The Best Is Yet To Come

slm6002

Yay I have returned.  We are exhausted from walking and climbing so much, but we had a lot of fun.  Now to do the washing and sorting.  We had no signal for the week so pretty much cut off from everything and everyone, which was great.

Happy to be home though and ready for my own bed.

slm6002

Good morning, what a great nights sleep I had and for the first time in ages I was able to sleep past 6am.  Only another hour but still it was good.

Todays jobs are
*  Washing
*  Go through emails
*  Move money into pots - was away when I would normally have done this
*  Food shopping (after writing a list and meal plan)
*  Book opticians appointment for DD1 as she thinks she has something in her eye
*  Book admin meal out and let people know when
*  Pop note through next door for landlord / owner - asking him to mend the fence as there is a rotten post and the
    fence is bending into our garden
*  If time I need to weed the front garden
*  Take bags to charity shop - and collect more bags as more stuff to donate
*  Relax a little

There is probably a whole load more that needs to be on the list but will make a start with this for now.  DD's have been enjoying living quite minimally with no mess in the cabin so they have both suggested that they need to clear their rooms - Yay.  DD1 has work this evening but other than that it will be a day of getting sorted and back into some sort of routine.  I best get going I suppose, although am enjoying the radio and sitting. 

slm6002

Working my way through the list above.  The clouds are coming over but app says no rain, so hoping I can rely on it lol.  Probably only need 2 more loads to be up to date.  One of those is the towels so may tumble dry those.

I came home from holiday with quite a bit of spending money left, although that will cover treats for the next 5 weeks we are on holiday.  It should still be an excess of what we need as most of the activities that we have planned are free or very little cost.  We also have our supermarket vouchers so food will be a neutral cost for the next few shops hopefully.

While on holiday we treated ourselves to pizza express.  I had some vouchers from tesco points, a voucher from nectar (I think) as well as a £25 voucher from surveys that I had done.  DD1 downloaded the app and got a free started too.  The bill was £110 ish for everything and with all of the vouchers taken off it cost £30 ish.  Not bad as we all had 3 courses.  It was a lovely treat that we all enjoyed.

DD1 is hoping to sell some of her clothes on ebay, so that is the plan for tomorrow I reckon.  I would much rather just give to charity but she is hoping to make some money, and as long as she is able to do the listings that is fine with me.

Going to try to avoid the food shop today as we have plenty of most things in.  Tonight will be pasta bake probably.  Will keep an eye on olio to try to get some free fruit and veg and maybe some other bits and bobs.  This will at least stretch the vouchers a little more.

Weeding the front garden will need to wait as the rain has started now - just about got the clothes in off the line before it happened.  Charity bags are being sorted, but we may not get them to the shop before the end of the day, and optician is now shut

LeighofMar

Your vacation sounded wonderful. Glad you all had a good time. Great job on the Pizza Express savings too. It sounds like you guys scored big with the savings for 4 people!!

slm6002

Thank you @LeighofMar,  DD1 always scoffs at the vouchers I like to pull out of my bag but when she saw how much the original bill was and then how much we actually paid she was very impressed.  Although she now has a better understanding of the cost of things, she is still in the learning stage.

We took some games with us and one of our favourite is bingo (cheap pad of bingo cards from £1 land and lasts forever, and then free mobile app that calls the numbers) and we normally win a chewy sweet.  This time though I took the scratch off cards that I made several years ago.  They needed using up, but I had no idea what the prizes were.  Well there were small money prizes (25p, 50p), ice creams and lollies, film of your choice, as well as 30 min extra.  With this one I am assuming it was to stay up later than normal.  They are all past this now and certainly the older 2 stay up later than me most nights, so they went for an extra 30 min in the hot tub - they were prune like at the end.  Everyone enjoyed their prizes so that was all that mattered, and it cost me a grand sum of £1.25.

LeighofMar

Sweet. They will look back and remember fondly how Mom made sure they all had fun and was still able to do it without breaking the bank. 

joedenise

slm6002 said:

Thank you @LeighofMar,  DD1 always scoffs at the vouchers I like to pull out of my bag but when she saw how much the original bill was and then how much we actually paid she was very impressed.  Although she now has a better understanding of the cost of things, she is still in the learning stage.

We took some games with us and one of our favourite is bingo (cheap pad of bingo cards from £1 land and lasts forever, and then free mobile app that calls the numbers) and we normally win a chewy sweet.  This time though I took the scratch off cards that I made several years ago.  They needed using up, but I had no idea what the prizes were.  Well there were small money prizes (25p, 50p), ice creams and lollies, film of your choice, as well as 30 min extra.  With this one I am assuming it was to stay up later than normal.  They are all past this now and certainly the older 2 stay up later than me most nights, so they went for an extra 30 min in the hot tub - they were prune like at the end.  Everyone enjoyed their prizes so that was all that mattered, and it cost me a grand sum of £1.25.

That scratch card game sounds fun and definitely worth doing again, especially as it doesn't break the bank!

slm6002

Just in case anyone would like to make the scratch cards you get a square of card and write on the prize.  Then cover the side of the card with writing on it in sticky back plastic.  Mix together PVA glue and paint, then paint over the prize.  You may need 2 or 3 layers until you cant see the writing underneath.  And that is it. Once dry scratch off with a coin or similar to reveal the prize.  Quite simple, free / cheap and very effective when needing a bribe / prize / incentive lol.

1 load of washing remains for tomorrow, but is in the machine ready.  Charity shop clothes are by the door ready to be dropped off and I can now access my bedroom without climbing over it all.  The only other job is to get the weeds out of the front garden plus plant a plant we have inherited.  A few phone calls needed on Monday - opticians and club for DD2 but not a bad days work.  

slm6002

And then there was quiet...Younger 2 have just left for day with XH and DD1 has gone for a run.  I woke up too early again this morning and then had a nap on the sofa once dressed.  Unfortunately it ended in DD2 being chased and eaten by a tiger - weird dreams.  I think today is going to be another day of watching and waiting for the rain.

Not going anywhere today as waiting for my brother to visit and also the landlord of next door.  I have the keys to hand over.  Once that has been done we wait for the 'for sale' sign to go up and keep our fingers crossed that someone nice buys it.

Right must get on

slm6002

Good morning.  Yesterday was very lazy and wet.  Younger 2 came home having been to the beach and the 2p machines again.  DD2 had a handful of prizes (rubber ducks) to add to her pile she already has.  She is having a clear out of bits so didn't know what to do with them.  I said perhaps all of her friends can have a duck and bath fizz for Christmas and maybe a face mask.  Make a nice gift and we have some of it for free.  She liked this idea and has squirreled them away for December.

Today is payday so the bank has filled up again, waiting for the bills to go out tomorrow.  I will pay a little extra off the mortgage, but am also aware the bathroom fund needs filling before March.

I have arranged to clear some boxes in my dads workshop on Wed and then Fri if we don't finish.  They have been there since XH and I were considering moving so unlikely there is anything we need as that is years ago.  There will be 3 piles - rubbish tip, recycle / charity, and then keep.  Hopefully the keep pile will be small as we will need to find space for it here if we keep it.  Once the workshop boxes are done we will be moving into our garage to clear that too.  I need to ring round some charity shops and see what each one is taking.  The aim is to find the missing BP badge so we can get the free ticket at the zoo.

DD2 has found a few writing competitions that she wants to enter this holiday so she is working on those this week - I think the incentive of the chance of winning some vouchers and money is certainly helping.

DD2 was supposed to be going to the local youth centre to do tie dye t-shirts but her friends are not available to go and heaven forbid she might have to go alone and perhaps make a friend. So I guess it is a day at home for us all.  The younger 2 may go to the gym later on though.

I need to nip to lidls as I have a voucher ending today for free ice cream, and we need to pick up some chicken that I forgot the other day.  While out I will also finally get rid of the clothes currently sitting in my living room waiting for the charity shop.