Dang It

I just wrote a fascinating post on "little wins" that would have changed your life....;o)

The blasted computer just deleted it all when I went to attach a picture.

So I give up and here are some pictures of Belle instead, who is currently fast asleep on my lap under my scarf.

Frugally yours
Abigail
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Brrrrrrr

Feeling a bit fed up this evening which is a shame with Christmas approaching.

This unrelenting cold weather just drives me potty. I would rather be hungry than cold. Whether at work, home or in the car I can never seem to get warm. Only a hot bath helps.

At 11pm at night, the heating should have gone off an hour ago with me tucked up under a 12 tog duvet.

But I did not get home until late and after a quick bowl of tesco everyday value cornflakes, I am writing this sitting on my lounge floor hugging the radiator to get warm and dry my hair.

I am having a sneaky extra hour as tomorrow evening the heating will only be on very low to prevent freezing pipes. I stay with The Chap from Friday til Sunday.

Hopefully tomorrow it will be better as I understand temperatures are supposed to rise over the next few days.

This extreme feeling of cold bothers me greatly if I am honest.

Since a child I always have been the cold one. My hands and feet are always very cool to the touch.

My enduring memory of snowy days or swimming with friends was having a great time until my elder sister would shout

"Mummy! Quick! Abigail's lips are turning blue!"

Unfortunately as I suffered from a heart murmur, this phrase would send my parents into a major panic as if apocalypse was approaching! And I would be whisked in to drink hot tea and sit in front of the fire.

A lovely memory of family love, I agree but it seems that after 36 years not much has changed except now luckily my lips stay pink.

Ahhh well winter cannot last forever I suppose.

Frugally yours
Abigail
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Where There's A Will..

Firstly, hello and welcome to my new follower Fostermummy. I've heard of you! Famous in the frugal blogging world. Thank you for visiting. x

A while ago, I mentioned that I had started collecting vouchers so I could purchase the Alessi cutlery currently on offer at Tescos.

Well, here is the finished article.

The full set of cutlery.

• 12 boxes of starter sets of cutlery. 1 small knife, 1 small fork and 1 soup spoon.
• 12 boxes of main course sets of cutlery. 1 large knife, 1large fork, 1 large spoon, and 1 teaspoon
• 3 boxes of pastry forks, 4 forks / box
• 2 serving sets. ( I may buy 2 more sets, tbc)

I completed the purchases yesterday after work as I got given another voucher £5 off a £40 spend on cookware and they let me use it at the same time.

The offer finishes on Christmas Eve but vouchers will still be accepted up to early January.

A voucher was given with every £20 spent in store or on petrol, and 5 vouchers were required to be able to buy 1 box for £4.99 (£7.49 for the servers).

Now that is an expensive way to buy cutlery! There was no way I was going to spend that much money, nor could I afford to. So from the first week of the offer I have been

• sweet talking cashiers
• Facebooking friends
• Putting wanted adverts on local websites
• Using freecycle
• Swopping homemade cakes for vouchers.
• And some of you readers kindly sent me some too.

Facebook worked really well and friends were sharing my post and then sending 20 or 30 vouchers at a time as they collected them for me from their friends.

I needed 145 vouchers to complete my set.

I have spent £149.70. Getting the vouchers alone should have cost me £2900 on in storre purchases, before I spent the £149.70 on buying them.

In actual fact I have spent no more or less than I usually spend in Tesco on food and petrol. Everyone else just helped me.

To buy a box of Alessi Nuovo Milano (24 items) on Amazon costs £200.00. I have over four times as many. That is a huge saving. And, I would never have been able to afford this cutlery before.

I have had to promise friends and family I will never change my cutlery again!

I do now have c. 190 vouchers left,

enough for over a full set the same as mine. If anyone wants them to use before 6th January 2013. Or even just half of them - please leave a comment with your email address and I will be very happy to send you some.

Thank you to everyone, including readers who sent me vouchers with no thought of asking for anything in return. I really appreciate it.

Mission Accomplished, I would say!

Just need to buy a table big enough to fit 12, and then a house big enough to fit the table.......:o)

Frugally yours
Abigail
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Free Stuff!

I decided I wanted to make a little stocking for The Chap at Xmas with a few of his favourite things.

But, I did not want to spend any money....hmmmm tricky!

Luckily, I have been ensuring that every time I buy a product in Boots I got the points added to my account. Also judicious use of my double points vouchers to make the best use of deals too.

Turns out 12 months of spending has amassed £15 to spend in store.

So, today a quick pop into town at lunchtime and I was able to get all this loot!

Now, it may be all a bit boring, but I know it will be appreciated and useful. I am going to add a box of microwave sweet popcorn and this will be a perfect stocking for my handsome fella to open on top of his main items.

Good thing he rarely reads my blog huh?

Frugally yours
Abigail x

What Would You Have Done?

Afternoon!

I have been debating whether to tell you this or not for a few days.

On Saturday, I was at my local Iceland buying their Sweet Chilli Chicken Pizzas (£1.50 each and just delicious!).

Being naturally talkative, I started chatting with the woman in front of me in the queue. Elderly, with a lovely smile.

After exchanging a couple of mundane sentances. She said to me
"Would you mind wishing me, Happy Birthday? As I am 80 today and no-one has said Happy Birthday to me"

God....

Doesn't it just break your heart?

I of course wished her Happy Birthday as did the Cashier and everyone else at the Checkout. It turns out her husband died earlier this year and there was no-one around. I suspect she was lonely.

I waited a couple of minutes and asked her if she would like to come for a cup of tea with me to a local cafe. I was going to get her a piece of cake and generally make a fuss of her.

I think she got embarrassed, and said "No, I am ok thank you" and scurried off.

I feel so sad when I think of this lady.

Loneliness must be debilitating.

Sigh.... Christmas must be unbearable for so many people.

Rather forlornly

Abigail
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Human Pin Cushion

Afternoon Peeps!

Having a fine day?

I had my flu jab today, and I am peeved off about it.

Why?

I have the flu innoculation every year, have done for about 5 years since a nasty bout of flu over Christmas left me on the 30^th December in an ambulance with horrible chest pains. I had come down with pleurisy and pneumonia.

It is the worst I have ever felt, and the thought of another bout can leave curled up in a foetal position wimpering like an arachnophobic at a spiderman convention.

Normally, my local doctors surgery will let me queue up with the elderly, young and frail to receive a free jab.

For some reason this year, they did not call me in and by the time I had remembered the open sessions had been completed and I had no chance of getting it free.

So, after a couple of days of feeling a little under the weather and my local pharmacy refusing me the vaccination, I put on my best smile and asked another chemist close to work who were happy to oblige.

£9.99 to get it this year. That is a lot compared to the £0.00 I paid last year and the year before and the year before that…. Well you get the idea.

I am pleased to have the peace of mind of knowing I cannot get ill with flu for another 12 months. However, I am peeved I had to spend nearly a tenner.

So next year in October, please can you remind me to call my Doctors?

Frugally yours

Abigail

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Tuesday.

It has been a strange few days since I last blogged on Thursday. Hello and welcome to my new follower Jenny Freeman. Thanks so much for visiting x.

First of all…

KATE AND WILLS ARE BAKING A ROYAL BUN! Congratulations!!

So very excited when this news broke in the UK yesterday afternoon. Cannot wait for the 3^rd in line to arrive next year. Much discussion at work about boys / girls and twins as apparently extreme morning sickness is often associated with multiple births.

More good news is Christmas, is bought, paid for and sitting in my spare room waiting to be wrapped. Nothing was bought full price and I was especially pleased with some Clarins sets I picked up which I got 10% off. A saving of £6 across the two. But, the bonus was the free gift, which I then snaffled, and was just as good as the sets I had just paid for.

I am just waiting on something arriving from Ebay for The Chap, which should be here by the end of the week.

As I bought the wrapping paper in January when it was reduced (buy plain gold / red / silver rolls and they last all year -  10p for 3meters). I am ready for the weekend when I will start wrapping.

Christmas cards were also picked up in January at 50p for 10 from Tesco. £1.50 for 30 and that will be it for 2012 festivities.

So that is the good news.

We have had a some bad news this week, a relative has taken a very nasty tumble and is in hospital, battered, bruised and unconscious in Intensive Care. Everyone is flying around visiting and helping out, but it is very upsetting and the relative is a very kind elderly person. No-one should be in hospital this time of year.

This morning, I was late to work, by nearly 90mins as they closed the road. A pedestrian had been hit by a man in his car with his 3 kids in the rear. I had to turn back and completely retrace my journey to get into one of the offices. As I started to swear about commuting, the air ambulance flew overhead, and that shut me up. It really is serious when that arrives.

How quickly anticipation for the Christmas season can seem so shallow, and lives can be changed irrevocably. Not just the pedestrian and my relative, but also the man driving the car and those close to ones taken ill.

Around this time of year there is so much bad news and so many joyless existences. It has really come home to me over the past 4 days.

My Mum is very good at raising funds, and this year she decided that she would raise money for our local FoodBank. Surely a roof over your head and a fully tummy are basic human rights? Well she thinks so and I agree. It is criminal in today’s society, here in the UK people are hungry.

She attended the local Christmas Light switch on with a Bottle Tombola and made £140.

Our local Tesco on Saturday was asking for food donations to the FoodBank and was giving every customer a list of items it needed (all non perishable). I was not able to get much, but I did pick up a tinned pie, tin of peas and some tuna. Tesco then gave another 30% on top of my donation.

I think this is a great idea, but apparently it was only on for one day. I wish there was someway to ask Tesco to have a bin, in which shoppers could donate every week. Just a tin / week from 20% of shoppers would make a huge amount of difference.

So this week, give your loved ones a little extra squeeze from me and if you would like to help out those who are hungry in the UK. Please see here.

Frugally yours

Abigail

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