And now we go again...

Sun_Addict

I use the little 🦆 brand and prefer them to other brands I’ve tried.

EssexHebridean

SH - we’re both still coughing and blowing but definitely getting there I think - thank you! SA - I had a feeling it was you who’d said you liked the Little 🦆 brand - I knew it was someone on here who’d recommended them! 

Right - car was collected 10 minutes ago and I have managed to achieve a decent amount I think… 

- put shopping away
- read electric meter
- swish bathroom
- tidy kitchen island
- take treaty chocolate stuff upstairs and stash in the goodie bag with other Christmas treaty stuff
- Jaws! (Upstairs, at least)

All the above done, plus:
- rubbish collected and put out
- grate cleared and fire reset
- Jaws round downstairs AND probably my least favourite job - the stairs done too! (Whoever told me the novelty of stairs would wear off when I had to vacuum them- you have a point!) 
- Stocks of tinned tuna checked and with one tin in the stores to add to the two in the pull out unit, that confirms that we do not need to do F@rmf00ds this week. 

There are some odds and ends of tidying I want to do - papers and the empty kindling bucket to the shed for a start, and I may swish a duster around but other than that I think we are pretty much straight now which frees up my afternoon for, well, I’m not quite sure to be honest, but I think it might be a bit lazy! 
- I might write a blog post
- I may well spend some time reading my book 
- TV? 

- maybe start a couple of crocheted dishcloths off - I have a couple which are showing signs of general mankiness and could do with replacing.
- a proper post on here including grocery spend declaration! 

Right now though MrEH has just appeared from the office, so I think it’s lunchtime! 

Makingabobor2

You've achieved a lot already today. I think hoovering the stairs is one of the worst jobs, although maybe because I'm always worried I'm going to fall....lol. 
I like the idea of trying to reduce grocery spend. I've been budgeting £200 for the 2 of us, for a 4 week period, but that includes cleaning stuff etc as well, so think I maybe need a separate budget for that, as I seem to have a tendency to creep over budget quite often. My next 4 week period starts on Monday, so I am going to do a meal plan from what we already have in stock and hopefully I won't even need to buy too much next week, which will give me a good head start. Think we haven't eaten so much since we've had covid. 

northwalesd

EssexHebridean said:

I’ve a bit of a hankering after one of those with the glass sides though, and the blue light - a holiday cottage we have stayed in regularly has one and I love it! So that may be what we replace with (clearly a great idea in a place with stupidly hard water, mind!) 

We have had one for about the last 4 years, my advice; reconsider.

LadyWithAPlan

I use the Lid toilet rolls and they are fine - no complaints and the Lid kitchen rolls are great.
I live in London and find limescale removing toilet cleaner is the only way to go - made such a difference.

On kettles yes - I never descale enough and then wonder why my kettles look less than shiny inside and out.

I havent lived with a place with stairs in decades ... I also hank after some - however the vacuum cleaning argh - unless they are wooden and can be wiped?

badmemory

LadyWithAPlan said:

I havent lived with a place with stairs in decades ... I also hank after some - however the vacuum cleaning argh - unless they are wooden and can be wiped?

Just don't live next door to them.  Do not go there unless you live in a detatched.  In the last 5 minutes next door have done 3 flights.

themadvix

We have blue light glass kettle (I’m on my second) and extremely hard water - not that much of an issue really. It might be if a perfectly shiny kettle was very important to you, but I just chuck in a used lemon when we have one (or if it’s really bad and we’ve not used any lemon some vinegar) and it comes up beautifully.

milann

Good luck with the grocery challenge and new kettle 👍

savingholmes

I've had a blue light kettle in the past and loved it while it lasted. We go through a lot but no idea over what period...

EssexHebridean

northwalesd said:

EssexHebridean said:

I’ve a bit of a hankering after one of those with the glass sides though, and the blue light - a holiday cottage we have stayed in regularly has one and I love it! So that may be what we replace with (clearly a great idea in a place with stupidly hard water, mind!) 

We have had one for about the last 4 years, my advice; reconsider.

Is this the limescale problem or something else? 🤔 

Vix - yes, I think you might be on the same “hard water band” as we are - I always thought London water was grim for limescale until we moved here! 

LaPlan ours definitely aren’t wooden - they have a rather lovely stripey stair carpet!  - and Badmemory I can only begin to imagine - our delightful former upstairs neighbours and their laminate floors were a nightmare - I’d imagine that solid wooden stairs would be every bit as bad! As for limescale removal - yes to the toilet gel - it’s thicker than the likes of V1@kal etc so it clings better. I do like a bit of white vinegar for limescale on the granite worksurface too - and for shower heads of course. 

MAB - no question all the non food bits that we buy with shopping can certainly push the budget can’t they. Much as I would love a really low spend this month, I know I will need to buy the loo rolls, and will probably want to stock up on washing liquid, and that’s going to bump things up. Can’t be helped, but still! I did debate about a separate budget but for us it’s still likely to get bought at the same time as the food shopping anyway so doesn’t seem to make sense to split it out. 

I did write a blog post this afternoon in the end, but more importantly I also made the curried parsnip soup - in fact, that was what the blog post ended up being about too. Used all bar three parsnips, a pot of the ham stock, and half the tub of crème fraiche, and I also added 4 decent palmfuls of red lentils to add a bit of protein and bulk. Made 5 hearty potions two of which will do us for lunch tomorrow - assuming MrEH is going to rugby, he’s not been selected to play so he is undecided about whether to go and watch or not.

MSE Stuff:
- banks checked and all good
- discovered that the account we now use as the mortgage OP pot, but which previously had the moving expenses money in it, has had its interest paid - meaning that once that was added to the balance in there it was over £100 - so another £100 sent to the mortgage. 
- MrEH has transferred his CC money so I can get that squared away
- shopping done exactly as per list. £13.02 spent - literally just fruit, veg, milk and yogurts. There will be another small spend to make yet but hopefully it will be very small! 
- Soup made using 15p veg and crème fraiche that needed using up. 

- stocktake done this morning confirming that we do not need to go to F@rmf00ds this week - may as well keep those grocery pennies in my account for as long as possible! 

- quote received for possible solar and battery installation. Lots of discussion to be had but it’s definitely worth us thinking about I reckon.
- my car went off on a tow truck rather than under her own steam, thus saving me some diesel, so hurrah for that! 

- Fire is lit and accordingly the central heating has been turned down so it shouldn’t kick in again this evening.
- Tea was very much reverse planned - lamb burgers (Food show - £2 for the pack of 2) in buns (YS’d - from freezer) using up the last of the jar of cranberry sauce as a relish, with the remains of a bag of oven chips. Freezer space created - immediately re-filled with soup! 

Spendiness:
- £13.02 in Lil’s 
That’s it! Went straight there, did the shop, came straight home. 😇 

No plans at all for tomorrow as yet - if himself doesn’t go to rugby then we may well nip to Mum’s to finish putting her shelf up - we ran into a problem when we first tried as the screws she had were long enough, but we have some that are. If he DOES go to rugby, and the weather stays dry, I might try to get out for a run. Other than that though, no idea at all!