What small DFW things will you do w/c 3rd December?

Happy_Kitties

Many thanks 1LL, doing okay, reading along when I can, it's just RL has been getting in the way.

DD back home but we were away this weekend for a sports competition. A parent had tipped us off about place to stay that was cheap as our usual place booked up. Saved money, place was good, DD and I split food costs. Stuck to my budget:T

I'm still using Amaz@n for cat food sachets. Started to get vouchers off again. The box I ordered last night-25% off and with the last of a gift card, 120 sachets have only cost £10 instead of £30+. Handy to have delivered, makes shopping in general easier:)

Decided to get my SFather a hamper from marks to be delivered nearer to Christmas. Last year they reduced them the middle of November with free delivery. No offers, nothing this year. Have kept an eye on it but nothing. Not a big Amaz@n fan but found something £5 cheaper that SFather will like so have ordered that instead for Christmas. Able to choose own delivery date.
Have also got him a couple of small presents to open on the day, but as soon as he will get them he will open them so scrapping this next year.

DD has brought boxes and packaging home with her ready for the Christmas presents send.......i refuse to pay for packaging!!

Have been pacing myself and monitoring health carefully......so far so good:)

Meal for today already done and in the fridge. Prepped in the slow cooker using YS items and any veg that was just about to walk out of the fridge!!
I'm sure I've done more savings but can't think of anything else

I hope everyone is doing okay. Feel bad I haven't been able to keep up with everything .

Have a great day everyone x

natlie

Hi All

Haven't been on for a week, where is the time going!

AllyDowd/LuckLady 5am on a Monday isnt a great start - hoep you get some rest

Ive been busy doing buffets and markets and working, managed to take yesterday off - except for chores and managed to put up remainign decorations, house is now a grotto

This orning Ive been at a meeting about Play Sufficiency for children in one of the poorest areas in Wales, was pleased to learn that it also has the highest amount of children playing outside!

This week:

Most of the laundry is done 2 loads left to do
DH should be doing dishes today while I am at work
Kitchen table needs a sort out its covered in DIY stuff and mail
Quiet week in the office so may work from home on Friday
Try to wrap some pressies
Chase £100 mum owes me
Chase £174 in outstanding invoices
Add new invoices for Wednesday Buffets
Go to the bank and pay in market cash - I've listed surplus from thr stalls on FB Marketplace
I brought lunch in today, tea is leftover dinner from yesterday

Have a good week all

Nat

foxgloves

Hello my little festive fir cones,
Useful day here so far. It's so good to get back to normal routines after all those terrible sad & stressful weeks with Mum. I feel ok most of the time....just now & again my mind is flooded with a vivid picture of how she was at the end & I feel momentarily pole-axed by it. But as someone who has had a spell of GAD in the past, I haven't succumbed to that. I actually feel quite proud of how strong I've been. So boring as my lists sound, they have been very therapeutic recently! Today's frugal tasks:
*Two baths from one lot of hot water.
*No hairdryer - got it out ready to use as was feeling chilly initially, but put it away again as a hot bath warned me up!
*Made bread rolls (on 2nd proving) & pizza base for tonight.
*Today's use-it-ups - a slightly squishy tomato dded to my lunchtime sandwich, an apple rescued by cutting out the soggy bit, as the rest was perfectly fine, last of a cut open hand cream finished, also last bit of a deodorant I didn't really like - I bought a few as they were reduced to 39p each earlier this year, but I didn't find them all that brilliant. Was determined to use them to avoid waste, but was thankful not to be the sort of sweaty old nacker who would need something to work more efficiently. A case, I think, of not every amazing bargain being........an amazing bargain.
*Filled all our little plastic boxes with dried fruit for snacks on the go.
*Sold 4 more ebay items this morning. All wrapped & ready to go tomorrow providing payment appears. Tidied up my ebay account generally. Decided to end auctions on items which have had no interest as I don't really want to be carrying on into our holiday & Christmas, so have packed those for the charity shop.
*Sorted & organised presents, cards, little boxes of preserves (for folk who are having those) into boxes & large bags to make delivery easier. We start 'seeing' people for Christmas this weekend, so I want to have everything ready & not find I've missed things & then have to pay to post them.
*Updated budgets & did banking.
*Vouchers, cash bags, parcels, etc, all ready for city centre trip tomorrow. Also booked myself in for a flu jab as thought I may as well get one while I'm already parked in town rather than have to come in again. £12 for a private jab & the first large chain I tried didn't have any vaccine left for under 65s, but I made the decision a while back to pay for a jab every year. I was completely flu-free for 30 years (despite working with the public & out in the community with children & families) but then I got it 3 years running & I felt absolutely vile......one year was particularly bad & I remember one night telling mr f that if I woke him up & asked him to take me to hospital, he was just to do it, not ask me lots of questions. So £12 is money well spent in my opinion, even if it doesn't entirely remove the risk!)
*Overnight laundry & a quick 30 mins at 30 degrees wash done & drying on the heated airer.
*Talk to mr f some more about whether we should buy our new coffee machine tomorrow. I have a £5 voucher, but our chosen machine costs £109. Past coffee machines haven't turned out to be as good as we hoped, so we are doing a lot more research this time. Neither of us have any interest in the type with 'pods' so our choice is a bit more limited. I didn't budget for buying it this month & forgot to budget for cat's vacation at the cattery later this month, so while it wouldn't do any harm to buy it, I am now very averse to spending money in advance of actually having it in our account. Hmmmm. Still thinking.....
*Read more of current library book & sort out next few to order. I made a list of titles when I was out & about over the weekend but have accidentally thrown it in the bin, so on with the rubber gloves for a rummage I think!
OK, must crack on, bread rolls should be ready to go in the oven about now.
Glad a few poorlies are starting to rally.
F x

carrielovesfanta

foxgloves wrote: »

*Talk to mr f some more about whether we should buy our new coffee machine tomorrow. I have a £5 voucher, but our chosen machine costs £109. Past coffee machines haven't turned out to be as good as we hoped, so we are doing a lot more research this time. Neither of us have any interest in the type with 'pods' so our choice is a bit more limited. I didn't budget for buying it this month & forgot to budget for cat's vacation at the cattery later this month, so while it wouldn't do any harm to buy it, I am now very averse to spending money in advance of actually having it in our account. Hmmmm. Still thinking.....

Hi foxgloves

Big hugs to you - I'm glad that you feel that you're soldiering through

RE: coffee machine, I have an espresso machine - I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for but it seems to work fine. it gets used at least twice a day and seems to tick over fine. I don't buy special espresso coffee though, I just buy bog standard ground coffee (£1.34 in Asda and it's quite nice - def recommend). I then run the water through to make an Americano style coffee.

I can't remember the make off the top of my head but it might be Delonghi
EDIT: just googled it and it's a DeLonghi ECO310

1LuckyLady

Foxgloves, glad to hear that you are doing ok. We lost my Grandmother this time last year and I had reminders both from M00npig and my Hotmail calendar that it would have been her birthday this week, it all came flooding back and floored me a bit really


Re coffee machines, dh has a fancy [read expensive] "pod" one and it annoys me every day!! (I am not a huge coffee drinker but love the smell of freshly brewed coffee)

The kids weren't impressed when they saw it was stew for tea as I didn't have any dumplings to go with it! I checked the slow cooker and the meat still seemed a bit tough so I've stuck it back on high for a bit and the kids were really happy with the homemade roasted veg soup with 2 slices of easy peasy pizza (aka cheese & tomato puree on toast) then the stewed fruit and a spoonful of yogurt instead.

allydowd

foxgloves wrote: »

*Talk to mr f some more about whether we should buy our new coffee machine tomorrow. I have a £5 voucher, but our chosen machine costs £109. Past coffee machines haven't turned out to be as good as we hoped, so we are doing a lot more research this time.

It's a long story, a lifetime ago, but I was once held a 6 month directorship of a tea room. (Don't ask!)

My preferred coffee is instant. :rotfl:

However, had you thought of looking at suppliers of "proper coffee shop machines" for their home-brew models?

Gaggia, for example, makes home machines and they have an outlet shop. They also sell refurbished/reconditioned machines. (Link)

For anyone wanting reusable stainless steel pods. (Link)

Also, I learned that without a decent coffee grinder a fancy machine will never make good coffee and that without keeping the machine internally clean the flavour will be tarnished.

We also used to use a potent product called Puly Caff which we periodically ran through the machine and used to clean the pull handles. You can also use their descaler in hard water areas. I'm not sure whether just keeping a domestic machine scrupulously clean without a 'Sodium Carbonate-Sodium Percarbonate-Sodium Alkyl Sulphate' mix would be as good.

After a few failed home machines we settled for a cafetiere and a Moka pot. But mostly we have ended up using granules. :rotfl:

crazy_cat_lady

Evening
Well some of today went as planned - I got quite a bit of present wrapping done. Then went out for a little walkabout to a cheap shop to buy chocolates for stocking fillers. Then I got a phone call from the mediation lady, bringing my appointment forward to this afternoon. At least I didn't have long to get wound up about it.
It cost me £110 but it's another step closer to where I need to be. It was quite an emotional afternoon, and by the time I was finished I had to pick ds straight up from school. Have headed home and just feel quite tired now, but I'm fine. Almost looking forward to going back to work tomorrow.

allydowd

Freebies:

* Free Coke. (Link)

PurpleFairy26

Hope those of you who were up during the night are currently sleeping like babies

A coffee grinder is a game changer when it comes to coffee machines. Ours was about £25 from that place that is never knowingly undersold and is fab. Coffee is great from it too

Busy day but good none the less:
‘Free’ hot drink at local shop with loyalty card
HM scone as a snack
Roast leftovers as fry up
Collected considered purchase from yesterday. Used it. Amazing. Wish we’d bought it a year ago.
Had carpet fitted. They left enough to do landing so will just need to pay for fitting when the time comes :T
Checked banking
Made dumplings ready for tomorrow’s sc stew
Got free mag from mr w. Despite it being the festive issue, was positively underwhelmed. Glad I didn’t spend £2 on it :eek: filed in recycling :rotfl:
Sewed on 7 badges across 2 uniforms. Finger hurts. Must treat myself to a thimble
Mended a winter hat scarf combo whilst sewing basket was out
Used blanket tonight rather than heating on
Unlocked sink with old toothbrush
Put another item in our reverse advent calendar
Item sold on fleabay, must wrap tomorrow.

Think that’s about it. Purps.

PurpleFairy26

Morning all :hello:

Long work day today so options will be limited. But I will:
Put stew in sc, including a couple of spoons of chutney to use up
Small has some of the the LO rice pudding from the weekend in packed lunch
Work are buying me lunch but will take snacks and hot drink for commute
Check banking
Take interest from account and move to savings
Check another account
Write a few cards tonight
Text a friend
Use shampoo bar to wash hair

That’ll do for now I think. Have a good day everyone. Purps