And now we go again...

Blackcats

How lovely to find those memories - things like that are such good connectors to the past and to things that were important to our loved ones.
a granny square blanket is such a nice project to have on the go for relaxing evenings.  I'm making a "use it up" blanket for the lounge but as I've also bought a few balls of wool along the way, I think more use it up projects will be ongoing for a while yet.  The blanket is quite big now and so it's cosy to work on - trouble is I need to get to a point where I will finish it but it's too comforting to contemplate ending it just yet.

jwil

All sounding really positive

joedenise

EH - I've found the Lidl pans are usually pretty good with induction.  They definitely worked on my old induction so might be worth a look (and handling in the shop) to see if you'd get on with them.  They're usually a reasonable price too.  You just have to make sure they are the induction ones as not all of them are.

rtandon27

EH - we've had good luck with knock off posh pots at Mr. S - They are affordable even when not on sale!

savingholmes

Lovely finds from your Dad's stuff. Things it sounds like you'll treasure.

You sound like you are doing well on the organisation front. How long until your order arrives?

milann

I too have the analon professional pans that must be 20 plus years old. They were expensive at the time but have certainly paid for themselves. Hope you find something suitable for your induction hob. 

EssexHebridean

This is the thing with the Anolon pans isn't it - they REALLY last, even once they no longer look pretty! We have always bought on special offer as well - I'm on my second set of saucepans but the original frying pans are still going strong. There is a decision to be made - but we also need a full on brainstorm/take the stuff that isn't suitable for the hob at all out of the kitchen so it's not distracting from what we actually have available to use.  RT thanks for the tip-off about Mr S - I had heard positive things about their cookware before so I may trundle down there on Friday to take a look, then that can play in to the decision making process. 

The Swedish delivery will be made on Friday, all being well. My hope is that I can get the wardrobe shelves in place during the day, then we can construct the first bookcase that evening, with the second one probably having to wait for Sunday. 

Blackcats I agree about the granny squares being a nice thing to have on the go. Years ago, when I first bought my first ever car, Mum and I worked together with me making squares and her then doing the joining together to make a car blanket for me - I still have it, and it's a lovely thing in part because of the memories attached. I'm hoping that the current one will be similar in years to come. At the moment it is all from yarn that I already have, although I'll need to choose and buy the joining colour at some stage. (And remind myself how the joining bit works too!) I MAY need to buy some more yarn for it as well as I'm keeping it to a fairly gentle colour palette, but we'll see. 

foxgloves

We have also had good cookware from Mr S. Certainly the 2 non-stick pans we bought from them are good & according to the labelling don't contain the questionable ingredient used in some non-stick. We also bought a couple of their casseroles (think own-brand version of the expensive french cast-iron ones) in the sale & they have been good too.
F

milann

I bought ds a Sainsbury’s copy of the french casserole pots. He already has some of the real thing so it is a good comparison. The sainsbury one has a small chip in after a few years use….the french ones haven’t and he’s had them a lot longer. Whether the price difference is justified for the real thing though is very questionable. I didn’t mind paying circa £45 at the time for a Sainsbobs one whereas the real thing was well over £100 😳 could stay on the shelf as far as I’m concerned 😂😂

EssexHebridean

Morning all - apologies for "daily update" radio silence yesterday, "life happened", as it does from time to time, and I spent a good chunk of time sorting something out which is sadly and annoyingly likely to have financial repercussions along the line. Very frustrating, not least as it was through no fault of my own. May go into more detail at some stage, but not right now!


Used the small frying pan I'd bought previously again last night and confirmed that it is indeed very good indeed on the induction hob - so actually might consider looking for the same make in something larger. We've also eyeballed a coupe of deals from Anolon and Circulon and may yet go for one or the other of those - I know their deals come along from time to time though so I'm not inclined to rush that decision. MrEH agrees that we need to take the pans we can no longer use out of the kitchen though so we can evaluate whether new pans or the added space will be of better value to us.

MSE Stuff:
- Banks checked and all good there. 
- My car fuelled up yesterday morning so will be good for the forseeable. £57.66 - intended to stop at £57 but got briefly distracted! that showed completely full on the gauge though. 
- Small credit due back from T's for an overcharge on a product at the weekend has now hit the card. I'll hold off on balancing food spends until I have returned the frying pan I think and got the credit for that.
- £2 saving on my most recent Gr@ze box due to them applying a credit - so I've transferred that to the mortgage pot. 
- reminder set on my phone to cancel the free trial of the "cinema" component of our TV package - although I have offered MrEH the option of paying the reduced rate they have offered for another 3 months if he wants to keep it a little longer. 
- Hotel booked for an overnight stay next month for a meeting we are attending. We've opted for an Inn of the Premier variety - and one a couple of miles from the meeting venue as this meant a £20 saving over those closer where others are staying. Realistically we'll go direct to the venue on arrival, and may even end up back in the city centre and so closer to the hotel anyway by the end of the night. Just now need to wait for a pal to decide if he's heading to the same location the night before - in which case we will book a room for the additional night and organise our travel for the day earlier. The travel will be claimable in any event. (The accommodation is not because the location is travellable in a day - it's our choice to stay) the cost of the hotel will come from our personal spends. 
- Remembered to get the sausages out of the freezer ready for tea this evening
- Also remembered to prep and blanch the beans I bought three packs of at a good price in T's at the weekend. All now frozen - loose on a greaseproof lined tray- and I'll tip the second batch which were frozen overnight into the bag with the others this evening. That'll give us some nice UK-grown "summer" produce to eat over the next little while.

MrEH tells me that it's a really early kickoff for his rugby match on Saturday - I'm going along as well to do photos for them as it's his "old boys" team playing and I enjoy watching them. My guess is we'll need to leave home at around 10am for that one, but I'm waiting for him to confirm. In theory that should also mean earlier home, but what it will in fact mean is an earlier return to the club, and then the rest of the day there watching the world cup matches - I just bet! I will probably leave after the England match finishes in any event - so it will be his call whether to do the same or opt to stay on.

Spendiness:
Nothing aside from the fuel and a small T's spend locally to work to qualify me for three hours parking in their car park. As always I bought items that I would buy at some stage anyway, and at the same price I'd usually pay for them (on offer) so all good there.
Sunday may be spendy - we're thinking that the time is approaching to sort the remaining curtains that we need - for the living room and the front door. We all know curtains aren't cheap - and these include some long drops. We're currently thinking a dark inky blue for the living room, and probably a charcoal grey for the front door. Measurements needed for those, and we'll also need to get the curtain rail for the french doors sorted. The money for those will be coming from  my personal savings - the Swedish Store stiff is coming from the same place. 

Movement/exercise ended up being nothing yesterday - circumstances meant I had to park near the office (hence needing the parking) was busy at lunchtime, and just returned straight to the car to head home after work. Once home, the events of the day meant I couldn't get my head around doing anything at that stage either - not beating myself up over it though - as said, life happens!  Today so far I've already had my walk from the car - we'll see what lunchtime brings as far as a walk then goes but I suspect it may bring torrential rain in which case I'm staying firmly indoors! I will work some short sessions of bodyweight stuff in throughout the day though.