So, you asked me a lovely question, which I will try to answer about finances and in the current climate, what we are doing in the long and short term to combat that.
Well, our mortgage is currently half way through a five year fixed rate term, on a very good rate, so even though my bank, and building society have been trying to convince me to change to them I am going to stick where I am until the term expires. The reason for this is - The rate is so low, currently none of the banks or building societies can offer a rate anywhere near it, so I would basically be a complete dunce if I changed, and the reason why we took out a five year fixed rate is because our budget is so tight anyway, that we needed to know how much we were going to be paying for a length of time, and that it wouldn't be going up any time soon. If we could have squeezed enough out of our budget to take on a ten year fixed rate, we would have done so, but it was a little above our means.
Insurance. We already have every kind of insurance known to man, and even some that aren't. We have had most of these insurance policies since we bought our first house eight years ago, and there were just the two of us. As our family has grown, we have acquired more and bigger policies, to cover our burgeoning family. We do pay out A LOT of money each month in insurance, and I'm not just talking about your common or garden car, house, buildings insurance either. We have insurance in case Alex looses his job, insurance in case Alex gets ill and can't work, insurance in case Alex dies and can't work (?), insurance in case I die etc, etc. Most of it is to cover the mortgage payments, and some of it is to give us an income if there is no-one working. We have all these elaborate forms of insurance for one reason only. We do not have any other back up if there isn't a wage coming in every month. We have no savings to fall back on, in fact there is probably more money in the children's savings accounts than in ours. And there's only a couple of hundred in theirs. Alex's pension account gets a whopping great big £20 a month, so we are going to be living in a one room tenement building huddled round a one bar fire when he retires.
The reason we have the mortgage we have, and all the policies we have is down to our independent financial advisor, who's name is Adrian. We met him while we were buying our first house, as at the time his office was in the estate agents we bought the house from. We have never paid him a penny, he gets paid from the companies we use, so he always looks for the best deals for us. I trust him implicitly. He is a lovely (family) guy, I've met his wife and kids, and he isn't pushy and never gives us the hard sell. Whenever we go to see him, he always finds us various options, and then leaves us to make the final decision.
Shortly before we our current house, the man who owned the estate agents we bought our first house from died in a car crash. He was a prominent business man in the community as he lived and worked in Woodley and was very well liked. His death shocked everyone, not more so than his wife and baby daughter who he left behind. Adrian (who had been a close friend of his) told us that when he died he left no financial security for his family. He had always laughed at the idea of insurance policies, saying it was for 'anoraks'. Although he had a very well paid job, his wife had to sell the large family home they had just bought, and his cars, as she couldn't afford to live there any more and had to move in with her parents.
If this isn't a shining example of what not to do I don't know what is. I often look at our bank statements and think how better off we would be if all that insurance money we pay out every month was freed up. But then I think of Sean, and more appropriately, his wife and daughter, and it all makes sense.
Currently, we have been spending more time on tweeking the pennies, as really that's all we are able to do. We don't have enough money in the bank to do anything else with. We pay some money each month into savings, but that usually gets used for things like car tax, mot, services etc. The big picture is already looked after mostly, apart from the savings, but that will sort itself out later. The children have savings policies which we can't touch, for when they are older and they go to university or whatever. The current situation with the country's finances will not stay like this forever, although I am quite enjoying the current cut in interest rates. It makes for an interesting time at the till! And our finances will get better. My penny tweeking has reached an all time high I think at the minute, and maybe if I had more hours in the day, it would be even better!
Tuesday, 9 December 2008
Thursday, 27 November 2008
Eating Out and Other Such Dreams
Alex went out last weekend, with a freind and freinds of said freind. He goes out with this crowd a couple of times a year. They go into London (as most of them live in and around the capitol)and have a meal and go out for a drink afterwards. Most of the people are single thirty somethings with a large income and no dependants, so usually, despite living in one of the most expensive cities in the world, they have a fair bit of cash to flash about.
So, what usually happens when they go out for a meal is this - Alex is very frugal with his spending. He may have only one or two alcoholic drinks, and will order from the cheaper end of the menu, and depending on whether he is particularly skint or not he would miss out starters and deserts. Everyone else will be ordering lots of booze, bottles of wine, starters, deserts, and spending loads of cash, then there would be food left over. At the end of the meal the bill would be split equally between everyone, which obviously makes Alex cross, as he is then paying for someone elses food, which we can ill afford to do. Nobody plans ahead and decides before hand that this is what they will all do, it just evolves into this when they have all had a bit too much to drink and can't be bothered to work it all out. Fair enough if you know you've had loads to eat and drink and you know that it would come to a fair bit, but when you have especially been careful because you know you don't have much money, then it is particularly irksome.
This time however, was different. Before hand, Alex didn't seem to want to go, and when I pressed him about it, it turned out that he was reluctant to go because of what usually happened on other occasions. He was supposed to leave home at four p.m. and eventually left around two hours later. I told him that if splitting the bill was what they all normally did then he shouldn't worry about what he had, and instead of choosing what he could afford, he should just choose what he wanted to eat, as it didn't seem to make much of a difference anyway.
As it turned out, everyone seemed to be slightly less frivolous anyway. Possibly to do with the credit crunch, but who can tell? Starters and desserts where ordered but no food was leftover, it seemed that less 'extras' where purchased as part of everyone's meals. Alcohol too seemed to be consumed in less quantity. Even though they where celebrating someones birthday, everyone just shared bottles of wine, instead of buying lots of shorts.
Between seven people the bill with alcohol and tip came to £25 each. A rather reasonable amount of money to spend at a restaurant, but still almost half a weeks worth of food for my family. Not something that we can afford to do on any kind of regular occurance.
So, what usually happens when they go out for a meal is this - Alex is very frugal with his spending. He may have only one or two alcoholic drinks, and will order from the cheaper end of the menu, and depending on whether he is particularly skint or not he would miss out starters and deserts. Everyone else will be ordering lots of booze, bottles of wine, starters, deserts, and spending loads of cash, then there would be food left over. At the end of the meal the bill would be split equally between everyone, which obviously makes Alex cross, as he is then paying for someone elses food, which we can ill afford to do. Nobody plans ahead and decides before hand that this is what they will all do, it just evolves into this when they have all had a bit too much to drink and can't be bothered to work it all out. Fair enough if you know you've had loads to eat and drink and you know that it would come to a fair bit, but when you have especially been careful because you know you don't have much money, then it is particularly irksome.
This time however, was different. Before hand, Alex didn't seem to want to go, and when I pressed him about it, it turned out that he was reluctant to go because of what usually happened on other occasions. He was supposed to leave home at four p.m. and eventually left around two hours later. I told him that if splitting the bill was what they all normally did then he shouldn't worry about what he had, and instead of choosing what he could afford, he should just choose what he wanted to eat, as it didn't seem to make much of a difference anyway.
As it turned out, everyone seemed to be slightly less frivolous anyway. Possibly to do with the credit crunch, but who can tell? Starters and desserts where ordered but no food was leftover, it seemed that less 'extras' where purchased as part of everyone's meals. Alcohol too seemed to be consumed in less quantity. Even though they where celebrating someones birthday, everyone just shared bottles of wine, instead of buying lots of shorts.
Between seven people the bill with alcohol and tip came to £25 each. A rather reasonable amount of money to spend at a restaurant, but still almost half a weeks worth of food for my family. Not something that we can afford to do on any kind of regular occurance.
Saturday, 25 October 2008
Shopping with Rachel and Rebecca
So this receipt is from when Rachel and Rebecca came over and quizzed me for hours, and then took me shopping. (They know how to show a girl a good time.) This is kind of my monthly shop(not weekly, I don't have time to shop every week, and besides I would spend far too much money on stuff I don't need), were I would get all my staples like breakfast cereal, tinned goods, tea, coffee, sugar etc. And then washing goods, and household cleaners. Then there are things like deoderant, shaving, shower gels and shampoos etc. Basically everything that doesn't come from the farmers market, or delivered by a man.
I must say, it is rather bizarre going to the supermarket being flanked by two young ladies. It's not the fact that to an outsider we seem so dim, it obviously takes three of us to push a trolley around the supermarket, but the seemingly unsupermarket like questions that we seem to be discussing, that raises an eyebrow or two. But hey, I've never been the shy and retiring type, so it doesn't much bother me.
Anyway, you know what I bought, and why. You were there, but here's the receipt to remind you. Oh by the way, anytime you fancy babysitting, let me know. You where both very good at occupying small ginger children. Although we have yet to test you on the slightly larger variety.
Receipts Four
26th Sept had a bit of a hankering for pastry. Bought myself some courgettes and creme fraiche (see receipt) and took them home. Fried up the courgette with some chicken, a bit of garlic, and added a little lemon zest and fresh parsley. Squidge it all together with some creme fraiche. Roll out puff pastry nice and thin. Slop courgette/chicken mix down the centre of pastry. Cut ribbons in sides of pastry and curl over courgette/chicken mix, meeting in middle. Egg wash over top. Bang in oven. Cook till nice and golden brown. Feed to husband with new potatoes and broccoli. Makes two chicken breasts go further. Two meals for two people, rather than one. Pastry is dirt cheap. Get's you loads of brownie points with husband. Job Done.
Tip:- Use low fat creme fraiche in cooking. I use it in everything I need a creamy addition for. (Soup, curry, etc.) For some reason, the full fat stuff goes really runny when it warms up. The low fat stuff stays thick. And there's less fat, so you can feel self righteous, or just have twice as much.
A Handy Jack.
So, I told you about my car crash, but did I tell you about the gas leak?
No? Ok, here goes. Bear in mind that my husband is virtually on the other side of the planet, being smoozed by loads of Chinese business men and women, life in Haddon Drive continues its roller coaster journey with great vigour.
I woke up early on Monday morning for a change, and decided to have a shower before the children woke up. When I came out of the bathroom I could smell gas upstairs, so I knew it must be pretty bad downstairs. After opening every possible window I could, I then started to panic a bit. What do I do now? Alex isn't here, I can't ring the gas board, we don't have any money to get them involved. Maybe I should just switch it off and Alex will sort it out when he gets back. The kids were eating their breakfast by this time, complaining that they were very cold, and why were the windows open? I couldn't leave the gas off all week, they would freeze, and have no hot food. Then I thought I could ring Frank (Alex's dad) as he would know what to do. The phone rang and rang, then it went to answer phone. Shit. Now what do I do? I put the phone down without leaving a message. I need to speak to someone now, not later.
Then it dawned on me, what if he was still in Spain? Alex had told me the week before that his mum and dad had taken Nonna to their apartment in Spain for a holiday. I had no idea if they where back yet. I didn't know what to do. Ordinarily I would phone the gas board and let them sort it out, and then stump up the cash afterwards. But we have no way of doing that. How can you get someone to do some work for you that you have no way to pay them for. I don't have any credit cards, nothing for emergencies, no stash of cash in my mattress or nest egg for a rainy day in the bank. I suppose if the worst comes to the worst, I could phone my mum but what could she do? She's 200 miles away, and to be perfectly honest, I wouldn't want my dad to know that I can't look after myself at the age of 37.
Luckily, with all this running through my mind, only a couple of short (although that's not what it felt like) minutes later, the phone rang. It was Frank. Thank God. I was so relieved I burst into tears, and started sobbing hysterically down the phone to him. He said he would send Jack round to have a look and told me to switch it off. It all seemed so very simple now. Within a couple of minutes it was all sorted out. As it happened, Jack couldn't come over until the next day so we had a very cold day and night, but he came the next morning and fixed it in no time. A very simple problem. A connection behind the cooker had come loose.
I felt like a bit of a moron. I had got hysterical over such a small thing, but the fact of the matter is, that when something like this happens, it is the amount of readies that you have in your pocket that colours how you deal with things. If I had a credit card, or a wad of cash in the bank, would I have stressed so much? I doubt it. I would have done what everybody else does, and in fact what my neighbour did only a few weeks ago when they had a gas leak, phone the gas board, let them do their thing, then moan about how much it costs afterwards. Luckily, and I really do mean it, I have a fantastic father-in-law that is a builder and has an army of workers of all descriptions at his beck and call to do his bidding. Actually, I only need the one. His name is Jack, he is Polish and he fixes everything. If I wasn't married (and neither was Jack) I would marry him.
No? Ok, here goes. Bear in mind that my husband is virtually on the other side of the planet, being smoozed by loads of Chinese business men and women, life in Haddon Drive continues its roller coaster journey with great vigour.
I woke up early on Monday morning for a change, and decided to have a shower before the children woke up. When I came out of the bathroom I could smell gas upstairs, so I knew it must be pretty bad downstairs. After opening every possible window I could, I then started to panic a bit. What do I do now? Alex isn't here, I can't ring the gas board, we don't have any money to get them involved. Maybe I should just switch it off and Alex will sort it out when he gets back. The kids were eating their breakfast by this time, complaining that they were very cold, and why were the windows open? I couldn't leave the gas off all week, they would freeze, and have no hot food. Then I thought I could ring Frank (Alex's dad) as he would know what to do. The phone rang and rang, then it went to answer phone. Shit. Now what do I do? I put the phone down without leaving a message. I need to speak to someone now, not later.
Then it dawned on me, what if he was still in Spain? Alex had told me the week before that his mum and dad had taken Nonna to their apartment in Spain for a holiday. I had no idea if they where back yet. I didn't know what to do. Ordinarily I would phone the gas board and let them sort it out, and then stump up the cash afterwards. But we have no way of doing that. How can you get someone to do some work for you that you have no way to pay them for. I don't have any credit cards, nothing for emergencies, no stash of cash in my mattress or nest egg for a rainy day in the bank. I suppose if the worst comes to the worst, I could phone my mum but what could she do? She's 200 miles away, and to be perfectly honest, I wouldn't want my dad to know that I can't look after myself at the age of 37.
Luckily, with all this running through my mind, only a couple of short (although that's not what it felt like) minutes later, the phone rang. It was Frank. Thank God. I was so relieved I burst into tears, and started sobbing hysterically down the phone to him. He said he would send Jack round to have a look and told me to switch it off. It all seemed so very simple now. Within a couple of minutes it was all sorted out. As it happened, Jack couldn't come over until the next day so we had a very cold day and night, but he came the next morning and fixed it in no time. A very simple problem. A connection behind the cooker had come loose.
I felt like a bit of a moron. I had got hysterical over such a small thing, but the fact of the matter is, that when something like this happens, it is the amount of readies that you have in your pocket that colours how you deal with things. If I had a credit card, or a wad of cash in the bank, would I have stressed so much? I doubt it. I would have done what everybody else does, and in fact what my neighbour did only a few weeks ago when they had a gas leak, phone the gas board, let them do their thing, then moan about how much it costs afterwards. Luckily, and I really do mean it, I have a fantastic father-in-law that is a builder and has an army of workers of all descriptions at his beck and call to do his bidding. Actually, I only need the one. His name is Jack, he is Polish and he fixes everything. If I wasn't married (and neither was Jack) I would marry him.
Receipts Three
So, more recepts from Waitrose. I think I shopped there so much, because I was waiting to do my big shop with Rachel and it just put me all over the place. I didn't have anything at home, so I kept shopping at the most expensive shop in the world!
Anyway, some more bits and bobs. Looks like the kids had a pizza for tea one night. Usually I make my own pizza bases and then add stuff to them, but I must have been in a rush, as I bought ready made pizza base, and some garlic bread. Ah I remember, the kids and I made fridge cake, so we bought mixed dried friut, butter, digestives and chocolate. Some other lunch stuff for Willow and Oscar and a recipe card holder for me. I bought this because I thought it was really good value. There is one in the Phoenix Cards catalogue that I love. It's a box and you put little cards in it, but it was £15. I bit pricey. This one from Waitrose is a ringbound book that you can stand up, so you don't have to take the cards out and they will keep clean. You get 60 in there, and also it takes an A4 sheet folded in half, so if I print reciped off the internet, which I do quite regularly, I can put them in there too! A bargain!
The other receipt was for a potato peeler which I bought as a present for my daughter. An odd gift for a seven year old you might think, but no, not really. You see she is a very helpful sort of child and likes to help out in the kitchen. She has recently discovered how easy it is to cook a roast dinner, and likes to peel the vegetables. My potato peeler unfortunately she finds very difficult to peel with, so I bought her a little novelty Y shaped peeler she can use when she helps mummy in the kitchen.
Food Snobs
My daughter does ballet. In fact it would be fair to say she loves ballet, and would do it ALL the time if at all possible. Her best friend is also in her class, which helps a lot. So suffice to say that I spend a lot of time waiting around while she is in her lesson, with all the other mums in the same boat.
We were chatting away one day last week when the conversation turned to food and cooking and then to shopping. One of the mums mentioned that she shopped at Sainsburys, which I do, but where as I had gone up in the quality of supermarkets, (from Tesco) she pointed out very loudly that before she had children she used to shop at Waitrose all the time, and now she had to slum it at Sainsburys. Another mum made a joke about Asda, and then the first mum announced quite loudly that she wouldn't ever dream of setting foot in that shop and if you ever found her in there, you would know things were really dire indeed.
Now, don't get me wrong, I shop in Sainsburys too, but not because I'm slumming it. There are many reasons.
1. I used to shop at Tesco Kings Meadow. Huge shop, lots of choice, great value. But got disillusioned with the staff as they were unhelpful and rude.
2. I used to shop online with Tesco until they moved the store they used to get my shopping from Kings Meadow to Wokingham (tiny shop) so my wide choice narrowed considerably as the store was smaller.
3. I wasn't happy with the quality of the meat that I bought from Tesco.
4. I wasn't happy about spending that amount of money in a supermarket that seemed to be swallowing up the country. (An ethical choice.)
So I moved to Sainsburys because:
1. The local store is small but still has a wide variety of choice and I can get everything there that I need. (Apart from the really weird stuff that I buy from the Oriental Wholesalers).
2. The staff there are very polite and very helpful.
3. When I buy online, the shopping comes from Calcot Savacentre, which is ginormous, and never seems to run out of anything.
4. Although the price is a little more, I usually buy supermarket brand anyway, so there isn't that much difference, but the quality is better.
5. Sainsburys seem to have much more of a family feel about them. They appear to be much more nurturing and concerned about the environment and ethics, which sits much more easier in my life.
The biggest reason that I personally don't shop at Asda is because of our local store. Whenever I go to visit a friend of mine who lives in Swindon right near a very new and very big Asda/Walmart store, we always go in and have a look. I actually do like Asda, even though it's been taken over by the biggest company in the world. But my local store is old, and dingy. The aisles are cramped and it is very busy. The toilets aren't even in the store, so if you take the kids, they invariably need a wee half way around the store, irrespective of when they last had one. You have to leave your trolley in an aisle somewhere, not quite sure whether it will still be there when you return. Whenever I go in there they have moved everything around and it takes me forever to find anything. In fact a few times I have been in there with the kids, I have got so frustrated I have just dumped the trolley and left, to save my sanity, and to stop me screaming at the children.
If I had loads of money I would shop at Waitrose. So does that make me a food snob? I guess it does. But, my brother in law, who is the biggest food snob in the world does his regular shop at Asda, so it's obviously not the quality of the food that is the problem. But then he like me gets most of his meat and fresh veg somewhere else.
So what is a food snob? Am I a food snob really? I don't buy all my food branded, (which you can get in any supermarket and I am reliably in formed that a packet of Kellogg's cornflakes tastes the same in Asda as it does from Waitrose) so that can't be it. Maybe I'm just of an age to realise that you can make a difference, however small, to your own life, those around you, and what you put in your body affects your mind too.
Oh how philosophical!
We were chatting away one day last week when the conversation turned to food and cooking and then to shopping. One of the mums mentioned that she shopped at Sainsburys, which I do, but where as I had gone up in the quality of supermarkets, (from Tesco) she pointed out very loudly that before she had children she used to shop at Waitrose all the time, and now she had to slum it at Sainsburys. Another mum made a joke about Asda, and then the first mum announced quite loudly that she wouldn't ever dream of setting foot in that shop and if you ever found her in there, you would know things were really dire indeed.
Now, don't get me wrong, I shop in Sainsburys too, but not because I'm slumming it. There are many reasons.
1. I used to shop at Tesco Kings Meadow. Huge shop, lots of choice, great value. But got disillusioned with the staff as they were unhelpful and rude.
2. I used to shop online with Tesco until they moved the store they used to get my shopping from Kings Meadow to Wokingham (tiny shop) so my wide choice narrowed considerably as the store was smaller.
3. I wasn't happy with the quality of the meat that I bought from Tesco.
4. I wasn't happy about spending that amount of money in a supermarket that seemed to be swallowing up the country. (An ethical choice.)
So I moved to Sainsburys because:
1. The local store is small but still has a wide variety of choice and I can get everything there that I need. (Apart from the really weird stuff that I buy from the Oriental Wholesalers).
2. The staff there are very polite and very helpful.
3. When I buy online, the shopping comes from Calcot Savacentre, which is ginormous, and never seems to run out of anything.
4. Although the price is a little more, I usually buy supermarket brand anyway, so there isn't that much difference, but the quality is better.
5. Sainsburys seem to have much more of a family feel about them. They appear to be much more nurturing and concerned about the environment and ethics, which sits much more easier in my life.
The biggest reason that I personally don't shop at Asda is because of our local store. Whenever I go to visit a friend of mine who lives in Swindon right near a very new and very big Asda/Walmart store, we always go in and have a look. I actually do like Asda, even though it's been taken over by the biggest company in the world. But my local store is old, and dingy. The aisles are cramped and it is very busy. The toilets aren't even in the store, so if you take the kids, they invariably need a wee half way around the store, irrespective of when they last had one. You have to leave your trolley in an aisle somewhere, not quite sure whether it will still be there when you return. Whenever I go in there they have moved everything around and it takes me forever to find anything. In fact a few times I have been in there with the kids, I have got so frustrated I have just dumped the trolley and left, to save my sanity, and to stop me screaming at the children.
If I had loads of money I would shop at Waitrose. So does that make me a food snob? I guess it does. But, my brother in law, who is the biggest food snob in the world does his regular shop at Asda, so it's obviously not the quality of the food that is the problem. But then he like me gets most of his meat and fresh veg somewhere else.
So what is a food snob? Am I a food snob really? I don't buy all my food branded, (which you can get in any supermarket and I am reliably in formed that a packet of Kellogg's cornflakes tastes the same in Asda as it does from Waitrose) so that can't be it. Maybe I'm just of an age to realise that you can make a difference, however small, to your own life, those around you, and what you put in your body affects your mind too.
Oh how philosophical!
Receipts Two
So here are the next set of receipts. Ok so it was ages ago, but I'm a busy woman with an erratic network connection. What are you gonna do?
The first receipt is dated 23rd Sept, so I bought a few things for a 'Pampered Chef' party I was having that evening. Kettle Chips, multi dips, and then some items for something that would be made at said party... an onion, carrots, puff pastry and the gruyere. So all things I wouldn't normally buy. I love gruyere, it's really nutty, but quite expensive. Then a couple of packets of crisps for me and Oscar to have with our lunch, and some kitchen towel. Again, we went to Waitrose because it's quick and I was near there.
The second receipt is from the next day. I was obviously making spaghetti bolognaise! The ingredients speak for themselves. Maybe Oscar asked me to make it for him. Whenever I make it, I make loads of sauce and then save some. I also bought a gammon joint to make some ham. This was the last time I made spag bol, as my daughter who has proclaimed spag bol as her favourite meal of choice from the age of one, now has decided she doesn't like it anymore. GGggggrrrrrrrr.
Saturday, 18 October 2008
Some You Lose
It seems there has been a spate of uselessness in our family recently, my mum also had a car accident where she pulled out of a junction in front of a car that was indicating to go down where she was coming out of and therefore would miss her, but he wasn't going down there, just pretending he was. So I really don't want to tell you this, as you are now going to make the rash assumption that everyone in my family is a bunch of morons, but I also had a car accident yesterday.
I pride myself in being the one that caused the least damage, but I did reverse into a stationary car, so that doesn't say much. But in my defence, I have never put in a fault claim in my life, and I have been driving for twenty years. It was dark, I was reversing out of a very small car park round a very large and stupidly placed skip, and reversed into a car that I was actually trying to avoid. Duh. Luckily, it belonged to someone I knew, although what luck had to do with it I have no idea, because if I was lucky I wouldn't be writing this.
Anyway, joking aside, I now have the very real problem of acquiring £250 for my excess. I have no magicians hat or pot of gold, so I guess we will be raiding the kids savings accounts again. Which means that the Christmas present money pot will be considerably smaller than it should be. My children are destined never to go to university, just because they won't ever have any money.
The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Luckily I'm not religious.
Ha ha! The irony of it all.
I pride myself in being the one that caused the least damage, but I did reverse into a stationary car, so that doesn't say much. But in my defence, I have never put in a fault claim in my life, and I have been driving for twenty years. It was dark, I was reversing out of a very small car park round a very large and stupidly placed skip, and reversed into a car that I was actually trying to avoid. Duh. Luckily, it belonged to someone I knew, although what luck had to do with it I have no idea, because if I was lucky I wouldn't be writing this.
Anyway, joking aside, I now have the very real problem of acquiring £250 for my excess. I have no magicians hat or pot of gold, so I guess we will be raiding the kids savings accounts again. Which means that the Christmas present money pot will be considerably smaller than it should be. My children are destined never to go to university, just because they won't ever have any money.
The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Luckily I'm not religious.
Ha ha! The irony of it all.
Some You Win
Forgot to tell you....
Last week Alex had a car accident. He wasn't hurt and neither was the other party, just a little shook up, but unfortunately, it was Alex's fault. He had been working all the hours God sends and a few more that he didn't, he was knackered and coming home very late at night. Stopped at a traffic light, and then when he saw a green light, which he assumed was his as it was pointing in his direction, pulled out into the junction, but unfortunately, it wasn't his light, and an oncoming car slammed into the side of him. He has a company car, so gave the man his details, and when he went into work the next time, informed them of what happened. Alex was due to get a bonus in his wages for all the work he had put in building, setting up, manning and then dismantling the stand they had at a recent trade show (the reason why he was tired and ran the light in the first place)but because he backed into a wall whilst in France in summer had already had his allocated one claim for this year. So his bonus went to pay for the excess. If he hadn't been building the stand, he wouldn't have been out late and run the light, but we still wouldn't have any money, but Alex might have got some sleep.
Last week Alex had a car accident. He wasn't hurt and neither was the other party, just a little shook up, but unfortunately, it was Alex's fault. He had been working all the hours God sends and a few more that he didn't, he was knackered and coming home very late at night. Stopped at a traffic light, and then when he saw a green light, which he assumed was his as it was pointing in his direction, pulled out into the junction, but unfortunately, it wasn't his light, and an oncoming car slammed into the side of him. He has a company car, so gave the man his details, and when he went into work the next time, informed them of what happened. Alex was due to get a bonus in his wages for all the work he had put in building, setting up, manning and then dismantling the stand they had at a recent trade show (the reason why he was tired and ran the light in the first place)but because he backed into a wall whilst in France in summer had already had his allocated one claim for this year. So his bonus went to pay for the excess. If he hadn't been building the stand, he wouldn't have been out late and run the light, but we still wouldn't have any money, but Alex might have got some sleep.
The Farmers Market (and Other Such Gems)
A Favourite Place of Mine. And one not everyone seems to have as yet discovered. I am very lucky to have, in the small town in which I live, a farmers market once a month. It is unfortunately on the third Wednesday of every month which falls just before pay day, so I don't tend to have much money then. But some may see that as a blessing.
Anyway, I am concerned about the farmers market. When it first started out some four or five years ago, you couldn't get in the town car park first thing in a morning on the day of the market. When my daughter was at nursery, which is next to the town centre, I always knew it was Farmers Market Day by how packed the car park was. But now, it's not the same. I'm not sure whether the ensuing credit crunch has formed the down turn, or whether it has anything to do with the fact that Woodley Town Council have also now started up a regular farmers market on a Saturday as well. The Saturday market though is a bit of a mish mash, and certainly not much to do with farmers. There are some jewellery stalls, a lady selling hand made cards, another lady selling 'decorate your own ceramic plates' and a stall selling joss sticks and semi precious stones for ridiculously inflated prices. Not impressed.
So back to Wednesdays. The REAL Farmers Market is great. There are stalls from farms all around the area, specialising in all kinds of things. My favourite stall is Eadles, a free range pork farm, who also rear free range chickens. Their prices have risen a little over the past couple of years, but they are having a tough time of it themselves, and even so, still a great price. At Eadles I buy two large whole chickens for £12, and two packs of four (large) chicken breasts also for £12. Two packs of four big pork steaks for around £9, a couple of packs of fat sausages for £5, (loads of different flavours to choose from, so little fat in them you actually HAVE to fry them or put them in the oven) and to top it all, a gammon joint for a FIVER. The chickens, chicken breasts and sausages are packed by weight, but if you buy two of each they sell them at a set price, so I always rummage around for the heaviest to get the best deal. One time I came to the farmers market and Eadles weren't there, I still haven't forgiven them. Apart from fish products, and red meat, this our meat for the month. It will all go in the freezer, and will be brought out and defrosted whenever needed. Apart from the gammon joint. I get home and pull out a big pot. Unwrap the joint and chuck it in. In the fridge I find a couple of carrots and an onion which I sling in as well, then in the herb drawer I find a couple of bay leaves. I haven't got any celery this time so I stick in cloves instead as it's getting wintry. Cover the lot with water and then bring to the boil, turn it down and let it simmer for a couple of hours. Drain, cool, and I now have ham. My family consumes ham like its made out of gold. Most of the stuff you get prepacked in the supermarkets has so much water and chemicals in it, it doesn't even resemble meat any more. Let me ask you, when was the last time you saw a square pig? When I run out and need some quick, I go to the Deli counter. It's good quality ham that actually looks like it may have been near a pig at some point in it's life, but, because it's not hermetically sealed in plastic, it costs a great deal less. BUT still a great deal more than doing it yourself. Home cooked ham though tastes great, and made with fresh free range gammon, there is nothing better. At Christmas I make a massive ham which is cooked in (wait for it)... coke. It's called 'white trash ham' as it is from the Deep South, where apparently they put coke in everything. It may sound disgusting, but don't knock it till you've tried it. Don't use diet though (urgh) it has to be full fat coke. Use that instead of water and just put a couple of onions in as well. When it comes out it's amazing. Tastes all sweet and smoky. The sugar in the coke breaks down the fibres in the meat, so it literally falls apart in your mouth.
Back to the farmers market! After dragging my body weight in meat back to the car I make my way back to the market and have browse around the rest of the stalls. There is a lovely lady that sells plants she grew herself, all kinds vegetable, herbal, and ornamental. I have a look and if something catches my eye (it usually does) I may come back later if I have a couple of pounds left. The goats cheese man catches my eye too. Three hundred million types, flavours, colours and strengths of goats cheese. I never used to like goats cheese, but now I love it. And, it's half the fat of normal cheese, so you can eat twice as much. I buy a couple of wraps and hope to squirrel them away at the back of the fridge so Alex can't eat them. Two vegetable stalls vie for your attention. One is the local pick your own farm where we take the kids in the summer, another is larger and quite frankly cheaper. I head there. Five kilos of potatoes and two kilos of onions later, for pence, drag them back to the car, and back to the market again. I need a trolley. The potatoes most likely will end up as mash (the kids favourite) and the onions will because onion marmalade to make as Christmas gifts. I buy some interesting beef sausages for Alex and myself, as a treat and then head to the egg stall, where you can buy free range chicken, duck and goose eggs. I buy a tray of 30 misshapes for £3. (in supermarkets free range eggs are getting towards two quid for 6) There is absolutely nothing wrong with them, just the British public seem to think as with everything that grows, if it isn't perfectly uniform and smooth, then there must be SOMETHING WRONG WITH IT. Not so. My misshapen eggs are a source of amusement to the kids. Long eggs, round eggs, lumpy eggs, white eggs, thick shells, thin shells, ridged shells, but inside, they all taste the same. Great. We will make eggy (hard boiled or fried) sandwiches, quiches which will go in the freezer, omelettes, carbonara sauce, and a staple favourite of childhood, boiled egg and soldiers for breakfast.
The Farmers Market is a mecca of cheapness and quality. If it ever leaves my little town I will weep. We already lost the organic market (once a fortnight in the Oakwood Centre) where you could buy loose cereals, grains, nuts, dried fruit, pulses, pasta, oils, as well as eco friendly washing products. You took your own storage, filled it up weighed it and paid. It was so cheap. But no-one ever went. So it closed down. If the Farmers market goes the same way, it will be very sad. This is supposed to be an affluent area. You would think that the kudos of shopping at the Farmers Market would be enough for those with more money than sense, but it appears that we would rather have our kudos without added mud, so they stick to Waitrose. Sad.
Anyway, I am concerned about the farmers market. When it first started out some four or five years ago, you couldn't get in the town car park first thing in a morning on the day of the market. When my daughter was at nursery, which is next to the town centre, I always knew it was Farmers Market Day by how packed the car park was. But now, it's not the same. I'm not sure whether the ensuing credit crunch has formed the down turn, or whether it has anything to do with the fact that Woodley Town Council have also now started up a regular farmers market on a Saturday as well. The Saturday market though is a bit of a mish mash, and certainly not much to do with farmers. There are some jewellery stalls, a lady selling hand made cards, another lady selling 'decorate your own ceramic plates' and a stall selling joss sticks and semi precious stones for ridiculously inflated prices. Not impressed.
So back to Wednesdays. The REAL Farmers Market is great. There are stalls from farms all around the area, specialising in all kinds of things. My favourite stall is Eadles, a free range pork farm, who also rear free range chickens. Their prices have risen a little over the past couple of years, but they are having a tough time of it themselves, and even so, still a great price. At Eadles I buy two large whole chickens for £12, and two packs of four (large) chicken breasts also for £12. Two packs of four big pork steaks for around £9, a couple of packs of fat sausages for £5, (loads of different flavours to choose from, so little fat in them you actually HAVE to fry them or put them in the oven) and to top it all, a gammon joint for a FIVER. The chickens, chicken breasts and sausages are packed by weight, but if you buy two of each they sell them at a set price, so I always rummage around for the heaviest to get the best deal. One time I came to the farmers market and Eadles weren't there, I still haven't forgiven them. Apart from fish products, and red meat, this our meat for the month. It will all go in the freezer, and will be brought out and defrosted whenever needed. Apart from the gammon joint. I get home and pull out a big pot. Unwrap the joint and chuck it in. In the fridge I find a couple of carrots and an onion which I sling in as well, then in the herb drawer I find a couple of bay leaves. I haven't got any celery this time so I stick in cloves instead as it's getting wintry. Cover the lot with water and then bring to the boil, turn it down and let it simmer for a couple of hours. Drain, cool, and I now have ham. My family consumes ham like its made out of gold. Most of the stuff you get prepacked in the supermarkets has so much water and chemicals in it, it doesn't even resemble meat any more. Let me ask you, when was the last time you saw a square pig? When I run out and need some quick, I go to the Deli counter. It's good quality ham that actually looks like it may have been near a pig at some point in it's life, but, because it's not hermetically sealed in plastic, it costs a great deal less. BUT still a great deal more than doing it yourself. Home cooked ham though tastes great, and made with fresh free range gammon, there is nothing better. At Christmas I make a massive ham which is cooked in (wait for it)... coke. It's called 'white trash ham' as it is from the Deep South, where apparently they put coke in everything. It may sound disgusting, but don't knock it till you've tried it. Don't use diet though (urgh) it has to be full fat coke. Use that instead of water and just put a couple of onions in as well. When it comes out it's amazing. Tastes all sweet and smoky. The sugar in the coke breaks down the fibres in the meat, so it literally falls apart in your mouth.
Back to the farmers market! After dragging my body weight in meat back to the car I make my way back to the market and have browse around the rest of the stalls. There is a lovely lady that sells plants she grew herself, all kinds vegetable, herbal, and ornamental. I have a look and if something catches my eye (it usually does) I may come back later if I have a couple of pounds left. The goats cheese man catches my eye too. Three hundred million types, flavours, colours and strengths of goats cheese. I never used to like goats cheese, but now I love it. And, it's half the fat of normal cheese, so you can eat twice as much. I buy a couple of wraps and hope to squirrel them away at the back of the fridge so Alex can't eat them. Two vegetable stalls vie for your attention. One is the local pick your own farm where we take the kids in the summer, another is larger and quite frankly cheaper. I head there. Five kilos of potatoes and two kilos of onions later, for pence, drag them back to the car, and back to the market again. I need a trolley. The potatoes most likely will end up as mash (the kids favourite) and the onions will because onion marmalade to make as Christmas gifts. I buy some interesting beef sausages for Alex and myself, as a treat and then head to the egg stall, where you can buy free range chicken, duck and goose eggs. I buy a tray of 30 misshapes for £3. (in supermarkets free range eggs are getting towards two quid for 6) There is absolutely nothing wrong with them, just the British public seem to think as with everything that grows, if it isn't perfectly uniform and smooth, then there must be SOMETHING WRONG WITH IT. Not so. My misshapen eggs are a source of amusement to the kids. Long eggs, round eggs, lumpy eggs, white eggs, thick shells, thin shells, ridged shells, but inside, they all taste the same. Great. We will make eggy (hard boiled or fried) sandwiches, quiches which will go in the freezer, omelettes, carbonara sauce, and a staple favourite of childhood, boiled egg and soldiers for breakfast.
The Farmers Market is a mecca of cheapness and quality. If it ever leaves my little town I will weep. We already lost the organic market (once a fortnight in the Oakwood Centre) where you could buy loose cereals, grains, nuts, dried fruit, pulses, pasta, oils, as well as eco friendly washing products. You took your own storage, filled it up weighed it and paid. It was so cheap. But no-one ever went. So it closed down. If the Farmers market goes the same way, it will be very sad. This is supposed to be an affluent area. You would think that the kudos of shopping at the Farmers Market would be enough for those with more money than sense, but it appears that we would rather have our kudos without added mud, so they stick to Waitrose. Sad.
Monday, 13 October 2008
Talk of Shopping
So, here it is. A good 40 minutes later, and I have no idea whether you will be able to see this properly or not until I publish it, so this all might be a big waste of time!
Anyway. The first receipt is from 21 Sept, which I believe was around the time we started this thing, so seems as good a place to start as any. I believe I ran around Salisbury's on a Saturday afternoon (bad idea) with Willow in an attempt to collect some stuff for packed lunches and something to make for tea. We were both thirsty & hungry and would not be going straight home afterwards, but to Chapel Hall for Willow to be taught here song & dance solo, so got some juice cartons and crisps. We also bought Cheap tinned chopped tomatoes, some seriously cheap reduced price organic fruit and veg, spaghetti, parmesan, and deodorant, so I think we must have had spaghetti for tea, but not with the deodorant.
The second receipt is from Waitrose which I seem to shop at alot at the moment. Normally I do one BIG supermarket shop a month, just after Alex gets paid, in which I buy loads of dried/packet/tinned goods, all the store cupboard ingredients that don't go off. Then I do little shops to purchase perishables such as bread/milk/fruit/veg and anything I might need to make a meal out of something I already have in the cupboard. I also buy the majority of meat from one of two places. Either the local farmers market, once a month (free range local fresh produce) which I stick in the freezer, or a company which delivers frozen free range meat & fish from a huge range which I do every once in a while. This company is more expensive, but the quality is excellent even though it is frozen. I pay a certain amount by standing order to them every month, and when I have enough credit, I do a massive order. Then of course there is the veg box which we had stopped having over the summer as we either weren't here or weren't eating what they put in it, but will get again. We recently changed from Riverford (very good quality, very reasonably priced) to Able and Cole (who I always want to call Cain & Able) who are a little more expensive but VERY good quality, better service, the box comes on a week day, Saturday deliveries with Riverford could be a bit of a pain when you where out, so would the box (and your eggs) sat in the sun all day. Nice. But also because Able & Cole did a mixed Veg and fruit box which meant we actually spent less money in the long run.
So anyway, back to the Waitrose receipts. There are alot of them, and normally I wouldn't go there. The quality is exceptional, but so is the cost. But it is far too handy when dropping off/picking up little ginger boys at Nursery to pop round the corner to Waitrose for a pint and a loaf than getting in the car and driving all the way to Tesco. Just think of the pollution! So I seem to be shopping there quite a bit at the minute, and more so as I haven't been and done a proper big shop as I was more skint.
This particular visit, you will recall was when I picked up my bargain trout fillets for £1.05. I also bought some crisps for myself and Oscar (he likes to have crisps with his lunch) some tomato soup (for our lunch), broccoli, fish, low fat cheddar (tastes like old socks) milk and filo pastry to make some poncey mini flan things when my friends came over one evening. Not alot, but it came to £14. Which is quite alot. Nuff said.
Bed time.
Battling with Technology
I have not been around this place much (well, at all in fact) in the last week or so. I have been busy getting on with my life and the ever growing mountain of 'stuff' to do. And also my computer is really annoying me.
A typical evening's Internet viewing will go something like this...
7.30pm. Kids in bed switch computer on, wait fifteen minutes while it warms up, goes through all its checks, loads up my desktop, and settles down. I make a cup of tea.
7.45pm. I log into my emails to find I have 64 new emails, 62 of which are junk (and those are just the ones that actually got through), and the other two are friends being very jolly and fun. I am really knackered and have 'stuff to do' so I ignore them as I am too tired/busy to answer.
8.00pm. Have a look on eBay to see if any one wants to buy any of my stuff. Nope. Have a look at all the auctions I forgot to bid on because I was busy being a mum.
8.10pm.Search for some new stuff to bid on.
8.12pm. Internet connection decides to momentarily go to sleep. A page I am loading takes three minutes to come up.
8.15pm. Internet connection wakes up. Page loads.
8.18pm Internet connection goes to sleep again. I receive irritating 'This page cannot be displayed' message. Stress levels rise.
8.20pm. Internet connection given kick up backside. Page loads.
(this battle continues for approximately three quarters of an hour at which point my teeth ache quite a bit from stress gritting)
9.05pm. I decide to write an email to a friend.
9.15pm. I try to send email to friend.
9.16pm. Internet connection is lost again.
9.17pm. Email is also lost.
9.20pm. After screaming into a pillow, I try very hard not to bludgeon laptop into small pieces.
So you can see why I haven't been around here much lately. The idea of spending half an hour regaling tales of spending to you only to have it disappear into the 'ether' was not one of my favourite ways of wasting my time.
I am keeping my fingers crossed. (And my toes.)
Any hoo. I had a cunning plan to show you what it is I have been buying and why, so I kept all my till receipts to scan into the computer, which I have done. Anyway, in doing so, I have realised just how much money I spend and just how far it doesn't go. AND actually, for all my money saving talk, just how much rubbish I buy.
So here goes....
A typical evening's Internet viewing will go something like this...
7.30pm. Kids in bed switch computer on, wait fifteen minutes while it warms up, goes through all its checks, loads up my desktop, and settles down. I make a cup of tea.
7.45pm. I log into my emails to find I have 64 new emails, 62 of which are junk (and those are just the ones that actually got through), and the other two are friends being very jolly and fun. I am really knackered and have 'stuff to do' so I ignore them as I am too tired/busy to answer.
8.00pm. Have a look on eBay to see if any one wants to buy any of my stuff. Nope. Have a look at all the auctions I forgot to bid on because I was busy being a mum.
8.10pm.Search for some new stuff to bid on.
8.12pm. Internet connection decides to momentarily go to sleep. A page I am loading takes three minutes to come up.
8.15pm. Internet connection wakes up. Page loads.
8.18pm Internet connection goes to sleep again. I receive irritating 'This page cannot be displayed' message. Stress levels rise.
8.20pm. Internet connection given kick up backside. Page loads.
(this battle continues for approximately three quarters of an hour at which point my teeth ache quite a bit from stress gritting)
9.05pm. I decide to write an email to a friend.
9.15pm. I try to send email to friend.
9.16pm. Internet connection is lost again.
9.17pm. Email is also lost.
9.20pm. After screaming into a pillow, I try very hard not to bludgeon laptop into small pieces.
So you can see why I haven't been around here much lately. The idea of spending half an hour regaling tales of spending to you only to have it disappear into the 'ether' was not one of my favourite ways of wasting my time.
I am keeping my fingers crossed. (And my toes.)
Any hoo. I had a cunning plan to show you what it is I have been buying and why, so I kept all my till receipts to scan into the computer, which I have done. Anyway, in doing so, I have realised just how much money I spend and just how far it doesn't go. AND actually, for all my money saving talk, just how much rubbish I buy.
So here goes....
Tuesday, 30 September 2008
Feeling Low
I have to say, that even though I perversely enjoyed talking about myself for four hours ( I probably could have gone on all day), afterwards it left me feeling very deflated, and it is a feeling that has continued this morning. Looking back over what we talked about made me feel reeeeeaaaaalllllly depressed, so much so that when Alex came home full of the joys of 'I'm getting my visa tomorrow' (he is going to China soon for work) that even he noticed it, and he isn't exactly a world champion at reading body language.
I talked to him about what I had been doing yesturday and he was surprisingly up beat. He pointed out (in a rather budist kind of way) that we might not have any money, but we have a better quality of life than most people. We have a great marriage, if it can go through this then it's got to count for something, and we have an amazing family. Not only our children, but our extended family. So that cheered me somewhat. Money isn't the be all and end all of everything, but unfortunately when you live in an afluent area, in the society that we live in today, it is hard, really hard, not to get swept up in it all. People spend money round here without even thinking about it. Only this morning while dropping off my daughter at school I was informed that not only am I supposed to have bought her a pair of rugby/football boots for ONE TERM, that I now need to get a pair of shin pads for half a term. Thats six weeks! 'Oh well let's go to 'Sport Soccer' they sell them for £4' they all say. I just stood there thinking, that's another thing I've got to pay out for that they didn't tell you about. When is it going to end? How many more sports are they going to do for half a term that I need to buy 'essential' kit for? Is my child going to be laughed at because she's the only one in her class who has to borrow school boots?
So now I'm depressed again. I'm supposed to be going out on Thursday evening with the mums from school on one of our very rare nights out, but I don't know whether I can afford it. I was going to buy a new pair of shoes, but maybe I won't now.
On the up side, my glasses don't hurt my nose quite so much anymore. Whilst reading the kids a bed time story the other night Oscar kneed me in the eye (don't ask) and bent them back in the opposite way to which he bent them in the first place. Now they are just very loose and slide down my nose constantly. But they don't hurt, So that can only be good!
Essentially it is very depressing not having any money. It is after all, what makes the world go round. On a normal day I don't conciously notice or verbalise any of my money saving ideas, or any of the things that I/we go without. We just get on with our lives, we have fun, we spend time together, we don't notice that we don't have any money. But sitting down for four hours and being questioned about what you do/don't have or want is very depressing. I cannot imagine how many times I said 'we can't afford it' yesturday, but it must have been a whole heap.
Anyway, we'll be ok. We aren't starving, we don't live on the streets, and we aren't ill, so we are ok, and one day, we will have some money and Alex is going to take me to Japan.
I talked to him about what I had been doing yesturday and he was surprisingly up beat. He pointed out (in a rather budist kind of way) that we might not have any money, but we have a better quality of life than most people. We have a great marriage, if it can go through this then it's got to count for something, and we have an amazing family. Not only our children, but our extended family. So that cheered me somewhat. Money isn't the be all and end all of everything, but unfortunately when you live in an afluent area, in the society that we live in today, it is hard, really hard, not to get swept up in it all. People spend money round here without even thinking about it. Only this morning while dropping off my daughter at school I was informed that not only am I supposed to have bought her a pair of rugby/football boots for ONE TERM, that I now need to get a pair of shin pads for half a term. Thats six weeks! 'Oh well let's go to 'Sport Soccer' they sell them for £4' they all say. I just stood there thinking, that's another thing I've got to pay out for that they didn't tell you about. When is it going to end? How many more sports are they going to do for half a term that I need to buy 'essential' kit for? Is my child going to be laughed at because she's the only one in her class who has to borrow school boots?
So now I'm depressed again. I'm supposed to be going out on Thursday evening with the mums from school on one of our very rare nights out, but I don't know whether I can afford it. I was going to buy a new pair of shoes, but maybe I won't now.
On the up side, my glasses don't hurt my nose quite so much anymore. Whilst reading the kids a bed time story the other night Oscar kneed me in the eye (don't ask) and bent them back in the opposite way to which he bent them in the first place. Now they are just very loose and slide down my nose constantly. But they don't hurt, So that can only be good!
Essentially it is very depressing not having any money. It is after all, what makes the world go round. On a normal day I don't conciously notice or verbalise any of my money saving ideas, or any of the things that I/we go without. We just get on with our lives, we have fun, we spend time together, we don't notice that we don't have any money. But sitting down for four hours and being questioned about what you do/don't have or want is very depressing. I cannot imagine how many times I said 'we can't afford it' yesturday, but it must have been a whole heap.
Anyway, we'll be ok. We aren't starving, we don't live on the streets, and we aren't ill, so we are ok, and one day, we will have some money and Alex is going to take me to Japan.
Wednesday, 24 September 2008
Luck Changes
I have been exceptionally busy over the past couple of days and forgot to blog, and was just about to log off for the night and go to bed, (got absolutely no sleep last night, done something to my shoulder about a week ago and am in agony) and blogger caught my eye, so I thought I'd tell you my good news!
My car went in for it's yearly service and MOT yesturday, always a pain, not having a car, even for a short while. They phoned me in the afternoon to explain that as the MOT machinery (?) in their Woodley branch wasn't working they had taken my car to be tested at their Wargrave branch. They didn't have time to service it, but had tested it, and it passed! Hurrah! So instead of paying out around £200 (there goes my birthday money) I only had to pay £50. The down side is that as I didn't actually service it last year either, I would be really stupid not to get a service done this year, but was actually advised by John who works there (all round nice guy and neighbour) that I didn't need to have a platinum service (reeeeeally expensive one that I was booked in to have) and that a gold service (seriously cheaper, but not the cheapest) would be ok as long as I got an oil change.
So, you know what this means don't you??? Well, it meant that at my Pampered Chef party that I had last night I could actually think about buying something nice, and not just sticking to what I could get free with my points, and that quiz night on Friday will be nicer with a pint, and on Sunday when I go to the Ally Pally with Mel's mum then I might be able to splash out and get something interesting! Wehay! The world isn't all bad.
My car went in for it's yearly service and MOT yesturday, always a pain, not having a car, even for a short while. They phoned me in the afternoon to explain that as the MOT machinery (?) in their Woodley branch wasn't working they had taken my car to be tested at their Wargrave branch. They didn't have time to service it, but had tested it, and it passed! Hurrah! So instead of paying out around £200 (there goes my birthday money) I only had to pay £50. The down side is that as I didn't actually service it last year either, I would be really stupid not to get a service done this year, but was actually advised by John who works there (all round nice guy and neighbour) that I didn't need to have a platinum service (reeeeeally expensive one that I was booked in to have) and that a gold service (seriously cheaper, but not the cheapest) would be ok as long as I got an oil change.
So, you know what this means don't you??? Well, it meant that at my Pampered Chef party that I had last night I could actually think about buying something nice, and not just sticking to what I could get free with my points, and that quiz night on Friday will be nicer with a pint, and on Sunday when I go to the Ally Pally with Mel's mum then I might be able to splash out and get something interesting! Wehay! The world isn't all bad.
Monday, 22 September 2008
Pay Day Yay Day
Hurrah! We got paid! To celebrate I went to Waitrose and bought some stuff to make Fishy Pie for tea (one of Willow's Favourites.) I had some salmon in the freezer, and potatoes from the farmers market, but needed cheese and some more milk. Was going to get some smoked mackerel to put in it from the deli counter, (the deli counter is always cheaper than pre-packed) but while I was looking I found some exceptionally cheap rainbow trout fillets, £1.05 for two big fillets, so I snapped them up. A very tasty fishy pie it made too.
Alex withdrew his £200 for the month today, then had to give me £40 which he borrowed from my work on Saturday. (He can claim that back from work but it will be a while) Then he had to give me another £10 he owed me from my sponsored walk ages ago, and then £5 for Willow he sponsored her last week for her school fundraiser. So by the time he's filled up the car with deisel tomorrow, there won't be much left.
I have yet to work out how much I have got for the month. I'm feigning busyness. If I stick my head under the sand, it doesn't actually happen, and we aren't skint.
Oh, I forgot. Yesturday I went to Sainsburies and bought an organic melon for 40p, Organic flat mushrooms for 30p and a punnet of organic nectarines for 25p. I am getting a nose for this bargain hunting lark!
Alex withdrew his £200 for the month today, then had to give me £40 which he borrowed from my work on Saturday. (He can claim that back from work but it will be a while) Then he had to give me another £10 he owed me from my sponsored walk ages ago, and then £5 for Willow he sponsored her last week for her school fundraiser. So by the time he's filled up the car with deisel tomorrow, there won't be much left.
I have yet to work out how much I have got for the month. I'm feigning busyness. If I stick my head under the sand, it doesn't actually happen, and we aren't skint.
Oh, I forgot. Yesturday I went to Sainsburies and bought an organic melon for 40p, Organic flat mushrooms for 30p and a punnet of organic nectarines for 25p. I am getting a nose for this bargain hunting lark!
Saturday, 20 September 2008
Starting Out
So this is my first blog on my new page! I do have a blog on here somewhere, but it's been some time since I accessed it, and I can't remember what it was called, or the password or whatever so it seems it's gone forever!
So now what do I write? This is kind of off the top of my head, so hopefully all my meanderings will make sense, and if they don't I'm sure you'll let me know.
We get paid on Monday, so at the moment we are exceptionally skint. I would be searching under the sofa cushions only I know there's no money under there as I looked last week. I got my bank statement today which informed me that I am £200 over my overdraft limit. That's what happens when you have a massive birthday party. Oh Joy (don't tell Alex, he'll have a fit). That means £200 quid less to spend this month, and as my car is in for it's service and mot on Tuesday, it looks like it's beans on toast for the next month.
I am quite looking forward to doing this research, and the blog, I find it quite amusing that someone out there is actually interested in what I have to say. My mother always told me I talked too much and had an opinion on everything, but now at least I can put that to good use!
I went to the opticians yesturday. Don't get me wrong, I didn't actually have an eye test or buy anything like that. I just went in to find out how much it would all cost. Let me explain. I am as blind as a bat. I normally wear contacts as I hate wearing glasses. I have run out of contact lenses, (I normally wear weekly diposables). My son has bent my glasses out of shape. They now annoy me even more than is humanly possible. They hurt one ear and one side of my nose and they are constantly falling off my face. So I went to the local opticians to find out how much it would be to get some new contacts similar to my old ones, and they quoted me Approx £30 a month!!! That's more than twice what I was paying before at my old opticians (unfortunately they stopped doing that price plan). So hence why I am still doing Harry Potter impressions and poking my glasses with my finger every three seconds. I actually found a Nectar voucher for a free eye test at Dolland & Aitchison, with is great but it still doesn't solve the glasses/contacts dilemma. I can't afford £30 a month for contacts, and I can't afford to buy a new pair of glasses, so it looks like I'm stuck with the annoying ones for the time being.
So now what do I write? This is kind of off the top of my head, so hopefully all my meanderings will make sense, and if they don't I'm sure you'll let me know.
We get paid on Monday, so at the moment we are exceptionally skint. I would be searching under the sofa cushions only I know there's no money under there as I looked last week. I got my bank statement today which informed me that I am £200 over my overdraft limit. That's what happens when you have a massive birthday party. Oh Joy (don't tell Alex, he'll have a fit). That means £200 quid less to spend this month, and as my car is in for it's service and mot on Tuesday, it looks like it's beans on toast for the next month.
I am quite looking forward to doing this research, and the blog, I find it quite amusing that someone out there is actually interested in what I have to say. My mother always told me I talked too much and had an opinion on everything, but now at least I can put that to good use!
I went to the opticians yesturday. Don't get me wrong, I didn't actually have an eye test or buy anything like that. I just went in to find out how much it would all cost. Let me explain. I am as blind as a bat. I normally wear contacts as I hate wearing glasses. I have run out of contact lenses, (I normally wear weekly diposables). My son has bent my glasses out of shape. They now annoy me even more than is humanly possible. They hurt one ear and one side of my nose and they are constantly falling off my face. So I went to the local opticians to find out how much it would be to get some new contacts similar to my old ones, and they quoted me Approx £30 a month!!! That's more than twice what I was paying before at my old opticians (unfortunately they stopped doing that price plan). So hence why I am still doing Harry Potter impressions and poking my glasses with my finger every three seconds. I actually found a Nectar voucher for a free eye test at Dolland & Aitchison, with is great but it still doesn't solve the glasses/contacts dilemma. I can't afford £30 a month for contacts, and I can't afford to buy a new pair of glasses, so it looks like I'm stuck with the annoying ones for the time being.
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