Jamiedodgers 2013 Diary

JAMIEDODGER

Morning

It will be a quiet one for me tonight as I don't normally bother with New Year's Eve. 2012 has been a great year and one where I have had so many personal achievements:T I like to take today to reflect on this and think about what I would like to achieve in the coming year.

Last bit of bank checking for this year and everything looks good to go. Budgets are all set and I have plans to reduce most categories for the coming year with savvy shopping and general cutting down.

Dinners last night were use up meals and pudding was mince pies and ice cream:T:D still a fair bit of christmas stuff to get through but I did manage to offload some on DBf before he went home:D

Whole bag of carrots still in fridge, so will be chopping and freezing those today before they turn. Managed to turn a whole bag of potatoes into wedges and mash balls for the freezer yesterday:j this will be handy for me when I don't fancy what the kids are having as I can put together a good meal from food building blocks from the freezer:T

JD

Coco114

Hi JD
Woke up early this morning and read through your diary - have now subscribed.

You are doing so, so well You sound very organised and full of energy ! I need to be organised though - I think that keeping on top of everything is where I fall down but you have inspired me to restore order

You are so right about Christmas - it's not do much the presents and food, it's all the extras that catch us out ! Am planning for these next year !

Have a great New Year and here's to a wonderful 2013.

Coco x

couldsavemore_2

happy new year to you:beer:

JAMIEDODGER

Happy new year:)

Hi coco thanks for subscribing:D

Couldsavemore - happy new year to you:)

Up early this morning as usual, didn't get much sleep due to all the fireworks and the singing and dancing neighbours in the street:rotfl: a nice nap later methinks...

Gammon in the slow cooker, which will be sliced up, some for my dinner tonight and the rest for sandwich meat for the freezer:)

Going to get some chicken breasts from freezer to defrost and try out a new marinade for dinner tomorrow night with ds2 as guinea pig:D

Will probably make a banana bread and muffins today, using up some bananas going brown, but all will be heading for the freezer as we still have twinks and crumblies and mince pies to finish from cake tins. I have various leftovers in fridge that need using today, still have pât! and cheeses to use so I will be having that for lunch.

Trying to get a bit ahead with meals for freezer, for when kids go back to school and I get back to studying

Some small change sent to different pots today off to a good start:j

Enjoy your New Year's Day xx

couldsavemore_2

hi JD

did you manage to do all you set out to do yesterday. you seem very organised and motivated, i always have great plans and get annoyed and feel like a failure when I dont achieve it all I lack focus and get side tracked very easily.

im sitting here full of cold unable to sleep so I'm going to write a small to do list and get started need to make the most of my last day off.

have a good day . :)

JAMIEDODGER

Couldsavemore - I did manage to get it all done yesterday, spent most of the day mucking around in the kitchen:) i find writing a list helps me. I usually start one in the morning before the kids get up, with a rough menu plan for the day on one side and to do's on the other. I like crossing things off:) I find that if I don't get it all done then I just put those jobs on tomorrow's list, I don't feel I have failed, just things happen, sometimes life gets in the way, sometimes I CBA:) don't beat yourself over the head with the naughty stick I always say:D Hope you are feeling better soon x

The BBQ chicken was marinaded just fine for ds2 to have for dinner last night...he loved it, which is good as he is a very fussy eater. Ds3 actually tried two new foods... My fried egg and some of the cooked ham and liked them, something else for me to be able to cook for him, he was very pleased with himself:D

Banana bread was fab, sliced it up and tried a slice (quality control you understand) and then put back into loaf shape, double wrapped for freezer.
The gammon made my dinner plus 7 bags of sandwich ham, which is enough for two rounds in each bag. Muffins were successful, kids had one each for a snack and the rest baggied for the freezer.

Dd lost a tooth last night which has been duly dealt with by the tooth fairy:D Off to dentist with Ds3 this afternoon. Only moan is hospital car parking charges, which are ludicrously high. Today will be my first spend day of 2013. Will be another tomorrow as dd has haircut due, this will be about a tenner.

Need to get the text books out today, so less time in the kitchen for me.

Have a good day all:)

JAMIEDODGER

Morning:)

Didn't get round to posting yesterday naughty me!

I think I am in need of a trip to the supermarket some point today as I am starting to run out of a few things. The fridge is looking quite bare now. I will also need to do some baking at the weekend as I am now running out of snacks for kids that aren't frozen:) will make some twinks but also want to look for a new recipe for something different. Need to have a look through my cookbooks and see what inspires me.

Planning on doing a complete freezer inventory today, getting it all out and giving myself some ideas for meals for next week. Hopefully I can keep the inventory updated this time as its much easier when I know exactly what I have got:D

DD is having a friend to stay tonight, I have an opened box of twiglets and some chocolate for snacks leftover from christmas so I'm sure they will used those up no problems:)

£10 paid for hairdresser yesterday and 12p into the sealed pot. Nothing much else to report money wise.

Have a good day everyone x

JAMIEDODGER

Morning...happy Saturday:)

Got my food shopping done in sainsburys yesterday and stocked up on milk, fresh stuff and bread. Today is day one of a fiscal fast:) hoping to stretch to next Friday and do 7 days if possible. It would be nice to go longer but I think that might take some practice!

Have a few bits to use up in fridge today, some pie leftover from dinner plus some gravy, so I may have that for my dinner tonight and push the roast I was going to do over to tomorrow. We had the pie last night with chips so I will do it with mash and veg tonight I think. Ds3 can have a korma from the freezer and dd and ds3 can have nuggets or something similar.

I was totally shocked when I did my freezer inventory as I didn't realise I had so much stuff, I thought I had run it down quite well before christmas but I guess I have also been adding to it with a load of HM things. I do know that this should be a lot easier to keep my spending this month under budget as long as I keep making meals from leftovers and freezer items instead of buying new stuff!

I have some baking planned for this weekend for snacks for the kids for the coming week, I may make a lasagne tomorrow, to be eaten one evening next week for a quick ish tea and I know there will be leftovers for lunches for me:)

Some change from shopping yesterday went into various pots, a £2, some 20p's and coppers so very pleased:T the SPC tin is starting to have a nice sound to it when you drop the coins in:)

Although I have not joined the NSD challenge for January, I am hoping to have a spate of NSD's this week as I am doing the fiscal fast. I tend to lose count of them which is why I'm not counting:D

Have a great weekend everyone x

JAMIEDODGER

Morning:)

Aiming for day 2 of fiscal fasting today, which should be easy as I don't need anything foodwise:T

Did a little baking yesterday, will do more today. Need to fill up those cake tins for next week. Dinners were pretty much as planned except there was enough pie leftover for dd too, so we shared it with veggies and gravy too, was yum:D ds2 had the korma and ds3 had ham, egg and chips. Whipped up some apple crumbles for pudding.

Freezer inventory list is starting to have a few items crossed out now, will be hoping to make a big dent in it over the next week as I plan more leftover meals and use up meals. I'm also keeping an eye on the stuff in the fridge so that nothing gets forgotten or left to go bad. This will also help with the don't throw away food challenge:)

Roast tonight for all so that should be pretty easy:j

Other plan for today are to put away the massive tower of clean laundry on ds1 bed as the boys are back to school tomorrow and they need uniform:D Dd is back on Tuesday. Pe kits etc need to be checked and swim bags too.

Off for a bit of a browse while its still quiet here:D

welshdreamer71

Hiyas can I ask what you fill your tins with for the kids for the week and how long they keep for, my little un is starting packed lunches Tuesday.and would like to bake some bits but never know how long they stay fresh for as theyve usually been scoffed..