A Winter Wonderland!

A heavy snowfall overnight meant that I awoke to a Winter wonderland yesterday.  I needed potatoes so decided to clear the car of snow and pop into town.  No way!  Beneath the snow was a heavy layer of impenetrable frost....

Instead, I trecked (very slowly and gingerly) into the village to buy some (overpriced) spuds and spent the day pottering, cleaning and watching some Stargate SG-1 I had recorded :) (I LOVE that series!)  By 3pm the sun had melted the snow on the paths so I went back to the car which was, by now, also pretty clear and decided on the spur of the moment to pop into town after all.  The main roads had been gritted and were clear so I managed to get to Mr M easily.   I bought lots of fresh veg and salad stuff as well as a few staples like butter, flour, milk and bottled water.

I'm so glad I did because the snow began to fall again in the early hours of this morning and it's sticking.  OH has gone to work as you can see from the footprints....

Heaven knows when he will get back.  He's just texted to say that the main roads are ungritted and pretty ropey.  I just hope the gritters will be out later on or OH could be sleeping at 'You Can Do It' ...lol...

There will be no usual 'big shop' tomorrow by the look of it but I have the makings of several meals.  Tonight will be Quorn cottage pie & veg (4 servings) then we can have:

Quorn Lasagne (4 servings),
Fish, chips and peas
Vegetable soup
Jacket potatoes (with cheese or beans)
Beans on toast
Egg on toast etc
So we won't starve.

This afternoon I will make a large fruit cake and maybe some more of the golden syrup cookies I made yesterday. The recipe is from The Hairy Bikers 'mother knows best' cookbook page 201. They are really quick and easy to make and no more than 10 minutes in the oven. 

We are due an LPG top up but I have checked the gauge and the tank is 45% full so we can last up to 3 weeks if we have to, although I really, really want the tank full before Christmas in case we have more snow later.  That's one disadvantage of not being on mains gas.  You can live on a knife edge in Winter in case the gas runs out, then no heating and no hot water! We have an electric fire in the living room so I can turn down the heating and stay in one room until this evening.  Baking will warm the kitchen up nicely and the oven is electric so no LPG wasted there.

Do you have snow? Are you well prepared?

Take care and thanks so much for popping in x

Christmas Bonus...Yay!

Thank you to everyone who left a comment on my last post.  It seems I am not alone in being organised this year.  Many of you are too, as well as being uber-frugal. It really does reduce stress levels when you begin early because you are spreading the cost as well as giving you time to seek out reductions in price.

I wanted to add to the GC's gift bags ( I like to give a well stuffed one!) so made these....

The fairy one is much prettier than it appears in the photo as the images were die cut from purple mirri card.  I have attached a sticker on the back with a special message of love for each child.

Our December pensions have been paid into the bank along with the Government Christmas bonus of £10 each...Yay!  Now what to spend it on?  OH was desperate for a warm top so his has gone on this Slazenger fleece @ £9.50   I just rang him to see where he is (he went to the village for some bread over an hour ago) and he was in the pub.  No surprise where his 50p change has gone then :)

My £10 is still in my purse.  I intend to ponder awhile before I treat myself and just enjoy knowing it's in there.  The Christmas bonus has remained unchanged for decades, I can remember my mum & dad getting £10 each years ago. My dad passed away in 1989! The actual buying power of the bonus has dropped dramatically but I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth :)

When I woke up this morning the world had changed to a very pretty white one.  It's still snowing heavily but I feel so lucky to be nice and warm and with fairly full cupboards.  Many people are not so lucky.  If I can get out tomorrow I intend to add a bit extra to the food bank box.

Thanks so much for popping in everyone.  Take care x

December Preparations

December already! The shops are full of lights, Christmas music and lovely Christmassy gifts.  The weather is just the opposite; dull, dismal and moist this morning, but I don't care.  Colourful flashing lights are on our Forsythia bush just outside the study window, cards have started to arrive and I have put up minimal decorations in the living room.  We gave up having a tree when we moved to the bungalow.  I can't stand the dust it creates (or dropped needles if it's real) and you can't clean properly for weeks but I do need a bit of bling and lights!

My cards have been written.  Some have been posted (to friends who'll be away in Spain for Christmas) and my gifts have been wrapped (in paper bought with Nectar points and using labels and bows left from last year).  I totted up what has been spent on gifts this year.  The total value of bought gifts (if bought at marked prices) is £273.50 but the actual cash spent was £128.50 I'm really pleased with all the savings.  I counted gifts bought with Boots and Nectar points as being free.  In addition, cash popped into children's cards came to £30 therefore a total outlay of £158.50 has been made (which I saved for all year)  I must admit, I've made a few gifts too but I think everyone has something they will like and we will begin the new year without having anything on a credit card!

I have begun to fill the freezer with goodies, am stockpiling tinned stuff (buying a little extra each week within budget) and it goes without saying that I am dropping stuff into the Food Bank trolley too.  I am READY!!

How are you all doing? Any more early birds out there?

Have a lovely day and thanks everso for popping in x

Checkout Chuckle

Sorry for being absent for so long but life has been getting in the way in a BIG way.  I can't explain in a public blog but we have had bereavements, one of which shocked me to the core.  I am still devastated  but need to get back to normality....

I have just read Ilona's fantastic Black Friday blog post (Mean Queen) and agree with every word she says.  I too ignore Black Friday, which has somehow turned into a whole week of 'bargains' which I neither want, need nor can afford.  I am deleting Black Friday emails unread so that I am not tempted, any flyers through the letterbox go straight into recycling.  I only intend to buy carefully planned Christmas gifts.  So far I am well within my budget and, in the main, have finished my gift shopping.  All that remains is to stock the fridge and freezer so that we are not caught out by any really bad weather.  We will have some Christmas treats too.

On a different note (sorry about the pun!) I hate the new polymer notes, do you? When I did the 'big shop' at Mr M's on Monday I handed over what I thought was £40 only to be handed back £10 as two notes had stuck together.  I thanked the checkout assistant profusely for her honesty just as she handed me a till-printed coupon for a free eye test at Specsavers!! 'Nuff said!  We both rolled about laughing....

Take care everyone and stay warm x

Slow Cooker Bread Test

Marlene, from Simple Living blog mentioned having made bread in the slow cooker.  As my normal efforts are pretty dire I thought I would have a go.  I used 500g flour and for the first 5 minutes kneaded the dough in the big mixer.  A further 5 minutes by hand, then popped in the slow cooker lined with baking parchment (and on the high setting).....

After 45 minutes it had risen dramatically....

After 2 hours it looked like this...

I turned it over as the base was getting crisp and I wanted to brown the top a bit. A further 20 minutes and it was ready....
It was surprisingly tasty with soup, a bit crumbly but delicious and it made lovely toast served with a bit of real butter the next day.  Not a bit was wasted so I'll definitely try it again, maybe made with oil instead of butter and with a little bit less sugar.

Whilst the bread was cooking I found a ready rolled sheet of puff pastry which needed using up so I made pizza slice with a base of chilli tomato puree, onion, green pepper, tomatoes, feta and a sprinkling of reduced herbs. This was my half .....

The remainder of the pastry made f''Eccles cakes (fake Eccles :) for OH's munchy attacks....

Have a lovely day everyone x

The Best Laid Plans....

Thank you all for the good wishes yesterday.  It seems that many good women are born in November or under the strong sign of Scorpio :)

Well, yesterday didn't turn out to be the happy day we planned.  It was Son-in-Law's 50th birthday on the day too (which was why we were planning on having a lovely meal together) but he had a phone call to say that his father, who was in hospital, had taken a turn for the worse.  He passed away at 7.55am just before the family got there, so birthday celebrations were the last thing on SIL's mind.  I felt very restless and fidgety so OH took us off for a drive in the car.  We pushed SIL's cards through the door and stopped in the village for a pot of tea and a teacake on the way back.
Later on I had a text to say that the birthday meal was still on as the family needed to eat anyway but on arrival at the restaurant we discovered that the kitchen had no gas so couldn't prepare any food! For goodness sake what a day.  DD quickly rang around to find a nearby pub which had a table free and we did eventually eat together albeit a bit more sombrely than we had intended.  I didn't even fancy a glass of wine, I just had some water.  Now that's a novelty!!

I don't envy DD & family the next couple of weeks.  There's a heck of a lot of sorting out to do and already 'Big Sis' is being bossy, martyred and demanding all the sympathy....sigh....

End of BST

Since the clocks went back an hour at the end of British Summer Time, the nights are coming earlier and the mornings are colder and misty.  We had a bit of frost yesterday morning and the fog was quite thick at 8pm last night whilst driving home.  Winter is on it's way!  Janice from Jan's Jabber blog was expecting their first snowfall in Alberta Canada.  I love to see the first snowfall but get fed up quite quickly if I have to venture out in it.  I need to make sure the cupboards are full of useful stuff to make quick meals from...just in case....

Do you like snow? Or is it a pain in the butt?

Stay warm and have a lovely day wherever you happen to be x

Another Milestone & A Bargain

Crikey... November 1st.... another new month and a step closer to Christmas.  For me it's a special day because....

I have stopped counting the years (whispers 68 of them!) and I'm just counting the joys instead. I've received some wonderful cards and OH is treating me to a meal out tonight with DD and her family and tomorrow night I'll be seeing my lovely brother & his wife too.  We have eaten home prepared meals from the freezer on Monday & Tuesday so no real cooking until Friday.  Now that's what I call a birthday treat!!

We popped out to buy fuel yesterday and whilst at Sainsbugs I used some of my Nectar points on wine for Christmas.  They had an offer on of 25% off 6 bottles, which I was happy to take advantage of :) so, by using £22.50 worth of points, 6 bottles cost me the princely sum of 82p  They will not be drunk before Christmas and one or two might be given as gifts, repeat....they will NOT be drunk before Christmas, they will NOT be drunk before Christmas :)

Have a lovely day everyone and thanks so much for popping in x