Thanks

Thank you all for your comments to my last posting, you are all wonderful, lovely people.

I just want to wish you all a lovely and Happy New Year to each and every one who takes the time to stop off at my blog.

Love to you all xxx

All done

Thank goodness I've finished all my mandatory training for this year today. I'm sure they'll find some other course that they want me to do before I start all over again with my mandatory training next Oct - Nov 2012. I hate training days. They take up such a lot of my personal time. I work nights but training sessions are always in the day time but I do get lieu time for going in.Threw some chicken legs in the slow cooker before I left for the course so tea was rustled up in no time when I got home.

Really looking forward to watching the new series on Channel 4 tonight at 9.00pm, Living with the Amish. I'm fascinated by these people. They live such simplistic lifestyles and I'm sure it will appeal to so many people these days who yearn for a simple frugal life.

Just realised it's on in 15 minutes so I'm off to jump in the shower before it's on. Might come back to let you know what I thought of it.

Loved the programme. My girls watched it too. They watch all the Amish programmes that are on because they are fascinated by them too.  They are very quiet people but are very genuine and welcoming. I love how no technology enters their lives. No TV, no computers, no phones. The teenagers who went to experience Amish life did not even miss their technology because they were so busy. I think this is where we are going wrong. Kids don't have enough to occupy them these days so they rely on TV, mobiles, hanging on street corners and computer games to entertain them. Not once did the teenagers on the programme mention their phone or missing a TV. It's because they were occupied and busy with all the chores.

My 17 year old daughter could not believe a girl her age on the programme had never wash a pot in her life and did not know how to sweep the floor. It's not the girls fault, it's her mothers. I do let my girls off with  a lot of stuff but they do have certain jobs that must be done like washing up, taking rubbish out, filling and emptying the dishwasher ,dog walking, tidying up after themselves and attending to their own rooms. I think if kids had such busy lives as the Amish there would not be as much youth trouble as there is in society today. Can't wait to watch next weeks installment.

Hello Friends

Hello everyone and can I just say, thank you all for your lovely comments over the last week. Much appreciated.

Don't know where to begin. Not going to dwell on why I've been away. Things still need sorting. What I am faced with is a deluge of food. Upon my return home I thought I had better call into the supermarket first and stock up on some shopping. I spent about £40.00 on a good amount of food that would make food for us for at least five days with stuff for lunches too. On arrival home Daughter No2 was home and informed me they had all gone shopping last night. I looked in the fridges and cupboards to find we had nearly duplicated a lot of the shopping. I have so much veg, cheese and meat I am going to have to get my thinking hat on and start menu planning a lot of extra veg into our meals over the next week.

Not going to waste any of the food and shall be creating more veg based meals to make best use of all this food. Hopefully we can eat for quite a while on what we have in and I hope to not shop for quite a lot of days. Hopefully not until pay day. I also want to use up as much as I can from the freezer to free some space for the Christmas turkey. I also want freezer space for all the food I am going to start preparing for the festive season. I have a lot of tried and tested desserts that freeze really well so need the space for these.

I spent this evening at the dining table writing my Christmas cards. All done except the personal family cards which I shall buy Friday in The Card Factory. They are so cheap in this shop and save us a fortune compared to buying in a top name card shop. I also got a pile of presents wrapped. I've made my Christmas list for Santa! "All I want for Christmas is" a pile of cookery books. I've made my list of books. I've sourced the cheapest place to buy them all (Amazon) and the list is on it's way to Hubby. I love my cookery books and only indulge at Christmas when other people can buy them for me. Ordered a couple more presents today off the Internet. Two personalised books for our niece and nephew. The books are  printed with the child's name and friends names, birthdays and where they live into the stories. I thought they were a bit different to the usual gifts and I'm sure the kids will love to have a book with themselves in it.

Feel like I'm nearly sorted for Christmas now and that's a good feeling!

M5 Crash

Lets take a moment to think of all the people who have lost their lives or nearly did because of the M5 motorway crash. 7 dead so far and 51 injured in the 34 car pile up on the M5. My god, how those families must be feeling! Does not bear thinking about. I have been following this story all day.

                                               RIP

Hallelujah!

Finally got some of the trees pruned today. Watched the weather forecast when eating my breakfast and it looked glum so thought I'd better get on with the job straight away. After taking the dog for his morning walk I got the ladders out and got straight on with the job. The blossom tree was stripped of most of its branches and will benefit from this drastic pruning as it has not been done in the last five and a half years we have lived here. I then chopped all the branches into small pieces to go in my compost wheelie bin which the council collect every other week. This is then turned into compost for the local farmers to use. The one tree nearly filled the bin. I saved thicker branches to give to sister-in-law for fire wood.

I then started on the three lilac trees of our neighbour. They are down the boundary of our properties and encroach on my garden and are a pain as I catch my car wing mirror on them so I was ruthless and chopped all the branches that came into my garden. Again theses were chopped small to fit in the recycle bin. I only have another tree to prune now so shall leave it until my bin is emptied then I shall fill it again with tree branches.

I love the fact we have a bin for garden waste to be recycled. When we lived in the city this was not done. I just love the fact that I am recycling and helping farmers grow what we eat. It saves us having to fill our car with garden waste and drive to a tip with it. Saves fuel and time and land fill space.

My version, seafood paella

Really fancied a seafood paella this week but seafood can be expensive. I bought a bag of mixed frozen seafood from Aldi which cost £2.99 for a 500g bag.

It had a good mix of squid, mussels, prawns and plenty of king prawns. I only used about 1/3 of the packet for two of us. Paella uses saffron as one of the main ingredients but I can't afford saffron so made do with a bit of turmeric to add the yellow colour.

Seafood paella (my easy cheaper version)

1 tbsp olive oil
onion, chopped
Red pepper, chopped
clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp paprika
Plenty of hot stock
Paella rice or risotto rice
Mixed seafood
Frozen peas
Juice 1/2 lemon
Parsley, chopped
Salt & pepper

I cooked the onion, pepper and garlic in the oil over a low heat for 5 minutes.
Add the paprika, turmeric (or saffron) and the rice and cook for a minute.
Add some stock to cover and keep giving it a stir adding more stock as it's absorbed until the rice is tender, about 20 minutes.
Add some frozen peas and cook for a few minutes.
Add the mixed seafood, parsley, lemon juice and season. Heat through until seafood is just hot. Cooking any longer will make the seafood chewy and tough.

Not given any quantities. Just add whatever amount you fancy for however many people you are feeding. A really good stock will give it a good flavour.  I think it made a lovely colourful bowl of food.

Nothing much happening here today. Spent part of the day sleeping as I worked last night. Washing still getting hung in the garden to dry as the weather is still lovely for the time of year. I plan to have a busier day tomorrow. Want to attempt to cut the trees I planned to do last week but got rained off the day I wanted to do it so hopefully will get this sorted tomorrow.

Plenty of packages been delivered this week full of Christmas presents. This is the way I like to Christmas shop, on the Internet, no crowded shops, no wasting petrol and free delivery for all the gifts I got delivered this week. Another job I must do tomorrow is to go in the loft space over the garage and find my Christmas cards. I usually buy them in the sales in January then stash them away with the Christmas decorations so must find them tomorrow to check I've got enough. If I have time I might try printing some of my brown wrapping paper tomorrow too.

Not the evening we expected

Daughter No2's phone received a text whilst we were driving to the pub. It was her boyfriend and he was letting her know he had been in an accident and was on the way to the hospital in an ambulance. She had been with him all day and was catching the bus from town to our village. Her boyfriend wanted to make sure she got home okay as it was dark so decided to follow the bus on his scooter. As soon as daughter arrived home we set off for the pub, this is when she got the text. She's had a call since saying he's okay and needed stitches to his head and is bruised badly but is allowed home. Apparently a car hit him and did not stop. A man walking his dog witnessed the incident so the police are involved and his scooter is in the hands of the police who are looking for clues as to the colour of the car that hit him.

What gets me is motor bikes and scooters. Every time he visits or returns home I worry about him being on his scooter on the dark country lanes from here to his home. I would never let one of my daughter's have a scooter, I just would not settle when they were out on it. I know lots and lots of teenagers around here have motor bikes or scooters because transport is not good and it is long distances between friends but I could never allow one of mine to have a bike.   Poor daughter is riddled with guilt because if she had come home when it was still light he would not have followed. Anyway, thank heavens he seems okay and he's here to tell the tale. The bastard who hit him most probably won't be found but how can that driver live with himself . He must have known he hit him and he drove off and did not care about his well being. He could have killed him. I hope the bastard is tossing and turning in his bed tonight with the worry of what he's done. Daughter's boyfriend; he's not even my child and I worry the hell about him!

Nothing much of a day

Had quite a nice sleep after my night shift. Daughter No3 took the dog out for his walk this afternoon so I didn't have to get up and take him out. Daughter No2 was busy at the hairdressers she works at usually at weekends. Wanted to prune some trees in the front garden today but I never seem to have much energy after a night shift so shall tackle them tomorrow. Had an evening tea of Fragrant pork rice one pot. This is a very frugal meal needing only a few main ingredient, sausages, rice, tin tomatoes and half an onion. Was a request from Daughter No 2 this week. The recipe is here http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/9527/fragrant-pork-and-rice-onepot    we had this with some homemade bread.

Nothing much happened today. It's been a quiet day and I hope to have a more productive day tomorrow. To tell you the truth, a none productive day is quite a lovely day and a rare day here!

Must just finish on a high. So pleased with my views on my blog each day, I'm up to about 150 a day which is a big increase on my blog. Thanks to all who view. Much appreciated.

Chocolate Fondant Day

Had a morning of catching up on a huge pile of ironing whilst catching up on my celebrity master chef (don't tell me who won, I've not totally caught up yet) Felt good to have gotten rid of the huge pile of ironing but it doesn't take long for it to grow again!

Think it was one of the earlier parts of master chef that I saw one contestant making chocolate fondants and thought to myself I must try making these myself one day. I have wanted to make them for years and have never gotten around to it. I bought a bar of chocolate a couple of weeks ago so thought today shall be the day. We are not pud eaters in our house but I'm sure we will enjoy them. They are cheap enough to make using just chocolate, butter, eggs, sugar and flour. All the ingredients people usually have in except the chocolate. My eggs are cheap because I get them from the farm. I bought two dozen free range seconds yesterday for £2.00 so the fondants have not cost much to make. I have spent half hour making them and they are sat in the fridge ready to cook later. That's the hard bit, cooking them for the right amount of time or I shall have no runny centre. We shall see later.

The last few days I have looked out of my kitchen window and thought what a lovely colour my blueberry bush is. So today I thought I'd take a picture to show you.

I then went on a walk with the dog. It's been another lovely day here again. We walk each day by this apple tree

It's on the edge of the carrot field Sherlock harvests every time we pass it. I like to pick an apple when I fancy one on our walk. Here's todays picking

They are lovely apples, taste a bit like a golden delicious but sweeter. Shall have to come and pick the rest off soon as they are all dropping on the floor and the tree is on the turn now so they won't be there much longer.

Fondant update

They worked! Came out perfect.

Could not finish mine and Hubby only had half of his as they are quite rich . The girls polished off theirs though. I halved  the recipe by Gordon Ramsay http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/8168/chocolate-fondant 

Menu Week 24/10/11

MONDAY - Creamy pesto chicken, jacket potato, peas and roasted tomatoes

• Mascarpone tomato & tuna sauce on pasta with homemade garlic bread
• Fragrant pork rice one pot with homemade bread
• Creamy beef and potato layer, carrots, broccoli and peas
• Thai fishcakes with noodles
• Roast chicken, Yorkshire puddings, mashed potatoes and vegetables  

Will choose what we fancy on the day from the list above.

Back on track this week. Hate it when things get in the way of my routine. Hated not knowing what to have for our meals last week and so glad I normally menu plan, makes life so much easier. Because I was on a course last Monday I could not do my usual shop. Tuesdays I'm too busy to go shopping, Wednesdays in bed because done a nightshift. Anyway, you get the picture so ended up shopping as I passed a shop and picking up something for a meal that day. I hate shopping this way. Come this weekend the cupboards and fridge have been bare. Ran out of lots of essentials and toiletries so today I was back on track and have replenished all my cupboards and fridge. Got a couple more Christmas presents too so my stash is building up. I bought a bag of nibbles to put away for Christmas too. I like to buy a bag of nuts or nibbly things and I stash them away each week and I have a good amount to cover Christmas and New Year and I don't notice the extra £1.00 - £2.00 each week.

No heating on yet. I admit to popping it on for a hour to take the chill out of the air in the morning when grandaughter was here this weekend and it was on for about an hour or so on a cold day last week but managing just fine without at the moment. Took advantage of the lovely breezy day today and have done a load of darks and a load of bedding and also decided to throw the dogs bed in the washer and get that done whilst its a good day for drying.

Oops look at the time. Better go and sort out tea.

Another rubbish day yesterday

Thought things were on the turn for the better then we had Thursday! My crown on a tooth broke so had to get a quick appointment at the dentist. They could fit me in at 2.00pm she said so off I toddled to the dentist yesterday. The dentist put a temp crown on my tooth and took an x-ray  because the bit of tooth my crown gets attached to was wobbly and she wondered if we should take a different route with crowning my tooth. One route was to go private and have a dental implant but this was expensive she said. £1500-£2000 per tooth! dont' think I'll be having that done then. On the NHS it's a plate or another process she explained where a metal plate is attached to the tooth next to the one I want to crown and this has the tooth attached to it somehow. Anyway shes going to check my x-ray and write to me with the options so I can study them and decide which way I want to go. Hoping the temp crown lasts until after Christmas then I will tackle the expense of a new crown in the new year.

Then, yesterday evening whilst eating my evening meal I began to feel unwell. I could not eat my meal so left it and said I may try to eat it later that evening. We had to be at daughter No3's school for 6.45 due to her receiving two awards at the award presentation evening. There I was sat in a crowded hall feeling unwell when I said to Hubby I was going to stand near the hall door because I was feeling sick. A teacher brought me a chair and another brought me a glass of water. I felt dreadful and just as the presentation was starting I had to make a quick exit into the car park. I had been hit with a D & V bug and ended up going home and missed daughters presentation which I was gutted about. So today I'm still not fully right but nearly there. Rang the voluntary job to let them know I would not be in this morning so I think I shall go back to bed now and try and get some more sleep.

It never rains but it pours as the saying goes. Promise my next blog won't be a moan.

Having a moan

Whatever I said a few days ago about being better with my cold did not hold. I actually felt terrible after that posting and it has taken me a few days to get myself together and feel ok to blog. All last weekend was taken up with me sleeping and not feeling up to doing much of anything due to my really bad cold. I can't believe the crap time I've had this week with work, training and just trying to catch up with life has had on me!

I started to feel like a human being today after many days of crap.I had an horrendous night last night taking a bank nurse out on our rounds around Leeds last night. She asked if I would drive which I said no problem. After an horrendously busy night I arrived back at base 45 minutes after my night shift had finished. Then to have another hours drive back home. I had not eaten in over10 hours and I was fit to burst because my shift had been so busy I had not been able to empty my bladder in over 10 hours! We had not had a break in over 10 hours and they wonder why the NHS is not working! No wonder I want to get out of the NHS!

After calling the kids to inform them I wouldn't be back before they left for school/college I had a long drive before I arrived home. On arriving home the dog needed taking out and feeding before I could contemplate having any sleep.Slept crap because the electricity cut off for a moment in our village ( a regular occurrence in our village) ended in me being woken at 12.30 in the day with the alarms ringing in the village and our alarm beeping in the house because our electricity had been turned off. So end of my moan and on to other stuff.

Bought these lovely squashes when I nipped into Morrisons the other day. They were only 50p each and I knew exactly what to make with them. The lady at the checkout said they were too pretty to eat.

I cut one in half and scooped out the seeds. In the cavity I grated a clove of garlic, added a knob of butter and seasoned well. One half I added some sage and the other half I added some chopped rosemary. Both herbs were from the garden. I baked these until tender, the smell in the kitchen was lovely. When cooked I scooped out the pulp and mixed with some feta cheese and returned to the oven for 10 minutes. A lovely autumnal meal.

Me and my cold

Hi all,

Thanks for all the views today. There has been a good turn out today!

 I managed to survive work last night. I drew the short straw and had to drive all night around the streets of Leeds doing visits to patients and dealing with all the call outs.  We had a visit at 5.30am on the other side of Leeds and my partner looked at me and said she would drive to the visit. She said my eyes looked so sore and I looked dreadful. Our boss said we might as well both go in our separate cars to the visit then go home after as we were quite quiet. Bless her! I drove to the last patients home, did our work then home on the motorway for the 40 minute drive home. I don't know how I got home this morning! I was on the verge of falling asleep at the wheel on  numerous occasions it was scary! I think I felt this way with feeling so run down with my cold and my sore eyes. I finally arrived home in total darkness and took the dog for a walk. Fed the dog  and finally fell into bed just before 7.00am shattered. I always eat some breakfast before I go to bed, it helps me sleep longer. Today I could not face food and flopped in bed and slept for a staggering 10 hours! I never normally sleep this long  after a night shift but I needed it today.

We had homemade pizzas tonight and I wanted to take a picture for my blog but with rushing around and getting everyone to help with the preparation for our meal I forgot to get some pictures. I will one day get some pictures of our pizzas for my blog. I normally love my homemade pizzas but to tell you the truth I had trouble enjoying it tonight because I could not taste it with having my cold.  Hopefully tomorrow I will be back to normal. See you then. Thanks for reading, your all a great bunch of followers.

Karen x

: (

I've got a cold and my eyes are sore with it and I've to go to work shortly : (

See you tomorrow,

Bye x

I'm here

Snuggled under my nice warm fleece with no heating on. Had a busy day with mandatory training for work. I hate this time of year. All my mandatory training needs doing in October/November and there's a lot to do with the NHS. I've another day of training on Monday, can't wait until it's all done. I've noticed a lot of blogs doing  a  MY A-Z, so here's mine.

Age - 47
Bed Size - King size
Chores I hate - Ironing
Dog - Labrador
Essential start to day - Cleaning teeth. Can't do anything until my teeth are cleaned
Favourite colour - Plum
Gold or silver - Both, depends on what I'm wearing
Height - 5ft6
Interests - Cooking, dog walking, voluntary work & reading cookery books
Job Title - Nursing assistant
Kids - 3 daughters
Live - North Yorkshire
Mothers name - Maureen
Nickname - Moody cow (by Hubby) Kaz when I was younger
Overnight hospital stay - Maternity
Pet peeves - Bad manners
Quote from a film - Surley it was a good way to die, in the place of someone I loved. Noble even. That ought to count for something.        Bella, Twilight
Right/left handed - Right
Siblings - 1 brother
Time you wake - 7.00am
Underwear - white & flesh
Vegetables you hate - None. Not come across any veg I hate yet.
What makes you late - Traffic
X Rays - Teeth
Yummy food I make - Pizza from scratch
Zoo Animal - Prairie dog, they are so funny with their squeaks

My favourite colour

Menu Week 10/10/11

MONDAY - Homemade lasagne, salad and homemade bread (did not have this last week so brought it into this weeks menu)

• Roasted garlic chicken, corn-on-cob, salad, pasta & coleslaw with homemade bread
• Beef casserole, mash, greens and Yorkshire puddings or dumplings
• Roast pork, apple sauce, potatoes, vegetables
• Homemade pizza, homemade coleslaw & wedges
• Sausages, mash, veg and onion gravy
• Homemade fish cakes, chips and peas/beans 

Had a productive morning in the kitchen. Used  a lot of bits to clear out the fridge before I went shopping. Made a panful of colcannon soup using up half a savoy cabbage, a couple of leeks and some potatoes. Had this for lunch with a bagel sandwich daughter left in the fridge a few days ago. Made a beef lasagne and made myself a tuna lasagne using up half a tin of tuna that had been in the fridge a couple of days and a handful of mushrooms I had. I also added the remains of our Saturday night fajita vegetables. I also made a batch of hot cross buns for breakfasts.

Stuck to what I said I'd do on Sunday and turned the heating off again. To be honest I think it's been very mild today and I was actually very warm in the house and opened the door when ironing this afternoon.

Bought another Christmas present today for daughter No1 (won't say what in case she reads this) The item was on offer so thought I'd have one at the price. Need to find my wrapping paper in the loft so I can get wrapping. I like to wrap presents as soon as I buy them. It saves me from having to spend ages wrapping and getting bored with it.

Any xmas prep done at yours yet?

I succumed to the heating only because......

the grandchildren were coming to stay. To tell you the truth I would have happily not turned the heating on for a while yet. But I went into the living room today and thought it felt quite chilly. I mentioned to Hubby I was going to put the heating on for the grandchildren because I thought they might feel the chill when Hubby declared, he was feeling cold and had felt cold yesterday too! Now my Hubby declaring he feels chilly is unheard of . He is the one who every year lives in t-shirts in the house and declares it is warm and we don't need the heating on so high. He wanted the heating on! I was shocked. I have not felt the cold in the house yet. I only had a t-shirt on today with a hoody and I was really warm and reluctant to put the heating on. Daughter No 2 and her boyfriend were commenting on how they were chilly the other day and when  I said "it's not cold. Move around a bit more, you won't feel the chill" Daughter No2 reminded me it was only two years ago I was always feeling the cold . True. I had this thing where I had to have the central heating set to 21degrees or above! Then last year I started to take control of the thermostat and would not let it go above 20 degrees even when it was really cold. I think I have finally acclimatised to cooler temperatures and I honestly am not feeling the cold at the moment and will put a fleece on first rather than the heating. Once the grandchildren return home to Leeds tomorrow the heating  is off and if we feel chilly its a fleece blanket and a thick dressingown or jumper on thank you! We can do this a bit longer if you ask me. I really think the rest of them are getting softer as I'm getting tougher.

Too hot!

I'm sprawled on my bed blogging and trying to keep cool. Can't believe this mini heatwave we're having. My feet are burning hot and I'm contemplating running an inch or two of cold water in the bath and dipping my feet in to cool them. We ate our evening meal in the garden today because the weather was so gorgeous and it was lovely. Decided to have the roast chicken. I bashed two cloves of garlic and slid them under the skin with a knob of butter and placed half an onion in the chicken cavity to roast. It gave the chicken a subtle garlic taste. They had the chicken with homemade coleslaw and a mixed salad with roasted peppers and sauteed potatoes. I made a cheese and pesto loaf to have with dinner too.

I spread red pesto over half the dough and sprinkled on a layer of cheese then folded this over and sealed the edge.

It was a really nice loaf to have with our meal. Left over chicken now mixed with mayo and sweetcorn and in sandwiches for the girls tomorrow.
Well, I can't stand it any longer. Off to cool my feet!

Present time

Every month seems to have some family members birthday in it. Yesterday was daughter No1's 27th birthday. Happy Birthday daughter No 1. Did not go on blog yesterday due to time restrictions but she did have a personal birthday greeting yesterday.

Looked at the calendar for Octobers birthdays and we have three family birthdays in this month. The two which are due on the 2nd and the 12th are our nephew and sister/sister-in-law. I take responsibility for both sides of the family's gift and card buying. Hubby seems to think I took this responsibility on once I married him. He never  buys any cards or gifts for any of his family. I buy every mothers day/fathers day/parental anniversary gift/cousin/auntie/god knows who card/gift going and it piss's me off! It pissed me off so much I made him buy his mother's birthday present in September. My god, he was flummoxed. He was going to just get her a gardening voucher, fine but not a lot of thought going into that. An easy way out if you ask me. I told him to ask his mum if there was any thing she would like for her birthday. He called her and she said she would actually like some nail polish and a new nightdress. She gave him her size and the colours she would like in nail polish. Easy you would think. Ho no, not for my Hubby.

I was in the middle of putting my weekly shopping on the conveyor belt in Tesco when my mobile phone rang. It was hubby, what sort of nightie should I buy my mum? he asked. I told him not a flannelet old ladies nightie and to make a decision himself, I was at the checkout with my shopping! and to get a gift receipt  with what ever he bought. A gift receipt is a receipt that does not show the price of the item bought but does allow the the person who received the gift to exchange it for something else without the card holder who paid for their gift on their card being present. I still don't know to this day if my mother-in-law liked the nightie her son bought her and if she exchanged it. I did not like the nightie!

 So realising it was our nephews birthday and his sister's/ my sister-in-laws birthdays very shortly I thought I had better get something sorted. I was about 20 minutes from walking out the door to go to my voluntary job and thought, Amazon! I love Amazon. They have free delivery and they sell everything. Sister-in-law loves her baths so I looked up beauty products and bought her some lovely bath bombs for just £10.00 for a box of six. We shall give her these with a  bottle of wine. Sorted.

For nephew who will be 3 years old I thought about what he likes and he really likes cars. I looked on Amazon but they really did not seem to have what I was looking for so I went to Tesco Direct. I bought a pack of 10 Tesco cars  and a pack of  5 Hot wheel cars for £10.44 with free delivery.  Because I had them delivered to my local Tesco store to pick up I don't have to pay delivery. Done!. Bought their cards in The Card Factory which cost pennies. I'm happy.

We set a budget for all the families birthdays/mother's day/father's day gifts to an acceptable amount that we can cope with. Sister this year  will get about £14.00 and nephew £10.00.  It's not the amount you spend that counts but giving them a gift that is appropriate to them and you know they will use. I hate receiving gifts that have no thought to them and are things I will not use. It is a waste of the givers money and I just end up recycling the gift by giving it to someone who will appreciate it or donating it to a good cause. As I have said my sister-in-law loves her smelly baths and she loves a bottle of wine so I know these gifts will be appreciated.

Am I going to challenge Hubby again?  Course I am. He can get his dad's birthday present which is in February 2012. He's got plenty of time to think about what to get him, hehe.

Annoyed with myself

End of June my car insurance needed renewing. I changed companies and sent a copy of my insurance certificate to my work. Got a call from work the other week saying they had just checked my insurance certificate and I had not got the correct cover, I needed business use adding to it. I thought I'd double checked everything when I took out the insurance but obviously not. So yesterday I rang my insurance company to get business use added to my insurance. Quick, easy and only an extra £3.00 on my premium for the year. THEN the clincher. We will be charging an administration fee of £25.00! For what? Tapping a few buttons. If I rang up to make a claim they would not charge me for tapping some buttons and there would be a hell of a lot more work and time involved if I made a claim on my insurance. Money grabbing b******s! So now I need to find £25.00 which I will have to take out of my car account stash which I like to build up for work that might need to be done. You live and learn.