Away From The Madding Crowd

bluenose1

Very impressed by your diary update and menu plan @Humboldt. I have loads of cookery books for inspiration but never seem to getting around to actually opening them!!!!

Ooh good idea re edible stocking fillers, may copy you there. We have been saving £60 a month towards Christmas presents so £720 available. Tend to give my kids and their partners mostly cash, as well as nieces and nephews. So that will account for over £400 and will use the rest to buy a few gifts and some nice Christmas food.
Psychological as just moving pots around but doing that has made Christmas seem much less expensive.

Have ready to hit list over £200 worth of stuff for Vinted at 5pm today. Read somewhere that’s the optimal time to advertise, so I prepare in advance and list dead on 5pm.

Off to theatre with family tonight to see Letter To Brezhnev so being very decadent and unhealthy and having fish and chips takeaway for tea. Sometimes I just can’t be bothered to cook.

Humboldt

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82156545#Comment_82156545

Morning @bluenose1, I love to browse through cookery books, but tend to borrow them from the library these days. I have decluttered lots recently, but my old favourites remain on the bookshelf, together with my recipe scrap books. Each week I try to include at least one new recipe in our menu, but otherwise we are happy to recycle our favourites.

Since our children were small, we began a tradition of opening the contents of a Christmas stocking whilst still sitting at the table having eaten our Christmas dinner. Contents consist of small treats and a couple of fun items, about 6 items in total. Anyone joining us for dinner is asked to contribute a small gift to each persons stocking, which should cost no more than £5.00, but less is encouraged. We take it in turns to open each item from our stockings and everyone attempts to guess what it might be. Just a bit of fun and a nice way to end our Christmas meal.

My sales total on V!nted to date is £463.32. Goodness knows why it ends with 32p! It is an amazing amount considering that it was raised via selling items that we were decluttering anyway.

Enjoy the theatre tonight, and the fish and chips.

Today's simple pleasure - fresh bedding to look forward to this evening.

Humboldt

@louby40 I noticed that you had kindly commented, however, when I pressed on the link it would not open. I have contacted MSE to advise them of the situation and hopefully it will be resolved.

@KintsugiWhippet not long now before you retire. My DH is counting the days! ☺️

KintsugiWhippet

@Humboldt thank you for remembering. Yes, it is getting really close now. I work part time in my paid role, and I am down to the last 6 days. There have been some delays in sorting out my pension but that seems to be par for the course. My emotions are quite mixed, which is normal and I’m trying to sit with them, rather than pretending they don’t exist. I am excited and also scared because I don’t feel old enough to be retired. Leaving drinks have been arranged and that is probably the emotional part that I feel most anxious about. Counting the days and feeling the feels!

Organgrinder

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82158476#Comment_82158476

Best wishes for your retirement - I'm now into my 6th week (albeit I still do 6 hours a week teaching A level maths - but only because I enjoy it and it simply doesn't feel like work).

I think the adjustment is a little strange for everyone - my latest hobby (well an extension of an existing one) is baking - there's something about the smell of a freshly baked cake in my opinion!

I'm sure once you've settled into a new routine you'll wonder how you ever had the time to work!

KintsugiWhippet

Thank you for your good wishes @Organgrinder. I’ve read your story with interest in the ‘how much to live on’ thread. Your insights have been helpful. I will still be doing some voluntary work connected with my career in legal regulation. Other roles pop up from time to time but I just don’t think I will get bored. I love baking and also eating! I fear that these interests may hinder my goal of improving my fitness (which isn’t bad but could benefit from extra work). But I will also have time to have my friends round for afternoon tea more often 😉

Humboldt

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82158476#Comment_82158476

Hi @KintsugiWhippet, I so hope that you enjoy your leaving drinks 😊 I wanted to leave you with something that I saw on the Retirement WAnderlust channel over on Y0utube. If you so wish, you can take a look and gain an insight into how they have embraced these 12 real (and free) luxuries in life:

The real luxuries in life:

• Time
• Health
• A quiet mind
• Slow mornings
• Ability to travel
• Rest without guilt
• A good night's sleep
• Calm and boring days
• Meaningful conversations
• Home-cooked meals
• People you love
• People who love you back

Humboldt

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82160249#Comment_82160249

@Organgrinder A homemade cake and a cuppa - perfect!

louby40

I too like a dabble in the kitchen with flour, sugar and eggs! However everything I make I tend to eat at last half of it so I decided I needed to stop baking unless for a specific occasion.

Humboldt

Hello and welcome.

Motivational quote of the week.

Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree – Emily Bronte.

Money saving.

Our monthly grocery budget for me and my DH is £300. Week 5 spend for September was £83.70. Total spend for September was £321.68. Not too bad given that it was a 5-week month and I spent £20.35 on a stock-up shop from Gr@pe Tree.

October’s premium bond win was £0 (2026 total to date is £325).

September’s interest from various savings accounts was £149.52.

Total V!nted sales in September was £23.49. More money added to the Birthday/Christmas account via decluttering.

Signed up to a challenge to gain extra Nect@r points for Christmas. Our Nect@r points are currently worth £56.81. We use points accumulated throughout the year to help cover the Christmas food shop, via both Nect@r and our credit card (paid in full each month to ensure no interest accrued).

Signed up to Power M0ve via our energy provider. It is an incentive to use more of our electricity at greener times, outside 4pm – 7pm on weekdays. If we can use 85% or more of our total electricity per month during these off-peak times, we will earn points. The more we use in off-peak the more points we will earn. We can then convert points to free electricity, choosing from specified dates/times, or turn points into bill credit. Most energy providers are doing a similar thing, so might we worth checking it out if you haven’t done so already.

Freebies.

We received 250 free points when we signed up to Power Mo0ve via our energy provider, enough for 1 hour’s free electric.

This week’s main menu.

Monday – Vegetable Korma (H@iry B!kers recipe), onion bhaji and naan. This is an adaptation of a chicken korma recipe. DH is cooking this evening. I will use the remainder of the double cream in tomorrow’s recipe.

Tuesday - Creamy chicken & mushrooms (slow cooker recipe), with a small portion of rice. I will use the white wine leftover when making the mushroom risotto that we enjoyed last Sunday. Chicken thighs currently on offer in S@insbury’s (£4.00 Nect@r Price), our pack contained 12!

Wednesday - Shepherd’s pie (H@iry D!eters recipe), greens, and gravy. I will swap the potato topping for swede and carrot mash. I will use a small pack of beef mince and add a tin of green lentils to the base.

Thursday – Ping meal (as above) – cook once, eat twice – saves on time and energy costs.

Friday – Golden vegetable soup (H@iry D!eters recipe), with homemade sourdough. I will cook the soup in the slow cooker. To fully utilise the oven, I will bake a sourdough loaf and cook the hotpot for tomorrow's meal at the same time.

Saturday - Sausage, butterbean & tomato hotpot (S@insbury’s recipe). I will reheat the hotpot in the microwave. I will be using a jar of M+S butter beans, at just 55p, I think that they are good quality and a reasonable price.

Sunday – Salmon with chilli ginger sauce (H@iry D!eters recipe), vegetable stir fry and whole-wheat noodles. Salmon currently on offer in S@insbury’s (£3.95 Nect@r price).

Healthier lifestyle.

Last week’s step count was 75,798.

Completed 0 free online workouts.

Completed 5 free online meditations.

Simple pleasures.

A new series of ‘Sam & Ade Go Birding’. Similar to Gone Fishing, except it’s 'Gone Birding', featuring Samuel West (All Creatures Great and Small) and Adrian Edmondson (The Young Ones).

Crunchy leaves underfoot.

A trip to the coast and a long walk with DH. A picnic with a view of the vast expanse of sand dunes.

A meet up with friends at a local café. Always good for the soul.

Bright, dry, breezy days that were perfect for drying the washing outside.

Books read 23/26 – Hidden Nature A Voyage of Discovery – Alys Fowler

Leaving her garden to the mercy of the slugs, the Guardi@n’s award winning writer Alys Fowler set out in an inflatable kayak to explore Birmingham’s canal network, full of little-used waterways where huge pike skulk and kingfisher’s dart. Beautifully written, honest and very moving, Hidden Nature is also the story of Alys Fowler’s emotional journey and her coming out as a gay woman: above all, this book is about losing and finding, exploring familiar places and discovering unknown horizons. ‘Gentle, brave and acutely observant’ – Review by Woman’s Weekly.

Thank you for dropping by and reading my diary.