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

Savvy_sewing

Back off of my little holiday with BF and his kids. Trying to organise the washing and catch up on the things that have been needed to be done for a while!.
Would have liked to have a few NSD's but have had to pay £50 off of the electric bill, and order some logs, about £55. Just waiting for the sawmill to ring me back.
Had some bread in the freezer and so DS and I just had soup and toast for lunch.
But I think we can mostly eat for the rest of the week, at least. With the things that are lurking in the freezer.
(Not the stuff that was lurking in the fridge...uggh, DS had left a stew in there.So the bin has been filled with disgusting mould etc, and there are a few other things too. ). But its all clean again now.
Read my meter, but the supplier says that there is an error there!. Great that means I have to wait in for a person to come and check it.
Now its time for me to have a good catch up on the things that have been going on in my absence!.

Frugaldom

Hi guys and gals,

Congratulations on arrival of new grandchild, Grandma

Glad your cat's forgiven you, Lynda

Hope you enjoyed holiday, Mooloo, and that you get meter problem sorted out.

My DIY pergola has been finished, so I now have added security holding the greenhouse in place during this year's storms plus somewhere to grow veggies up next year - it should be ideal for peas & beans and for hanging the baskets from in summer.

After the ham hough 'extravaganza', I'm now onto the turkey drumstick. Cooking it overnight in the slow cooker meant the stock was ready for today, so I now have soup on the go. I've got a full pound of meat from it (just over 450g) and that's now set aside for a couple more dinners. As the recommended portion size for turket is 3 oz (85g) per serving, that means I have enough for 5 servings, but I'm not planning on having it served up on its own, so can bulk that out much further by making it into other stuff like pies. I fancy trying a risotto for tonight. Quick, easy and tasty.

bails

Good work Nyk!

Where did you get your portion sizes from, need a good resource for this for next year! (not for meat of course)

cw18

I was brought up on the belief it was 2oz/day of red meat OR 4oz/day of white meat (poultry) or fish



And....

OMG !!! I've got a job interview on Friday !!!! My first interview in almost 12 years, and I've not had one for anything but office work in 25 years !!!!!!!!!

Our local Mr M had a sign up for part-time evening/weekend work when I went in 8 days ago, so I grabbed myself a form. They had to be back in by last Thursday, so I thought it would be next week at the earliest before they contacted anyone. Really suprised I got an interview, as I had to declare all my sick-leave due to my back problem - but I did note that it was a long-standing problem that had been under control for 12 years prior to the sick leave, and was back under control again now. They're bound to ask about it at the interview, so I must remember to tell them that my GP thought it would have come back under control much sooner had DH not been diagnosed with cancer at the same time - meaning not only did I have no-one to help around the house, but I also had to do more than normal due to his low immunity.

And DS (who saw the form and asked for one for himself) has an interview on Saturday :T I'm really, really keeping my fingers crossed for him as - if they can jig his shifts to suit - it means he'll have a job to see him through Uni when he (hopefully) starts there next academic year. TBH, if only one of us gets a job then I'd rather it was him - as I still have the option of child-minding, but he really needs the experience/income.

grandma247

Anyone know how I can explain what "old chestnut" means to an American?

grandma247

I found one that seems reasonable
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/27/messages/160.html

Frugaldom

bails wrote: »

Good work Nyk!

Where did you get your portion sizes from, need a good resource for this for next year! (not for meat of course)

I cheated and G00gled 'meat portion sizes' Having just checked again, I see that we eat far too much soup! :eek: An average portion is only 220ml, so my 3.5L should provide our household of 3 with 5 meals each and not 4! I got those figures from here (it's a pdf file).

Now watching the TV programme about what's in supposedly healthy foodstuffs that we can't afford on a tight budget

GOOD LUCK CW! (And CW's son)

Blairweech

Nyk - did you see Jimmy's Food Factory? It was so interesting - all the work that goes into really simple foods! Plus, I Jimmy

Bleugh, I am back on 12 hour shifts this week, starting at 6am tomorrow :eek: Oh well, I am on holiday from Friday and I will be able to pay my rent (cause the car insurance went out, I was not sure if I could make it)

I left my lentil dhal in the slowcooker for 11 hours on high Now I have a disgusting brown sludge that is unbelievably spicy. Ho hum, at leat it did not burn dry and catch fire!

I am pinching ideas from the 'It Is Tough Now' thread, plus menu planning for November. I have managed to keep my heating off until now, apart from one day due to having a guest and not wanting them to be cold.

bails

Ooh, well done CW and DS, really hope the interviews are successful! :T

Blair, well done on the heating! :T I know in one sense it's not funny but your sig always makes me laugh - it's good to see the humour in things :T

Thanks Nyk, will take a look now.

And thanks for the '0ld chestnut' link Grandma, I love finding out where sayings/words come from. When I'm rich I'm going to get myself a book on etymology :j then I can bore my pupils :rotfl:

Going to pop on over to the It's Tough Now thread, thanks for the heads up but before I do, I have a confession....

for the first time in my life I am ready to become a mum Just needed to tell someone.

bails

I can't find the thread Blair, any chance of a link please?

I only just discovered you can see who's online and what they're looking at:rolleyes: - found some interesting threads that way though!

BTW, I don't know how anyone who works on the PC all the time manages...I've only been on here for 36 hours while OH is away and it's doing my head in! Or maybe it's the being on my own that's doing that *insert loopy smiley here*