A Blue Peter lock down birthday
Happy birthday to Mr S, who had his (*cough cough*) birthday this week! What to do when you can’t go anywhere to celebrate? We decided on an appropriate lock down birthday dinner and managed to order some gifts online.
The trouble with ordering online at the moment is that some companies seem entirely unaffected by the pandemic and items arrive super fast, whilst others take weeks to deliver. This meant that his presents came in dribs and drabs and not all on his birthday!
The card hadn’t arrived the day before, so I had to go all Blue Peter and make one. I used Canva, which I often use to make the headings for this blog and Instagram.
It didn’t cost me anything, of course, so the second card was pretty frugal. The first one did finally get here on the morning of his birthday!
Cheap cards online
May and June are extremely busy for birthdays in my family. There are seven over a four week period! Usually, I go somewhere like the Card Factory, as their cards are really good value. I didn’t know they did them online – including personalised ones – but when I went on Top Cashback* to use Moonpig I found them on there as well.
I stocked up and bought loads, and got cashback on them too. Even though Mr S’s card didn’t arrive in time, the others hopefully will. So, if you decide to use them, go through Top Cashback first and leave yourself plenty of time!
A new supermarket
I finally got fed up with paying Tesco’s prices this week for an online shop. Like many people, I am spending so much more on groceries than usual. But the queues outside Aldi and Lidl were also off putting.
We decided to drive to a small town not too far away and try the Morrison’s there early Monday morning. This is the time to do your weekly shop! Not many customers and no queue at all when we rolled up at 8 am.
I stocked up for me, Mr S and his mum, whilst my daughter did her own shopping. Even better, I spent about £30 less than I have in recent weeks.
Yellow stickers
Not only is Morrison’s a lot cheaper than Tesco’s, it seemed to have more choice than Aldi or Lidl. There were also loads of yellow sticker reductions on a Monday morning.
I decided to buy some meat and fish: venison burgers, some rainbow trout, brisket and a nice rack of lamb. There were lots of other bargains, but I decided that there wasn’t enough room in the freezer for any more. This lot will keep us going quite a while!
Dinner and recycling candles…
Mr S likes little more than a nice steak. If we were going out for dinner, that is exactly what he would choose 9 times out of 10. So steaks were what I went for in Morrison’s. We had these with home made oven chips, large field mushrooms with garlic butter and asparagus. Yum!
My daughter made a birthday cake for dessert and we cracked open a bottle of prosecco.
He isn’t 50 … We suddenly realised all the candles were little stubs and the 5 and 0 the only ones that were usable 😂😂
It was a gorgeous evening, so we sat in the garden and then took the dog for a walk. Perfect!
I don’t think Mr S felt hard done by with his lock down birthday.
So that’s my week in a nutshell. Very little extraneous money spent. It’s been glorious weather pretty much every day, so I have had to fight the puppy watering all the plants every night. He loves to throw himself in front of the hose!
How has your week been?
*This is my refer a friend link. If you click through and sign up to Top Cashback, I will earn a small commission.
I’m linking up with this Cass, Emma and Becky in this week’s ‘Frugal Friday’ linky.
Chrisie says
That sounds a smashing birthday and that photograph of your puppy is adorable,I think the best birthdays are home made.We are still spending far too much on food shopping as it is all online but with two of us here high risk,my son more so I just can’t bring myself to go to a supermarket ,I have also turned into a “just in case “shopper,I have only left the house for a short walk twice in two months,I really must get a grip! Chrissie
Julia says
I’d be happy to see those candles on my next birthday cake too!! 😀 😀
Sounds like a smashing birthday.
I normally have a stash of cards that I’ve grabbed when I’ve seen them, but Mother’s Day caught me on the hop right at the beginning of the lockdown, so I channeled my inner 5 year old, folded a piece of paper and drew a picture of an unhappy family peeking out of the windows of the house (lockdown) but a happy mum who had panic borrowed at the library and was set for the duration! She loved it!!
It was her birthday earlier this month and I was going to print off a facebook meme to stick onto a card, but had a bought one saved.
All she wanted was an Indian takeaway from Iceland, so we popped round with a freezer bag stuffed full of choices and some Cobra beers & poppadum crisps (among ‘proper’ gifts!) and went through the garage to chat in their garden at an acceptable distance – which I think was all she really wanted for her birthday anyway! Apparently the curry went down a treat too. 🙂
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
It’s the people you miss, isn’t it? Sounds sweet
Texasilver says
Is Archie a particular breed of dog? He looks like an Airedale Terrier to me. He is very cute!
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
He is actually a cockerpoo but not much poodle there, apart from his little face
Emma says
Oh I feel your pain with the orders! It was my first wedding anniversary on Monday just there and I am STILL waiting on my husband’s gift to arrive. We’re going to use it as an excuse to have a second celebration but oh my goodness I felt terrible!
Ruby says
Our son, who has Asperger’s syndrome and still lives with us, had his 30th birthday this week. I baked a cake for him and we made a special birthday breakfast. For the first time since early March, we went out for a meal, even though it was just ordering a sack of take out burgers from a drive up hamburger stand. His gift was a cash card he can use to shop online. He was delighted and thought it was a great birthday, especially after two and a half months of not going any where or doing anything that wasn’t absolutely necessary.
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
It’s the simple things, isn’t it? Glad he enjoyed his birthday