Our attempt at being MF!!

LauraJo

newgirly wrote: »

Hi cath, I'm on a very tight food budget this month too, have you looked a "a girl called jack"'s blog. She is FANTASTIC. Lots of healthy easy store cupboard receipes for well under 50p a portion, i have a freezer full at the moment, last night was bean burgers (9p each) tonight is her gigantes plaki (17p a portion , butter beans in Mediterranean sauce) well worth a look

Those bean burger things are lush! We had them 2 days last week (with some hm potato wedges and slaw - yum!)

I_want_a_baby

I 3rd that website the recipes are fab although I haven't actually tried any yet - might have a little read and print now xxx Well done on getting the budget up and going xxx

CathT

I've had a look and might try some of them so thank you for that. Cooked a chicken dinner yesterday but we only ever seem to get one more meal (curry) from the leftovers so need to look into stretching that a bit more.

Have been trying to tidy the playroom up this morning and the bags that were destined for the carboot sale I think I may leave out for charity collection tomorrow. I used to have a DD for this charity of £8 a month I'd cancelled so seems fair. tbh, I think I would get more satisfaction out of having a tidy playroom than what money could be made from selling the items. I know that's not very money savvy but I'm fed up of having things lying around.

Had an amazing few hours yesterday at our local NT property which really made me feel we are missing out on not having a family holiday this year. We have booked opposite weeks of for childcare reasons but had an image of renting a cottage and visiting different NT places in the area.

Payday this week, since we didn't manage to stick to budget last month I need to take drastic action! Am hoping that getting backpay will make things a bit easier.

fothers365

I know what you mean about sometimes just needing to get rid of stuff. We did that a few weeks ago and just took a load of bags to a charity shop as the length of time it would hang around trying to sell it and the man hours we don't have listing it and the paltry profit just didn't make sense. It gave me a sense of satisfaction to off load it and to just be able to sit in a less cluttered space that night without the hassle of trying to list everything!

NT is great, I think we will probably join again next year when DD3 has stopped napping. This year we are just making do with living near a national park and being able to do lots of nice walks etc for free.

SmlSave

Cooked a chicken dinner yesterday but we only ever seem to get one more meal (curry) from the leftovers so need to look into stretching that a bit more.

If you're like us Cath you can probably eat a whole chicken in one day - I love roast chicken! To get it to stretch I had to portion it out in containers straight away and we only got a piddly bit of breast for our roast dinner (but lots of stuffing and potatoes) Got five meals out of it in the end with a lot of bulking out with veg.

If you try any of Jack's recipes do let me know, I keep meaning to try some but haven't got round to it yet.

No family holiday happening here either this year but if its dry we'll go lots of places in the weekend and I plan to visit (and annoy) every family member available.

CathT

fothers365 wrote: »

I know what you mean about sometimes just needing to get rid of stuff. We did that a few weeks ago and just took a load of bags to a charity shop as the length of time it would hang around trying to sell it and the man hours we don't have listing it and the paltry profit just didn't make sense. It gave me a sense of satisfaction to off load it and to just be able to sit in a less cluttered space that night without the hassle of trying to list everything!

Some of it has only made it as far as husband's car boot as he will take it to the charity shop but at least it is out of the house!

SmlSave wrote: »

If you try any of Jack's recipes do let me know, I keep meaning to try some but haven't got round to it yet.

Will do. I might try the rice and mixed veg for a quick meal. I know Newgirly makes some of her stuff aswell.

Decided to cut down on eating so much rubbish and have lost 3lb in about 5days so I must have been eating some carp! I'm still b/f but don't think it's burning off as many calories as it used to! Goodbye cake

Payday today and everything paid from my wage so not really anything left until topped up by DH weekly wage and child benefit. Have had a quick calculation of WIOTW figure and it's only likely to reduce by around £700 this month which is disappointing. I also need to buy a new hoover today as mine is broken.

Have been looking through my DD list to see if there are any that can be cancelled so I can throw extra at the mortgage but it seems not - will have to think of something else

megela

Hi Cath, I've just bought a £180 Vax reduced at Argos to £74.99, they are now doing their spend £50 get £5 voucher as well. I've only had it a couple of days - it seems to work well and has good reviews.

fothers365

CathT wrote: »

Some of it has only made it as far as husband's car boot as he will take it to the charity shop but at least it is out of the house!

I did that with an old baby car seat- it lingered in there for a few weeks and last Saturday morning I forgot to remove it before doing a Lidl trip so was finally forced to go and off load it on the door step of a charity shop so I could fit the shopping in the boot! You aren't supposed to drop stuff off when they were closed but they would be open in an hour and I really didn't care if someone lifted it as long as it got some use!

CathT

megela wrote: »

Hi Cath, I've just bought a £180 Vax reduced at Argos to £74.99, they are now doing their spend £50 get £5 voucher as well. I've only had it a couple of days - it seems to work well and has good reviews.

Hi megela, only just seen your post. Wasn't there when I replied to fothers for some reason. Thank you for the suggestion, we have bought a H3nry which I much prefer to the Dys*n.

Been busy here so will update properly later. Decorator coming today and since we only found out last minute he could squeeze us in I need to empty 2 bedrooms of furniture alone. If anyone read my patio cleaning post, I am not the strongest of people

Alchemilla

You are up and at em early!