Tales from The Shire

It's judging day for the WI entries at the Show today :eek: I'm hoping someone will contact me and let me know the results. I will busy myself with housework in the meantime.

I met up with a friend on Wednesday for a mooch around the market town. Lovely to have a catch up and a relaxed day. No money was spent except for lunch costs which will be met from personal spends. Supper was the remains of the Fish Stew we had on Tuesday.

Yesterday I was at home and caught up on the washing and other chores. We had a Cheesy Leek Baked Potato for lunch - just a lonely leek fried up and added to some cream, wholegrain mustard and cheddar. Supper was Runner Bean & Prosciutto Pasta made with some runner beans my neighbours gifted I didn't have any prosciutto so used Cubetti Di Pancetta instead. Oh, and I completed Week 2 of the Couch to 5K programme :T

The food shop was delivered. I'm wondering whether I need to increase my budget for food. It's becoming very difficult to stay within the budget I currently have. Is food becoming more expensive? As a result of the recent bad Winter? The glorious Summer? Brexit?

Some T£$co vouchers were delivered too :T And I've spent them Well, not all of them. You now get 3 x the face value with all partners which means I can get more for my money on the D£nby website. And, they have a sale on at the moment too. So I have bought two frying pans to replace my current ones which have been devoid of all non-stickiness for years. £11 in vouchers for £32.50 worth of goods reduced from £65. They will match the lidded, saute pan I bought with my vouchers last time I still have £10 left in vouchers and might use those, and any I receive next time, to buy a magazine subscription. I don't buy magazines anymore as they are such an indulgence but with the T£$co vouchers they are much better value. Or I could buy more D£nby :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I have another Bay item to send off today and a further two have bids on them. Bay sales seem to be picking up now. Perhaps it's because of the School holidays?

Looking forward to the weekend. We'll be going to the show on Saturday and are invited round to the neighbours for a do on Sunday. It'll be nice to have a whole weekend of fun.

Hope your weekend is a good one too

Fortune x

My WI won first place in the town show :j:j:j

One of my paintings scored 20 points out of the 20 available and the other scored 19 :j:j:j

Well chuffed.

The show made for a lovely day out too. Very busy though. We spent money on the entrance fee, lunch, drinks and ice creams and I picked up some dog treats as FDawg's trainer had a stall there and we're getting a bit low. Costs will be met from the fun money and grocery budget.

I intend to keep one of the paintings as it goes well in one of the bedrooms. The other I'm going to sell on the Bay to try to recoup the framing costs.

Supper was Courgette & Prawn Curry leftover from Friday night. I diced the courgettes as I've found that gives a better consistency.

This morning we have sorted out Mr F's pension contributions. We will owe more tax as a result but I have sorted that out on line and it works out at £50 per month over the the rest of the financial year. Annoying but doable. I feel as though I have regained some focus on the financials now. Made an OP of £521.85 yesterday. The emergency fund is up to 70% but I am anticipating that coming down again as we have to replace our front gate and, as it's a farm size gate that's going to hurt.

This afternoon we're off to a neighbours for an afternoon/evening do. We'll take some wine and beer from stores and gift some gin so no costs involved. It sounds as though they've gone to a lot of effort so it should make for a lovely outing. Nice to be able to dress up for a change and just turn up and enjoy.

It looks like it's going to be a glorious day today. I hope you all get the chance to enjoy it.

Fortune x

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

Current sainsbugs mag has a courgette feature that you can access for free on line.

Ooh - thanks INOD, I'll take a look.

Fortune x