Weezl and friends Phase 2 -giving it a whirl for Shirl! Testing meal plan for a month

artybear

weezl74 wrote: »

oooh yes please arty! :AA while back I posted the vegan shopping list from mysupermarket (but I made a boo-boo and put sunflower oil instead of veg oil) can you tap it into asda's own shopping search engine, cos their prices aren't up to date

Okay dokey:D

Allegra

weezl74 wrote: »

I am a mortgage free wannabe myself hence the whole reason for my 50p a day challenge, so I am on your side.

It might be helpful to include a few words on this - stuff Lesley hs said, for instance - on the site. Like Arty said about "common sense" comments on the batch cooking thread, that's the way it was for me and the whole MFW concept. Many of the benefits of super-frugality never even occured to me until I saw them spelt out. Financial independence, anyone ? I never even considered it a possibility until I saw someone else mention it....

taka

weezl74 wrote: »

oh thank you taka for your thoughtful, honest reply, and I'm sorry if I put you on the spot!

I agree that chatting so much about the nutrition on here hasn't always been the healthiest for me and DH either, although it's meant we've known fergie is getting his vits :rotfl:

As for little projects as and when... but of course, that would be ace!

You didn't put me on the spot at all Weezl! I just wanted to explain a bit about why I haven't taken as much part in this project as I would have liked to!

If anything lurking here has helped give me a well needed kick up the bahookie to sort out my diet. I've lost 17lbs so far and am eating much healthier food (in proper portion sizes )! I'm morbidly obese so have loads to loose but want to do it via healthy normal eating (+exercise) rather than a diet. You've got me exited about trying things and cooking things I've never done before. Thank you, thank you, thank you... :T

PS Another Mortgage Free Wannabe here too! :hello:

weezl74

*weezl pushes her luck*

And arty if you have any more time while keeping Mr arty company, maybe you could collect together in a word document a cut and paste of the tips off the new old-style thread which would have helped you to plan a batch day if we hadn't been around?

Lesley_Gaye

weezl74 wrote: »

Lesley I'm sorry if I offended you. I was reacting to feeling criticised myself, and having a bit of a mini rant to get it out of my system a bit, but I never intended to upset anyone.

I am a mortgage free wannabe myself hence the whole reason for my 50p a day challenge, so I am on your side.

I wasn't offended at all, just hated the idea of anyone being excluded

I'm evenly balanced, I've got a chip on each shoulder

Sian_the_Green

Lesley_Gaye wrote: »

on the Egg calculator for instance, a £100,000 mortgage, with 18 years left to pay and an interest rate of 5.49% can be reduced right down to 5 years and 8 months if you overpay by £100 a month.

http://new.egg.com/visitor/0,2388,3_54988--View_1028,00.html

That is quite incredible! I think you are right Lesley, if someone does this plan it could revolutionise their lives, even if it is only a partial following of the plan. So Joe and Jane Bloggs who spend £400 a month on food and drink (seems fairly average for people I know!) could spend £300 by taking some of the ideas of the plan and finish paying off their mortgage over 10 years sooner. That is crazy to me, such a massive difference.

Weezl I do remember you saying this before, about over paying. Could you cope with people coming to the site for a variety of reasons or do you want to focus it specifically for our Shirley? I can see that it is your baby and so you want it to be in line with your original vision, however, this thread appears to have shown that people with more money to spare, who don't HAVE to do it, still want to have the benefit of your knowledge. I don't want to limit you to just Shirleys, I want everyone to know about your ideas!

weezl74

Lesley_Gaye wrote: »

I wasn't offended at all, just hated the idea of anyone being excluded

I'm evenly balanced, I've got a chip on each shoulder

What a waste of chips! They'll make your jacket greasy! Here, let me...*dusts off the salt from lesley's shoulder-on tiptoes* ...let me just..nomnomnom...get rid of those...nomnomnom for you

SusanC_2

weezl74 wrote: »

this brings me on to an issue I've been struggling with about the site, highlighted by an embarrassing incident with my neighbour.

My understanding of the brief I gave myself at the start of the challenge was that this was pretty much subsistence living with one non-negotiable allowed. So I'm saying absolute subsistence (meeting FSA health criteria) costs 70p per person in the UK in May 2010. Subsistence plus a non-negotiable costs 80p per person daily.

So now we have a website, and I'm looking at it... and it doesn't 'say' subsistence to me!

It looks far more normal than that!

And we've taken great pains to say how normal it is, hoping to reel shirley in....

But it's for shirley, rather than folk on a normal budget.

Is this making any sense?

I don't want to produce a drab, ugly site (I care a lot about aesthetics) but this one is maybe giving a wrong message?

Look forward to any helpful thoughts

I think it is good that it looks so nice and normal. It shows that cheap/subsistence food is not all drab and boring. If it didn't look nice, people would think the food wasn't nice either. It might be aimed at "Bob and Shirley" but IMO anyone could benefit from it even if it's just taking one main meal recipe and starting to use it or starting to make their own bread themselves or whatever. Obviously the thing that motivated you to start the project in the first place was to help "Bob and Shirley" and I think that perhaps you are finding it hard to think outside of "the plan" so to speak and see the wider benefits. Maybe the main target group are Bob and Shirley but I don't see it as an exclusive thing.

I hope that sounds okay - I've just woken up and daytime sleep doesn't agree with me.

weezl74 wrote: »

and another question for you all to consider...

when we launched the site the month one had been tested by quite a few of you :A

Kitty's month won't have been tried out in full at all.

do we:

A) just go for it, it won't matter!

go for it, but explain this month is being tested and invite them to give feedback via FB/the hotmail address

C) ask across MSE for testers of the full month, and ask them to use the website but give their feedback on here.

B

artybear wrote: »

You do think people are stupid?

IME the larger the group of people you are communicating to, the lower the proportion of them that will actually get what you are telling them.

Allegra wrote: »

It's a shock every year, as every year they switch us over to summer hours a bit earlier ! We're okay though, it does come round every summer, so we are prepared for the general concept, plus it' nice to have a bit more time to dedicate to moneysaving :rotfl:

Sometimes I wish our work/income seasonality was your way round so we had the extra spare time in the summer.

Allegra wrote: »

It might be helpful to include a few words on this - stuff Lesley hs said, for instance - on the site. Like Arty said about "common sense" comments on the batch cooking thread, that's the way it was for me and the whole MFW concept. Many of the benefits of super-frugality never even occured to me until I saw them spelt out. Financial independence, anyone ? I never even considered it a possibility until I saw someone else mention it....

My OH never got that saving small amounts (e.g. by taking a flask to work instead of buying a coffee when he felt like one) made a significant difference until he saw the "accumulator principle" on "Pay off your mortgage in two years" where they added up the savings over two years. I'd told him the savings would add up but until he saw them added up he didn't appreciate it.

weezl74

Sian_the_Green wrote: »

Weezl I do remember you saying this before, about over paying. Could you cope with people coming to the site for a variety of reasons or do you want to focus it specifically for our Shirley? I can see that it is your baby and so you want it to be in line with your original vision, however, this thread appears to have shown that people with more money to spare, who don't HAVE to do it, still want to have the benefit of your knowledge. I don't want to limit you to just Shirleys, I want everyone to know about your ideas!

Awww thanks sian

You and Lesley are right, and it shouldn't be exclusive.

I'm sorry it was just my reaction to people who've judged the site harshly.

weezl74

SusanC wrote: »

IME the larger the group of people you are communicating to, the lower the proportion of them that will actually get what you are telling them.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I love you susan!

Why are you napping? Alice sleeping ok at night?:)

edit just went to look on the PT and realised she has had whooping cough! So sorry!