First Book of 2025, A Bit of Colour & Crafting Mojo

I had received £10 birthday money in a card from my friend in November, which I hadn't spent, so just before Christmas I treated myself to the new Richard Osman book from the supermarket. I'd reserved it at the library but was still about 153rd in the queue and didn't want to wait a year or more to read it!  So I splurged £12 for my own copy and kept it back for the new year.  I read the first couple of chapters in bed last night and I really like it 😀

I'm a bit short of reading matter at the moment.  I've reserved The Long Winter at the library and am 3rd in the queue so might get that soon but other than that I will have to re-read books I already have.  The weather forecast is for snow this weekend so I will need something to read snuggled up on the sofa.....

It's was flipping freezing yesterday too.  We drove to our Daughter's house to collect something and it was 0.5C on the car display ❄❄

She made us a lovely mug of tea and offered us a pasta bake lunch.  How could we refuse?  It saved us cooking a meal at home last night and we had cheese toasties instead, using up the stale bread 😉

One thing that cheered us up yesterday was the sight of our Hellibores in flower.....

 I hope the frost doesn't ruin them..... 

I've really been neglecting my crafting over the last year.  I haven't made a single card, done any cross stitch, knitting or feltwork for the whole of 2023.  Not a bit of it and I'm beginning to feel the need to get creative again.  I hope to try some cardmaking today (Saturday) but it depends on whether or not Graham finds something to do by himself.  If I keep getting interrupted I will get frustrated and annoyed.  I really want to relax a bit....no....NEED to relax a bit....

Wish me luck!

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

Angie 💗

A Whole New Month

When I turned over the calendar I was met by a shockingly blank sheet of paper.  What to do with the month?  No idea yet. I'll begin by writing up birthdays, of which there are two this month.  Graham will be 75 on the 9th and my Brother-in-Law will be 85 on the 16th.  We have 2 club afternoons to go to in the next village along, and my haircut on 13th.

There...that's not so scary.....😊

I bought the £3 calendar from a local charity, Action Heart, so the illustrations are all local views.  January's photo is of Highgate Common which Gray and I used to visit in our youth as it was free!  We had very little money when we were 18 too.......

Maybe that's a place we could drive to now.  It's not all that far but I know that access is far more restricted now than when we were young.  We could drive our mini van right onto the common and walk up into the hills.  Sadly, not any more. How things change....

What sorts of thing did you do in your youth which you can't do now?

Right....let 2025 begin! 

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

Angie 💗

First Shopping Trip of 2025

On new year's day we decided to do a small Sainsbury's shop as Wednesday is our usual 'big shop' day anyway.   We compared prices and offers on our Nectar Apps and Graham had better deals, so we agreed to use his points and keep mine for next week. This is what we bought....

I'm ashamed to say that a box of mince pies fell into the trolley as they were reduced to 42p a box, down from £1.70  If it had been left to Gray he would have spent most of his points stocking up with them!  Sanity returned and we stuck at one box 👀

The total cost was £10.70 so, after using £10 worth of points, we had to part with just 70p in cash.....

This still leaves £8.53 to spend........

Nectar points spent:  Graham £10.00     Angie £0.00

Cash spent:  70p

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

Angie 💗

Eating Frugally & Bargain Buys

Welcome  to 2025!

I can't believe that today is the first day of 2025.  A quarter of a century since the millennium  😱 How the blazes did that happen??? It's the first day of my shopping challenge too. 

On Monday, to start off our eating from stores challenge I rummaged in the garage freezer and found some pies which we had bought for pence from Sainsbury's on Christmas eve.  I thought I had photographed them but the pic has disappeared into space 👀

Anyway, there was a steak pie for Gray (reduced to 50p) and I had to abandon my principles and have a chicken and mushroom one (reduced to 35p)  To be fair, there was very little chicken in it, mainly mushrooms and white sauce.  I wouldn't normally buy these but the price had drawn me in.  There was also some carrot and potato mash costing 20p.  And I did manage to photograph that! ......

With the last 4 sprouts and the remaining petit pois from Boxing Day it turned into a decent meal, not very healthy really but tasty and absolutely frugal with the pies heated up in the air fryer and the mash microwaved.   This was mine.....

 On our Christmas Eve Sainsbury's trip we snapped up a lot of stuff which was heavily reduced and it will be making an appearance at some point this month.  All will be revealed but don't get too excited 😂 I really wish now that I had written a garage freezer inventory because meals this month will be a bit of a lucky dip 😖

Day 2 (New Year's Eve)

Gray offered to cook lunch so I happily took up his offer......

I don't usually eat bacon but it was so crisp that I couldn't resist a couple of slices of streaky left over from the pigs in blankets, a poached egg (note to self: no more left so add to the shopping list) half a small tin of baked beans, mushrooms and a slice of toast.  It was deliciously filling 😜and that left homemade vegetable soup for our evening meal. Yum!

I weighed myself this morning and I haven't put on a single ounce over Christmas, thankfully.  It would be lovely if I could lose a few pounds over the month of January though.  I feel a bit podged so more fruit and veg and fewer carbs will be consumed if I can manage it within the challenge.

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

Angie 💗