Blowing a Hooley & another kind of blow.....

Last year's basket 

Yesterday the weather was  absolutely foul.  It had been blowing a hooley all day and didn't let up at night either and it broke the main stem off my lovely Hellebore, leaving one slender stem remaining.  It might not survive for another year after all 😟 We went to bed listening to the wind howling and the spatter of heavy rain on the windows.  Despite the noise, I slept well for once and awoke to beautiful sunshine because the storm had blown itself out. It has been a day for ironing and flinging windows open to let in the Spring air !

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I keep putting off  writing a new budget.  I intended to do it today but, to be honest, I'm a bit scared to and keep procrastinating.  I'm just worried that the pension increase won't cover the increase in bills let alone food costs.

Sainsbury's has just dropped another spanner in the works too.  From April 7th (I think it is) the minimum order for home delivery will increase to £50 instead of the current £40, otherwise delivery will cost £7.50 (up from £7.00).  I can understand why they need to do that but our food budget is £55 per week and I really don't want to spend it all in one go.  I will need to shop more carefully and double  up the ordering of staples so that I can have deliveries every 2 weeks instead, and then we will have to drive to the store for the fresh stuff once a week.  There is always so much to tempt me instore. Aaarrggh 😒

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The one bit of good news is the car insurance which we managed to get down to £321.33 by going through the comparison site Confused.com  Once the policy kicks in, Gray will have access to a free Greggs coffee each month as well as a £20 shopping voucher.  If there is a Sainsburys one, he'll ask for that 😊 That's one thing sorted at least....

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Thanks so much for popping in.  Stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗

Making Ends Meet and Wasting Nothing

 We are quite lucky in our area that fuel prices have only risen by a penny or two per litre while some areas are reporting big increases, smacking of profiteering, due to the current world conflict.  As there wasn't much of a queue at the petrol station on Monday when we went to the post office to post some birthday cards, we took the opportunity to top up the car.  £20 worth of fuel should now last us about 4 weeks with a bit of luck.

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I fully expect food prices to rise rapidly once again, so this week I've doubled up on the delivery.  I received an email from Sainsbury's with a code for £14 off an order of £70 which was much too good to miss.  I've ordered extra frozen items like bags of blueberries and forest fruits, chips, fish, bread and bread rolls etc.  Also sugar, teabags, extra cheeses, grapes, bananas and satsumas, and long life milk.  A few extra tins for the cupboard eg beans, fruit and salmon too. The total came to just over £92 after discounts but I feel happier having restocked the fridge, freezer and cupboard.  

Are you buying extra groceries?

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When we were packing our stuff to leave the hotel I popped the leftover tea, hot chocolate and biscuits into my bag.  As we were leaving a day early anyway I felt justified in taking them with me 🤭

They will be enjoyed rather than wasted....

We have started getting notifications of increases in bills for the forthcoming year.  Rent, Council Tax etc and the car insurance is due this month too.  I really need to sit down and write a proper budget for the next 12 months to get an accurate picture of how much money we will have left to spend after bills are paid.

There are lots of birthdays in March as well as Easter 🐣 approaching.  An expensive month! I must get down to it as I'm getting a bit nervous about how we will be affected in the coming months.  As it is, the car insurance has rocketed from  £295 paid last year to a quote of £403 this year  😱 My gosh we need to do some serious research. 

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Thanks for popping in.  Do stay safe and well wherever you happen to be, 

Angie ❤️ 

Holiday Adventure and a Sad Realisation

 I mentioned in a previous post that we had booked a short break in the UK for March.  It was the first holiday for about 8 years and we were really looking forward to it.  We arrived at Holme Lacy, a Warner's hotel near Hereford on Monday lunchtime.  It has been our 'go to' hotel for a number of years, including for my 60th birthday (was it really 16 years ago??) when we went for an antiques break and met the expert Eric Knowles.  He is a lovely man 😊

Our first stop was, of course, the bar! A pint of Doom Bar for Gray and a small glass of wine for me.....

The Hotel has had a facelift in many areas including the creation of the 'pink room' for relaxing in, with comfy chairs and table service if needed....

The games room was lovely too with a pool table and shuffle board....

....and proper wooden boards for Monopoly and Scrabble, and a lovely chess table.....

There were two quizzes a day which we joyfully took part in and laughingly only scored around half marks 😂 Nonetheless, we enjoyed it.  

The food was hot, well cooked and plentiful although we much preferred the Market Kitchen buffet to the Bistro table service, and we partook of a cooked breakfast each morning. Absolutely, delicious !

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Our downfall was, as expected, sleeping in the same room for the first time in 8 years.  Neither of us sleep well and I'm often up in the early hours, maybe 2 -3am making a hot water bottle or a cup of tea. Gray snores and is very restless because of his neck problem.  We had booked a 4 night stay, Monday to Friday, but gave up on Wednesday evening and decided to cut it short by a day and return home on Thursday after breakfast.

The sad realisation is that it was to be our very last holiday ever 😭 Getting no sleep is no joke and it's simply not worth it.  Sad but true.

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Thanks for popping in.  Stay safe and well in our troubled world.

Love,

Angie 💗

Such a Treat!

 Post here over the last six months has been erratic and sluggish but I had a really lovely surprise last week.  The door bell gave it's cheerful chime and I opened to door to see a package on my porch wall.  Oooh books!  These had been sent to me by my lovely, kind blog buddy Gill 😀

Decisions, decisions......I think my first read will be The Last Dinner at Wisteria House followed by A Very French Affair but I'm looking forward to reading them all at some point as we seem to have very similar tastes in books.  I have enough to keep me reading for a couple of months at least😊

What are you reading at the moment?

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Thanks for popping in.  Stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗

First of March!

 Today is the first of March and the first day of meteorological Spring. Yes!! At last!  It has felt like an exceptionally long Winter but things should start to improve now.  Lighter mornings and longer days will be the norm from now on.  The garden is already waking up......

Take care and stay safe and well wherever you happen to be, 

Angie ❤️ 

Reaching the Century & Simple Pleasures....

 Another busy day today, this time we had errands to run in the village including dropping off another batch of cards at the shop.  It's always lovely to have a little chat with the staff who are friendly and welcoming each time I visit.  Today's cards (a sample below) bring the total up to 100 so far this year......

Afterwards, we drove the short distance to the park for a brisk walk in the fresh air, then homemade sandwiches were eaten in the car before consuming a welcome pot of tea in the warm cafe 😀 Simple pleasures....

What simple pleasures do you enjoy? Keep it clean please!! 😂

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Thanks for dropping by.  Do stay safe and well wherever you happen to be, 

Angie ❤️ 

Library Day & £2 Cinema Bargain

 It was library day yesterday and, despite my reserved book not having come in yet, we went anyway.  I took my own current book to read whilst drinking my free coffee and relaxing in a warm, comfortable library......

As luck would have it, I had received an email reminding me about the Odeon cinema's 'Silvers' performance on Tuesday afternoons.  This week it was The Choral, set in 1916 and starring Ralph Fiennes, Alun Armstrong, Mark Addy & Roger Allam (from Endeavor) to name but a few famous actors.  I booked immediately online.  For the princely sum of £2 each we got a ticket for the 1pm showing, a fully reclining seat!, a cup of instant coffee and a wrapped Biscoff biscuit to take in with us.  The film was lovely and the seats gave us plenty of room.  If I'm too close to the cinema screen I come out with a pounding headache so I had chosen the back row.  It was a lovely relaxing couple of hours.  We'll definitely go again soon.

It's been a long time since we sat in the back row of a cinema !😂

Today we have the Wednesday club and the theme for the speaker this time is glass production over the centuries. Glass.... another favourite of mine.  This time it will be £4 each with drink and biscuit included. We are having a very busy week!

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Thanks for popping in.  Do stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗