people off their dinner :mad:, as we speak . OH has decamped to his workshop... This will not be happening again !

allydowd

Hi February Fabulistas,

Awoken by folk re-tarmacking our road at 8am. Got straight up and began the money saving.


Debt Free-Nillionaire Continuity Plan Year Three:

* Renewed car insurance. Existing company wanted £230. Used comparethemarket.com and got it down to a respectable £150 for DW and I. That's a bit more like it! Will print documents at work.

* Checked broadband allowance and online banking.

* Gas/elec bill arrived. We're still getting used to our appliances in the new flat but I think it's all under control. I did lots of Maths and our new flat is going to be cheaper to run than our old house. :j

* Bed creaks as soon as you touch it. Locate Allen key and see if tightening the frame silences it. Well, it improves it.

* Find wrap-around sunglasses. Haven't seen them since we moved.

* DW has a milestone birthday in 5 weeks. Decisions need making.

* Making a blind to hide utility room contents (you can see boxes throug the glass door.)


Onwards and upwards.

carrielovesfanta

Oh blimmin 'eck.

You know when you can just foresee something...

Car was getting reluctant to start in the cold weather. Battery should be good and I suspected glow plugs. Said to OH that he should take it to the garage before he was left stuck without it starting.

OH did take it, along with a clunk and a blown bulb. Asked garage to look at all three. Garage called later to say that they had tightened things up and there was no charge. Now if this was me.. I would have queried this but OH didn't.

We could see that the bulb wasn't done, the clunk was gone (cos things were tightened up), but it still seemed reluctant to start. OH did his best ostrich impression.

Of course, it's cold this morning and it wouldn't start so he's now at defcon 5. Trying to formulate a plan. *sigh*

FatVonD

Dawn, could you offer him the use of your camper van (but with no ignition key) instead of having him in the house or would he ruin it?

Sorry I've not read all the posts or posted for ages but I've been doing a lot of overtime and odd hours, I will hopefully rejoin you all on Monday for the shiny new thread!

FatVonD

I'm planning on making a sign for a forthcoming craft fair I'm doing, I really wanted to buy the light up gold letters from The W0rks but it would cost about £90 plus I'd have the get something cut to stick them onto (I am kicking myself for not buying them in M&S when the Christmas decoration ones went down to half price.) Instead I have bought a large wooden clock from the bay of e and I can get laser cut letters for less than £10 which I am going to coat with gold glitter myself, it won't light up but baby steps...

Work is a frikkin' night mare at the moment and I can't wait to go back to my three days. Everyone at work is terrified of our department manager (I'm not because this job is just a means to an end for me) and there is a real culture of blame, back covering and a race to see who can crawl furthest up the manager's posterior. Most of the people there are women in their 50s and, from the offset I was warned not to trust a couple of them (one keeps a notebook with everything everyone else has done wrong to report back to the boss!) but it turns out the one who warned me can't be trusted either! Because they are all so terrified of taking the blame for anything and won't admit to their mistakes, as the *new girl* I am getting the blame for a lot of their mistakes and the boss basically doesn't believe me. Case in point, someone wasn't deboning the turkeys properly, it says on the ticket which day and part of day it was opened, I wasn't even at work that morning but blame was hurtling in my direction! I closed down the other night and, overnight, some food had been left unrefrigerated on the counter top, it wasn't there when I left, that thing had been out of stock all day, and in fact my shift leader has said he will back me up on it because he had been looking for it as a customer wanted to buy it whole so he KNOWS it wasn't there (clearly it had been put with stock for another section and the night shelf fillers found it and returned it to us but not into the fridge) but I got hauled up to the office and blamed for it. I have told my manager to look at the CCTV to find out who put it there and when but it is so alien to me being treated like a child and not being trusted to tell the truth. There are other instances where I actually know who is responsible for something I've been blamed for but, while I've denied that it was me I've not told her I knew who it was but I think I might start having to.

Anyhow, it's still better than commuting and, like I say, it's a means to an end but I've honestly never been treated like this, I've always worked in a 'professional' capacity where I've been trusted to tell the truth (I think you probably all know that, if anything, I'm guilty of over sharing, deceit just isn't in my nature!) and I don't want to end up like one of them gossiping and back stabbing!

carrielovesfanta

FatVonD - that sucks. I def couldn't be arrised with that - like you say, you're not a child!

DawnW

FatVonD wrote: »

Dawn, could you offer him the use of your camper van (but with no ignition key) instead of having him in the house or would he ruin it?

Absolutely not! I am not having him camping outside the back door either :eek: :rotfl::rotfl:
And yes, he would ruin it :mad:, and OH would go ballistic :eek:
He has his own vehicle if that is what he wants, but he won't be sleeping in that in our street either!!

Sorry work is such a nightmare Why can't you just go back to your 3 days?

FatVonD

DawnW wrote: »

Sorry work is such a nightmare Why can't you just go back to your 3 days?

I have said that I want to and I'm down to 3.5 days this week but they are short staffed, one full timer had been off sick for a few weeks (but is back now), a part timer has left and another full timer has been suspended for the theft of an extra six slices of salami on his pizza (!) though the notebook keeper who passed them to him (unasked for) is still there.

At the end of the meeting she did say again how well I've fitted in (!), and how great my customer service skills are (it's food, I don't find it hard to be knowledgeable or enthusiastic!) and that she keeps telling the manager to come over to watch how fab I am so it's not all bad :$ Just hope he doesn't come over when I'm ignoring a customer that's insisting on talking on their mobile while trying to get served :rotfl:

allydowd

* Made a blind for the Utility Room door. The blind cost £1.39 for the dowel rod. The curtain fabric DW bought years ago and has been reincarnated in a range of ways. We've fixed it up with two cup hooks from stores. Thread from stores too. I'm no sewing guru but I can run a hem in a straight line. I thought the sewing machine was broken but I actually had the tension wrong. :rotfl:

uphillstruggler

Hi everyone,

Bit late to the thread but hope everyone is well and having a good weekend.

Not been an especially moneysaving few weeks for us recently as we've moved flats. Now everything is organised and a bit more settled, however, I have managed to put my moneysaving stamp on everything

Overslept a bit this morning but needed it.
Today I have/will:
*[STRIKE]rearrange the balcony after cleaning it down the other night[/STRIKE] done - may see if I can get hold of some nice plants for it now. We had hanging baskets in the last place but no hooks here
*[STRIKE]print cleaning rota - aimed to be quick and easy, a little every day[/STRIKE] done and Sunday's task complete
*[STRIKE]change printer cartridges[/STRIKE] done
*meals from stores - healthy smoothie for breakfast and roast lamb in the oven as we speak
*[STRIKE]gas and elec meter readings in[/STRIKE] done - our elec reading is less than our moving-in reading, so something's gone wrong somewhere and I've notified the provider
*healthy eating this weekend - apart from today's roast this is going really well
*[STRIKE]shred pile of old documents[/STRIKE] done - sorted all my personal documents. Feels good
*[STRIKE]sort recycling bins[/STRIKE] done
*freecycler coming to pick up an item later so that will free up a bit more space.

Have a nice afternoon all.
US