Well today was a funny day - due to a series of unforeseen events, I ended up being Driver's Mate to a very lovely but not very confident new van driver chum (never driven a van before) so I volunteered to go along as moral support - not much use for anything else but I am a great cheerleader, and I had been to 2 of the places before, so off we went on a road trip delivering boxes and having a jolly good laugh in previously uncharted territories. Then home for a cheeze sandwich and cup of tea, and out again on the school run. Home, cup of tea, fed everyone, and pjs and quiz tv shows and a hot chocolate.
Found a Number 1 shaped cake tin in Wil &Co for 50p, and DS4 is 11 next month, so it was serendipitous.
All in all, a lot of laughs, a lot of fun, and some good work done for my Karma rating. 4 weeks of school left.
Had email from the local Council saying the C0vid rate currently is 3 x higher than when we were locked down hard in June when they shut EVERYTHING down. The rate is highest in the under 18s and the over 60s.
Tomorrow I am going to explore a new idea a little, make a huge apple crumble, a spinach and potato curry, a stew, a chilli to serve in wrap baskets............ and brown sugar baked bananas, possibly involving chocolate chips. Sunday I will make beefless pasties. That way I will not have to spend any money. I will not have to buy anything in for lunchboxes, and I can get away with not spending again until Monday.
On Monday I think I might buy booze to get my large supply of raisins, sultanas and currants utterly and hopelessly legless. Where is the best place to buy bargain cooking booze? I assume Herr Aldee. Unless anyone knows better? I could do with only buying a half bottle of something or other.
MFW#65 March 21 = £86,750 next target £80k in December 2021
E/F £13k + K/F £3,450 = £16,450
NSTurtle # 16 🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢 🐢🐢🐢 🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢 but I still need a new roof and an extension
Mr Ts are doing good deals at the moment as long as you've got a Clubcard. All spirits are reduced; eg. I got a litre bottle of spiced rum for £16 which is about the price it normally is for a 70cl one! Other spirits were similarly reduced.
A lot of spirits are reduced even before the clubcard deals, I think they are not selling as much at present as people are buying presents. Most deals seem to expire 7 Dec (was originally 17 Nov). I miss mysupermarket, if nothing else you could get a ballpark idea of prices. I think it was the supermarket price fixing that actually forced them to shut down.
I have managed to come in on budget this week! Yay me! I have menus planned, a very small shopping list that I had hoped to avoid until payday, but a few bits need buying or dh will go shopping and spend £70 on tahini and olives, and I will still need to go shopping for the essential bits.
Monday is a momentous day at the f/b. We will begin ADVENT-MAS - we have the most ridiculous amount advent calendars, C-word themed items - tablewear, decorations, flowers, wrap, napkins, and random stuff that certain shops have offloaded on to us as donations, and my thinking is, if we do not put it out before 1st Dec, then people will go to the land of £ or World of Tat and buy it there instead and we will be left with it all until they do it again next year.
So I am going to set up my grotto at the next session and try and get shot of lots of it. I mean, if you are going to be alone as your family unit, with small kids, then it will make it all a bit more decorated and special if you have a paper tablecloth with a snowman on it
We have advent calendars for everyone, selection boxes , wrapping paper, stuffing and gravy mixes, soap and shampoo sets, in about a week we will be groaning under the weight of a million mice pies and puddings and r0ses and cel3brations and bend1cks that people can put away, as extra to their emergency box of food. I just hope we don't end up with an entire crate of goose fat again!! The church-people have gifts for all ages of kids, that they have been wrapping for the last week. They seem to know the families that need extra help, and they are poised to pounce and deliver. Everyone is so generous with their donations, be it a £2 monthly dd, or an item in the collection baskets. So we are in a very good position right now to help out for the rest of the year.
MFW#65 March 21 = £86,750 next target £80k in December 2021
E/F £13k + K/F £3,450 = £16,450
NSTurtle # 16 🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢 🐢🐢🐢 🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢 but I still need a new roof and an extension
Thank god it is payday on Monday. I have been looking at my accounts, I wanted to have £15k in savings by Xmas, with a bit left over, but I am £900 down on where I wanted to be. Annoyed at myself, but it cannot be changed, and dh needed his golden thrones to celebrate his promotion. There has not been that much Woooo Hooooo! this year. But that was definitely worth a wooo hooo! We could not help what we had to spend on cars, Christmas is not going to be an expensive affair. I think I am going to go with Hotel Chocolat gift boxes this year, if they want to sniff at at £30 box of chocolate then fine, I am not getting guilted into £80 gift tokens for members of dh's family who insist on sending stuff to my kids, even though they have met them a handful of times, if that. I cannot reciprocate what they spend on my 4 kids on their presents anymore. I feel better now that I know what I am doing.
Sent Swiss Auntie another red cross parcel of twiglets, eccles cakes and mice pies - another £13 postage though! Oh well can't be helped.
In extra exciting news, the house opposite has scaffold gone up this morning, which means they have found someone to do something to their roof who will do 3 storeys, and slate, and works in November! So I will be sneaking a peek when anything starts occurring.
I have two glass bowls in the kitchen, full of dried fruit, one is steeping in brandy and the other one is steeping in amaretto. I have lobbed a handful of chopped dates into the mix as well. Not quite fa-la-la-la-la yet, but getting there.
Got down all the decorations, and DS3 and DS4 went scampering off to their rooms with their little trees and a string of lights each. So I know where the advent calendars are,but I have no idea where on earth I am going to stick the tree. I moved all the furniture around the room this morning, and still I just could not make the space needed. We have 4 armchairs and a sofa in the living room. If I had a small square table I could put it in the middle of the bay window, not obstruct the radiator, move the chairs forward a bit, so still feel the heat but also have it in the window. But then the curtains might not close. Oh I dunno!
Finger !!!!!! blood test tube came in the post this evening, so will have to do that on Monday morning before school. Doing my bit for science research.
The C-word stuff at the f/b is going well. People are loving it. Lots of it is going out. People are leaving smiling. Job done. Ended up working 4 days last week.
MFW#65 March 21 = £86,750 next target £80k in December 2021
E/F £13k + K/F £3,450 = £16,450
NSTurtle # 16 🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢 🐢🐢🐢 🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢 but I still need a new roof and an extension
@f0xh0les - Hotel Choc have 15% off on online orders over £25 ending tonight - code BF15. Not sure if you have to have signed up to be a VIP but if that's the case and you haven't it's well worth doing so, as they give you a birthday gift and small freebies/ discounts throughout the year And you used to be able to get cashback from TCB for them, too (haven't checked that)
I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul
@greent you are an absolute star!! Thank you. Could not get stackable c/b through TCB but did get 8% off + 15% with £co, so 15% off all the inlaws and auntie-in-law saved me nearly £12 and then another 8% to come back, and all the 'difficult gossipy in-laws' (all around the 65-70 yr old mark) sorted with a luxury brand they can share with their demi-vegan children for just under £75. Stress gone.
So just dh and the kids to worry about, and DS1 and DS2 would like cash please, and DS3 and DS4 have fitness watches, one mobile phone (he is going to secondary school next year) and new tablets - got for ridiculous low prices in a closing down sale in October. I am sorted for all Advent calendar gifts, and most of the stocking chocolates, and I put the tree up this morning but am going to treat myself to a new set of lights, because plugging in two sets every year is silly, I need a longer one, then I can put the old two up around the kids' bedroom windows. DS1 is currently lying in his bed, with 2 sets of (c/s) battery powered bell shaped lights wrapped around his headboard - good job I bought all those £3 rechargeable batteries, as nearly everything this year takes batteries, but I keep telling myself when I have solar roof things it will be totally carbon neutral.
So I am feeling quite good today, so good that I have promised DH an amaretto hot chocolate with cream tonight, while we watch His Dark Materials. I need to bake a lemon drizzle cake and prep a veg stew for tonight.
Anything I find suitable in the c/s in December is a bonus. I need a trip to H&B to buy a few 'roast' type things, and a quick tour of the supermarket for their seasonal offerings, and I am done. Only doing 'special food' for Solstice, DS4s birthday, Christmas Eve, and Boxing Day. They eat so much rubbish on the big day itself they will be totally happy with home made pasties or crackers and cheese or snacky foods. My alcoholic fruit smells amazing. It is still steeping.
MFW#65 March 21 = £86,750 next target £80k in December 2021
E/F £13k + K/F £3,450 = £16,450
NSTurtle # 16 🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢 🐢🐢🐢 🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢 but I still need a new roof and an extension
Today I owe £88,999.99 to the mortgage company. Overpaid by £70.30 to bring it under £89k. We paid £140.58 in interest last month - £4,51 a day. When we reach £88,000.00 it is 45% of the mortgage paid off, so I want to get there as soon as possible. Next year I will end the year at £80k - that is my NY Resolution. 50% mortgage free.
This year I will aim to end the year at £15k savings. Any spare money from pr0lific will get thrown that way, I am entering competitions all over the place, any money I get for Xmas will go to the savings. I do quite desperately need a couple of pairs of new pjs, but the c/s are opening again as of tomorrow and I often see BNWT or still tied up with the ribbon sets of pjs. Now I am a size 14 my old ones are hanging off me and will disgrace me if I run up the stairs too quick without holding on to the waistband A nice problem to have though!
I have two big fat boozy cakes in the oven, and they will not even think about finishing til about 10.30 tonight. If I am lucky. New recipe, so keeping an eye on it. Smells so good though.
DS1 had his telephonic parents evening tonight. Well I had it, he scarpered. 2 teachers both say he is capable of an A grade in their subjects, but his PPEs gave him Ds, Now we are all worried - well, DS1 is not worried, he is utterly laid back and chilled about everything. Literally driving me insane. The teachers are not happy, because this is the only physical exam piece they have to justify the grade they recommend if the exams get cancelled again, and they are really unhappy it does not show what he is capable of. However there are no more prep exams scheduled. I am going to have to have serious words with that boy. Can't cope with it tonight though. Not just before bedtime. Too stressed out about it to be having a discussion without it ending with me yelling my head off. If I can't convincingly pretend to be the grown up, then it will have to wait until tomorrow morning. So disappointed in him though.
MFW#65 March 21 = £86,750 next target £80k in December 2021
E/F £13k + K/F £3,450 = £16,450
NSTurtle # 16 🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢 🐢🐢🐢 🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢 but I still need a new roof and an extension
Replies
E/F £13k + K/F £3,450 = £16,450
NSTurtle # 16 🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢 🐢🐢🐢 🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢 but I still need a new roof and an extension
E/F £13k + K/F £3,450 = £16,450
NSTurtle # 16 🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢 🐢🐢🐢 🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢 but I still need a new roof and an extension
E/F £13k + K/F £3,450 = £16,450
NSTurtle # 16 🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢 🐢🐢🐢 🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢 but I still need a new roof and an extension
E/F £13k + K/F £3,450 = £16,450
NSTurtle # 16 🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢 🐢🐢🐢 🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢 but I still need a new roof and an extension
E/F £13k + K/F £3,450 = £16,450
NSTurtle # 16 🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢 🐢🐢🐢 🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢 but I still need a new roof and an extension