Live on £4000 for a Year, 2009 Challenge, part 2

lilac_lady

I'm just about to amend my total spends (again!) and know that I'm not on target for the first 5 months of 2009 BUT there's 7 more months to go...... I've had a lot of expense but think that the latter part of the year will be calmer on the money front.

To those of you who find it daunting to log everything - don't. As long as you deduct the day's spending from your total you can keep up with what's left. I do keep all my receipts in a box and every now and then will have a look through them. That usually sets me back on track for a little while.

I know if I don't keep up with this Forum I'll be a lot worse of by 2010 if I surrender. I'll just keep plodding along.

shaz_mum_of__2

SmlSave wrote: »

P.P.S you've just reminded me that I have quail eggs at home

Don't tell Nyk :rotfl::rotfl:she'll try to hatch 'em

Shaz

purplevamp

nykmedia wrote: »

Purplevamp - £30 on tinned tomatoes this year already? :eek: Are you buying the premium brands and eating them every day or do you have a cupboard stacked full of them?

no, they're just Mr S basic ones. They're now 36p a tin :eek: I remember when they used to be 14p... We use about 3-4 tins a week, DH uses 2 in the curry he cooks every Wednesday, but this does about 5 meals.

Frugaldom

shaz_mum_of__2 wrote: »

Don't tell Nyk :rotfl::rotfl:she'll try to hatch 'em

Shaz

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: Probably with more success than some of the eBay eggs, too!

I'm now up to 85/100 on the eggs list. No 67 should read 'Cheese dreams' but I couldn't remember what they were called, so thank you for that. :T I love them - think I may have some now for lunch instead of the scrambled eggs!

Potatoes could be a good one for the next hit list, as they are what I am concentrating on growing most of this year. I recently calculated that we got through 100kg of the things over the space of a year plus all the pasta I buy! I'm now thinking I could be cheaper making my own pasta, especially if it's egg pasta. :rotfl:

purplevamp wrote: »

no, they're just Mr S basic ones. They're now 36p a tin :eek: I remember when they used to be 14p... We use about 3-4 tins a week, DH uses 2 in the curry he cooks every Wednesday, but this does about 5 meals.

I have managed to cut right down on tinned tomatoes because of Approved F00d having so many packets sauces available but I still buy tomatoes. Have you seen the RRP on a pack of 4 Napolini toms now? :eek: They work out at over £1 per tin! :eek: Going to be even more vigilant with my tomato growing this year and get as many hm sauces mixes done as possible.

cw18 wrote: »

Nyk - where did you get your lemon curd recipe from please? And do you think it would work with limes instead?

I looooooove Lime Curd, but in recent years (last 10!) it's become nigh on impossible to buy any Last time I saw it on sale was on a specialist cheese stall on a market (in the run up to Christmas 2005), and it was over £2 a 454g jar :eek:

I was wondering this self same thing after seeing the bags of lemons & limes in Ald!'s offers this week and also wondering if I could manage to make something similar to Florida Key Lime pie. I think I got the original lemon curd recipe from SM and then adapted it to suit myself, so here's my version:

4 egg yokes
150g caster sugar (I blitz granulated with the stick blender and pretend it's caster sugar)
100mls lemon juice (could be substituted with lime juice I reckon)
70g margarine (recipe calls for butter but I never have any).

Beat the egg yolks and sugar together until sugar dissolves. Pour into a small saucepan over a LOW heat, add the margarine and lemon juice and then keep whisking it. This is the hard part if, like me, you are prone to impatience. You must keep whisking the mixture over the low heat, I have the electric ring set at 2, and you must keep whisking until the curd is ready but you cannot allow the mixture to boil. It takes about 15 - 20 minutes for it to come up to almost boiling point but you need to take it off the heat before it boils. Keep whisking and pour into pre-heated, sterilized jars. I get about 350mls out of the above, which is enough to fill several of the small paste or pate jars or, like today, I filled a Bran$t0n pickle jar and the excess went into a little paste jar. I prefer the mini-jars - must get more of them.

patchwork_cat

Just a comment on Napolini tomatoes - if any of you can get to Costco their Napolina toms are much cheaper (sorry filed receipt too well! will hunt it out.) Oven roasted fresh toms then pureed are supposed to be the creme de la creme of tomato base for sauces.

Frugaldom

Thanks for that info, Patchwork. No Costco near here and I'd never afford the expensive toms - it's unbranded variety or none at all in this house unless there's an unbeatable offer available. I just hope that the sun shines this summer so the tomatoes all grow, unlike last year when all we got were a few green efforts. No doubt the tinned tom price will drop if there's a good harvest this year. Speaking of which, I'm off to the greenhouse to plot where else I can squeeze in more tomato plants

lingojingo

I'm growing my own tomatoes for the forst time this year, so hope they work out ok. But if not, my Mum made some wonderful green tomato chutney with hers from last year, it's great with cheese sarnies.

Brighton_belle

busy today decluttering: got 3 bits of furniture down from attic I now need to bung on freecycle. A bin bag full of paper based rubbish. It's at the stage where it's all looking a lot worse at the moment:eek:. I've taken pics of the attic so hopefully when itis eventually transformed I have before and afters
Made a big cauldron of sweet potato soup today. Was reminded last night of how soup keeps you full for longer so aids weight loss.

I realise I've got a bit slack in recording my cash spends this months, though all cashback card and ddm spends well recorded. But get that back on track for June and need to copmplete May accounts anyway, but too busy with essential house stuff at the mo.

Just had windscreen of car replaced and paid £75 excess ouch. Still, savings meant I had the funds so not quite as painful as it might have been but bad enough.
Hope to post pics later of xstitch - taken but not down loaded yet.

redglass_2

Just back from the Bath & West show where I managed to meet up with Blairweetch. I can now reveal she is young but cunning - she's been living the £4k lifestyle without her OH suspecting! I also discovered that despite living in another county she was once a student at the place where I teach (small world). Thanks for the cuppa, Blairweetch. It was nice meeting you.

Brighton_belle

Here's a pic of the half finiished x stitch which I aim to complete this year. I was drawn to it for it 'faded colours' making it look older and the verse - to everything there is a time and a season: I was going through a very rough time with my health at the time and it was the beginning of me learning to take the seagull eye view - i.e. there i a time to mourn a time to dance etc - in other words good times would come round a gain.





And I found this in the attic today that I had forgotten about - the only other bit of needle work I've ever done, again comleted 15 - 18 yrs ago and I never got framed...thought it seemd on topic though...