Watching the pennies so I can spend the pounds.

Hello, There's been a lot of workmen in our village over the last couple of days. Here they all are, gathered together in my street, ready for the days work. When I saw them I thought crikey, what's going on here. The equipment they've brought with them are cherry pickers and mulching machines for the branches they are about to cut down from our trees. I wondered if they were going to fell the large tree at the end of the road, top left in the photo, but when I asked the man said no, they have to remove all branches that interfere with overhead cables. Temporary traffic lights have gone up in various places to give them room to work. I think the job has been done now as there was no sign of them this afternoon. 

A notice went up in the Post Office window on Wednesday which was a bit of a shock. Our lovely post lady Hilary is going to retire in April, and the office and shop will close. Not good news at all, a lot of people rely on it. It does say that it's a temporary closure and other arrangements will be made to provide a service. Not sure where it will be, Hilary owns the building and lives on the premises so it won't be there. There is an empty shop next door so they might use that, or some villages have their Post Office in the back room of a pub or the village hall. We shall have to wait and see what happens. 

A few leaflets came through the door today, haven't had any for a while, I always look through them. I wonder if the Co op has anything to tempt me, they are generally quite expensive. Some of the £1 items are that price anyway in other shops, it's just that the Co op sell at a higher price normally so they can call it a reduction. Sticky Toffee pudding was a whopping £3.59, now it's £1.79. No thanks, still too expensive, and too much sugar. McCain Wedges, was £2.29, now £1.14. No thanks, can get a big bag of spuds for that. Ben & Jerry's cookie dough ice cream, was £4,89 good grief, now £2.44. I never buy ice cream from a supermarket. 350 grms Pilgrims Cheddar mature cheese, was £5, now £2.50. Nope, extra mature same size pack is £1.75 from Aldi. 

Other deals are Thirst Pockets kitchen rolls, Lenor Fabric Enhancer, Persil washing powder, Finish dishwasher tablets, Persil liquid, and Dettol multi purpose cleaner. No thanks, don't buy any of those. There is a third off selected bottles of wine, no good to me, my limit is £4.50 on wine and the cheapest one in the offer is £4.99. There are a couple of meal deals. Bangers and mash, and pasta and garlic bread, both for under £5. I can make them cheaper than that, using veggie sausages and a packet of pasta.

Let's have a look at the Farm foods leaflet. There are some 750 grm bags of veggies for 59p, and a box of Linda McCartney sausages for £1,  which might interest me, but that's it. All the rest is ready meals, meat and fish, and junk. There's no way I could spend £50 to use a voucher for £5 off.  

So, what's happening on the car front. I took my Meriva to the local dealer for a trade in price on a Focus. After going all round the houses, adding this on and that on, then deducting the Meriva price off the total, it took the total cost price way out of my range. On the list he asked what I could do without. Even removing the Gap Insurance policy and the Paint Protection treatment it still didn't add up. They couldn't match the quote I had yesterday, their trade in price was very low. They do things all arse about face. Pile everything on without asking first, and assuming you are daft enough to go along with it. It's all about earning commission for the add on's. These things should be discussed after you have agreed to buy the car, not before. Bonkers way of selling cars. 

I did go to another local dealer today, wanted a closer look at the Skoda Roomster. Have eliminated that one, not big enough, nice medium size car though. They were photographing a very smart Skoda Octavia estate so I had a sit in it. It was very smart, slightly more than I want to pay, but low mileage and only £20 a year road tax. Will think about that one. I also saw a very nice Astra Estate which fits my requirements, but it had been sold.

I'll get back to the dealer I saw yesterday and see if we can come to an agreement on this Focus. 

I think I'll have a car free weekend, chill out, the weather is set to be warm. I've booked two nights in Ravenstor Youth Hostel in the Peak District for next week, at the amazingly low price of £7 per night. So the total cost will be £24 for two nights B & B. Can't be bad eh! Some good walking round those parts.
Have a nice weekend, and thanks for popping in. Toodle pip.