Living on next to nought - is that the key?

Karmacat

Oops, sorry, if you want to linkie to me on the book of face, let me know ...

What's sherba, Greying?

I went to the doc's today (first day I felt like being upright long enough to get there!) and I have labyrinthitis - anti nausea drugs are now in my hot little mitt, and I can start them the next time I eat. Praise be!

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Well......*sigh*.........um........

Today has just been 'one of them days'......... I was trying (earlier) ever so hard to laugh at myself; by picturing myself as a child with severely folded arms, a big pout - stamping my foot declaring to the universe, and anyone else in the vicinity, "snot fair!" But even that didn't do the trick..........

Ho hum. It's wearing off now. I feel much better. I suppose to sum up, today has been full of all those petty annoyances that on their own, or in two's you can dismiss. But when they are coming in at the rate of one every half hour or so, it gets a bit difficult to grin and bear it - even if that is the mature thing to do! Folk seem to of been putting themselves first today - bug*er how it affects you, their needs are far more important......

Right, the good thing is that I have legitimately claimed a NSD and AFD. Numbers altered in the siggie

Sub-committee No 5 met and went well. Although some things haven't been progressed, it is definitely paying dividends. Even DP likes our Monday Meetings

Now Karma you asked about Sherba......... but first things first, Labyrinthitis is not nice - someone else on MSE (I think) was talking about their experience of it the other day - so you have every sympathy from me. Here's hoping the pills work and that you get well.

Also, you mentioned 'orchards' in another post. When you had your diary, you talked about discovering some orchards locally that were due to be bulldozed for housing developments. Has that gone ahead? Are the trees lost? Oh, and the apples we got yesterday were already picked, put in a bucket and at the end of someone's drive with a 'FREE - help yerself' note They have a few blemishes, but still are totally brill and have a wonderful aroma Far better than anything you could get in a supermercado and I fear to think what they would cost in a shop anyway!

Right, Sherba is a soup or stew. It has many variations and many countries/cultures claim ownership of it. I talked about it in post #107 and I think that its development may of mirrored the route of the 'silk road'. Most typically it is made with lamb, and the original recipe that I had (C0vent Gard3n S0up cookbook) contained lamb. But I just omitted the meat and made the soup! Post #107 contains a link to the 'nearest' version of the one I made, but I think contains chicken. Anyway, tonight, my version was even more improvisation as I decided to use up my 'old' split peas and some 'alphabet' spelt pasta that I have had in the cupboard from when I could afford to buy such whimsical foods items as 'alphabet pasta' made from spelt............:rotfl:(yes, a very long time ago). It was ok - I prefer chickpeas they are more flavourful, but non-the-less, this version was filling and nice to eat. I topped it with some HM yoghurt which had mint and sumac sprinkled on it. Yoghurt is really nice with soups/stews - it gives a really good extra dimension. Much more than you'd expect if that doesn't sound too daft...... Anyway, picture hopefully here;



I didn't make flat-breads - Dear Reader I was too nowty at the time :rotfl::rotfl: But actually, because I used up all the pasta, rather than 2 Tbsps that the recipe called for, it was a more substantial dish than normal anyway - flatbreads would of been too much - phew! I think this dish proved really cheap to make, and used up 2 things that were well past their use-by date. I figure I'll still be here in the morning

Right, my equilibrium is now equalised. Sorry for being a little out of sorts earlier in the post

Today, I am grateful for these 3 things;

partnership - true equals, yet each with a part to play.

for my simple life

for perspective - so a few hours of today were a bit wonky, there's all tomorrow untouched yet........:D

I am signing off, feeling mucho, mucho better than when I signed on. But be very glad you didn't see me at 6.00pm....:eek::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Thank you so very much for popping in, reading and commenting. I enjoy your company - immensely.

See y'all later.

Greying

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Well, I'd like to say that we woke up to an improved day.... but DP has woken up with a sore throat, that has naturally morphed into 'man-flu' in a nanosecond - a medical first prolly........ :rotfl:Perhaps I should offer to whisk him off to the London School of hygiene & tropical medicine as a case-study, might make him feel a bit better.....

So, today is going to be a spendy day. Not only the TV listings, but I'm going to send off my contribution to Memorygirl's appeal. We will also be paying the last big 'official' bill out of the 'key fund' today. So I've thrown mundane spends such as bananas into the mix too, so that I can hopefully earn a few more NSD's in the week Today will be AF though

Dinner this evening will be on the 'beanball' theme. Watch this space for reporting of the triumph or disaster :rotfl:

I hope you have a great day - I certainly intend to make the best of mine :T

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

See y'all later.

Greying

Piquant_2

A beanball feast sound exciting, I am looking forward to hearing about it later.

Poor DP, man-flu is a terrible illness, it could take him a while to get over it. You may need to make some very special home made elixir to help him through this difficult time...

beanielou

My postage for teds for Z was £7.95 yesterday :eek: :eek:

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Piquant wrote: »

A beanball feast sound exciting, I am looking forward to hearing about it later.

Poor DP, man-flu is a terrible illness, it could take him a while to get over it. You may need to make some very special home made elixir to help him through this difficult time...

Now Piq dearest, 'tis an awfully good job that I've this digi dodgy [STRIKE]spy[/STRIKE] web cam fitted to this 'puter, as running the VT back, I can tell when you typed the above, that you had your tongue, firmly lodged in your cheek Coz if you hadn't, on returning home, I would of wrapped up DP in the remaining parcel paper, slapped a book 'o stamps on his 'cheek' and posted him off to you - as you clearly do TLC and sympathy better than me :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: :D:D:D

beanielou wrote: »

My postage for teds for Z was £7.95 yesterday :eek: :eek:

Beanie I hear you. I'm afraid I 'reverse engineered' my contribution, and looked up the price I could afford to pay on postage and then bought/made accordingly - which isn't as generous as I wanted to be As it was, my 2 x 7 pairs of underwear - 1 pack for a boy and 1 for a girl, plus 2 HM bags and some school supplies came in at 8g under the weight of the parcel I could afford. Had I been a gramme out, it would of cost £4 extra :eek:

Hail Dear Reader - went the day well with you? I've had a great day. 110% better than yesterday :D

Well, as I said this morning, I've spent, spent, spent today (and even gave DP a few pennies to spend too ). We now have everything that I set out to get, so a successful 'hunter/gatherer' mission I have also 'opened' my Credit Union account with a cash deposit today, so I declare the 'Emergency Fund' open and ready for business (but not too soon, eh universe?) I'll sort out me siggie later on.

I spied a 5p 'roadkill' in the Post Office, but was too embarrassed to pick it up

So, can't claim a NSD, but can claim an AFD.

I was thinking of Pippi's marvellous budgeted 'wellifest' today. A colleague is getting married soon. Their 'do' is costing significantly more than 'Wellifest 2013'..... and it is all being done by debt.............._pale_ Still, free choice and all that I suppose......

Dinner this evening was beanballs, flavoured with Lebanese 7 spice. If you google, there are lots of recipes for the spice combination. I had cooked some aduki beans, whizzed them up in the processor with some cooked onion, celery and garlic. Then mushed in some grated carrot, fine bulghar, the spices and some lemon juice and zest. I overdid it with the allspice (in the mix) and although I tried to temper it, it was a little overpowering - still, lesson learnt. I served the beanballs with 'yellow' rice (as in Jamaican 'rice & peas - but omitted the coconut as it would of been wrong for this dish), chakchouka tmatim wa filfil - which is Tunisian ratatouille and topped them with yoghurt and a toasted sesame seed, mint and sumac 'sprinkle'. Photo hopefully here



Now anyone who makes Tunisian ratatouille will probably tell me that I should of used green sweet peppers. I agree, but I can't ordinarily get hold of those (I did get to buy some on holiday from a farmers market), so had to contend with red instead. The green unripe peppers we get in the shops are horrid

So, dinner was ok - the allspice let it down, but I would make the combination again

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

sunshine - for about 3 minutes, when I was outside today - the sun happened to shine and it was as warm on my face as if it had been summer - wonderful.

that we all have 'first times' - I'd not used my CU account before, but the post office clerk couldn't of been more helpful, talking me through each step and the process took all of a minute! Simple to use and community orientated - what could be better?

for bloggers - especially food bloggers who bring all sorts of interesting recipes and cuisines within the reach of any home.

Thank you for reading, commenting and joining in. I greatly appreciate it.

See y'all later.

Greying

brizzledfw

Nice to catch up.

Ich habe genug..nice touch GP

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Brizzle so lovely to *see* you. Thank you for stopping by. So good to read the debt-busting progress that's going on over at 'yours'. Well done

So, today will be a NSD and AF.

I forgot to mention last week that I had received the 'new customer pack' (bang on schedule) through from the new energy supplier that I am proposing to change to, with change over dates etc. If they continue in this efficient vein when I am paying them money then I think the move will be a 'good un'. Here's hoping anyway

Dinner this evening is as yet undecided, I was going to make something (have cooked the beans already) but haven't one of the key ingredients...... mmm, I could make it without or I could make something else. Decisions, decisions.

Right, I'd better go. Snap is packed up, flasks filled. Let's go an seize the day!

Thank you so much for popping in, reading and commenting. I greatly appreciate it.

See y'all later.

Greying

Piquant_2

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

Good Evening :hello:



Now Piq dearest, 'tis an awfully good job that I've this digi dodgy [STRIKE]spy[/STRIKE] web cam fitted to this 'puter, as running the VT back, I can tell when you typed the above, that you had your tongue, firmly lodged in your cheek Coz if you hadn't, on returning home, I would of wrapped up DP in the remaining parcel paper, slapped a book 'o stamps on his 'cheek' and posted him off to you - as you clearly do TLC and sympathy better than me :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: :D:D:D

I don't suppose he'd be any good at packing with such a virulent dose of man-flu, would he? Of course I'd be very sympathetic and all that, but he would have to work for the sympathy On second thoughts, maybe it's best if you shut the bedroom door on him and throw him a beanball every now and again....

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Piq - DP good at packing when ill/DP good at packing when not ill :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: 'Beanball' duly lobbed :D

Well, how's your day been? Mine has been fine and dandy

Today has had an 'end of month' feel about it, I'm not too sure why. I'm not normally the type to 'wish my life away'. I'm quite happy to take October 1 day at a time

Mind you, it did strike me that I let 'yesterday' go past without fanfare and 'whoops'. I totally missed the point that we managed to meet the last 'big' (expected) household bill of this year through budgeting and the help of the 'key fund'. OK, so the majority (this time) was from salary - but you'll recall when I set out on this diary, there was no guarantee that work would be there the next day, let alone 3 months ahead. So the very fact that I started the diary, probably had a good bearing on the fact that I'm not writing this on slate in a debtors prison

So, whilst I glibly wittered on about 'starting' the emergency fund, i'd kinda lost track a little bit. So in a bid to restore my focus, I have set myself the target of getting £500 into the emergency fund by the 4th April next year. Now, I fully realise that the super debt-busters amongst you will think, 'pah, Greying, where's the challenge in that? Tis chicken feed, you could amass that in a month....' And I have no doubt that it is possible. However, I also know that as a household, Greying Towers has some 'known knowns' (I think they are called in 'spin doc meedja speak') in finance terms during the first quarter of 2014, which could (technically) impact on household income and leave the purse a little light. Plus there is at least 1 large annual household bill to meet in that quarter too. So, all that is a long-winded way of explaining that achieving £500 savings in addition to everything else that is due to happen, will be quite an achievement. If I can do it quicker, then you bet I'll be trying But also, the most important point is - will you keep me company on the way?

Today has been a NSD and AFD - siggie already updated

Dinner this evening was Greek Casserole. It's a regular in this house, the recipe is in POST #11 click on the THIS link - not the other one (that is for a lemon cake recipe ) This evening's offering was made with orzo pasta - so much better than last time when I made it with that claggy cous cous pasta. I also snuck some small dice carrot and swede into the dish The egg slices are awful - I think that you probably should let an egg cool down totally before slicing it with a 'guillotine' however, for better or worse, pic is here



And no, Dear Reader, this was not the dish on the menu planner for this evening. I have decided to try to buy the missing ingredient for that and make it properly. However, with £3.40 left in the groceries budget until the end of the month, with milk and bananas still to get......... Still, again, I was thinking about that today. I have spent about £13 on charity this month, with our contribution to the foodbank plus involvement in Memorygirl's project. The money all came out of the grocery budget. We have not starved - nor will we. So whilst the money has been spent, there will be people that will benefit and in the case of the Ted's project, this was a 'one off' that was not factored in at the start of the month. And I don't regret participating for one moment I am also glad that I donated milk to the foodbank at the start of the month - it would be too tempting to leave it to the end of the month, and then not be able to give, because the money was spent.

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

autumn sunshine on golden leaves - the leaves seem to be turning quickly now, but in the sunlight today, everything seemed to just 'glow'. Real 'feel good' stuff

budgetary creativity - only in a legal way mind

for the support of MSE'rs - thank you.

Right, I've got to help DP with a speck of paperwork, then I'm getting kicked off the 'puter so that DP can 'have a surf'. Humpf :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Thank you so much for dropping in, reading and commenting. I greatly appreciate it.

See y'all later.

Greying