Aldi voucher spent : )

So we went to Aldi and bought enough bags of wedges and petits pois (on offer) and ice cream and strudels (and a few other bits for us) so that we could feed 55-60 for lunch on Sunday.  We also went to Asda and bought their smoked gammon joints that were on offer. Cold sliced gammon with wedges and petits pois and pickles followed by strudel and ice cream.  The plates were well cleaned and there were almost no leftovers apart from a few peas. The last meal we did was a fancier one for the Christmas church meeting so this one was much easier to prepare. Hopefully it won't be our turn to cook again until November - although there is the useful side benefit of pea soup made with the gammon stock for this week's lunches : )

However, I got back from church when it was just starting to get dark and I rushed to feed the rabbits and found that my lovely big rabbit had died. She had been fine in the morning.  She was an old lady and looked like she had been sitting down and just stopped breathing.  We would all like to go like that! I took her and her mate on when their owners moved to another country. She was fiercely protective of her mate but turned into a real cuddle bun when she was on her own.  I shall miss her.

£5 off at Aldi

According to moneysavingexpert.com today, there will be a £5 off a spend of £40 voucher in the Daily Mirror tomorrow.  The paper costs 55p. The voucher will be valid until the middle of next week. 

I know that I have a little shopping list of things to buy in Aldi that I have been compiling over the last couple of weeks.  I also have a list of things to buy in Tesco or Sainsburys - things that are getting low but are not urgent so I can afford to wait in the hope of a voucher.  If no voucher appears, then I will be going to Sainsburys as it is a 3 mile round trip to there as opposed to a 6 mile trip to a medium sized Tesco or 12 miles to a large Tesco. Sometimes I combine a trip to the feed merchant (10 mile trip) with a trip to the big Tesco as that is a 14 mile round trip especially if I can make it at a known yellow sticker time : )  My son likes it when that happens because he usually ends up with one or two carrier bags of goodies and sometimes my daughter's house does too.

History now

It has been good to have the time to see more of my grandchildren over the Christmas holiday but that seems a long time ago now.  I never cease to be amazed at how quickly things seem to slip into history.  We spend a long time looking forward to Christmas and planning nice things (ie food and presents) for the people we love - and then suddenly the time is past and is a memory.  They are good memories, though. We spent a long time preparing for Christmas at church too with all the music and services we were involved in.  We took a Christmas service to an old people's home and to several other places too so hopefully we helped create some good memories for others too.

I was in a charity shop the other day and saw not just one, but two things that my little grandson will probably love to find in his Christmas stocking next December.  I was very pleased and we have now set aside a cardboard box upstairs in a corner which is labelled December 2015.  I'm very good at putting things (and not just presents) in a "safe" place...  Hopefully the box will help with this problem.  Hopefully too, the cost will be spread over the year as our income is plummeting this year.  I always buy things as I see them and put them away but I don't always start in January. We don't give big presents to the family or to friends but like to give a token of our love and friendship.  Presents are often hand- or homemade too.  I had somebody come up to me on Sunday and tell me regretfully that they had finished their marmalade already and I know from the rest of the conversation that they enjoyed it.  In fact, I think that this family would be disappointed if they didn't receive a hamper of homemade goodies.  It is nice to know that they are appreciated.  Lots of presents contained some of Elaine's Gingerbread Biscotti (from MortgageFreein3 blog) and I know that these went down very well.  I kept all the not-quite-so-nicely-shaped end pieces for me and I think these will definitely be made again!  The crumbs from cutting them up into slices were put into a tub and sprinkled over some ice cream and were fabulous.  Even my husband liked them and anything ginger does not usually please him.

My littlest granddaughter is being weaned a bit early.  It seems that all the feeding problems are down to the fact that she is reacting to something that her mum was eating and is being passed down through the milk.  They were given some different milk on prescription but she could not tolerate that either.  The only one that proved acceptable was £11 for a small tin and as the family budget is severely straitened, the doctor said to try weaning despite the various allergies in the family. However she has loved everything she has tried and has shown no more reactions to anything so we are hoping that all will now be well.  We are also hoping that we can find what her mum has been eating that she reacted to in the milk so that she is not given that to eat.

Money has been Spent

Well here I am back again, typing on my new computer.  Posts will happen a bit more often now.  I am still in shock after paying for this computer !  And we haven't bought a new printer yet which is also on the shopping list.  Our printer died and we have been given one that was being thrown out.  Well, it works and there is still some ink left in the cartridges - but you can go and make yourself a cuppa while waiting for ONE page to print. I'm always loath to throw out anything that still works but I will be seriously tempted with this printer...

Christmas seems like a very long time ago in ancient history.  We spent the day with our son and his family.  Our other daughters and families had dinner together in one house and then everybody got together in my son's house for the evening.  No one of our houses can seat enough people for the whole family to eat Christmas dinner together so last year and this year, we have divided between two houses.  My son cooked a lovely dinner.  They are veggie and had a Quorn roast with 17 different vegetables served with it, which equals the family record. We all of us like our vegetables and try to serve as many as possible with Christmas dinner.  Every family has their traditions : )