It's That Day Again,

 

On this day in 1960 a rebel was born, and everyone knew it straight away, although I hid the fact so sweetly in lots of these photos.  😁

For your amusement, on my birthday here is a trip down memory lane.

A proper little madam on a family holiday.

Junior school photo ... I hated combing my hair then and my Mum was horrified when she got the photos.  😂

I scrubbed up well for Whit Week every year though.

The Girl Guide with the longest legs.  😄

On holiday with the family.

A day out, Dad loved the roses and asked me to stand next to them.

My fifteenth birthday.

Then we'll skip forward a few years to save your time and your sanity ... past a wedding at 18, children in my 20s, first grandchild in my 30s, a divorce, two years of freedom, another wedding at 47, more grandchildren and a complete change of lifestyle for the second time in my life. 

A smallholders day out at River Cottage.  Yep, I'd been 'Tangoed'.  😀

Celebrating something .... or perhaps it was just a wine day.  😄

Organising my Lovely Hubby ... he takes a lot of organising!!

Then it was another grandchild and the start of the great grandchildren.  Fast forward to today ...

And to scare you all off, me now 64 today.  Bloody hell how did that happen?

Just me, you can take me or leave me ... but I'm the only one I've got, so you're pretty much stuck with me if you want to read my wild and wacky ramblings.  💖

Thank you for always being here.

Sue xx

Sometimes things call out to you ...

 

My 'present to myself' Lucy Almey Bird pictures are up on the wall.

I paid for the prints and Alan paid for the framing for me, and I absolutely love them.  The lady from the framing shop in our town also loved them so much she approached Lucy directly about being a seller of her prints in our town.  So who knows, I might be buying a couple more in the future.  😀

Although it's not ideal having them behind me when I'm sat in one of the chairs, this was the only available place for them to go as I am quickly running out of wall space here in the lodge.

I chose these three pictures as each one in a different way relates to me and my life, and strangely the lady in the framing shop said that's why they appealed to her.  I guess you take from art that which means the most to you, and relax into it.

'Spring Awakening'

In this one the dresser, the jars of dried food and the pitcher called out to me first, the other details being picked up on later.

'Me Time'

In this one it was the Jack Russell curled up in the basket, the  cream coloured Aga with the kettle on top, and the thick woolly socks.

'A Good Book'

And in this one it was the Ginger cat, the old Bush radio, my Dad's woven topped stool and the stacks of books that immediately pulled me in, then I spotted my Nana's old clock on the bookshelves and the need to own it was cemented.

Sometimes things call out to you ... and sometimes you just have to give in and let them into your life.

Sue xx

Wine, Fishfingers and a Free Book

 

My shopping over the weekend was mostly from Aldi, and naughtily included two bottles of wine, which of course bumped the total spend up by quite a lot.

The crossed out things went into the Foodbank trolley.  A mixture of biscuits and sanitary products this week.  Every little helps.

Alan went over to the local tech shop to see if the guy there could help with a problem on his phone, he could and did, and at no charge.  Isn't it good when you can recognise a problem immediately and just solve it.  I had a look around the charity shop for a while and then sat on the benches in the square to wait for him.  When Alan walked over to me he immediately spotted a pound coin right next to me, why hadn't I spotted it?

Anyway we went into Booths for a coffee and while I didn't get to pick up any freebies from the café this week I did spot this book on the charity bookshelves, and Alan gave me his newly acquired pound to pay for it.  So I got a freebie in the end.  😁

My only other purchase over the weekend was a tub of Naturli spread for £3.35.

Total Spend this week £28.52.

I think I will try to have a very low spend this week to make up for going over my sort of allotted allowance of £25 per week two weeks on the trot.

I hope I don't run out of pasta or rice though. 😄 

Sue xx

A Shocking Stocktake

 

It all started with me using the last of  the penne in the large pasta jar last night and needing to refill it.

Realising it was what I thought were the last two bags of pasta being tipped into it, I added pasta to my shopping list.  Then I remembered that I also had lots of spaghetti and thought I would check how much, perhaps I could just use that instead.

It turned into a full scale pasta and rice stocktake, with me sat on the floor and things being pulled out of the cupboard left, right and centre.

After half an hour I had written out the top half of this stock take, and then I remembered another stash of assorted pastas in one of my basket drawers.  I seems that I have more than enough pasta.

I added together all the various pastas and rice's ... and I have the grand total of over eight and a half kilos of each.  That's a combined total of over one hundred and seventy portions of carbohydrates to go with my meals.  

At the rate of two portions of each per week that's the rest of this year sorted out then!!

Needless to say I have now crossed pasta off my shopping list. 😁

Perhaps I should stocktake my tins of tomatoes after buying another eight last week ... I don't know if I dare!

Sue xx

Renaming it 'The Freebies Blog' ...

 

I laughed this morning when I saw all my freebies once again, and thought very briefly about renaming this blog 'The Freebies Blog'.

On Wednesday I phoned Mum as I usually do before we visit, to see if she needed us to bring her anything or if she just fancied something.  She's been off her food since being in hospital, so temptation is the name of the game at the moment.  This week she asked for some milk and some scones.  As I was sat in the Booths carpark ready to go in and get this week's freebie ... a packet of Warburtons Soft Naans ... and we were due to set off for Manchester in half an hour there would be no time to make some.

Happily there was a choice of nice fresh scones to choose from, so I chose a pack of tiny sultana ones, there were lots in the pack but I knew Alan would be pleased to help her eat a couple after our lunchtime sandwiches.

I decided that while I was there I would use my quarterly Booths voucher, this time a massive £20 one and stock myself up on the Mutti tomato products that were on a generous offer.  They are not the cheapest of tomato products, but they are among the tastiest.

As you can see from the top photo I managed to get two four packs of tinned tomatoes, some just peeled and some finely chopped, along with three jars of tomato sauces, two vegan Bolognese style and one with basil.  Along with some eggs for me and some cherry tomatoes to have with our sandwiches at Mum's.

My freebie this week was worth £1.60, not to be sniffed at.  

It's a good job I went in nice and early to claim these as they were very popular, everyone at the checkouts had a pack either on the conveyor belt or still in their baskets, and the large wicker basket at the front of the store was already half empty ... and this was still before 9am.

My receipt, showing all my tomatoey bargains and the freebie and the grand total that I had to hand over in cash for everything in the top photo.

Total Spend - £2.21

Last night while we were chatting Alan asked if I fancied a cooked breakfast at Booths, of course I said yes.  😁

So this morning as soon as Alan got back from walking Mavis, we went to Booths.  Even though it was market day our little town is always slow to come to life, and at 8.45am the café was still lovely and quiet, the few folk that were there were mostly men eating bacon butties and reading their papers.

A picture of tray-carrying concentration.

Before we left the store Alan picked up some bread for himself and a naughty pack of Caramel KitKats and asked me if there was anything that I fancied.  When I saw the yearly edition of Gardeners world magazine at the checkout I said 'yes I fancy that' ... so he bought it for me.  

I buy this one every year as it contains the '2 for 1 Gardens Pass', usually along with a free gift, which this year was four packets of seeds.  Using the gardens pass just once gets you back the cost of the magazine so it is really worth having.

So I got a magazine with it's offer and seeds bought for me and I came away from the café with even more sachets than usual ... and look, they've upgraded their sachets to the posher 'Stokes' ones.  We sampled half each of the other brown sauce one with our breakfasts and it was very nice.

I was pleased to see that inside the magazine there is a feature with Gaz Oakley, one of my favourite vegan chefs who is now living a very sustainable life on a Welsh hillside, just like we did.

So it was a good and very cheap shopping trip for me on Wednesday, and then a very tasty and completely freebie filled outing on Thursday morning.  And we were both back at our desks and working away well before ten o'clock.

Sue xx