Hypno's kick up the backside debt diary....

taxi73

Hi hypno..well done on your imaginative choices for meals and the off cuts from the supermarket...what a brilliant idea!!!....I agree fresh home cooked food is a lot nicer and cheaper than processed junk...I have a load of weightwatchers/slimming world cookbooks that I haven't looked at for ages...so will be doing that for some new recipes....
Well done on e-bay sales as well..that'll help you out.you amaze me the meals you make with so little money....thanks for posting them as they will help some of us less imaginative types with new ideas

Seaxwyn

Hi hypno

V impressed with your cheap and healthy catering.

I'm not bad at meals, but where I struggle is with the 'extra' snacky things. My kids have huge appetites and as well as eating meals they need constant substantial snacks as well eg bowls of cereal, slices of toast throughout the day. And they are all really skinny so they clearly need it.

Also fruit - they eat loads and whilst I buy as much as I can carry in the market we invariably run out so I have to top up on expensive Sainsbury's fruit a couple of times a week.

Do your kids do this? What do they eat when they get in from sports activities?

BTW round here there is hot competition for meat offcuts, it's hard to get your hands on them!

hypno06

Just got back from skiing, and catching the last of the Anti-UK Eurovision voting!

snacks - the rule in our house is that you can eat between meals as long as it is only fruit. I do buy a huge amount of fruit but we have some good suppliers round here and there are always apples on offer! I never buy biscuits or crisps, so no temptation there. I try and stick them to 3 good meals and it generally works well, but the portions for those meals are quite substantial and they are slow release carbs, so keep them going for much longer without snacking.

meat and fish offcuts - ring the supermarket on the day you shop and ask them to put some aside for you. They may ask you to collect them by a certain time otherwise they will just sell them to someone else, but generally they are quite good!

spud - have you got a deep freeze? Most of the meals I cook are freezable so I bung stuff in there and it gets defrosted on the days that I am working late etc. Either that or those days become yummy egg and chip days

I have a rule (another one ) that nothing must take more than 30 mins to prepare. I love cooking but with all the childen's activities and my clients I am often pressed for time so need to whip up something quickly!

spud30

hypno06 wrote: »

spud - have you got a deep freeze? Most of the meals I cook are freezable so I bung stuff in there and it gets defrosted on the days that I am working late etc. Either that or those days become yummy egg and chip day

Hypno, I'm ashamed to say I have 3 large freezers

I think organisaton is the key. I need to find the time to batch cook at the weekend, to save time during the week.

hypno06

Right now I am feeling very :mad: :mad: :mad:

Remember I said that I had listed something incorrectly on ebay? Then the buyer had not updated his address with ebay so it was sent to the old address, returned to me and we had to resend it (he paid the additional postage though) but still it was a hassle we could do without.

Well, today I have had a message from him to say it has all been received now but he says it is not working!

I know for definite that it was working prior to sale because I was using it myself. So I am absolutely gutted. I have offered to refund him on receipt of the stuff if he returns it as I didn't really know what else to do :mad:

On the plus side, the phone I put through the wash has just sold for £4.10 on ebay. One for the "things you never thought you could sell" thread

Dinner tonight is beef stew and dumplings, with mashed potato, followed by tapioca pudding and a glass of wine or two. Meal plan for next week will need to be rather inventive, but I think I will do that later, when I am not so cheesed off.

Ever get that feeling of one step forwards, two or three back

slowlyfading

Have a :grouphug: its annoying when things like that happen huh? Well done for selling the phone though!
sf x

Seaxwyn

How maddening, poor you! Grrrrr.

These kind of hassles are part of the territory when selling on ebay, amazon etc and you just have to grit your teetch and think about the trouble free transactions.

I had a mini ebay c*ck up too this weekend - underestimated postage by £3 :mad:

Enjoy your dinner - it sounds lovely.

taxi73

Hi Hypno..sorry for your troubles.....at least the other stuff is going ok...hope you enjoy your tea ..that's what we're having tommorrow

hypno06

Still gutted about ebay, although I haven't heard from the chap again this evening. The whole thing was a disaster - his winning bid was £285.00 so you can imagine how awful it is to have to give it back!

Dinner was nice though, so that was good, and I have not been anywhere today so not spent any money! The children were supposed to be ski racing today but due to severe lack of funds, they missed their first race in 4 years!

Tomorrow I have a full day - I start invigilating at 8am and finish my last client at 9pm! Need to have an early night tonight I think!

I hope everyone else has had a reasonable weekend. Shame about the weather.

Seaxwyn

That buyer sounds like trouble, but can you sell the item again? If it was worth £285 to him it might be worth that to someone else too.