Peonie's journey to smart money management

Peonie

Mr P and I went to a Christening and I wanted to look nice so I took inspiration from a Trinny and Suzannah's what to wear book. One of them wore a beautiful calf length skirt which is absolutely appropriate for a church in winter. But did they have anything similar in the shops. They did not. So little miss sewer here decides to make her own.

First the pattern cost £10 :eek: and as I wanted a trial run I bought some fabric on sale which came to £11. I was very MSE and used an old sheet for the skirt lining which works well.

I went back to the shops and spent a massive £70 on fabric, a zip, cotton and sequins :eek: I may take the sequins back for a £5.60 refund.

But I did not have the cardigan or fur collar to match which cost another £65 and I bought some new boots which came to £35 :eek:

When making the skirt I thought I did not have an overlocking foot, which I have but have used already so I can't send it back, and purchased a concealed zipper foot; this would have been fine but I did not pick up a concealed zipper in the shop. No wonder the pattern instructions did not make sense. The new feet came to an additional £25 :eek:

So that's why I disappeared for a week; I have been sewing skirts and a fur collar.

Peonie

Did you notice how I did not include a total spend in my last post. I really do not think I could face knowing it just yet.

Back in September I bought a Gr**p*n spa package for £29 but was unable to book it through their on-line booking system. Tomorrow is the last day I could use it so I wrote to them and asked for a refund. I should get the money back sometime next week.

Quidco have paid me £1.73 for a purchase in December but I'm still waiting for £10 from the same month. As we have moved into year 2 I think they may take £5 of that as my membership fee for the coming year.

I should get paid early next week :T and I have transferred the £5 Halifax bonus into the ISA. At the beginning of the month I received £8 interest into our joint account and £1.37 into my account.

In March it will be 6 months since I opened the First Direct account; this means I have to start transferring an extra £1,200 into and out of the current account each month; if I do not I have to pay a £10 fee for the accounts.

Peonie

Lois_E wrote: »

Hi Peonie

Nice to hear from you. Hope you're all better from your colds now.

What is this mega spending that you need to confess? Come on, you know you'll feel better when you've got the confession over with. I hope you've got something really nice, or had a great experience, or done some good for someone, or something else worthwhile, with your money.

Hi Lois,

Thanks, I do feel a lot better now I only have a sore throat and a stuffy noise to get rid of. I can't believe I managed to give a 2 hour presentation and workshop with a full blown cold.

The outfit did look lovely and appropriate for the event, unlike two ladies who were there for another Christening. And I will be able to wear the pieces separately again.

Peonie

At home we have been doing quite well; only 2 non-homemade meals this month. The first was at the Christening and the second we had vouchers for McDs which we used as we were going out.

At work I have not done too well. In the last 2 weeks I only took a packed lunch in once.

Peonie

The concrete foundations for the utility and toilet walls have gone in. Today the plumber is coming round.

To do: Move everything from the garage floor and move the breeze blocks from the drive to the back garden. Next week we'll order a skip to the rubble from the garage and hopefully some of the rubble in the back garden and the second and final layer of concrete should be poured at the end of next week.

shala_moo

Sorry to hear you've been poorly x

Can't believe you've been that productive whilst you've been ill, i'd have been in my bed feeling sorry for myself.

Peonie

Today I spent a good hour in the garden clearing dead foliage and twigs. I really do not know what I am doing; all I know if it is dead it really should be removed. Which means the compost bin is now full and will make me loads of lovely free compost.

I did see a lot of ladybirds; I hope I did not sweep too many into the compost bin.

We've had a roast beef Sunday dinner and the meat will last another 2 days. But we are out of vegetables and although I still have a weeks worth of batch meals in the freezer we desperately need to do a big shop. I need to do a big search for bathroom cleaning materials.

The car battery went flat again so I've not used the car in about 3 weeks. Which is great for saving fuel but not so great for my social life. I am going to see some friends tomorrow night and I really hope the car does not breakdown.

coldcazzie

Hi Peonie you seem to have had a hugely busy few weeks, and being ill as well :eek: wow!

Glad to hear the house renovations are moving forward, sorry about the food and overspending though. Hopefully now you're feeling a bit better you can get a bit of focus back.

pavlovs_dog

Peonie wrote: »

Someone said they refreeze the chicken in portions, without sauce etc, and then defrost when they want it and then add it to a meal. Does anyone else do this? I have never considered cooking chicken and then refreezing it; we normally eat the meat until it's gone.

we started doing this by accident after having two roasts very close together and not quite managing to finish off either bird. I stripped the carcass of all the scraggly bits and bagged them in 2 person portions and froze. they have defrosted fine and been used in all kinds of things (risotto, fajitas etc).

because the meat is shredded/chunked it seems to go further. I got loads of meat off of each bird even after using the best bits for the roast. were I to do the same with a whole bird it would work out much better value for money than buying chicken breasts. it's also handy not having to faff about cooking chicken, so it reduces cooking time during the week.

it's something I will definitely do more of in the future (once we've eaten our way through all the yellow stickered bargains currently taking up all the freezer space).

Sepa74

I do it all the time. In fact, if your freezer fails and everything in it thaws out, the best thing to do is cook all the meat thoroughly, maybe with an onion and seasoning for flavour, and then you can refreeze it all (once the freezer is working again, of course!).

Then you can just thaw it and cook it up as whatever you want - curries, stews etc.

I found a whole load of whoopsied pre-cooked chicken thighs in the c0-0p which I've split into portions. I find they are very yummy and tender steamed in a small dish and then the juices used to make the gravy. Mmmmmm!