Walking the walk...

E2006

It was sooo crowded, but I muscled my way to the front :rotfl:

And as for the breadbuns, the guy was marking down the creamcakes, and I asked him if the bread was going down too. He hadnt got round to it. I would never have dared do that, but as he said to me, if you dont ask you dont get!

I got some more bargains today actually. My friend and I popped to Home B, and they had loads of stocking filler bits in for Xmas. Choc coin makers £3.99. An operation type game (was a monster instead of a man) £3.99, moon sand construction £5 etc. I bought quite a few things and spent around £20. I will replace the money from my pay next week as I have budgeted for xmas pressies. I got them because the stock changes continually there and some of the things I didnt want to miss (like the moon sand which he has been raving on about after seeing it on tv). I only need one more thing which is £39 (a playmobile jet plane) and DS is finished for xmas and his birthday (boxing day - bless him). I have quite a bit in my present box for other people, so dont actually need that much more. I need something for DH but we may go for a night away or something as a joint gift that coincides with our wedding anniversary in January :heartsmil

Manic night tonight - it always is on a wednesday. Im just off to drag DS away from mickey mouse as its way past his bedtime, then peace as DH is out for a few hours.

LivvyLoo_2

Hi Em,
You're right, if you don't ask you don't get, well done!

Aw I love Home B, you have done so well with your xmas pressies. I will have to get my pressie list up to date (I have little budgets for each person ha ha), then I can go and shop until I drop...shopping for Xmas pressies satisfies my shopaholic needs.

I am always borrowing from pot to pot but once upon a time I didn't have pots (I used the CC pot) so actually spending money which is mine is a great feeling.

Have a lovely relaxing evening x

E2006

Ive made some changes to the mealplan. We ended up with fish and chips last night because it was late by the time we got sorted, and that was the quickest easiest option. We shared a portion between us so didnt cost too much.

8th: Chicken Fajitas
9th: Prawn curry
10th: Pork casserole, roasted carrots and potatoes, yorkshires and peas
[STRIKE] 11th: Fresh egg (currently frozen) tagliatelli and veg pasta[/STRIKE][STRIKE]
[/STRIKE] 11th Chicken burgers & hm chips
[STRIKE] 12th: Pork steak, poached eggs and home made chips/wedges[/STRIKE][STRIKE]
[/STRIKE] 12th Fish & chips
13th: Cheesy Jackets & beans
14th: salmon & roasted veg couscous
15th: Pizza
16th: Cheesey wedges
17th: Pork steaks bbq style, mushroom rice & sweetcorn
18th: Salmon & couscous
19th: Jackets, cheese and beans
20th: Bacon & mushroom pasta
21st: Payday :j

Ive started putting together a meal plan for next month. Im going to do a big monthly shop I think, and try to stretch the budget that bit further. I will post the plan once Ive got it together.

Im going to need petrol tomorrow, but i didnt do too badly - I'd hoped it would last me last week and this week, and im only one day off. Im hoping £15 will do me tomorrow and the rest of next week, but we will see.

E2006

8th: Chicken Fajitas
9th: Prawn curry
10th: Pork casserole, roasted carrots and potatoes, yorkshires and peas
11th: Fresh egg (currently frozen) tagliatelli and veg pasta
11th Chicken burgers & hm chips
12th: Pork steak, poached eggs and home made chips/wedges
12th Fish & chips
13th: Cheesy Jackets & beans
14th: salmon & roasted veg couscous
15th: Pizza
16th: Cheesey wedges
[STRIKE]17th: Pork steaks bbq style, mushroom rice & sweetcorn
[/STRIKE]
17th Freezer tea
18th: Chicken dinner 'pie'
19th: Chicken something
20th: More chicken something :rotfl:
21st: Payday :j

DH decided on Sunday that he wanted a roast dinner at home (we usually go to his mums). I didnt have meat, but bought a £3.99 chicken from Al**. Swede and cabbage was on for 39p. I already had peas, yorkshires in the freezer and potatoes. Anyway, I didnt get round to doing the chicken on Sunday, so cooked it last night for tonights tea (it was too late to have it last night by the time I got home from work and cooked it). Anyway, I have soooo much meat. Im doing a chicken dinner 'pie' (all chucked in and topped with mash like sheperds pie, ouddings on the side of course) because I just cant be chewed with cooking a full dinner. DS is poorly yet again and was upall night. Looking after him and cooking a full dinner is just beyond me at the minute.

I have more than enough chicken for at least 2 more meals. I think I will make curry for tomorrow night. Freeze an extra batch. Use some chicken in the packed lunches, so just need to think of something else.I had planned to make soup, but dont really fancy that. Im thinking about maybe a chicken lasagna.

Ive baked some coconutty biscuits this pm also. Just waiting for them to cool down and we are going to melt some choc on them - half white and half milk choc mmmmmm.

Payday in 3 days :T:T

dazzler123

Hi, I just found your diary last night - it's so inspiring! I love your meal plans

LivvyLoo_2

Hi Em,
I too am loving the meal plans, I am especially impressed with the chicken meals. I have a roast chicken in the freezer, hope I can stretch it as far as you have.

Hope DS is better soon...its hard work looking after sick kids all night and then having to focus the next day. How come is it they always seem to go to sleep at 5 in the morning when you are getting up shortly after?

x

E2006

Aww thanks dazzler, and thankyou for reading. I have to confess I havent aways been very good at sticking to a meal plan, or being very creative, but after reading loads of old style posts about surviving each month on less and less without really noticing any difference in quality of meals etc, Ive caught the bug. I cringe now at the days when I used spend £70/80 plus per week, but then wonder what we could have for tea, or we would be at Ms S local every night getting something that we 'fancied', and in the process wasting whatever we had planned for that day.

Thanks Livvyloo, DS is better, but DH now has manflu. Im not sure which of them was the worse patient :rotfl:
The chicken went really far, I have 2 chicken curry's in the freezer, we all had chicken for packed lunch 2 days, then obviously the chicken dinner 'pie' which I have to say was yummy. I got around 10 portions out of the chicken. I dodnt go as far as boiling the carcas though because I could have got enough to make soup too. Maybe next time.

Payday yesterday :T. Signature updated. Nasty Argos and their rubbish APR is gone :j. One down one more to go before Christmas.

Ive allocated £180 to half term week. I think thats more than enough to have day trips with DS (although we went out last night for a meal and spent £40 of it - but that was for three of us, was three courses each, and included a bottle of wine, lemonade and a lager, so I dont think was too bad at all). Today its swimming this morning (which is already paid for). I think we are just going to have a pottering about day today because DH is ill and I want him to get a bit better before Monday. Tomorrow will be a family visiting day, so NSD. The rest of the week will include the following:

Monday: Day out, not yet decided, but have a few ideas, may cost around £20-30.
Tues: Dinosaur museum & boat museum (free), train tickets and a coffee to be paid for - £10 should be enough for the day
Wed: Football activity course am, afternoon at grandparents as DH and I are spending the day decorating (already have the paint)(NSD)
Thur: am nice walk through the woods, pm school party at a soft play/obsticle course venue (NSD)
Fri: Day out at local farm where they are doing loads of halloween activities - £20 should be enough for entrance, food for the animals and a cuppa/drink for all of us.
Sat: Swimming am (paid for already), swimming school party pm (NSD)
Sun: family day again (NSD)

Pre-proper MSE'ing, in Feb half term we spent {{gulp}} at least £2-300. We did things like bowling etc, which DS loved, but cost an absolute fortune. I cant believe that this week will be just as good as that week but cost a fraction of cost.

MSE tea tonight - the 70p meatballs I bought last week, with egg taglietelli which was in the freezer, pasta sauce from the storecupboard and 39p garlic bread from Al**.

Have a great weekend

dazzler123

I've caught the bug too I could spend hours on the old style threads, looking up meal planning etc. I use a menu planner on www.bigoven.com for inspiration (the recipes are a bit Americanised, so I don't follow them to the letter, but I do love to see all the meals infront of me in a nice calendar. I'm such a geek!). Your meals always sound so tasty! Do you buy a large chicken? I'm amazed at the "rubber chicken" thread; I can't figure out how it can be stretched over so many meals (but I'm eager to try!)

Well done on getting rid of the Argos debt! It must feel great to get down to 0

E2006

The 70p meatballs were delish! Maybe made even better by the price?

Im feeling that midmonth frustration already and its only a few days after payday :mad:. I get a buzz from making payments to the debts (who'd have thought I would replace the buzz from spending with paying it back), but once Ive done that I have to wait a full month to reduce them again. Its frustrating waiting, but my budget is too tight to allow PAD's. Ah well, just need to remember that its only two more paydays until Virgin is gone.

Im just so eager to be rid of the dreaded debts now. I cant believe I ever thought it was ok to just keep spending and spending. It makes me shudder to think where we would be now If I hadnt found this site. The biggest problem was making massive payments to the big cc's, but then spending on a 'little' cc because we had no idea how to stick to a budget, then transferring the 'little' cc to a bigger cc thinking we had cleared it only to start spending again. To say it was spiralling is an understatement!

I still need to do a meal plan. I reckon I have enough food in now (I did a shop at Al** on Saturday afternoon), to last at least three weeks at least. Ive reduced the food budget to £150 this month, and spent just under £50, but that included laundry items, and other cleaning things that I shouldnt need to replace before the months out. It also included enough bits and peices to do picnicks most days this week.

Off to do that and get some breakfast now. Then we're off out on our first daytrip; a large open air museum which DS loves. Happy days.

E2006

dazzler123 wrote: »

I've caught the bug too I could spend hours on the old style threads, looking up meal planning etc. I use a menu planner on www.bigoven.com for inspiration (the recipes are a bit Americanised, so I don't follow them to the letter, but I do love to see all the meals infront of me in a nice calendar. I'm such a geek!). Your meals always sound so tasty! Do you buy a large chicken? I'm amazed at the "rubber chicken" thread; I can't figure out how it can be stretched over so many meals (but I'm eager to try!)

Well done on getting rid of the Argos debt! It must feel great to get down to 0

Hi dazzler,

I dont know how I missed your post last time I posted. Sorry! I too am a bit of a geek and love to see the meal plans set out in front of me hehe. Im so nosy I always ask my friends what they're having for tea too. Im such a foodie

The chicken I bought was a medium. It cost £3.99. I literally stripped the whole thing into a bowl, so all of the meat was mixed and then devided it into portions depending how much I thought I needed for each meal. I was supprised how little was an acceptable amount to be honest, previously DH and I would have a breast each (a whole breast :eek:) and some of the rest would go into a soup/curry, but the legs etc would always be wasted. Its shocking to think how much food we used to waste, mainly cos we couldnt be bothered to do anything with it! Im not quite as good as those on the rubber chicken thread, but Im worlds apart from that girl!

It's great to be rid of the horrible argos, but its made my db'ing bug stronger. I just want rid rid rid

We've had a lovely week off. I cant believe its the weekend already and we're back to work Monday . We had some lovely days out, the weather has been kind- but cold, and we've had lots of lovely lie ins. I dread to think how we are going to get out of bed at 6.15am in the dark next week.

Oh well, must get ready, we have a busy day today.

x