Living on next to nought - is that the key?

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Well, up to a fresh, bright, shiny new month

Edit: All best wishes for a great first day at your new workplace 7 Week Wonder

This month will be full of challenge, but I'm actually looking forward to it, as the goals are so worth it

Today will be a spend day - TV listings guide day and I need to get some vegetables that I will need for tomorrow night's dinner. You'll see in my signature I'm aiming for 20 NSD's. I'm wondering whether this will work - as i'm also trying to be a bit more flexible as to how I spend my grocery budget - to try to pick up bargains (particularly YS) throughout the month. Still, let's see if I can make it work.

I've also listed 'AF' days. Not too sure about this, as the core challenge (for us) isn't really about not having alcohol, it is about the money saved each week by not buying a bottle of wine or some ale....... we rarely drink in the week anyway, so I'm not sure it's recording much of a challenge/providing motivation. Still, perhaps trial it for this month, and if we save the money, and decide to implement more AF months, then perhaps it has answered the question for me.

I made tonight's dinner last night (another advantage of 'soup night' ). It is a curry and one that benefits from sitting for 24hours to let the flavours develop. I am hopeful I can find a net-based recipe for it and i'll write about it tonight. It is not beige in colour, so there might even be a photograph.

Well, let's get 'up and at 'em' and seize the day. Have a good one everybody

Thank you for dropping in, reading and contributing to this diary. I appreciate it. A. Lot.

See y'all later.

Greying

Pippilongstocking

Upsidedown_Bear wrote: »

*heads off to the kitchen in search of cake* :D





*comes back from kitchen*

I am feeling all calm now...:D:D

#

:rotfl: that gave me a right giggle thank you!

Hey up Greying nice to see you've had meetings and are singing from the same song sheet in Oct

We usually do ours over curry :A safety behind a popadom when you want to speak clearly and directly!

I hope you have a lovely day today.



And lets hope the curry isn't beige.

:A

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Pippilongstocking wrote: »

Hey up Greying nice to see you've had meetings and are singing from the same song sheet in Oct

Ay up Pipster - well, you'd think it wouldn't you, after going to the trouble of blooming discussing things......but today of all days, DP nearly landed us in real financial do-do. I shan't elaborate, because it has all been sorted now, but blooming heck! Still, I didn't rant, didn't rage, just went silent..........:rotfl:

So, apart from a well sticky bit, October is upon us and today went fairly ok and to plan......... I even managed to score some YS'd veggies in MrT - not the 10p temptatious bargains, because I'm not convinced our branch ever has those, but stuff at a price that I was prepared to pay, ie value carrots down from 89p to 53p x 2, an aubergine for 30p, value parsnips for 53p, 6 British apples for 50p (not blemished and really big) and some bananas for 58p - they were a kilo, so not a huge saving, but they are still green and will be useful for the end of the week snap boxes. 'Proper' price for these bananas was over £1 :rotfl:

I also swung by Ald* and picked up UHT semi-skimmed (1L) x 4 and UHT skimmed (1L) x 2 milk for the food bank donation - cost £3.20, so a little over budget, but I'm not going to quibble about 20p.

So, a spendy day, but I got the TV listings guide too, so I may well be able to start racking up some NSD's this month. I can also legitimately claim an AF day, as I bought none and there is none in the house. And expenses met, languorous, liquid lunches down the local wine bar have never been a feature of my working life..... ever.........

Dinner this evening was Two Potato Vindaloo, a Yotam Ottolenghi recipe. We had it with lentil dhal and the last of the basics rice bought on hols. The potatoes were the holiday pots and the sweet pots were those from the Ald* S6 bought several weeks ago. The only thing I regret doing (and I've done it before - silly me) was to not grind the fenugreek seeds. I had made the harissa oil in the pestle and mortar last night, by the time it came to adding the fenugreek seeds and I knew I'd regret not grinding them. I love the taste of fenugreek, but the seeds don't completely soften - not good - but these had faired a little better as you leave it to meld for 24hrs.

Here is my photo of our dinner (not as professional as Yotam's )



Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

budgetary responsibility - that I have it, and that - apart from getting a bit miffed :mad: occasionally - I don't descend into making it a 'political' football at micro level. Pity that the great and the good at macro level don't adopt a similar approach.........

the NHS - for a non-emergency matter and for DP, not me. But I am glad that we have such a service - although it is far from perfect - it is considerably better than the alternative..........

for a car that I can drive - otherwise I would of got awful soggy carrying my bargains and other groceries home. No 'bargain' is worth pneumonia.......

Thank you so much for dropping in, reading and commenting on my diary. It is appreciated. And today has gone well, despite a minor blip. And October will yield us results and DP will make it onto the same page of the hymn sheet just now I'm sure......although earlier I was just thinking getting into the vicinity of the choir stalls would be a start........ :rotfl::rotfl:

See y'all later.

Greying

7_week_wonder

Just popping by to say first day went fine: we spent most of the day rearranging furniture!! The real work will start tomorrow.

And OH's diet is still going well - over a stone down but plenty more to go.

Will try and read back tomorrow - but right now an early night calls!

teambathmat

Which soap stars are on the front of the listing guide this week?

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

7 Week Wonder - glad to hear that you are arranging your 'home from home' just as you like it. And well done to your DH on the weightloss - a stone is very good going :T

teambathmat wrote: »

Which soap stars are on the front of the listing guide this week?

teambathmat - this week, mostly, it will be a couple outta 'stEnders' I am thinking...... Don't watch the soaps, meself, but know all that's going on as all the plots are in the mag.......:D

Right, today has the potential to be a NSD - will I be confirming it by this eve? Hope so

Dinner this evening will feature a TURNIP dish :D Recipe to follow if it turns out to be any good :D

I'm away to have my breakfast and then drain the rest of the remaining yoghurt to make some labneh - which is just a name (Persian?) for strained yoghurt. And no jokes about trusses please :rotfl:

Thank you for dropping by, reading and commenting on my diary. It is appreciated.

See y'all later.

Greying

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Hail, Dear Reader - went the day well with you?

I've had a smashing day. Let me [STRIKE]bore[/STRIKE] tell you all about it. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin......:rotfl:

Greying shows age......again.......

Anyway, I managed to whizz round to the Foodbank today and handed over the 6 litres of UHT milk. It was graciously and enthusiastically received, so I hope it makes a difference for someone.

I achieved a NSD :j And also another AF. Must remember to update siggy

The rental property next door has been giving us cause for concern - let's just say the landlord's poor maintenance schedule is in danger of causing water ingress into our property. I had spoken to the tenant who had said they would speak to the LL. Anyway, nothing has happened, but I bumped into them again today in a different context - they had chased it up for me but the LL hadn't done anything. The LL is now away, but they have promised to mention it again when they next see the LL - and they gave me a date when that is due to happen. So, bit of a waiting game - like the fence issue with the other property, but maybe we will get progress.......

I got a text from a friend. That was so nice to hear from them. They run their life/career at 100mph, it was good of them to take time to text little ole me

I made the turnip dish for dinner, and declare it............DELISH! I heartily recommend that anyone have a go at Turnip Treat. And I must say straight away, for the benefit of any lurking ethnobotanists and turnip fans, I used Swedish turnip in this recipe - about 1/3rd of the swede that we got from our hols.

You'll not be surprised to learn that I tinkered with the recipe a little.....:rotfl: In fact, a username of 'Tinker Nell' would probably be more appropriate for me! Anyway, for the mash, I used potato and some of the YS'd parsnips I bought yesterday - yum! For the turnip mix, I steamed the carrot and turnip together and pulsed them in a food processor - I purposely did not add any extra cooking liquor. I fried the onion separately and added the spices to that. Boiled onions reminds me of the preferred 'supper dish' of the inordinately large population of batchelors that seemed to reside in our area when I was a child........ I can only think that it was either a rural dwellers only form of central heating, or....... it was the forerunner of the 'little blue pill' :eek::rotfl:

In my version of this dish, I also added chopped up roasted red pepper (jarred) and the labneh that had been draining all day. If I'd of had no labneh, I would of used an egg - but I had no eggs. You're keeping up with this, right?:rotfl:This was to ramp up the protein content, as it was our main course. However, if I was serving this with something like baked beans (excellent choice :T) then it would be unnecessary to add cheese/eggs. But some cheese grated on the top would be good

Our version was served with sweetcorn (donated by a friend before our hols and steamed and taken off the cob), green beans (sliced unfortunately, all MrT had left ) and grated beetroot. A pic hopefully is here....



Oh, and hot tip - if photographing your dinner on top of the stove, do not open the oven door to see how your cake is cooking with your camera in your hand............... steam gets in all the tech bits and you photograph fog for 10 minutes and wonder if you've kn*ckered your camera......... (luckily not)

So, all in all, a great day rounded off with a new (keeper) recipe that fits the frugal but tasty category

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

people who try their best for you - I've dealt with a lot of people today. Possibly coincidently, they have all been cheery, polite and helpful. It made my day so much better/easier and I'm sure I achieved more as a result And yes, Dear Reader, I was cheery and polite in return

crocodiles :eek: ....... of schoolchildren - how can you not smile when you see a whole class moving along, two by two, hand in hand - and adults desperately marshalling the crocodile to ensure it keeps straight and doesn't engulf innocent passers-by :rotfl:

Falling leaves - although it means autumn is underway, there is something of the dance/ballet about falling, swirling, turning leaves that mesmerises.

Thank you so much for dropping in, reading and commenting on this diary. I do greatly appreciate having you in my corner encouraging me on.

See y'all later.

Greying

Upsidedown_Bear

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

Falling leaves - although it means autumn is underway, there is something of the dance/ballet about falling, swirling, turning leaves that mesmerises.

I'm looking forward to doing this...:D

boredofbeingathome

Smiles in appreciation

Pippilongstocking

boredofbeingathome wrote: »

Smiles in appreciation

Does the same of both the recipe and the most excellent taxonomy.



Waves to all