Bricks Not Books

I don't have a secret SW! This is only the second year I've grown them! XD

I thought I did a post here last weekend but clearly it's not here. Maybe I never hit the "Post" button after writing it?

Anyway, I've just done my post-mortgage payment money shuffle and £40.87 has been sent to the mortgage. When I looked at the mortgage account last night we were only £61 off dropping under the £147k mark, so I've now got an extra incentive to hit my normal target this month.

August was good, total OP for the month was £72.49 thanks to hubby's delay repay for rubbish train journeys paying out, and a couple of TTs.

September shall be expensive as our windows are being replaced this month! I'm very happy that I've hit my savings target for my half of the costs. And then that will be one very big house thing ticked off the list. It's also my eldest little sister's graduate this month so I've set aside some money to give her as a graduation pressie. It's also her birthday and here I've failed as I have no idea what to get her XD Will have a look on her Amazon wishlist later.

I've also got to go to the dentist as I've chipped a molar. Not in any pain but these things inevitably get worse if you don't get them checked out, so I've resigned myself to the trip. Have told Mr VH that I want to be taken out to dinner that evening to cheer me up

I've bought a second hand bread maker from someone at work for £25. It's making a loaf of bread as we speak. Supermarket bread goes mouldy so quickly that I was getting fed up with it, at least this way I can just chuck some ingredients in and make a fresh one when it's needed. The first loaf I made last weekend has been fine all week, so hopefully this will stop me wasting so much bread! My freezer tends to be overflowing so I could only save a few slices in it for the end of the week and was still binning too much

Right, I need to go find a movie to watch this afternoon. DH is working so dinner tonight is a pizza each. And I picked some blackberries on my walk from work the other day so I'm going to make him a blackberry and apple crumble for pudding.

Have a good week everyone!

That might be the least relaxing week off I've ever had :rotfl:

Windows were replaced on Monday and Tuesday. Annoyingly one of the ones done in Monday was revealed to have one of the "Georgian bars" not lined up with the others. Not a problem, the company that installs them also makes them in their own factory, so a replacement jumped the queue and the installer fetched it on Tuesday morning before starting on the downstairs windows.

And then the living room window was found to have the same problem :mad:

So DH kept his Thursday annual leave and stayed in to let the installer come back and put in the new and correct pane of glass. They showed up but at least it got done.

Wednesday I drove up to Lincoln for graduation. Stopped off at Castle Rising on the way and had a little wander around, as well as a late lunch at a cafe in the village. Very small but pretty village, but did miss DH as I much prefer going around these places with him. Then drove on to Lincoln, checked in to my hotel and went in to the city centre. Got birthday and graduate cards for my sister, and had dinner at Pizza Express. I spotted a 30% off voucher on their website so my dessert was virtually free! :T

Parents and sisters arrived late Wednesday night so we didn't have a proper catch up until Thursday morning when we went out for breakfast. Then went to graduation. It was held in the cathedral and was very nice, although sister's group were almost last in the ceremony so we had to applaud a lot of other students ahead of her! Afterwards we took some more pictures in the castle grounds (it's opposite the cathedral and the university takes over both spaces for the week) and then had tea and cake in Caffe Nero before heading home. Drive back felt longer than the the drive up, possibly because I didn't stop for a break. Sat nav also took me home via a different route, once I forced it to stop trying to use the M11 for the second half of the trip.

And then yesterday was the dentist trip. Went fine in the end. She smoothed down the chipped edge, gave the filling a poke and said it looked fine, took some xrays that came back clear, and then did a little clean before sending me on my way. Did recommend a hygienist visit so I'll try to remember to book that for March. DH took me out for lunch after, and then once we got home I wrote the shopping list and we went back out to do the food shopping.

So a very busy week overall! Today I've got the breadmaker on, and I've done the laundry. Also done the money shuffle and a little TT of £2.64

I realised last night that I'm going to have a busy couple of weekends in the run up to Christmas! I've got two WI trips (one to Bury St Edmunds and the other to Leeds Castle), and me and DH are going to have a Christmas trip to an exhibition on Islamic Art at the British Museum, followed by dinner out. We did the same last year and had a very nice time so we're looking forward to doing the same this year.

But the realisation of how busy I am means that I'll need to start planning Christmas presents a bit earlier than normal. Especially as I want to reduce my Amazon usage this Christmas and support local businesses a bit more. There's an independent bookshop in our village so I'm going to ask if I can order things through them. If the answer is "Yes" then I'll make a list of everything I want to get my Dad and order those through the bookshop, and see if I can spot anything for my Mum as well. Sisters will be harder to buy for but I've started writing down some ideas this morning, and I'll have a look on Pinterest too for inspiration. Brother and his girlfriend will get the same as last year - make-your-own ice cream sundae hamper!

Dinner tonight is southern friend chicken with homemade potato wedges and corn on the cob. Tomorrow it'll be toad in the hole with crispy cubed spuds and some greens!

Have a good weekend everyone!

It was glorious this morning SW but now it's turned to rain

I have had a busy old weekend. Had the bread maker on yesterday, did the laundry, and drove to the garden centre to look at some plants, might go back next weekend to purchase some pansies if the weather is good enough for gardening.

This morning I've baked a double chocolate loaf cake, and some cupcakes with leftover mixture. I've also made a blackberry and apple crumble with some more foraged blackberries I got on my walk back from work, baked rolls for tomorrow's packed lunches, and did some more laundry and put it outside to dry (until it clouded over and the rain started).

Done a little money shuffle and chucked a TT of £19.10 at the mortgage. Not sure it was the best idea as food spends seem to have gone up quite a bit in the past few weeks, but couldn't resist breaking the £60 target again this month

First Christmas purchase has been made! Spotted an MSE offer of 9 Nails Inc nail polishes for £25 in the newsletter the other week. I'm keeping one for myself, two can go to one sister, and the remaining six will go to my other sister. I also spotted some really nice recipe books in Waitrose on Friday so I've taken photos of the covers and add them as potentials for my youngest sister. Her birthday is in January and it normally makes her quite hard to buy for, so I might buy them both but keep one aside as a future birthday pressie for her.

Dinner tonight is a reduced ready to roast chicken, with spuds and greens, and DH will have a piece of crumble for pudding. I've got a packet of Minstrels in the fridge for my dessert!

Have a good week everyone!

Total OP for September - £62.61

Have just sent the first OP for October, the standard £37.70, plus a 7p TT :rotfl:

Money shuffle all done, going to hop on Etsy and start making some Christmas purchases later. I went in to town the other week and virtually finished off all my charity shoeboxes, apart from sweets, which I bought in Tesco yesterday and now need to add. Then I can wrap them up, label them all, and I'll be done for another year.

I've realised I need to start saving for a new car. Mine is very old, and was already old when I bought it off my Nan. I'm hoping I can get another 3 years out of it as a minimum. I'd ideally like to have about £5k saved by the end of those 3 years, and then any extra time squeezed out of it will be a bonus.

Right, need to tidy up the garden today so I should get myself in gear and get stuff done. Dinner tonight will be various picky bits, dinner tomorrow is chicken and parma ham pasta!

October got away from me a bit!

Getting the important stuff out the way - total OP was £58.67! Would have been more but I forgot when the end of October was :rotfl:

Things from the month:
- Did my first talk, for a Friendship Club rather than a WI. They were very nice, said I had a nice speaking voice They want to book me for more talks in the future so I've made a PDF document that I can get printed at work and I'll post a copy to the organiser (she's not a fan of email!)
- I've had more bookings for next year, I think I'm up to 12 now! DH is barely going to see me! I've decided that the money will go in the new car fund.
- We had our heating serviced during the week. Heating has now been on and house is lovely and toasty. I bled the radiators the night before, there was a lot of air in them and the engineer has said the lack of water (it had to be topped up a lot!) might indicate we have a leak somewhere We haven't seen any signs of one though. I'm hoping that the plumber forgot to top-up the system after removing the old bathroom radiator and installing the chrome towelrail in the bathroom refurb nearly 2 years ago. The CH has always been a bit weird and made a lot of noises, which seem to have calmed down a bit since being topped up. But we'll keep a close eye out for leaks.
- We've also finally had a quote to trim the tree in the garden. Comes in under £500 which we're happy with so DH has booked the man to come back in December to get that done.
- I did some more Christmas shopping the other week but am still very behind on things. Need to sit down and actually tot up how much I've spent and what I've bought for people so far. And order books through the local bookshop as that will be a big tick for some family members.
- I had a haircut, chopped back up to shoulder length, only £25 as I didn't get a complete blow dry.
- This evening the drain in our sink has broken, a metal bit that connects the plug to the drain has just snapped completely. Hopefully FIL will be able to find the bit we need to order, and then DH might hazard the repair himself.

I'm sure there were other things but I can't remember what they are!

November is also a busy month. It will be my birthday! So I'll be having a week off for that, during which the Christmas shoeboxes will be collected. The car is getting an MOT, I'm going to Bury St Edmunds with the WI (chance for more Christmas shopping), and there will probably be some extra things cropping up as the month goes.

Just need to cross my fingers the car passes it's MOT. Advisories are fine, just don't want it to fail

Have a good week everyone!