Living on next to nought - is that the key?

little_sweetie

Oh wow, thanks for the tip! I will give that a try because I ended up using far more milk than I intended to. DH has eaten my sliced rice pudding :rotfl: :rotfl: with his usual dollop of jam but I wasn't keen, I'm afraid :cool:

Good luck with reducing your food budget, Sarah x

Hopefuljoy

:THello Greying Pilgrim, I wrote a post to delurk this morning and say how wonderful it's been to read your posts from start to finish!! However, I have no clue what I'm doing!

I'm now up to date with all the goings on at Greying Towers from my abode in sleepy Sussex and love catching up with you and all the other posters to your thread. You all keep me cheerful and motivated. Look forward to pictures of your next dinner!:rotfl:

beanielou

What a lovely first post Hopeful joy.
Welcome to GP' s lovely thread

maddiemay

little_sweetie wrote: »

Oh wow, thanks for the tip! I will give that a try because I ended up using far more milk than I intended to. DH has eaten my sliced rice pudding :rotfl: :rotfl: with his usual dollop of jam but I wasn't keen, I'm afraid :cool:

Good luck with reducing your food budget, Sarah x

?

Do you have a slow cooker? rice pudding is yummy cooked in one, batch on the go for OH at the moment:D

Hopefuljoy

Thank you beanielou! Glad to know I've successfully posted. I've been watching from the guidelines and plucking up the courage. This year has been challenging as it has for all of us and I've been fortified by you all. My new job doesn't start until Sept and I was made redundant from last teaching post so ekeing is the order of the day! I hope you are well and will have a great June!

I'm trying to convince my 15 year old DD that fifteen NSDs a month is a good move! Greying Pilgrims pictures of gorgeous veggie meals are helping as DD is veggie and I am almost there!

We're huge fans of Jack so 9p burgers all the way for us! I need more ideas though and you all really help!

Sorry about the excess of exclamation marks! Just very excited to be here!:)

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Well, just where has today gone? In between pottering about, making lunch, DP watching the motogp, going food shopping :eek:, then getting side-tracked by the IPL final, making dinner, watching an episode of 'Vera' and then getting semi-absorbed in a documentary about Dylan Thomas - some hours have passed!

So, I can definitely say that today was not a NSD. I have already spent £45 of the food budget :eek: and adding in the stuff *bought from stores* - £57 has gone from my purse :eek:

I'm liking the trade in rice pudding making tips that is going on here. I am especially liking the water first then milk approach, or agree whole-heartedly with *leave it to the slow-cooker* - even though I don't have one and wouldn't make RP in it if I did! :rotfl:

little_sweetie the oatmeal buns I made were heavy too - counter-intuitively, I think it points to the dough being too dry when you make it. Hence why I want another crack at it, to make sure it was my error, not the recipe. Wholemeal flour, in general, absorbs more water, so it could be the reason why that batch did not work, when the white flour batch did. Just a thought.

Our total monthly budget for food and non-food items is now £140. I'll see how we get on.

sunnyskies - don't forget, if your household eats meat, the costs will soon add up. I am not advocating becoming veggie - I'm perfectly happy for folk to eat what they want. But I don't believe that I could have a low budget and include meat purchases

Hopefuljoy - welcome to the thread Thank you for your kind comment. I was in Sussex, around this time of year, several years ago. We went down for the Perch Hill Farm open garden - saw Adam Nicholson, but was obviously not on the VIP list to see Sarah Raven Is the puss cat in your avatar yours?

beanie - thank you, as ever for your warm welcome for Hopefuljoy. You're a star, and this thread is a better place for you being on it

maddiemay - do you have to make RP for your hubs too? Do you eat it/like it??

So, dinner this evening. Well, it turned out to be a bit of a mash-up, as despite going *hunter-gathering* in the supermercados, by the time it came to cook anything, all my motivation had disappeared. Ald* is fast becoming a no-shop zone for me. Not only is it packed - at seemingly anytime of the day now, but our local branch has decided to change everything around. All the ....... um ...... useful objects you never knew you needed....... are all around the edge and all the food, has been shoved in the centre, with no rhyme or reason to its location......... We only needed 4 things from there - it took 15 minutes to shop!

Anyway, I made asparagus casarecce with feta, rocket and a lemon/oil dressing. I have to say, it was unexpectedly yum. Picture here;



Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

for the delightful conversation that followed DP picking up an OS map and querying something.........

that I only have to do a *big* shop once a month :eek:

for the beautiful sunshine

Thank you so very much for joining in this thread, for reading and for commenting. I greatly appreciate it.

See y'all later.

Greying

Hopefuljoy

Hi there GP(if I can call you that)! Yes, the avatar is Bella, we also have Rambo aka Rambley and Bobbi. In spite of the names all three are girls from a mixture of cats protection and others. Ordinary moggies with a taste for qu#rn and chicken Korma!!

Just me and DD since son left home, we don't mention the previous husband! He got an A grade in domestic abuse but we escaped seven years ago this coming August. To anyone out there suffering there is a way out and a hopeful future! Be kind to yourself and take your time if you're in a DA situation.

So nice to make contact after lurking for so long. Have a lovely evening. Am tackling the garden (jungle) tomorrow. Just have gird me loins and sharpen the machete!

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Hopefuljoy - great names for cats! Thank you for sharing. I'm sure you will find mucho inspiration on the threads throughout the MSE forum - just pitch in Although I have to say that DFW and MFW are by far the friendliest boards - something to be aware of

Hopefully I will be able to drop off our Food Bank donation today - I should have time. We did debate whether to carry on with this, as it seemed daft to donate, and then go over budget for our own foodstuffs. However, with the renewed budget, there should be plenty all around, so we'll definitely remain committed for another couple of months. After all, it's not like Food Banks are closing - through lack of demand - is it? And charitable giving is still part of our make-up, so it is something that we want to continue doing. Just need to find the best way all round to make it happen

I'm not going to set challenges for June as such - other than the NSD's and the FB donation, as it'll become difficult to keep track of. However, my theme for June is *Just enough June* a reminder to myself not to go overboard with portion sizes, 'choices offered' or ingredients utilised - instead, my challenge (entirely to myself) is to use *Just enough*

I'm aiming for a NSD today - it should be achievable. I have got most of the core ingredients for dishes now I was thinking what little_sweetie said about not having much if anything of the weekly budget left. I think I would like to have something of this new £100 monthly budget left, it's not sitting comfortably with me at all, but we'll have to see. It was interesting in mrT yesterday, it was about 3.45pm and there were some YS'd things cast in one corner of the veg section. There were bags and bags of mixed salads - and you know how attractive that looks on or around sell by date - I did glance, but I'm sure there was still a £1........ at the beginning of the reduced sticker, so kept on walking. However, maybe I was too late - maybe they do these infamous 10p reductions earlier on a Sunday.........

Dinner this evening is currently a choice. I think the bhuna is unlikely, although I will try to make that tonight, to either have tomorrow or freeze. It's looking a bit overcast out, although it is still warm, so I've no idea what weather we're in for today.

Right, best shift a tail feather - and get a move on.

Thank you one and all for popping in, reading and joining in. It is always greatly appreciated by me.

See y'all later.

Greying

little_sweetie

Good morning, Greying :wave:

You know, I never find these penny bargains either. We have a Tesc* Express in the village and nothing is ever reduced by more than a few pence. I've seen those bags of past their best salad still at £1 each too.

Good luck with the new budget, GP, and *just enough June*. I'm really looking forward to your June posts!

maddiemay wrote: »

?

Do you have a slow cooker? rice pudding is yummy cooked in one, batch on the go for OH at the moment:D

No, maddie, I don't so I can't try that one. Thanks for the suggestion anyway, it might help others on here

Hiya, Hopefuljoy, glad you've joined us. It's a wonderful, fun and informative thread

Have a lovely day everyone x

satchmo1

Mum and I walked through the Co-0p store on our way to her eye-test appointment yesterday and spotted some YS, but they were still dearer than the full price of other supermarkets. Scandalous.


I've just come back from seeing my DGS on his 4th birthday: again a joy to be able to pop in, and he's such a delightful little boy. He happily demonstrated that he can spell mum and dad.

I'm a little bit wriggly with excitement as I've just had a call about being put forward for a job, at a decent salary, in exactly my area of experience. Fingers crossed.

I'll put the wrigglyness to good use and go for a run.