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

grandma247

Hello everyone Just popped in to catch up. Had a busy but frustrating day. Went to the bank to get some money out for pressies for the granchildren and their parents as it was their tenth anniversary on the 11th and could not get any out. it took a while to find out why. We could not even get any at another banks machines because the main computer centre went down. I ended up hurrying to get the few bits I needed later in the day and I hate doing that,I like to put some thought into it. As it was there was only one pressie I was worried about but it was ok in the end because the lad liked it.
I am off to bed now so goodnight all.

FrankieM

Morning,
Another day of working through the washing mountain today, and some more baking and reading!
Made my jam tarts yesterday and they look very homemade but they taste ok and they got rid of the bits of jars of jam I had.
Today I'm going to make some 'ferrero rocher' type things with some scan bran. Its a Slimming World recipe, but tasty and stops me being tempted to buy chocolate at the village shop.
I also might try to motivate myself out into the garden..but we'll see.
Hope you all have a good day.

Frugaldom

Good morning

Had cuppa with 'the neebor' earlier and sampled more lovely cakes! NOT good for the diet but they must be healthy - they have carrots in them! Also made sure I topped up her egg supply, can't be having folks with no eggs in Frugaldom. Now trying to get SM into similar frame of mind to mine - get fitter, not fatter, and get horseriding! :rotfl: It'll be the Frugal fitness challenge for 2010 - losing weight, getting fit and completing the C25K one way or another.

FrankieM - I LOVE the idea of homemade Ferrer0 R0che style things, what are they?

Grandma, hope your banking system got sorted out quickly. Ours went haywire a couple of weeks ago but fortunately it was during branch hours so we could still get into bank to withdraw cash over the counter as it was only the ATMs affected.

SFT - Yes, we have red aquirrels here, but they don't come near the houses as we're set away from the treeline. They come out onto the road, though, so last one I saw ended up getting killed!

Forgot to mention, Bailey, our lonesome handreared pheasant, seems to have found himself a girlfriend! She was sitting outside his run yesterday preening and peering in at him. If she wasn't eyeing him up (he's very handsome) then I guess she must just have been eyeing up his food! :rotfl: Managed to get some piccies, will add them to my homepage site soon.

I need to nip into town today to get silly little things like suet, as mum has eventually passed on my great, great grannie's clootie dumpling recipe and I'm wanting to try making one. It's a bit extravagant considering the length of time it takes to make but it will, hopefully, be worth it. Might add the recipe to my blog site, too.

Hope everyone has a good day. The sun's shining here, so I really should get out into the garden for a bit to do some raking and tidying, plus the wooden potato well needs dismantling & moving. It did NOT work well for us as it acted like a water well and the contents ended up looking more like those of a compost bin! :rolleyes: 100lbs of potatoes my foot, I did something wrong somewhere methinks! :rotfl:

mama67

Good morning we have a nice sunny if chilly day here.

So I am climbing "Mount Washmore", in a hope of catching up.

Haven't been able to do any laundry since Tuesday as the machine decided to die and the replacement couldnt be brought until yesterday; all under rental agreement etc.

I know this isn't a totally frugal way of owning a machine but I have found that what it costs me in rental is what I would pay for a machine and repair insurance, and I can get a brand new one every 18 months or so, and all repairs etc are covered. It is also a piece of mind thing, of knowing it can either be repaired or replaced as and when; especially with 2 muck magnet boys.

I also have a chicken roasting in the oven as we speak with garlic cloves pushed into the cavity to flavour the meat from the inside. This will be stripped and served later with all the roast dinner acompliments once we are back from the boys football matches etc.

With the remains being used in a risotto type dinner tomorrow using some of the stock which will be made in the slowcooker tonight.

savingfortravel

Hi Everyone!

Well the total for our ebay sales yesterday was £96! Boring as it may sound, we have decided to see how long this amount will last for our Grocery budget. When we first came to MSE we budgeted £50 per week for the 2 of us. Now we have £70 per month. The £96 plus our £20 M and S voucher might even last 3 months which will mean £210 saved. Not sure what all our savings are for at the mo but it may involve travel or if we can be sensible paying off some of the mortgage.

Jobs for today

• Maths reports-Try to do this in the morning.
• Go for a walk-it’s a beautiful day. Pop into the pub-must try and support the local.
• Pop up to Mr T for some potatoes and possibly some whoopsies!
• Tidy up
• Sort out finances

Enjoy your day all.

sft

sophiesmum_2

Good morning frunchkins:D

Plans for today involve chasing OH into loft with a big stick and keeping him there until he actually does the lagging he has been promising since Friday:rolleyes:
I am just finishing canning the last of the carrot and lentil soups for my stores and eyeing up my ingredients to see what else may be baked whilst I have a bit of free time.This is not good for Nyk's plan to get me back on a horse any time soon :rotfl:I will have to feed baked goodies to OH, chickies and frugal neighbours instead of eating them myself.Problem is I really love cooking and baking

Nyk - could we not steam the clootie dumpling in the pressure canner ?- it can be used as a pressure cooker too, would significantly reduce cooking times
Have great day everyone

savingfortravel

nykmedia wrote: »

Good morning

Forgot to mention, Bailey, our lonesome handreared pheasant, seems to have found himself a girlfriend! She was sitting outside his run yesterday preening and peering in at him. If she wasn't eyeing him up (he's very handsome) then I guess she must just have been eyeing up his food! :rotfl: Managed to get some piccies, will add them to my homepage site soon.

:rotfl:

SFT and Mr SFT were :rotfl:when we read this.

HH62

Just another post and run from me, but it keeps me accountable to post whenever I can so just to say NSD Saturday and today.

BigMummaF

skint_chick wrote: »

...... making soups......any idea why my attempts with chicken stock have come out tasting 'sweet' Pup & I ate the last lot but can't say I'm keen to have another go :undecided
.. the space under my stairs.... our Iggie lives in ours in a purpose-built vivarium, but we're considering options to give her an extension. She must be heading for 6' from nose-to-tail-tip & needs a bigger bed!
I've found a heavy duty shelving system in Ikea - with clear plastic tubs to store everything neatly ......we've been given two lovely kitchen units & I desperately need the storage, but they're about 30cm too tall for where we had planned :doh:Current thinking is to move the small unit on one wall to the other, but it's held on with so many nails & screws methinks we'd have to replace the whole wall too I'd like the shelves as an easier option, but haven't a clue where to stand them :huh:
Very excited at the thought of finally organising more of my home:D Still very wishful thinking for me :embarasse.......

Further to the wall units, our house is that awful plaster-board stuff--great for hanging paper-chains but absolutely useless for anything heavier than a sheet of paper :mad: The folk who lived here before us put up the units in the kitchen & only one has fallen off the wall--a bit of a worry as it is one connecting to a neighbour _pale_ The offspring's dad was still around then & let's just say that his handyman skills make mine look like Tommy Walsh--hence all the nails! It would be such a shame to not use our freebies, but I guess I could put them up for sale or look for a freecycle in our area..

savingfortravel wrote: »

... apple crisp for dessert.....

Recipe please Must be the change in weather cuz I made a pineapple upside-down sponge for pudd yesterday. It got a tin out of the cupboard & made the roast go a bit further...I purposely didn't do so much potato & veg once I'd decided to make the dessert
Originally I'd thought of making pizza for yesterday but the weather was so rough we decided to swap around & thankfully it's worked in my favour. I'm sitting in the corner of the lounge with all the downstairs windows & doors open wide while Pup is moving around the lounge with the warming winter sun
I'm hoping to have a really good go at my spends before the end of next week. Trouble is..I sit here with the spreadsheet open & my mind sees blah-blah-blah where I need it to focus on option a,b or c..perhaps I'll have a go now...after another cuppa :whistle:

slowlyfading

just a quick hello from me. After making it through school on friday, I have since been in bed ill i will catch up properly soon x x