And now we go again...

EssexHebridean

Morning all! 

PiP - the 2 x D01m10 for £1 was F@rmf00ds - they often have stuff like that on offer. I nabbed 6 cartons of N@p0lina passata for £1 the other week too - well worth popping in just for those sorts of offers if you have one nearby.
Foxgloves - “easily turn off and onable”… 🤣🤣 There was a whole conversation somewhere on here about those ads a while back, they are all available to rewatch on the Tube of You should anyone want a burst of nostalgia! 

Dreaming our flat was exactly the same with lack of worktop space - almost everything that could be had to be packed away - in a completely different room in many cases, and I completely agree that the faff of having to get things out and set up often means you don’t use them as often as you should. 

Apologies to all who’ve popped by and I’ve not namechecked - it’s so lovely popping back here to find I ’ve had so many lovely visitors and I really wish my memory was retentive enough to make thanking everyone individually an option - it’s definitely not though! You ARE all appreciated, but then you know that! 

Lovely weekend here so far - the mix we’ve been trying to achieve of relaxing and achieving so far too. Lovely natter with Mum on Friday afternoon, it was fab showing her the stuff we’ve done and she agrees that we’ve really made the place feel like ours now. Yesterday was curtain shopping day - we found some thermal ones in Dun31m in a colour we both loved (“thistle” if anyone wants a nose) so went for those. Did have to buy a pair of curtains for the door though as the drop is too much for the individual door curtains they sell. That increase the cost, but at least we’ll have one ready to go when the first one fades I guess! Landing ones are already up and in place, door ones will be shortly once MrEH gets all his tools etc sorted. 

Nipped in to The Base of Homes while we were on that estate and found that all their seeds were priced down to £1 - including thr multipacks of RHS ones. 7 packs came home with us, and we’re now far better set up for next year’s veg growing than we were! 

Plan for this afternoon is a garden centre wander ai think - I want to price a hydrangea. 

And now MrEH needs my help with curtain rail positioning - as I can hear the steps being folded out I had better go and see what is required! 

Sun_Addict

Glad you’re having a lovely weekend with your mum. Also good news you’ve found some curtains you like. I find it really difficult to find curtains I like for some reason. I’m also considering fixing energy prices with 🐙 

milann

I have those curtains in my spare bedroom 👍

PennysIntoPounds

Ooh that's a good deal on the passata!

I absolutely had a nose and those thistle curtains are lovely, very classy

lucielle

Good news on the curtains and getting them put up as well. Nice to have a natter with your mum. 

L

LadyWithAPlan

@ by me

sounds like you are settling in great 

EssexHebridean

Good afternoon thrifty pals - hopefully all staying dry and cosy amongst some truly awful weather at the moment, I gather today's respite for much of the country is the lull before yet another storm, which is awful allowing for how much some areas have already gone through.

Well putting up the door curtain was not as easy as we hoped. We had our fingers crossed that we would be able to re-use the holes from the previous rail that was up there which our sellers opted to take with them, but sadly it wasn't to be, and drilling into walls of the housing in our town can always be what might be classed as interesting due to the nature of the materials used. (The flat was dreadful - precast concrete EVERYWHERE which is close to impossible to drill into!) Sure enough, the ordinary drilling mode wouldn't touch it, however MrEH had the foresight to choose the drill which can be switched into hammer-drill mode for the task! Even then drilling the four required holes took a ludicrous amount of time - and effort on his part. It also underlined that we higher set of steps is definitely something we require as it would have been a far more comfortable task for him at all stages had he had even one extra rung of height.  Anyway, we got there in the end, albeit with a fair bit of muttering and swearing (him) and apologies for not being able to help more (me!) it did however take quite a chunk more of time yesterday morning than we had hoped. 
The good news however was that the length of the curtain we bought is exactly right - it hangs perfectly to the floor, so that was a bonus! I do need to have a further go at both the new sets of curtains with the steamer though as they are still distinctly creased! 

Other stuff achieved:
- the long shelf we bought on Saturday has been cut down to make two shorter ones for two of the kitchen cupboards, so we now have some additional space which is useful.
- Discovered that we must have had a small furry visitor in one of the lower cupboards. That has been fully emptied, cleaned out with anti-bac, and the contents replaced with only things in glass bottles included. The several boxes of various tea bags that were in there escaped attention so have been wiped down and replaced in the top cupboard (on one of the new shelves!) the top of a bag of MrEH's coffee beans had been nibbled but the contents untouched, so those have been transferred into a spare bag he had, and are also now in the top cupboard. The last dregs of our posh hot chocolate has unsurprisingly fallen victim and been binned. We will now be keeping a very close eye on things to see whether we need to take further steps. Looking at what had been consumed/nibbled it can only have been a single mouse or a couple at most, and we are hoping that removing their food source might well be enough to convince them that the pickings are richer elsewhere. We have a division of views on trapping though - I would sooner have the humane sort, while MrEH is opposed to those on the basis that as what we have are undoubtedly house mice, releasing them outside is just condemning them to a slow death - I can see his reasoning but still feel that they do at least have a chance then... if we can avoid traps of any sort we would prefer to do so. 
- Garden centre meander in the afternoon, although had we realised about the state of the roads between us and there we might have thought better of it! I wanted to see what the options were for a hydrangea for the front garden. I've wanted a hydrangea for LITERALLY years - but we've never had the space really, so I knew that as soon as we had a garden it was one of the things that was high on my list. What was in my head was a purpley-blue traditionally shaped one, however what I actually ended up with is a beautiful pale pink/cream with the flowers in spikes rather than the more usual round heads. I was pleasantly surprised that it was only £11.99 as well, I had expected to pay more! We'd debated whether we had a pot large enough for it already, and decided that as if it IS going onto a pot we both felt we wanted it to be seriously heavy, in which case we hadn't, so we also had a stroll around the pots and were delighted to find some large ones in a frost-proof ceramic in a fabulous deep blue reduced down substantially in price. Other than that, and in spite of temptation, the only things that came home with us were a small deep red cyclamen and an item which will suit a family member down to the ground as part of their christmas present, and was also reduced to an almost giveaway price.

MSE Stuff:
- Banks checked and all good there.
- Cash spends from the farmers market have been balanced out against money MrEH owed back to the CC/Joint account. 
- Quite a high spend food wise this week but that was expected with the market. The plan now is that the next month  needs to be one of relying heavily on freezer and storecupboards, with the weekly shop really being mainly fresh stuff. I do feel that we are beginning to get to grips with how things like storecupboard items work in the house too, which is a help. 
- Did also take the chance to stock up a little on dried fruit as we had a coupon for extra points  from T's when we spent £5 in that aisle. 2 packs of the "luxury" mixed dried (includes cranberries and apricots and is truly delicious in porridge) and 2 packs of the very budget sultanas met the required level. 
- Meal plan is in place for the next week, and will indeed be taking advantage of roast lamb shoulder leftovers from yesterday, alongside meatballs and spicy ragu from the freezer. Tonight is a stir fry using some of a pack of mince bought on saturday, and the last of a jar of sauce from the fridge.
- Just reviewed the options on various supermarket coupon offerings ahead of next weekend and currently it would appear that a quick swerve into the coop for milk might be a plan on Friday morning as they have helpfully given us a £1 off your shop coupon. I've also activated a handful of "might use" ones from T's as well. 
- Opted to not buy new curtains for the dressing room as yet. We do have plans to decorate in there at some stage although we've got no timescale on that as yet, and it will very much involve painting the bits that are visible   and as the current ones are perfectly effective - although they do need draping around the radiator - we've opted to save the cash and stick with them for now. 

Nothing much planned for this week, although we are hoping that it will be a return to a more usual pattern of working for MrEH after his 5 days of commuting last week. So far, it appears this is likely.
He will be rugby training tomorrow evening no doubt - as usual food is planned to accommodate.
My car needs to go in for a repair and is being picked up by the garage dealing with the matter next Friday, all being well, so I need to remember that. after an awful lot of faffing with the company designated to provide me with a courtesy car I have opted to go without as long as the repair doesn't take too long. I lost all faith in the hire car firm in the early stages of the process, and if they can't get their T's and C's straight when conveying them to me, I can see a strong likelihood of me managing to fall foul of them and be charged as a result. I will need to remember that I must put some fuel in my car before they pick it up - or alternatively use MrEH's car for my solo commuting days this week which may be a better plan, thinking about it.
Next weekend's "house plan" is to sort out the spare room, and also to get a few bits up in the loft. If MrEH doesn't have a rugby match on Saturday we might also attempt to sort out some additional storage space in the shed as that will assist with the space in there being more user friendly.

beanielou

Plant & pot sound fantastic. 

PennysIntoPounds

Lovely work in the garden centre. The colour of hydrangeas depends on the PH of the soil so do check if you want to keep it pink!

You truly do have a classy joint with your house mouse only going for the posh hot choc 😂

lucielle

Plants sounds lovely!  Cars are a pain, hope yours gets fixed ok. 

L