50p a day til christmas, healthily?!-Weezl's next challenge (part 2)

Sian_the_Green

shaz_mum_of__2 wrote: »

The hicpeas were nice but i think they needed a little longer in the oven i just seasoned with chilli,garlic powder, salt and pepper ......lovely and kept me off the crisps & nuts......................might make some to take to cinema next time thanks for the link sian some nice bean recipes to try there too



shaz

I think the site has some lovely things on it that I will have to try and she is obviously a great photographer too

Hope you are all good this afternoon (morning! I am still in pjs and just ate breakfast!)

LilMissEmmylou

Ok I am going to join you all! We need to do some major saving in our house starting July 1st (we are having a little holiday next week and so no point saying we will start then as although we will self cater, we will end up buying some nicetys). I think for us, a reasonable aim would be £1 each per day (3 of us) so £21 + £4 for things like loo roll and cleaning products etc. Thus a weekly total of £25.

Going to be rooting through this thread for the next few days for ideas as we currently dont grow anything ourselves (no space at the moment and moving house soon we hope). We currently live in Liverpool, so if anyone knows of any great places to bulk buy good fruit and veg or things like lentils etc - give me a shout

We had put the bread maker away, but me thinks its time to get it back out again and OH can make a fresh loaf every day as he loves nice breads for sandwiches etc.

So what would people advise us to stock up on in week one to get us started? Currently we spend about £45 - £60 a week in Tesco, so really need to find some good ways to cut back

In_Search_Of_Me

hello all! Been offline as knitting a hat and got it into my head that I had to do it all...why I dont know but now done and very chuffed! Will post a piccie on my diary!
Lol re Ferg being on standby!! Ceridwen...really...surely you know better than to THINK that our frugal weezl would use a tumble drier!! really, to infer such a thing!!
Have to enter the confessional as had a horrbible week so not been at all frugal but did loose 5ibs at w so happy with that! Will peruse the recipes...they gave me a freebie recipe book which I can isomise and post but now have to go do housework...eugh!
Let me know how you get on with the book sian...am challenged on this as tithe is affected by debts which is something I feel bad about but needs must...

weezl74

welcome lilmissemmylou! exciting to have you on board! Sorry I didn't quite get your question about the stocking up, are you gonna do that before the 1st when you begin?

update: good times and bad times at weezl towers... and the beginnings of another new challenge

so on friday I'm finally getting round to looking at some of the bits of money-related admin that have been piling up. Then I discovered a letter from our energy provider saying that in light of our usage they wanted to put our direct debit up from £40 to £65 . Bad times

The chief culprits are dishwasher and washing machine. Fergus' nappies and clothes and us getting sicked or weed on has been meaning an average of 2-3 loads of laundry per day:eek: .

Lots of guests and general tiredness has meant us falling back on using the dishwasher rather more than we ought to!

So, I’ve switched everything off at the wall and unplugged it, emptied and defrosted the second freezer (used to help with my batch cooking!) and have been washing all the clothes nappies and plates etc by hand…. Blimey it’s tiring, the phrase ‘a woman’s work is never done’ was definitely coined in the era before washing machines!!!

Anyway we were using an average of 9.6 units of electricity per day and over the last 3 days I’ve got it down to approx 3ish, so I’m well pleased with myself :D:D:D Good times!

May have to read the 'stop using gas and electric' thread for any further tips…

Love to all,

Weezl xxx

Elfinwings

shaz_mum_of__2 wrote: »

All packed for my trip to london on monday printed off restaraunt vouchers too .........i am a tad excited

Shaz

Hope you have a wonderful trip Shaz, and that the sun shines for you

In_Search_Of_Me wrote: »

Let me know how you get on with the book sian...am challenged on this as tithe is affected by debts which is something I feel bad about but needs must...

I've not heard of the book, but do understand your worry. I would offer this thought, remember that the copper coin the poor widow offered was considered far more than all the gold of the pharisees, because she gave all she was able to give. Not a set percentage, or a set sum, but what she had in her power to give.

Elfin.

Elfinwings

SunnyGirl wrote: »

There's some great war cookery books in our library so I hope you find some. I like one by Marguerite Patten called something like The Victory Cookbook. It's all about how the housewives of the time produced feasts & street parties for VE day etc whilst still on rations :T

Lovely, cookery books on reserve at the library, will let you know how I get on when they come in.

cheerfulness4 wrote: »

Elfin - if you are into that type of thing you might find the following thread interesting. I might even have another read myself. I found it quite addictive to follow at the time.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=481412&highlight=war+time+cooking

This looks interesting - I've only had time for a quick scan, but will have to have a proper read later. THanks very much! :T

Patchwork_Quilt wrote: »

Mary Norwak is a good frugal recipe writer. I have several of her books, some by mistake because they are titled as freezer books or pressure cooker books but she wrote them

I haven't used any of the More With Less recipes either. I just like the lovely tone of the book and the ideas behind it

Thanks Patchwork Quilt - I've not heard of Mary Norwak, I will have to see if I can find any of her books. And I agree about More with Less, the ideas are exactly in line with many of mine, but I find the recipes do'nt use things I have. maybe it's more of an inspiration book than a practical guide for me

Elfinwings

weezl74 wrote: »

Anyway we were using an average of 9.6 units of electricity per day and over the last 3 days I’ve got it down to approx 3ish, so I’m well pleased with myself :D:D:D Good times!

May have to read the 'stop using gas and electric' thread for any further tips…

Love to all,

Weezl xxx

Good morning Weezl - wow, what a challenge! I might be inspired to see if I can get the stepladder and clamber up to read out meter...
:eek:
Elfin. x

Elfinwings

LilMissEmmylou wrote: »

So what would people advise us to stock up on in week one to get us started? Currently we spend about £45 - £60 a week in Tesco, so really need to find some good ways to cut back

Hello LilMissEmmyLou, Store-cupboard essentials for me are the things that once they are in my cupboards I can make a mal of of whatever else become available cheaply! I've had a think, and my essentials include:

Carbohydrates:
pasta, dried noodles, rice, lentils and chickpeas, rolled oats, baked beans, and bread is usually bought and frozen when we see it reduced to 10p a loaf at the end of the day!

Vegetables:
value tinned tomatoes / passata, basic fresh veg e.g. potatoes, carrots - whatever is on offer at the market! Plus basic frozen veg e.g. peas and sweetcorn.

Flavours:
herbs (dried, or in the garden), and a variety of different spices, salt and pepper, stock powder, worcester sauce, soy sauce, brown sauce/ketchup, jam, value syrup and marmite (!)

Baking:
sugar, plain and self raising flour, cornflour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, plus strong bread flour and yeast.

Dairy:
cheese, butter (recently gone down to 50p per pack in Mr T's ) milk, custard powder (not exactly dairy, but you know what I mean!)

Meat and fish:
bacon offcuts, ham ends, salmon trimmings (I ask at the fishmongers) - all in the freezer in individual portions, tinned tuna (only when on offer) and meat subsitutes: soya mince or quorn mince (when on offer). Otherwise we don't buy much meat now, just when it is reduced for quick sale.

Other stuff I'm finding it hard to classify!
oil (olive oil if I can afford it), tea and coffee, and eggs I am lucky enough to have from my own hens.

I will probably think of more things I can't do without in the cupboards, but I think that is a good starting point for the essential contents of my kitchen cupboards

I hope this is the sort of thing you wanted,

Elfin.

cheerfulness4

weezl74 wrote: »

The chief culprits are dishwasher and washing machine.

I found exactly the same. The dishwasher was very expensive to run and is now a weekend treat.

You're not alone with the handwashing either. The heavy things go in the washer but I was all the smalls myself now. Glad I'm not alone! :rolleyes:

weezl74

great list elfin! :T:T:T:T:T

can I go completely off topic and ask for some wise eyes to look at my 'snotty' letter written to my electricity provider? (although I hope it's not snotty, but reasonable and clear!) Sometimes others can see things that we can't!

'Dear Sir/madam

I am writing to express my concern that our switch to ********** energy as our provider for both gas and electricity was based on a misleading approach taken by your sales representative.

I was approached in *********** in December 2008 and your representative asked me detailed questions about our household energy usage. She specifically asked about numbers of times we use the washing machine per week, uses of dishwasher per week, how many rooms were in our house and so on.

She then suggested that our direct debit be set at £35 per month, which in her view was more than adequate for the energy usage I had detailed.

I was later told that £40 was more realistic, but that any outstanding amount paid would build up useful credit at times of peak energy usage (ie the winter months).

Recently I received a letter from your company saying that based on our electricity usage, your intention was to raise our direct debit to £65 per month.

This prompted us to seriously evaluate our energy usage. In particular I was keen to see what electricity usage would have been possible within the £40 original figure given by your sales representative. I have taken 16 meter readings over 4 days and have carefully monitored all our usage.

The £40 threshold per month only allows us to run our ‘a’ rated for energy fridge freezer and boil the kettle 4 times per day to make up my son’s milk, and to run a low wattage lightbulb in the evening for 3 hours. I have been handwashing our clothes and dishes to achieve this lower energy usage. This is not sustainable for me in the long term, nor is it anything like the lifestyle your colleague asked me about before suggesting the £40 per month figure.

Perhaps you will respond by saying that you cannot comment directly on the details of one customer’s usage, since there is so much scope for variation. I accept this, but if it is indeed impossible to comment on the detail of my usage, then I feel it was inappropriate and misleading for your sales colleague to use this attention to detail as part of her sales approach.

After speaking with her I was passed her phone and asked to confirm my satisfaction with our meeting to your sales representative, verbally. I did so, but would now like to state that I am dissatisfied with the sales approach.

My husband and I made the decision to switch providers based on the imminent arrival of our first child, now 3 months old, and our need to reduce our household costs due to our reduced income. The shock of the excess payments we will now have to make, having switched providers in good faith has been an unwanted stressor at this time.

I would be very grateful if you could look into this matter further, my understanding of the goods and services act is that mis-selling constitutes a breach of my rights as a customer.

Thank you for your time in considering my letter.

Yours Faithfully,

......




I'd be really grateful for any tips on making the wording any better and clearer!:o


Weezl xxx

eta sorry cheerfulness, crossed posts! Glad I'm not alone! I've been taking my smalls into the shower with me to give them a wash!!!!!