Progress is...

rtandon27

@Cheery_Daff & @beanielou - thank-you both! - we recovered from our horrible Tuesday, just enough to go see a west-end show on Thursday evening!  I was gifted some last minute tix to MJ the musical - much of it was music of my childhood but I was mighty amused but the three folks I was with - said friend is about 10 years younger and had me in stiches when she said she didn't know MJ was in The Wiz!  Other two friends are a couple about 10 years older and were not 'that into' MJ but the tickets were free so they enjoyed the night out!  Let's just say that arriving home at almost 2 in the morning pushed my limits & I spent yesterday resting & napping like a proper old lady!

@badmemory - OH & I rarely, if ever use our personal funds for anything, so we have taken to playing the lottery for fun once or twice a month.  It's the NatLot & online at that - I mostly do the scratch cards & OH buys draw tickets.  I always put the same amount I spend into a savings account, and I can safely say that so far the savings account has a better return than the lottery!  I haven't noticed any prompts per say online, but then I get easily bored and don't have a single gambling bone in my body so spend very little time doing them and limit my spend to 10 pounds or five goes which ever comes first.  Any pittance I've made has been thrown into quick picks so I can log off as soon as possible!

This week is my Easter staycation & I'm much in need of some time off to counteract the work stress of the past few months!  For fun, thought I'd do a bit of tracking here on my diary as we are aiming at a low-spend but still fun time.

Day -1 (Thurs)
Plan was to have a fancy dinner & see a cheap show with a friend who used to work at my office.
Reality was that we ended up having cheap sandwiches, iced lattes and saw a free show with two other friends.
Instead of going for drinks afterwards, we went to a pastry shop - they had cake & I had fruit tea (it was still Lent after all.)
An incredibly low spend night out and still and a lot of fun!
Day 1 (Good Friday)
I spent the day recovering from my night out - my first since pre-pandemic & I'm clearly not cut out for missing my bed-time as I had a three hour nap in the afternoon & felt completely hung over.  Good Friday service was watched online after my nap.
OH & I had our dinner delivered - not sure why he wasn't up to cooking, maybe coming out in sympathy for my non-alcoholic hang over!  It wasn't fish supper as the thought of something deep-fried was not doing it for me!
Day 2 (Easter Eve)
To make up for his lack of breakfast in bed spontaneity last week, OH & I got in the car about 9am to chase down a cheap breakfast & find a scenic view to enjoy.  First stop was a coffee shop that had 2 for one on sweet treats, we picked up 2 pain au raisin, second stop was the garden centre for our 'free' monthly coffees - we got two lattes in take-away cups.  Third stop was a motorway Gr3ggs for bacon & omelette baps.  Around 10 pounds spent which is about half of delivery.
We drove to our closest hill-fort to find our usual spot taken up by a coffee van, so drove up the hill to make use of the blue-badge parking area under a lovely green canopy.  We started our car picnic & the nice view lasted about two minutes, until some old boy and his dog showed up - I won't go into lurid details, but OH rolled down the window and startled the old boy into digging around in his pockets for a plastic bag.  Red waste bin was only about 10 steps away tbh - so OH was completely justified.
The whole time we were out it was cold and raining and as our car picnic had been spoiled, we elected to come home.  It is after all the third Saturday of the month and I have a budget to balance and credit cards to pay off.  As I sat down at the desk with the heating pad in my lap to warm up, the clouds parted and the sun came out!  Oh well no point in going back out now!
We may head out later today to pick up some non-dairy milk & see if there are any yellow stickers to be had
Day 3 - Easter - plans TBC
Day 4 - Easter Monday - plans TBC
Day 5 - Tuesday - plans TBC
Day 6 - Wednesday - plans TBC
Day 7 - Thursday - plans TBC
Day 8 - Friday - plans TBC
Day 9 - Saturday - plans TBC
Day 10 - Sunday - plans TBC

Vague plans to be slotted in
1 day - Stonehenge & Avebury (NT)
1 day - Korean grocery store in city south of us & an NT place
1 day - fixing small things around the house - letter box, cat flap, etc
1 day - tidying the garden
1 day - plotting and planning on the tablet which has yet to be broken in
1 hour a day of strength training
1 hour a day of stretching
some self-pampering
some napping

Baileys_Babe

Some good plans there, enjoy your staycation.

Greying_Pilgrim

rt - your plans sound wonderful.  Shame about your car picnic.  Well done on OH pricking the dog owners conscience tho.........  

I enjoyed Stonehenge, and I think the EH staff/volunteers are really committed and want to impart lots of knowledge - but for me the fact it's a stop on the numerous bus tours of 'Lundun, Ingerland', meant it was difficult to enjoy the place.  Although I'm grateful we got there early in the day, and we chose to walk from the exhibition centre to the stones and back (the route on the NT land was especially nice), so we weren't as time-pressured as many fellow visitors.  We didn't bother with Avebury (drove through it and did stop at the 'Avenue' of stones). West Kennet Long Barrow was by far the best place for me - the walk to it, the fact you can explore inside and enjoy such views.    I also enjoyed Woodhenge - we had a picnic by there.   With a degree in hindsight, we should have taken in Salisbury and the museum.  Another time perhaps.  What sort of things do you stock up on from the Korean supermarket (if you don't mind me asking?).

You're doing the right thing to plan out the days - I am currently all at 6's and 7's as to which day of the week it is - LG will be receiving their chocolate treats 3 weeks on Wednesday at this rate, because I'll forget I've hidden them away 🤣

Greying X

foxgloves

Love Avebury. Have stayed there a few times. Truly magical place. 
F

rtandon27

@Baileys_Babe - thank-you hun!  We will be doing a day out and then a day in - to keep some balance.

@Greying_Pilgrim - I too love Woodhenge, though I don't think we've ever stopped at the West Kennett Long Barrow tbh - perhaps we should this time round.  We live very close to the famous henge - about a 15 minute drive away.  My favorite time to see it is at night followed closely by sunrise and when there is a full moon.  There are no touristy types or busses about and it is only at those times that I find it magical - other than that it's a bit Meh tbh!  Walking the landscape on the public rights of way is actually the best way to see it in situ in the landscape during light, but the hike is a day trip in itself.  Salisbury is fabulous as well, especially the cathedral & Old Sarum, but again to fully enjoy, a day trip in itself! (Korean store musings below!)

@foxgloves - Yes I totally agree that Avebury is magical.  I absolutely adore walking the landscape and being about to touch the stones unlike at the famous Henge.  OH also finds it very amusing that if you get too close to certain stones, your camera batteries drain!

Korean store musings...
I'm very fond of Korean food, having eaten quite a lot of it in my youth in the big multi-cultural city across the pond.  We tend to go to an Asian (Chinese or Korean) cash and carry for a big shop twice a year picking up various snacks, seasonings, noodles & frozen ready made items.  We also pick up at least one thing that puzzles us, either because it is unusual or has a poorly translated English sticker on it, when G00gle translate tells me something entirely different!  To be honest we go through a lot of this type of ingredient only because Saturdays in our meal plan involve bao, gyoza (mandu), noodles and other assorted Asian foods.
Snacks - seaweed, oddly flavoured crisps and rice crackers, hi-chews, mochi, aloe vera juice, bubbles for homemade bubble tea
Seasonings - various types of soy sauce, rice wine, oyster sauce, gochutgaru, gochujang, kimchi, furikake, schimi, sriracha, dumpling sauce
Noodles - Tteok-bokki (milder sauce and rice cakes separately as our heat tolerance is not great), packaged soup noodles, soba, udon, rice, ramen
Frozen - stuffed bao buns, gyoza, mandu, shui mai, har gow, dumplings, wontons - anything that is not worth making from scratch
What we don't buy from these stores is rice as it is cheaper from the big name supermarkets & meat/fish as it's too expensive.
Also if it is a branch that has a hot food bar we pick up a lunch or get take-away and have a picnic.  TBH the small branch near work is better for ready made food, so it depends what is on offer on the day.

Day 3 - Easter
Staycation was at home day today...
A 2 hour nap in the morning, I must really be exhausted!
...followed by egg and bacon on baguettes for brunch...
...this afternoon I checked my DB work pension and discovered they have not counted a year (2017) of my contributions, so a sharp e-mail was sent to the helpdesk.  Not sure how on one page they are aware of my income for that year but on the other they have omitted to count an entire year of contributions.  Luckily I have all the monthly payslip statements so will fight this one tooth and nail if needed.  I also know the payroll 'mistress' at the office who's been doing the job forever, and is not the type to make mistakes so I'm sure she can confirm my contributions have been paid!
...dinner was a stir-fry using up a pepper, green beans, leftover rice from the fridge, garlic, ginger, soy & lime from the stores and some frozen mince from the freezer.  Tasty and a bargainous option instead of take-away
...this evening is a rare one watching TV with OH, probably catching up on a series or a movie - something I don't do regularly!

sunshineli

I will be keeping up with your staycation updates. I am also having a staycation week and I am trying to make it pretty frugal whilst still doing nice things! You’ve got a good mix of home and days out which I hope to do as well

Greying_Pilgrim

rt - I was totalled enthralled with the landscape around the whole area.  Now that I've seen the stone henge, I'm not sure I would bother to return.  I loved the visitor centre, but there were too many disinterested tourists standing in front of the display cabinets to be able to see what was on display.  We did walk all the way around the henge, which was just as well, as the part nearest the bus stop was 'selfie city' and you couldn't really get a grasp of the monumentality of it all.  

Although I saw a picture of the henge, at night, with a full moon, recently - and I totally agree - seeing those sort of images in RL/real-time, must be just awe-inspiring.  But the landscape, how it was shaped/used, the connections, how we don't really know what it all means/what the intention were, the 'how' stuff got placed, the 'why' - those are still shrouded in some mystery - which I find fascinating in this day and age, when us humans know "everything" 🙄  But if I was to go to that area again, I for sure would want to do more landscape walking - not necessarily to "see" all the things, but I think there must be "something" about the lands, the stones, ley lines etc.  I know that The Sanctuary, West Kennet barrow, Silsbury Hill, Avebury and The Ridgeway are all 'connected' and walkable, and I'd love to just 'be' and (possibly) experience the environment.  The fact that walking and musing can be relatively 'low cost' has nothing to do with it 🤣

Thanks for listing the types of things that you purchase from the Korean store.  I lack ambition with asian cuisine, and would like to be better.  But hadn't really thought about exploring noodles more - that's something we could definitely do, as LG likes noodles.  

Hope you have a lovely BH Monday 😁

Greying X

greenbee

My favourite view of the stones is as you drive from east to west along the road at sunrise when there is no traffic. I'm not often up at sunrise to do it anymore (and have moved, so don't actually need to pass it anymore), but loved in on the rare occasion it happened. 

rtandon27

@sunshineli - hello there & welcome to the virtual kitchen! I've popped into yours & had a little nosey - hang in there - overpayments are not the be all and end all - Health is first!

@Greying_Pilgrim - hun, nothing good can be said of the average tourist!  I work in the heart of the big smoke and dodging the self-absorbed selfie fest every morning just to get to the entrance to the office is a horrid reality! - I'm totally with you on just 'being' in the beauty of a place!  Whenever we go on vacation or staycation, we always plan in a wander to just take in our surroundings.  As to exploring noodles - it's a good way to explore 'pasta' - My OH does not fancy spaghetti noodles, but will eat ramen, udon & soba with no fuss! (Mung Bean Vermecilli has not yet passed the test unfortunately!)

@greenbee - your description is 100% what I was thinking of, it's quite the spectacular site!

Day 4 - Easter Monday - won't go into this just yet - will come back later & do a proper recap...

I have cashed out my PA earnings and now have 6.59 in the bank!  OH has about 40 but we will not count this in until cash hits the accounts!  Also another 3 from P!n3c0ne surveys...
PROJECT H2O - 13.59/30.00 (month1)

rtandon27

Well that has been a busy few days!

Day 4 - Easter Monday
Monday consisted of house chores and more house chores - the weather was pants so laundry had to be dried inside as there is a back-log. - we watched an evening movie at home on our 3 month free trial of fruitytv
Day 5 - Tuesday 
An out and about day - Staycation on a budget - we had mcd's for breakfast and then a day trip out which included Stonehenge, Avebury & Marlborough.  I downloaded every cashback offer in the arsenal for a lunch out and somehow we defaulted to an independent because it just felt right.  A beautiful choice, the food was excellent and the pub pristine & run by a local owned/operated co-op.  Better to pay a little extra & feel like we've made a difference than support any of the beasts that can afford to give us 2-4-1 discounts!  We both were utterly shocked at the price of just everything in Marlborough though, as we don't frequent stores, let alone posh ones! While nice for a browse, just not the type of places we'd spend anything at all!
Day 6 - Wednesday
Another rest day & well needed - mostly filled with chats on wotsup with friends flung far and wide
Day 7 - Thursday 
An adventurous day in cosmopolitan seaside town - did some shopping at the Korean grocery, using a chunk of April's grocery budget, then a stop at a Mid-east store, where I happily picked up some fresh khobez bread & OH a pack of fine ground coffee - then a more pedestrian stop at Waitflower and L!dl - drove back through the New Forest admiring ponies, donkeys & cows grazing/roaming free - An afternoon cream tea was had at another independent - the food there was lush and hit the spot
Day 8 - Friday 
Rest & chores today - have folded and put away multiple loads of laundry - we've noshed on global groceries - I've made my way through an audiobook & am now tallying up our Staycation spends while watching some fruitytv animation which is very cute.  We'll probably watch another movie tonight, might as well make the most of the free trial while we have it. 

At the moment we are figuring out how to season a Korean clay pot that OH bought as his holiday 'souvenir' as he has a hankering for steamed eggs that we've had a few times over the years in a favorite restaurant.  While that endeavor happens, I'm searching the sales online as my beloved peacock embroidered jeans have given up the ghost and I've won another 10gbp at JL & have a 10gbp discount there as well - so let's see what item of quality can be had for less than 50% of the original price.

All-in-all, our holiday has amounted to some spends for eating out & a few treats - jeans & socks & a scarf ring for me & a cooking pot and a bottle of wine for OH - nothing for extra spent for travel as we had plenty in the petrol budget, nothing for accommodation as we slept in our own bed under our own roof, the clothing & groceries & wine came out of our usual budget pots.  Approx 150 out of our vacation budget which is quite bargainous and we've had a bit of fun and a lot of rest.