Squizz's Fizzy Diary

Gemmzie

I wish I could get more into OS cooking but it's so hard - food is where a huge amount of our money goes too. Meal plan and shop with a list always helps us.

redsquirrel80

I think we do cook quite Old-style, as in making most things from scratch, fresh ingredients etc, but perhaps not particularly frugally. We've kind of got out of the habit of meal planning - not that we did it very strictly but we could at least know we had enough food for the week's meals and only have to buy a few bits during the week.

I spent another £10 in Waitrose yesterday - partly getting things for tea and lunches but also picked up 1kg pack of chicken breasts reduced to a fiver to go in the freezer. And then there was a few bits on Thursday - we had a pizza from the freezer but got salad and stuff to go with it - and Mr S bought some bread and cakes at work. So I reckon we've probably spent about £40 this week :eek: Still, should be better once we've stocked up at farmers market and have properly got rid of colds and got energy back.

Built our new mini greenhouse last night - well not so mini, it's almost as tall as me, but is plastic and not very wide. Managed to fill all the shelves already - planted more peas, broad beans, leeks, assorted leafy things, tomatoes and aubergines.

Anyway, roll on 5pm - work has been a bit hassley this week with catching up, strikes and computer malfunctions (although those did mean I got to work from home yesterday which was nice - could happily do that a lot more often!). Making a proper start on next OU essay at the weekend and really looking forward to that

elantan

i know meal planning is the way forward for food budgets but i have to admit i really dont like deciding one day what i am going to have in seven days time ... this challenge mr El and i are doing though is trying to fix that issue ... it's kinda like the show spendaholics in a way .... you have the week of cold turkey ( only in our case the month) to try and break us into the new habit then we will hopefully be ready to move forward with the new way

great news on the feeling of being able to stand up for yourself ... thats fantastic ... also good news on the counselling front ... sadly i have yet to meet anyone that sorted something out or learned a very important life lesson by easy means ... it always sucks and hurts and is really hard but we tend to get there in one way or another

i wish i could plant my things just now ... sadly with us going away right during planting time we dont have anyone to water them while we are away ... so my gardening is currently consisting of weeding .... although i did plant carrots

have a great weekend

redsquirrel80

Certainly ended up with lots of food to plan with anyway Forgot there were two markets on this weekend - the usual big one and a smaller local one. Both really busy! Got the bulk of stuff at the Saturday one, mostly meat and veg, then a few more fun bits on Sunday, pies and cake etc How much did we spend? Not entirely sure, but I think around £50-60. We really shouldn't need to buy any food this week though, and probably only veg next week. Bargain of the weekend was a 'barbecue pack' from one of the butchers stalls - £5 for two burgers, four big sausages and two steaks, so three meals' worth of meat.

Did a bit of pottering round the garden and a lot of studying. Not actually started writing the essay but do know pretty much what I'm going to do, and did a lot of background reading, including some stuff that was very very interesting to the point that I have waffled on about it to anyone who'll listen all weekend :rotfl:

Been on a course about writing this morning - aimed at staff doing the website and marketing materials etc. Very interesting and confirmed to me that I really want to do more of this kind of thing. We had an editing challenge - to see who could get a paragraph down to the fewest words while still keeping the important information. Great stuff!

Karmacat

That sounds excellent! I really enjoy stuff like that

redsquirrel80

It was really enjoyable. Today however - hassley! Lots to do and a meeting that I'm really not looking forward to. Once it's done though, that's a big work milestone out of the way.. there's another one at the end of April - and then I am on holiday for a week, hooray! :j

Karmacat

We like holidays and we like getting hassley stuff out of the way. Thats what I'm doing with this bleeping health service complaint.

redsquirrel80

Oh hope you get that sorted.

Massive meeting out of the way - so tired but it was quite good and productive. Actually feel like the academics are starting to treat me like a human being with opinions and stuff.. finally!

Off to a lecture about Shakespeare tonight. And last night we booked for the opera in April and another play in May.. we're so cultured :rotfl:

Karmacat

You are that! Awfully impressive

redsquirrel80

The Shakespeare thing was really really good - a brilliant speaker and fascinating subject, all about the original pronunciation. Got home at 8ish and we were starving... quick tea, then my parents phoned, so after that ended up doing OU work at 10pm.. yawn!

Today I WILL get something down on paper (well, screen) for my essay - once I've made that step it should hopefully just flow from there.

Off to counselling now (think it's my last session, or could be penultimate, I've lost count!)