Live on £4,000 for a year - 2009, Part 3

Frugaldom

Nice work with the Mr T card & extra points, CW! Weather here seems similar to yours, it can't decide what to do - blustery showers, torrential downpours, drizzle, sunshine then downpours again.

The stewed apples have now been mixed with sieved stewed blackberries & mango. It tastes like the summer fruits mix you get in the shop-bought strudel, so it should be good under crumble, served with custard. If the rain would stay away for an hour then I'd be able to get out to pick another batch of blackberries. I also have a load of potatoes to sort through that HS has dug from the garden. These ones are from actual shop bought seed potatoes, so I'm hoping they are all OK. A bit of freezer reorganisation urgently needed if this lot's all to fit in along withanything else that comes along over the weekend.

slowlyfading

Afternoon everyone

So, this week has flown by! I've only one shift at the bakery left :j :j which is great its been so manic there this week, as its folk week where we are, so there are like a million people in a small town! and they all need feeding at lunch time - i think no one must come on here as they all could bring their own lunch :rolleyes:

Today is nsd no 16 in August for me - i think my finances are doing quite well at the moment. If I can keep on track like this until the end of the year, I hope I'll come quite a bit under target. Of course, there are always things that can jump in and surprise you, but on the whole, everything is sorted. There are quite a few birthdays coming up though; most of my family birthdays are oct - dec so I have to budget for those accordingly.

Just found out today via email that I don't start university until sunday september 13th, which is a whole week later than I thought so i could have worked an extra week, but I don't desperately need the money, and I can spend the time relaxing and going across to see the bf too I hope it also gives me that bit more time to sort things out, so I'm still leaving on saturday.

BMF, hows the pup?
jtb2412, i hope your dad is okay. xx
cw, please post pics of your pear butter when its done! and woop for more points! :j
nyk, your stewed apples, blackberries and mango sounds really yummy
bails, hope you feel better soon xx

sf xx

SmlSave

Hi everyone.

Just popping in to ask if the nuts are ready to pick now or should I wait a little longer?

Am very impressed by all your jam and preserve making and must really make a start on the bag of apples at home......who knows I might go elderberry picking too.

shaz_mum_of__2

SmlSave wrote: »

Hi everyone.

Just popping in to ask if the nuts are ready to pick now or should I wait a little longer?

Am very impressed by all your jam and preserve making and must really make a start on the bag of apples at home......who knows I might go elderberry picking too.

I saw cob nuts for sale at a local market this week .......................not sure if thats what you meant though?

cheerfulness4

I saw lots of cobnuts on sale in Morrisons tonight, too. Have never seen them with leaves on them before. £1.49 for a small punnet they were, so if that is what you mean smlsave then you're quids in.

cw18

My 'pear butter' is now in jars. Can't promise a photo, as the battery in my camera is low (can't find the charger, and need it for Wednesday to get photos of GDs going back to/starting school).

I cooked mine for 6 hours - 1st hour on low, then knocked it up to medium. Ended up putting it through the blender once cooked as there was masses of liquid, and it now looks a bit like a murky brown lemon curd Not sure whether it's going to set enough to be spread on toast though - I could end up with a lot of pureed pear to use with sponges or as a topper on vanilla ice-cream :rolleyes2

Started off with 3.25kg of pears (as they came off the tree) which was about 2.4kg once peeled, cored and bad bits removed. Have ended up with almost bang on 5lb (a smidgen over 2.25kg) of pureed stuff to put in jars.

savingfortravel

Hi Everyone!

SF-You sound really excited about the next few weeks. Not long now before a new chapter of your life begins!
Smlsave-I'm curious about nut picking too-got hazelnuts growing down the end of the lane.
Cheryl-Well done on Mr T points! What a thoughtful son you have!

Our freezer is now jam-packed with blackberries (picked), apples (from my B-I-L) and plums (from mum and dad). And we have elderflower and blackberry jelly as well as Greengage jam for Mr SFT's weekend breakfasts.

Saved about £6 in vouchers towards Christmas Presents so far. Its a start. :T
Have a couple of birthdays, anniversaries coming up, including my sister's partner's birthday- Plan to buy new Dan Brown book for present - got enough in WH**S/Book token vouchers to cover £18.99 but on Am*zon it only costs half that. What should I do?

Tomorrow, I am off to Suffolk for a short holiday with my mum, dad, sister and children. Going to have lots of fun and it should be quite frugal as we tend to self cater.

So will catch up in a few days.

Take care all.

SFT

cw18

savingfortravel wrote: »

Cheryl-Well done on Mr T points! What a thoughtful son you have!

:rotfl:

I wouldn't call it thoughtful.......

The three children were dealing with hubby's ashes on Thursday (which would have been his birthday), and elder son was doing all the driving as I didn't want any involvement in that stage of things. But he'd no petrol and no money, so on Wednesday I got him to run me to Mr T - and paid for £30 of fuel to go into his tank (my contribution for the day, but not coming out of my £8k budget). When he'd mentioned while we were in the store that he'd have to go back for bits I'd told him to let me know when he was going - but not 'cos I wanted to go with him, just so that he could take my card with him and 'earn' me some pennies for no additional effort


He asked me this morning (when taking the card from me) how much I have to spend to get a point, and what a point is worth. His reaction to being told how it works was that it's not worth the effort - but at least he still took the card. Think that might have been something to do with the fact I mentioned the points on his fuel would almost buy me 2 loaves of white value bread or three-quarters of a bag of frozen value sausages when he's next home on leave - and he loves his sausage butties :rolleyes2

savingfortravel

He asked me this morning (when taking the card from me) how much I have to spend to get a point, and what a point is worth. His reaction to being told how it works was that it's not worth the effort - but at least he still took the card. Think that might have been something to do with the fact I mentioned the points on his fuel would almost buy me 2 loaves of white value bread or three-quarters of a bag of frozen value sausages when he's next home on leave - and he loves his sausage butties :rolleyes2[/QUOTE]

Cheryl
My dad has been collecting cans for the recycling centre at our local Mr T. For a big box he only got 3 points! :eek:

sft

cw18

None of the Mr T stores that are within a justifiable distance from mine do the recycling sheme. I had debated making a trip out to a store that does (rather than using my brown bin), but reckoned it would take me all year to cover the extra cost of the fuel to get there - and that was in the belief the payback was considerably better than that :eek: