Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Greetings readers,
I was seriously lacking in motivation this morning - Friday is my big weekly cleaning day - but once I actually got going, I rediscovered my mojo & have been quite productive. I've cleaned the house, baked the sourdough loaf I mixed up yesterday, emptied all the bins, tidied, trekked to the bottom of the garden with the compost bucket, finished the meal plans for next week, written the grocery shopping list & done a couple of surveys. I've also got a nice recipe (well, it's hopefully nice, I haven't made it before!) in the slow cooker for a Valentine's Day meal tonight. It's a Greek beef dish from my favourite slow cooker book -"I love (as in "I heart") my slow cooker" & it is certainly starting to smell rather interesting. I was racking my brains for a dessert, but actually, I've cheated.....I've defrosted the leftover boozy fruit which I saved when I strained & bottled my blackberry & pear gin before Christmas. I'm going to add a bit more sugar to taste, heat it up, & serve it on meringue nests topped with cream for the half of the relationship which doesn't have a dodgy gallbladder (i.e not me!) & Skyr on the other one. We've had this before & it does make a nice boozy dessert from something which would otherwise be thrown away. So nomnom to all that,hopefully. Have set the table & with one of the free bottles of wine we fetched on Wednesday, one thing I DO know is that our Valentine's night at home is going to cost us a damn sight less than if we had planned to go out. It did cross our minds, but I'm glad we decided not to. 
Still no quote from the builders. I did wonder if maybe he'd pop it through the door tonight - kind of thinking it'd give us the weekend to think about it, but to be fair, we want a range of stuff doing & he did say he would quote for each job individually. I prefer that, actually, as it means greater knowledge in terms of how much each element will cost. I'm trying not to get too twitchy about it, but will admit that I'm eyeing the doormat every time I go past to see if anything's come through the door!
Ah well, as my Mum used to say "A watched pot never boils!"
Anyway, I shall crack on. Enjoy your evenings all.
F x

PurpleFairy26

Enjoy your evening foxgloves. Sounds lovely. 

Lemon_Tree

Enjoy your meal. We're about to start work, hopefully, on our house so the one thing I can tell you is that in my experience builders aren't in a hurry to give you a price, they're generally really busy and paperwork doesn't seem to be top of their list. It's bloody frustrating for us control freaky folk. 

foxgloves

Agree, Lemontree. It IS frustrating & I do like to be in control of these things. I think quoting for each part of the work separately will also take the builder more time. He did defo seem to want the work though, so I'll try to be patient.
F x

foxgloves

OK, so this is how I'd planned the weekend:
Sat - Greenhouse tasks with flask of coffee, pop out for grocery shopping, then a bit of weeding & clearing in the garden.
Sun - Visit local(ish)( snowdrop event which we always really enjoy.
What is actually happening:
Sat - Grocery shopping
Sun- Staying in as snowdrop event cancelled due to storm/high flood risk
I've always got plenty to be getting on with, even if it's knitting & watching a film, but it does seem a bit rubbish to have two weekends stymied due to weather. Although, of course, I am grateful not to have been more adversely affected & hope things stay that way.
Mr F had to work at quite short notice so I have taken the opportunity to tweak the meal plans & knock a few things off the shopping list. I got a bit carried away on meal planning day with wanting to cook a new recipe & even though there'd have been enough to feed us for two days, it does make more sense to eat through some of our ample freezer supplies, so I have subbed in pasta with home made pesto & bacon on one night & Hairy Biker vegetable curry with rice on the other. I'm also going to do my meal planning for the week after next early next week, as I saw several things in the freezer which could do with being used & if we end up with a grocery budget underspend, that's all to the good because it can be via'd to a different budget, saved till we see a good deal on something for stocking up or put towards our next Grimsby fish box order. Certainly with all the 'eating up' that is going on, this afternoon's grocery shopping shouldn't need to be too spendy. I don't think we'll hang around in town. I think we'll be more in the mood for coming home & battening down the hatches. I've almost finished the first sock from another pair I'm making from my yarn stash (more 'using up'!) so knitting + fire lit + snoring cat + a scandi-crime episode on TV & maybe a couple of chapters of my book........that'll do nicely for such a stormy night.
Stay safe & cosy all,
F x

Onebrokelady

Your plans sound perfect to me,I was going out but I'm now staying at home and sewing while listening to a podcast or two,it's definitely a day to be snuggled in the warm although I actually have my little window open at the moment because I'm having a hot moment 😂

MrsCatz

I too am sewing, finishing off some projects from last year

Blackcats

You are very organised with your meal planning.  How was the slow cooker dinner last night?  Is the recipe a keeper? 

HairyHandofDartmoor

Bad weather for two weeks in a row is annoying 🤬. I'll be glad when these storms blow themselves out. (The snowdrop event sounds lovely so it's a shame it was cancelled. I don't have any snowdrops in my garden so I must try to plant some in the autumn.) Although like you I have plenty of indoor jobs to do. I think it will be better from Monday onwards (I certainly hope so!).

Broke_Bear

Hi HHOD

snowdrops ‘take’ better if they are planted ‘in the green’. So best done around now...ish. They are quite cheap as I got 200 (100each of single and double snowdrops) for just over £20 from eurobulbs. They also do them in 50’s for about a fiver xx