Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2015

cheerfulness4 · 28 February 2015 at 10:45PM

Viv, I'd be cautious about putting my email online. I think they normally suggest not putting those out in the open to avoid unwanted 'attention.'

Finally got on here today! At last.

I'm another lover of 1st Ladies detective Agency, both the books and the tv series. The books are beautifully written and my DS was addicted to these when he was younger.

HOWMUCH - you knit beautifully. I adore that cardi. I find aran so interesting to knit and it always looks so impressive. You did a great job with that one!

Catching up on spends for the last 2 days.

FRI 27 FEB
DAY 27

Money Spent Today - £7.42 Vouchers Spent - £0
Money Spent in Total - £80.37 Vouchers Spent in Total - £0
Money left in purse - £0.63 - Float left- £0/£15
Jan non-foods left- £0/£15

Spent £7.42 on 2x milk@ 89p each, 2x 500g cooking marg@ 65p each, celery @ 39p and 1kg of chicken breasts @ £3.95.

SAT 28 FEB
DAY 28

Money Spent Today - £3.58 Vouchers Spent - £0
Money Spent in Total - £83.95 Vouchers Spent in Total - £0
Money left in purse - £0.05 - Float left- £0/£15
Jan non-foods left- £0/£15

Today we spent £3.58 at Morrisons on 2x milk@ 88p each, Large box cornflakes @ £1.59 (on offer), and 1 pk Rich Tea @ 23p.

So at the end of February I come out 5p under budget.:T:T:T
Oh goody, that means with the leftover 4p from last month I now have 9p to go towards my bottle of Ameretto at the end of the year.

Watching Marigold Hotel for the zillionth time. I love that film. There was another one called Outsourced that I saw a recently. It was also set in India and we found that one very good, too.

I wish my knees would do skip-diving. That china is lovely.

misstara · 28 February 2015 at 11:27PM

Just popping by quickly to catch up on the thread and to say hi to everyone. Not much to report as have been working loads the past few days, one more double shift to go and then next week will be a bit quieter. Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

vhalla1478 · 28 February 2015 at 11:39PM

Thank you for the advice, Cheerfulness. I just didn't think mainly because I'm new to computers and still feeling my way around. If I get stupid emails like someone in Benin/Nigeria is sending me millions, I just trash them anyway; but am grateful for the advice.

I've had a very pleasant evening but do not want to see food for the next 12 hours at least and I'm going to be really sinful and leave the washing up until morning. My daughter-in-law's dad brought me loads of (free) root vegetables which will help next week's budget no end. Congratulations to you all for managing your budgets so well in February.

Viv xx

silvasava · 28 February 2015 at 11:59PM

Viv if you can still edit the post with your email on it you may be able to delete it xx

vhalla1478 · 1 March 2015 at 10:47AM

Good morning Everyone,

Here we are in a new month; ready and raring to go again. Surprisingly apart from catching up on my dry goods etc., I really only need some cream when I go out tomorrow - so am hoping I'll just have the major 'basic' spend this month and that I'll succeed with the £10 per week challenge.

My daughter-in-law asked me what I wanted for Mothers Day so I've asked for another pyrex measuring jug and some of those bottles that I use for making lemon barley water etc. I'm going to try making some cordials this summer and maybe elderberry champagne so watch this space and if they are successful I'll post the recipes for you. Decent cold drinks are horribly expensive, aren't they?

Thank you, silvasava, as you may observe, I've managed to delete my email address. The trouble is, I'm a newbie as far as computers are concerned, and I panic when something different comes up; my son rolls his eyes at me. I suppose I'm afraid I'll do irredeemable damage to the infernal machine!

Recipes following later - I've washed up from last night but everything is precariously balanced on the draining board and needs putting away.

Bye for now.

Viv xx

silvasava · 1 March 2015 at 11:03AM

Vhalla - don't worry about being a 'newbie' on your computer - no-one started out knowing everything! You'll learn as you go along and to be honest there's not a lot that you can do to actually damage anything - its mainly know how & that comes from using it.

I've got this mental picture now of GQ with big brown eyes batting her eyelashes while being surrounded by hobbits singing HiHo! (no offence to any 'vertically challenged' of us)

Hope everyone has a good day x

vhalla1478 · 1 March 2015 at 11:06AM

The trouble is, once you have an image of someone in your head, however inaccurate, it's difficult to irradicate itt. You are now and forever in a Bluebell costume, silva sava!

Viv xx

Hard_Up_Hester · 1 March 2015 at 12:32PM

If I'm one of the dwarves, I'll be grumpy, lol.
Glad you found me vhalla.
I'm still sorting out the sewing room, it will take months I'm sure.
Hubby's gardening is coming on a treat, the spare bedroom is looking like a jungle, pics on my blog.
Last night I cut up a pair of pajama bottoms to make into jogging bottoms for one of the babies,, I've also cut out a baby skirt from a scrap of leftover pink needlecord.
Hester

vhalla1478 · 1 March 2015 at 1:49PM

Just a quickie as I have to bake some bread. My (two) guests loved my wholemeal loaf and managed to get through two-thirds of it last night, so I'm encouraged to experiment with a few different ingredients.

This is an amazing ginger beer, but needs to be drunk as it's made. I'm going to research soda syphons so I don't have to buy fizzy water.

Ginger Beer - serves 4-6 and everyone will be clamouring for more, if they like ginger beer, of course

140grams fresh ginger, 4 tbsp. muscovado sugar, 2-3 lemons, litre soda water or sparkling mineral water, sprigs of fresh mint.

Grate ginger (you can leave the skin on), put ginger and pulpy juice into a bowl and sprinkle on the muscovado sugar. Zest the rind from two of the lemons, or remove with a peeler, add to the bowl and bash them with something heavy for around 10 seconds to mix up all the flavours. Squeeze the juice from all three lemons and add most of it to the bowl. Pour on soda/mineral water. Allow to sit for 10 minutes then taste; add a little more sugar if it's too sour for you. Pass the ginger beer through a coarse sieve into a large jug and add lots of ice and some sprigs of mint. Now isn't that just redolent of Summer?

Viv xx

jinny · 1 March 2015 at 1:54PM

Thank you Vhalla
I love ginger beer.
Is it safe in the bottles Ive heard of hm ginger beer exploding

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Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2015

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