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

slowlyfading

Brighton_belle wrote: »

orcada - the delivery name for waitrose

oh, lol silly me.

Marru

I think it is Mr Oc@do alias Mr W@itrose, please correct me if I am wrong.

Re the vegan, vegetarian, omnivore, carnivore conversation.

I was veggie all of the year and in the past have done living food thingy. Vegetarian food worked really well with me until I started doing more physical work and I was really running myself down. Now I have come into terms with the fact that I will need meat in my diet unless I want to carry on sitting on my bum in the office again as I don't have the time or energy to prepare a balanced weggie diet. Also I read an article about the meat consumption of western people how it is not sustainable for long term and the article recommended 500g (appr. one pound) meat per person per week. So I will source locally reared free range animal products to get my 70g per day and still keep my principles intact.

Off now to get last bingo tickets for me for tonight and then bed...

cw18

Janey -- we (2 adults and a 17 year-old, so never sure whether to count us as 3 adults or not ) are currently averaging 11.17kWh/day (average over the 28 days up to this last Tuesday's reading). BUT I should be reducing that soon with a change of freezer (hoping by about 780 kWh/year, so around 2kWh/day!!!).

I've also just (as in today) discovered the F/view box in my craft-come-bedroom seems to be pulling as much power to just display the clock when "off" as it does when in use -- so I'm now experimenting with a basic electric alarm clock until I can get a reasonable battery run clock (hate not being able to see the time if I wake during the night). I've been working on turning off the TV and f/view this week when I realise I've only got them on for "company", and reckon I'm down to about 4 hours a day with them on instead of 8-10 (I'm generally a night owl, so have it on from 7pm until 1am on a regular basis!!!! If I can turn the f/view off for 20 hours a day that will save me another 0.25kWh/day.

So a potential to get us down to around 8.92kWh/day (less once-in-a-blue-moon battery charging for a clock) -- so that would mean 35.5kWh in 4 days, making us not far off the same as you

But I expect ours to start going up now as the heating kicks in more (for the pump!)

andromache_2

slowlyfading wrote: »

oh, lol silly me.

I was wondering the same thing

I was just about to write a :mad: post about how I lost my mobile today and it was going to cost at least £42.50 out of my budget to sort it (£2.50 on calls to blacklist the phone, £10 replacement sim, estimated £30 increase in mobile phone bills when I renew my contract in 6 months' time in order to get a replacement rather than keeping my old phone and getting a discount instead), not to mention the hassle. Instead I am as I just got an e-mail from the faculty to say that they had found it, so all that was wasted was the £2.50 on calls to cancel it. And I am as loads of people have been really lovely in helping me to make the calls and sort it out - my neighbour has even lent me his phone overnight so that I have an alarm to wake me up for lectures tomorrow, which was very sweet of him. So all is right with the world once again :T

I'm not looking forward to the day I actually have to start paying bills and worrying about how much electricity I'm using :rolleyes: obviously at the minute I try to keep it down but it's not the same when you're not the one who's paying! I'm sure being on these boards and this thread in particular is good training, though :cool: Good luck to those trying to reduce electricity usage Have you seen pandapaws' electricity challenge? - might have some useful tips.

I'm having a free restaurant meal courtesy of a law firm tomorrow and then OH is coming down for the weekend Hope everyone has a nice Friday.

A xxx

sophiesmum_2

Tonight my mum brought me a 1.5kg pack of halal lamb that she picked up woopsied at asda for 20p :j I have just made them into big fat spicy lamb sausages for the freezer

Cnt remember who asked bout making sausages - think it my have been whitewing anyway remembered to take some pics this time;)

Whizzed some HM wholemeal bread to make breadcrumbs, added some mixed spices, little salt/pepper etc, then added the lamb mince and mixed together by hand.


Load the sausage skins onto the stuffer, put mince mixture into tray on sausage maker, use podger to push mince into machine, at same time control the skins filling up with mix. (which is why you can't take photo at same time - not enough hands:rotfl: )

Take the lengths of sausage

and twist into links or twist to size required.


Voila - Yummy spicy lamb sausages for freezer:jand not an additive or preservative in sight

cornishinfens

This looks like a good and challenging challenge, I shall give it a go in 09'

sophiesmum_2

We have a few people doing a little dummy run for the last part of 08 to see where they can start making savings - why not join in for a trial run

cornishinfens

Sad as it may sound - when i shop i go for the 2 for 1 offers etc esp meat... then i usually make a spag bol, chilli etc enough to feed about 10... the portion them into saved Chinese meal plastic tubs then freeze them - i shall be doing this more bulk purchase and cooking is cost effective - last plenty long enough in the freezer and a quick and easy meal later in the month or at work - just need to do rice, pasta or sgetti! etc.

sophiesmum_2

I think you will fit right in cornish , that isn't sad it is normal here:D , as well as the bulk buying bit:D

purplevamp

sophiesmum - your sausages are very impressive . Was the machine and casings expensive? Where do you even buy the casing from? I think if I made these I would wet myself :rotfl: . Yes, the tickets were fantastic value, we really thought we'd struggle but this has saved our, well, savings

cornishinfens - I do this too!! I find it handy for those days when I really can't be bothered to cook (saves a fortune on takeaway but sometimes the odd one sneaks into the house :whistle: ). I also freeze leftover rice and spaghetti in single portions. The rice comes out ok but the spaghetti gets a little thicker!

I freeze pretty much anything that's leftover, I've got nothing to lose if it doesn't come out ok when defrosted as it would have been thrown away otherwise.