Waitrose Foodie Haul

I needed to get my hair cut & coloured this week. I often wonder why I am going grey when my older sister who has dark brown hair has not one grey hair on her head. I am much lighter - a kind of dirty blonde colour but full of grey hairs so it was time to get my roots coloured and every six months I have highlights added so that the colour does not look flat. It takes a long time to get coloured, highlights and a cut, blow dry and then straightened. Over 3 hours later 4pm to 7.15pm I was free from the hairdressers which is next door to Waitrose. 

Who can resist visiting Waitrose 45 minutes before it closes? Certainly not me as I know there will be reductions to be had. Sure enough the second round of reductions were being priced up as I arrived and I stocked up on many fresh items to store in the freezer and to use this weekend to make meals for the week.

I bought three pots of Rachel's Organic Yoghurt reduced from £2 to 19p. I have no problems with eating out of date yoghurt  (up to about 3 days maximum) as I have never been ill and the taste is not impaired. Breakfast this morning was sliced banana, the plain Greek set yoghurt and a handful of granola. I will probably have the same over the weekend and have the raspberry & coconut yoghurts on their own after lunch on both days too.

I bought four tubs of crushed potatoes with whole grain mustard reduced from £1.99 to 25p each. I am going to use these as a topping on a shepherds pie instead of mashed potato. I think this will make a lovely change. To make the shepherds pie and a lasagne I bought two packs of my favourite Sofritto mix which I will cook with minced beef. These had been reduced from £1 a pack to 19p. One pack will be for the shepherds pie base and one pack for the bolognese sauce base. I always have packs of reduced minced meat in the freezer and got them out first thing this morning so that I could make these two meals which we will have during the week.

As part of my healthy eating and meal planning challenges, I have decided that we will eat fish as an evening main meal once a week (at least). We are having sea bream (reduced from M&S) for our evening meal tonight. It can be expensive so when I found four packs of boneless butterflied sea bream reduced from £6.99 to £1.29 a pack, I bought all of them. These went straight into the freezer and they look delicious. I like the fact that they have been stuffed with peas, beans and feta. I would never of thought of doing something like this so this will make a change to how I normally prepare fish.

I bought two packs of minted pea crush reduced from £1.99 to 25p which are both in the freezer. These will be great served with fish or lamb and new potatoes. I bought a pack of minted mixed green vegetables reduced from £1.99 to 15p. We will be eating this tonight with the sea bream along with some new potatoes.

I found some lovely cherry tomatoes reduced from £2.49 to 25p. I will grill or roast these on Sunday morning as part of a cooked breakfast along with these scrummy portabelini mushrooms reduced from £1.65 to 15p.

There were a couple of snacky bits such as these tubs of caramelised hummus £1.49 to 22p and tuna pate £1.55 to 35p. These are both freezeable (I've frozen them before) but they will be used for lunch tomorrow or even as part of packed lunches on Monday.

I bought the Yorkshire puddings at 25p reduced from £1.60 to go with our roast pork Sunday evening meal. I also thought I would use this fabulous pack of stuffing with the pork too. I was really pleased with this as it comes in it's own lovely stoneware dish. This was reduced from £7.99 to £2.39.

There were two items I bought and I have then wondered when we are going to eat them so I may have slipped up here but they may last until the beginning of next week for lunches. I am a little cross with myself as I am trying not to buy things I don't need or throw food away. We may have them on Saturday evening as I have not planned this meal yet.  I bought them because I like Ceasar salad, potato salad and coleslaw. The salad was reduced from £1.99 to 25p and the double salad mix £1.89 to 29p.

I know some people can to terribly snobbish about eating reduced food items but totting this up I spent £11.91 in total for what should have cost  £70.54. I am eating food from a quality supermarket a day or so out of date and making a massive saving on our shopping bill. Over the year the amount saved with probably be over £1,000 so I think eating reduced items is well worthwhile.

A New Year

Happy New Year to you all I hope that 2016 brings you health, wealth and happiness. It is the time when people think of resolutions and fresh starts and although I have no resolutions as such, my head has been full of plans and some lifestyle changes that I would like to make over the following weeks.

Clear Clutter 

I want to get rid of a lot of possessions that we have in the house, garage and shed that we no longer use, need or want. I noticed that the cupboard in the hall would not close properly the other day, then David noticed it too. It won't close because it is full of my coats - too many coats and some of them no longer fit me. I also noticed yesterday that I have three coats (two unworn) hanging on the side of my wardrobe gathering dust. So two things spring to mind. I need to sell some of these coats on eBay and I need to lose some weight. 

Clearing clutter can be overwhelming at times if you can't resist carboot sales and finding bargains and so manage to acquire a lot of things. I thought I would just do the "little and often" trick which my lovely Dad told me many many years ago. If I have a large project that needs doing then he said that the trick to getting it done is making a start and then doing it on a little and often basis and soon it would be completed. At the time I was tackling a very overgrown garden when we bought our current home. Wise words that I have always followed and so my plan for this year is to clear a cupboard or a drawer rather than a whole room which may be overwhelming. First will be the hall cupboard and those coats.

I can't believe how many coats and macs I found. It is embarrassing. I can't tell you how many. I am selling three on eBay and have already listed them. They either don't fit - sadly too small or I don't like them anymore. Not keen on the teal green one and can't think why I bought it in the first place.

Some I love but they are just a little too tight so I am storing these in a suitcase so that I can retrieve them if I manage to lose a stone (fingers crossed) as I think they should fit then.

Others I am keeping because I love them.

Meal planning

I never plan our meals for the week and so can be slightly disorganised. I threw away the legs from our turkey (the shame - I can't believe I have confessed to this) because they were at the back of the fridge behind all the other left over food and I forgot about them. That was until I wondered what was wrapped in tin foil at the back when I moved a half eaten cheesecake. Ah ...turkey legs well passed their best. They were thrown out on the lawn on New Years Eve for the foxes. What a waste of money and delicious food. 

Healthy Eating

I forced myself to get on the scales this morning and yes I had put on weight. I knew I would because I had guzzled Quality Street by the handful, crisps and peanuts and had large cooked meals for Christmas and Boxing Day. We had also drunk a fair amount too. Luckily it was only 2lbs that have gone on but my trousers felt tight over the last couple of days. I have felt uncomfortable and David has also complained of the same problem. We won't go on some fad diet, just eat a little healthier with smaller portions, less booze and less cake.

Wardrobe Make-Over 

I have not felt very stylish of late and have let things go. I usually get a manicure every 3 weeks but have not bothered since October. I have been wearing about 20% of my clothes over and over again and need a change. Outfits have been hastily put together and I have not bothered with finding my usual accessories that pull an outfit together. This has been down to laziness and weight gain. I need to go through my wardrobe and put together some outfits that make me happy and give me a feeling of being stylish. 

I have just realised I have kind of made some resolutions after all. I'll see how I get on over the next few weeks and let you know. If I don't achieve all of them or only part of them then that's okay and I won't beat myself up about it, but it would be great if I managed to achieve some.

The Day after Boxing Day

I thought Christmas was supposed to be a break. A time to relax and eat Quality Street at 7am while watching kids films on TV. Not for me. I have had family over on Christmas Day and again on Boxing Day with  four relatives staying overnight. It has been a time of sorting out spare beds and fresh bed linen, cooking  three course meals and washing up pots and pans afterwards. Organising cooked breakfasts, making endless cups of tea and coffee and feeling exhausted.

The day after Boxing Day I was up at 5.30am while everyone else slept in until 9.30am. In those 4 hours it felt like I had hosed the house down to get it looking reasonably clean and tidy. By 11am four  of us were at The Lowry shopping outlet and filling our shopping bags. I am predictable. I had to  go to Clintons to fill my bags with half price Christmas themed Yankee Candles. I bought 6 boxes of tealights as I have nearly finished all the boxes I bought there this time last year. They were half price £6.99 down to £3.49 a box. I bought 2 boxes of Christmas Cookie, two of Snowflake Cookie and one each of Christmas Eve and Fireside Treats.

I also treated myself to a large jar candle in Christmas cookie which was half price at £10.99 instead of £21.99 and medium sized candle in Fireside Treats again half price at £8.99 instead of £17.99.

We then hit the clearance section of the Marks & Spencer store and I found these sparkly sliders from their Autograph range at £9. I have bought these specifically for wearing in the evening on summer holidays. They are comfortable, practical but with just a hint of glamour for the evening. I found a fabulous pair of black boots for David at £14 and was amazed to find that these are current stock at full price £79. He is really pleased with them.

I also bought two bras at just £3 each. These were the only two in my size on a rack of around 100 bras so they took some rummaging to find. David always says how amazed he is with my patience and systematic checking of just about every item to find what I am looking for. I guess to get a bargain you do need patience and you must invest a reasonable amount of time to find a bargain. He can't be bothered with it all but is happy for me to find them for him.

I also bought a snugly thermal vest for my Dad for £6 and this will be put aside for him for his birthday in March. He will be 78 next year and has started to shrink in size and stature so feels the cold more than he used to.

It was then on to Waitrose towards the end of the day to see if they had any reductions. They had half price boxes of mixed biscuits at between £1.50 and £2 a box. I selected three types and bought two boxes of each. They are best before July so there is plenty time for them to be eaten. I think I will give one box to my Dad as part of his birthday gift. I also found bags of mini chocolate orange pieces for 50p and David's favourite jelly babies (jelly Santa version) for 66p bag - they were all half price.

Finally I had a look on-line at the M&S sale. I had already looked on Boxing Day and could not find anything I liked or needed but when I looked this time I found a long line waterfall cardigan that will look great over dresses for work or as a throw-on over trousers or jeans worn casual. I couldn't make up mind whether to buy the red one or camel one so I went a little crazy and bought both.

Weekend Achievements

So as expected it has been a busy but enjoyable weekend with only 4 days to go to Christmas Day by the end of the weekend. 

I wrote all my Christmas cards first thing Saturday morning and I know I am so late this year writing them all. I had to find extra cards as our lovely next-door-neighbours are moving so I wanted to get them and our new neighbours New Home cards aswell as Christmas cards. I am so sorry to lose our lovely neighbours as we have lived next to them for over 10 years now. I wish them all the best with their new home. Such a shame to lose them and I hope our new neighbours will be as equally as lovely.

I spent a fair amount of time cleaning the house and getting it ready for Christmas guests. I freshened up the candles in the house and used these cute snowball ones from Partylite in our lounge and these tealight holders with cutaway snowflakes. These were also from Partylite but of course I did not buy them from Partylite themselves but from carboot sales at a much cheaper price.

I organised the living room and dining room by finishing off the decorations, and getting table mats, napkins and votives ready. I have two white tablecloths with one on top of the other, so that after Christmas Day I can pull off the top cloth and there is a fresh clean one underneath. We tend not to be messy on Christmas Day but Boxing Day is another matter with seven of around the table usually getting rather merry and there are usually spillages.

I shopped at Marks & Spencers Friday evening and Waitrose Saturday evening and managed to bag bargains at both from the clearance counter. Marks & Spencer bargains were two packs of their Special Selection pigs in blankets reduced from £4 to 90p and stuffing balls also at 90p. I bought four packs of "chefs" carrots at 35p each and blanched them on Saturday morning and then froze them. I will roast these along with parsnips for our two Christmas dinners. They also had two bags of satsumas reduced from £2 to 30p, a ready stuffed Oakham chicken at half price £3.50 and cod and Dover sole at 60 - 75% off. They worked out at £2.15 and £2.45 a pack instead of £6 and £9.50.

I bought a 300g pack of cranberries which were on a half price offer and made my own cranberry sauce. This is so easy to do and I used a Waitrose recipe to make it. I put the cranberries in a pan along with the juice of a satsuma made up with water to 150ml. The recipe is to use clementine juice but I used the satsuma instead. Simmer for 5 minutes until the berries start to burst and then add 75g of light muscavodo sugar (I used Demerara - I use substitutes all the time in recipes) and simmer until the sauce becomes thick. Leave to cool and this keeps for around a week in the fridge.

Waitrose had a half price side of salmon from £16 to £8 (for New Year's Day lunch) and I bought 3 packs of 6 reduced Yorkshire puddings. For some reason this year I have had a hankering for Yorkshire puddings with my Christmas dinner which is something I have never done before.

David had his Christmas party with his co-workers on Saturday night which was a casino evening at a local hotel. I dropped him off at a nearby Belgium bar for him to have pre drinks (known as prinks in our family) to meet his colleagues. He was after a lift home but I'm tired by 10pm and I knew he would be later than this so he said would get a taxi home but luckily he got a lift home from one of his colleagues. We managed to avoid Christmas 'dos' last year as we were away but this year it is only me who has managed to escape the enforced jollity. I know this makes me sound "Bah Humbug" but December is a busy month for us and I think I spend enough time already with the people from work without going on an expensive do with them. Am I being a Grinch?

Roll On Weekend

After such a relaxing break last weekend I seem to have come back to Earth with a bump and a very busy week and all I can think is Roll On Weekend when I should get some time to myself to get on with the Christmas preparation.

We went to my work's Christmas Carol Service this week at Manchester Cathedral and what a magical night it was. I took David and my father and we went for a quick bite to eat before hand. We went to Pizza Express as a pizza is a quick and easy meal at 5.30pm plus I had a voucher from them for a free bottle of Prosecco because it was my birthday last week. The wine would have cost us £20.95 so that was a lovely gift from Pizza Express and it tasted delicious too although it was only a half glass for me as I was driving.

The Christmas markets are getting bigger and better in Manchester and this stall stood out for me as it was beautiful with rotating wooden figurines and at least 40ft tall. We wandered around the market for a few moments enroute between the restaurant and the cathedral. We didn't buy anything because we don't need anything and I feel lucky to be in a position to say that.

"Wow" is all I can say about the Carol service. It was bigger and better than previous years and I have been to many of them over the 25 years that I have worked for my current employers. There was a brass band, a "big" band and what I can only call a German style oompah band.  We started with the national anthem and it felt so patriotic. We had one of the Cathedral choristers singing "Walking in the Air" and of course plenty of carols for us to sing.

The big band brought some suprises to the service with two lead female vocalists,  one male vocalist who was like Michael Buble and also three backing singers. They upped the tempo with "Santa Clause Is Coming To Town", "Jingle Bells" and "Let it Go" along with some other unexpected songs - "River Deep, Mountain High" and "Never Can Say Goodbye"!!

We had another female vocalist who sang "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen accompanied solely by an acoustic guitar. It was so beautiful that it brought a tear to my eye. The Oompah band had us all swaying in our seats to "Schneewalzer". The brass band was just fantastic and to sing the carols to their accompaniment was just magical. What a thoroughly enjoyable evening it was that got us all in the festive spirit.

For the second time in two weeks I have had a bouquet of flowers delivered to my home today from colleagues from work after having surgery three weeks ago. I did not take one day off sick and used my own time to attend hospital but was allowed to work from home for two weeks to recover. I am so grateful that they have sent flowers when I haven't been off work for long. How humbling it is to realise what fantastic colleagues I have. To be honest I would have scared staff had I gone into work as the bandages and stitches looked worse than it was. My face is nearly back to how it used to be but I still need another operation in January to help it get back to normal.

I have been wrapping up some little stocking fillers to add to everyone's Christmas bags. They are mainly freebies or items from around the house which I know sounds weird but they are the kind of things that are great as little nothings to open in addition to people's main presents. There are little Nutella packs wrapped in ribbon for my nephew and niece and small pots of honey for my dad. They were unwanted items on our breakfast tray from our weekend break. 

I had two mugs that are being re-gifted from last year to my sister and brother-in-law. (I have dozens of mugs) I have filled them with a pack each of Thorntons chocolates and tied festive bows on the handles and popped them in festive bags.  Whenever there is ribbon around, someone wakes up and wants to help.