Comrades! I'm back from holiday, hence recent low profile - not really being frugal, but didn't want to keep posting about spends. Not that it was, in the end, a super-spendy holiday, since most of our activities revolved around driving to beautiful, ancient villages which were, on the whole, um, closed. Do not go to the Lot-et-Garonne, thinking it's just more Dordogne. It really isn't. There's an awful lot of monotonous arable farming (miles of fields of dead sunflowers and maize), very basic settlements featuring cookie-cutter bungalows and industrial sheds, interspersed by equally monotonous poplar plantations.
We did have a nice time, and got to Bordeaux, which was brilliant, and had been on my list of incontournables since forever. But I'd booked a lovely rural villa with a pool, and huge grounds, and great outdoor eating facilities, because that's the holiday we enjoyed in the Dordogne two years ago. And then the weather was a bit shit. Which in the Dordogne in September would not have mattered, since everything, barring the night markets, is still open. And yes, you probably will be handed a menu in English when you sit down; but at least someone wants to serve you lunch!
Honourable mentions to Nérac, however, which is gorgeous and where I tried red pepper ice-cream for the first time. Massive fan. And Villeneuve-sur-Lot, which has a lovely market. And we did stay at a beautiful place near St Mathurin in the Loire on the way down and back, and had an amazing dinner on our anniversary. But I think these days of driving two days across France with Ddog and half our possessions in the car, to set up home in a big rental in order to welcome DS and whoever his SO is at that point for five days out of the 14 are over. I would really like to get on a plane with one bag, no dog and holiday in a more footloose manner!
Anyway, mustn't grumble, since we're away again in October, this time to Devon - South Hams and then Colyton, for my big birthday. I have paid for the week on the beach, in the cottage, DH is paying for the hotel nights in Colyton, and all the dinners.
I spent £38 in a French pharmacy in Bordeaux, also bought some rather nice rubber ankle boots in a chic taupe for dog walking in the rain, about £45, and some cheese and wine, posh chocolates and macarons, 0% sirops. Some will be presents, some not. Some lunches, two nights in the Loire. Everything I spent was covered by the travel/guilt-free spend pot, and I have returned with money to spare.
So I have had some botox! two areas, between my brows and upper forehead. £250, administered by my dentist, half of whose practice these days is cosmetic injections. It's been a year in which my brow has been much furrowed, what with DParents and the joys of adult social services, and I thought, sod it, why not? It helps keep me motivated on diet, exercise and sleep too, so hopefully, I will be feeling super-good by the time the big birthday comes around.
Anyway, botox visit aside, the last two days have been spent mostly tidying, cleaning, washing, restocking pantry and fridge (£50 Sainsbury's, £26 in the butcher), admin. Have enjoyed catching up on your Vinted adventures, and bed linen addicts, I see you! (although you wouldn't be able to tell if I were disapproving or not, no frowning here). Have changed over the duvets to a higher tog rating, and am wearing jumpers in the house. Bathroom radiator valves been re-opened to allow hot water in, but otherwise, am determined that the heating is not going on for another month.
Oh, £9 on a brow make-up wand thingy. A princely £38 dividend payment, which I have put straight back into an ISA.
Right, chilli from the freezer for dinner tongiht, Tokyo world championship highlights.