Good Friday

Nothing beats a four day break from work with no particular plans other than pottering around at home. I woke early and after working long hours this week, housework had been neglected and I thought I may as well get up and start the day as I had not had time to do some chores during the week. 

Before I started anything major, I tidied up the kitchen while the kettle boiled for my first of many cups of tea. I opened up the two Graze boxes that had been delivered the day before to see what suprise snacks there were. I was going to cancel my subscription straight after my first free delivery, but thought I would carry on with a few more as some of the later boxes are also free so evening out the cost they are a reasonable price.

This time I got in the first box:

A lighter version of a chocolate brownie - 3 small slices in the pack

Coco Paradise - Belgium milk chocolate, coconut and cranberries

Boston Bagettes - mini breadsticks with a BBQ relish

Bonnie Wee Oatcakes - cheese & chive oatcakes with a caramelised onion marmalade

In the second box: 

Another portion of the chocolate brownies

Billionaires Shortbread - Belgium milk chocolate, almond, cranberries & fudge pieces

Salted fudge & peanut cookie - salted peanuts, redskin peanuts, fudge pieces and mini chocolate cookies

New York everything bagel - poppy seed & onion sesame sticks

I've found these little packs great to take to work as a light lunch (I usually take two) along with a piece of fruit or a low fat yogurt.

The weather has been just beautiful today and I think it is going to be the only pleasant day of the weekend. We decided to take advantage of this and spend some time in the garden. I had already mown the lawns last Sunday for the first time this year so they did not need mowing again today, but I tidied up the borders by doing some weeding, thinning out some plants and some pruning.

I've just sat down with a gingerbread latte (Nescafé latte mix) and a couple of magazines to flick through while opening up the box set of Game of Thrones to watch again. I have series 1 & 2 and need to buy the remaining series but I want to wait until I can find them at a carboot sale. The Cheshire carboot sale starts again this Easter Sunday and is on again on the bank holiday Monday but the weather forecast is not good so we may make a decision each morning as to whether it will be worth a visit or not.

I called into Marks & Spencer to buy food for the weekend last night and mainly bought fresh vegetables, bread, hot cross buns and wine as I already have meat and poultry in the freezer. As it is Good Friday we always have fish for our evening meal and I was going to cook some fresh salmon but David has decided he would rather have a traditional fish supper from the local "chippy". I am not a great lover of batter or chips so we do not have this often but I think it should be nice to not have to cook tonight and have a change.

I've managed to get two lots of washing done, tidy the house a little and now it's time for a couple of hours with my feet up. Have a great weekend everyone.

Scouts Jumble Sale & M&S Splurge

I love a good old fashioned jumble sale. We do not see that many adverts in the local paper for them these days but two local scout groups do hold a jumble sale a couple of times a year. One of them has a "fill a black bin bag for £5" approach whereas the other follows the conventional "how much is this?" line. I prefer the second option. I love that they are always held in dusty community halls with a little serving hatch offering cups of tea and coffee and occasionally home made scones and cakes. It makes me feel so British somehow.

I spent the grand total of £4.20 and that included 50p entrance fee. So what did £3.70 get me?

I bought two portable CD players at 35p each. One is a Panasonic one and the other a Sony one complete with headphones. Both of these are for David. Even though we listen to downloaded music you can't beat listening to CDs sometimes. I think they will eventually go the same way as vinyl (or LPs and singles as we still call them).

I bought two boxed sets of DVDs. The complete Fawlty Towers and Mapp & Lucia starring Prunella Scales & Geraldine McEwan for 35p each. I also bought two Michael Sheen DVDs - Frost/Nixon & The Damned United for 70p for the two.

I found a massive Hugo Boss duffel bag with insulated cooler section at the bottom for 50p for my David.

I bought this huge Costa coffee cup and saucer for 50p and have already drunk a gingerbread latte out of it. It holds the same amount as one of my mugs but it felt a little more elegant to be drinking out of a cup & saucer than a mug.

I also bought two beer glasses for David for 20p each (18oz ones rather than 20oz) and two brand new (complete with labels) cereal bowls that have come from Sainsburys. I already have this style and chucked a few away last month as they had small chips in them. These cost me 50p for the two.

I bought 3 books for 20p each. One heavy weight book is a small gift for my golfing mad Dad. The other two are a couple of paperbacks for me to read on holiday.

Five 10p each buys were 4 bottle of car cleaner and brake fluid for David's BMW. I had forgotten to take my reading glasses so could not see what they were exactly, but could see the price tickets on them were from our local BMW garage so knew they would be right for him. My fifth 10p was on a pack of vacuum cleaner bags. I didn't take pictures of these as they are a bit boring!

The clothes and shoes that they had for sale were 5 items for £2 but I could not find anything that tempted me and just ended up with lots of bric-a-brac instead.

I usually like to treat myself to a couple of new items of clothing for the spring/summer and the Autumn/winter seasons. In general, I don't always need all of the items but I sometimes find that we can be mean with ourselves and after working long hours I sometimes find I need to reward myself. 

So M&S have had a half price sale on some items and I was also sent a 20% off voucher code last weekend. This called for a bit of a splurge and here are the items that I bought. Firstly I had been looking at this loose swing dress for a few weeks. I thought it would be great thrown over a swimsuit by the pool or for wearing down to the beach and I thought I might me able to wear it for a wander around the resort for our summer holidays.

This was half price at £9 and I used the click collect delivery service so picked up 48 hours later. I love it as it is such a versatile little dress. A few days later  when I got the code through via email I went on the M&S site again and found the same dress in a Paisley design and had to have it. This cost more but I thought "so what!" and splurged £14.40 on it.

I love navy stripes. I don't know why but I do. I also know that V neck t shirts suit me better than round neck or boat neck. A V neck makes my bust seem less large and is more flattering to my chin & neck. This half price t shirt was about £5 half price and I thought would look great with shorts, jeans or even worn with a trousers suit at work.

I bought two pairs of straight leg jeans - denim blue and black. I have got bored with wearing skinny jeans and jeggings and felt like I wanted some straight leg ones for a change. Being tall I am kind of in between long and standard in the leg length. Is I buy long they look great with boots with heels but if I wear flats they drag on the floor and fray. If I buy standard they can fly around my ankles like a flag. I plumped for standard and they a smidgin short. I am in two minds as to whether to keep these or not. I had bought them for wearing during the day with flat ties and may keep them, as when I first tried them on the material was new and stiff and I know with some wearing they will soften and fall a little lower with wear. These were £14.40 each.

Lastly I bought this long t shirt style maxi dress. Not exactly exciting but oh so practical and useful for a British Summer. I can wear this with flat ties during the day and I know this will good accessorised with scarves, jewellery, and a denim jacket. I can also wear it with a smart jacket and a low heeled shoe for work. 

Thrifty Finds

We've just come back from the local grammar school table top sale which is normally on a couple of times a year. There were not as many stalls as usual and David overheard someone saying that it was a non-event this time. I did not do too badly with some of my thrifty finds and thought it was a slightly below average sale but I am happy with my thrifty finds.

Boxed set of series 1,2 and 3 of Breaking Bad at a bargain price of £2 for all three and an interesting looking film with a heavy weight cast called Seven Psychopaths for 50p. I also bought series 1 of the Sopranos for £1. I already have this on video whereas the rest of the set I have on DVD so I now have the whole set on DVD.

I found a sealed up ziplock bag containing 7 mixed toiletries for just 50p for the lot:

3 body shop body lotions/ body milk in wild argan oil, frosted cranberry shimmer and moringa.

2 handcreams in almond and strawberry

1 soap & glory body scrub

1 Unknown brand lime hand lotion

I bought two Marks & Spencer tops that look as new for £5. This is more than I would normally pay but at £2.50 each I thought they were still a good buy compared to the charity shop prices.

I needed a new glasses case as my Guess case has broken. I found this new case for £1 plus another case for £1 which is good for large shaded sunglasses.

I bought a Royal Worcester Vale of Evesham dish for £1 for my mum who has a collection of this range. There is a small flaw on the rim but not that noticeable.

We like these sparkling wine bottle chillers and usually keep a couple in the freezer to put on your bottle and keep it chilled for an hour or so. This was just 50p.

Finally I got a recent copy of Cheshire Life for 50p which will be good for a quick flick through.

Not a huge haul but enough to keep me happy.

The Postman Always Rings Twice

I've had a lovely Friday......

I worked from home so no sitting in horrid traffic for 3 hours for my commute. I had no irate phone calls or emails that drained the life out of me. Not only that but the postman rang twice with goodies that I had ordered.

First call was the delivery of our two Graze.com boxes. I had chosen for myself and David and so some of the items are similar but in one box there was 3 honeycomb flapjack slices, a savoury herby bread basket, hot cross yum which was orange raisins, sponge discs and cinnamon honey almonds and finally marvellous macaron which was white chocolate, amaretti drops, almonds and coconut.

My box contained the same honeycomb flap jacket slices, marvellous macaron but also a rough blend peanut butter dip with pretzel sticks and dark chocolate cherry tart which was dark chocolate, juicy cherries, cranberries and raisins.

In each box there was also two cards for friends with a £5 off voucher in each card and vouchers for £1 off the next box, and 1st, 5th and 10th boxes free. David came home from work looked at both boxes and announced "rabbit food" with a sniff. All mine then - whoppee!,

My second delivery made me smile no end. I signed up to the Martin Lewis website some time ago. You can find it Here. I get an email every month with financial advice and voucher codes. This Tuesday the email had a 15% off code for a company called Shoetique who had some shoes on offer at half price and I was able to combine both offers. I treated myself to two pairs of Fitflops for my forthcoming holiday to Tenerife. There was free delivery and as I ordered them on Tuesday evening and they arrived this morning I think that is pretty good delivery.

My favourite ones are these black and gold ones which are very elegant for Fitflops. I will be wearing these in the evening with some of my maxi dresses and a small clutch bag. These full price were £90 but I paid £45 less 15%.

The other pair are more chunky but I love the white leather toe post style for wearing during the day. These will look great with just about anything from sightseeing to by the pool. This pair should have cost £60 full price but were £30 less than 15% so both pairs came to £63.75 instead of £150. I know this is a splurge but I felt I really needed to treat myself after the last few weeks of hard slog at work and what girl can resist shoes?

If you have never worn Fitflops before then they are an experience to start with. I struggled my first time wearing them on holiday last year. I felt I was wobbling all over the show but within 20 minutes I had got the hang of them and now I would not be parted from them.

Well a glass of sparkling cava is waiting for me for a relaxing Friday evening. I have family over for tomorrow for my Dads birthday and there is a table top sale at the Grammar School Sunday morning so I'll update you on how we get on with more posts next week. Have a lovely weekend.