Pasta epiphany.

To say I like my pasta, especially fresh pasta, is the understatement of the year, so when I had to cut back on buying fresh pasta five years ago when we had our own personal credit crunch, you can imagine the sacrifice I made, that dried stuff just isn’t the same.

Tonight while crocheting my socks, I’ll tell you about that in another post some time, I watched telly, and the only thing that was on that was even half way watchable was Jamie’s Ministry of Food. Now for those of you who don’t know, Jamie is Jamie Oliver, a popular passionate cook here in the UK. He is changing the countries attitude to food one step at a time. He has really made a dent in the low standard of school dinners here, and the Ministry of Food show is about his attempt to teach people to cook, rather than living off take-away and microwave dinners. He is teaching a group of people in one city how to cook a few simple dishes, and in turn they have to go out and teach two more people, it got off to a slow start, but has really gotten hold now, and other cities are now interested in funding the project, partly because it is on of the few ways the authorities can help people save money in these difficult times.

Any way, there I was, crocheting and watching, and Jamie did what can only be described as a ‘throw away recipe’. He was talking to someone, and said, “To make your own pasta you need 100g (about 4oz) of flour, and an egg. Mix it in to a dough, roll it out as thin as you can, then roll it up on itself to make a long thin stick, and slice, then it’s ready to cook.

I sat up straight, ideas popping of in my head so fast I didn’t hear anything said for the next few minutes.

I didn’t know you could make your own pasta like that. I thought you needed fancy rolling machines, backs of chairs to let it hang and dry over night, etc. I honestly thought it was more fuss and bother than even my taste buds would warrant.

Guess what I’m having for dinner tomorrow….

A daily money saving target

Every day, before I go to bed I like to try and think about how I have managed to save some money, that I would have, in a past life, spent without thinking.

Since finances became so tight with my illness and I had to give up work I have had to have a complete re-adjustment towards my attitude to life, money and the roll of advertisers.

Before I used to watch the adverts on TV, scour the flyer’s that came through the door, read the ads in the magazines, just in case there may be something of interest to me.

Now that just doesn’t happen, I have suddenly realised that advertisers are paid to part me from the few pennies I have.

For instance, do I really need that new anti-bacterial washing up liquid to keep my family healthy? My family has always been healthy before so what is different now that I have to change my spending habits and buy something that is a third again of the price of what I normally buy?

Nothing, that’s what. They are using our fear of ‘super bugs’ to sell us something we do not need, and may in fact actually cause more damage in the long term.

Let me explain. Our bodies need to encounter both good and bad bacteria. The bad bacteria is just that, bad, but our bodies have an amazing thing called an immune system, that, if you are relatively healthy, will fight the bad bacteria in to a cocked hat. It only needs to do it once, and from there on in, you are protected forever from that particular bug!

So if you kill every single last germ in the house, wash your hands with anti bacterial hand wash, use anti bacterial hand wipes when you are out and about, how is your body supposed to encounter and build up an immunity to even the simplest bug? It can’t, is the basic answer.

Admittedly, if your immune system is already compromised by illness, then it is a whole new ball game, but generally speaking, we don’t need anti bacterial anything!

Now take that same basic idea and apply it to every single advert you see.

What is so different about that new car that makes it impossible to live without? Will that new shampoo do any more for your hair than your normal one, or will it just smell different and cost a few pence more? Does that new format newspaper have any more news in it than what you can get off the TV or the Internet? Sure if it has a DVD of a film you would like to see as a free gift, buy that edition, but why buy it every day? Do you see where I’m going here?

So what did I do today to save some money? I left the house without any money on me, and didn’t even realise until I got home again. That would have been an impossible thing for me to do before, I would have HAD to of turned round and gone home to get my purse because there was always something else I had to buy.

It makes me shudder now, to think how much money I have, literally, wasted over the years, and I really wish I’d had this epiphany when my children were small.

Now I’m feeling guilty

After my posting about saving money, what am I doing? Burning the midnight oil to write this! That’s what!

Oh the shame of it! I’ve got a light on which, if I was posting during the day, wouldn’t need to be on. How can I bear the shame? Okay, it’s an energy saving bulb, but can that off set my wastage?
I think it can, because during daylight hours there are so many other ways I can be saving money!

Take today, I worked down the allotment for a few hours, brought home the last of the runner beans and froze them for use later on in the year.

Then I picked up a pair of trainers off Freecycle that will last me through the winter, which could well have set me back over £30 if I’d had to go out and buy them.

While all this was happening dinner was slowly bubbling away in the slow cooker, or crockpot as our American cousins call it, using the same amount of electricity as a light bulb to cook the whole meal. (Note to self, must try and find out if that is an energy saving light bulb or an old fashioned incandescent one!) So much cheaper than cooking in the oven or on the hob!

I got some more rows done on the top I’m crocheting myself for Christmas wear, a nice bright cheery red, well scarlet actually. The pattern is for a top and contrasting shrug, which I’m planning to do in black to tone down the scarlet a little.

Now the frugality behind this is really impressive.

The pattern was free off the Internet, the scarlet wool my friend gave me as she has had to give up knitting due to a whiplash injury, (thank you Linda!), the black wool for the shrug is left over from a skirt I am also crocheting for myself, so the only cost involved is that of my time, which I know I have said is in short supply at the moment, but as I am unable to work because of the combination of the COPD, under active thyroid and labyrinthitus, isn’t worth that much to start with, and think about it, most ladies happily spend the best part of £50 or more on one Christmas outfit, mine is free, and probably unique in style/colour. I doubt if anyone else in the UK will be making the exact same top, with the exact same shrug, in those exact same colours, to wear with the exact same crochet skirt. What more can a girl ask for? lol

I also did a little more reading on making my own hard cheese, but am beginning to feel that maybe our little rented kitchen isn’t going to be up to the task as we don’t have a cool cupboard or larder for the cheese to mature in, but I will keep on reading the book manfully to the end, just in case I have misunderstood something. The book also covers making my own butter, yogurt and ice cream, all of which I can do in our kitchen, so it will still pay its way even if I land up not being able to make our own hard cheese. I will be disappointed though, if that is the case, I kinda had my heart set on it, seeing as hubby paid out a disgusting £3.56p for less than half a pound of the stuff today!

Oh and I read a tip somewhere about growing carrots.

Now bear with me, this may seem a little convoluted, but I am experimenting with using the same tip with parsnips too! Okay basically the tip said to cut off a bit more off the top of the carrot than you normally do, put it on a bit of kitchen towel and keep it wet until it starts to grow again, then put it back in the soil and the whole root will grow back again. Now the cost of carrot seed is not a bank breaker, nor is the cost of parsnip seed come to that, but, for every five seeds you sow, you may or may not get one plant. So far I have replanted four carrots and re started one parsnip which also seems to be taking, so at the moment I am five for five instead of one for five, I wonder why more people don’t do this!

Oooo! Now I’m wondering if it can be done with beetroot, turnips and other similar root vegetables too! How sad am I? lol

REALISATION DAWNS!

I am not known for my brilliant mind, nor my good looks come to that. So some things come a little slowly to me, take the whole ‘being frugal’ business for instance. I had been thinking change your shopping habits, make little sacrifices, buy more basic goods and make them in to more fancy stuff yourself, like making my own pastry instead of buying the ready made stuff.

Then there is the whole ‘living greener’ issue. I’d been thinking buy green cleaning products, recycle, compost, turn lights off.

It never occurred to me that there was any connection between the two!

But today the light went on!

These two life stances are actually one and the same thing! Let me show you what I mean;

1. By down sizing my spending habits I am buying less, which means less packaging, less miles travelled by the products I didn’t buy, less energy spent in making the product, which is all green!
2. By not buying that fancy bottle of perfume I like, I’m not only saving a fair sized chunk of money, but I’m also saving my bin from all that extra packaging.
3. By making my own pastry, I’m also saving on packaging, the ready made stuff comes securely wrapped in plastic, as well as almost costing twice as much as it costs me to make it myself. Okay, my pastry may not be as good – yet, -but it is a small sacrifice I am very willing to make.
4. Now we get to the really nifty stuff… By making my own frugal cleaners I am saving on packaging, as I use basic kitchen ingredients to make my cleaners which I would have already bought anyway, and as this stuff is safe enough for us to eat, it can’t cause any damage to the environment when it gets washed down the sink! You might think that making my own cleaners is time consuming, but you would be very wrong, it takes no more time than pouring the purchased cleaner from the bottle, so that’s a bonus you don’t normally get. Add to that the fact that making my own works out at a fraction of the cost of purchased cleaners, echo or otherwise, and I’m in a win-win situation here!
5. By recycling, I don’t always mean taking it to the special bins. Now before I discard a product or a bit of packaging I look at it twice. That empty egg box would be perfect for chitting my potatoes, or as a bio-degradable seed pot (thus saving me the cost of seed pots too!). That empty jar is the perfect size for storing my dried sage or thyme. That old kettle that blew a fuse would make the perfect plant pot for my mint to stop it spreading more than I want. Those old tights with the holes in will store my onions perfectly, or tie up my tomatoes (saving me the cost of string), or could even be made in to a rug if I save enough of them from going to the allotment. The inner tube of the toilet roll is perfect for seeds, again. Those envelopes that came in the post are perfect for writing out my to-do lists on. Those plastic carrier bags with the holes in, cut them in to strips and use them as weather proof plant ties, or crochet them in to another shopping bag, one that won’t tear so easily this time. Look at everything twice or three times, and try to think outside of the box.
6. I used to run around the house turning lights and equipment on stand-by off thinking “save money, save money!” and it got a little stale, if you know what I mean, but now I’m thinking “Save money, save the planet!” and it doesn’t seem so altruistic any more.

Being frugal and being green are not mutually exclusive, they are mutually Inclusive! Who would have thought it?

REALISATION DAWNS!

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I am not known for my brilliant mind, nor my good looks come to that. So some things come a little slowly to me, take the whole ‘being frugal’ business for instance. I had been thinking change your shopping habits, make little sacrifices, buy more basic goods and make them in to more fancy stuff yourself, like making my own pastry instead of buying the ready made stuff.

Then there is the whole ‘living greener’ issue. I’d been thinking buy green cleaning products, recycle, compost, turn lights off.

It never occurred to me that there was any connection between the two!

But today the light went on!

These two life stances are actually one and the same thing! Let me show you what I mean;

1. By down sizing my spending habits I am buying less, which means less packaging, less miles travelled by the products I didn’t buy, less energy spent in making the product, which is all green!
2. By not buying that fancy bottle of perfume I like, I’m not only saving a fair sized chunk of money, but I’m also saving my bin from all that extra packaging.
3. By making my own pastry, I’m also saving on packaging, the ready made stuff comes securely wrapped in plastic, as well as almost costing twice as much as it costs me to make it myself. Okay, my pastry may not be as good – yet, -but it is a small sacrifice I am very willing to make.
4. Now we get to the really nifty stuff… By making my own frugal cleaners I am saving on packaging, as I use basic kitchen ingredients to make my cleaners which I would have already bought anyway, and as this stuff is safe enough for us to eat, it can’t cause any damage to the environment when it gets washed down the sink! You might think that making my own cleaners is time consuming, but you would be very wrong, it takes no more time than pouring the purchased cleaner from the bottle, so that’s a bonus you don’t normally get. Add to that the fact that making my own works out at a fraction of the cost of purchased cleaners, echo or otherwise, and I’m in a win-win situation here!
5. By recycling, I don’t always mean taking it to the special bins. Now before I discard a product or a bit of packaging I look at it twice. That empty egg box would be perfect for chitting my potatoes, or as a bio-degradable seed pot (thus saving me the cost of seed pots too!). That empty jar is the perfect size for storing my dried sage or thyme. That old kettle that blew a fuse would make the perfect plant pot for my mint to stop it spreading more than I want. Those old tights with the holes in will store my onions perfectly, or tie up my tomatoes (saving me the cost of string), or could even be made in to a rug if I save enough of them from going to the allotment. The inner tube of the toilet roll is perfect for seeds, again. Those envelopes that came in the post are perfect for writing out my to-do lists on. Those plastic carrier bags with the holes in, cut them in to strips and use them as weather proof plant ties, or crochet them in to another shopping bag, one that won’t tear so easily this time. Look at everything twice or three times, and try to think outside of the box.
6. I used to run around the house turning lights and equipment on stand-by off thinking “save money, save money!” and it got a little stale, if you know what I mean, but now I’m thinking “Save money, save the planet!” and it doesn’t seem so altruistic any more.

Being frugal and being green are not mutually exclusive, they are mutually Inclusive! Who would have thought it?

THE ALLOTMENT TRIALS.

I’m not the most productive of bloggers as I’ve said before, and have been away from here for a quite a while. I have never been much of a diary keeper, so this doesn’t come naturally to me, and when I’m busy, I just don’t think about it!

So what have you been up to that has kept you so busy? I hear you ask.

Well for starters we finally got to the top of the waiting list for an allotment and took it over half way through April.

Considering we have been waiting for this allotment for over three years, we were surprised to find the plot hadn’t been worked at all for over five years, and had the resultant seven foot high bramble covering to prove it! But I’m not going to even try to figure that one out, though I have my suspicions. Suffice to say, our plot and the surrounding plots were so over grown, we had to be shown where we started and ended, and then had to cut our way through to it!

The clearing of the brambles, although I did do some, fell mainly to my husband who revels in that sort of work. There were times where I felt as if I was Wily Coyote, and he was the Road Runner, running rings around me! It took two weeks of working five to six hours a day for me and three to four hours most days for Hubby, before we could actually say we had levelled the site. We did find a beautiful Rosemary bush that has to be four foot wide and just as tall, but pretty much everything else was bramble.

By the time it was cleared enough to start putting plants in it was the beginning of May, and I was desperate to get stuff in the ground, but I had made the mistake of showing Hubby some of the things I wanted incorporated in to the plot, like a greenhouse, shed and pond. I on the other hand, needed bramble roots dug out and beds made up quickly, so I think I can safely say there was a slight conflict of interests!

Now bare in mind, I haven’t had a garden since I was a child, and have forgotten more than I ever knew in the first place, so this has been a real learning curve for me, and Hubby doesn’t have green fingers, he has black ones! So planting and nurturing is my job, Hubby will happily build me anything I want, but I have to get the food coming out so he maintains his interest in the project.

So I turned to Ebay and bought plug plants by the ship load. The plants started arriving, and the beds weren’t ready! Everything was rushed, the plants have been put in too close together, but they are growing anyway, apart from the odd disaster here and there which I will tell you about another day.

I have utilised Freecycle unashamedly, obtaining dustbins to plant my potatoes in (saves digging them up when they are ready!), roof tiles and big bits of wood for edgings for the beds, old bits of carpets and cardboard boxes for the paths, composters and even a water butt.

The work has been exhausting, but at last we are beginning to eat some of our labours, as in lettuce, peas, radishes and strawberries, so I can build our meals around what is available on the plot and hopefully save money that way. So yes, this is going to be half a frugal posting and half a gardening posting.

That sort of sets the scene for you, the actual stories of my battles both won and lost so far will follow, in the course of time. (Well you know what I’m like with my blogging!)

I’M HAVE A CONFESSION, I’M NOT A FRUGAL SHOPPER.

After the previous post about how I manage to save money here and there, I felt it only fair to make this admission of guilt. I am a spontaneous shopper, so if I see something that isn’t on my list, but still peaks my interest, and if it’s within my budget, I will snap it up on the spur of the moment.

I did this a few months ago at our local garden centre, where, in the fancy gifts section I found a small block of deodorant crystal, reduced (of course) down to £2.99. Seeing as I normally pay about £1.19 for my normal deodorant, (though I do try to buy this when it’s on ‘buy one, get one free’), this was considered by me to be an extravagant purchase.

I had, however, read about these crystals in the past, and was curious to see if it really could do everything it claimed, especially in the light of an article I read online revealing all the dangerous chemicals that are used in the manufacture of my regular deodorant, so I snapped the crystal bargain up, thinking that it would last about a month.

I seriously doubted that this little block of crystal, (about the size of a complimentary soap you get in hotels, but twice as thick,) would last more than a couple of weeks, and I seriously doubted it could stop some of my cheapo tops from smelling after only a few hours of wear. I mean, it had no perfume to it, all I had to do was wet the end and rub it over my skin. It is all just so simple it couldn’t possibly work, could it?

I have to admit I now consider this crystal to be my top bargain purchase of the year, and I rate it even higher than my new allotment, which I will tell you about in another post.

The crystal not only stops all body odour, dead, but it is still the same size as when I bought it (except for a small chip where I dropped it in the sink once). I can wear any perfume I like, because having no smell, the crystal doesn’t clash with my perfume choice, and it has now lasted longer than the price equivalent in my ex-normal deodorant, and I still haven’t found one single draw back to it, (apart from it being a bit slippery when wet of course). When it is finished there will be nothing to throw away or recycle, and the packaging it came in was a piece of brown paper tied with a bit of raffia string. How much more echo friendly can you get?

I suspect it will be a very long time before I have to buy another one of these for myself, but I will definitely be buying more to put in Christmas stockings this year for others!

Some of the ways I try to save money

The recession is going to hit those of us who are already on benefits first and the hardest, so how does a family who are already below the breadline tighten their belts even further?

There are many blogs and websites out there already covering some of the problems being faced, or will soon have to be faced, by millions of people who have grown up in a world where when something breaks, you throw it away and buy a new one. Very soon they are going to discover they can no longer just go out and buy a replacement, no matter how many ads encourage them to do this.

So, periodically, I thought I’d write about some of the things I do to save money, and hopefully give someone else a chance to save a few pennies here and there too.

So where to start?

Well yesterday my husband, who has become quite expert in filling out forms over the years, helped a friend fill out his council tax form, who in turn gave my husband a nice professional hair cut in payment. See? If you have a skill, offer it in exchange for a skill you don’t have. Okay I hear you say, why don’t I cut hubbies hair for him? Well the truth of the matter is, hubby doesn’t trust me to do it properly, and after the first time I did it for him, I don’t trust myself not to just start cutting at the nape of the neck and carry on straight through to the adams apple! (if you get my drift!)

This morning after my shower I cut my own hair. Yep I actually do that.

It is the third time I’ve done it and the first two times worked out so well I feel like I’m becoming an old hand at it (got to wait for it to dry to see if it worked as well again this time, but so far it looks good.).

Now I know many women will shudder in horror at the thought of cutting their own hair for fear of messing it up, and I was one of them, no honestly I was, but it got to the point where my hair was a total mess, and there just wasn’t any money to spare for the £30-£45 my hair dresser charges for a cut and blow dry. And then I read online a tip and in desperation I tried it, and to my amazement it turned out better than anything my hair dresser has done in the ten years I’ve been using him!

“So what do you do?” I hear you ask, well to start you wash your hair, but don’t dry it at all, to do the cut you need it to be dripping wet. Now tip your head forward until your nose is pointing towards your knees, (I generally sit in the toilet for this bit) and comb or brush your hair forward. Make sure your head is really tipped forward or you may find your fringe is cut way to short, depending on the length of the hair you are working with, mine is about shoulder length. Then choose a line to cut and start, keep brushing and cutting until you feel you have the length you want. This cut provides a lovely layered cut that frames the face, and yet keeps the length long enough even for my husband’s tastes. (It’s the old story, he likes long, I like short lol).

Today we woke up to snow. Yes it is actually snowing here in London, heavy enough to do Scotland proud, and has been doing so for nearly four hours so far! So what am I going to do about heating the flat? The first thing is shut all the doors to the rooms that will not be used, so I won’t be wasting the heat where it isn’t needed.

The next thing I am going to do is have a baking day. My husband loves chocolate chip cookies, so I’ll make up two batches of those (it always has to be two batches as the first batch disappears as soon as they are out of the oven!), and some bread and may be even a cake. The heat from the oven should provide enough warmth for the rooms I have left open; and the food needs to be cooked anyway, so today is the perfect day for it. I’ll also whip up some extra cookie dough and freeze it for quick cooking when husband finishes this lot.

Why do I make my own biscuits? Well for one thing, they taste nicer than the shop bought ones, they are cheaper too, and they don’t have any hidden ‘nasties’ in them either. So it’s an all-round win-win strategy.

Here’s the recipe, in case anyone wants to try making them, I use a mixer, but it’s an old recipe so I’ll write it as it’s written.

Chocolate Chip Cookies (one batch)

100g/4oz butter or margarine, softened
100g/4oz Demerara sugar (or brown sugar)
1 egg slightly beaten
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
50g/2oz sultanas
175g/6oz self-raising flour
50g/2oz plain or milk chocolate chips

Heat oven to 160c (325f, gas mark 3 (gosh you wouldn’t believe how long it took me to look up the alternatives!) Lightly grease two baking trays. Cream the butter or margarine with the sugar until very soft, light and fluffy. Gradually add the egg, beating continuously, then beat in the vanilla essence. Stir the sultanas into the creamed mixture together with the flour and chocolate chips.

Drop heaped teaspoonfuls of the mixture, sufficiently apart to allow room for spreading, on to the prepared baking trays and flatten slightly with the back of a fork. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until golden. Leave the cookies on the trays (I normally have to fight hubby off at this point!) for a few minutes then cool on a wire rack.

Makes 30

So total saving for today will have to be an estimate, but…
£30-£45 for a hair cut.
Heating for the day approx £3
Biscuits bought would cost 79p a packet, one batch of home made = two packets = £3.16
Margarine – 16p
Sugar – 22p
Egg – 14p
Vanilla essence – 3p
Sultanas – 12p
Flour – 5p
Heating of oven – £1.20
Total expenditure today; £1.92 compared to the £36.19 I would otherwise have spent!

Now I’m off to do some baking!

Another day…

I found a lovely balaclava type hat on line, that looks more like a chain mail helmet than a crochet balaclava.

I also found, at a local store two odd balls of Wendy Fusion wool. It’s a random coloured wool, and the two balls aren’t even the same random colours, but I love both.

So I have fused (excuse the pun) the two finds together to make the helmet.

Only one problem. I have frogged the helmet six times now, and still it’s too big! I’m down to 66 stitches around the brim, where I should have 99, and still I think it’s going to be a little too baggy, but I’m going to persevere with it now as it is.

I had almost finished the shawl last night, (only 72 stitches to go) when I ran out of the yarn I was using.
Only one little problem.  I intend to make two shawls, in two different colours, for my aunts, and the wool only comes in bags of six balls, so I had to buy twelve balls of wool to do a grand total of 144 stitches!  How silly is that?

Today I dashed back up to the shop and bought the wool.  I was very lucky as I got the last bags of each colour I have chosen to work with!  The Gods must have been smiling down on me for me to be so fortunate.
Never mind, I already know what I’m going to do with the left overs, a wheelchair lap-gahn for my cousin.  I have even thought I might try and add a small bag to the  top of it so she can put her bits and pieces in it.  I got the idea after seeing her struggle to turn and get something out of the bag hanging on the back of her chair at Christmas.

The first shawl is now finished and I think it’s beautiful.  It’s soft, simple yet elegant, and it has the perfect weight to it so it hangs perfectly without dropping off every other second.  I tried to get hubby to feel how soft it was, but he didn’t seem to be so impressed, but then he’s a man.  The second shawl is just under half done, so it won’t be long before I’m doing the lapgahn.  Did I mention it was a doddle to crochet? lol

I’m off to check I still like the lapgahn pattern.  I have an idea in my head to what I want it to look like, so if it isn’t the same I’m going to hunt out the pattern I’m thinking of and just make it shorter.

Have a wonderful day.

I have been lazy with my writing.

Well I have been very lazy with my writing since I sent the book off to the publisher, but I haven’t been very lazy in other areas of my life…

I have been very busy crafting, loads of yarn in the New Year sales has inspired me to start work on next Christmas’s gifts…

Oh and I’ve made myself two pairs of slipper socks.  I loved the pattern, but after I’d made the first pair I decided I wanted them to be a bit longer in the leg, so did another pair.  They were very quick and easy though, so I don’t feel a bit guilty about the time I spent on them though.

My friend Lucie has given me a whole heap of old knitting and crochet patterns mixed in with recipes and magazines.  Some of the patterns go back to the 1950′s!  There are some beautiful baby patterns in amongst them, and seeing as my brother is expecting his second child in April…  What a hoard!

Yep I feel another project coming on… lol.

On the writing side though, very little has happened, but I am seriously thinking about doing some short story contests which have a deadline in February.  I just hate doing short stories sooo much though, much prefer to waffle on at my own speed and not be restricted by a word count!

I joined a new group online, which is called ‘Pass it forward’.  Basically the idea is to find some way to do someone a kindness, and if they try to repay you, tell them to pass it forward to the next person they see in need of help.  They have a wonderful story about a Macdonald’s drive thru in the US, where someone paid for the car behinds order at about 8.30 am, and the car behind paid for the next person’s order etc.  The line wasn’t broken until after 3pm that afternoon!  But a kindness isn’t always money based, so I felt happy joining.

Upset the hubby a bit on Wednesday, by replacing the electric kettle which no longer boiled, the DVD player that had the broken remote, the thermos flask that no longer kept anything hot and the telephone that no longer had a dial tone that was recognised by the switchboard.  He paid me back, but he was not happy with the expense, a whole  £44.47!  Yep I love the January sales!!!!

On Wednesday KitKat made her first solo kill.  Boy am I proud of that kitty!  Boy did she make a fuss about it!  Boy did she want a lot of treats for all her hard work!  Worth every second.

Right I’m off to work on the shawl I’m making as a Christmas gift with the lovely soft yarn I found in the sales.