And now we go again...

EssexHebridean

Agreed Foxgloves - leftovers are brilliant! I don’t end up with many as I tend to cook to the specific quantity of food for the meal we’re about to eat, but sometimes something comes up with a bit more than needed/wanted and then I do portion it off and stash it away. Remembering that the single portion of the chickpeas was there was the best - that was a really delicious recipe that I will definitely be making again as we both really enjoyed it.

Yesterday ended up as just the sort of nice pottery sort of day I felt in need of - and I did get various jobs dealt with too. 

- the mini greenhouse is now almost full of paper bricks drying
- the bathroom is clean and sparkling
 - everywhere that needed a visit from Jaws, got one! 

- the cobwebs have been banished
- the bedroom has been dusted, and even damp-dusted over the headboard and bedside tables
- the kitchen island has been cleaned down

I did get some photo stuff done although not as much as I really intended, I caught up on some TV last night while MrEH was out at the rugby club, and I did indeed get some time just reading too.

As well as the paper bricks I did spend some time generally sorting things in the garden - including getting a small bed cleared and tidying up thr collapsed beans a bit more.  Harvested tomatoes, a courgette, and more beans (obviously!) 

lucielle

Sounds like you had a great pottery day!
L

EssexHebridean

Nice day on Saturday meeting up with some beer festival pals for the first of the de-brief meetings - this one for the bar and technical side of things. Spends will all be from personal spends although some bits and pieces need balancing out as yet as they went onto the CC at the time. I'll probably deal with that later today. 

MSE Stuff:
- on realising that the electric prices yesterday were going to be negative for a good chunk of the day we both agreed to just head back, having had breakfast and dealt with the shopping first.
- two loads of washing done almost entirely at negative pricing
- free drying thanks to sunshine and a stiff breeze!
- Breakfast was at the nearest Carvery place of the T0by persuasion - we opted to skip tea/coffee so just had the straight all you can eat option which MrEH in particular made good use of.
- Shopping done in M's using a £5.50 off £35 spend coupon, and some points boosters/other more card prices.
- that shopping also earned us a voucher for a free hot drink from the cafe - I made good use of my insulated mug to grab a tea
- MrEH also made use of HIs insulated mug to grab a free coffee from Gr3gg5 as I'd snagged a freebie from there via the Octopods app
- car filled up with fuel at a price far lower than we would have paid at home
- Once home and with the first load of washing on, I also got the oven fired up ready for some quick recipe bread rolls to see us through the next few days for lunches - those baked for free - or better in fact, as we were being paid to do so!
- The hob also saw some action as I did some more bean prep and freezing 
- While I was doing the cooking stuff MrEH made use of the electric sander outside to prep some more panels of the shed for painting - sadly the sander now seems to have died a slow death, so will need replacing! 
- Some PA studies done, and an attempt at some ipsos ones also, although screened out of those. PA now at £16.87 payable with £2.01 pending
- some inadvertent money-saving thanks to the tube strike meaning MrEH will not be using his Oyster this week as he's WFH. (Unless they decide to halt the action part way through but that seems unlikely) 

A couple of useful bargains in M's yesterday - a pack of round air fryer liners (the flat ones that just line the basket base) for £1, and a couple of really nice bowls that will replace a couple of old ones, one of which has already been disposed of as it gained a worrying crack, and the other is heading the same way. £3 each for those, which I'm happy with.

I need to give some thought to the food side of things for the week, although yesterday's tea made use of a couple of wraps and some breaded chicken steaks from the freezer. I've got sausages out for this evening which I'll probably air fry, and I might do sweet potatoes with those as I know I have some to use. 
I will probably stick with couscous for tomorrow, almost certainly using the final two sausages rather than freezing those. That will also use some courgette...although it looks like we have a hiatus before the  next ones appear!
Wednesday - almost certainly salad - need to think what with.
Thursday - something quick as we'll be heading off during the evening ahead of our weekend in Ludlow for the food festival. A well priced travel-type-Lodge has given us a bonus night away and means we don't have the hassle of trying to drive all the way up on the Friday. 

EssexHebridean

Last night's tea ended up as couscous thanks to the high post-peak Agile pricing, and we have more of the same today too. I did realise this early enough yesterday that MrEH was able to air fry the sausages during his lunch break at far cheaper rates! He's going to make use of today's cheaper timeslots to hard boil some eggs, as well, and as per yesterday will also boil a kettle and fill a flask to make hot drinks later substantially cheaper!  It does mean that I will need to slightly re-think the food for the week, but that's perfectly doable. 

I'm none too impressed with the knock-on effects from the tube strike other than it meaning we are able to make use of those cheaper electric slots - it took me over 2 hours to get to work this morning thanks to the roads being absolutely gridlocked at the London end. I can't see it being a whole lot better tomorrow either, although with luck some folk who are able to will decide they've had enough of it today and not travel tomorrow. 

More beans and tomatoes picked yesterday - and spotted another cucumber that will need picking today. I need to ensure some of the cukes get eaten too - that will be three in the fridge! 

rtandon27

I'm with you on the knock-on effects EH!

My normally peaceful trip in to the  is now madness with rude tube commuters invading the overground to get where they are going!  I ended up buying lunch yesterday and our local independent sandwich shop will suffer badly this week with a huge dip in revenue!  There is usually a queue to get food and yesterday there were all of two of us at a usually busy time!  My colleagues from London who have no option but to be in the office have spent over 50 pounds on an uber just to get into the office when it would normally cost them 8.90gbp for the round trip to and from home.  I honestly don't think that TfL employees are garnering much sympathy with their striking!

beanielou

rtandon27 said:

I'm with you on the knock-on effects EH!

My normally peaceful trip in to the  is now madness with rude tube commuters invading the overground to get where they are going!  I ended up buying lunch yesterday and our local independent sandwich shop will suffer badly this week with a huge dip in revenue!  There is usually a queue to get food and yesterday there were all of two of us at a usually busy time!  My colleagues from London who have no option but to be in the office have spent over 50 pounds on an uber just to get into the office when it would normally cost them 8.90gbp for the round trip to and from home.  I honestly don't think that TfL employees are garnering much sympathy with their striking!

Blimey, that's daylight robbery.

EssexHebridean

I honestly think where companies insist on staff going to the office in situation like that then they should at the very least be reimbursing the extra travel costs! 

Well, we had a lovely if rather damp weekend in Ludlow. Lots of nice foody bits eaten and bought to bring home, a nice meal with pals on Friday evening (And MrEH and I used the Curry Night deal in the weather-cutlery pub chain on Thursday evening), some nice beers and some chilling round a camp fire - can't argue with that! The tent, however, has seen its last outing, and in fact is probably around now being tipped out of the wheely bin (where it landed as soon as we got back) into the dustcart! We re-proofed it last year in the hope of "1 more year" - and did indeed get that one more year out of it, but there were some sizeable puddles in the living area on Saturday morning, and I refuse point-blank to be woken on any more nights by the sound of water dripping into the tent...  

Spends from the weekend will all be from either personal spends, or the money we budget for such trips, so all good there. The replacement tent will need some thought, although we're inclined to buy sooner rather than later, both because we've seen one we like which come next spring will be discontinued stock I think, and because there are currently some excellent prices available too. At the moment I'm leaning towards that simply being covered from the joint account surplus this month - as there is little point in taking money out of savings simply to replace it at the end of the month. We're already planning some trips next year so it will definitely be worth getting something bought, we think! 

Food shopping this week is relatively minimal, as we've decided to work almost entirely with what we have. I've got milk that we brought back from the weekend which will see me through, and between the freezer stocks and the veg from the garden we should be fine. I did pop to Als yesterday for salad bits (and snagged some reduced price sandwich fillings while there which was handy) and there may be some other oddments later in the week but we'll see. 

More runner beans and tomatoes have been harvested. There's another cucumber ready to go, and more courgettes forming, but they've slowed a bit because of the cooler weather, I think - allowing we still have one lurking in the fridge that's probably not a bad thing! The handful of toms I left on the windowsill have ripened beautifully though, so that bodes well for any more we need to ripen that way. Two of our pointy sweet peppers are now turning red as well. 

badmemory

Hopefully you will find somewhere that is making room for winter stuff so having a tent sale

EssexHebridean

I think the one we've seen is just the place looking to clear off their end of line stock - but that's fine. Anyway, it's ordered! Via TCB as that was available, and we'll be paying on collection (and then on a CC) so will hang onto our pennies for a few days extra yet too. As there was a good offer on the "footprint" for the tent (essentially an additional groundsheet that goes underneath - helps keep the tent groundsheet clean and protected and also add a degree of additional warmth) I've got that too - at £35 it was a bit of a no brainer. I've also taken the chance to replace my rather elderly sleeping bag - while it's still to all intents and purposes decent, it is over 20 years old, and is desperately in need of a wash, with my suspicion being that it may not enjoy being washed, much! As from memory it cost me about £17 when I bought it originally, I rather feel I've had my moneys worth, to be honest! 

Tonight's food will be another frugal offering in the shape of sardine & butterbean pasta - entirely from stuff we have in, although I have bought a bag of spinach some of which will get added in - I needed to purchase something to validate my parking the car in the Al's car park near to work (a small price to pay for free parking round here!) and that, plus a box of cereal for work seemed like a sensible purchase.

Looks like we may be on for some good electricity pricing again over the next day or so - if there is anything that suits our timings I may well get a wash of towels on at some stage, and ideally tumble dry them as well. we're almost up to date with clothes washing at the moment - as prices were good I opted to get stuff through as soon as we got back at the weekend - current me is grateful to past me, for this! (The camping plates, pans etc all went through the dishwasher straight away for the same reason!)

In a switch to our usual arrangements MrEH is working from home today so i will be home a little earlier than on the days we car share - all being well it might give us time to get out into the garden for a while later. Pretty sure there will be more runner beans to pick, and the tomatoes, peppers, chillies and courgettes all need feeding, too. 

LadyWithAPlan

Just catching up & glad all is well with mr EH 

I had to get my way home from Stansted during the strike - added at least an hour ..