NST NIFTY NOVEMBER

thriftylass

DrCarrie said:

thriftylass said:

@DrCarrie I would love to be able to make sauerkraut. Think I tried once and it got infected by sth. 

I had lots of failures and then I saw someone make it (at WI) and now I have cracked it. I can try and draft a step by step if you like  

Hi, 

that would be fantastic if you could do that. Thank you so much.

The next few days should be NSDs as Hubby is away for three/four days. Yesterday was too. DS will go for his first visit at the secondary school today. Can't believe it's that time soon.

Got some nice T3sco meatballs at the food waste place yesterday, and had them with random bit of pasta that were left over in the cupboard and leftover pizza sauce to which we added some sad looking veg. Tonight will be Burgers without buns (only have toast) and maybe home made coleslaw and other bits. Might have some chips in the freezer. 

That reminds me, I need to do a detailed food inventory. 

grandmanerd

Wednesday 9th November 2022
Thrifty I believe you are the go to turtle for flavoured vodka (making cheap SM spirits into something special). Thought it might eb of interest to some turtles. Excellent news on the nectar points bonus.

Icc86 Be careful with your back

firsview Well done on the Christmas prep and potential rental income. I'm happy that the martyr tips help. Martin does something similar but his is debt and money focused, including domestic drudgery, getting Christmas done with very little and absent partners - my OH once asked what 'we' had bought for the boys as we were laying out toys on Christmas Eve/ early hours of Christmas day. He also regularly disappeared on Christmas Eve when it occurred to him that I might be hoping for a present.

Good point f0xh0les. Elephants and turtles are both endangered species, we must stick together. So we will not eat our elephants but will feed and tend them until they are tame and healthy. Another way to look at things in a positive light - the debt elephant will be cared for until she/he/they become a gentle savings elephant. The 'messy house elephant' and the 'I hate my whole life elephant' - identify each difficulty, do something about them (baby steps) or accept the situation and change your attitude. Remember just because you can't do it all, doesn't mean you can't do anything.

BadBookkeeper, dealing with five wardrobe items at a time sounds great. I'm useless at getting rid, but it's usually that I haven't realised that a garment is no longer fit to be seen in public (if it's not fit for going to the bins I'm really in trouble. Well done on the bank switching.

hazeldreams excellent news on the debt reduction, good luck with the last £89.94. Glad you liked the Christmas list, remember, start making small changes now or you'll still be doing everything when you're approaching retirement. Thanks f0xh0les for the debt breakdown.

apple-muncher So glad that you need chocolate too, even if yours is the 85% stuff.

Dr Carrie I haven't seen the moon in days but I'm loving the clouds, soft fluffy bundles and delicate wisps. I should know their names, in fact I can remember the names but not which is which. Something at the corner of my mind is saying that the wispy ones are cirrus (I think there's a Latin connection between cirrus and horse-tail, I know horse is equus).

DawnW I sympathise with not liking the money going out, even when it's for essentials. I still quail at the thought of people coming to do work and Mr and Mrs Builder are very reasonable.

Esmerelda I love duck egg blue and soft, warm jumpers. The birthday celebrations sounds fab, even though it got a little boisterous. It's always the special mug isn't it? When I only had DS1 I used to look after a friend's 3 children, 2 little ones all day, the little girl went to nursery 3 half days and the eldest just after school and in the holidays. One day my Snowman mug got broken. There was a collective gasp and then I said, "It's okay, it was an accident." But that evening they told their mum that I really loved that mug and they bought me one for Christmas.

Thrifty-Taylor excellent cs Christmas shopping. I'm afraid I'd missed you off my list (will fix in a minute).

Dfw38  Your marathon training seems to be going extremely well (I don't run, I used to walk really fast but last time I ran DS1 said I looked like a pregnant penguin).

x-raphael -x I love the little anxious apple.

f0xh0les

I am terrified of starting to buy C-word food, because I will eat it.  There. Confession time. I cannot have that stuff in the house, because the minute someone says something that annoys or upsets me, my head goes in the trough so my mouth is full, so I cannot say the words that will scar their tiny lives forever Best left unsaid behind a mouse pie.

| cannot have the chocolates ready, even if wrapped! I am a flippin' nightmare, but at least I have realised what my behaviour means.  I just cannot buy in advance,  or in bulk - buy early, buy thrice in my case.  I am in awe of organised people and their restraint.

It is really odd, for the first time working in retail and watching people frantically buying 'stuff', and then asking how long they have to return it I have no experience of shopping like this.  It is like watching ants building their colony in one of those science experiment glass sided 'slice'  houses.   Bizarre. It is like landing on an alien planet, rocking up to work there.  I will stick it out until January and then wave goodbye I think.  It is B0nkers-Land.

Today I took a load of stuff to the charity shop and donated it. Recycled a load of rags. Removed cardboard from the premises.  Filled the freezer out of guilt because I am spending one night away from home Honestly, one day I will learn. DH can throw ice cream and burgers at them, or they can decorate their own pizza bases.  DH went to the shops to buy salad at the weekend and was horrified at how much  just  those few bits had gone up.  He was shocked, funny man. I have been telling him for weeks that prices were rising, but until he saw it for himself, and paid his own  money over, it was not real.

Gratitudes, a whole day off, trawling the c/shops but finding nothing, having food in the house and warmth in the radiators - should we need to turn them on.

f0xh0les

Oh dear! My mortgage appears to have been reinstated by the MSE team.  Ooops!

grandmanerd

Wednesday 9th November 2022 (part deux)
Idee2111 I haven't worked in Next but I have packaged stuff for them when I worked at the watch factory.  They demanded that labels be exactly in the centre of the label space on the hanger (think it was a barbie item). I was the neatest so I was left to complete the task when the others were moved to a different job. We had a batch of labels that curled up like fortune-telling fish nearly as soon as I'd done them. At dinner time I called in the supervisor. My thumb joints were at breaking point and the tips were completely pink where the dye had transferred as I'd rubbed away frantically. Well done on your underspends.

Calling14 I hate the big river with a passion but got mum a prime account during the pandemic for bulky items we couldn't get elsewhere. I've just taken out the free month's trial but I've put a cancel reminder in my diary. I used it last week for the fruit and nut trees (from now till May is tree planting season) and the incinerator bins for them to go in.

ditty1234  Much belated birthday congratulations. My epic posts are legendary (that's when I'm well) but when my MH starts slipping I start to withdraw. I see things I want to respond to but unless I have pen and paper to hand, it slips from my mind as I read on. apple is wonderful and has already stepped in several times this month. Kat always responded but sometimes it turned into an interrogation - Why? You could have done x,y or z. Remember that next time. Kat was super disciplined and never asked more of us than she did of herself.

I am not super disciplined but I have my own strengths, I use my life experience. I may not have travelled very far or 'experienced life to the full' but for scrimping and scraping, making something out of nothing (magical somethings at times) and fixing things using what I have or other people's cast offs, I'm your turtle.

the-cross-rabbit I love the way you've fully embraced the challenge and are taking on board your health issues. We can do nearly anything we want to, but very slowly. You've grasped the need to look after yourself and are prioritising what's most important to you and living your best possible life.

greent I had something to comment on and now I've lost it (my memory's disappearing along with my handwriting, my spelling and my grammar).

Hugs to beanie, to Buffy, who's struggling atm and to anyone who needs a hug (or wants one)

Shrewbie lovely pictures but the rocky road just makes me think about all the ways I could fall and hurt myself. Lovely Mediterranean drought resistant vegetation, though. 

grandmanerd

I reviewed my list for the week this morning and half of it just isn't happening today. I haven't had a message from the pharmacy to say my prescription is out for delivery but I'm staying home anyway, so after my shower I put my comfy nightie back on. Had to go down for drinks and food so put a bag of chopped onions (from the freezer) in a large clean pan with 3 cans of chopped tomatoes, added two sachets of tomato paste, 4 or 5 of the little garlic and herb dressing pots that come with DS3's pizzas, a generous helping of dried herbs and a few slices of chillies (from the freezer). I let it simmer for a while then threw in the remains of a bag of sweetcorn and nearly a full bag of mixed peas, green beans and broad beans. I've since separated out part of it into another pan, added two cans of kidney beans and the rest of the chillies.

The first pan will be pasta bake which will be baked at the same time that the remaining wedges, spicy bean burgers and vegetable fingers go in the oven and a cauli and macaroni cheese. If there's any space left I may add a few baking potatoes. The second pan is veggie chilli. All of these (except the bean burgers, wedges and veg fingers which are for tea) can be portioned up and either eaten in the next couple of days or returned to the freezer, after it's been cleaned. I put all the opened tins for rinsing, opened the second of 2 cans of newly discovered corned beef taken out at weekend. Actually it was the first but the key wouldn't turn the little tiggy in either direction, the little tiggy broke off taking my best fingernail with it and the key went into outer space (heard it land but couldn't see it) and I gave up and tried the other can. So that can was opened by a combination of methods (wide end first, then narrow and then pushing through carefully until it slid out. This will be corned beef hash using the other bag of chopped onions and the best parts of some sprouting potatoes. If they've lost the will to live (will be chucked into large containers and see what happens) I will use the portions of new potatoes (from the freezer) and some ancient tinned potatoes.

There are lots of things I could usefully do in the kitchen, but as I had to sit down to open the cans, that too may be a task for another day. i have deleted a lot of massages from my phone (old appointments, codes to enable me to access various accounts, info about phone top-ups) and have a page in my diary to add to my list of phone numbers, a couple of appointments to make. Lunch was hm veg chilli (from the freezer) and a sad and lonely fish and I opened another tin of fruit to bring back upstairs with me (was going to be eaten alongside my 2 o'clock pill but tempus has fugited again. I can continue tidying or write a couple of letters, wrap Christmas presents (brought the bag of wrap back when I fought my way to the far corner) or even continue with a hm present for the baby.

Grateful for getting some things done, doing leg and ankle exercises (can't do much but therefore it's important to do what I can), not being ill today (thought the sore throat and cough were coming back so slept nearly sitting up slight angle from the vertical rather than a slight angle from the horizontal) just knees aching and legs not wanting to anything at all (I've pampered my feet a bit and done half the toenails) and books I've been struggling with starting to get interesting. 

DawnW

@f0xh0les I am with you on people frantically buying 'stuff'. I work in retail too (though a rather niche area) and I wonder what they do with it all!

My posh new boots arrived today, and although they are beautifully made, I am going to return them, as they are too big and even if they were smaller, the shape wasn't right for my feet, much too wide at the back. And OH said they looked like Darth Vader's boots   So I have packed them up to go back tomorrow. Coincidentally OH wanted to go to look for new shoes this afternoon. There are very few places round here that sell them, but we found ourselves in M*talan, and found both new shoes for him, and new boots for me, for less than I was going to pay for just the posh boots.

In other news, DS was coming round for dinner tonight but was stuck on the M25 in all the protests, and with a new trainee (he is a delivery driver for a company that makes certain kinds of building materials, delivers all over the country, and helps train new people), so we have postponed till next week.

BadBookkeeper

Evening turtles.

Went to bargains for the home hoping to loads of things off my list but ended up with new slippers (for me) and tealights!! 

Made a better list with everything for ds birthday & Christmas including his party and cake, candles etc.  once I separated everything for him the remainder didn’t look as daunting! 

Good food choices and no alcohol today.

NSDs - not one today so still 3/15

Zapped a few receipts today on zip0.

lcc86

Hi turtles

Few spends today, needed a few things for my rabbits so placed an online order, and topped up my oyster card. 

Worked from home this morning, managed to fit in a workout before work. Had a meeting with my "big boss" today, she was telling me about more senior opportunities she wants me to go for, only issue is I'm not "allowed" while I'm in my probationary period, so we'll have to see whether I'm still on probation when these opportunities arise. It felt good to be thought of for sure.

I planned to go for a lunchtime swim but when I went to book online it was closed until the evening. Sometimes they do that but not sure if they're doing it more because of costs.

Had to go into work to help run a group this evening, which I usually dread but it was really good.

Have eaten healthily so all in all a good day.

apple_muncher

Thanks for the shout out grandmanerd. Sometimes I find that I comment more when someone else is 'in charge' of the thread than when it's me!

Today I am grateful for dc waking up well (having somehow moved themself to the top bunk in the night but with no recollection of how or when!), for posting a few things on gumt, for staying on to yoga after doing power pump, for having some time alone in the house as DH went out for a couple of hours, for hours and hours and hours of CrossFit on utube for my entertainment.