Put away your purse & become debt-averse

Baileys_Babe

Thank you @foxgloves for mentioning Delia's little cheesy rolls, they sound good and I like that she gives instructions on cooking them from frozen. We have all the ingredients in the house now I just need to find the time to make them. I can see these turning into a family favourite.

foxgloves

You're welcome, @Baileys_Babe. If I don't have any cream in the fridge, I just substitute 3tbsp beaten egg. The rest of the egg can be used as egg wash with a bit of water for glazing the tops before baking. These are defo a family favourite here. Nephews can polish off a pile of them in no time & Mr F's not much better!
F x

QueenJess

I like the sound of those too… am off to look them up!

I do like to cook, but just don’t get the time I want. DS even had a big strop because I wouldn’t let him accompany me into the shower earlier. I was desperate for time to myself, even 10 mins is a luxury!

Am considering doing some turkey stock with the turkey for Xmas, but just not sure whether I can face it with the in laws here as well. May see what happens..

I did manage to dig out a box of orange peel from the freezer, candied them and dipped them in dark chocolate. They are so good that I’m having to ration myself 😂

foxgloves

Am envious of people who can successfully candy peel, @QueenJess. I've attempted it 2 or 3 times & only managed to produce soggy, slightly sweet orange peel. That was years ago though, so I think I will try experimenting with it again next autumn with a view to producing the amount I need for my Christmas cake recipe.
F x

QueenJess

foxgloves said:

Am envious of people who can successfully candy peel, @QueenJess. I've attempted it 2 or 3 times & only managed to produce soggy, slightly sweet orange peel. That was years ago though, so I think I will try experimenting with it again next autumn with a view to producing the amount I need for my Christmas cake recipe.
F x

I followed the BBC good food recipe and after I added the final sugar (put it in a box and shook it all up as it’s much better and faster), I took it out for another airing the next day when I added the chocolate and that seemed to dry it all out nicely.

I also stored it on some kitchen paper in the box to soak up anything extra.

foxgloves

Grrrrrr, my reply to @QueenJess just got eaten! I'm just watching the livestreaming of the sunrise over Stonehenge,.but I really do need to be cracking on, so as to leave this afternoon free for baking.
Winter solstice blessings to you all, 
F x

foxgloves

Afternoon Campers!
Just had a sweep-up as there seemed to be flour everywhere! After watching the solstice sunrise from Stonehenge, I did the ironing, tidied, then baked 2 dozen sausage rolls - now frozen for over the Christmas period & for a small family get-together on 2nd if such things are allowed by then. Also baked a trifle sponge & made bread sauce. Is there anything as festive as the smell of freshly grated nutmeg? Simple pleasures. Did a small amount of financial admin & dealt with today's post. I've popped on here to do my last festive spendy sins post, then I intend to switch the tree lights on, light my scented candle (birthday gift, @Blackcats, in case you thought I'd had a relapse, lol!), play a medieval Christmas carol CD & read. I'm reading a book about the 1918/19 flu pandemic. There are so many parallels with Covid, I am very keen to see how the situation back then ended. My Grandma could remember the flu pandemic. She was about 14 - the only one who didn't get ill & had to nurse her poorly Mum & 3 sisters (no Dad on the scene as he died during the Great War). Even though it is quite a while since I took VR from work, it's funny how reading in the daytime still feels like a big luxury, hence something I don't often do.
Feeling quite festive now, but in a low key, peaceful way.
F x

foxgloves

Past Spendy Sins of Christmas
No. 10 - Getting all giddy in the January sales
Right, troops! Hands up all of you who have wasted silly amounts of cashola in the January sales simply because the item was reduced? (That would be both hands in the air from me......& feet, were I that flexible). Too many examples of this to list, so I have just picked one. This 'lovely' was a large long lambswool cardi/wrap type of garment. It was very unstructured & loose & reached down to my knees. It would probably be called a 'coatigan' today but its lack of structure means it was much more of a wrap in terms of usefulness..................as in, not very! It kept falling off my shoulders, was very fine wool, so not very warm & it was cream. I never willingly wore cream. It didn't (& still doesn't) do anything for my colouring. So why did I buy it? Well, I would categorise this as one of those garments one sees in the sales & it seems such a good price reduction that it would be foolish, if not actually borderline criminally negligent, to leave it in the shop. I seem to remember I paid £79, so it was probably marked down from well over £100. I'm talking a good few years ago so that was a lot more money then than it sounds now. I was fully expecting my family & friends to be admiring of my canny purchase, but nobody really did. It wasn't really very useful either....clearly a winter garment because of the size of it, it wasn't very warm at all, as I discovered having arranged to meet a friend in the city square when her bus was late. There was a nithering wind, all of which cut through my £79 of cream wool like a knife. I don't think I wore it more than a handful of times. I remember catching sight of my reflection in a full length mirror & thinking I looked like a p*ssed-off polar bear which was out doing its shopping. I used it as a dressing gown for a couple of months after that, then it went off to a local Salvation Army clothing collection in a bin bag. What a waste! So much as I still enjoy a good rummage in the sales, if it isn't a garment I liked sufficiently at full price, I won't be tempted into buying something that's 'only ok' because it is half price. 
Good January sales purchases, of course, as we all know, are the Christmas items which will be half price as soon as Boxing Day ticks around - Christmas cards, gift wrap, gift bags, etc, I found gift wrap & packs of festive paper napkins for 10p last January, also sets of nice plain white fairy lights for 50p. I have occasionally found the perfect item in the January sales to put away for somebody's future Christmas present, but again, there are pitfalls here. I recall the first January after our LBM, I spotted a bay of reduced stuff in a shop & bought a brass photo frame for one of my friends. I bought it because it was reduced to about a third of its original price & priced at £3. I felt quite smug as I was packing it away into the presents stash, but when Autumn rolled around & I was looking through what I'd got, I decided there was no way I could give my good friend anything as plain bloody dull & boring as that frame.........or anyone else for that matter. As for keeping it, I wouldn't give it house room! So off to the charity shop it went. Only £3. But a waste, because I was tempted by the reduction, not by any sense of it being a perfect gift for anyone. Other January sales bargainaceousness I've fallen foul of........toiletry gift sets.....often reduced by a lot, but in the cold light of day, there are probably 2 products I like & use regularly in the box, plus several smaller bottles of stuff I'm not fussed about & the obligatory nylon bath scrunchie which I swear start breeding when there are two of them together in a dark cupboard! I know there are some genuine bargains to be found in this line, but lots of tat lurking too.
I could go on about this Spendy Sin at length, but I do want to have a bit of leisure time with my book this afternoon, so I will end by telling you about how, back in my student days/early 20s, I would round up all my Christmas money & head off to into Cambridge with my Mum & sister. We'd have the most fab time rummaging through the sales. When we got back, my old Nana would ask me what I'd bought. Then she'd say "And how much money have you brought back with you?" Obviously that answer was usually zero, or pretty close to it. She would puff her cheeks out & tell me I should always 'Spend half & save half'.......because, as she put it, then "all those saved halves are there when you have nothing to spend". This was very wise advice. Another 2 decades passed before I realised the irrefutable good sense of it.
I'll probably post tomorrow, then maybe have a little break over Christmas,
Stay cosy & more importantly, covid-free,
F xx 

 

Tescodealqueen

Oh foxgloves, toiletries in the January sale!!!! I used to work in Sheffield and first discovered the B**ts 75% off sale by accident walking up Fargate. I did get some great bargains then and maybe the following year. I then spent a few years buying in it just for the reduction and wasted more than I used. Was cured of my addiction when I mistakenly ventured to the local huge shopping centre branch for said sale and was almost knocked over in the rugby scrum that took place there, as Fargate was always very civilised and friendly. It’s a shame that I didn’t realise myself that I really didn’t need any of it rather than be convinced of the fact by such an unruly mob. Rarely venture to any after Christmas (since some of them start online on Christmas Day these days) sales as I try to reuse gift bags and make my own Christmas cards. Just got down to the last new 10pence down from £1.50 gift bag this year and I am mourning their loss.

foxgloves

@Tescodealqueen - I think the lure of the toiletries gift sets in the sales is because it's so soon after Christmas shopping, we know what they originally cost. I can be an absolute devil for reduced B*dySh*p gift boxes but these days, I know it works out a better deal for me to buy 2 or 3 of their full sized body butters in the sale (I use this product all year round), rather than a box containing one of them with other products I don't prioritise or tiny sizes which don't last long. Mr F once got a good skincare box set at sale price. 2 products, both of which he needed, & worked out much cheaper than buying them individually. The box was Christmassy, so I suppose the shop just needed to clear the stock.
F