Keeping up appearances.......

Dolphin1

joeyjimbles wrote: »

I appear to be signed up with a googlemail account that I use for sign-ups and just give a glance at once a week or so. It would appear that I get 1-2 emails a week max.

Not too bad I guess and there must be a way to unsubscribe.

Dolphin1

Update for last day of July...

1) None eaten.
2) Light off at 10.40pm.
3) Must do a meal plan for next week.
4) No spends on other people.
5) Not done.

I'll be back later with my August targets.

Honey_Bear

1. Lights out by 11.30pm five nights a week. Disaster. Didn't get to bed until gone 2.30 and OH was still trying to keep the party going. I'm not the one needing paracetemol this morning, tee hee.
   
2. Maximum of five mugs of real coffee a week. Sorted.
   
3. Five fruit and veg a day. Strawberries, beans, beetroot juice, peas, broccoli.
   
4. Get Kelpie to [STRIKE]come to call reliably[/STRIKE] stop barking inappropriatly by the end of the month. Ongoing.
   
5. Give myself a couple of hours every day when I don't feel guilty about not doing more. Today this 45 minute slot is it, the rest of my time is committed to other people already. I'm feeling exhausted by the prospect already.

Astonishingly Awesome August goals are still fermenting in my brain, so I'll post them tomorrow if I may. Sorry, Happy, I hate being late. Target 1 should probably be 'Be on time.'

HappyNow

August already. The tree surgeon has been today (second choice, but he seems great) and given a quote of £580. It's a lot of money, but cheaper than replacing the stable roof if it gets another branch-battering in the high winds, and it will give us peace of mind that the house won't end up with a 200 year old sycamore sat on its roof. I've asked him to book us in, so, extreme frugality required this month.
My A-A-August aims are:

• Zero waste. Absolute zero.
• Do something money-making or money-saving every day to bring my focus back into line
• All food in the fridge and freezer to be eaten by the month end following our recent electrical fail. I don't think it got warm enough to harm us, but it's probably safest to move it along. It will help the budget too.
• Only one bottle of wine per week, not to be opened until Fridays
• Bed by 11 each night, unless we're out or have people round

That's plenty to be going on with I think, and apart from the early nights all very MSE.

HappyNow

Update for yesterday.

• No waste
• Moneysaving. Hmm. This is a bit rubbish. Miss H and I went to visit my parents and on the way I called at their favourite take-away to pick up lunch for all of us. On the face of it this sounds spendy BUT it was my turn to pay and this is a very cheap option at £14.35 compared with a pub lunch, which would have been the alternative. I said I didn't want a cake because I'm eating healthily, which of course prompted them all to say the same, thus saving an extra £6. We meet up for lunch maybe onnce every couple of months or so and take it in turns to pay because they don't know I'm broke. That's the problem with 'Keeping Up Appearances' - it can be expensive!
• All other food eaten was from the fridge/freezer/cupboard and I called at the supermarket for dog food and managed to walk out with just that.
• A glass of wine from the bottle opened Friday. Some left for tonight then that's it until next Friday
• Bed at 11:20 because I forgot!

Dolphin1

Ok, my targets for August (with the exception of a few days when we are away) are...

1) No more than one of the following each day (not one of each )... butter, cake, sweets, biscuits, chocolate, ice cream, cream, yoghurts or desserts of any kind. (I will still try not to have any but I will allow myself one if I feel like it.)

2) Meal plan at the end of every week for the following week. This saved me about 10% of my average monthly spend for the year last month. (I want to try and cut this by an extra 10% this month if I can. It will still be quite a bit higher than a lot of people on the MSE forums but I have to start somewhere .)

3) No unnecessary spends on gifts for other people. For August, I have set a maximum budget of £10 for one nephews birthday.

4) Moisturise my face and neck every day (once I find a suitable moisturiser).

joeyjimbles

Dolphin1 wrote: »

2) Meal plan at the end of every week for the following week. This saved me about 10% of my average monthly spend for the year last month. (I want to try and cut this by an extra 10% this month if I can. It will still be quite a bit higher than a lot of people on the MSE forums but I have to start somewhere .)
.

I think that sounds like a great way to do it. And smaller reductions on reductions is more sustainable than going all or nothing, at least in my experience. I've found a lot of inspiration on the Old School boards on here especially good advice on batch cooking - even just an extra plateful.

And a really good tip to peel, chop and sautee an entire bag of onions at once then divide the mass by the same number of onions and open freeze in clumps on a tray, then pack into a box or bag and stash in the freezer. You can then use them straight from frozen. Saves fuel, saves time and saves waste as the onions won't go soft or sprout. I do the same with parcels of minced meat, root veg and onions - usually when I'm making shepherds pie or something, cooking up the whole amount and then parcelling and freezing bagfuls of browned veg and meat for the next spaghetti sauce/lasagne/chili etc.

Dolphin1

Update for yesterday...

1) I had some cream on my fruit after dinner so that's fine.
2) Meal plan for the week done and shopping delivered although I'm not sure that I'm going to be getting a shop delivered every week now as T£sco have changed to a minimum spend of £40 :mad:.
3) No spends on other people.
4) Not done but have got some different moisturiser to try.

Honey_Bear

HappyNow wrote: »

I said I didn't want a cake because I'm eating healthily, which of course prompted them all to say the same, thus saving an extra £6.

Nifty! Having a takeaway is, I grant you, not very MSE but it is a treat and (as long as you limit the number) it keeps the spirits up. Lunch for four for £14.35 sounds very reasonable looked at that way, no? I hope it was lovely.

Honey_Bear

Dolphin1 wrote: »

1) No more than one of the following each day (not one of each )... butter, cake, sweets, biscuits, chocolate, ice cream, cream, yoghurts or desserts of any kind.

Hmm. Reading that made me realise that I could try cutting out dairy for a couple of days to see if that cures my general sluggishness. I can't believe I wake up feeling tired so often, but I do. I honestly thought that knocking drinking coffee on the head would cure this dreadful inertia but it hasn't, so having got sorted, I'm going to see if other things are the culprit. Excellent idea, Dolphin, on cutting out the sugary and fatty stuff but like you, I don't think I could cut them both out completely.