Acts of Kindness

Evening all and hope you are well, safe and tucked up nice and warm. It is horrible, rainy and blustery where I live and I am now in for the night !
I haven't felt much like blogging lately. I feel I haven't got anything to say or that anyone would want to read. I am still reading other blogs but like other areas in real life I feel lacking in enthusiasm. Maybe its the winter blues but today I was perked up a little by two acts of unexpected kindness. First was a gift from a work colleague. A dress , worn once, that she has no use for and wondered if I may like it. I tried it on at home and it looks OK. It is not one that I would have picked up off the peg but trying it on ,it does look OK. Maybe I should broaden my horizons and try different things. That said I rarely go clothes shopping as I find it such a bore and a chore, but now I have a nice new outfit. If I could shed a pound or two ( or ten) it would look even better.
Second unexpected act of kindness was a card through the post with some photographs in. Recently a great uncle of mine passed away whom I only met once or twice many years ago. A relative ,who I don't see often, went to the funeral and was given some photographs by my uncles widow. The relative copied the photos and sent me a copy. The pictures were of my great grandparents who died long before I was born. One photo was of my great grandfather in his World War One uniform, the other of my great grandmother looking smart in her coat and hat, maybe in the 1930's?  I had never seen a picture of them before today and I was really surprised to receive the card .I will be penning a thank you letter later on this evening. Bye for now x

New phone

Good afternoon and welcome to two new followers Kerry and Monica Luis, thank you both for joining.

My mobile phone is about five years old. It was my husbands before mine and has worked well until about a week ago. The screen keeps disappearing and going all strange I decided it was time to replace it. Now I am not fussed about gadgets and certainly not bothered about I Phones etc , all  I need is to be able to make a call and send text messages. I am also keeping my existing £5 Virgin simcard which gives me free calls to other Virgin mobiles, 100 free minutes and unlimited text messages. I can go on the Internet at 30p a time but I never do. My old phone was a basic Nokia and suited me fine for a long time. I looked on line at various phones but I wanted one with digits to press and not a touch screen, again I'm not into the gadget thing so not bothered about touchscreen. We went into Tesco last night and I bought one off the shelf for £40. It is a Nokia handset ,sim free and Virgin compatible, with a more modern QWERTY keyboard. I'm really not fussed about Facebook,Twitter and other social apps to be with me 24/7 as I carry my phone around and I don't see the point of expensive phones and contracts. So today I am having a play and finding out how the new phone works. All my contacts have been successfully transferred over so hopefully no one has been left behind on the old phone. TTFNx

Hello :-)

Good evening and welcome to my new follower Cornish Claire, thanks for joining.

I haven't felt much like blogging lately. I was in America last week , in New York and came back just before the storm hit. Its hard to chat about 'your good time' when a day or two later everything is in chaos and people have been killed.

Bryallen from the Frugal Graduate blog asked me some questions so here are the answers ;
1. If you were the prime minister/president for the day, what would you change?
Without sounding too political , I would try and make the UK a better and fairer place for all those hard working ,decent , law abiding citizens who have payed into the system all their lives.

2. Do you have a nickname? What is it?
Nicknames vary according to my husbands mood !

3. Why do you blog? (Stolen from Pamela!)
Because I enjoy it ( most of the time )

4. What was the last film you saw and was it any good?
Men in Black 3 on the flight and it was OK.

5. What is your favourite thing about yourself?
I can sleep on a clothes line !

6. What was the first CD/tape/record/mp3 (whatever it was) you ever bought?
A record by Chas & Dave, 'Margate ' - how embarrassing !

7. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?
America, everytime :-)

8. How do you get to work?
Car

9. How would you spend your last day on Earth?
With my loved ones.

10. What was your first job?
At fast food outlet.

11. Where is your favourite place
Home :-)

Planning a weekend away

Evening folks. I mentioned a few weeks ago my daughter is going on a school trip to Wales next year, she goes from Friday until Sunday evening so we have the weekend to ourselves. It occurred to me that we could go away without the need for a babysitter which is a rare opportunity. Since my daughter has been born I have only had one weekend away when I was 30. A friend of mine was selling the benefits of time away , alone, with your spouse. Its not something we have ever done really but another friend in the conversation added that it is an annual thing for them and they really enjoy it. But for us it is time,money , babysitting etc that has contributed to us not doing it, in fact I can't really say I have ever given it much thought until recently. So what we intend to do is wave our daughter off at school on the Friday morning and then set off ourselves. We love North Wales but haven't been for a while. We looked into staying at a Premier Inn which for two nights on the saver rate was in excess of £80, not bad but not cheap either. Then I looked by chance at Travelodge. I found one 4 miles away from my chosen location but to my delight a family room for the two nights worked out at £38 ! Now I know it is Stopober but I couldn't let the weekend away for £38 slip away so I booked it up, with real money all bought and paid for. We will go to some of our favourite places, Conwy, Llandudno, Betws y Coed and of course Snowdonia. We still have yet to venture over to Angelsey so we may get chance to do that this time round. Its a part of the world that we really enjoy so we are looking forward to it.

Free M&S Vouchers

When I moved house I took advantage of some offers with the various insurance companies for the new policies that we needed. We needed buildings and contents, life and decreasing term assurance policies. I ended up with £150 in M&S vouchers which after the qualifying three month wait came through the post recently. The initial plan was to buy lounge curtains, they were £218 ( for two pairs ) which minus £150 left us with £68 of real money to pay. After waiting patiently for the three months to receive the vouchers through, I was a little bit peeved to find the curtains had been discontinued in the colour I wanted. Then a discussion with a colleague about tatty bed linen, I realised I could renew mine with the vouchers. I want to get a new duvet, pillows , duvet set and bed linen. I have priced it up what I want and it comes to £157, so only £7 of cash to pay out. I know that M&S isn't cheap but it is for free after all and I think sleep would be a good investment to make. My duvet is getting a bit thin now , I cannot even remember when I bought it. I may just keep that in reserve and spend this winter under a nice new toasty one. Had I have thought of this a fortnight ago , I could have used the 20% off coupon I was given when I bought my new jeans. My mom tells me M&S often send this coupons through so I am going to hang fire and buy the linen when the offer is on or failing that maybe in the New Year Sales. I've had my current linen so long a few more weeks to wait won't hurt. TTFN x

Piggy goes back to college, for free !

Hello readers. Sometime ago my local council was advertising free GCSE Maths & English for anyone who wanted to improve their grade or who had'nt got the qualification. I did do my GCSE's years ago at school and whilst I got good grades in the other subjects, Maths was'nt my strong point. Combined with the distraction of friends messing about and the teacher not really engaging us, I got a grade D. I did resit and got another D ( at least I am consistent !) The years have passed and I always wondered if it was a true grade, was it a real reflection of my capability or could I have done better ? So when I saw the advert I jumped at the chance to take the course again. I want to improve my grade, or at least try my best too, but more importantly try and understand or help my daughter with her Maths homework. I went for a taster in the summer and signed up. We all had to introduce ourselves and explain why we wanted to do the course. I gave my reasons like everyone else. At the end , the tutor was talking to me when the others had gone and said that she commended my efforts to improve my grade and that how she thought it was great that I was willing to go through the course to help my daughter and set a good example to better myself and to encourage learning. I was quite touched by what she said and I am not the type of person who fishes for compliments , nevertheless I was encouraged by her positivity. For the last three weeks I have attended an induction, and yesterday I began my regular class. I was really pleased to discover that I had the same tutor from the summer taster session. We are a class of 5 adults in the session and the tutor explained things really well. The book we used in the session I have seen on eBay for 99p so I am going to get my own copy. So here I am getting a free course via my council and so far so good.I must dash now as I have homework to do ! TTFN x

Yummy Spag Bol and Impromptu Treacle pud

I've had such a delicious meal tonight, I could eat it all over again and it was tasty and cheap. I have been using some of Tescos Everyday range and now have converted to some items on a regular basis. Heres what I used all from the freezer or the cupboard;

Waitrose mince £1.39 400g - freezer
Onion and Mushrooms
Tesco Everyday beef stock cube 10p per pack - I think there are 10 in a pack ! so 1p each
Garlic granules - cupboard
Salt & pepper - cupboard
Tesco Everyday chopped tomatoes 30p tin - cupboard
Pinch of chili powder - cupboard
Pinch of Tesco Everyday mixed herbs - 9p pot !- cupboard
Half a packet of Tesco Everyday Spaghetti - 24p packet ! - cupboard
Tesco Everyday Garlic baguette - 32p - freezer
And lastly a splosh of red wine - was a gift , again from the cupboard
Grated hard cheese - 59p from Lidl- cupboard

For pudding we had some of my weekend Madeira cake, I lay the slices fat side down and drizzled some golden syrup on the top and left in the oven whilst we ate the Spag Bol. We had some custard with the sponge and it was delicious, I would even go so far as to say tastier than some restaurant sweets we have had in the past. If I ever do Come Dine with me, that is the pudding I will serve up.  I have said before I can be a greedy pig but I could literally eat it all again.

I am enjoying making the meals just lately. Its such a buzz when they turn out well, empty plates, full tummies and smiley faces.