What small DFW things will you do w/c 18th Feb?

Baileys_Babe

I've had a broken nights sleep as OH woke me on numerous occasions coughing. His cough is worse now than it was last weekend and then it was pretty bad.He has been to the doctors who have sent him to the hospital for further investigation

Today I'm going to teach ds to make tomorrow's dinner. A vegan version of one of our favourites as one of tomorrows guests is vegan.

Plus lots of the regular things:
PAD Done
NSD
Put away wholesale delivery
Bill others who I have ordered from the wholesaler for
Make porridge
Make bread, depending on how much we have
Stick to the meal plan
Food and drink from stores Done & OH has drinks and snacks from home for his hospital trip
Check bank accounts Done
Home educate the children for free
Download free audiobook from library Done
Light stove, if temperature drops Not likely as it is lovely and warm here today
If stove lit, put kettles on top for free hot water see above
If stove lit, dry washing on the airer in front of the stove using the residual heat see above and not enough washing for a load

I need to spend 15 minutes making inroads into the paperwork on my desk, this is a small bite of frog.

I am also trying to sort out the dumping ground in the corner of my kitchen, this area was originally set up to be MY admin centre many years ago, but we have now converted a small room into an office for the both of us. The corner of the kitchen still has some of the things from when it was my space but it has also attracted lots of other things. I've already done some sorting in this area and unearthed 4 can coolers, 2 empty ice cube trays & 8 icepacks all interleaved with paperwork, magazines, old meal plans. The things would have been removed from the freezer piecemeal fashion as we ran out of space. I have carolled them together and moved them to a slightly better place. I have also found numerous pieces of OH paperwork, which I have put aside for him to deal with. Other bits I have put away, thrown away or returned tidily. One day this area will be returned to the kitchen.

carrielovesfanta

Morning folks!

Hugs to all those who are poorly, or haven't slept x

Well the cheese seems to be successful so far. It's a cheddar cheese so I won't know for another 6 weeks. Getting the temperatures right was the hard bit. I heated the milk over another pan of water (def recommend) but after I added the bacterial culture (to help the flavour), I left it on the double boiler (although hob turned off) because i was worried it would cool too much.

Unfortunately after 10 minutes, the temp had raised another 5 degrees, so I had to try and cool it back down again in a panic.

However, we now have a lovely block of unmatured cheese sitting on the worktop. it has to dry out for a few days to form a rind and them we wax it! Depending on the result, I would say that it was quite easy - I think that after a couple of goes you'd learn how to control the temp fine. It was time consuming though. Def one for a day where you're in the house. It was a good 5-6 hours of faffing about.

Today's list, rolling on from yesterday:

• B/L/D from stores. - done
• Gym this morning and going back later - done
  
• Big shop - done
• Plant seeds and write up what I did in my new book - done
• Take in summer dress - not yet
• Glue my shoe - oops forgot
• Glue bracket on greenhouse and possibly attempt a couple of other repairs - done
• Strip and remake bed - done
• Dust dining room - done
• Crochet - not today

Today is the first day of the Crossfit Open - I'm not doing it this year (woohoo!) cos I never enjoy it. Merida - are you doing it this year?

Have a good one all

clf x

DawnW

Morning all
Your cheesemaking sounds exciting CLF - years ago we kept goats and I made cheese regularly. Not hard cheese, but the semi soft types such as coulommier, which were actually much easier and needed less equipment.
Anyway, back to the present. Slept better last night, and have done more already than I managed during the whole of yesterday
Out in the car this morning, so made the most of it:
Did a bit of shopping
Returned library books
Called in to sales unit to tidy up
Bought DS's birthday present. He isn't difficult to buy for, he likes beer and steak - so I bought that Got the steaks in the local butcher's shop, so a good deal
I have also cleared up the kitchen, folded up dry washing and put the airer away, washed down the path at the bottom of the garden (dog wees there )
This afternoon I intend to do some gardening and make a frittata for dinner
Cleared the raised bed, repotted a couple of lavenders, lined and filled wall basket / trough in front garden (found and cut up a cheap plastic / oilcloth tablecloth that is hard to live with indoors - the pattern makes your eyes go funny :eek: to line it, so no cost there). Put 3 of my excess strawberry plants in it, watered them in. There will be room to put something else in there a bit later on Sprinkled fertiliser on garlic, round fruit trees and on some rather pathetic looking Cavalo Nero kale plants. Moved some scruffy looking, going over violas to a corner where they can grow on and it won't matter if they seed themselves, and moved a viable looking gladiolus bulb to the raspberry bed so it can survive if it will, rather than putting it in the compost (raspberry bed also houses rhubarb and various bulbs, flowers and herbs, my garden is small so everything has to grow wherever there is a space!
Watered strawberry pots planted at the weekend and microgreens seedlings, cut bay tree back.
Used chives cut from the garden in salad, lots of veg from fridge in the frittata, plus some chorizo that has been in there for a while And there is enough left for lunch tomorrow :T

1LuckyLady

Afternoon all,

My planned spendy day has been less spendy which is always good!

Kids are on an inset day today and my sis is off work so we'd planned to go out for breakfast as "the kids eat free" great deal, everyone was up for it last night. Early hours of this morning (still not sleeping well at the minute) and I say to myself that £38 for 4 paying adults/3 free kids - we'd not enjoy the coffee as much as our own and thats a lot of money! So as soon as I thought it was late enough I was ringing my parents/sis and getting one of them to call into l1dl for a Danish and the kids and I went to Aldi, got all we'd have had at the Brewers Fayre, spent £16.50 and I have plenty of leftovers. We were able to spend the morning together having lots of laughs , good food and lots of coffee for a fraction of the price.

Ds's friends are over for the afternoon now, so I'm leaving them to it, I'd offered to take them to the park so they could play football or tennis etc but they all voted just to come to the house and play online Ah well they're happy I guess.
So I'm going to make myself another coffee, get a book off the shelf and go and sit in the conservatory as its lovely and sunny (and I can close another door between the games consoles and me!)

Take care all.

Baileys_Babe

1LuckyLady great savings, over £20. Sounds like you are having a great day.

foxgloves

Hi Friday Frugalistas,
And here are today's frugal efforts:
*Made a loaf & bread rolls (on their 2nd proving, will be baked shortly)
*Found room in cupboard for the yellow stickered wholemeal bread flour (Co-op) I got for 65p a bag. V useful as A*di hasn't had any for weeks.
*Various bits of 'Use-it-up' items out of freezer ready for tomorrow's meal - we have a 150-mile round trip tomorrow so thought we'd be prepared so as to avoid the evil lure of the takeaway.
*Cleaned entire house, except for vacuuming stairs which hurts my dodgy thumb/hand joint too much so have left that delight for mr f. Usual minimal products & washable microfibre cloths.
*Changed bed linen & all household linens which will wait for an overnight wash on the cheaper tariff & a dry day for pegging out.
*Checked my baby chilli plants - coming up nicely. Will be sowing tomatoes early next week.
*Updated budget with a few minor odds & ends, such as yesterday's prescription charge.
*Packed coffee to take with us tomorrow, as that should save a few quid.
*This week's main piece of hassle sorted itself out today & I'm pleased to say, doesn't involve me at this point. So no more prime time phone calls for a few days hopefully.
*Entered 2 prize draws.
*Swallowed a sizeable tadpole.......before it turned itself into a frog next week.
*Did next week's meal plans.
*Wrote shopping list.
*Knit a bit more of my 2019 Stash Knitting Challenge Project #4 if my hand isn't hurting too much - it seems a bit random the different things which set it off, at the moment, but I was prescribed some stonking painkillers yesterday.
*Talk to mr f about a list of dates we need to provide (to do with sorting my parents' estate) as I think this could save the cost of a few phone calls next week.
Well, I think that's it - just got that bread to bake now, then it will be a lovely hot bubble bath & hair wash for me & I'm also hoping to finish my reading my book.
Enjoy your Friday evenings all,
F x

Pauper1

BaileysBabe hope your OH is okay and investigations go well x

I spent more than I needed to today mostly on chocolate, and I also got some coconut sugar that I could have added to the weeks shopping list and then therefore not had to pay for. However, I got my brother's birthday present, at more than 50% off! I also took lunch and drinks with us today on a day out, whereas previously I'd have just bought something. Apart from the car park (and I found the cheapest one online before we left) the actual event today didn't cost us anything. So a mixed bag, but mostly good, I think... Improvement anyway!

Hopefully I'm now about to make some pasta for tomorrow's lunch out, and some bits for DS1's lunches next week, but DS2 is teething and incredibly grumpy, so we'll see...

Baileys_Babe

Yesterday didn't go to plan. Ended up dropping OH at the hospital for investigations. Dropped by my sister's to return somethings, had a brief but lovely catch up with my BIL, I've barely seen him over the last few months. Returned home to make and eat lunch. Halfway through dd maths lesson I get a call to collect OH. So back to the hospital. When we got home my parents were just getting back from a day out with some of their grandchildren. The kettle goes on and snacks made for those that need them.

OH has been diagnosed with pneumonia. They were considering intravenous antibiotics, but decided on oral antibiotics instead. The NHS were brilliant, in less than 4 hours he had had a doctor's appointment, been to the hospital, had various tests, been given the results, collected his prescription and was home.

Today we have visitors, ds has already made dinner :A

I'll try and post a list later.

1LuckyLady

BB, Glad to hear that your dh home and hopefully on the mend.
Pauper, sounds like you're doing well, taking drinks and snacks saves us a fortune!
Foxgloves, my youngest was reading over my shoulder and saw your comment about "eating a tadpole" It took quite a bit of explaining!

1LuckyLady

Morning all, We are starting our half term now and dh is home with us too. We are all ready for the break. We'd usually go away for a few days but we're going away at Easter instead so need to find cheap/free things to do to get out and about this week with the kids rather then staying home and them sitting on their games consoles.

Todays plan though is to have an easy day (I've got a pain in my neck and my teeth are causing problems again, the crown came out again last night, so looks like I'll be at the dentist again this week for the 3rd week in a row.)

* all meals from stores
* google for local events
* check banking/update spreadsheet
* go through March's budget with dh

Thats about it, as we'll be watching two rugby matches later

Take care all.