September Goodies

Hello and welcome to my new follower Bryallen, thanks for stopping by.

The last two weeks have been so hectic and I am well and truly cream crackered !! I thought I would share with you tonight some of my recent acquisitions that I picked up over the last few weeks,

This is my favourite, a gold lidded pot that now lives on the mantel piece and houses odd little things. I got it at the church table top sale for the grand price of 50p. I think it has an exotic look about it but in fact it is a high street piece, with the M&S price tag of £6 still on the bottom.

Last week the paper bag on the left hand side was pushed through the letter box. We had to put it on the doorstep the following day if we wanted a free box of cereal worth £2.49. The cereal is nice, tastes even nicer when its free !

A new Playtex bra found in the oddment bin in a department store, £2.50 originally £22.50. The colour is not the best , its called antique rose which I would describe as boil wash pink ! But for £2.50 can't complain.

Clark's Shumagic polish 50p each reduced from £2.50. This goes on really well and is a quality shoe polish. Not a huge choice of colours but I picked up navy and brown. I have a pair of 'well loved' brown winter boots that I will be treating to some Shumagic very soon.

That's all for now. Have you picked up any bargains lately ?

School Trip; Time to start saving

Tonight's meeting was 'Meet the Teacher'. My daughters school do this each year in September and they talk you through the class work for the year and anything else that you may need to know. The teacher announced that the children will be going away for a residential break in June 2012 ,over three nights in Shropshire. It sounds really good , lots of fun activities and no doubt they will all have a fabulous time away from home. The trip will cost approx £160 which includes food, accommodation,transport,insurance and all the activities, the final cost will be confirmed in a meeting next month. So it looks like I will be starting a savings pot for this trip.

Stressful September

Hi Folks. Everything in my world is chaotic at the moment and I have no routine and things are very disorganised. Meals and exercise have gone completely out of the window ! We have spent the last week (and also next week) out nearly each night looking at senior schools. My head is buzzing with all the rules and regulations and I will be glad when the preference form has gone in. I am finding it to be very stressful indeed. These open evenings have played havoc with our evening routine, most open evenings are 6.30 to 9pm so you eat either very early or very late. By the time I get home with a head full of school facts, its too dark and late to go walking. All of this is coupled with some school events at primary school and tonight is our only 'night off' for a fortnight. I am going to have a relaxing bath shortly and settle down to watch Downton Abbey, I'm sure that the Dowager Countess Grantham never had these problems !

Nearly There !!

I have just made another payment towards the credit card, the balance now is £201 !!! I am so excited that it is nearly all gone. I had a bit of luck last month. I read the meters and promptly rang the readings through. Usually I tend to ignore the estimations and keep paying the monthly bill, how stupid is that ! Anyway we had overpaid by £166 which they refunded us within a few days. Now I know that energy costs are rising and I could have left the money to act as a buffer , should I need it later, but I wanted the money now to pay towards the credit card. To get rid of that is our top priority. Once that silly card has gone , we can start saving towards other things with our 'own' money. Money that is ours to do with what we want and not to be handed to some corporate giant on a designated day each month. On a lighter note, my daughter has just come home from school and has found £1 along the way. She gave it to me but I gave it her back and told her to put it in the piggy bank.

Walkies !!

Good Evening everyone and hello to my new follower magsw_20.

I have just gotten back from our evening walk. It is now something which we have incorporated into our daily routine. Even though it is dark and chilly we still go, it takes less than half an hour and its good to blow the cobwebs away. Last night we were walking and my daughter was cycling alongside on her bike. We passed two little old ladies, walking arm in arm each with a walking stick. As we walked past , one lady called out to us and said ' I wish I was your age again taking my girl out for a walk'. It makes you realise that you are not always going to be this young, fit and healthy. More so your children are not going to be young forever so you should get out there are enjoy the simple pleasures while you can.

£5 Gift for a Friend

Welcome to new followers mrsneville999 and daisychain19.

I like to give gifts but I am conscious nowadays of how much I spend as it can be easy to get carried away. It was my friends birthday recently and I had been buying and accumulating things to give as a little box of goodies that she likes. My friend likes nice products but they are out of my price range so when I saw some Champneys reduced at Sainsburys I snapped them up. I bought a hand wash and shower gel for £2 each which should have been £5 each. I also bought a small bottle of vino for £1 and they all fitted nicely inside a little box I had. The box was actually a Body Shop gift box that I was given last Christmas with their products in, which was too nice to throw away. I then wrapped it up with a nice bow and put it in a gift bag, again what I had received previously. I was pleased with my little gift.I think it looks a little different and is more personal, what do you think ?

I have internet !!

Hello and welcome to my new follower Gill. I am excited as I have my Internet sorted and I am back with it. I have ended up changing provider and everything was sorted today. I have logged onto my email and I have 230 emails to read !! I am going to catch up over the weekend, read my emails, other peoples blogs and generally get up straight. Its amazing how much the Internet affects our daily life and how we take it for granted. Over the last fortnight I've had to stop and think about things, normally I'd look it up on the net but I couldn't and it seemed really restrictive. I even had to go into the branch and get a paper mini statement, how outdated does that seem now ! Luckily no nasty surprises on the finance front, I like to check the bank accounts each day to keep on top of things. Anyway I will carry on reading my emails and blog something very soon. Bye for Now :-)

Hello and Welcome.

Hi there. Still having problems with my Internet, we are expecting a call today at 10.30 from the provider...hmmmm.. Anyway catching a sneaky peak on someone elses Internet and was able to view my followers today. Welcome to the new followers who are Hardup Hester, Poppy, Magsmcc, Jane & Chris, aurora.bent and last but least n.salkeld. I hope to be blogging again very soon. I've found it very weird not to be able to log on the net each day, I hadn't checked my bank account for a while and after recent fraudulent activities I was a bit concerned, but all is well thankfully. I have been managing to incorporate more exercise into my daily routine, we have been going out each evening after tea for a 20 minute walk. I have found this quite easy to fit in but the weather is OK at the moment, I don't know if I will feel as eager when snow is on the ground !! See you soon

I'm not AWOL !!!!

Hi, sorry for the recent absence. First I had problems with blogger then I've had problems with my broadband at home. I hope to be back to normal service very soon !!!

What we spent in 2001 !!!!

When my daughter was born 10 years ago, I did an ' On this Day' record for her to look back on. I got a Times newspaper on the day she was born but I also recorded some things as an insight into life in 2001. I came across this recently and thought I would share with you some figures from August 2001.

This is what we paid for things back then !!!

Pint of beer £1.91
Warburtons loaf 72p
Times Newspaper 40p
First class stamp 26p
Pint of Milk 28p
Litre of Petrol 78.9p
Variable Mortgage Rate 6.99% ( Natwest)
Brand new Ford Ka £6960
US Dollar was $1.37 to the £1

UK number one record was Eternal Flame by Atomic Kitten

Flight from London to New York ( British Airways) was £523

I have also noted the prices for same items for 2011, and I think I will do it again in 2021. I like history and I find things fascinating from 'how we used to live'. |If only we could get petrol back to 78.9p a litre, what do you think ?