And now we go again...

lucielle

Your decorations sound lovely!
L

EssexHebridean

Thanks L - it does look very pretty I have to say! we especially appreciated when we got home yesterday evening that the outside ones are on a smartplug too, so were on by the time we got back! 

Morning all - although I just bet it will be "afternoon" by the time I get this posted!

MSE stuff is mostly trotting along as it normally does at this stage of the month:
- Final reg saver payment of the month came out yesterday
- Council tax came out yesterday
- CC money shuffle done with the exception of a night's accommodation which we may yet cancel...that needs a quick discussion later as it might prove more sensible to just drive back from where we will be. 
- Prolific is still going swimmingly - I've now got over £50 payable and frankly I'm actually quite tempted to just bank that and then leave anything else I get for this month to roll over! I'll have a think on that. 
- We should be in a position to make a further OP to the mortgage this month, and to add some more to our PB's as well. 
- Yesterday's Agile savings should take us  back over £6 saved this month, which allowing for the few days of horrendous pricing last week is fine by me! Today is reasonable again, and overnight tonight is looking good on the predictions, which means the WM & DW will run through. 
- A quick eye over the relevant pots suggests that we are roughly where we need to be on Xmas stuff - with the big spends to come from that pot being the turkey (which will be paid on collection on Monday) and then the niece & nephews vouchers. The food account is OK-ish - probably more OK-ish than I expected it to be at this stage in proceedings in fairness, although I may well subsidise the T's shop this week with £10 or so of CCard vouchers - the reward scheme is such poor value these days I have less of an issue doing that now! 

Nice things:
Mince pies after tea last night
Today's christmas earrings are a little pair of enamelled snowmen - very cute! 
We have another jigsaw on the go as well - with birds, lots of snippets of sheet music and foliage of various types it's proving quite a challenge! 

EssexHebridean

Morning lovely MSE gang - I hope it’s a bit less grey and gloomy with some of you at least - it’s been either raining solidly or drizzling all morning so far here, and we’ve got a right chilly wind too as I found out when we went to the farmers market earlier! 

The funeral yesterday went off really well - it feels that our friend was given a very appropriate send off. One of the nicest touches was his workmates (coach drivers and engineers from the company he worked for) forming up a guard of honour on the entrance to the entrance to the crematorium and standing to attention as the hearse came through - I don’t think there were too many dry eyes at that point. He would also have been delighted I think at providing an opportunity for so many friends to get together and enjoy a few beers together - although he would of course much rather have been drinking alongside us! 

MSE stuff:
- my seeds arrived from the magazine subscription - and included some really useful stuff so that was excellent.
- I decided that as Prolific was starting to tail off I would cash out early this month, so £60 has headed across to my tech replacement pot which I’m really pleased about! That is by far my best ever month on there. 

- a fruitful stop in at Mozzas on the way back yesterday - primarily to see if they had anything “different” on the beer front, but we also happened on some YS’d bits and made use of some bits on their “boost” scheme for added reward points, all things we would have bought anyway at some stage. 

- topped my car up at a petrol station which was several pence a litre cheaper than it would have been here
- MrEH managed to end his commuting year with somewhere just over £1 left on his oyster - so a top up needed on Jan 2nd, but that’s next months budget! 

- beers and food in the pub on Thursday night will come from our personal spends, and I will have a think about how best to budget the hotel, although to be honest I think it will probably just come from the surplus as it’s one of those “can’t be helped” spends which doesn’t really fall in to any particular budget. We could theoretically have driven up and back in the day yesterday but I’m glad we didn’t as that would have been more stressful, plus it really was a joy to see and spend time with pals we rarely see, in spite of the circumstances not being the happiest. 

- low Agile rates overnight mean that the house was heated on electricity cheaper than we could have done so with gas. 

- also cooked the ham in thr SC overnight, and that was then glazed with treacle and grain mustard and popped into the oven for its bake first thing. 

- I chunked up the last of the 1p squashes from Halloween and that also got popped in the oven to roast. 

Highlights of the shop last night were a slab of Yorkshire Parkin for 10p, a pack of the “Best” range sausagemeat balls with apple and cranberry for 82p, and some reduced rolls and pretzels from the bakery. Oh - also a piece of smoked haddock - undyed - for £2.11 which also benefited from money off on the fish Friday deal! The fish went straight in the freezer as soon as we got home, and the sausagemeat balls were air fried last night once the Agile rate dropped right down. I shall very much enjoy the parkin over the next few days!  We also treated ourselves to a salad bar tray each by way of an easy meal when we got home last night - at £4 each it was certainly cheaper than the other option of a takeaway would have been! 

As Agile Predict suggests another good night overnight today we are planning to turn on freezer 2 to chill down once the prices drop, and I will then be able to start making use of the space in that for various things. I’ve got some cooking I want to do 
- Mince pies
- sausage rolls ready for Mum coming tomorrow, with the balance to go aside for us to eat
- a “use it up” pasta bake with some tired broccoli, the last leek, that roasted squash and probably some bacon  which will all,get wrapped in a cheese sauce with the pasta. Plan is to cook double there - one will feed us tomorrow and the other will get popped in the freezer. 

- I bought mince at the market this morning and may well make some of that into a black bean chilli this time I think - that will be portioned and frozen ready for quick meals in the new year. 

 Nice things:
- work Christmas lunch on Wednesday - then of course finishing work for Christmas!
- Wednesday’s earrings were a cute pair of enamelled Rudolphs! 

- Thursday evening’s lovely meal, beers and good chat with pals while we reminisced about stories of the person we’d gathered to celebrate - sharing the tales that probably wouldn’t be suitable for the funeral itself! (There were many!)
- perhaps a strange one, but feeling as though we had given someone very special a really fitting send off - sharing laughter and tears with those who loved him! 

Today is going to be purely for me - my usual tradition of wrapping presents with a Queen concert on the TV this afternoon while MrEH is out, I will light the fire early and just generally have a lovely quiet day recharging after two days of a lot of social stuff. Also the Christmas farmer’s market this morning which is always a joy! 

PennysIntoPounds

Glad the funeral went as well as these things can, sounds like a very fitting and lovely send-off x

beanielou

Sounds like a lovely send off. 

jwil

Glad the funeral went as well as these things can.  Hope you enjoy your relaxing time this afternoon.

Sun_Addict

What a lovely tribute to your friend at his funeral and that you were able to share happy memories about him afterwards. Sounds like you did him proud. 

The seeds are good ones aren’t they. I was really happy with mine. Looking forward to receiving my first magazine. I’m glad you mentioned the subscription on your diary. 

Sounds like you have a nice afternoon planned. 

LadyWithAPlan

What a lovely tribute to your friend - I was at a memorial last week and you do always think that the person we were all there for should be there. 

So many lovely reminiscences 

hope you keep healing. 

lucielle

Glad your friend had a good send off. Some ‘me’ time sounds like a great idea. Some nice Billy bob bargains with the shopping. 

L

Seasidegal58

Finally caught up with your diary and goings on EH!
Sorry to hear about your recent fall - ouch!  That sounded like a real nasty crash! Glad you're healing. 
What a wonderful tribute to your friend too. I'm pleased to hear the funeral went off well as can be expected as they can be especially hard at this time of year. 

I hope you had a nice relaxing day yesterday and all the Christmas wrapping is complete. 😀🎁🎄