50p a day til Christmas - healthily?! Weezl's next challenge...

ceridwen

weezl74 wrote: »

Thanks for missing me:D. My epic DIY ing is going well, but there's a fair bit left. We have removed woodchip wall paper from the ceilings and some of the walls of 2 rooms, sanded 2 floors and a landing (nearly) and stripped the paint of skirtings and dado rails.

Well having read the food challenge, you didn't really think I'd do me decorating by halves did ya?

I caught a bit of 'Daily cooks challenge' in a tea break moment t'other day, and the worst price they have to make a 1 course meal for 1 for is 50p. (no brekkie, lunch snacks or pudding or drinks)

The chefs are then allowed to add 'store cupboard ingredients' like 50ml of olive oil, 'because everyone's got that in the cupboard' (quote Anthony Worrall-Thompson) and 'no one could do a meal for 50p without stuff from the store cupboard'.

I think I might email the beeb and invite him round for dinner!

Weezl x

Hiya weezl

Okay-dokey. In reverse order.....in all seriousness - why not email t'beeb and invite him round? No - I ain't joking.....:D

Just as I was thinking "Weezl just doesnt do anything by halves" - up pops your next comment about not doing anything by halves. Oh well - got that one worked out then;)

Woodchip paper on ceilings - oh boy!!! I've done my stint of removing woodchip wallpaper from walls - and oh boy! Errr.....admission time here: you wouldnt want to buy my house off me then if you fancied a move to different area/smaller place..... I've got it in main area and 3 rooms....its the only darn thing holding up the walls frankly in some places....told ya I bought an "old dump" (when one has had to rewire/put in a kitchen/swop the windows and most of the doors/swop the roof etc etc etc......ad infinitum....the thought of having to spend out for/do replastering as well :eek: ). If I'd known JUST how much work an old house in Britain can be..........:cool: - so I can fully sympathise...Floors good enough to sand....cor, I wish....they're hidden as well...couldnt face replacing literally every single floor in my "old dump"...As I told my parents "I hadnt got the faintest idea JUST how much work and expense could be involved in sorting out a typical British old house....as you two have lived in brand new decent houses for the last 50 odd years....so I had no idea JUST how neglected some of them are".

ifonlyitwaseasier

fyi daily cooks is on itv

hello btw,

loocyloo

so glad to hear of another old house held up by its wall paper!!

ours is 100 yrs old, and every wall was covered with the anaglypta type paper! where dh removed it, half the plaster fell of the walls, so in a few places, the paper has been plastered over (but with some special type of plaster!!!)

still got sitting room downstairs and then 4 bedrooms/hall/landing to do ... only been here 2 years! the bathroom is ok...that is covered floor to ceiling in tiles!

xxx

Lesley_Gaye

frugalswan wrote: »

Thank you for the ideas! I can serve onion bhajis with the curries I make every so often, and the quiche sounds fabulous. At least now I won't feel a failure. *makes a note of the recipes and plans to test them this weekend* I suppose you could do the same with sweetcorn and spring onion or chives.

yes, good idea, you prob could use sweetcorn etc, I have done that with wheat flour, so gram flour would work really well too I expect. I'll try it and see

nicki_2

cw18 wrote: »

:T couldn't agree more.

I'm considering my options for retraining / new job opportunities, and as soon as I say to people I'm considering child-care of some sort everyone suggests teaching assistant. My immediate response is "no chance", as I have some idea of just how much paperwork is done by staff in schools these days (my SIL is a primary school teacher).

Please don't say that - I start training as a Teaching Assistant in September, going to desperately see if I can get a placement in a secondary school though as I want to be a Business Studies/ICT teacher when I've completed my degree through the OU

cw18

If you're wanting to go into teaching anyway, then it can only be a 'break you in gently' step to the other side of teaching :rolleye2

I'm seriously trying to decide between an office job (not that I rate my chances of getting one, as most people I know who've been in my shoes never get offered jobs that pay well below their previous pay -- but if I wasn't happy with the pay I wouldn't apply!) or child-care. And if child-care do I go pre-school nursery like my daughter (being told what to do by girls young enough to be my daughter), live-out nanny (potentially very long hours), or child-minder?

I know the latter entails an awful lot of paperwork and has all sorts of regulations to meet, but I could then take on my grand-daughters for out-of-school hours care which I can't do now (the school the elder one attends - and where we hope the younger one will start Sep 2009 - is just round the corner from me, Tax Credits won't see me as an approved child-care facility unless I'm registered). And I must admit the thought of being paid to spend lots of quality time with them does appeal -- although daughter and I would have to be very careful to put a wall up between the personal and business relationships :eek:

loocyloo

hi cheryl,

i currently childmind, and yes, there is paperwork, and regulations, but it is a rewarding job, but, not necessarily financially rewarding, unless you care for several children, however, there are quite a few tax concessions for childminders.
i used to nanny, and have worked in a preschool nursery. i enjoyed it all, and i think you just have to decide what you want to do and go for it! if you nanny or work in nursery, then the 'mess' all stays there, and in a way, you leave the job at the door. with childminding, then mess is at home, and i find i am often sitting up late doing my paperwork or sorting toys/equipment out! (but i have little ones of my own, and so the toys are always out anyway!)

good luck with what ever you decide to do. feel free to message me if you want any more info!

x

cw18

Thanks Abi

I have a friend who "minds" which is why I'm aware of the paperwork -- she actually used to mind my grand-daughters :rolleyes2

carriebradshaw

hi weezl, :wave:

I know just what you mean about those cookery programmes they make me so mad I can't watch them,they haven't a clue about costing things like that because they don't have to! Why don't they realise that storecupboard ingredients don't just magically appear,you still have to pay for them :rolleyes: So unrealistic for the rest of us that do.

anyway I think you should up your daily budget bit really to at least 60p each,things have gone up so much these past few months especially daily basics like milk and nobody wants you two to starve.

I started doing my shopping list up using Tesco site as a guide last night and was gobsmacked at price of lentils,6 weeks a 2kg bag was £2.18 now it's listed as £3.47,that's a big hike up isn't it?

naturally_2

Hello all

herewegoagain, great tip about mashing tinned carrots into mince, did you know that apparently the same works with grated fresh ones? Not too sure if that might be better nutritionally than tinned ones? I haven't ever tried the grated carrots into mince thing (being practically a vegetarian!) but I believe they are supposed to disappear into the mince without revealing they are there just like your tinned ones, and apparently it is a very forgiving method - i.e. you can add as much as you like as long as you can face grating them!:rotfl:

I grated carrot into my risotto last night, which turned out to be a "throw in all the vegetables skulking in the bottom of the fridge" type affair. It made 3 good sized portions for roughly 40p a portion. A distinct improvement on my £1 plus per portion earlier in the month, but *sigh* will I ever be as frugal as weezl?! The risotto rice was the big saver on this dish though - I bought a 2kg bag of "glutinous rice" from a chinese supermarket for £3.60, and it has lasted me an awful lot of meals for over a month. I think the supermarket boxes of risotto rice are 500g or possibly even 250g, and they charge £1.89!:eek:


(ho hum, neglects to mention the fact that the only reason she ended up with "risotto" rice was because she tried to buy sushi rice and equally disasterously tried to make sushi...:o )

I am off for a trip to liverpool this weekend to see a friend, which will make a nice excuse to stock up on cheap herbs and spices and so on in their wonderful chinese supermarkets & shops!! Meanwhile the neighbours are providing me with free potatoes from their veg patch and other occasional goodies, have promised me apples by the bucketload when they are ready, and I am keeping a beedy eye on the free forest fruit that is ripening slowly!

Oh, and I must admit to a slight sin along the way. I threw away half a lettuce and 1/4 cucumer last night - Mr Brown would not approve! Both were well past their best as I haven't eaten salad in over a week - my fault for not keeping on at the rabbit food (and diet!) when the weather went bad and I really didn't fancy it. If it redeems me at all though, I can't remember the last time I threw away something that was past its best - the limp carrots and slightly wrinkly peppers that accompanied the salad went in the risotto!