Car adventures and tax returns

It's been a bit of an eventful weekend. On Friday I went to Teignmouth to have a look at a violin for a new pupil. On the way back, my car broke down. On a narrow country lane in the middle of nowhere. In the dark. With a flat phone battery and my 9 month old in the car. I may possibly have uttered a few bad words... ;-) Luckily, the car behind me was being driven by a very nice man who stopped to help and lent me his torch so I could find my in-car charger and plug in my phone, and his phone so I could call the RAC. 

Now, let's be clear - I classed as pretty much the number one priority for any breakdown service, being a single female with a baby in a remote area at night. The automaton lady on the other end of the phone informed me, without a shadow of sympathy, that "The computer says 2 hours, but you might get lucky as you're down as priority". Er...right. Have you ever tried to entertain a 9 month old in a Mini for 2 hours? Oh, and did I mention it was rather cold? Fortunately, I managed to wake up my phone and call dh, who left work immediately and got to us in about 40 minutes, so we could at least sit in his nice warm car with a bit more room. In the meantime, Daniel had thoroughly investigated every light, lever and button on the dashboard, planted his feet in every part of my anatomy in his attempts to go and explore, and then finally given up and had a good long feed. I am so glad I'm still breastfeeding, or it would have been hell! The breakdown truck arrived over an hour after the call to the RAC, loaded the car onto the back and drove it back to Exeter for us, where fortunately dh's garage was still open. 

By this point it was 8.30 and I declared a cooking strike, so we went out for pizza and Daniel chatted up the waitress while covering the floor in gummed-to-death bits of pepper and apple. 

On Saturday, we received the joyous news that the clutch had gone, and was going to cost a painful amount to replace - this only weeks after we had to spend even more on dh's car. They've also discovered an oil leak, but I have to wait until Monday for a quote for that. This has really messed up our finances, and we've had to get a loan from my parents to cover it. So much for redecorating our bedroom before our new bed arrives! That's on hold, and I've spent part of today typing up invoices for various teaching jobs to try and get at least part of it paid back quickly. Very annoying.

We usually try to make Saturdays a bit special, going to shul if there's a service and generally spending time together. Yesterday, though, dh had to spend the afternoon at work catching up on things and it really brought it home to me how different our Saturdays usually are. Without him around (and without a car), my afternoon was the same as any week day - juggling Daniel's needs with a variety of housework jobs. We did spend the evening babysitting for friends, though, which was lovely. It's been a long time since we just sat down together with cups of tea, toys for Daniel and a DVD, without either of us jumping up to 'just' get something done. 

Today was a beautiful day, but instead of being out in the vegetable patch where I wanted to be, I did the grown-up thing and completed my tax return. At the end of the process I am apparently owed a substantial sum by the Inland Revenue, but I find that highly unlikely, and I'm inclined to think I've filled something out incorrectly, so I need to phone them in the morning and see if I can find out what. I don't think I owe much in tax, but I certainly don't think I've overpaid.  

Our second week of the food budget is going reasonably well. Last week I came in a bit under and this week it's much closer, but I think I should be able to avoid spending any more between now and Wednesday, when the next week starts (it's the day I collect our bread order, followed by the Farmers' Market on Thursday). It does make doing Tesco pretty stressful, though, when you're trying to keep track in your head right down to the last penny. Still, the menu plan for the week is looking pretty appetising:

Saturday lunch: Scrambled eggs on toast

Saturday evening: Game pie, roast parsnips, Romanesco cauliflower (there was enough meat for two game pies, so one is in the freezer for next week)

Sunday lunch: Mushrooms on toast (see last week's post for recipe)

Sunday evening: At my parents'

Monday: Squash, spinach and feta risotto

Tuesday: Mushroom and cashew nut stew with cheese dumplings

Wednesday: Vegetable soup with savoury scones OR vegetable crumble

I try to budget for at least one meat meal each week, though we didn't think the game pie was as nice as last week's steak and kidney. Dh says he likes the sound of the risotto, and the mushroom stew is an old stand-by which always goes down well. On Wednesday evening I'm at a meeting, so we'll see how the timings work. 

Tomorrow I have a new violin pupil starting, so I will have to spend the day doing some serious cleaning and tidying. With that in mind, time I joined the boys in bed, I think! Here's hoping the tax bill doesn't turn out to be much and the oil leak the garage found isn't too expensive to fix.