Living on next to nought - is that the key?

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Oooh, visitors, how wonderful

In Need of Direction - it's a funny one marmite, as being more savoury inclined than sweet, I should really like it. I just don't really get pleasure from eating it. Perhaps if it was on a sarnie with a stack of other stuff, it'd be ok. Mine you, that's probably missing the :money:point :rotfl: Lovely to *see* you here. Thanks for dropping in

supersaver1000 - heellllooo Yes, I'm afraid the budget is still at £160, as there have been no pay rises for this year. £80 is still for food, but we have found that we can save most of our 'social' budget some months, and this has been directed into the holiday fund or emergency fund. But £80 is getting increasingly tight for food expenditure - particularly as we're not able to pounce on really good YS'd bargains with any regularity. I'm usually about when the soopermarket has knocked 10p off half rotten lettuces and 5p off a starfruit...... :rotfl:

Ah, thank Jack Monroe, not me :D thanks for popping in - lovely to hear from you

ps - love your avatar! Very apt

Brizzy - mcculloch said I yapped too much the other day and made the thread whizz, and now you....... perhaps I do :rotfl:[Greying pulling own leg there....] Yep, the risotto was nice, Jack's a good 'un

mcculloch - I can't see mrS having yukky sauce around their beans. Perhaps it was a way of measuring accurately the sugar content of the dish. Perhaps levels of sugar in beans varies? But I'm glad that we're reaching a consensus of it being a waste to ditch the sauce.

Oh, that live below the line challenge is hard isn't it? I can only do what I do because of bulk buying certain goods. But purchasing food - even for a week from a standing start of £5 is very, very difficult. Again, it would be useless to rely on YS'd things here, I'd starve. I'd be better off getting a foraging book outta the library and learning to love dandelions!

Mind you, do you not think that the people who most need to learn about poverty - whether that experienced by people in this country or abroad (and the differences/levels are all relative) are actually the people least likely to concern themselves with this challenge - let alone give it any sort of consideration? The folk doing it, challenging themselves and raising funds, are probably the most aware of the plethora of issues around poverty.

So, Monday again.

The weather is looking nice for us here. I'll have to make sure the tomato plants are comfortable and not in a position to frazzle.

Dinner this evening is likely to be veggie bobotie and wet polenta. It could have been lentil bolognese and pasta, as that is already made and in the freezer, but on reflection, I'm probably better keeping that in hand until the weekend. We've a mountain of chores to get stuck into, so a 'ready meal' may just be my saving grace

Aiming for another NSD today. I'll wait to get milk and bananas until tomorrow with the new TV guide.

Right, well, best get a wiggle on. Seize the day and all that

Thanks so much for dropping by, commenting and joining in. I greatly appreciate it, and enjoy the 'conversation' we make

See y'all later.

Greying

in_need_of_direction

I totally agree with what you say about experience of poverty. Many years ago I was living from benefit payment to benefit payment as an unemployed married 18 year old with 2 wee ones. I sometimes need to flash back to then to get perspective e.g. When wondering if the extra £40 would be worth paying for a red kitchen aid that I would keep in a cupboard if I bought it. How totally ridiculous!

mrsinvisible

GP, woah, slow down, I'm exhausted just reading, Seriously, you are going great guns there. My de cluttering has stumbled and stopped, until rain stops play in the garden. The sun is out, so may get the 3 small lawns cut, the big one is still covered with cut down trees, but they are in leaf and the shredder doesn't like them much. Still eating from the freezer, and dry stores, but have run against a brick wall in my search for cornmeal/polenta, local SMs don't stock it. I am going to London with a friend in May, so will hopefully have more luck there.

DawnW

mcculloch29 wrote: »

I second the mixed bean goulash of Jack's, DS liked that and so did I.
I rinsed the baked beans the first time, but won't in future, having also realised that tomato and sugar was in the ingredients anyway.

(Do Mr S's value beans have a yukky sauce perchance? A!di's don't.)

I wondered about the rinsing of baked beans too. A value tin of baked beans actually is quite a bit cheaper than 'unbaked' ones, but I had always considered that the sauce is ok enough to just chuck the whole thing in .... until I bought some ultra-cheap ones from Lidls, which had a strange and very sweet sauce which was rather yucky :eek:

So Jack's bean-rinsing tip came in handy here, as otherwise they would not have been eaten (and I had bought 4 tins :eek:).

All gone now thankfully, and I won't be buying those strange mutant beans again :rotfl:

in_need_of_direction

Some things are worth investing in. For me, Heinz beans and hp sauce

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Well, 'tas been a funny auld day. Mostly good, however, if you are checking in to 'viewmetea' I'm sorry to disappoint you, and would politely ask you to come back, about the same time, tomorrow night. Dinner ended up being leftovers, on account of DP coming home with about as much snap as he left the house with this morning, so there was no point in making a whole dish just for me to eat. Thank goodness I'd made extra Jack's burgers and extra 'man approved' burgers in the last couple of weeks. They got marshalled into operation 'lunch into dinner conversion'

supersaver1000 - that reminds me - you mentioned about making the smoky lentil burgers. I know Jack advocates putting the formed patties in the fridge to 'firm up' when you've made them. I'd heartily endorse this, but I actually always try to freeze them. I just find it easier to cook them from frozen they stay in shape a little better Goes without saying that you have to ensure your burgers are still cooked properly all the way through, but I find it works better for me

In need of Direction - I greatly admire anyone who has a bash at the LBTL challenge. Unfortunately the folk least likely to be signing up in droves are often those that could learn the most from the constraints of the challenge.... or it's 'real life alternative'.

mrsinvisible - Oh how miffing about the cornmeal! Mind you, if you go to London, try not to look soley for polenta, if you get into a supermarket, look for the world food brands, east end or natco or dunns river they do cornmeal much more reasonably priced

DawnW - oh, see your point about the bean rinsing! I suppose Jack is trying to capture the widest audience. Good to know though that if you are happy with the baked beans you use, you could forgo the rinsing bit. I got my haricot beans cheaply in a 3kg x 2 from App Fds, so mine were 'naked' to begin with and quite cheap, but I would have used valoo/basiks/aldee/liddly beans otherwise.

We've had our sub-committee meeting, we've slapped ourselves on the back for progress thus far and gone through tasks that are currently awaiting our attention But it does feel like we're moving forward once more, although not, I suppose (currently) on the big stuff that is needing tradespeople. But at least 'Team Greying' gets a A* for effort

I snagged a NSD :j Didn't actually have any cash in my purse, so couldn't have spent, even had I wanted to!

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

the sight of 4 teeny tiny little mallard ducklings - are they early???? But my, they was cute! All us adults who cooed and ahhhed over the sight of them thought so..... :whistle:

for the polite volunteer in the charity shop, and the gracious acceptance of my donated items - makes it feel worth the effort of lugging stuff around

for 'Team Greying' - because if we don't pat ourselves on the back occasionally...........................

Thank you so much for popping in, reading and commenting. Sorry for a bit of a lack lustre post tonight.... Best laid plans and all that.........

See y'all later.

Greying

Maryland_Cookie

Still lurking a lot GP, this thread moves so fast I don't get chance to reply! Just wanted to say glad you're back, I missed you whilst you were in 'RL'.
Love your thread so much, keep posting, I'll keep lurking and pop in from time to time xx

mcculloch29

Greying, completely agree about LBL only preaching to the converted. Also, last year I was deluged by emails asking me to do it again. Big guilt trip when I couldn't.
I was needing to lose weight for my arthritis - still do, am on long term eat as sensibly as possible - and whilst LBL certainly cuts down the calories in some way, it's not always the healthiest diet.
It's certainly very low in first class protein of necessity; though obviously high in carbs and what used to be called 'windy meats'.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Maryland Cookie - Hellllooooo again Lovely of you to pop in. Thank you for such a lovely comment. Sorry there was nothing more 'substantial' to share with you last night though I appreciate you making the time to drop by and catch up. Thank you.

mcculloch - aarrgghhh, you've hit the nail on the head. You felt/feel guilty. And yet you've at least participated in the challenge, and have an understanding of some of the issues, that the challenge is trying to highlight.

Don't know what the answer is.



Today will be a spendy day, we'll be requiring washing up liquid, bananas, milk and the TV guide.

I'm almost loathed to predict what might be on the dinner table tonight....... :rotfl: I'll aim for a re-run of bobotie and wet polenta. Be kind to me if it turns out to be manky chipper chips and a portion of curry sauce as I've thrown me toys out of the cot at having me culinary creativity messed with again :rotfl:

Best get a wiggle on, I'm behind this morning. Me va va voom has vamoosed ooota tha hoose

Thank you so very much for popping by, reading and commenting. I do greatly appreciate it.

See y'all later.

Greying

Pippilongstocking

Lobs in some va va voom (near use by date so use quickly) - and hopes that the day was productive, not too spendy and not chips were lobbed out of the creative cot.