Frugaleer Festive Fun

[Unescorted]

I went to post and realised we had nearly run out of room.

old thread here

Bring the sparkle on....

I may be overselling as mashing spuds is one of those things that does my back in.

Born, quarter your potatoes and any other veg you want in your mash - I halved my parsnips given they are a softer veg already. 1 cup hot water or stock. Salt. Add garlic if you like garlic mash. High pressure for 8 mins. QPR then drain any water that's left. It'll be really easy to mash and come up lovely and smooth, just add a small amount of butter. Or a packet. Or a gallon of sour cream/creme fraiche depending how you like your mash.

Mash it in the inner pot but don't have the inner pot in the body of the pressure cooker unless you use a n electric hand whisk to mash with. I think the mashing wouldn't do the element much good.

Our decorations are down, I like the feeling of space once they're all packed away!!

I think the smoothie maker would be my gadget of choice, it was a cheapy one but does the job perfectly.

Ended up buying two things that were advertised on fb last night 😬 a lovely adult wooden puzzle £25 and another paint by numbers kit £15 both are gifts for dds 15th (😳) bday in Feb.

I'm thinking I might get her some posh straighteners as her main present...

Need to make my mums bday cake today.

Morning all, long time no see!

I took down our decorations yesterday, it just felt like the right time. I’m in need of at least one room in some kind of order, because the remodelling of the Hall, stairs and landing is still ongoing, DH has been off since Christmas Eve and is really making progress. Stairs are all complete, today and tomorrow will be the last lot of plastering he has to do on the upstairs landing so I’ll be keeping a low profile- he hates plastering!

New job has come to a grinding halt as we went into tier 4 the other day. Gutted, as I was really enjoying it, hopefully we won’t be closed for too long.

We were to go to YSP today - but DD and Dh failed to book.

Curls that is a shame about the job.

I don't understand how they are doing the tiering.... we have a 7 day case rate of 137 per 100k if you look at it on a borough level yet we are in T4.

Just the living room tree left here.
Been sledding instead.
£10.15 co-op as CBA to drive to Aldi in the snow

Sorry about your job Curls, hopefully it won't be for too long 🤞
Very cold walk this morning, the ducks were skating! Came home and made broccoli and stilton soup for lunch which used up the last of the Christmas stilton. Just the brie to go now...

Did a Charlie Chaplin style streamed workout this morning as the instructor's mic wasn't working then shopping for dparents and a top up for us.
Tis cold and a bit snowy here too. Our tree went up earlier than usual, but I think I'm ready for it to come down now. Always feels strange and empty afterwards though.
Have had news of 2 deaths in past 24 hours of people we knew, so hard for their families unable to visit.
Agree about the Tier system unescorted our case rates are the lowest they have been in a while and still falling, but we have just gone up to tier 4. Staying in T3 would have made sense to me, but T4 just feels like a real kick in the teeth.
No resolutions here either as the year ahead is still so unpredictable. This year dh & I are both 50 and it is our silver wedding so we had a year of celebrating planned, but now, who knows?? I am trying to do the Red January thing but am not going to beat myself up if I don't manage it.
A mini goal for January is to try some new recipes/foods. Today I made a good housekeeping smoked salmon pate recipe which ds and I have had with bagels...delish. Smoked salmon, cream cheese, creme fraiche, dill, lemon zest and juice. It was a winner.

I'm doing RED January too north but it's been a pyjama/housework kind of day - hoovering counts right?!!

Dh got the car light fixed at Halfords - £16.90

As it's now a spend day I also topped up GoHenry - £20

Tomorrow will also be a spend day as we're planning on a walk incorporating fish&chips to celebrate the last day of the holidays.

And Monday will be a spend as it's grocery shop day. However I've already made a lasagne and soup for next week's meal plan and we also have chicken and bacon in the freezer (for chicken fajitas and brunch pancakes) so I'm hoping for a low spend.

NSDs - 1/31
Groceries - £0/£400
Total spent - £36.90

Spends today - new walking boots for ds as he's grown out of his and a new accordion file for this year's post that needs keeping. Annoyingly the first pair of boots I ordered were out of stock after the payment went through and they haven't refunded the postage (I have complained) the second pair I ordered were £18
more expensive than the first so I'm slightly irked!

Also rang up and paid the house insurance premium for 2021, switching from paying monthly to try and limit some of the damage caused by the premium hike

What is RED January? I just ordered a case of non alcoholic G&T and Mojitos to help with dry January .
I’ve got my Credit cards down to £600 on one card, the other card is clear. This is from £856 on one and £1200 on the other. DH has £2,200 on his though and is slightly resistant to paying more than the minimum
Just did a spin class on the peloton, only need to do another 230 classes to make it pay for itself 😂 I bought it in a fit of madness about two days after my brother died in the summer. Someone should have confiscated all my cards.
wolf that is annoying about the boots

north that salmon pate sounds amazing, I’m drooling just reading about it!

I took my boots for a walk in the snow today. It was lovely just to be with me and me only. It was very snowy. When I got back the kids were making sausages beans and toast..... bless them they split it 3 ways. Dh just got a cup of tea when he came in a few minutes later. My babies are smart ones.

Gen Red January is promoting the benefits of exercise for mental health & encouraging people to be active once a day.

I'm doing red January too. Walk for sledding and aerobic class today

Ok so I’m doing dry red veganuary. (Anything else to the list...?! 😅)

em I am doing Dry Red wine-uary... Maybe not every night...

Unescorted I think I like your version better

Think that's enough em.
Only on a weekend unescorted

Snowed here this morning , so very pretty didn't stick though
NSD again today , have been eating the Christmas crap up like a good un
Hope everyone is ok , am not drinking either during Jan , just as well the Lidl's egg nog was vile and l am going to throw it out that will teach me for going cheap

Hi. I would like to join. Thanks to covid on a permanently reduced wage. Also aim to save 5000 this year. Eek.
Today top up shop £15 and pet food plus new dog tag £22

Ugh I am getting so stressed and anxious about next week. It is all the uncertainty. Will I have to go into school on Monday or work from home? Will dd be going to school?
At the moment I am meant to be going to school but teaching online which I am happy with, we will all be in separate class rooms on our own so it feels low-risk. Dd is supposed to be going to school. The unions are trying to change all this though. I don't know where we stand don't trust the government to suddenly announce something new on Sunday night and I just want it to stay the Christmas holidays forever! I think I need to stop checking the news, it is streaming me out! The government have totally played it so that the unions would kick off and then everyone will blame the teachers if schools close rather than the government which means no doubt more weeks of negativity coming out way.

Sorry rant over. It has been a NSD. In fact apart from a big food shop on Thursday and some pull-ups from Amazon I have spent no money all through the holidays.

Gave the fridge a good clear out and clean today.

Tomorrow's job is to take down the Christmas tree and decorations. I love putting them up and hate taking them down but it has to be done. Also, the sitting room is starting to feel very cluttered at his stage.

Curling up with a movie this evening (The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society), a glass of wine and some nibbles. You must all think I'm a major telly addict. In normal times I don't actually watch that much TV. But options are very limited atm.

It's bitterly cold out. There's a yellow warning for low temperatures - it's supposed to be between -3 and -4 degrees tonight. So glad I don't have to head off anywhere early. I've put my rubbish bin out for tomorrow, but I reckon the lid will be frozen solid when the bin men try to empty the bin in the morning.

Covid cases are sky high (over 3,000 cases) and there are dire warnings that we're likely to see 6,000 cases a day at the peak of the surge .

Anyway, off to take my mind off things with my movie.

Welcome Onwards
Snuggly and a big hug sweetheart

Tayto enjoy the film lovely have recorded it for us to watch too.
l know it seems as if the virus is closing in on us but we will be ok , the vaccination programme one dose policy is the best thing they can do for us l am convinced .

I really need to do Red January. I have become so inactive recently that my fit bit did the fireworks thing at way lower than 10,000 steps. Think it felt sorry for me...