Precious Memories

A while ago Sue, from A Smaller & Simpler Life, commented on items she couldn't bear to part with, for example a glass frog her son bought for her when he was younger.  Whilst unpacking after our latest move to the bungalow I unwrapped the items in the photo.  They were birthday presents from my son and daughter when they were still at school.  I can't for the life of me remember who bought which item but I can't part with them. They have come with us through 3 house moves and must be at least 35 years old. 

Do you have an item you simply can't bear to let go?

Stay safe everyone wherever in the world you happen to be x

Edit:

Forgot to say we had our Covid booster jabs yesterday.  My arm aches and I feel very tired.  G is fine.  I'm off for a sit down with a cuppa 😩

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Too Good To Go... Frugal Or Not?

I'm inclined to think ...not frugal for us... I managed to obtain a Too Good To Go bag a couple of weeks ago from the Co op near the allotment.We just happened to be there at the right time to get a '12 pound bag' which is supposed to be £12 worth of food for £3.99.  Sounds good doesn't it.  When I collected it and unpacked it in the allotment shed I was a bit disappointed to be honest.  There was a sandwich and a pot of fruit which was great for G to take to work the next day, a pack of salad for me and some nice baby new potatoes but the rest was stuff I wouldn't normally buy with a short date.  When I added up the red sticker prices it just about came to £3.99 anyway so I would have been better off just shopping for myself and picking only the items we could eat quickly.  There was a pack of assorted ready prepared veg  which had already turned brown in places and a pack of strawberries which were mushy and mouldy.  They both went on the compost heap there and then 🤢

At the allotment we spotted a huge cooking apple still clinging to the tree which is already losing it's leaves for Autumn.   A bit of determination, willpower and team work sent the apple tumbling down into my eager hands 😁

Once home it became microwaved stewed apple with packet custard to accompany.....

.....a cheesy grilled mushroom with half a small tin of beans each

 Now THAT  is what I call frugal  as well as 3 of our 5 a day portions of fruit and veg! 😇

Thank you so much everyone for your good wishes on our anniversary,  we had a lovely day 😊

Stay safe everyone wherever in the world you happen to be x 

Going for Gold

 

Yesterday was our Golden Wedding Anniversary.  Where on earth has half a century gone? Our daughter bought us the mugs in the photo,  please note the wording on them.  G says "too true! "

We had always planned on treating ourselves to a river cruise for our 50th Anniversary but it was not meant to be...... so we went out to dinner with DD and her family to a nice pub in the village.  It was lovely and we popped a bottle of Prossecco to share when we got home.  One 6th of a bottle didn't do me any harm 😂

Take care everyone x

On Smart Meters

Our new home has smart meters.....and we were provided with a display thingy which has been sitting in a drawer until  yesterday when I decided to have a play.   This was triggered by a letter from the power provider asking me to register online and informing me that we are on the standard tariff which is bound to be expensive. The monitor was plug and go so hassle free to set up but it's a bit scary when you see energy consumption in real time 😱

When we woke up this morning this was the reading:

Last night it read:

I assume it is the combined gas and electricity cost but I'm not sure if it includes the standing charge. I would guess not, so need to watch consumption closely and stop G from boiling kettles of water for endless cups of tea which don't get drunk 🙄. We are on a standard tariff and have a dilemma.... do I try to change tariff now or wait for the first bill?  Martin Lewis says to 'do nothing' but I'm not sure. Meanwhile I'll try to keep useage as low as possible whilst I do a bit of research.   Does anyone know if the standing charge is taken into account in the figure quoted?

If useage over the year averages £2.00 per day the annual cost could be £730  How low can we go and still remain warm and clean 🤔?

We were called into the surgery at our old GP on Saturday to get our flu jabs.  I guess that will be the last time we visit there.  Next day I woke with with a headache and ached all over but by Monday felt perfectly fine.  How weird is that 😏

Stay safe everyone x

October Update!

Crikey, it's a week into October and a whole month since I last posted.  What a busy month (nay...manic month) it has been.  We finally moved out of our house on 21st September after a very stressful few months.  I won't go into the nitty gritty but on the Friday before we were expecting to move on the Tuesday I gave the solicitor an ultimatum: either we exchanged on the Friday and completed on the Tuesday or WE WERE PULLING OUT and forgetting the whole thing.  I fully expected the move to fail but the deal was pulled off at the very last minute.  So here we are at last 😃

As you can see from the 'before' shot at the last house......

...and the 'after' one at the new bungalow below, we are nowhere near as overlooked as we were.  The garden is flatter, bigger and, sadly, now a blank canvas once more.  We are planning what to do with it but it will have to wait until next Spring for any work to be done on it.  We are plumb tuckered out.

On the left hand side is our new garage which will become G's play area as he no longer has a shed 😅

Once again I have taken possession of the smaller bedroom.  Our Son in Law has not only put up a shelf for me ......
 

But he has bought me a small wardrobe which he and our lovely 14 yr old Grandson duly assembled and anchored to the wall for safety......

It's plenty big enough.  I don't have that many clothes and my chest of drawers is great for folded jumpers, nightwear and undies.

Whilst unpacking I found these flipflops which I had totally forgotten about.  I'm a sucker for a bit of animal print 😆

Take care everyone wherever in the world you happen to be.  I'll try not to leave it so long before my next post x