Free Toiletries From Boots....

I needed bubble bath and was also running out of handwash so took a trip to Boots in the next village in order to use my points.......

Bubble bath was 300 points

Carex Handwash 140 points

Dove Handwash 125 points 

Therefore 565 points used (59 left)

It was the ideal opportunity to pop into my favourite Hospice charity shop and ask if they wanted to take some of my handmade cards to sell. The manager was very enthusiastic and I've promised to make a selection and pop them in for him to see.  If he likes them, I'll donate as many as I have time to make this year.  That will be my new project!

We are still on track for a low food spend in January.  As the aim is to spend no more than £100 in cash , and I still have food in the fridge & freezer, I aim to have a Sainsbury's delivery of staples and fresh stuff next week.  The cap has been set at £50 for this order, which will leave another £50 max at the end of the month if we need it.

Graham also had over £8 in Nectar points left after the first shop, and they have gifted him another 250 FREE points worth £1.25 via the App, so he now has another lovely £10 to spend during the month 😁 This will come in handy week after next for topping up 👍

Nectar points spent:  Graham £10.00     Angie £22.50

Boots points 565

Cash spent:  77p

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

Angie 💗

Is There an Egg Shortage? And Traceability.....

We fancied poached eggs for tea yesterday and I was idly reading the egg box whilst waiting for the water to boil.....

Wow! White eggs!  I haven't seen any of those in a long while......

Inside the box is a lot of information on the markings on the shells.

O = organic

1= Free Range

2=Barn eggs

UK =origin

There is also an ID number, in this case 23064 which you can use to trace the actual source......

Wow! Who knew??

I wondered about the sudden change from the usual brown eggs to white ones and whether or not it's related to the recent bird flu outbreak. Perhaps the farmer has had to replace his flock with a new breed of hens?  Anyway, they had lovely golden yolks and tasted delicious...

I hope you are all keeping warm in this very cold and icy spell.  It was -4C last night, obviously nowhere near as cold as in Scotland, but I was glad of my dressing gown laid over the bed and my hot water bottle to cuddle up to.

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

Angie 💗

Second January Shop, and a Busy Sunday

Sunday turned out to be extremely cold, with alternate snow and showers of rain, so we stayed indoors as much as possible.  It was half price electricity day so the washer, dishwasher and tumble dryer came into play.  I also cooked lunch in the oven making roast potatoes, roast parsnips and onion rings which we ate with the last of the carrots from Christmas, some sprouts from the allotment, and some peas for protein, topped with vegetarian gravy.  Delicious!

Whilst the oven was on, I made flapjacks with the last of the porridge oats and a bit of dried fruit.  Oops....someone had to test them for quality 😉

 Other than feeding the birds and dealing with the tumble dryer, which is in the garage, we stayed in the warm.

I did manage to get a bit of cardmaking done, luckily; after finishing chores on Saturday afternoon and then again after 3pm on Sunday.  I'll share my makes in another post.

Today we decided to do our shop for the week as the snow had melted and there was just drizzle.  It's forecast for more snow later in the week and we didn't want to wait and then miss the chance to go out.  This is what we bought ......

It came to a total of £22.57  I had Nectar points worth £22.50 so the shopping came to 7p in cash 👍 I didn't intend to buy bread but this loaf was just 40p, too good to miss.  I've put it into the freezer and can make bread pudding later in the month......

We ate the stir fry for lunch to warm us up and tonight I will be making cider veggie hotpot using the onion, broccoli, one leek and some carrots ( I already have potatoes and cheese) which will serve 4 portions.  That's dinner/tea for 2 days sorted 👍😁

 We will share the veg biryani and naan bread on another day......

Nectar points spent:  Graham £10.00     Angie £22.50

Cash spent:  77p

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

Angie 💗

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 💗