Moving on

Honeysucklelou2

That’s a reminder to me - to finish planting out bulbs!!

Cherryfudge

Ahhhh... that was my last getting up early for a little while, though doubtless there are more late nights to come.

This morning was cold and bright, and it's now warmer and bright. I even flung a door open for a while to freshen the house up at lunchtime. First, though, I had the morning at the toddler group Christmas party - not too party-ish as little ones don't cope well. We did play an elementary form of 'Twister', where I got very involved as one child would only join in if she could put my hands on the right spots (and she has a firm grip!). Once she got used to that, she began to play more independently. There were their ordinary activities as well (I always enjoy those!) then Father Christmas came (I know him quite well and he genuinely is lovely with kids) and somehow I ended up in the circle for pass the parcel. Thank goodness for the surrounding ring of Mums to help children pass, unwrap and generally get the hang of a game some of them have never played before.

Yet more grocery shopping has happened: I haven't really found which supermarkets have which discounts but I got a 15p swede in Sains and 8p potatoes and carrots in L!dl. There were cherry tomatoes marked down in a couple of places so I've frozen two bags of them ready for roast veg with Christmas dinner. I also restricted myself to one bag of fresh sprouts (marked down to 10p so cheaper than Sains Christmas discount). I realised I'd had to throw out half a bag of the last lot as DH doesn't have them and there are only so many of my meals that can accommodate them. This should do for Christmas dinner plus a few spares, so I'm about to prepare and blanch them while I remember. 

I'm quite proud of myself for not buying pastries as it's a habit I could do without and I had some gorgeous cake left over from last night instead (I know it's very similar but the thing is, I didn't buy just because I could).

I've still not bought milk.

Expenditure:
Gifts £21.34




I've just spent more money on more gifts but hopefully that means DGD will get her birthday present in time. I found an educational sort of thing that I thought would tie in with what her Dad suggested but really it was too old for her and she adores her 'Princess dress' so I've got her more on the same lines. 

Sun_Addict

You could slice up sprouts for a stir fry if you need to shift a few. 

Cherryfudge

That's good thinking thanks @Sun_Addict. I'm going to roast some for Christmas dinner as J and L are coming and she's got him to the point where he's happy to eat them - whether this has to be roast, I don't know, but they've enthused about them. I imagine they are good in stir fry too.

I started my earlier post and got distracted by preparing vegetables so I had to finish hurriedly to get to work, and do the grocery shopping on the way home. I have milk again.  I also have quite a few of the traditional oddments (sausages, bread sauce etc.) we usually put with Christmas meals so the to-do list is shrinking. I also ended up lugging a few bottles home for the recycling as work doesn't recycle glass and there had been an office party. I'll give said office 9 out of 10 for clearing up, they lost the final mark for jamming an open coleslaw in the top of a bin. Otherwise, they did quite well, even managing to put recyclables in the recycling bin and actual rubbish in the actual rubbish bin. (This is rare).

So for all those who were wondering what the cleaner thinks of their office, I can give you a fair idea.

I'll come back and look at the spending later - my phone told me DH spent £221 on his credit card which is a hotel for a couple of nights in London and tickets for a special art exhibition. I spent about £15 on groceries this evening and another £10? earlier. My T*sco cheap veg were parsnips at 15p, their carrots had all gone which all goes to prove how loyal we British are to the glorious carrot.

Cherryfudge

Today's spending:
E-book 99p
Gifts (see above) £22.34 (and it's already on its way, which is more than can be said for the previous order so DGD may be getting the Christmas present for her birthday and v.v.)
Housekeeping 25.25
Donation £4.35

Happy that I'm ahead with food prep and that we'll have something to give DGD for her birthday! There's still a massive amount of tidying to be done but I've made a start on cleaning the windows. Tomorrow I'd like to go back to a couple of recent lists, neither of which got finished. I've also got a few people to text about the preschool group staffing (I had a call from someone to say she's leaving the team, but wanted to let me know first. I was in work so I couldn't talk properly). Then I have Sunday's session to prepare, and I owe a friend for some Christmas cards that I've yet to collect from her.

LilSmiler

Cherryfudge said:

I'll come back and look at the spending later - my phone told me DH spent £221 on his credit card which is a hotel for a couple of nights in London and tickets for a special art exhibition. 

Has your phone maybe ruined what could be a lovely surprise present..?!? 😵‍💫

rtandon27

Cherryfudge said:

...my phone told me DH spent £221 on his credit card...

One year, in the early years I was checking & paying off credit card balances on Dec 23rd and panicked when I saw a charge at a jewelry store on OH's card that I'd not made.  Let's just say I panicked!  Turned out OH was trying to surprise me for Christmas! He had to admit to it but only did so after I'd dialed through to the fraud team.  We don't do surprises anymore 🤣🤣🤣

Cherryfudge

LilSmiler said:

Has your phone maybe ruined what could be a lovely surprise present..?!? 😵‍💫

rtandon27 said:

One year, in the early years I was checking & paying off credit card balances on Dec 23rd and panicked when I saw a charge at a jewelry store on OH's card that I'd not made.  Let's just say I panicked!  Turned out OH was trying to surprise me for Christmas! He had to admit to it but only did so after I'd dialed through to the fraud team.  We don't do surprises anymore 🤣🤣🤣

Ha ha, no, the phone was planned a while ago and I talked about it to him. He knows I rarely wear jewellery too, so that's unlikely to be it. He has talked about going to London and the exhibition, though.

At present his credit card just goes through my spreadsheet as a lump sum so I've not closed doors to nice surprises! Ditto he doesn't see what goes through on mine, not that I'd mind if he did but it means I can buy for him without him seeing.

Cherryfudge

I haven't got as far as reopening those lists but a few things are out of the way. That helps settle the agitation! I'm going to list those:

• Washed my hair
• Tried on the new top which is a keeper
• Made a start on window cleaning though sidetracked into sorting the mess on the kitchen window sill. Binned a handful of rusty nails and recycled two well out of date hand gel bottles.
• Cleaned the bathroom
• helped DH work out how much wrapping paper we have (31m unopened plus unknown opened reels)
• Texted two people in connection with preschool group
• DH had his phone appointment with cardiology and was able to tell them he's not had tachycardia for a while. They told him his heart has no abnormalities. Then he did an exercise video and started it off again, so he's currently not doing anything too strenuous till it settles.
• The 'clock man' came to give our old clock a home visit and has taken the mechanism back to the workshop for further investigations. Meanwhile we've to put a baton on the wall to stop it leaning backwards. As my Dad used to say of the house where I grew up, 'there isn't a right angle in the place'.
• I had my dinner early as I'm working at 4.30. I think that finished up the veggie chilli and made a tiny bit of freezer space.

badmemory

I decided that this house was the one the apprentices built.  There isn't a wall that would look acceptable if it was just painted & this is not an old house, not even 15 years old when I bought it.