Cherry takes the reins

Thank you for the good wishes folks!

Here I am, over half way through our holiday already. As holidays go, it's going pretty well: the accommodation is nice and we've had some good days out. I've put a bit of a dampener on things by coming down with a lurgy, but today I've felt a lot better and enjoyed myself instead of keeping falling asleep! I expect part of it was just being too tired for too long, but DS2 had come down with something immediately before we went away. He was much worse than I was, but it makes me wonder if I wasn't fighting something off.

Money-wise, we aren't doing too badly although we've spent quite a bit. Thankfully our car is super-cheap to run as we've put in lots of mileage. We've self-catered main meals, which is much more economical than our usual holiday food when we try lots of restaurants for evening meals. We've also taken picnics. On the down side, we've had coffee and cake far too many times (though one was a freebie as I had enough points on my loyalty card).

I'll try to get a summary together:
1st:
No actual spending on my behalf though I did sort out a couple of donations and DH bought drinks & cake for us both at the motorway services.
2nd:
The holiday Big Shop: £42.29 housekeeping and £8.27 toiletries.
We found a really nice garden centre and bought a lot of Christmas and birthday gifts: £39.19, plus £1.95 for wrapping paper and £6.40 for flowers for our relatives.
3rd:
Spent the day with relatives we don't see often enough. It was a bit of a trek but well worth it.
Felt grotty later and spent £2.50 on sweets to make my throat and mouth feel more normal. Good job I had anti-inflammatories with me, they really helped.
4th:
Remembered to send a cheque to pay for work at Mum's old house, though I'd forgotten to bring the right cheque book so I'll need to pay myself back from one account to another.
Assorted gift buying and stuff... not sure what so I'll have to fill in later. I did find a good cookery shop and treated us to a new sieve for cooking (£4.95) and I happen to know DH bought me a book for Christmas. Other than that: gifts for other people. Housekeeping £2.44 spend by me and some from DH too.
5th:
I got the coffee and cake today: £9.65.
Other than that we had went to a very good art gallery so DH made a donation but it didn't actually cost till we got to the shop and once again I bought gifts for people! £10.99.

So who are the lucky recipients to be? And have we covered Christmas yet? No, to the latter. We haven't even covered all the birthday running up to Christmas - but we've made a start. Dh and I both got presents for each other, his for a birthday and mine for Christmas. I got a card for someone and wrapping paper for a present (and DH had to get parcel tape and sellotape). There were the flowers for our relatives and birthday cake candles, which I have counted as food rather than split the budget even further. We bought beer for the lads (one birthday and one Christmas), wine for one section of the family and biscuits for another, marmalade for a Grandparent, a toy for one of the DSes and a game for my BiL. Good to know some of the family are 'sorted'!

I'm also taking inspiration from TOPM's thread and looking into making an Advent calendar for someone. I really like the permanent ones and have some ideas but it will cost a bit to put together so I need to make sure I know what I'm doing, or do nothing.

Tomorrow we're out all day so I'm not sure when I'll post next. Meanwhile we have an early start and I'll be travelling in pyjamas if I don't get to bed soon!

That was a nice day. It's so good to have a couple of days basically at home. I know I've been pushing myself too much for a while and this will do me good (even if I have to spend tomorrow afternoon watching ghastly grim fire training videos and practising evacuating the building).

I did pop to the shops - as I said above, I couldn't find fairy lights so I'll keep a look out elsewhere. I might look on line for those long twigs that light up: our old ones are losing bulbs but they've been so pretty. I did succumb to a packet of coloured pens - eight for £2 in W!lkos, while I bought just three of the same make for £8 once in London. So I am justifying that completely unnecessary spend because they are colourful and will get used.

I did very well at the greengrocer (I don't go there often enough) with a bag of huge apples for 99p, and from their discount section, a cauliflower for 20p and four pomegranates for 40p. Then I got salad leaves for 20p in the supermarket, plus a bag of chestnuts for £1.20 and some other bits and pieces.

I sent a token £1 to the company that's going to replace the heating system in Mum's house - if it goes through all right - and I can misread numbers so I'm taking no chances - then I'll pay the rest of the deposit once I know it's going into the right account.

Spends:
Housekeeping £4.88
Stationery £2.00
Piano lesson £10.00
MS stuff:
Good bargains in fruit and veg.
Had a look at the mortgage account: the £1000 saved for possible change in mortgage type is still there, plus much of last month's wages and some extra from not having overpaid recently. So I made the overpayment today (leaving room for manoeuvre later in the month) and I'm delighted to say we've dipped below the £14,000 mark!
I've paid myself back from the Executor's Account for the wages I paid last week on behalf of the estate. The returning money has gone into the holiday savings account with the hope of making our 'big trip' in a year's time. Don't get too excited though - it's the spending money for just over one day.