A Year of Living Frugabulously

EssexHebridean

Loving the pink greenhouse story Lula!

Soup sounds lovely - did you use Pippi's scone recipe? she swears by that one I know!

Karmacat

That recipe looks great - and you've jogged my memory about when you painted the greenhouse pink, it was a very impressive moment!

Shoe_Gal

Hi sweetie - just caught up! You sound fabby - as usual :j

vasseur

Lula-Hula wrote: »

Ah sorry polesalot,

I missed a word out there, I meant to say butternut squash soup :drool:.

Not to worry now though, I found one, made it - although I added a good sprinkling of paprika to give it a zing - & it was sooooo tasty I had 2 bowls for my lunch :rotfl:.

I love butternut squash soup - it's the only soup I eat (drink?) and it's HM too . I make mine with a bit of thai green curry paste and coconut milk. I halve and roast the squash with garlic first too - saves peeling the damn thing . It's not at all low fat :rotfl:but it is blimmin gorgeous. That recipe looks great too and less of a faff than mine. I do enjoy making soup though, very therapeutic.

Lula-Hula

Hey poles, your soup sounds great too :drool:

I have to say that I assume the 'quick & easy' description of the one I made, relates to the making of soup after having spent the best part of an hour trying to peel, dissect & chop the thing.

I love making soup too .

Today I made leek & potato soup, I nearly made some bread too, but had to make a banana loaf to use up some that were going a bit freckly. Tooooooo tasty .

I also made up some of my favourite tuna & pasta salad for work lunches, that means I just take a container of that & an apple in & that's me sorted. So much more filling than cup a soup & so much more healthy than a pack of mini cheddars.

It's a scary thing to realise; but I have spent most of my weekend doing kitchen cooky type things :eek:. I have no idea what's happened to me & can only assume that my body has been taken over by some 1950's housewife prototype alien :rotfl:.


I declare that all this kitchery is most FRUGAL though.

I coloured my hair today, a slightly different shade than normal, & having had a gorgeous soaky bath with a book & some bubbles, I coated myself in delicious body butter & then trimmed & painted my nails so I'm feeling pretty damn FABULOUS too

Payday in 2 days time & not a minute too soon, I'm gasping to pay something into the Buffer Fund ...

Soon, my pretties, soon

se999

Just an idea of dealing with the bargains within budgets. We have annual budgets, so although we might overspend one month, we can pull it tighter the next, or if we've underspent for a couple of months we know we've got a bit of slack. You do need to keep track of the annual figures, and it does mean you need a bit of a cash buffer for when all the bargains come at once though!! Why do they always come at once!!

On the ebay front, I discovered we hadn't bought anything since 2008!! I'd even forgotten most of the bidding basics, but it's coming back. Hopefully bagged a few bargains including delabelled M&S shirts for OH for work which he desperately needed I know it's a bit of a gamble, but before when I bought on ebay I knew that even if there were a few disasters, the goodies more than compensated, and it's only a small minority of sellers who're baddies.

We actually don't like shopping that much, so being able to sort out work shirts by shortlisting them from someones online ebay shop saved so much time and effort

I do think the weather brings out the comfort food cooking and eating in lots of us. The pampering definitely sounds like a way of restoring the balance away from the Hausfrau episode

I didn't end up with the foxglove nail varnish, OH was with me, and he saw some that he thought was an aubergine colour (his favourite veg), so I ended up with purple nails (Rimmel Pompous), was amazed at how quickly they dried, but they didn't wear well, white lines along the edges by the end of day 2 But more experiments definitely in order

I hope your work situation stabilises again.

Lula-Hula

Yep it is finally the first payday of the year :j

This is a significant one for me; it's the first one in y e a r s that I'm actually going to be able to see some money at the end of the month.

Even better is the fact that it's only 4 weeks & 1 day until the next one :rotfl:.

I've had a bit of money tidying up to do; paid for DDs new guides hoodie, cleared off the remaining £37 on the CC from last weeks fuel top up. It was only £37 as I got my sofa delivery charge refunded; there were a couple of bolts missing for attaching the feet & I rang up to moan & they said they'd get a replacement sent out. I thought they meant bolts, but then I didn't hear another word until yesterday & frankly I'd forgotten all about it, until then & they said they could deliver a new sofa on Saturday :think:

I was completely honest & said I really didn't think I could be bothered to wait in all day & go through the hassle of wrapping old one up, & then having to unwrap the new one & the sofa wasn't damaged at all ... so the guy said he understood & if I didn't mind getting the bolts myself then he'd refund the delivery charge .

Suits me :cool:

I have lost a whole 2lbs . Not brilliant, but better than gaining & considering the amount I ate over the weekend & that my only exercise was general home pottering, a pleasant surprise.

Yesterday I did the after work march & it was seriously cold, my ears were aching afterwards. The temperature today was just silly for walking; -1 so I came home & got on with home-job instead.

I've been asked to do extra home-job work tomorrow & realising how tired I'd be, I put on my 50's housewife persona & made a potato corn bake for supper tomorrow - will just go in the oven - & also rustled up some rock cakes. Even more frightening is that I put them straight in the tin without doing the usual taste test.

Mainly because I now realise that every bit of food has to be put to good use & I was over my calorie intake for the day .

I did the Davina weights workout, & whenever there were lunges to be done, I did something else instead. I've still ended up 60 calories over my limit, but I shall just have to make up for it tomorrow. I'm feeling much better & more energetic in myself & less inclined to eat junk. Interesting.


So, with my sink polished, & myself face masked, body scrubbed & moisturised all over, time to do some financing.

Bank Savings Funds topped up as follows :

Gas & Electricity = £270
Car Tax = £90
Car Insurance = £100
Car Maintenance = £ 160.

I have the big monthly money exodus tomorrow & there's the extra huge media bill + TV licence + other stuff & then I am hoping to be making my first Buffer Fund repayment to myself :j.

I'm rather excited about this as you can probably tell :rotfl:. May it be the first of many.

Need some sleep now,

G'night
xx

Lula-Hula

Ok, let's start with a little round up from January:


- Cleared CC with money stolen from myself :rotfl:

- Paid for new clutch
( apparently my fault it's worn out because I use it at traffic lights, rather than putting handbrake on - official paternal diagnosis - whatever )

- Spent a mere £18.45 on clothes

- Spent £4.68 on Toiletries

- Spent £16.40 on Household stuff like cleaning / candles etc ...

- Spent £127.21 on Groceries : very pleased with this & aim to get it even lower in February


Also managed to pay the Gas & Electricity bills with money accrued through funds & saved the required amounts to all my bank funds & my cash funds .



I have now switched to paying my rent weekly in advance, rather than monthly. Work is still uncertain & we have a serious general meeting tomorrow which may well involve having to cut hours for a while. Some of the guys are being a bit bolshy & saying they wont stand for it; personally, I would rather do fewer hours & keep my job at the moment, but will just have to wait & see what is said ...

I'm being kind & assuming this is why The Goblin returned to her usual stressy character yesterday. She started mumbling sarcy remarks to herself whilst in the filing cupboard & I heroically resisted the urge to push her in & slam the door shut But I decided to challenge her by asking what on earth she was grumbling about now.

It was like unleashing all the furies, she started shouting & ranting & just made herself look like like a grumpy old bag, but for the first time ever, I didn't take it personally, didn't get upset & saw that it is all her problem so just told her there's no point in getting all stressy & shouty & to just chill out.

Some of the guys were in the office so heard it all & she was a bit shirty with me today, but I reckon she's embarassed at her outburst but pride wont allow her to apologise, silly woman, imagine being that age & still not able to admit when you've been a pr@tt :rotfl:


I carry on with my life regardless & today have topped up the cash funds as follows :

Childcare fund = £195
Xmas fund = £50
Gift fund = £50
Entertainment fund = £41.20

I also had enough money to pay DD her pocket money & also have £20 myself - I treated us to a curry which I bought from sainsbugs along with the groceries & still have £55 in my pocket money purse :j.

Due to the meeting being tomorrow morning & my having to go in for it, Gropey let me leave early today so I did my Sainsbugs shop after work.

This does mean that I've withdrawn my weekly spends allowance another day early, but I should have plenty to last until next Friday.

Spends on groceries was £35.20
Spends on household stuff was £6.20

Cash left in purse = £19.50 ... although the window cleaner has left a note to say he's been which means three things :

1 - It will pour with dirty messy rain soon
2 - He'll be round to collect his £8 equally soon
3 - I'll only have £11.50 left in my purse.

DD1 due to visit on Saturday & will try to convince me into ebaying stuff :eek: the curry should be plenty for us all.

On Sunday littlest & I will be going ice skating again, as long as there's no snow.

We will not be eating there this time though .

All direct debits should have left the bank by tomorrow so I feel a repayment to buffer fund is imminent

ETA : completely forgot the exciting news that a huge £2 has been paid by quidco so holiday fund now = £540

Cheery_Daff

Exciting stuff Lula! :T Pah to stupid Goblin though - should have shut her in the filing cabinet

RosaBernicia

Should shut her in cabinet with something for company - a baboon, perhaps. Or a very grumpy skunk.

Rosa xx