Voucher success

(image from seeklogo.com)

As I said here, I was inspired by Sue to go and use some of the vouchers I have which are about to expire.  Yesterday afternoon in Boots, I bought 10 of those same shower gels, and 2 packs of Boots hair dye which I use, which was also on a "Buy 2 for £6" offer instead of their usual £4.07 each.  Then I let the YFG choose a little gift for a friend who is having their birthday tomorrow, with the remaining £4 on the voucher.  Voucher well spent, and thanks for the inspiration, Sue!

Unexpected blessing

When my Dad visited on Sunday, he brought me a CD that one of the family has had made from an old tape of my great grandfather preaching in Cottenham Methodist Chapel in Cambridgeshire. 

It was the service to mark his 70th year as a preacher in that circuit.  What an achievement!  He was about 91 years old.

I listened to the CD yesterday afternoon whilst I was ironing, and it was inspirational. So much of what he said then is still relevant today.  

It dates from about 1959, we think: he also wrote a pamphlet of about 50 pages in 1949 to mark the 60th year.  There is a copy of the pamphlet in the county archives, so I hope to be able to go to read it after Christmas.

Crunching numbers

£1123.45

That is THE number in question, and represents the amount I need to save or acquire in extra income to put in savings by the end of the year to hit my target of saving £5000 this year.

That is quite a lot of dosh for only about 6 weeks of time remaining, but I really want that sense of accomplishment of a goal achieved this year!

I have some income that I can expect:

£150 from after school gym club which I will invoice at the end of term.

Sales of books at two village events in the next few weeks - probably totalling about £100.

So that is £250 down, £873.45 to go........

What can I do?

• List some books on Amazon as I sold some on there last Christmas.  Price them to sell!
• Have some "£21 challenge" weeks where I cut the costs of our groceries back to the bone.  The savings from that can go into the pot.
• Continue to save from our regular income - I have already put £250 in this month already.
• Look around and see if we have anything we can sell on Ebay that is mine or the FH's.  No use selling anything that the girls have finished with for this goal as they will have the money for their things.  What could I part with? [Must look at my clothes now that I have shrunk a little - perhaps there are some nice items there I could part with...]
• Be controlled and creative with the Christmas spending.  Like Sue over at Our New Life in the Country, I have some vouchers to spend, so I can use them instead of real cash.

There may be other things that I come up with, but that is a place to start.

Do you have annual goals?  How are they shaping up?

Cream crackered

There's a rhyming word which means absolutely shattered and that is what I am tonight!  

Housework, ironing, hanging washing, shopping, gymnastics, cooking tea, knitting....done enough for one day today.

See you tomorrow - sweet dreams xx

Not quite but almost

I've now been tagged twice in the eleven random things/questions/etc thingamydodah, and so I had better Do something about it.

It wouldn't be fair to answer one of the set of questions and not the other, so I am going to answer neither, and nor am I going to think up 11 fresh questions - there aren't enough hours in the day to do it all!!  All that I will contribute, whilst thanking people for tagging me [very kind of you both to think of me!], is to try to find 11 random things about myself to share.

Here goes:

1. I've learned a lot of languages - I have GCSEs in French, German, Russian and Latin (all As except the Latin which was a C - I started it two years later than everybody else in the class!), and then I studied Hebrew and Greek in university.  I think that may be enough!

2. There is a 35 year age gap between the FH and I.

3. I don't eat wheat, corn, soya or dairy products.  To say why would be TMI.

4. When the EFG was born the paediatrician asked me why I hadn't stopped smoking when I became pregnant, as it was my fault that the EFG was such a wee thing at 5lb 8ozs.  I took  pleasure in telling her that I hadn't [and still haven't] smoked a single cigarette in my life, so she needed to think again.

(image from movieactors.com)

5.  My all time favourite film is the original Dr Zhivago with Omar Sharif and Julie Christie.

6.  I've come to the conclusion that I love collecting recipes a tiny bit more than I actually love to cook.  It is in my nature to collect information of all kinds!

7.  I don't want a Kindle.  I prefer real books.

8.  I'm quite a procrastinator when I have to do something I really don't fancy doing - I will fill the time with all sorts of things in order to not get around to doing whatever it is I don't want to do!

9.  I wish I could crochet.

10.  I miss my mum every day - she's been gone nearly 15 years and I think of her every day.  But I see her in myself and in the EFG....she's not far away.

11.  I love to drive - it is definitely in my blood - Mum and Dad could both drive buses.  Perhaps I will be able to drive something sizeable one day!  I used to love driving the motorhome.

That is my contribution - thanks for reading xx

Remembering

Today we are planning to be at the morning chapel service, but there will be another one later in the day, bringing the village together for Remembrance Day.

The FH did his National Service in the RAF, and we have many friends who have served in the RAF too.  My grandfather, I have learned, fought in the First World War, and the FH has cousins who were in the Royal Marines in the Second World War.  We come from fairly lowly backgrounds, both of us, and have a lot of agricultural workers in our family trees, so a lot of our relatives were engaged in agriculturally based reserved occupations.

We still remember those we know who have served, though.  I also think of the young soldier I wrote to during the original Gulf War, when I was a teenager.  One of the FH's uncles was on HMS Repulse during the war, I believe.  He was a radio operator, and knew Morse Code - clever man!

(image from britishlegion.org.uk)

The FH watched the Festival of Remembrance from the Royal Albert Hall last night, and I was listening to it as well.

(image from guardian.co.uk)

We give thanks for all their sacrifice and service, and must never forget them.  In current times, we also remember those who have received life-changing injuries whilst carrying out their duties, and I think that charities like Help the Heroes deserve our respect, support and admiration as well as the more traditional organisations like the Royal British Legion, which does amazing work.

A day in pictures

Today has been a good one - lots done, and plenty to enjoy!

(image from operationchristmaschild.org.uk)

First of all, I dropped one of the older ladies from the church off at another church in town, along with the 28 shoeboxes which the craft club has filled for the appeal, and with £70 to send them off.  We think that they might be going to Belarus, but we aren't sure yet.

(image from northumberlandlife.org)

Then it was time to go to the gym with the YFG for the Saturday morning training session.  The Olympics has really inspired a generation here, and we are inundated with little boys in particular wanting to have a go!  A busy session today....

Then the YFG and I dashed off to Tesco with my Clubcard vouchers burning a hole in my purse!  I had saved up £30 worth, which I doubled up and spent on some clothes.  All for nothing, really!  My weight loss has meant that I needed some new trousers, so I treated myself to two pairs of cheapish but smart black trousers, and a pair of jeans.  We got a couple of things for the YFG and two pairs of the PJ trousers in warm flannel fabric which the EFG loves.  And some socks.  We always need socks.  There is a sock graveyard here somewhere!

(image from zazzle.co.uk)

This afternoon, I spent a little time on the computer, and did some washing too. I had an email from a lady who is distantly related, and she shared her tree with me too, so I spent some time looking at that.  This genealogy is fascinating.

(image from telegraph.co.uk)

The YFG made pizza for tea for herself and the FH; the EFG and I did some freezing delving.

(image from radiotimes.com)

Louis stunned us with a glorious waltz tonight, to the tune, "Moon River" - and we just loved it!  He's our favourite to win...

(image from guardian.co.uk)

And we love Merlin, so we watched that too!

Hope you have had a good day.

A further welcome to the latest follower - hope you say "Hello" in a comment one day!