PennyGrabber's Path to Pecuniary Positiveness!!

bouncydog1

Save the £6 on buying the book and look up the recipes online!

PennyGrabber

bouncyd!!! wrote: »

Save the £6 on buying the book and look up the recipes online!

That's a fab idea. I'm actually not very good at using the internet to its full potential. Maybe this will be my reason! Perhaps I'll make a list of the ideas I want to try, then look those up on the net. Or maybe I'll just google 'preserving recipes' or something! Thanks, £6 'saved'.

Didn't go to a sm today, although about to go out for ww meeting, which is right next to a M store. However, I have my children in tow, and they don't like shopping, and they want to get back to play, so won't even be tempted to go in!

Just added up the rough price for the children's dinner. I make it around 95p! They had mince mix with waffles. CBA to peel spuds, as I was later home than planned, and I have to do them tom too for our fish pie.

I used to have a list of main meals that I cook, with approx prices next to them, so I could choose accordingly! I think my weekend job will be to start that list again (old one is over 2 years old now). I also want to try lots of new meals, but feel that's silly while I have so much here needing using up.

Will do my positives for the day later on (ww may or may not feature on this list!!).

rising_from_the_ashes

Hi PG ... just found you .

Just a quick visit as a bit under the weather today .... all the best in your DF quest and will be back to see how you're getting on!

Long_tall_sally

Ouch to the cost of the boiler & the electricity bill! Hope you get it sorted soon.

I agree with you about wishing some things were paid monthly instead of 4 weekly. My son gets a disability allowance & I am forever loosing track of when it is due to be paid next.

Good luck at WW!

PennyGrabber

So, ww weigh in. I stayed the same. I'm ok with that, as I was ill last week and ate loads of rubbish, then this week I found it hard to stop eating all the sweet things, so staying the same is great! I'll make sure I do a bit better this week coming.

Positives for the day:
- didn't gain any weight this week
- dinner for the children worked out at around 95p!
- no sm
- went out for ww today, and didn't even take my purse. That's the second time I've ever done that, and it's quite liberating.
- OLB all prepped and ready for payday tomorrow. £3.39 went into savings account. Little things add up to big things...
- have started a ranty letter to boiler people to ask for some form of compensation for a) the water loss, and b) the premiums I've paid, given that I had to wait a month for it to be fixed. Nothing may come of it, but if I don't ask, I don't get.

OK, I'm off to make dinner for tomorrow, then read in bed with the leccy blanket. It's seriously cold here. Fish pie, which I'll just be able to shove in the oven, so I can spend some quality time with the children tomorrow.

Night all, and thanks for the support.

PG x

PennyGrabber

Well, I didn't make the fish pie last night, I made it today, AND I did buy that book - I was reading it during my lunch break, and I couldn't put it down, it was all about how to store and harvest them, and recipes for jams, jellies, chutneys and more, including how long they keep for. Some keep for a year, which means I can start making my Christmas presents now!

Positives for the day:
- I got paid!
- Money has been transferred into bills account, so all bills are now paid for the coming month (plus a bit extra to even out those months when there are quarterly/annual bills)
- No sms
- Lots of people keen to play with my cricut cake machine, and one of them has a recipe for making the gum icing, which will make it cheaper than buying it. Favour for a favour type thing!
- No heating or hot water to pay for again!!! (Being 'fixed' tomorrow)
- Made a list this morning of lots of things to buy in T, to get dtd for, so to be paid to shop
- Bought the preserving book, which cost me £6, but will give me the recipes for Christmas presents, and I can start as soon as I like
- Fish pie was a success, clean plates - I used two cod portions for the three of us, and there's enough left for me for tomorrow/Saturday, along with some lo mince from yest for the other day, so no need to do any actual cooking until Sunday. Fish pie cost around £1.30 to make, including veg, and did effectively two adults and two children.
- Children loved the egg sandwiches and asked for them again tomorrow, luckily I have a scraping left for them to have half egg, half jam.


I have been invited to a pampered chef meeting (not party) where other pc people talk about it. I get a free gift just for going, and there's a raffle for a prize, so here's thinking lucky! I prob won't start doing it just yet, if at all, because of child care issues, and the lady knows that, she just wants me to come along whenever I can until I make a choice one way or the other!

Was quite productive at work today, so now I'm going to have a relax. Well, once I've had a 'bath' and hairwash in my kitchen sink using kettle water!! Ooh, the luxuries of hot running water!

Looking forward to tom when I get another lot of money, and then again on the 29th Feb. After that, tax credits and child benefit, but not sure when they will be paid in. That's another job while I'm on here; to research that and make a list of dates. That'll make me feel more organised I'm sure.

PennyGrabber

oh rats! Having just received an email bill for childcare, I have realised that my lovely, done-to-the-penny budget doesn't include this. Back to the drawing board! I'll be spending tonight shaving off certain budgets to find a massive £128 per month (that's the max it ever is, only pay term time).

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

At least I have realised this fact now, at the beginning of my financial month, and so can change budgets now, rather than go back and have to think on my feet, as it were.

PennyGrabber

Positives for the day:
- got a free recipe book and a free knife from pampered chef, plus two cups of tea and some cakes!
- did the weekly shop, using my list carefully, came to £22.29, but that also had enough cat treats for at least twp months, maybe three
- was going to get a more expensive bottle of alcohol for neighbour who helped with the whole boiler thing, but instead got the three ciders for £5.50 in te$co, which I know he'll enjoy, saving me money while still getting him something he'll like
- got a few more bits for dd's party next weekend
- had the last of the fish pie for dinner (couldn't be bothered to do a jacket for the lo mince), which was yum, cheap and easy! Still have the mince for tom, and I'll be in the kitchen cleaning and sorting, so I'll have more time to cook for myself then


Bad thing for the day:
I had a £5 voucher for te$co, but couldn't find it!! Gutted.

On a bills note, I'm with talktalk for my phone and broadband, and they are advertising that you can save £51 if you pay your whole year's line rental upfront. I know that means I'll be stuck with them for the year, but I reckon that's worth doing, as I'll then be spending £13 less per month on my bills.

Going to make some millionaire's shortbread for the baby shower I'm going to tomorrow, as my contribution to the food. Also going to start some chilli jelly from my preserving book.

Need to ring the theatre and book two tickets for my in-laws' birthdays tomorrow as well - hope they haven't sold out!!

Have already made a list for jobs to do tomorrow, so that will keep me out of the shops and not spending. If I can get the jobs done in the morning, I'll have some time to myself, may do some crafting, or if I feel up to seeing people, I'll visit a friend (leaving my purses at home, of course!).

Overall, been a fairly frugaltastic day, quite pleased. I'm off to the gc now, to declare my march budget and stuff. Night all,

PG x

PennyGrabber

Oh, also meant to say that I've re-jiggled my budgets, and feel ok with them, having needed to include the childcare. Hopefully there'll be no more surprises!

Suffolk_lass

Well done you. I thought I had subscribed but it didn't stick and it was only when I saw your most recent gc post that I realised!

Anyway, I was going to offer my two cents worth on the preserving book (which you now have) - I bought one in 1987 from the WH Smits on Waterloo Station in the reduced basket at the front and it is so well used and thumbed. I regularly look up details and it includes making fruit cheese as well as all the jams, jellies, pickles and chutneys. I'm sure you will get your money's worth in the years to come; I have.

It also has bottling advice which was how my Mum's generation preserved fruit in the days before freezers. I have had several goes with mixed success using the "le Parfait" jars with the rubber seal. Apples have never been hugely successful but probably because it is really hard to properly cover them with the syrup. Plums and cherries have been brilliant. I'm waffling on about this because they look so spectacular as presents and quite a lot of my present people even return the jars so I can re-use (re-fill :rotfl:) them. If you wanted to have a go and your book doesn't cover it I'd be happy to relay my book's advice.

Also, the old fashioned advice is that jams last a year but I'm sure that goes back to the days of wax discs and celophane tops with a rubber band round tham. I re-use jars such as dolmio which have the dimpled top because as the jam cools down the pimple sucks in and you know you have a seal. My jam cupboard :eek: still has products going back to 2009 that are fine for home consumption. I started when DS was little and we identified that artificial colours and sweeteners were affecting his skin and behaviour and I have always made my own since then. It relaxes me (SBT) and I give it away at work to anyone that wants some - still got over forty jars in stock and many bags of plums, damsons and gages in the outside freezer still to use.

I wonder if there's an OS thread on preserving... I might go and see.

Anyway, after that mammoth post I'll pop off = and keep going my dear!:T
SL