Live on £4000 for a Year, 2009 Challenge, part 1

sophiesmum_2

Good afternoon frunchkins:D on lunch hour now and then have last two hours off work as lieu time from the fire Sunday am ,wasn't going to bother but my line manager insisted.I will also get two hours tomorrow afternoon - going to make it a quick week for me.

General frugal aims for today;

• storecupboard lunch and tea
• reduce, reuse,recycle one item- leftover chicken from last night's tea put in chicken salad
• do something nice for me -lieu time from work this afternoon
• do something nice for someone else-
• fitter not fatter - swim and jacuzzi

Todays frugal meals;

• poached egg, mushrooms, OJ
• chicken with green salad and HM blue cheese dressing
• blackened cajun tuna steak, wholegrain couscous with peppers and black olives

Fruit and veg portions;
1 fruit, 0 pulses,4/5 veggies,:D

Expenditure or additional income

Aiming for no spend day

Remaining target cash for first 6 months food spends - £251.44 left from budget of £400 for first six months.

HH62

skint_chick wrote: »

HH62 - GI is a set value according to the effect on your blood sugar but the GL is variable depending on what you have with the food item as part of your meal- apparently by putting milk on cereals it reduces the GL down? I'm supposed to eat low GI foods as much as poss but make sure my GL doesn't exceed 70 a day. It's all a bit complicated so I photocopied the little tables from library books so I can check up when I'm stuck - it's like Weight Watchers points all over again - but without the frozen choc brownies

Thanks for the explanation - I had to smile at the WW frozen choc brownies though. When I did WW I was always starving by 7pm with 2 points left and I'd end up having a binge on all of the frozen WW desserts I had in the house :eek:
I really seem to do best if I stay away from sweets and puddings etc, but then I feel deprived..it's a never ending circle.
Will look into this low GI thing more though as the contents of your Mr T shop sound lovely.

skint_chick

HH62 wrote: »

Will look into this low GI thing more though as the contents of your Mr T shop sound lovely.

You're welcome for dinner anytime!

Even if you're not on the low GI diet to help with medical probs it's still a good way to eat to keep your blood sugar steady so your body doesn't store excess fat, your cholesterol stays low, and you don't have high blood pressure, heart attacks, type 2 diabetes. I can only imagine that after a few years of this I'll be the human equivalent of a racehorse - lean and toned with a glossy mane and strong heart! I think long term it may be moneysaving too as lentils are cheaper than tubs of Ben & Jerry's

Apparently apples are supposed to make you feel as good as chocolate - I'm not sure how apart from coating them in lots of melted chocolate;) but the pectin in them makes you feel less hungry and they are sweet tasting. Maybe if I stop thinking about chocolate......:rolleyes:

taka

Phewwww... Up to page168 now... I might have caught up by the end of the week... :eek: :rotfl:

Congratulations Marru... I just found out about your new job! Congratulations everyone getting a new house also! Oh and congrats on JD's birth Jennybee!

... back to the reading...

Brighton_belle

Good to have you back taka:j . Glad you had a great time.
Skintchick - you sound like you have really got to grips with getting to grips with the diagnosis and Gi thing. It seems like you are forging ahead now you have made a definite decision about the old job. Indecision is very paralysing (though often a necessasry part of the process).
Today I have been mentally bigging myself up with thought about being a 'housekeeper'. It really is an important job and I'm relishing getting to grips with it.
3rd NSD in a row.
Whitewing - great to hear life is going well for you. Superb job on the weightloss:T .
Hope you can keep in touch Lynne. This group has become very important to me too.
So, Ddraig - done anything about the sheets today?:D

Blairweech - have a laugh at your life insurance for ikea opening crack:D

nickynoo08

Afternoon peeps, not had chance to catch up properly yet sorry.
Had a mega busy day so far, got to work at 7am, left at 12, did quick top up shop, came home had my lunch, took ds to park then went to my grans to do her cleaning for her. Just got back and DS has just fallen asleep next to me, not supprised tho as he woke us all up at 5am this morn screaming the house down.
Everyone seems to be on a health kick including us. I've told OH we need to start having more veg. Fruit is never a problem for us we all eat loads. Left OH in charge of tea yesterday, he did us chicken in the sc, mash and veg. I nearly died when i saw what he'd done. The wally had only gone and used a whole large brocolli and 4 large carrots just for us!!!!!He said ' you said we needed to be eating more veg'. :rolleyes:
Will try and catch up propelry later

lyndasharp

Hi all, no time to catch up as my internet connection is still rubbish. Getting phone and broadband connected up new week!

Went to Lidl yesterday and bought 4 fruit trees for £3.99 each - pear, plum, apple and cherry. Pear isn't self fertile but they had run out of Conference, which is the type needed to cross pollinate - just have to wait and see if there's another planted locally! Hopefully the snow will melt soon so we can plant ours... H2B overheard someone saying as we left the shop 'are they growing an orchard?' :-)

I attempted to get to Wales for work today. Spun my car on the A44 on some black ice, very scary moment. Ended up half on the verge on the other side of the road. Betsy was still running then with no sign of damage, but stopped about an hour (and 20 miles) later. I then spent 2 1/2 very cold hours waiting for the breakdown truck. Breakdown driver wouldn't take my car round to the garage, as it's too icy, so she's out the front of the house now and we'll have to try and move her ourselves later. I'm mostly OK, but my back is gradually getting stiffer, it was quite a jolt when I hit the verge :-(

sophiesmum_2

Hope you are okay lynda, sounds like a bit of a scary time you had there:eek: . Very icy here today so I won't be taking car out at all if I can help it.

Marru

Hello all,

I have read all the posts and have applauded for weigh losses (whitewing) and been horrified about fires (SM) accordingly but can't remember everything that has happened. Except welcome back TAKA and hope you will get a nice massage Lynda after your spin.

I got very unpleasant call from one debt collection agency today. They said that they have been told that I have received a lot of money and that they want me to pay off the full balance (over £16k). I said I can't do that and that I am struggling with my payments (DMP) as they are but am determined to keep them up until new tax year when my benefits should settle after starting my job and I will know if my job will turn permanent and she started asking all kind of questions of what benefits do I get and how many children I have. I hung up on her. I am just upset that I allowed it to upset me enough for me to cancel my dog walking today as I needed to calm down. And after I have calmed down I need to research for an option to file for bankruptcy and to find out what is the worst that can happen if I do that. I have gone full circle here. That is exactly what brought me to this site almost exactly a year ago and then I decided to hang on but now I am not so sure. Anyway research will call later tonight.

I shall sit down to read for awhile before getting The Monkey home. I was sorting out my books yesterday and came across a book called: The Diet Cure by Julia Ross. I am on page 60 and have found it very interesting and it does make sense to me. If any of your dieters can find it from your library might be worth checking out just to see if it feels right for you.

Have a nice rest of the day everybody!

Marru

bails

Skint_chick, or anyone else, the book I mentioned has a month's worth of menu plans in which allow you 60 GL a day I think - might be a good way to get into the routine of things and then get creative on your own? PM me if you want to know more.
Sorry to hear about the spin Lynda, hope your neack and back are okay x
Nice one for booking India Andromache WOO HOO! :j OH applied to two more NGOs last night, one in Asia (India, Nepal, China) and one in...Madagascar SFT Most of the fundeed placements come out next month apparently so we'll see what happens. Part of me is excited looking at the map and wondering if we might be going here, or here, or here etc but another part of me wants to know...NOW! :rotfl:On a serious note though I would like to learn some of the local language so hope we can find out soonish.
Sorry to hear about the phonecall and that you've come full circle Marru, hope your research helps you.
Sign language was loads of fun today, lots of laughter which was lovely! Chatted to another teacher on my course about my back to work plans too, always good to have another perspective on things.
Your ex-dining room sounds like it's really taking shape BB, looking forward to seeing it :T Really must get on your blog too Nyk so I can see all the garden progress :T
Spent some money at the homeopath today but not part of challenge; Mr S unfortunately was though - how much is organic food these days? :eek: Oh well, I'll do what I can this year and next year will be much better.
Congrats on the WL Whitewing (can't remember if I said already) and hello to everyone else, sorry if I haven't mentioned your news but I am thinking of all of you x Is there a JumbleBee anywhere out there?