Away From The Madding Crowd

Katiehound

Today's simple pleasures

seen on the dog walk 'round the block.'

A pink & yellow day!

Sight & perfume of Mahonia japonica (smells a bit bit like lily of the valley)- full of yellow flowers
large clump of winter aconites
Lots of winter heathers flowering
yellow & pinky primulas.

The yellow flowers certainly brighten the day (extra bonus was the scent)

Dizee123

How lovely to see these these flowers starting to bloom and pop up their heads to cheer us up.
  
My simple pleasure of the day was discovering that the boardwalk down by the river was no longer underwater and my favorite circular walk was no long impassible

Humboldt

@Katiehound lily of the valley are one of my many favourite flowers.  @Dizee123 welcome and thank you for sharing your simple pleasure.

Motivational quote of the week

There is nothing like staying home for real comfort – Jane Austen

Money Saving

Our monthly grocery budget for me and my DH is £200 per month.   Just wanted to add that this budget does not include personal toiletries (skin/hair care/bath products, deodorants, etc), alcohol, health supplies (cold remedies, headache tablets, etc) or meals out. Week 1 spend for February was £85.63. The first week always looks a lot because we stock up on the basics.

Checked our January gas/electric bill.  We are £56.88 in credit & saved £6.12 via Power Move Plus.

The total amount of interest added to our various savings accounts in January was £153.82. After checking January’s current account statement, we transferred some funds to one of our cash-ISA’s and our easy access savings account.

February’s premium bond win was £100 (2024 total to-date is £250).  We purchased more premium bonds this month.

Having watched a YouT*be video, DH was able to fix our sticking loo flush. No plumber required!

DH’s electric shaver died (no longer under guarantee).  Bo*ts currently have a half-price sale on men’s electricals. Bought a replacement shaver and saved £70. Plus, I received £10 on my Advantage Card for spending £60 on a selected electrical and gained an extra 350 Advantage Card points because I spent more than £35 in a single transaction. Free standard delivery when you spend £25. Bo*ts Advantage Cards are free. You can also download the free App which has good offers.  Join the Over 60’s Rewards Club and earn extra points on selected items and exclusive offers throughout the year.

When we went for our long walk at the weekend the car park meter was out of service so we saved £5.

This week’s main menu

Monday – Sweet & Sour Chicken (Hai*y Dieter’s recipe) with stir-fry veg & a small portion of rice (will use turkey breast fillets that were reduced in price and frozen until required)

Tuesday – Broccoli & Stilton soup (BB* Good Food recipe) with wholemeal pittas (stilton was reduced in price)

Wednesday – Salmon in chilli ginger sauce (Hai*y Dieter’s recipe) with stir-fry veg/noodles

Thursday – Cottage pie (root vegetable topping) with kale (beef mince was reduced in price & frozen until required)

Friday – Ping Meal - As above (cook once eat twice – saves time and energy costs)

Saturday – Frozen fish with oven chips, sweetcorn & frozen peas (chunky cod fillets were reduced in price)

Sunday – North African squash and chickpea stew (Ri*er Cottage Veg recipe) with half a naan (naan was reduced in price and frozen until required)

This week our breakfasts will include homemade low sugar granola (otherwise known as the healthy flapjack recipe that did not work). Aldi 1kg Specially Selected Wholegrain Organic Porridge Oats are currently £1.99.  I got an extra 30% off because the packet was a little bashed (but still sealed).  Lunch will include some of the homemade soups from the freezer.  

Healthier Lifestyle

Completed my first ‘Get Fit with R*ck’ walking workout this week.  Just the thought of lots of over 60’s starting the day stepping to Beyoncé made me smile.

Step count last week is 72,674

Completed 2 free meditations

Simple Pleasures

A lazy brunch at the weekend.  Poached eggs served with mashed avocado on rye sourdough (eggs and avocado were reduced in price.  Eggs bought on 2 Feb, best before 11 Feb).  The 2 remaining eggs will be made into egg mayo sandwiches for a lunch this week.

Purchased another bunch of daffodils (£1 this week)

A long walk with DH at the weekend.  Nature and a picnic lunch. Perfect.

Whilst on our long walk we were pleasantly surprised to see a lady walking her 2 donkeys along the trail.  We had a lovely chat with the lady and the donkeys were friendly too.

Thanks for dropping by and taking the time to read my diary. 

Katiehound

Rarely use my Boots card so am going to lose my 15 Advantage points!! I find Superdrug / supermarkets are better for my buys. (Seem to remember the Boots card used to be more generous- ah, but didn't they all?????!!)

Sunny day here so that's a mood lifter for starters.

[Deleted User]

I find Boots Advantage Card very useful especially being over 60. I usually make about £150 a year plus lower prices on some products. Very useful at Christmas alongside the 3 for 2 gift offers.

Humboldt

@Katiehound I agree with your comment regarding loyalty cards not being as generous as they once were. Like the majority of folk on these forums, I no longer have any allegiance to a particular shop, bank, business, etc.  They all must work hard to get me to part with my hard-earned cash.

@[Deleted User] clearly you make shopping at Bo*ts work to your advantage (see what I did there).  I too think that their 3 for 2 Christmas offers are excellent value for money.

Today’s simple pleasure – I checked in on my overwintering geraniums and was greeted by a beautiful white bloom.

Katiehound

Today the simple pleasure was walking the dog-in the dry! after the deluges of yesterday.
Had the added bonus of a thrush singing his 2 phrase song- and the sky was brightening. I particularly like the thrush's trill- doesn't it sound a little bit like that very old 'trill phone?'

bluenose1

Loved reading your journal Humboldt, I retired last month at 57 from a stressful job and feel so lucky.
Just been for 3 mile walk with the dog in our local woods, beautiful sunny day with lots of bird song, though no idea what they are,  saw a rabbit which cheers me up for some reason.
Need to make more use of Loyalty cards, though we get most of our shopping in Aldi and use Topcashback for most online purchases.
I try and do 10 minutes body scan meditation daily and love the feeling of pure relaxation.

Humboldt

@Katiehound thanks for sharing your simple pleasure.  It is lovely to hear the birds becoming more vocal, but like @bluenose1, I am not sure that I could identify their individual song.

@bluenose1 welcome. Thank you for your kind words and congratulations on your retirement. Your walk sounds perfect. We also tend to get most of our weekly shopping from Aldi, but I will look for offers/deals where ever I can find them.  Meditation gives me a sense of calm, peace, and balance.

Today's simple pleasure - baked apples and custard for pudding later.

Katiehound

Now here's your chance to try to identify the commonest bird  songs!
The first one has films of the birds
Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXcAx16yl6E

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2019/04/identify-bird-song/

https://www.cpre.org.uk/discover/listening-for-dawn-chorus/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA2pyuBhBKEiwApLaIO1PAqt7bkd-EyXtkeB34pinTTJ3AEG43lyBfFqcr-2p5oBwR3WsoRRoC4vUQAvD_BwE