Living on next to nought - is that the key?

mouche

Every time I'm feeling low - and have been feeling quite low lately as my parents are leaving after their annual visit and there is still no sign of my OH getting a new job - I come and read your posts. My things to be grateful for today are:

1. How well you explain your thinking so that even I (a glass half empty person) can see through the gloom to the sunshine that is there for the taking

2. The fact that you post often and are there whenever I need a lift

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:
Ay up Pippi - how lovely to *see* you. I agree about rescuing 'neeps' from the jaws of marauding sheeps. The gardening parental dismissed the beetroot crop as 'finished' the other day (despite the best part of a row still being in the ground) and was rather surprised I sort of hinted I'd still like some. We had 4 - they were delish! Will have to see if I can carry out a *mercy rescue mission* over the weekend and save some more from the ignominy of a fate such as compost...........:D

Hi mouche - what a lovely comment. Hmmm, well if your parents are just about set to leave after their 'annual' visit - that means that we have 365 days to see what, if any, changes we can make, before it's time for them to be back again Whadda think? Do you reckon I can get anything saved in an emergency fund in 365 days??? My track record ain't too good y'know :rotfl: Still, I hope they had a brill time - and you did too. And sending good vibes that your OH gets a job. A well paid and interesting job, with minimal commuting and plenty of useful fringe benefits, in the time frame that suits you and your OH. please.universe.thank you


Today has been mucho better than yesterday. However, we did not have the dinner that I had planned, as the cheese - once defrosted - just didn't quite smell right. Plus there wasn't really enough of it to do justice to a pizza. So we had Lemony Spinach Hot Pot instead. A recipe from Anjum Anand's 'Indian Vegetarian Feast' recipe book. I'm afraid I can't link to a recipe, as it doesn't appear anywhere on the web I got the book from the library, and I have to say, I am a fan of Anjum's style. She creates beautiful indian dishes, but is also very gifted at 'fusion' - and this recipe is no exception. It is full of flavour, not too spicy, but 'interestingly' spiced - certainly not 'chilli hot'.

A (poor) picture of our dinner is here.....



Most of the shots tonight were fuzzy - mainly because I was trying to do hand held shots in the last of the light. I resorted to putting the light on in the end, but it's still not pin sharp - sorry.

A £1 expenditure on milk was the only spend today. We are now inadvertently 'in training' for no alcohol October, as there is none in the house and no money for any - but we didn't miss having a beer with dinner. All I did crave this afternoon was chocolate! Typical! Haven't any of that either - but that craving is passing anyway, so no matter.

I have been thinking about how to save an emergency fund and have decided to open a Credit Union account. It will satisfy my 'community contribution' leanings, and frankly, they might as well have our pennies as the commercial boys. I have actually found that the local CU has actually got more 'offices' than I had thought. That was one failing of the local CU - they were a bit 'shy' in connecting with the community :rotfl:Actually, won't it be fun to see if I can be accepted for the CU quicker than for a cc??

ninjasavingkat's challenge had a commitment to donate £3 worth of things to the local food bank too. I like this and I am happy to do this. Our local one has a 'most wanted' items list, so I will adhere to that. I'll try to do that early on in the month. Then it's our contribution made, rather than waiting until the end of the month and contributing little or nothing.

ooh, this weekend is going to be fun - thinking of our new approaches to money and the 'whole shebang'. Also, this weekend should see some 'adventurising' - I obviously caught DP at a weak moment yesterday - proposed a circular walk around a local beauty spot or a visit to an NT property and met with an positive response to the NT property :T (suspect it may have something to do with being able to claim a free cuppa at the NT property....)

So, today I am grateful for these 3 things;

technology - whilst the rich or elite are usually the 'first' to get cutting edge technologies at the 'height' of the latest research and development, it is when technology becomes 'broad', and available to the masses, that it begins to make a difference. Read about Marshall Janson and see if you agree..............:)

Digital cameras - I had to walk through the park today - oh so onerous on such a sunny day........:D Everywhere people were taking pictures and capturing video. Of falling leaves, sunlight glinting on water, of stately swans and perhaps of the very last essence of summer itself............. It really was a day for looking, seeing and capturing

freezers - whilst the cheese didn't fair so well, the freezer also contained a 'substitute' dish for dinner, so we still ate

Thank you for popping by, reading and contributing. I greatly appreciate it.

See y'all later.

Greying

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Ah, a bright start to the day - I got enough hours in kipshire last night, so I am feeling grand - no slugs in this house this am. Just an awful lot of big spiders it seems......

Today will be a day of 'sorting', meal plans, shopping lists etc.

I have no idea what will be for dinner, as the cupboards are starting to look bare of ideas - we've 'components', but not necessarily the right combination to make edible meals if you see what I mean Still, necessity is the mother of invention and all that And I must remember that we managed to go on our holiday this month - for which I'm really grateful, so no grousing about knitting with bulghar wheat from me! :rotfl:

Oh, I managed to get my chocolate 'hit' after all last night. I had forgotten that I had bought some MrS basics powdered hot choc and some MrW marshmallows (from their essentials range) to take on holiday. I'd ideas about gazing up at the stars drinking choccy with my true love... but to be honest, we never stayed awake past the first appearance of the stars - all that fresh air wore us out :rotfl: So the choc powder was still in the cupboard. I have to say, it delivered enough of a choc hit to satisfy my craving, so I'm chuffed - plus DP felt pampered, so win/win

I have no idea what to do for a pack up lunch for our adventurising tomorrow. Thinking cap jammed on Greying! Why do all your stores always run out at the same time - irrespective of what packet size they were to begin with and how often (or not) you use them?? :rotfl:

Well, I'd better get listing, thinking and 'doing'. Otherwise the day will be gone and we'll still have nowt on the table.

Thank you for popping by, reading and commenting. I greatly appreciate it.

See y'all later.

Greying

Pippilongstocking

Regarding the store cupboards all running out at the same time - I suspect they secretly align themselves like little planets of yumminess and therefore act as one mass when reducing.

Except the one thing you're not fussed about it orbits the rest increasing in size.

Enjoy the planning and the illicit hot chocs - long may they continue.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Pippilongstocking wrote: »

Regarding the store cupboards all running out at the same time - I suspect they secretly align themselves like little planets of yumminess and therefore act as one mass when reducing.

Except the one thing you're not fussed about it orbits the rest increasing in size.

Enjoy the planning and the illicit hot chocs - long may they continue.

Ain't that the truth!

I think the best thing to do for the rest of today would be to retire to bed to go to sleep (:D), that way, if any more provisions run out or if anything else decides it's life is run (batteries and lightbulbs) it will count as being 'tomorrow' when I find out..................:rotfl: *sigh*

Dinner this evening ended up being pasta and pasta sauce. The pasta sauce was the left over 'chunky' veg sauce that I had used with the baked avocados earlier in the week - with fusilli (MrM savers) pasta. I didn't take a pic..............

The better bits of today have seen me make bread - I thought you might like to see a picture of this......



I reckon mr Hollywood would have a field day berating my lack of uniformity and an uneven bake. So I'd never be star baker on GBBO - do I care? It's a 500g flour mix with 400g (ish) of white bread flour (lidly finest) and 100g of dovesfarm fine wholemeal flour.

I also made hoummus, to go on the rolls for our adventurising picnic tomorrow - hopefully topped with thick slices of one of the remaining (3) tomatoes that we bought back from hols. I'm hoping it will taste lush.

And finally, but by no means least, I made yoghurt - huzzah! About blooming time Greying! It's still in the flasks, but I'm hopeful it will be a good batch. Fingers crossed.

I totted up the budgets today to see if we were still spending what we thought we were. We are, but I'm not sure that i'll be 'amassing' a huge emergency fund in double-quick time. Still, if we get one underway, that will be a start. We also need to ensure that we are putting away our annual/other bills money each month. It was dipping into this that contributed to our problems in the first place - and things going wrong in quick succession Well, no more! I want to get this going before the end of the year. I am sure like most households, our annual bills come all through the year, so the quicker we build up a 'buffer' the better position we will be in when the first lands on the mat.

I am still going to continue with the 'key fund' concept. As I said from the start - I wasn't sure where savings could be found. I *thought* we had things trimmed pretty tightly to the bone, but there has been money deposited into the key fund jar since I started it in July - so this diary is definitely helping to save the pennies and the pounds

I have not finished my meal planner/shopping list. Wasn't in the right frame of mind to think about food today when every other container, packet or box seemed to be empty or yielded up about 2 tsps. of an ingredient I needed 4lbs of........ (that's a slight exaggeration for journalistic effect don't you think Greying???.......)

I am still looking forward to our day out tomorrow. There will be something in the cool bag for us to nibble on, so it'll be a proper adventure.

Today, I am grateful for these 3 things;

That I can bake bread - mine will never win awards, but with access to flour, yeast, salt and water, I can usually make edible bread. But I am doubly grateful that the weather was warm enough today to get a good rise out of the dough. This house is generally cold, so it's not always a given.

for small horizons - I'd be the first to encourage anyone to 'Go For It', 'Aim High', 'Aim BIG'. But sometimes satisfaction comes from aiming for the shortest, or smallest of horizons. I've done the best I can today, with some wins and some fails. But tomorrow I am going use some of my efforts from today and spend time having an low-cost adventure with my favourite pal.....

for storecupboards and stores - mine are wonky, skew whiff and unbalanced - how much do I need more freezer space?? But without the stores that I have, we would be very hungry by now. Especially given the dire state of our local take-away network :rotfl::rotfl: I'm grateful for what I have, but I know that I must work harder to make it better and suitable for our needs. Let the work commence.................

Thank you so much for popping in, reading and commenting on my diary today. I do appreciate it - hugely.

See y'all later.

Greying

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

I do hope all is well with you this morning? I'd meant to say, I've noticed that one or two goodly posters to this thread haven't been around for a while....... I hope all is well?

Well, the day is dawn and ......... DP has woken up in a grump..... no change there then! I think he's a bit grumpier, as he commented about not even being able to blame a rogue glass of beer or a rough red wine for his predicament! :rotfl: Anyway, I'm ignoring him and getting on with the day

I had HM yoghurt and tinned apricots for breakfast. Perhaps an odd combination, but very nice. The apricots were a tin in the 'food parcel' we got. Mr W essentials. Very good. I must see how much they are, and think about getting a tin in. I was going to make a cake/pudding with them last night, to make best use of the oven whilst it was on with the bread. I was going to layer them in a pan, then pour eggless sponge over them (possibly with cocoa powder added to it to make a choccy version ). However, in between opening the tin to see what the apricots were like, I remembered that in addition to having no eggs - hence eggless sponge - I also hadn't got enough fat to make the dish...... You can substitute 1 ingredient or do without it, but I suspect trying to make sponge without eggs and fat puts you on a hiding to nothing - or concrete! :rotfl:And yes, Dear Reader, I was a bit miffed with myself for opening the tin, but there you go. I also put some apricot halves in a pretty pattern on the top of DP's porridge, in the hope it would sweeten him up.......

We've plenty of time before the NT property/gardens open this morning, it's a 30 mile drive on good roads, so no rush.

I should really think about dinner for this evening now and see if I can pre-prepare anything. But I'm in a quandary what to make. Two more evening meals to come up with before the end of the month. At least snap is sorted for tomorrow, so I've not got to worry about that. MMmm, don't know why I take my thinking cap off - needs to be a permanent fixture around about these here parts at the mo

The R4 appeal this morning was for the Trussel Trust Food Banks. At least the young lady wasn't a celebrity turning up to urge you to support their pet cause. She was a recipient of food bank aid when she had needed it most - because she fell between the cracks in the welfare net. DP hadn't heard an appeal for TT before, but it was part of the R4 appeal - so one of the 52 charities that get to appeal for donations on the radio each year.

Right, time for me to get 'up and at 'em'. I've sandwiches to prepare and cool bags to pack........:D:D:D

I hope you have a great day whatever you are up to. Thank you for swinging by, reading and joining in with this diary. It is greatly appreciated by me.

See y'all later.

Greying

mouche

Have a lovely day out Graying!

beanielou

Have a happy day Grayling(& DP)

Happy Sunday all

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Thank you mouche for dropping by and for your kind comment - I did!

Thank you Beanielou for popping in to leave such a cheery comment for us all. DP's grump wore off before we set out - so we have both had a lovely day

Well, we've another NT property checked off our list. We thoroughly enjoyed the house and the gardens. And partly because it was pretty busy today, but partly because we didn't get quite as good view of things in the house that we would of liked - DP has suggested a return visit, and i'm in complete agreement

We claimed our 'free' pot of tea for two. I'm not a fan of tea, but it was very nice - DP thought it excellent. We felt mean just claiming a free cuppa, although I don't think the lady behind the counter would of minded at all. So DP treated us to a slice of cake each. I chose chocolate, DP walnut (could of been coffee and walnut...not sure....). For £2.50 a slice, I'm afraid I have to say it was not the highlight of the day. The price would of not been of concern (it was a treat) if the cakes had actually tasted of their supposed ingredients.......... Think we'll stick to HM in future and try to support the NT through a purchase of something else DP lashed out a whole 50p on a book from the secondhand stall

We enjoyed our picnic in a lovely designated spot in the garden. Actually, some whizzy garden designer in the 1700's or sometime put in all these little 'cubby holes'. But let me tell you, they were perfect for 21st century picnics - so good, our first choice was 'occupied' when we decided to stop for lunch.... what good taste our fellow picnickers showed The rolls weren't very delicate - I think to call them finger rolls is a misnomer - unless they were modelled on the 'Honey Monster's' digits :rotfl:I soldiered on with mine and then looked across to see that DP had cut his into 2 . I'll cut them next time Oh, Munchin, we each had a bag of 'those' cheese and onion crisps each too - v nice, as always

I managed to take 250 photos - DP was like :eek: many? After getting rid of about 14 as they were blurry, I've a complete record of the day. Although I forgot to do an 'us' shot, but then I'm camera shy... got some nice ones of DP though. I also managed to get some really good bee shots and a wasp eating a fly! Dreadful subject matter, but a really bizzare shot. I cannot work out how the wasp managed to be attached to anything and be working on this fly.

A super day out. £5.50 cold hard cash laid out, but we've had a great time, a good lunch and topped up our vit d levels

Dinner was sausage casserole, polenta and cauliflower. Pic here..



I used 3 veggie sausages (mrT Lincolnshire seasoned ones) that were left over in a pack of 6 (the other 3 were used for our 'breakfast' bap on our journey to our holiday destination). Onion, garlic, celery, turnip, sweet potato, a bit of leftover passata, a bit of chipotle sauce (app foods ages ago and well out of date ), some herbs and salt and pepper. The polenta was made up with stock and herbs, pepper, salt and paprika added and was served 'wet' rather than 'set'. The cauli I got in mrA on Monday or Tuesday - YS's to 60p from a £1 (60p was enough for it really, even proper price...) Pity it wasn't broccoli - it would of improved the colour balance of the photo

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

educators - not necessarily those found in 'classrooms' clutching textbooks, but anyone who passes on a skill or knowledge. I found being able to identify one or two plants or devices or bits and pieces so handy today. Until today, I had actually never seen a (fruiting) mulberry tree in the 'flesh', but I was so pleased to know what was in front of me when I did get to see it

experiences - look, touch, sniff, climb, discover, listen, absorb, feel. Do. Have. Be.

Weekend volunteers - yet another set of enthusiastic, knowledgeable volunteers enriched our day today. They kept a smile on, even when one or two people were rude or ignored them. If you've volunteered your time this weekend :T

Thank you so very much for popping by, reading and contributing to my diary. I remain greatly appreciative. Especially since I'm clashing with Downton :rotfl::rotfl:

See y'all later.

Greying

Upsidedown_Bear

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

Thank you so very much for popping by, reading and contributing to my diary. I remain greatly appreciative. Especially since I'm clashing with Downton :rotfl::rotfl:

What's Downtown? :think:

Glad to hear you had a good day out.
Last time we were at a NT property I had a very yumtastic scone

Dinner looks lovely - thanks for sharing pics with us :)