Saving Pennies.........

Afternoon All,

Hope you are all fit and well and that life is treating you kindly.

 My son went into hospital on Thursday and the surgeon managed to 'pop out' the broken cheek bone so that he didn't need to have a plate fitted. We went to see him on Thursday night and was really surprised at how good he looked considering he had only come out of 'recovery' approx 1 1/2 hours before - he's had hardly any bruising and his face went back to being symmetrical immediately - he was allowed home on Friday morning and has just got to go back and have his stitches out next week.

He was back in work on Saturday morning (He's a Postman and the Post Office are the worst company to work for - they have no thought or empathy with their employees at all, the 2 days he's taken off for the operation was booked as leave as he couldn't go on sick leave - he'd loose his chance of a transfer if he did that!)

Bet he'll be more careful when he's digging the garden, next time!

I've been looking for Xmas presents recently - my husband retires in 2 years time and we are starting to rein in our spending now, so not spending quite as much on Xmas as we have before, but how everything has gone up in price! - I've had to warn my Daughter that there won't be as much, as in the past for my Grand Daughters - My daughter has always put our presents with theirs and then told the girls that Santa has brought them, after Nanny has sent them to Santa.

I've managed to get a number of friends and relatives presents already and I've got a lot of knitting to do in these next few weeks for friends children, these items will double up as Xmas presents.

But I feel so mean not spending as much as I normally do on family and where I am spending the same amount - it's just not going to go as far.

I've already started off the Xmas food boxes, I've done this since my own children were little, I start in September and buy one thing extra each week and put it away in the box - so far I have chocolate biscuits, trifle, cheesy biscuits, stuffing mix, foil etc., - so some put away already - I also do my Son and Daughter-in-law a box the same. I've also started saving  stamps for us, my Son and Daughter for Morrisons only six pounds on each card so far but every penny helps.

I've also been saving the cards from the the Mail on Saturday and Sunday - you enter the numbers from the cards onto the computer and by 27th November, I shall have enough for a fifteen pounds voucher for Tesco. (I know that it means buying the papers each weekend, but I like a paper on a weekend to read so might as well get something back in return!)

Hopefully Morrisons will do the deal whereby you save your receipts for a month and they give you vouchers to the value of twenty five pounds. I'm hoping that all these little things will add up and not make Xmas too expensive for us.

We've managed so far, not to put the heating on or light the fire, I'm trying to put that off for as long as I can, but the nights are getting darker earlier and cooler aren't they? We've changed the bed today and the good old fashioned flannelet sheets have been put back on and I've changed the summer quilt to the winter quilt.

I know that I am extremely sad and old fashioned, but I always use plain white flannelet sheets in the winter and plain white cotton sheets for the summer and my sheets always have a boil wash and they are ironed - I paid a lot for the sheets and brought the best I could, so it always makes sense to look after them and there's nothing like getting into a bed made with freshly ironed sheets.

 A while back I had enough pennies to purchase a duck down filled winter quilt and a summer quilt the same and it was really money well spent. I'm the same with curtains - I have Sanderson Rose and Peony for the front of the house for the winter and Laura Ashley for the Summer. I think it's nice to acknowledge the changing of the seasons, within the house.

I've finished altering the curtains for the conservatory today and they are now up at the window. The thermal lined curtains are all up all at the other windows in the conservatory and all the curtains have now all been closed - they'll stay closed now, until it's warm enough to open them next Spring.  We have 2 radiators in the conservatory but it's such a large room, that you don't feel any benefit from them, when they are on in the winter and as the forecast is that it's going to be such a bad winter again this year, every little bit of spare warmth will be needed. There's plenty of daylight through the roof.

We'll start closing the garden down next weekend ready for the winter months. so lots to do there.

Hope you all have a good week Byeeee