Live on £4000 for a year - Part 3

bails

Marru wrote: »

Just shows how easy it is to fall into eating when tired.
Marru

I can certainly vouch for this, as can my waistline! :rolleyes:
Have to say feeling even worse today after a bad night, luckily OH has just walked through the door and we are both pooped.

I am indeed thinking of suitable punishments so get cracking girl!

slowlyfading

Anddd I'm back will catch up later, hope you're all okay. xx

bails

Welcome back Slowlyfading! :hello:

Frugaldom

You know I mentioned about the frog who took up residence in the garden as soon as I dug the mini pond?
You know I mentioned that each time I looked at said frog it was chameleon like and seemed to tone in with various backgrounds?
Well, just as we were going out to close up the greenhouse and water the tomatoes, it began to pour with rain. Waiting until it stopped, (thankfully just a brief downpour), we went out the back door into the garden and saw not one, not two, but SIX different frogs out playing in the puddles! That explains the mystery of the varying shades and patterns on my mini-pond dwelling froggy friend! :rotfl:

Managed minimum 5-a-day today with the following:
Breakfast - OJ, banana & yoghurt (2)
Lunch - Toast & beans (1)
Dinner - HM Pizza with tomatoes, onions, peppers and sweetcorn followed by hm sponge pudding with pineapple and sultanas served with custurd (3)

Snacks - hm mixed fruit cookies (3 cookies = 1 portion)

HS doesn't like sweetcorn, so I sliced a fresh tomato onto his pizza, I had tuna and DS had extra sweetcorn & peppers. Much nicer than buying a pizza.

That's the wedding photographer booked! Keep in mind we are fairly rural, it's quite a distance between church and reception venue (about 30 miles) and this is the one thing that I, mother of the bride/soon to be someone's mother-in-law', won't over-frugalise on. I want a professional photographer, as a lovely wedding album is one of the 'must have' items for the longterm... we need a photographer we can trust and one that I'm familiar with their work, and we need to keep within budget - homemade albums and digital print outs just won't do, so I called a friend who knows about these things.

Now I've sat down with a cuppa to recover from the shock. :eek: :rotfl:

My 'quit smoking' savings have just been switched from 'garden & livestock fund' to DD's wedding photography fund and all I can say is thank goodness I have another year of no smoking to save. I've since browsed various forums, including MSE, and wedding directories and WOW! Some peeps pay thousands of pounds! :eek:

DdraigGoch

I'd have to agree with you on the decent photographer. Ours was a very nice man - obviously his mind was NOT on our wedding, at our wedding. Two thirds of the photographs were out of focus, many of them were just plain odd [I asked him to make sure he took some nice shots of the main hall and the buffet as so many of our guests had both contributed to the renovating of the hall and the provision/layout of the buffet as their presents to us - two shots of a hall surrounded by stacked chairs, shot from odd angles - v "arty" - and 4 shots of plates of sarnies and quiche WITH THE CLING FILM AND TEA TOWELS OVER THEM!! AND NO SHOTS OF THE CAKE! [which I decorated the night before and was quite proud of....]] so, instruct him/her very precisely [I'll pm you shots of what not to have happen!] and insist on a practice run through with him/her. Plus, get the digital RAWs. Your own professional prints ad infinitum .... at least I got that, only I didn't really want them they were so dull. Hey ho.

sophiesmum_2

Good evening(or should that be good morning ) frunchkins:D

Janey - NZ sounds lovely, great that you have a goal to aim for, better get that terramundi dusted off;)

Whitewing - hope everything goes well with all your plans before the big day.

SF - nice to see you back:hello:

Cooked tea for my oldies tonight and then had a lovely couple of hours swimming and chilling:D would have posted earlier but had to pick DD up from her friends.

F&V totals and frugal storecupboard menu
Brekkie - porridge with dried apricots (1) tomato juice (1)
Lunch - bacon on HM bread with lots of HG tomatoes (1)
Tea - tuna salad with HG salad leaves & toms (2) HM yoghurt with honey, tinned peaches,almonds (1)

Checking stuff in garden earlier today and I have another batch of blackcurrants, and gooseberries ready, lots of cherry tomatoes and the first blackberries are ready, so lots of things to pick tomorrow. Have only had a few red tomatoes from greenhouse rest are still green although there are lots of them, but the cherry toms which have been growing in the baskets are running amok, there are hundreds of them:j Will definately do them again next year.

Nyk - love the story of the frogs, not seen any frogs here but do have some hedgepigs and a fox that come into our grounds. Wish the hedgepigs would eat a few more slugs and snails though:rolleyes:
When i get sorted with my allotment and get my chooks I will be aiming to find as many slugs as possible which I will then feed to the chooks and recycle into eggs:idea: at the moment OH is finding them and cutting them in half and putting on bird table, our resident magpies and blackbirds love them:D

sophiesmum_2

Good morning campers

A nice day here today, so will be out picking stuff in the garden in a while.Then must go and visit my local blackberry haunts and see what stage the berries are at, mine are only just the first ones black now.
I may also pick some of the green tomatoes in the greenhouse and make some green tomato chutney later. haven't decided yet what to do with my fruit have a freezer full of crumbles already, so may just freeze some for desserts and stuff or may make some more jams for my storecupboard:D
Frugal plans for today

• Pick fruit
• Clean house with stardrops and microfibre cloths
• make a loaf in breadmaker
• Go swimming
• Check out local blackberry haunts
• Was hoping for no spend day but need some eggs:rolleyes:
• All meals from stores

F&V and storecupboard menu plan
Brekkie - HM muesli with lots of dried fruits (1) tomato juice (1)
lunch- HM wholemeal seeded bread with baked beans and HG tomatoes (2)
Tea- Fritatta with lots of veggies,cheese, and quorn pieces, with HG salad leaves/tomatoes and HM chutney from stores:D (3)

If I get time later may also make a batch of fairy cakes with soaked apricots or sultanas in.Just for 5 a day purposes;) :rolleyes:

Enjoy the day everyone. Catch up with you all later:D

tryingtodobetter

Sorry I haven't been around for a while we have had alot going on here, some good some bad. Still keeping account of our spending but I don't think I will make the tutition fee goal in my signature which means I will have to take out the tutition fee loan :mad: (I never wanted to be in debt again) I'm hoping I will have enough time to save the rest to pay it back straight after I have finished my degree. Hope everyone is doing well (sorry haven't had enough time to read back over all the posts)

Frugaldom

Good afternoon everyone, it's lovely and sunny here today again.

Nice to see you back, SF, and sorry to hear you're facing the possibility of taking on debt TTDB :eek: - would it be any easier using savings and then replacing them, rather than take out the loan? Or could you get a 0% credit card and use that, rather than pay interest on a loan? Just a couple of small thoughts

Postie delivered the response from return of my clubcard deals vouchers, says they will credit the points back to my account and they'll be available for the November statement, so it looks like I may be wiser using them for festive grocery shopping I just checked online in the off chance they had accidentally credited them back for August, but all that's showing is the £13 that was mostly made up with the free 1000 points awarded with my last order. :j I love free points offers!
Catch up later, off to repot some chilli peppers that are getting fed up waiting

mumzyof2

Hi everyone,
I have been so busy today as it was my sons 4th birthday party (4 on tuesday) and all his friends come so im now sat with wine and my friend tomorrow the kids are sleeping out as my new friend is back from his holidays so he due hoem around 10pm and he coming straight to mine for indian

Hope everyone is ok