Riding the wave

Keep_Buggering_On

I popped into the village at lunchtime to do some shopping and came back with a couple of packets of posh chocolate biscuits knocked down from £2.25 each to 39p each. These have gone in my Christmas treats box! I don’t know if anyone else does this, my Mum certainly always did when we were kids, but from September onwards I pick up a nice little something for Christmas each week and put it away so we have some nice bits come Christmas, but without the enormous shopping bill the week before the big day! I have been especially picking up items in the chuckout that I know we will like such as some posh cola at 50p a bottle, some savoury cheese biscuits etc. I am also rather partial to peanuts at Christmas, so I have put some of those in the box as well. Biggest challenge is making sure the kids don’t try and get something out of there before December!

The house across the road was having a new fence put up, so being a bit cheeky I went across and asked the workman if I could have the old fence panels which he kindly said I could have, he even helped me carry them across the road! The wood in them is actually really good, so I am going to unscrew all the slats and save the wood and screws to reuse next year making some planters or a little shed for my gardening tools.

DancingInTheRain

Pleased your Mum is home.

You've just unlocked a childhood memory of Mum putting treats away for Christmas, she kept a box in the bottome of her wardobe to keep them in. It's a great idea, might have to copy that one!

Fab result on the fence panels too, well done.

beanielou

Good result on fence panels.

Keep_Buggering_On

Well that's good! My Help to Save account sent me through my first payment on the savings I have been putting away for the last two years so I logged in today to find £600 in my account! I have transferred £400 across to my emergency fund so we finally have a decent financial buffer for, well, emergencies. Its definitely a nice feeling to know we have a little security for life's problems. With the £60 already in there, I will get it past £500 on payday at the end of the month. It still needs more in there as I am aiming for £1000 to start with, but its a great boost! I used some of the left over money to order all the birthday presents for Dad from Mum- she can't do it herself now but she is keen to spoil Dad as its probably the last of his birthdays she will be here for- and Mum will give it me back next weekend.

beanielou

Great boost for you.

Keep_Buggering_On

I am a big fan of autumn, and yesterday the temperatures finally dropped enough to light the stove for the first time since the spring. Little cat was fascinated by the flickering flames and then decided that the carpet in front of the hearth was the perfect spot to have a sleep where it was lovely and warm! I have decided it is stew weather, so last night I made some home-made bread rolls for the first time in ages. They came out really well and the house smelt wonderful. I made eight rolls with poppy seeds on the top and tried black onion seeds on the other four for the first time. We had some last night for supper with some proper butter and a hunk of red Leicester cheese, which was fantastic! I have knocked up a chicken stew this morning before work and put it in the slow cooker to bubble away all day. We will have to tell DS that it’s a chunky chicken soup as he pulled a face and went ‘eurggh’ at the word stew the other day, even though he has never tried one! I will add some dumplings this evening and we can have it with the home-made bread, with home made fruit cake for pudding. It doesn’t get more cozy and autumnal than that!

Looking forward to next weekend, we are off up to Mum and Dad’s to celebrate Dad’s birthday. I have arranged all the presents for Mum to give to Dad and wrapped them for her and got her a card, together with a card for their anniversary which is a couple of weeks later. I am going to make Dad a cherry cake for his birthday as he is not a massive fan of iced cakes, and we will be putting his age in candles on the top for maximum teasing (luckily we have number candles as there wouldn’t be room for individual candles!). I am going to take up some nice Cumberland sausages and make us all sausage butties for lunch- partly to give Dad a rest from cooking and partially because I don’t trust food from his fridge! Last time we were over there we were going to have a bacon sandwich- me and my brother checked his bacon in the fridge and it was slimy and stank. We did advise him that it was off and he should throw it, but he told us we were soft and cooked it for himself anyway- bacon should not be grey! Me and my brother decided a bit of cheese would be a safer option! I am not a great one for following sell by dates, but if its slimy and smelly I bin it! I think Dad must have an iron stomach…

Keep_Buggering_On

We went up to Mum and Dads on Sunday- what a nightmare! We got across to the next town without any problems and were due to pick up the rural bus that would drop us off at the next village to my parents, and of course it missed! There is no other direct route from that town to near their house, so we had to hop on another bus for 30 minutes across to a different town, where we could pick up a bus to the next village over from them. That worked fine and the plan was to ring for a local taxi that would take us the last two miles across to Mum and Dad’s farmhouse- we tried three different local companies, they all went through to the same company and they had no one available to come out and pick us up! We ended up using OH’s app which sent a taxi out about eight miles to pick us up and take us the last stage of the journey- luckily you pre-pay on the app so we only paid for the journey itself and it was £5, but it took over three hours to get up to their house for a journey that by car is about 12 miles! I have made it very clear that in future we are happy to go on a Saturday, but never again on a Sunday! Dad very kindly gave us £20 so we could get a taxi home as otherwise we would have had to leave as soon as we got there as we were so late!

DD and I are joining a friend and his son to go to the big model railway show in Leeds next weekend, and I am really looking forward to that one. It will be £6 in bus fare and £10 entry, but kids go in for free and there are loads of layouts and traders there and I have saved up some money since payday specifically for it, so I can pick up a few bargains without feeling guilty. Its payday next week and I am getting a 2% payrise- yay! Unfortunately, I will only be a little less broke for one month, then UC will drop their payments so I will have to transfer more money across to OH to cover the shortfall and we will be right back where we were before, but its better than a punch in the gob…

Nipped into the village today and they had cans of jackfruit down to 15p a can so I nabbed the last four cans, I am not vegan, but they do go nicely in a curry as a replacement for meat and at that price I will happily eat them. I also got 17 cans of lager reduced to £7 as they were out of their box. I am not a massive drinker, but I do have a can with my tea at the weekend, so less than 50p each is also worth picking up and they will last me into next year so that was a nice find.

beanielou

What a nightmare journey for you.

Keep_Buggering_On

Well that's a nice surprise- my employer has decided to give us all an extra three days of leave at Christmas! We were already shut down from the 24th December until 4th January and I had booked the 21st-23rd to give myself two weeks of leave. Just had an email to say the uni will be shut those three days as well now, so we will have the leave credited back to us and got two weeks of leave over Christmas and the New Year on top of our usual annual leave quota. It makes sense as campus would have been dead those three days anyway so its probably cheaper to give everyone an extra three days than heat, light and staff all those buildings for the two students who hadn't gone home yet!

beanielou

That’s great news.