I called to two of my favourite charity shops while I was in town last week. One day I was in town to visit the dentist and called to the Age Concern shop and the other I was in town with Alan and nipped into the local Children's Hospice shop.
In both I got a book and a little something that caught my eye. It's Christmas time and it's a nice way to support any charity, something for me, something for them and a 'please put the change in the donation pot'.
I definitely felt more charitable towards them than the dentist did towards me!!
At home after putting away the new shopping that I showed on yesterday's post, I used the last of my old bananas to make a batch of Banana and Walnut cakes. Half each for me and Alan and nothing gone to waste.
To make a bit of space in the freezer I also took out all the lemon ends and apple cores and made a little batch of Compost Heap Jelly. Two of the little jars were then labelled ready to go into Alan's stocking.
A bit of charity, a bit of frugality and a lot of satisfaction.
The supermarkets loss-leader vegetables are a brilliant way to make the Christmas dinner a very budget conscious affair. Each of these vegetables, 2kg potatoes, 1kg carrots, and a red and a green cabbage were just 5p each.
The 'supermarket wars' as they are known at Christmas time, have been going on here in England for quite a few years now, their main aim is for the supermarkets to get you into THEIR doors and not their rivals, and hopefully once there you will be spending lots of money on the other foods that they have actually increased in price in the run up to Christmas Day. I guess it works sometimes, although some canny people do visit multiple supermarkets to pick up the various other vegetables on offer, before settling back in their favourite one to do all the shopping.
It's being stressed loud and clear this year that it really is the supermarkets absorbing the price cuts and not the farmers ... I do hope that this truly is the case.
Anyway as soon as I got home with my shopping and my 20p worth of vegetables I set to, to make sure that they would last as long as possible. First they were all left to 'breathe' for a while out of their plastic bags. Then the carrots were checked over and laid on a double layer of kitchen roll before being popped into a Stayfresh bag ready for the fridge.
The potatoes had a similar treatment. I was not impressed with the quality of the potatoes at all to be honest, but hey for that price does it really matter!!
They are now all safely stashed in the fridge. Just because these were cheap to buy it does not mean that anything will be wasted in my home.
I didn't pick up the other items on offer as I don't really like parsnips ... or those little green round bullets that are the food of the devil.
The rest of my shopping looked like this, including a few things that I really needed and a few treats for myself. The Iceberg lettuce is an absolute beauty it weighs so much, I have never had a lettuce that heavy in my life ... another vegetable bargain.
My receipt for posterity.
Now apart from nipping out for some fresh bread on Christmas Eve that is my shopping completed. Alan has an order from Booths to pick up that morning which includes a couple of little desserts that he has treated us both too, and then he also is all done and dusted.
I already have so much of what I need, and these days there is little extra that I want to add to that, but consumables or usable things that I like to use regularly are always very welcome.
So every year for Christmas, almost since the year we met over twenty one years ago Alan has bought me a supply of my favourite body cream for Christmas, and occasionally for my birthday too. Sometimes it's six tubs and sometimes it's three ... so I do get a surprise. My gift comes in those particular numbers as very regularly this particular cream is on offer in Boots the Chemist on a '3 for the price of 2' offer, and sensibly Alan takes advantage of this.
Why do I like this one so much, well it doesn't bring me out in a rash as so many scented creams tend to do, and almost as important I can remember the scent of it. So with me still having no sense of smell I at least know what I smell like immediately after a shower.
Last year he bought me six tubs and I still had one left over from the previous year ...
... this is what I have left this morning.
Will I make it until Christmas Day? 🤞
He used to buy his Mum Fenjal products every year without fail, and I used to wonder if she was happy with that. Now I know for sure that she probably was really happy, and Alan is happy that there is at least one present that he doesn't have to think too much about that he knows will always make me happy.
I've been feeling guilty that when so many of you asked about wanting to follow the progress of the renovations of our new home, I was very uncertain if this was what I wanted to do on my blog. Years ago you were let into all the nitty, gritty of our day to day lives, with maybe more access than I would dream of now.
But I have had a rethink, and maybe I mellowed slightly to the idea, after all it would also give me a record of things as they happen. Then last week Alan asked me to video the bungalow as it is now, and then at regular intervals as the work progresses so that we have a record.
So why not share it with you, although for obvious safety reasons on the internet I will not be sharing the front of our property at all.
I thought I should start by sharing some photos of the kitchen, as rather weirdly I forgot to turn right after I came in through the front door. We usually use the side door for access so coming through the front door for the first time I instinctively turned left and then didn't go back that way. The front door is in between the living room and the kitchen.
So these first three photos show the kitchen.
Already it has changed massively, and Alan has managed to get all the wall cabinets and the tiles off the walls this week. We are trying our best not to send too much of what we rip out to landfill, so wherever possible we are selling things really cheaply on Facebook Marketplace. For instance someone is coming to pick up the fully working, but really needing a clean electric cooker for £10 tomorrow.
The kitchen while looking very good both in person, and in photos is actually not worth us keeping. It has more years of life left in it, but not enough to see us out, and this bungalow is all about us future-proofing our lives. So once it has all been removed, I will be photographing it and offering it for sale as well.
Below is my video of the rest of the bungalow, I notice that some of you have already found it on YouTube and left comments, thank you for those. If you have any questions about anything you see please ask them on here, as I am terrible at responding on YouTube, I only use it as a tool to get films off my phone and don't even think to check back ... oops!! 😄
Now I know that I am sharing any videos on here I will talk my way around next time, but this was just going to be for our use. I know how much you all love my dulcet tones with my Mancunian accent. 😆
