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

shaz_mum_of__2

Nyk a splash of soy sauce might add a chenesey taste to your soup



Spent £40 on groceries today but it filled my boot everything on my list seemed to be on offer in Mr A and the butcher had some great deals too alredy got 5 days worth of meals planned in my head (i don't generally plan) and enough cold meats to make all next weeks sandwiches (and freeze them)packed lunches

Need to make a loaf and got a lovely new soup recipe to try pumkin and smoked haddock chowder will be trying it out for lunch tomorrow

Back to the books over the weekend and an assignment to start too ................such fun !

Shaz

savingfortravel

Nyk/FMF-We pay £76 per month for electricity (we are overpaying by about £26 at mo). So that works out at £912 plus £183 for taybrite coal. so in total £1095. Our cottage is tiny though-in the middle of 2 others-1 sitting/dinning room, kitchen, bathroom, kitchen and conservatory downstairs and a bedroom upstairs. And you are right Nyk, the weather is much milder 'down south'.

Been thinking about long term plans over the last few days. Still maybe able to pay of mortgage by the time I'm 41 if we go on a world trip every 2 years. Then may beable to live off Mr SFT's money for the following few years so we could save all my wages. Then I could downshift, bit of self sufficency and maybe study or try writing a children's book.
Just what's going through my mind at the mo....as much as I love the children in my class each year i hate the politics. I want to work to live!!

sft

bails

Thanks for that reminder SFT - I'm struggling here with the desperation of wanting to go back to a 'real' job; the politics of school life is one thing I definitely don't miss though! Your plan sounds amazing! :T I would love to have paid off my mortgage by 41, at this rate I won't have even started! :eek:

I am questioning life at the mo, and am really not sure what I'm doing. I seem to be in a place where it's neither one thing or the other. Lots of my focus is naturally being drawn back home - looking for jobs, the wedding, new babies etc - and work for both of us here isn't panning out how we'd hoped. It doesn't help that Nepal is only 2nd to India in the world for number of holidays - it's currently Diwali immediately followed by another festival so I'm STILL not back at school. :rolleyes: Part of me wants to branch out and do something different with my time here - remember I wanted to do some conservation work? - and the other part knows having recent teaching experience for my CV is important if I want to stand any chance of seeming employable. Sigh.

The wedding is causing problems too, as OH thinks all the planning can wait til we get back (5 months before the date we want to get married) while I'm trying to explain that I will be full-on with work and won't have time to be sorting everything out! He promised it would be our wedding, as in both choosing and making plans, but it's feeling like I'm all on my own at the mo!

Sorry for the moan peeps, it's just hard sometimes when there's noone else out here to talk to

Frugaldom

Good morning fruguys and gals

It's a beautiful frosty day here with the sun just beginning to melt the frost. The shaded fields (and cars) are still white but it feels quite warm indoors with all my curtains and fleeces and draught excluders in place and still no heating other than DS's small storage heater.

Yesterday's Chinese style soup was a complete flop! I added pasta and the pasta went soggy, so I reckon I should have cooked it faster. As a result, I ended up picking the chunks of carrot & broccoli out (can't waste good veggies!) and I gave the noodles to the hens, who ran around the garden with them like they were worms. :rotfl: There's still a little pile of noodles but they'll soon disappear. I added the veggies to the mince and we had that with potatoes and turnip dug from the garden.

Had cuppa (or 2) with SM earlier this morning, I love that there's someone else who thinks it's normal to have coffee breaks before 8am and doesn't mind discussing frugaldom and LETS trading! We're now waiting to see what interaction occurs between DS and SM's DD. :rotfl: My bet's on DS (20) suddenly needing to wash his car whilst Miss SM (18 I think?) is out and about! :rotfl: (What d'ya think, SM? Car washing or polishing?)

Hope everyone has a great weekend. I reckon there'll be some outdoors type work going on here as it's such a beautiful day, despite the frost. And I'll probably get the livingroom fleece blinds made, seeing as the back seems to be a little bit less painful today.

Bails - give it 3 weeks, it's only natural to be thrown into confusion after such major changes have taken place even if you were aware of most of them. One week for the shock to hit the system, one week to fathom it out and one week for the new facts to settle into your lifestyle. Things WILL come together and your wedding plans will get made. But it's probably best to try and set those aside for a little while and live for what you're really doing now - literally having the holiday of a lifetime! It can never be repeated, so please absorb every available second of it. The wedding is another inrepeatable experience waiting to happen, but you'll have a lifetime to do with your marriage what you want. Sending a virtual dodgey-hug and offering virtual moral support as best I can. :grouphug::coffee:You can even pretend we're chatting over a mug of coffee.

BigMummaF

Aww Bails, I feel for you....it must have been nigh on impossible not to have a vision of what your 'trip' would be like--ditto all our Life's Plans--& for those dreams to begin fraying around the edges will make you question your ability to make the "Right Choice" But you can take solace in the fact that we all feel the same at these times &--for what it's worth--I so admire you for making a real effort to live your dream & know that you WILL get nothing but positive experiences from doing so.

As for me, I'm so chuffed to have accomplished something I had preciously thought beyond my culinary capabilities.....I've boned a whole chicken MrS sell their value ones in bigger sizes & I think buying it Thursday & doing the bizz the following day helped too, as it wasn't left in a fridge for too long. The offspring had fajita using the leg & darker meat, while Pup had just plain meat & the wings cooked & stripped. There's two goodly sized breast in the freezer for-- who knows? Nuggets? Stir fry? A pie perhaps? while the carcass is currently in the slow cooker with some fridge-bottom celery & corn cobs to make a soup for later. I've some 9p chicken noodles in the cupboard so fingers X I'll remember to put some in the pot too & maybe a sprinkling of tarragon....all for £1:99 per kilo :j
Now...if only I could learn how to carve properly.....

Frugaldom

Well done with the rubber chicken, BigMummaF! :beer::j I've got a chicken ready for the oven today but find it easier to cook complete bird then split it into assorted meals for freezing. We normally slice the breast meat for having as roast chicken dinners and use the rest for curry, stir fry, sweet & sour, fajitas, casserole etc and, dare I admit it, the meat that comes off the bones AFTER making the stock is what gets used in a pie, if I'm making one.

bails

Aah, thankyou so much Nyk and BigmummaF, you made me cry, in a good way :kisses3:

I have already been reassessing today and coming up with a plan which fits better with where I am personally and what I want from this special time. I'll let you know the details once it's fully worked out

In other news, and I'm aware this is another 'at home' thing but I'm pleased to say I'm no longer as attached to it - I told my parents about the cottage while they were over here and, to my surprise, they didn't jump down my throat about it! Dad went to have a look round yesterday and apparently it's the same as when we left (I'd pointed it out to Dad before we became interested in it, my family likes property, what can I say? ). I think this is possibly good news in helping us make a more rational decision about it, as it looks as if it won't be ready until we get home (or later) giving us time to truly assess the impact it would have. We shall see how life pans out but either way, I will have a lovely home (once we've bunked down at my parents for a couple of months! It'll be like a camp of refugees with us and the animals )

Great work with the chicken Bigmumma, this is one reason I wish I still ate meat so I could streeetch it too :rotfl: Picking up new simple and delicious ideas for meals out here which I plan to add to our menus once we're back. Our Tibetan landlady makes the best steamed momos (veg stuffed dumplings) and she's going to show us how to make them soon :T YUM!

We're off to witness some Diwali celebrations soon which will be interesting. I'm giving some priority to my blog again so there'll be new posts up in the next few days for those of you who are following. Today is a celebration of the dog, so if you have one, give them an extra special cuddle!

savingfortravel

Hi Bails
Sorry I haven't had the chance to post earlier. Did hit the thanks button quickly before I rushed off to the gym.
You and I are so similiar. Even when we have a wobble it doesn't last for long and plans are refined and new optimism and determination takes over. Looking forward to reading all about those new plans.

Glad you're keeping the cottage in mind. I must say, I already have a vision of it and you are both living the dream there. Your wedding will of course be wonderful but it can be alot to organise. It's funny you mention the dumplings because a Nepali twist on the ceremony would be wonderful..Imagine how decorative the event could be..in your blog I was struck by how visual life is in Nepal. (and your marvellous photography of course!).

As BM said-live the dream! :T You have just made me what to go to Nepal more. And a friend of mine has just emailed me from Vietnam..another to add to the list! Another friend has just come back from Peru-she walked the Inca Trail for charity and the first thing she told me is that she can't wait to travel more (she is in her mid 50s and has now fulfilled the dream that she had with her husband who sadly died 5 years ago..I am so proud of her).

Changing my mindset recently has actually benefitted me. I chose to avoid a political situation at school this week because it really didn't matter in the long run and I didn't need the extra stress. It doesn't make me weak, just more focused on my true goals...it feels like a little secret I have.

Will post again later. Have a great day everyone!

SFT

sophiesmum_2

Good afternoon frunchkins
Bathroom decorating underway here (making use of the slave labour whilst DD is here on her first visit ). Called into town earlier to pick up some paint and a bathroom cabinet, I was expecting to pay about £40 from the hardware shop but ald1 had cabinets on offer this week for £14.99 each so picked up two of those for less, and now OH and I can have one each which will stop him taking over my space with his "stuff":rolleyes:.
Both cabinets now put together and first coat of paint is on the bathroom wall so we are just having a coffee break.Have also recycled a roller blind from mum's garage which I hope will fit the bathroom recess.
DD is in culture shock with town - :eek::eek: at lack of clothes shops,music shops,fast food places, horsey shops,and night clubs:rotfl::rotfl:,and can just about live with having no signal on her phone:eek: but only whilst she has internet connection:rolleyes: but she loves the river,scenery,cows, sheep, chickens, etc, and has already spied the horsebox in neighbouring cottage garden :rolleyes: ( she hasn't yet spied lesser spotted DS from next door though:rotfl:)
I also have a chicken cooking in the slowcooker for meals this weekend, and it smells delicious already:D chicken based rice dish for tonight, chicken and stuffing toasties for lunch tomorrow and roast dinner for tomorrow's main meal. Will also make some stock for soup which I will try and squeeze in the freezer. Good job DD likes chicken:D

Enjoy the rest of the day everyone.

shaz_mum_of__2

Sounds like another busy day in frugaldom

Not sure who but someone asked for a flapjack recipe did anyone answer your request?? i have a good one will dig it out if needed)