O/S Goals/Life changes for 2007

Three_Dancing_Dragons

My plans will be modest (though to be fair I was eight out of ten this last year - though more by good luck than good judgement).

1. Improve my household management, concentrating on menu planning and home cooking.

2. Learn to walk with walker and get more exercise (I'm disabled - long story)

3. Write a novel now I have a new computer.

If I stay out of debt and make it to college in September as well it will be nothing short of miraculous.

Bogof_Babe

The only one that we've made so far will probably cost us slightly more, but at least it is old style - we are going back to butter instead of all those transfats-loaded spreads.

Had a voucher in the summer for a free tub of Lurpak and it was lovely, so hang the expense we're changing to it permanently. We'll just have to spread it a bit thinner!

Hels_Bells_3

Living with my parents my main aim for 2007 will be to truly convert them to O/S money saving experts

Have spent this morning digging one side of the garden over with dad so we can grow some veg, mum's keeping the other side of the lawn for flowers etc but it's a start! Will plant herbs with my little'un this afternoon and put them into the propagator that my neighbour has just kindly given me because he got a new one for Christmas.

Reducing our shockingly high monthly grocery spend is the most pressing target - especially with mum retiring in the summer and the household income dropping significantly!

Personal plans are to sell anything i don't use - rather then keeping everything 'just in case'. Not sure whether to do this on ebay or at a car boot sale yet but either way it's all going. I'm going to look for a better paid job, but in the mean time will press on with mystery shopping which although not amazingly money spinning, every little helps.

Ensure i remember to check with pigsback and all the survey sites i've registered with because the vouchers will be an absolute godsend for birthdays and Christmas 2007.

Penny-Pincher!!

Mine are-

(1)Get more organised
(2)Dont let paperwork build up and file/bin daily
(3)Study for at least 20mins per day:rolleyes:
(4)Do a baking day every fortnight
(5)Do the storecupboard challenge every month-use up stuff I have in
(6)Ebay at least 5 items p/w
(7)Get the house decorated-do 1 room at a time
(8)Save towards 2nd hand conservatory-every penny counts

Sure theres loads more.

PP
xx

grunnie

I meet up with several chums every Friday morning ( in the pub but we just have coffee and scones)and at the beginning of every year we choose 4 or 5 things which we want to achieve that year eg learn to swim /sew/ loose weight / learn to cook etc. During the year we have a few holidays together and review the list. If we haven't done what we say we will we get nagged etc. That is how I learned to do patchwork also I have taught 2 or 3 to knit and crochet. We swap plants and seeds for the garden and there is always someone to give flowers/ holly/ tomatoes or apples & veg to.This year I want 1.to get some of my pals to join a reading group I go to.2 walk more 3 get fit 4 save up( by selling on ebay and amazon )and get a new suite 5and recarpet my lounge and hallway.6 tidy my loft. The loft tidying is carried over from last year -well it is a very large loft hehe:rotfl:

Shortie

Shortie's 2007 targets... they feel pretty HUGE right now but here goes

1) Reduce Spending and increase saving as much as possible in the next 6 months and a bit as I've just found out I'm pregnant again with number 2. This time I want to take off as much Maternity leave as I can but as the main earner in the family, it's impossible with our expenditure at the moment. Main plans to do this are:
1.a. Reduce Life and Home cover that are due to be changed in Jan
1.b. Reduce shopping account spending as much as possible so that I don't have to pay into it while on maternity leave and can live on the savings in that account
1.c. stop paying £100 into Shares account with workplace, and put that money straight into a Maternity account. The money I've already saved and will get back is go into that too

2) Notch up the allotment to full gear. Got it late last year and haven't got much cleared. I know I need to take it easier now but the exercise and fresh air will do me good and OH has promised to help me out

3) Finally get the house decorated. We've lived here near on two years now and it's getting silly


Wow... jotting that down helped my really think properly about what I want to achieve and how

grannybroon

Since DH retired April 2006 - maybe not so OS before then. Now so OS not true. Hardly spending much between supermarket and lidl! Dh now on energy drive - fine but neating when I got home otday! burr! Mind you a bottle of red regular plus an od G+T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GB

lightisfading

Pandora123 wrote:

3. Make own veggie meat-type slices, burgers, sausages etc to reduce cost of buying ready-made veggie products.

Have you got any recipes? particularly for slices etc, stuff that can be used in sandwiches, as i really struggle for cheap veggie stuff to take to work (can't subsist on marmite! )

lightisfading

Mine are...

1) Try and lose some weight. As i'm 'obese' by doctors standards i do actually need to do this, but i'd like to do it by balanced meals and cutting out snacking rather than expensive fad diets.
2) Continue teaching myself to cook (particularly indian!). As well as saving money now this is a 'future' thing.. i want kids in a few years (im 23 now) and want to be able to cook for them and not teach them the bad ways that made me unhealthy!
3) Continue and increase recycling and 'ethical consumerism'.
4) Spend less and try and pay off credit card and overdraft debt (£700 or so, small by some standards but really struggling on one minimum wage between the two of us)
5) Grow more veggies etc this summer.

Pandora123_2

lightisfading wrote:

Have you got any recipes? particularly for slices etc, stuff that can be used in sandwiches, as i really struggle for cheap veggie stuff to take to work (can't subsist on marmite! )

I tried one of the "turkey" recipes listed below, but it was awhile ago, and can't remember which version I used. Haven't made it since I moved here, though, and some of the ingredients may be hard to find. Apparently the cheapest "pure gluten flour" is from this place:

The Flour Bin (last item on this page)

I found nutritional yeast flakes at a health shop (NOT the same as baking yeast or brewers yeast), the rest of the ingredients should be fairly easy to find except for the vegetarian chicken-style broth powder, which is something I've never seen here. But here is a homemade version:

Vegan chicken-style broth powder

Here are the vegan "meat" recipes:

Vegan "beef"

Vegan "turkey"

Vegan "chicken" cutlets

Vegan "ham"

Vegan "pork", "veal" or "turkey" cutlets

Vegan "corned beef"

Here is my favourite burger recipe, the ingredients are easy to find and the burgers hold together and have a nice texture:

Almond-Mushroom-Oat Burgers

I haven't tried sausages yet from scratch, but the dry mix (Sosmix or Vegebanger) make nice sausages which are a lot cheaper than the premade chilled or frozen ones.

HTH!