Blessings

There are a few areas of my life that, when I compare them to others [I know I shouldn't, but hey, who doesn't?] I feel disadvantaged, but where I work is not one of them.  As some of you may know, I am a teacher, so that might be quite surprising.

I work in a lovely school, among many wonderful people, some of whom are now important friends to me.  Our Head is an amazing lady and she leads the school with integrity and we are very blessed.

One of her achievements is to have obtained solar panels.  The money we save on fuel has been used to set up and run a school farm.  We have a mini pony; 2 goats; countless  chickens; a rabbit; a guinea pig............  It is a really beautiful place to be and the children benefit from it no end, both in terms of learning and in terms of social and emotional nurturing.

Anyway, because the weather has been so nice, twice this week several of us have taken our lunch up there. Sitting at the picnic tables, surrounded by various animals and happy children, there was no better place to be.

Also this week, our Deputy, another amazing lady, began our 'sewing bee'.   She is a very taleneted sewer.  Many of us had enjoyed The Great British Sewing Bee and had chatted about it.  So, S decided to start a staff  sewing club.  We meet after school.  There is a range of abilities is broad:  I am a complete beginner.  One person is making 2 piped cushions, with zips; another is making a 'Kath Kitson' peg bag.  I am making an 'A-line' skirt.

S is v clever and instead of me buying a pattern, she took my measurements and created a bespoke pattern for me on the computer.  She then gave me calico and I made a 'block', which she then fitted on to me.  Today, I am off into Birmingham to buy my fabric.

Another illustration of how we care for each other is the machine I have was given to me by a collegue.  It turns out that a fellow sewing bee-er also had her machine given to her by another person at school.

I shall take a picture of the fabric, when I have it and post a picture.

x



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Fantastic Bank Holiday Monday/Whitson Half-Term

When I woke up this morning, an email was waiting for me offering a composter, through Freecycle.  I was delighted. It was very timely.  Only yesterday, I had found a composter on Ebay; collection only.  The current bid was £1.75, with 24 hours to go.

I set up a snipe bid; max. £3.00

I had previously ordered one from a supplier offer a concession to my local council. However, I had received an email to say that there had a problem with the check out on their website and my order had not gone through; would I like to re-order? NO!

Then the Freecycle offer came.

Superscout and I went to collect it at 4:00PM, from a lovely lady.

On the way home, we stopped at a Marks and Spencer 'Simply Food' store.  We planned to buy a £10 'Dine In For 2' offer, because it was Bank Holiday.

WELL WE ARRIVED AT THE RIGHT TIME ....................... JUST LOOK AT WHAT WE BAGGED!

ALL 10P!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All in all it has been a great Bank Holiday.

Plus, I wrote 30 ICT comments and 30 Art and DT comments.

Added to which, we re-arranged Superscout's bedroom and did a major spring clean in it.

The Ebay composter finally went for £19.

I also have a chicken carcas in the slow cooker. #stock

Hard Core

Since I have come back to blogging, I feel more hard core about saving money.  I am trying not to let any more at all slip through my fingers.  I also get a sense, from reading the blogs of others, that they are doing the same.

So, 3 little successes to note:

• Yesterday was my fortnightly lunch duty day [Don't have to do anything unless it rains.  If it does, just have to go into the corridors and support Lunch Time Supervisors bringing the children in]  For this we are entitled to claim a free lunch.  This I did.  In the past I have not bothered to claim. So, I ate vegetable curry and rice, with a shortbread biscuit for pudding. [I kept the biscuit and ate it after school, when I was doing my marking]

• I was also given 2 free-range eggs, from the school farm.  I am planning to have scrambled eggs on toast for my breakfast.

• I have just sold a vintage telephone on ebay.  It was a wedding present and never used.  It spent almost 20 years in the loft.  I did my research and believed I might get as much as £200.  This was based on dedicated dealer websites.  However, I have had to list it 3 times.  It has sold for £45 [best offer] on the third attempt, but I am at peace with this because it was not adding value to me when sitting in the loft.  It is going towards the £100 per month mortgage overpayment target.  So far this month I have achieved £93 [£30 Moneysupermarket; £45 ebay and £18 other]

I will update my sidebar accordingly.

I have also emailed Tesco about the oxtail.  They have tried to contact me by phone, but I was not able to answer the call.  I await to see if they offer a resolution to my complaint!