Live on £4000 for a year - Part 3

Doom_and_Gloom

My dad found the big freezer defrosting earlier (it's fine now) and a a good proportion of food was defrosted :eek: .
Sausages
Cod fillits (sp?)
Chicken thighs
Chicken fillits (sp?)
Porck chops
Yorkshire puds
Pepporoni pizza
This equated to a whole shelf of food in there deforsted overall which as you can imagine equals to quite a bit of money .

Thankfully my parents are going to a BBQ today so most of it is going with them so will not be wasted. My fiancé is going to have the pizza when he gets home from work and the cod the 6 pet rats I have will be eating it for the next few days as my parents said they could have it :rotfl: (oh is the life of my spoiled rats :rolleyes: ) . That means the yorkshire puddings stuck in the fridge to hopefully be used tomorrow if they are still okay.

I'm glad my freezer is basically fine as I would go nuts if I lost that kind of amount of veg etc of mine . Although some frozen chunky veg and chips in mine have defrosted but I can have that tonight .

Not as bad as it could have been if not noticed when it was. There are 3 freezers in this house (of which 2 are in the hot conservitory at the moment ) that my ma INSISTS on filling to the brim :eek: . This is the EXACT reason my dad does not like it. If we have a power cut and can't do anything about it thats hundreds of ££ down the tube :mad: . My ma doesn't think like that though. To her it's 'but what if food supplies go for a month' or 'we could need this incase something goes wrong'. Yes but we could also do with the money that could go missing if something goes wrong with the freezers :rolleyes: . We have no idea how to get her to stop over stocking the house with food (the freezers are the starting point as the fridges, yes plural as in 2:eek: , are NEVER empty unless they are on holiday in which case only 1 runs :rolleyes: , and the larder is uasually overflowing with food as are the cupboards :eek: . In any normal day we have enough food for at least a full month, if not 2 or 3, without the worry of going hungry or being underfed yet she goes shopping at least 1ce a week :mad: ). My parents try to be as frugal as they can with everything else but my ma just can not do it with food . Oddly enough my dad wants to get rid of one of the freezers, I can't begin to wonder why :rotfl: .

redglass_2

Hi, D&G, if you have contents insurance is there any chance it would cover your freezer contents? Or maybe you could just try training your ma to stock up on dried goods rather than frozen stuff.

I have come on the thread to try and cheer myself up since my (long-dreaded, long-postponed) decorating has just hit a major snag. The old paint behind the woodstove had started cracking in the heat and coming away from the wall. I had a closer look today before starting the new paint job and found that all the old colour has gone like clingfilm - it just peels off in big pieces, very weird - and the plaster underneath suffered when I started to pull it off, and in the end I got down to the brick! So now I've decided to just leave the bricks bare - safer than paint dissolving in the heat - but that means chipping off all the rest of the plaster. :eek: I've already been decorating this same room for over a week (very slow progress because there's no space to move anything around). Looks like it should now be finished sometime in October. :mad: But I did get a giggle out of the idea of Looby-Loo doing the allotment in undies and a mac so I feel a bit better now. Sorry, Looby, you said not to laugh but I have visions of all those old men on the lotty praying for rain.... :rotfl:

Doom_and_Gloom

redglass wrote: »

Hi, D&G, if you have contents insurance is there any chance it would cover your freezer contents? Or maybe you could just try training your ma to stock up on dried goods rather than frozen stuff.

I have come on the thread to try and cheer myself up since my (long-dreaded, long-postponed) decorating has just hit a major snag. The old paint behind the woodstove had started cracking in the heat and coming away from the wall. I had a closer look today before starting the new paint job and found that all the old colour has gone like clingfilm - it just peels off in big pieces, very weird - and the plaster underneath suffered when I started to pull it off, and in the end I got down to the brick! So now I've decided to just leave the bricks bare - safer than paint dissolving in the heat - but that means chipping off all the rest of the plaster. :eek: I've already been decorating this same room for over a week (very slow progress because there's no space to move anything around). Looks like it should now be finished sometime in October. :mad: But I did get a giggle out of the idea of Looby-Loo doing the allotment in undies and a mac so I feel a bit better now. Sorry, Looby, you said not to laugh but I have visions of all those old men on the lotty praying for rain.... :rotfl:

I'm sure the insurance would cover all feezers if something happens in the future to all of them. Thankfully as most of it it going to be use today or tommorow that has been effected it's not a worry this time and we are glad of that as you can imagine.
I have tried to get her to try dried alternatives. We have onions like this and country veg (or mixed veg I'm not sure) but that's it really other than the pulses I buy and the herbs and spices needed. She just has a habit of buying too much reduced food thinking she can put it in the freezer just incase . I'm sure there has to be food in some of them that is no good now due to dates on them anyway. I can not stand to see food wasted. I was going beserk having to empty the freezer of the foods that had defrosted. I do not eat meat and all I was thinking was the amount of animals that might be wasted due to it all. I said to my dad that as they (mum, dad and fiance) eat meat they may as well make sure they do not waste the animals that died for it by just chucking them. Thankfully my dad feels the same and aranged with the BBQ people to take most the stuff defrosted so they didn't have to defrost that food on their side :T . Win win situation I'd say. Not brilliant it happened but looks like it is not going to be wasted at all. Just got to hope the yorkshire puds are good for the 3 of them tommorow now :rolleyes: .

I hope you have luck with your walls. It does not sound good at all but probably sounds worse than it really is (we hope).

I missed the post about the allotment in undies :rotfl: . I'm sorry but I am easily amused. Ive seen my next door out in her bra and shorts mowing the lawn before and that was a sight to laugh about so I can just imagine the allotment senario . I am sorry Looby-Loo I really am but can you really expect us not to get a bit giggly from that ?

Marru

redglass wrote: »

I have visions of all those old men on the lotty praying for rain.... :rotfl:

What a wonderful image!!! Thank you Redglass!! :rotfl:

Rain, rain, rain... Not a walking day for us unfortunately so we have been doing puzzles today. A fairy godmother sent DD a reward chart and she already earned three stars today by: brushing her teeth, brushing her hair (= letting me brush it) and getting dressed by herself. (No stars for me as I only have managed the first one... )

My little piggy boy has been eating today but now he has gone hiding again. He is under huge pile of hay. I come here every morning and several times per day to check that he is ok.

We had such a wonderful meal just now. I made some potato bake from ready sauce but added some "veggie mince" with it and it was lovely especially served with boiled broccoli. It had also enough cheese to keep DD happy. I peeled and cut too much potatoes so I got this idea of cooking them in a grill (a very cheap version of George Foreman one) and they turned up really nicely. So in the future if I am tired and in need for supper I know now how I can cook a potato from raw really easily and quickly.

That is it from the Tiger household for today

Have great evening all,

Marru

looby-loo_2

redglass wrote: »

Hi, D&G,
I have come on the thread to try and cheer myself up since my (long-dreaded, long-postponed) decorating has just hit a major snag. The old paint behind the woodstove had started cracking in the heat and coming away from the wall. I had a closer look today before starting the new paint job and found that all the old colour has gone like clingfilm - it just peels off in big pieces, very weird - and the plaster underneath suffered when I started to pull it off, and in the end I got down to the brick! So now I've decided to just leave the bricks bare - safer than paint dissolving in the heat - but that means chipping off all the rest of the plaster. :eek: I've already been decorating this same room for over a week (very slow progress because there's no space to move anything around). Looks like it should now be finished sometime in October. :mad: But I did get a giggle out of the idea of Looby-Loo doing the allotment in undies and a mac so I feel a bit better now. Sorry, Looby, you said not to laugh but I have visions of all those old men on the lotty praying for rain.... :rotfl:

I should have said my lotty is a diagonal corner of a field, about an acre, divided into just 4 lotties, tended by three neighbours. I never see the two men except when their dogs wander (and they wouldn't be interested in me - IYSWIM), the other side is tended by a couple only there on occasional weekends and the other by a woman who is as daft as me when it comes to being frugal. She is my saving grace when it comes to justifying the Heath Robinson contraptions I build up there because she always has a more eccentric one:rolleyes: (eg she [STRIKE]cut[/STRIKE] sawed the top off an old car, at the bottom of the windows, and uses it as a cold frame) which make my 'gazebo' fruit cages look quite smart

I know what you mean about decorating. I thought - bathroom, couple of days - two weeks later it looks worse than when I started and when it's done I know that the landing is goings to look shabby next to it.

sophiesmum_2

looby-loo wrote: »

I should have said my lotty is a diagonal corner of a field, about an acre, divided into just 4 lotties, tended by three neighbours. I never see the two men except when their dogs wander (and they wouldn't be interested in me - IYSWIM), the other side is tended by a couple only there on occasional weekends and the other by a woman who is as daft as me when it comes to being frugal. She is my saving grace when it comes to justifying the Heath Robinson contraptions I build up there because she always has a more eccentric one:rolleyes: (eg she [strike]cut[/strike] sawed the top off an old car, at the bottom of the windows, and uses it as a cold frame) which make my 'gazebo' fruit cages look quite smart

I know what you mean about decorating. I thought - bathroom, couple of days - two weeks later it looks worse than when I started and when it's done I know that the landing is goings to look shabby next to it.

In the gardeners world mag I have just beeen reading there is a picture of a hen coop made from the back half of an old morris minor estate, complete with sliding windows to get the eggs out:D It looks great:D

:rotfl: :rotfl: Laughing away at the image of you gardening in flip flops and a raincoat.

need to update my totals £4.50 spent on day trip on wednesday and £1.44 from contingency fund today on onions for my chutney making. made 21 jars of chutney today from my tomatoes, some of which will be in xmas hampers. Need to put an sos out to oldies soon for more jam jars ready for blackberry jam making.

sophiesmum_2

Good morning frunchkins:D

Having a chilling out day today, apart from cooking tea for the oldies not much is planned. Going swimming at 8am and may even go again tonight if I feel like:D Can recommend it for toning up, I've only lost a couple of pounds but have gone down a dress size in last few weeks due to my body toning up with the exercise.My fees are working out at just over £1 for each visit for swim, sauna ,jacuzzi and a shower,as I am going daily, so I think that is quite good value really, in the local pool a swim is £2.90:eek: .

Picked the last of the tomatoes from greenhouse yesterday, made 21 jars of chutney with some green ones and a huge batch of tomato sauce base with the ripe ones. The cherry toms in the baskets are still producing yet though:D .Going to use some of chutney to make foodie type hampers for some extra xmas pressies.I already have all my xmas gifts in but will probably add a basket of goodies for each house too. Must get oldies to save me more jars ready for blackberry jams etc :rolleyes:

Catch up with you all later off for swim now:D

Janey51

sophiesmum you are a busy little bee

looby-loo if an old man did his gardening in your garb he would be arrested :rotfl:

I ate far too much last night and feel decidedly yuk this morning That will teach me to stuff my little tum with things it shouldn't have.
The meal went really well. I left the young uns getting stuck into the home made wine and Goldwasser at 1.30am so heaven knows what time they went to bed.
I have a lot of stuff left which will have to go into my bulging freezer :rolleyes:

At DH's funeral, I asked for family flowers and a collection to go to a local animal rescue centre. The final total is £1055.15 :beer: :T :beer:
He would have been amazed but it shows how loved he was

Today is tidying up day :eek: The kitchen looks like a war zone.

bails

Sounds lovely Janey, except for the poorly tummy, and a fantastic total for the animal rescue :T Tom was loved indeed. Hope you feel better soon and the cleaning up isn't too painful :rolleyes:

Tried to post about last night's posts last night but connection wasn't working after I typed it! Funny story about the mac and undies Looby :rotfl:Sorry to hear about the decorating troubles, it was the same in our house when we did the back bedroom. We've unleashed a whole new demon with the latest project so I dread to think how long this stage will be a 'work in progress' :eek: Still, it will make a real difference to the house :j
Sophiesmum, who ever heard of a chilling out day starting at 8am :rotfl:I'm really missing my gym as haven't been able to go recently but am going to try to make it, if not today then definitely tomorrow. Someone hold me to that please
Lots more tea and sarnie making here today (wish I could do more - if there's any more demolition though I may have to get involved, good for the old frustration ) and I'll be off to collect some more raspberries if the rain holds off. Then going to collect my new freezer tonight, and one for Marru too :T
Have a fab day everyone x

Marru

Went to get some bread from the freezer this morning for our toast and the bread wasn't frozen. My fridge-freezer had stopped working over night. Luckily it is two months since my big stock up shop so everything is pretty much empty at the moment.

I had some Mr S cook from frozen salmon fillets (free from SIL) in there and they have now been baked in owen in foil. Also had green beans and peas so these have gone into SC with two cans of toms, half can of baked beans and half can of kidney beans. Shall be interesting how it turnes out.

So this leaves the bread. I happen to have odd end bits of bread left in the freezer (brown bread), any ideas how I can utilise these except sharing it between the rats and The Dog.

I bought the fridge-freezer from Argos last September so need to call them tomorrow and ask advice how to get it sorted. So Bails that second freezer is very welcome!! :T

Janey: I am glad you had lovely time and chuffed about the collection amount for the rescue.

Sophiesmum: Can't you bottle your energy? You'd get a fortune selling it. I'd gladly be your guinea pig trying it out...:D

Looking at the sky and wondering if I could take my washing out. It takes ages to dry on the indoor dryer as everything is so packed together. I might just risk it.

Have a great day everybody.

Marru