8 o'clock on Saturday morning

Jamal made us coffee in bed this morning, bless his little cotton socks. Ahdel had some friends around last night. Other kids from the swimming teaching course to celebrate their successes. Most of them are still down stairs awake or asleep. Lucky we have so many sofas. They were a bit noisy but i could always hear the laughing over the music. Ahdel got his brother down from his room to join as it is more fun with him about, which make me happy. I love that they get on. They always did as kids. I remember bringing Jamal home from the hospital and Ahdel having placed a little toy car on his lap in his car seat so that he had something to play with. The got a bit argumentative when Ahdel hit his teens and Jamal was basically still a kid but now it seems back to normal.

Jamal and I are off to do our shopping shortly. I challenged him to get the most food for the least cost and he is quite competitive so I need him on side. We are restocking the larder with tins and dried foods. Essential for winter soups and stews. I am trying to absorb this in my normal bill.

We like winter cooking and last winter made home made sausages as well We had some problems with the machine so I found a course nearby us where you can learn to make sausages for £15 plus you get to take a recipe book home and a kilo of sausages, To me it sounds very reasonable but Fahed said no, too expensive. It would be a waste. I can see that he suddenly got very serious about saving enough money to get the old house in Crete fixed up and get some income from it.

This month we are testing out the new way of managing our money.I gave him cash to cover his pocket money, fuel allowance and some shopping money (he likes to buy stuff when he sees a bargain)and pretty sure he hasn't opened his wallet since. Result!

Although I suspect there might be a whole lot of 'no, its too expensive' over the next year or so until we get it finished.

I have been reading we might be poor but we are happy who received a surprise $6500 this week which they cant pend on debt. What would you do with it?? I couldn't think of anything that I need/want, which is good.