Happy New Year

New years makes me sad,so im going to bed before midnight,

I always thing that's another year that i haven't had my mum and dad...

2011 has been a bad year for us ,this recession has dragged us down and work isn't looking good for oh in new year.

I have achieved alot on the debt busting front and hopefully 2012 should be the year all loans are paid off.I have learnt alot on being frugal and aim to step it up a gear in the new year.

Hope you all have a wonderful evening if you are celebrating and wishing you all a happy and healthy 2012

and a huge thank you to all you wonderful people that read my ramblings and make comments.

Evening out

One of our Christmas presents from my youngest was a 3 course meal for 2 at a local restaurant.She booked it for herself as well from a website with deals kind of like Groupon.

We went tonight and it was amazing and cost us 70 p plus a couple of drinks.
I had Brie for starters,everyone else had mushrooms.
Burger for mains and hot fudge brownie for pudding.

It was lovely and we had a lovely evening

Back to work

Today was my first day back after Christmas...
Christmas now seems an age ago and I'm going to take the tree down tomorrow (bah humbug i here you say)

My first clean today was for one of my favourite customers....she went away for Christmas and came back to be told and see she had been burgled again,2nd time in 6 months. Not much taken this time but damage done. Scum that's what they are, she has MS and has enough problems without them adding to them.

2nd clean ,lovely as well and i was allowed to finally give her baby a cuddle hes about 8 weeks now and delightful full of smiles.
Then i went to my sons for a cuppa.

Home and put my ad on Gumtree again and also one for my husband,within minutes i had a call and I'm going to see them tomorrow.FQ you will be proud of me...I'm doing whatever i can to bring more money in.

Debts you will be gone..

by the way do any of you clever people know if ham ( joint) can be frozen once cooked.?

Spoke to soon

I had to take my daughter to her boyfriends this evening ( why he couldn't pick her up i don't know)

Well after i dropped her off and because i literally had to pass Tesco i decided to see if they had any reductions.Well i struck gold.
i paid   £4.57  for all of it.

My 2 freezers are full now, wouldn't it be great if you could time it right all the time. The fish will definitely help with our usual New years resolution of eating healthier.

Last day of Holidays

My last day of the Christmas Holidays I'm back to work tomorrow.

This morning my daughter had to go back up to the hospital for her ankle.

1st Fracture clinic.

2nd xray with cast on

3rd back to fracture clinic

4th plaster room

5th xray with new cast on

and lastly back to fracture clinic.

We were told that hopefully her ankle has now in a better position ,her new cast is smaller in thickness but still not a walking cast so she still cant stand on it.We go back a week today for more xrays and to see if she needs pins put in her ankle (ouch)

This afternoon we went to supermarket to see if we could get any good reductions ,15p off an item is not a good reduction so we left empty handed.

Took something back for a refund and then home.

Had a phone call at 5.45 pm this evening to say we hadn't made the required payments on my husbands van loan.I was pleased that i now log every payment i make as it turns out that a payment i made 2 weeks ago at the bank has not reached them.I have proof so its not a problem but just annoying.

As i have said before since Jan i do something called PAD pay a debt a day...so every morning i pay a £1 to each debt we have , this is on top of my normal monthly payment.This suits me and means i can get things paid off quicker.The chap who phoned this evening asked me why i pay a small payment every day....why do they care!( i checked first to make sure it was ok)

I will continue doing this until each debt is paid then snowball the monthly payment to another until I'm debt free then mortgage free.

Shame on you Festival Place

Today my daughter wanted to go shopping and spend some of her Christmas vouchers...We went to Festival place which is a town about 30 mins away from us.

We took the in laws with us.
On arriving at the shopping centre we tried to find a wheelchair for my daughter as hobbling on crutches is hard work and her toes have a habit of turning blue....

The mobility shop was shut and the shopping centre do not have any wheelchairs ...how stupid is that....
We struggled into Topshop and she picked some clothes to try on and they gave us a stall for her to sit on.We then went into Miss Selfridge ,within BHS and they had no changing rooms open!!!! and wouldn't take her vouchers so that was a waste of time.
So tomorrow i feel a phone call will be made to voice my disappointment and shame on you Festival place....

Boxing Day

Today after dropping my daughter in law back to her parents house to pick her car up i went to an electrical retailer to pick up a food processor i had reserved.
I had some money for Christmas and with this and using my daughters work discount scheme i got it for a bargain price.Cant wait to try it out and this is my kind of Christmas present.
I also got some flannelet sheets so that will be lovely on my bed.

My in laws are staying  tonight and we have one of our neighbours around,who doesn't actually celebrate Christmas.He has come around with his guitar and is entertaining us with his playing and we are having a sing a long.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas

I had a wonderful day with my family ...the whole day was rather emotional from start to finish.

1st this Christmas i felt quite smug that i had got everyone lovely gifts without breaking the bank or going overboard.
2nd...i received some lovely personal gifts ,beautiful photos of loved ones, another lovely night in a hotel in the summer and a meal out.All things i will enjoy and that i can no longer justify spending money on myself, whilst i travel on this journey to be debt free.

And best of all i spent it with people i love and my daughter rang home.
I have mentioned before that my eldest hasn't spoke to her dad for 2 years, well she rang and spoke to me then her sister then her dad,It must of been soo hard for her to take this step but it made me the happiest person in the world yesterday.it makes me cry just writing it down....

Today i have 2 of my children that stayed last night still with me but they are all still in bed.
in laws are coming later and we really missed having them stay last night.
Hope you are all ok and enjoyed whatever you did.

here's a snippet of my day.
(dd if you cant see her head its because she didn't want me to take photos of her with no make up on!!!!)

Merry Christmas

Finally sat down,had a hectic day.I didn't finish work until 1pm.

Most presents are wrapped,Veg is prepared to take to my brothers tomorrow
Trifle is nearly finished.

Just wanted to say i hope you all have a lovely Christmas however you spend it and thanks for dropping by,

New Dishwasher

Well not brand new just new to me.
I have been without a dishwasher for about 6 months ( maybe less time but seems like longer)
Saw one advertised on Gumtree for £90 and he was offering a 3 month guarantee.I looked at it yesterday and it was lovely,,,can you say that about a dishwasher?

He accepted £80 and help load it in the car.
Hubby and son moved it into the kitchen this morning whilst i was at work and took old broken one to tip.When i got home i plumbed it in and then cleaned it. First load on and now put  away.
I read a comment on Frugal Queens blog that its cheaper to have the dishwasher on than keep boiling kettles .

I worked today and very hard it was too,i was on my own and will be again tomorrow.

When i did get home i made my daughter a very late lunch as she is unable to stand for long as her toes turn blue,Then blanched some veg i had purchased ( reduced)

We are going to my brothers Christmas day so I'm taken the veg and pudding.

Christmas has kinda snuck up on me.still have presents to wrap but that can wait till tomorrow, I'm cream crackered.....

Its quite indoors,have just taken JD to her boyfriends and OH is out for a drink with a builder he does work for so I'm making the most of it sat down with a nice cuppa.....

Surprise

Had a parcel delivered yesterday addressed to Mr & Mrs then my husbands name,
Opened it up and its a lovely M & S hamper.
Sad thing is it doesn't say anywhere who it is from... which is extremely sad as i cant thank anybody for such a wonderful gift.

Sleeping Beauty

My daughter is finding it extremely hard having a cast on.The effort of getting around is getting her down,
She has bruises on her arms form the crutches and cant seem to find a comfortable position to sleep.
Last night she decided to sleep downstairs ,she was awake when i came down just after 6 but has fallen asleep now....
I have to leave her for some of the day so i make sure she has a hot drink in a flask and bottles of other drinks by her side.
I have had to be a bit more generous with my heating not the temp but being on a bit more .

I'm off to see my other daughter this morning, she only lives about a mile and a half away.I do this in secret as she had a huge falling out with her dad 2 years ago and she has not spoken to him since.He knows i must see her but i keep it quite as it can cause him to get angry as he does miss her. I'm hoping she is going to see him soon as i ask her every time we talk to get back in contact and she finally said yes she would.
Y is very protective over me and doesn't like how her dad will sometimes speak to me and i know this is one of the reasons she doesn't come back.I just want some normality back,she will never live back at home but i want her with us on family gatherings, i want to go out with her and mostly i don't want to do it in secret.
Y is only 20 and is probably scared to make the step back and nervous that her dad will bring it all back up in any arguments.But fingers crossed. I love her and miss her and want her in our lives.

I'm going to see a potential new cleaning customer tomorrow they want 2 and half hours a week.I do hope it goes well as this will help out as oh;s work has gone very quite.
Until later
nto

x

Somethings are just not meant to be easy

My darling daughter is really struggling with he plaster cast,every part of her aches with hopping around.
This evening i was helping her sort out a hotel booking she had made.They were due to stay at The May Fair in London on Friday .
This is obviously a bit impractical as they were catching the train and tube.I phoned lastminute and hotel and after 2 and half hours on the phone and speaking to a manager finally got them to agree to change the booking to February. Had to pay for a new booking and now have to wait for the refund for the original booking.

Hope everyone else had a good weekend, Thanks for all the lovely comments.Sometimes its easier to pour your heart out to virtual friends.
nto
x

Early Christmas and A & E

Yesterday we had an early Christmas Party at my sons. His girls are off to Scotland until the New Year on Monday with their mum.Always feel really sorry for by boy at this time of year as he never gets to see his daughter on Christmas Day.

Well he put on a nice spread of food. and the girls were able to open their presents early and Father Christmas had even been informed and we found a pile of gifts on the doorstep.
We had a lovely evening all 4 generations of us.

My daughter had her 6th form social last night as well so after a few hours at her brothers we took her to her friends to finish getting ready for her party (we then went back to my sons)

This morning at about 7.30 she rang me to say lastnight she had been bumped into and fell off her heals!
Her boyfriend rescued her last night and she decided to see how her ankle was this morning.Hence the call she was in pain and it was really swollen

.I showered,dressed and rushed to pick her up and take her to Casualty.I popped into work to explain what was happening as i was supposed to be in at 10.
One xray later and we were informed that she had broken her ankle.Due to the swellen it couldnt be put into the correct position so it was moved as much as possible and plastered.

We go back the 28th for another xray and to move it again as hopefully the swellen would have gone down.
Poor little lamb not the best way to start her Christmas holidays.

Happy Birthday Dad

If roses grow in heaven Lord, then pick a bunch for me. Place them in my Dad's arms and tell him they're from me. Tell him that I love and miss him, and when he turns to smile, place a kiss upon his cheek and hold him for a while ♥♥♥ I love you Dad and miss you so much.


Happy Birthday Dad(and give a kiss to mum too)

Down day

Not a good day today,OH not being very nice to me....i wont bore you with my woes.

Went on my works Christmas do last night,5 of us went for Christmas dinner.It was a nice evening.
Was a real effort to go out as its not something i usually do.

Hopefully i will be a bit more upbeat tomorrow.
So until tomorrow
nto
x

Crafting

Its Tuesday so its Granddaughter's day.

Thought we would do some crafting before dinner and even the big ones joined in, Glitter went everywhere .

snow globes didn't go quite to plan. jars too big and figures too small but it was fun.

Meatballs for tea, mash for some and spaghetti for the rest of us.Home made cheese and onion bread always goes down well.

Just need to hoover  now as the front room is less than tidy but its worth it.
They wont be over for a while now as they are off to Scotland with their mum until the New Year,We will be having an early Christmas this weekend at my sons so they can have their presents.

Until the next time
nto
x

Who said you cant teach an old dog new tricks...

My darling daughter was off sick today so i rearranged my work so she could go to Dr s.
Once the pain killers kicked in, she decided to teach our dog a new trick...hi five,bribed with dog biscuits she soon caught on.

Finally managed to defrost my chest freezer,it was really bad.Took 24 hours to defrost(note to myself never,never let it get that bad again),
Hubby took the food to his mums yesterday as hers was empty.So now i have a lovely clean virtually empty freezer,just waiting for all the food to go back into it.
I had been trying since at least September to empty the freezer but seemed to just add to it.
The oven will be going on shortly for dinner so whilst its on im going to attempt to make some Yorkshire puddings.These simple things always turn out disastrous for me, so im going to try again,batter is made and in the fridge......if and i mean only if they come out looking like Yorkshire's and not like Frisbee's i will take a photo.
wish me luck...

well they rose and they are the best I have ever done, I am so pleased they rose,

pps.. Thanks for all the nominations for the award,Im a bit dense sometimes and im not sure what im supposed to do.Glad you enjoy reading my blog,

Oh Christmas Tree

Found my camera,my big one , so was able to take a picture of the tree.
Maddie loved helping J d put the tree up shes at the age where she is getting excited and taking notice.

OMG

Had a really busy shift at work.During the week ,cleaners start at 9 am and 2 work together, on a Saturday i start at 9.30 and its just little old me.I have an 1 and 1/2 hours to get the pub cleaned before opening (where as during the week there are 2 people taking 2 hours) It is hard work and i just finished at 11 am.
Hotel was quite easy only 1 checkout and 2 cleans so i finished at 1.15.
Found out that other half had said granddaughter could stay so after a quick cuppa set off again to pick her up from her dad (who was going to football)
Had to take something back to Tesco and was back just in time to pick daughter up from work.

Well how eventful was that, we were just driving onto roundabout on retail park, when we saw a taxi driver pushing a young man out of the front seat of the car, he literally drove around the roundabout until the young man fell out, where he was very nearly run over. Lots of us stopped and the taxi driver started to drive around the car park,there was no way any of us were going to let him leave the car park.

Police phoned and  eventually came.3 different groups of witnesses stopped and the police man said to us the trouble was we had only seen part of the story.Well I'm sorry if the lads had done something wrong the taxi driver should have phoned the police,he should not have pushed him out of a moving car.

Well that was enough excitement for one day, looking forward to a nice quite evening and strictly come dancing.
How was your day?

Christmas Cake

Finally found my camera so as promised here's a picture of my cake..

Hope its ok ,especially as I'm giving it away.My inlaws are too polite to say any different lol.

Got round to doing another job i kept forgetting yesterday.
AA membership ...as well as getting cashback i was supposed to get nectar points...So i finally got around to phoning them for the third time... apparently the AA are no longer with Nectar as from November so my points since May couldn't be credited so as way of apology I'm being sent a cheque for £25, result. I didn't even moan..

Newgirly thought i might be able to get some Christmas figures from Tesco so I'm debating whether to go to Tesco after Ive dropped my daughter off at work as I'm working all weekend .....scratch that oh just in and he says traffic really bad so I'm not going..

Need to find some time to put up the Christmas Tree as Its looking very un festive in the nto household.

Just hubby and i in tonight so we are having soup for tea( i seem to have a few cans in the cupboard from couponing

Swings and Roundabouts

Today i had some bad news on my debt busting front which is going to take some sorting out...
Knew it was going along too well,one of my customers asked me how things are going and i said good but it felt like i was tempting fate and low and behold bad news in the post......

I will sort it !!!!!

One bit of good news.
I had read a few posts on MSE about F & F didn't have a clue what this meant so it was explained to me.It means full and final settlement.A template letter was found and i wrote to the company my hubby had his van loan with,Didn't think i stood a chance as they were receiving payment on time every month,so feeling a bit down i phoned them to ask if they knew anything yet.The decision was in our favour i had offered a F & F of £1000(hubbie owed £1500) payable over 4 months, £250 a month.Great news for us £500 off what we owe.so this has knocked a month off our debt free date for our loans not mortgage.
Final payment for Van loan will now be March not July.

We still have a difficult 6 months but fingers crossed.....

Christmas Cake made was going to post a picture but my camera has mysteriously disappeared.so that is to follow.

Did anyone see Kirsty's Homemade Christmas last night?,i really want to do the snow globes




with my grandchildren but i cant find any Christmas cake decorations the plastic ones ,that don't cost an arm and a leg.Does anyone have any ideas?

Chicken balls....

Tonight i made home made sweet and sour chicken balls.

Its supposed to be the same recipe as takeaways use.Value rice and  home made sweet and sour sauce.
2 large chicken breasts go along way with this and we have some left over, which will no doubt be snacked on during the evening( my daughters boyfriend has hollow legs)

I have also made a Christmas cake which is currently in the oven.Only my in laws like Christmas Cake so I'm going to give this to them as part of their Christmas present.

I have another new follower today, so hi Jo
you asked where i get my coupons from and here's the link
coupons

It takes some reading but its worth it. I love this site and it has helped me big time with my debt busting.

A fellow MSE sent me some coupons today for some money off dettol spray so managed to get a few for 50p,Another bargain today was a Disney pencil set no sel so scanned it and it was 36p!!! nice little present for the granddaughter.

Today i received a lovely handmade hat from Fostermummy,it is beautiful , a work of art.

will add a picture of the cake later.

until next time
nto

x

Parents Evening

Had daughters parents evening tonight,all went well apart from 1 teacher who i have a few issues with,not quite resolved and needs to be as my daughter wants to drop the subject because of the teacher.
I know i think my daughter is wonderful but i wouldn't stick up for her if she was in the wrong.Teachers have always had my full support but on this occasion this teacher is failing my daughter and other students in the class.
Apart from this she is doing really well and on course with hard work to get good grades at AS level.She got 15 GCSE (14 of which were A's and B's) and 1 C.


I know this is a one off as all other teachers that have taught my children have had my full respect and support...


Darling grand daughters are around so its like Blackpool illuminations in here !!!!
Dog thinks its great at little one is doing a Hansel and Gretal trail of cheesy biscuits for Mia to follow and eat.
Hubby cooked sausage and mash for everyone because i wasn't home till fairly late.


Introduced a fellow MSER to couponing and she was really pleased,i try not to buy anything at full price anymore,would rather that money went to debtbusting.




Its lovely to see i have a few followers,never thought people would read this,please feel free to make comments ...nice to know I'm not talking to myself.

Plodding On

I'm still plodding on with my debt busting, 


I have just reduced my mortgage free time by a month which is a great boost to moral.Ive just updated my little debt ticker and that's moving along.


Cant wait to be debt free.

So its all going in the right direction.  

Imports/ exports

Whilst waiting for ferry on both sides of Chanel we watched the Lorry's driving on. Going out we didn't see 1 lorry with British plates going over and the same coming back.We saw loads of foreign plates bring in Fruit veg,lorry cabs, tractors.But not one lorry taking out our British produce.I found this annoying and upsetting




Link to marmalade and catmint


Just wanted to add a blog for you all to have a look at.
marmalade and catmint
this link should take you to her bog and show you a fabulous giveaway shes got running,

My Break away

I'm back..
we had a lovely time,so thank you to my wonderful daughter for a smashing Christmas present. I think that this is only the 2nd time in her lifetime we have been away on our own and both have been 1 night away and this year,my daughter made this comment to her boyfriend stating her and her brother and sister have always done everything with us.
We set off after dropping JD at school on Friday,had an an easy journey down to Folkestone.

We arrived to early too check in but parked up and went for a wander.We walked up some quaint streets

 and had a lovely cheap lunch.
We checked into hotel and after the initial panic of them saying they couldn't find our booking we were handed the keys.We were on the 13th floor and had a sea view.

The lorry you can see parked up belongs to a company that is situated about this same distance from our 

home.

I had a cuppa and then we wandered downstairs. I have never seen a hotel as busy as this one and apparently its the same all year round.

Had a drink in the bar (Happy hour so very frugal)
Then back upstairs to get showered and changed for dinner.
We were in the upgraded restaurant which was lovely.

After dinner we went into the ballroom where entertainment was provided,neither of us could stop yawning so went up to our room and i was asleep by 8.45 (boring i know)
Weather was horrible during the night wind and rain .
Early wake up call of 5.45 am, shower and packed and down for Breakfast by 6.20,the Que for the restaurant was out of the door it was so busy ,all going on various trips.
Had our breakfast then boarded our coach.I thought our day trip to France was as a foot passenger and we were going to Calais town but it turned out that Sat trips you stay on the coach so to speak. Our driver takes us over and the drives us to Cite Europe and back .
Ferry was delayed by an hour going because of a medical emergency so got to Cite Europe at 12 French time, it was going to be a mad rush as we had to be back on the coach at 2.45!!!

I love Carrefour we picked up some very cheap booze and cheeses.Went for lunch in a little restaurant and wheeled our trolley back in time to the coach.

Ferry home uneventful

apart from being delayed and all of us being taken off the coach by  passport control.all of us all 7 of us. 20 people didn't turn up for this day trip so we had a 52 seat coach with 8 people on it including our driver.
Dropped back at hotel where we loaded car and set of home and i was back indoors by 8.30,tired but we had a lovely time and will definitely do this again next year.

This cost my daughter £60 for both of us and we got DBB and the day trip to France what a bargain.