And now we go again...

Baileys_Babe

LadyWithAPlan said:

Cheery_Daff said:

loving your 'nice things' advent EH! We have a little advent book, and I've resorted to a reduced chocolate one too But I do like the idea of finding and using up little nice things - small samples and testers of toiletries would be ideal in my case! Might also try to pair up some earrings - I tend to wear the same pair over and over until I lose one, then the remaining one goes in a pile with all the other single earrings - but I have more than one pile of single ones, so there may actually be several complete pairs... 

I sometimes wear deliberately different earrings in each ear - when I can find a fun match.. 

You could try a tortilla as well...@baileys_babe

EH the magazine sounds good value

I'm planning to build up to tortilla and frittata.

Currently the problem is about taste and texture, yummy vegetables covered in egg 🤮

badmemory

Forget the earrings - wear the rings & wear them now.  I used to wear rings more than anything.  Then arthritis made the knuckles swollen & I had dumped all my earrings years ago because I never wore them.  Typical.

Sun_Addict

Well I’m blaming you for looking at that magazine and concluding that it’s right up my street. So I now have a subscription having gone through TCB and done the £2.50 off thing. Looking forward to the seeds and maybe growing things I wouldn’t have thought of otherwise. 

Wondering if you’ve inspired anyone else 😆

Makingabobor2

I've just had a quick look at the magazine. Might sign up tomorrow. Does look good value, especially through TCB as well

EssexHebridean

Loving that I’ve inspired folk to go for the magazine - the seeds are a definite draw, we used to get it years ago when we had the allotment and absolutely loved having the ability to grow various things we’d never normally have thought of thanks to the freebies! 

We divided our labour yesterday morning with MrEH heading off to collect our click and collect log & smokeless fuel order, and me heading out for the groceries - a split which worked well as his car is far more suitable for being loaded up,with stuff like that, while mine is perfectly happy with a few shopping bags, thanks very much! By the time I returned from Lil’s and T’s he’d not only collected the order, but also gone and fed his car and got home and got everything unloaded and stashed away in the shed too! 

The beer festival was as always excellent fun - lots of friends met up with, some cracking beers tried, much chat and lots of laughing and general good times - that, and a very tasty pizza for lunch in one of our favourite pubs are definitely yesterday’s advent Nice Things!  We are perhaps both feeling a little less than 100% today, but it is fair to say that we have been far more the worse for wear on MANY occasions after this particular event, so I will take a faint headache and a general sense of lethargy! 😁 Today is a nice quiet day anyway - we’d planned it as such, and frankly the awful weather lends itself to that too, we popped out briefly earlier for a wander down the hill to T’s for nice bread to go with HM soup for lunch, and MrEH’s newspaper - just a couple of miles walked and some cobwebs blown away!

MSE stuff:
- collected my free bakery treat from Lil’s, and made use of some discounts on various things I would buy anyway
- chose a sticky cinnamon bun as my freebie as I reckoned it would last well to today, it did, and we have just had half each after our lunch! 

- decided to use some of our “virtual sealed pot” money on an order from the watery kitchenware shop replacing some tins and trays as they were offering good value prices on my favourite range, and making use of my 20% off orders over a certain level offer too. 

- managed to pick up a prolific survey paying £8 after having dismissed it while at work as it was too lengthy to do between the things I actually get paid for - handily it reappeared yesterday morning and I was able to do it then. 

- Prolific earnings now standing at a combined total of £40 assuming all the pending stuff pays. 

- managed to pick up a £1.50 box in Lil’s - there were some very odd ones (one entirely full of avocados, one entirely full of baking potatoes, and one entirely full of clementines ) but also some more normal ones with a mix - I got two nets of soft citrus, a 4 pack of baking tatties about half a dozen bananas which will see MrEH at least part way through the week assuming at least some are edible, a few apples, three avocados (one of which has headed straight to the compost and one of the others may yet head the same way!)  a couple of packs of fine beans, a small aubergine, and the biggest oddity of all, a “Homey Pomelo” which is something neither of us have ever tried! 

- main shopping done in T’s as I had a useful CC voucher off my total spend, and I was eyeing up one of those gammon joints too. (That is now stashed in the freezer) 
- nipped into FF’s while we were at the bottom of town earlier, they’re selling packs of butter puff crackers for 39p, so I bagged a couple of those, and got a jar of a posh brand of tartare sauce for 69p as well
- £4.50 also spent in the charity shop down there - a 100 piece jigsaw (with one piece missing apparently), a couple of books to pop aside for Mum for Christmas, 3 Mark Billingham books and one Lee Child book for us that we haven’t read before. 

Today’s Nice Thing is a quiet day while the weather rages outside, there is a jigsaw on the go which MrEH is working away at, and I’m now going to go back and join him! 

teaselMay

Where do you find the 1.50 boxes? I don't often go but I've never seen them in ours. I probably walk straight past them!

Beer festival sounds good!

PennysIntoPounds

Sounds a great time at the beer fest. I asked Mr PIP if he'd been sidled at and he said no but that you were probably one of the total of three women there!

That's a very productive day, especially after a drinks day! How odd they had boxes of just one things, maybe they were supposed to mix them and didn't get round to it

redofromstart

The Pomelo are grapefruitish, always good to get to try something new. 

I had ignored that £8 one too but it kept coming back so I just got it done. I like that it paid straight away too. 

EssexHebridean

Ahh well PiP at various times our little group included several women at once - albeit one of those was also a member of staff who stopped by to chat with us in passing, but yes, Pigs is probably still more male dominated than some festivals! I hope MrPiP had as good a time as we did! 

TeaselMay the £1.50 boxes are usually on the packing shelf at the front of the store at ours. Ideally you need to remember to have a good look as you go in, although this time I just ditched the basket, popped through the till-line and then went back and retrieved the basket in order to pay for everything at once! They are VERY hit and miss and the time you go makes a big difference - our store seem to put them out very early as I was far earlier than usual on Friday and there were probably about 8 sitting there, with gaps where others had been. 

Redo I was so surprised when that £8 dropped straight into my payable tally! I suppose because they had automated attention checkers - I suspect had we failed those we would just have been booted straight out. 

The weather here is still utterly filthy but at least it did lead to decent Agile pricing overnight. I got a load of washing through yesterday evening, with the towels from that also getting an hour in the drier as well. Reload the WM to run on the cheapest of the slots overnight, and also got everything possible in the DW to get that through as well, as it contained the slow cooker crockpot which takes up huge amounts of space. On getting up this morning I prepped a tray of veg for roasting, and got that in with the lamb breast rings which will do us for lunch, plus got the bread machine on ready for MrEH to make rolls for the week, too. Just over 6kWh used so far at a total of 62p (plus standing charge, obviously) so I’m pleased enough with that, not least as the laundry basket is now completely empty which is always a good start to a new week. 

I’ve got my glasses collection and fitting appointment in a little while - not massively looking forward to heading out in the wind and rain I have to say, but there you go. I’ve already had to nip out to the garden first thing to rescue the green bin which had gone for a little lie down with a redcurrant bush - thankfully the currant appears to be unbothered by this assault upon its person! Depending on how long the glasses thing takes (some will probably want a fair bit of adjustment and possibly arms cutting down) we might pop to Mum this afternoon to do a bit more loft clearing. 

EssexHebridean

Well the glasses needed far less adjustment than I expected - it seems I managed to pick frames for two pairs that were already the right "size" in terms of arm length, and the sunglasses weren't suitable for cutting down anyway but as I will wear them less I'm not too concerned about over-long arms. So far I'm very pleased with them - they give far better vision than the "Should've gone to..." ones ever did! I'm also very pleased that my trip into town didn't end up in any more spending - for me, at least, MrEH got some christmas shopping done I think. 

We did pop to Mum's on Sunday afternoon, and as tends to be the case came back with assorted stuff - a grill pan and rack which I am currently undecided about keeping - although MrEH says we'll keep the rack regardless as another cooling rack is always useful. A loose-bottomed flan tin which I'll try out and see if it's any good, a rather useful storage box full of assorted screws (all still in their original 19602/70's boxes, some with price tickets!) and a few more bits too. we also sorted several bags for rubbish and another for the charity shop - but are still definitely planning a proper full-on tip visit over Christmas too! 

In MSE-world:
- Banks checked and all good
- CC money shuffle is happening gradually - the last big lump (flights booked for a trip next year) has been transferred across this morning, mostly from our "joint fun" pot, but a small balance from the VSP as well (as the money is there, and it makes sense to use that rather than robbing elsewhere)
- interest has landed for the first month of my new 6 month fixed saver
- Agile prices aren't brilliant today, and of course MrEH is WFH as well, but we're still up overall on this month and well up overall, so no complaints. 
- Prolific now stands at £38.46 payable/£3.46 pending, but does seem to have slowed down a bit - my target is still going to be £50 for this month but that probably depends on how many more studies land as people are winding down for Christmas.
- Food is under control and I'm definitely now at the point of creating more space in the freezer than re-filling.

Yesterday's "Nice thing" was the first of my sets of Christmas earrings being worn for work, plus a trip out last night for a CAMRA branch meeting
Today I am sporting another pair of Christmas earrings, plus one of my favourite necklaces, and I even thought to put some perfume on! (That is also a bottle I have earmarked for using up, as there are only dregs left in it!)