Changing habits, wanting freedom

Thanks, Dolphin. I think the idea came from working out that if New Year's Resolutions don't work it's because we ask and expect too much of ourselves and end up feeling worse than if we'd hadn't even tried.

It's more than a halfway house for me, allowing myself sort of junk food - I love chips. If I say I'm going to exclude them completely I'll end up going to the chippy and that's what I'm trying to prevent. We have fish and chips once a week and it's a fakeaway I thoroughly enjoy. We both work at home so there's no excuse not to cook from scratch but it's still a lovely indulgence.

And we also turn leftovers into our favourite meal of the week - cold roast meat, refriend roast veggies with garlic and mayonnaise and freshly cooked green veg. It's just known as 'Favourite' on the meal plan for Mondays. We have Co-op pizza (because it's at the bottom of the road) with salads every Saturday night and watch a film on telly. That's four meals on the meal plan every single week I don't have to think about for a nano second and the saving on the grocery budget is fantastic because nothing goes to waste.

jvr wrote: »

Its so obvious when you think about it but I always thought 'being good' was not buying them as more expensive than cooking from scratch. Yet, inevitably I would be tired and go for an even more expensive takeaway! Love these diaries for the simple suggestions that can make a big change and a lot of them come from the amazing HoneyBear

They're often cheaper than cooking from scratch, mainly because there is absolutely no waste - no vegetables going bendy in the bottom of the fridge, no recipe ingredients going out of date because you were too tired to cook, etc.

It's the little changes we make that made the big changes possible.

So had a fab weekend finishing cleaning and made a delicious dinner sat night while OH is working which is in a tub for me today. Did a roast chicken yesterday for me and OH and made extra veg so it can all be piled in for a curry tonight.... I can't remember who suggested turning leftovers into different meal instead of same meal twice so OH will eat it but he seems on board

Fabby!

Fitbit is back on and even cycled into work even though it was absolutely freezing. Feel much more on it this week... amazing what a clean and tidy house can do for the mindset. Although as OH pointed out the dogs don't appreciate my work one bit... one decided to pee on my nicely mopped floor! Rude!

Well done on cycling to work at this time of year. I take my hat off to you, that's some commitment in these temperatures.

The dog might have done something a whole lot worse if he thought he was living in a midden! Good on you for having such a great weekend just doing the simple things in life. It is strange how much satisfaction we can get from basically taking good care of ourselves, isn't it?

All sounding good, well done on cycling in this chilly weather...have to admit I haven't been able, to summon up the courage recently as I leave so early it's like the Arctic..

X

You sound really, really up for this now, JVR. Good on you and I hope the motivation stays with you. If not, come back and reread your own posts! Fantastic!

(((Hugs))) for your mum. What she's doing is just about the only hope the lad has I should imagine, but she should get the support she needs and certainly financial help if she's acting as a temporary foster home for him.

Ah, yes, OHs being sent to get something for a couple of quid and managing to spend three days food money on fripperies. You come across that a lot on all the debt-busting threads, where one partner wants to pay off the debt as quickly as possible and the other one wants 'nice things.'

The only option is to make absolutely sure that your OH understands that the reallly 'nice things' are the ones you make yourselves - a bag of spuds, a pot of herbs which you can grow or buy frozed from Sainsbobs freezer cabinets in the winter and a lot of butter. Rather more than the runny slop you get in the bottom of the plastic trays from the supermarket, at that. I do buy those potatoes but only when they're yellow stickered. I love them as a timesaver when I've lost interest in cooking even though I know they're monstrously expensive in comparison.

Supermarkets are absolutely brilliant at psychology - their purpose is to get you to spend money on things you don't actually need. If you join the Grocery Challenge you'll find a lot of information on how to keep that part of your budget tightly under control. I still haven't cracked it completely and I've been working on it for years!

Honey_Bear wrote: »

Ah, yes, OHs being sent to get something for a couple of quid and managing to spend three days food money on fripperies. You come across that a lot on all the debt-busting threads, where one partner wants to pay off the debt as quickly as possible and the other one wants 'nice things.'

...or in my case it's not my OH but my mother...

So I feel your frustrations too!!

Hope your mum gets some support sharpish!! She's doing a wonderful thing, but that's not going to get the extra costs of the bills paid.