Live on £4000 for a year - Part 3

Marru

Hello All!!

NSD today and 5th day without chocolate. Also I have some biscuits in the cupboard and I didn't eat a single one of them (but did polish off the remains of the cheescake) Have kept up the exercise regime but pace wasn't great today as the weather was so sticky.

I need to finish a report by tomorrow so it shall be a long night. Need to go and get something for supper before tackling it.

Tomorrow is DD's last school day before summer hols and they are going to do a presentation and us parents have been asked to provide snacks. I will take some grapes and perhaps get a pizza that I can bake here and cut into pieces and take with me.

I have been using my resently learned animal communication methods to The Dog this week. She has bad habit of barking at everything like sheep, cows, horses...

Task was to walk through a field that had sheep on without barking at them. Day 1: on the lead, no barking but some huffing and puffing. Day 2: on the lead, no pulling, no barking, no huffing or puffing. Day 3: off the lead completely ignoring the sheep. Result: Success :T And what did they say about old dogs and tricks?

This old dog is going to get something to eat now. Perhaps tuna omelette? With some salad.

Marru

PS Nyk - what a looooovely little hedgehog!

Frugaldom

Marru, quick word of warning, although it may be different laws in different areas - it's illegal to let your dog off the lead in a field of sheep. Sorry if I sound like a party pooper (I grew up on a farm) but better safe than sorry. Even sheep can be unpredictable, no matter how well behaved the dog is.

Marru

Thanks it is ok, had they been any closer I would definitely kept her on the lead. Won't risk it again. Just was so happy to see how much progress was made.

sophiesmum_2

Nyk - the stockpile challenge is doing really well, I hardly seem to have made any inroads into my stash. Both freezers are full, and storecupboards still full, The things I have used most of are uht milk which i use for yoghurts, and drinks etc and dried milk which we use for porridge. I have used quite a bit of flour for breadmaking and also sugar for jam making but still have plenty of both.Porridge , tinned tomatoes and OJ have also been used lots.
I have been incorporating as much home grown, home made stuff into meals as possible to help stores last longer, and also have had freegan food from frugal mums garden,trout off one of oldies and fruit to use up off another. I haven't had to use lots of meat in our meals as we eat Friday and Sunday tea with my oldies and these are usually meat based meals.There is also usually a small surplus of veggies to use up afterwards.We are trying to eat more veggie and pulses based meals the other 5 days which is also helping.

I have used about £40 of the £100 I allocated myself for extra food buys but this has been spent mostly on more stockpiling of special offers such as the smoothie mixes today, asda 50p offers last week, and eggs which I cannot source any other way at the moment. I haven't spent anything else on food.
We are also cutting right down on potato consumption as trying to stick to SW type of eating so never buy any potatoes either at moment, have hardly touched rice store for same reason.
I feel like I will be able to manage to xmas on my stores and just using the contingency fund money. The thing i am likely to run out of first is the uht milk but I still have about 26 litres to go first:D and then some tins of dried.I think I have enough flour based on 5 loaves a week. Porridge will probably be the second thing to run short but then we can always have yog or toast instead.

sophiesmum_2

Bails - my blackcurrants/whitecurrants are ready now, basically you will know as they will be plump and quite soft.You only usually get one head with the broccoli but if I remember right there was a trick about encouraging side shoots to grow into small heads - will try and look for it for you.

Well done on sorting out the visit to your old school - good to have closure I have a philosophy about relationships with people and places. Not all relationships are meant to last indefinately, like everything they have a shelf life. The trick is knowing when to let go and move on, hopefully before the relationship starts to drain you emotionally. it is much healthier to free yourself from bad relationships whether it be a job that is making you depressed, a place you no longer feel comfortable with or a person who has become an "emotional vampire". It is quite liberating to give yourself permission to move on and make new friends, etc. There will be some people you stay in contact with your whole lives, others will just be temporary visitors, but if they make you feel bad that isn't healthy.

bails

Thanks for all the congrats peeps, and to SophiesMum for wise words. I have 'deadheaded' my life since my illness, especially of draining friends and it really is liberating as you say. I am very fussy about my friendships now, so I guess you should all feel honoured

I love the tuna trifle idea, classic! :rotfl:

Tim Berlandboot is VERY cute Nyk :heartpuls We also have a hedgehog - we saw it once a couple of months ago and then Dad told me that while we were away it got caught in the fruit bushes nets :eek: luckily he rescued it just in time and it seems to live behind one of our sheds :j
Right, beddybyes for me, and hopefully a nice lie in x
ps the kitten is too cute (must post photos soon)

sophiesmum_2

Nyk - re the tuna, if everyone likes curry try adding it into some of your 4p curry sauce, it will take on the flavour of the curry and if you flake it small enough may go unnoticed amongst lots of veggies .

fizzel81

Good morning

dammit xmas in just makes more of a challenge...... hehe, im at dads for xmas (already told him im down at his) will go there xmas even and come home on 27th there only 30ish mins away (just another part of kent/se london) so not that far to go, im just going to serch hard and start buying little bits for the boys for xmas, i done there birthdays on a shoestring (brought all in sales just before xmas last year and have had them hidden for birthdays, ds3 was last week, ds2 next week and ds1 in october)

ok im feeling better on my little 'default' my slip up a few weeks back, one of the particular items in question was sold for £280 inc postage on ebay last night, less than hour after listing found out this morning when i got up, just my 2nd 'default' to go and im fully back on even par and even with my sums (if i did them right) by adding my cb on to my chalange money then IM DOING OK woohoo sorry for shouting im just chuffed im manageing it, even better ive worked out approx what i should have in my e savings by end of the year, not much compared to what some can call savings but a nice amount for me when i sat and worked out what we get each month

pah im rambleing now , worked out i can get away with buying any clothes for at least the rest of this year, ive brought odd bits for the boys from ebay (from sales ive made) or just asda for odd little bits, ds1's school uniform is all brought for september and its just his shoes to get (but i hope his dad is sorting them as promised), we all have coats,shoes,boots etc for the winter (wow im looking ahead)


nyk i cannot work out how to chart my elec use i have a mega old meter (which doesnt have numbers that turn round! it has clock like dials hehe) and my gas meter is an old 50p one, but the numbers barely turn, not sure if this is a good or bad thing, they turn but not very fast in fact in a week ive used 2 full gas numbers if im doing it right 8683-8685 hmm im sure im doing something wrong looking at it like that, i have gas hot water and just cooker this time of year (ie no heating its not needed).

had my first water bill just short of 67, rund to sort a dd and they wanted 44 a month! rung water company and now awaiting a pack for watersure where i wont pay more then 260odd a year (i qualified due to the eczema for the 2 boys but would have also qualified due to having 3 children and being on benifits, lady asked me questions (which at time i didnt know why) and then told me why she had asked them, if i use under the amount i pay for what i use but never over the watersure amount

im really rambleing now will save you from reading anymore, the little fizzel's will be up soon, having a weekend off this weekend which will be nice not sure what im going to do with myself yet

fizzel81

having to laugh about tuna trifle

tuna fish pie perhaps? easy to make and can use a few cans of tuna in it

fizzel81

hmm after readin properly,,,,, scrap tuna fish pie idea that will teach me to read so quickly!

hmm fishcakes would work with tuna, urmmmm stuck