Live on £4000 for a year - part 4 (Oct - Dec 2008)

tryingtodobetter

Good Morning Everyone

Lovely sunny day here, but rather cold. I took the boys trick or treating last night (only to pre-arranged houses) they had a fantastic time looking at all the pumpkins and collecting all the goodies!!!

Marru- Hope your DD has a lovely day :j :j

Going to make some Lentil soup today although I've got to find a recipe first

Hope you all have a good day.

bails

Sounds fun Marru, what time are you leaving for the party?
JB, I know I've asked you this before but doyou have any tips for finding jumble sales as I am hitting my head against a brick wall with it! I can't find these or carboot sales anywhere in my area!! Thanks.
Oh, also keep forgetting to say - I weighed myself on Thursday and would like to lose 25 lbs :eek: (11.4 kgs). I may just go and 'weigh' that out in my storecupboard to see what it looks like...

sophiesmum_2

Good morning frunchkins:D

Happy Birthday to little monkey:bdaycake: have a lovely day.

Today i m going to town to buy last few things I need to finish off xmas hampers and gifts. Don't think I will be out long as ahem... i am feeling a little [STRIKE]hungover [/STRIKE] delicate this morning:rolleyes: . I think there will be lots of delicate people this morning here:rotfl:Party was a great success, everyone had a great time and drifted off home to their flats after midnight. Lots of alcohol was consumed (thanks kids:rotfl: ) hot pot eaten and quiz was hilarious - all in all a good night.:D

Catch up with everyone later.

skintwellie

Good Morning all!
Happy Birthday to your daughter, Marrau.
I've been given a book called 'How to make £1,000 in 4 weeks' and I'm setting myself a little challenge to see if I can actually do it. I know that there is another thread about making £1,000 in 100 days and I have looked on it for inspiration. It seems that people have made their money/vouchers through casback sites, surveys, ebay, Amazon, etc. I have just cashed all of mine in (as this was originally part of my free Christmas campaign).

Still, nothing like a little challenge to end the year especially as I need a new sofa and carpet to complete the lounge. I'll let you know how I get on and any new ideas (are there any left - you guys seem to have them all covered), from the book.

Have a great :money: day all.

Marru

Hi again,

TTDB if you have a slowcooker here is a smashing recipe:

1 cup green or brown lentils 250 ml
1 tbsp vegetable oil 15 ml
2 onions, chopped
2 stalks celery, peeled and chopped
2 large carrots, peeled and chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp grated lemon zest
1 potato, peeled and grated
6 cups vegetable stock 1.5 l
8 oz fresh spinach leaves, washed and coarsely chopped or 1 package (10oz/300g) frozen spinach, thawed 250g
2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice 25 ml

• In a colander, rinse lentils thoroughly under cold running water, set aside
• In a skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions, celery and carrots and cook, stirring, until vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, cumin seeds and lemon zest and cook, stirring for 1 minute. Transfer mixture to slow cooker stoneware. Add reserved lentils, potato and stock.
• Cover and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours or on high for 4 to 6 hours, until vegetables are tender. Add spinach and lemon juice. Cover and cook on high for 20 minutes until spinach is cooked and mixture is hot and bubbling.

From 125 best Vegetarian Slow Cooker recipes by Judith Finlayson

I have done it and it was wonderful...

[Deleted User]

Morning all

Me & DH went to a halloween disco last night (fundraiser for local hospital). It was okay... its not much fun tho when everyone is drinking and you can't. Did win bottle of whisky and box of chocs from raffle - not bad for £2 so that soon cheered me up!! So sad!!

Going into town later, book signing Tracey Smith (cant remember what books called - pregnancy brain taking over!) but my mums getting it for me for Christmas and then I thought I'd potter about and look in all the charity shops.

Hope everyones okay xx

Happy Birthday to your Daughter Marru!

bails

Ooh, that book sounds fun Skintwellie, let us know if you find anything good and how you get on with your challenge!
:rotfl:at your 'delicate' state Sophiesmu, glad you all had a fab time! We didn't have one trick or treater last night Good job I hadn't bought anything in for them or it'd be lying here tempting me!
Really must get on (and need to find 12p for my 1k challenge :eek::rotfl:)

whitewing

Marru's DD - Have a very, very Happy Birthday!

Sophiesmum - loved the viagra biscuit. Would be good in a hamper for a take-the-mick-now-you're-40 basket.

Redglass, your pm arrived in the nick of time. I have pm'd you back.

Bails - go on, weigh out your excess weight. I have found it reasonably motivational. Far more motivational than looking at the same amount in bags of sugar. For me, sad to say, the losing weight is not for health reasons but because I'm too frugal now to want to pay money for it to be converted into fat.

Tax credits - feel calmer today. It was a shock yesterday because I had totally, utterly and completely forgotten all about it. Normally when something financial is outstanding like this it niggles away and pops into my mind at 3am out of the blue. But I can honestly say that I haven't thought about it at all since the beginning of the year. And it coincided with my redundancy money coming thro, which made me feel very insecure as that was to form my dire emergency fund. I don't count tc overpymnts as dire emergency. It helped that someone (taka?) said that I would probably be able to pay back in installments. Still hate tax credits though.

Batch cooking - we made 17 8inch diameter pies and 9 in chinese takeaway style tins (plus 48 jam tarts - DH ate 10 for breakfast so is in the doghouse), and 48 individual ones. Pastry is lovely, if I say so myself. The only learning point is that I made the fruity filling too watery, so it's not brilliant to serve. Passed the taste test though. But we're very proud of ourselves.

Everyone else, I still do read all your comments, and remember most comments, and am inspired, sympathetic, tearful, etc as appropriate. Just can't remember who said what..

thriftylass

Good morning everyone!

Sorry to hear about the tax credit troubles, I hope it gets sorted soon.

I took money out yesterday from the teller at my branch, just noticed I'm a 20 pound note short :mad:

whitewing

thriftylass, get on the phone to them - they should have an imbalance on the tills. What a pain though.