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

angelatgraceland

redglass wrote: »

My book about raw foods lists the following: sunflower seeds, mustard seed, alfalfa seed, pumpkin seed, buckwheat, chia (whatever that is), flax (linseed), mint, red clover seeds, most beans and peas including lentils, fenugreek, radish, sesame, wheat, rye, peanuts, almonds, tricitale (don't know what that is either) rye, barley, millet and even oats (if you get whole oats or 'oat groats'). Most seeds and beans and grains seem possible as long as they are whole, undamaged and not too old, though some things are more difficult than others.

Kidney bean sprouts and greens grown from seed potatoes, or tomato seeds, are poisonous. :eek: If you find any trace of brilliant purple in the sprouts, dispose of them - it's ergot! (I once had a batch of sprouts infected with it this - fortunately I didn't 'try them to see' as it gives you nightmarish hallucinations :eek:) but it only ever happened once. Personally I find the taste of soybean sprouts unpleasant but you might not.

Some of them can be quite a faff to grow and according to the book the easiest are alfalfa, aduki, mung, lentils, fenugreek, radish, chickpeas and wheat, so you've chosen well...:D. Edited to add that some health food shops sell special sprouting mixtures but they might be more expensive than just mixing up your own.

That is absolutely fantastic! Just what I wanted! Ive saved it into word along with my recipes.

Had a nice meal out today with a free icecream sundae at Harvester. Second time this week! Not spent a lot lately-I did do a topup shop in Co-op but it was approx £17. Ordered online freom Asda for Tuesday will will leave everything well topped up!
Eventually got my refund from Argos direct for the faulty bike but Im now being messed about waiting for a mobile phone to arrive. Sevice these days is generally rubbish it seems. Had 2 emails saying they hope Im enjoying my new phone-says despatched on the website yet on the phone they says they were out of stock and its now in the warehouse! Pain in the butt!
Just seen a nice George F grill on Amazon complete with griddle for £58 Im tempted to treat myself. My present one(a fake one) is losing its nonstick and becoming impossible to clean. Anyone here got the GF one with the griddle?

Frugaldom

Food morning, fruguys and gals

Just sneaking on early to catch up before I attempt some housework that I'm making myself do before going back outside. I'd to break the ice on the water bowls this morning, so it isn't quite springtime yet. :eek: It's damp and foggy out, but I did a washing overnight and will hang it out as soon as some of the fog lifts. Also made a pot of ham & lentil soup overnight in the SC, so that's lunch sorted id I manage to get a day in the garden.

Talking of the C0-0p/$par/S0merf!eld/Ald! scenario, I'm bringing another name into that equation; our S0merf!eld is closing for 12 weeks and being refurbed/refitted/restocked as... $AINSBURY! :eek: As far as we are aware, C0-0p is staying where it is (unless $par suddenly arrives) but if $par is now in the frame, that would mean B0tterills is also there, as mum's local C0-0p became Sc0t-Mid became $par became Spar/B0tterills then the post office closed and the PO counter is now at the back of the mini-supermarket. Then A$da moved into the village and built a massive 24-hour superstore! And now, Sc0tMid is back but in a different building. I suspect all these supermarkets are in cahoots somewhere along the line, I just hope it's not price-fixing! :mad: (A11 the$e alt€rnat!v€ character$ ar€ d!ff!cult t0 k€€p up w!th, ar€n't th€y?)

Appropriate responses to everyone and please feel free to PM me about anything as I get a bit distracted as soon as the better weather arrives.
Waiting to hear id the parents are coming to visit this week but there's plenty of food in the freezer, so we'll make do with that - I think! :rotfl:

Catch up later, hope everyone has a good weekend.

FrankieM

Hi everyone,
I've not posted for a while so I hope you are all well. We are finally coming to the end of Birthday March! I've managed to stay on budget in regards to groceries, but the birthday 'parties' seem to have cost a bit more than expected...I guess that what savings are for!
The last meal is today. We are going for a chinese buffet lunch and then its back to normal.

I have finally decided that I needed to do a budget and set aside amounts for different spending areas. I'm hoping that will help me as I was finding just having a lump sum that I tried not to spend too much of wasn't helping.
It starts from payday at the end of the month.

I hope you are all doing your frugal thing, the thread seems quieter these days so I may be able to keep up with it!

lilac_lady

A lovely morning here in bonnie Scotland. I spent the last hour clearing leaves and sweeping up and am raring to start my little gardening projects that I've lined up for this year. Nothing along the grand lines of you keen folk but simple produce for a simple gardener! Herbs, strawberries, lettuces, tomatoes and potatoes. Last year the birds destroyed most of the lettuces that I'd planted in pots. I don't know if they ate the leaves or were just having a good time in my garden. I don't use any pesticides so I'll be grateful for anything that grows!

sophiesmum_2

Good afternoon frunchkins:D

Went to town earlier and spent £2.50 on fresh veggies. Used my two no 7 £5 vouchers so a pack of wipes for £6.40 and a nail polish for £6.10 cost me £2.50:D more goodies towards DD's xmas stocking.Found another voucher in my basket too so will use that next week;) didn't feel like going back a third time:rolleyes:

Also got free parking courtesy of disabled friend and we had a free latte from macdonalds using loyalty cards:D and the wooden stirring sticks are great for marking out your seedlings

Came home then ran DD to stables and picked up some free manure for my veggie patch -lol knew having a horse would come in useful eventually!!!

Woke this morning to find I have tomatoes, spring onions, courgettes, radish, lettuce, and spinach all now sprouted:j :j only planted the radish two nights ago:eek: sure the last radish took 5 days - must be getting warmer.

Oldies are having a party night tonight I am catering for that later, but tomorrow is earmarked solely for gardening and a visit to mum for mother's day.
No spend days this week -5

Weight loss this week - 4.5lbs:D

General frugal aims for today;

• storecupboard lunch and tea
• reduce, reuse,recycle one item-lots of stuff to recycle banks,reusable shopping bag,
• do something nice for me - half an hour uninterrupted on here with a cuppa
• do something nice for someone else-took DD to stables instead of making her cycle whilst scooter is broken.
• fitter not fatter - treadmill later
• make planting plan for greenhouse

Todays frugal meals;

• scrambled egg, tomatoes
• tuna and black olives with HG salad leaves
• cauliflower cheese, with white fish and mushrooms

Fruit and veg portions;
0 fruit, 0 pulses,6 veggies,

Expenditure or additional income
£2.50 spent on veggies
£2.50 spent in boots

£45 extra income from qype virgin voucher:D


Remaining target cash for first 6 months food spends - £219.06 left from budget of £400 for first six months.


Extra income generated £250.43 /spent £112.22 / left £138.21
(tortilla press/flour £33, boots pressies £18.35, hanging baskets and brackets x 6 £17.88, planters £20, blueberry bushes/compost £12.99,gardening book £10

bails

Hi all, just caught up, some great advice and experiences for you Shaz, hope they help. If I can think of anything to add when I have more time I will. Selfishly glad to hear it's not just me that thinks WL is a waste of time!
Isn't the sunshine wonderful? Had a day off the long walk today as MiL and OH took the dog out but took a shorter one this afternoon with her. Just been a pretty chilling day, storing up my energy for next week's course, and making the most of the sunshine before it disappears again
Hope you're all well and that your boys get well soon Cha.
OH is in town with MiL and is popping to supermarket...what are the chances f him sticking to the list? :rotfl:Cooking a meal for both our mums tonight (and my dad of course) for Mother's Day so off I go to get ready. Have a lovely evening everyone x

savingfortravel

Hi Everyone!
Well just 6 days to go before our Wedding.
Been busy today. Went for a walk this morning, first thing so we felt we'd been out enjoying this beautiful day. Lots of wild flowers bursting through, and we were thrilled to see a patch of white sweet violets growing (never seen by us before). So only cost us the price of petrol. Maybe if we move out to the country we can walk from our doorstep. We've lowered the price of our house and have done quite a bit to it so hopefully it will sell soon.
After that we picked up my sister's mothers day gift for my mum. Good to see that she has wrapped everything in junk mail. She showed me what she and my niece are growing in their garden. Also some wood she'd got cheaply to make raised beds.
We picked up The Times, we are collecting the mast heads (8 needed for £20 off at Pizza Express) and like the guide for film, theatre and TV. We will probably swap newspapers once we've finished collecting-I like looking at the Discounts thread for the Newspaper guide deals at the weekend. Picked up a great free organic hand cream for £2 p and p which you just get off the website (no Telegraph needed) and it came really quickly and is a good size..so added it to my mother's day gifts. Mum's also getting a Body Shop lippy I picked up in the NY sale, some hot choc and Thorntons cakes (which I got points vouchers for in Mr T).
This afternoon I bought a pair of shoes for the big day from BHS (£12) and stockings (£2.80). Then got my undies from Debenhams (used vouchers for that). Afterwards we spent a £20 voucher in M and S on food for our Honeymoon in Cornwall. Finished off in Tesco, picked up reduced to half price Finest Steak pie and for 50p a bag of 16 big carrots, 3 parsnips and 15 potatoes. Used lots of points vouchers before they expired which will add up to £6 towards something.
So had a pretty good money saving day. Definitely back in the zone and inspired by all your posts.
Take care
SFT

cw-Sounds like you're offering great support to your grand-daughter. I use the Jolly Phonics scheme and my 4 and 5 years old are not only reading because they learnt their sounds/diagraphs and how to blend them so quickly but also writing in a phonetically correct way. I always provide lines for my children to position their letters on and the standard of writing in my class is very impressive. Just wanted to point out that the loop on the d does come first, think you meant that didn't you. If children don't learnt how to hold their pencils and form letters correctly from the start they will find joining up their writing painful as well as incredibly difficult.

Skint_Lynne

Hi everyone,

I've just finished making tablet for part of mother's day present, I've already got some bingo vouchers stashed from Christmas for her. I was going to make some trifles as well, but I'll leave that till another time - the tablet is calorific enough.:p

I've not spent that much, I've got some food in the cupboards and freezer, still got quite a lot of toilet rolls and I've got bubble bath, shower gel etc. I've also been saving up stamps in T's for using just now, so I've got around £40 to use. I do the Christmas savers as well, cause you can't get to that. It's such a good idea.;)

Counting down until the 1st April until I start the challenge again. I'll need to get a new book, and I'll back it up on spendingdiary.com.

I've got a bit of good news, I've overpaid my phone bill by quite a bit as DH has been phoning me. So, I've opted for a payment holiday instead of getting my money back and don't need to pay for internet or phone until 1st June.:j

I'm hoping it will be nice tomorrow as I've done a load of washing and would like to hang it outside.

Speak later. xx

Blairweech

Bought 3 demijohns for a pound at a jumble sale yesterday, ready to make wine. Hm, which wine can I make now? *goes searching*

xnatalie81x

Hey all - am still around and following progress! Will update properly around end March but all is still good