Well I got out of bed as soon as I woke up feeling a bit annoyed with myself BUT hey, it was my day off and I did have a bit of a late night last night.
I hung out the overnight washing, then took my meter readings as Atlantic had emailed me to ask for readings ready for this months bill, then I made myself a bowl of porridge and a cup of tea. I took my time over my breakfast before putting the laptop on to submit those readings. I braced myself....
So, the gas bill will be £187 and the electricity will be £112. The electricity is not horrendous I suppose (for three months over Winter) but the gas, albeit coming in a bit less that I thought it would do, is pretty bad considering for a lot of the very recent cold weather we still had the heating off for long periods of the day and sat wrapped up in blankets not wanting to move off the sofa at all! Can you imagine what it would have been if we'd have had the heating on as often as we'd have liked?
It's not been pleasant at times but we've coped and of course there are people in far worse situations than us. The bill will be paid and we've still got the roof over our heads. Things in the news every day make me constantly challenge any internal (and sometimes external!) whinging I might do when things aren't going so well.
I digress....
So after that I began tackling emails & post, writing a cheque for the window cleaner who had been (and I'd hid behind closed curtains as I was far from presentable!) and then the housework. I usually do housework on Saturday mornings but I am hoping to meet with an old friend tomorrow. So I thought I'd get it out of the way today. That kept me busy! (And warm!)
Eventually it got to past lunchtime and it was time to get myself sorted with hair wash & shower.
Lunch was 21p ALDI spaghetti on toast and a banana before hubby got home mid afternoon after picking the car up from garage (£93 later....sigh) so I made him some lunch too.
Time for a walk after that! It looked pretty inviting outside so I popped out to a couple of shops to get fresh bits and bobs. It took me in a square circuit around the area I live in and it was COLD! The intermittent sunshine was nice though and it was good to get out for an hour or so. Fresh air and a free workout. Well not free if you consider the shopping but you know what I mean!
I had a Tesco points voucher to redeem so happily I got a bagful of groceries for £5.85 which will see us through till midweek next week.
I was happy to get home for a sit down briefly then I started to make dinner. A yummy leek, mushroom and cashew nut risotto. With the exception of the risotto rice, all ingredients were from ALDI so pretty reasonable. The recipe calls for a small amount of white wine so I bought a small bottle from ALDI and the balance went into a glass for me to sip on whilst stirring the dish! Mmm lovely.
Here is the link to the recipe if you are interested. I use Pure margarine rather than butter, omit the parmesan and use veggie stock and it comes out well.
http://www.food.com/recipe/mushroom-leek-and-cashew-nut-risotto-370053
Hubby washed up and I have brought all the washing in and done a bit more tidying now I am sitting on the sofa watching an old Doctor Who and writing up my blog. It feels good!
So here's hoping for a nice day with a good friend tomorrow (we may visit charity shops....) and then I STILL have another day off to chill before work on Monday. I love long weekends!
It sounds like you really needed that lie-in. Hope that you had a great time today with your friend. All the best, Jx
ReplyDeleteI think if you slept that late on you must have needed it too.I dont know about you though but I always feel guilty for staying in bed, even at weekends because theres always so much I want to do.
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