Living on next to nought - is that the key?

Greying_Pilgrim

Pippi - technically the milk is 'free' for the yoghurt, as I buy full fat, draw off a litre, then top it back up with water - so it's semi-skimmed. Therefore, the 1l of milk for yoghurt is 'free', I add in 15g of milkpowder to make a thicker yoghurt, then use the starter from a previous batch.

If it keeps working, then it is definitely a :money:way of having natural yoghurt

Greying

Pippilongstocking

I had a whole joke there about fat free and free free. But it was only funny in my head.

Really impressed that you can use something so ingeniously frugal to make something so yummy. It always looks so creamy and lovely. Genius I say.

I'll get back to my bones now

Piquant_2

Hellooooo :hello:I'm back, but I've chosen the wrong night, not sure about the 'turnip treat'. Perhaps I could skip it and be first in line for tomorrow's amazing meal? I've bought my own plate.....

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Hey up Piq - lovely to see you here! Um, but you've not left anything behind now have you... no soopermarket carrier bags or anything....... no?... good.... :rotfl: Actually, I have to say, I think some 'wag' named the turnip dish that, but funnily enough, as we were eating it last night, DP and I both agreed that it was 'more' than the sum of it's parts IYSWIM. Really quite tasty, and because of the carrot, it is orangey, so if you didn't know there was turnip in it, then I'm not sure you'd guess. It's pizza and HM wedges tonight - with a glass of red. Set you a plate eh?

Pippi - I'm loving the experimentation - it's all good

Earlier start for me. So I'd best be quick.

Not going to achieve a NSD today. Most I'll have this month is 16 - but that's only if we don't get milk tomorrow, and I can't see that happening somehow.

As stated, dinner this evening will be HM pizza and wedges. We're looking forward to that

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

Have a great day, whatever you are up to.

See y'all later.

Greying

Karmacat

By gum, lass, I never knew about Stoke!

Mucho admiration for the free yogurt, and for Pippi's joke on fat free and free free

I appreciate what you mean about hunger - I've never gone to bed hungry from poverty, like so many in the world have, but in my teens I'd do that regularly, still in thrall to the "you must be thin" thing, mostly because of all the ballet I did - it was horrible.

I have the opposite problem with my portion size these days

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Isn't it 'flippingfloppingmarvellous' that Piq is mortgage and debt free??? What a way to end a month That gal is an inspiration :D

Isn't it 'flippingfloppingmarvellous' that ninjasavingkat is debt free???? What a way to end a month That gal is brilliant :D

Karma - no, me neither, but I find such things fascinating. We are all so much more 'connected' than we realise. I love regional distinctiveness, accents, idiom and dialect, but there is always a common 'thread' if you look hard enough

Today, in the words of 'Arkwright', has been a 'funny old day'. Lots achieved, but something went 'wrong' (nowt major - or important and it has been rectified now, so no problem ), DP has an issue that I'm not going to go into, but you know them things miners went down... yep, shafts. Well knock off the 's' and add an 'ed' and you'll be in the vicinity. How I wish people would be promoted to line management on the basis of ability, and not on the 'Peter' principal.......:(

To top it off, I have had a 'consolidation' moment. This is not another LBM. This is a realisation that the LBM has occurred, and progress towards it has stalled....... Of course, progress to what we want is 'scary'. And whilst DP is many wonderful things, he is not a planner, not a 'reverse engineer', not an instigator..... that all gets left to me And whilst sometimes DP is wonderfully supportive, just occasionally, when the SHTF, DP's default is to say, 'well you wanted to do it...' - which isn't necessarily what you need to hear... especially if you have perfectionist tendencies yerself........... Ho hum. Perhaps I'm just a little over-tired after a bit of a full-on week.

I found *roadkill* today :j:j a penny and a 5 pence... Technically speaking, I could of got another 5 pence, but it was about 4 inches into someone's gateway, and I felt that picking it up would of been tantamount to theft, so I left it there in all it's shiny glory Still, I am 6p richer than I was at the start of the day

Dinner is cooking away, if it looks ok i'll take a pic, but I warn you now, portion control is outta the window - we're both ravenous!

I'm going to call it a night, a glass of red has my name on it, and I need to chill.

So, today I am grateful for these 3 things;

the sunrise and cloud formations this morning - brilliant colours and shapes that got us thinking of 'purl' knitting and 'waffles' - you'll have to figure out who came up with what....

for MSE - where else would you get people celebrating a stranger's 'debtfreeness' and/or 'mortgagefreeness' with the fanfare it deserves????

for simple, affordable pleasures - a HM meal, a glass of red, the wood stove lit, a film on tape.....oh how that would seem so dull to my teenage/20's self all those years ago :rotfl:

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

See y'all later.

Greying

Pippilongstocking

You're an inspiration too you know

I went into town today for work and hauled passed the supermarket collecting grub for the food bank. £4.17 later I had 90% of what was on the list they handed out and donated it.

Now I'd not have been aware of food banks etc if it wasn't for you so thanks so much.

I've also got a regular 'guest' slot with my leaflets all good.

Hope you have a great relaxing evening you deserve it.

And thank you for sharing the fabulous news from Piq its awesome!

Piquant_2

I'm with pippi, you are an inspiration too greying. I so look forward to your diary and am constantly amazed at your energy and cheerfulness - hurrah for greying:j:j

I don't count myself as inspirational, just an ordinary woman dealing with stuff, that's all. That said I am pleased to completely debt free. I will be keeping a beady eye out for recipes that can be adapted for my new slow cooker

Looking forward to HM pizza, I'm going to skip the wedges as I put on some weight due to stress

rtandon27

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

So, today I am grateful for...

Another here who is grateful for your gratefulness, positivity & cheeriness!:happyloveSuch a blast of fresh air!

We too had HM pizza last night - amazing taste, very healthy & for under £2 we were both comfortably full!

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Aw shucks, thanks Pipster .

Piquant wrote: »

I don't count myself as inspirational, just an ordinary woman dealing with stuff, that's all.

Ain't no such thing...... take a look at your siggie, as if through the eyes of one of us lot..... twill tell you all you need to know

rtandon - you too are so kind HM pizza is great isn't it?

Here's my effort from last night - bit of a close up and it was DP's plate, but yes, quite a big portion. But it was polished off, and as I had as much pizza, but fewer wedges, I am pleased to report that I have already walked the best part of 5 miles this a.m., so I figure I'm some way towards using up the calories



It was only cheese and tomato, but there was red pepper in the tomato sauce - gave it a real 'lift', and seemed much more than a basic pizza. There are 4 slices (of similar size) now languishing in the freezer for other days

Right, so today has already started well. I got to L*dl early and partook of 3 bars of white chocolate for 19p each - not my taste really, but as someone on the F&G thread said, handy for baking. I also got 6 punnets of the cherry tomatoes for 34p each. Now, I know what you'll be saying, 'Greying, why bother?, tomatoes out of season have no taste.....' I hear ya. But I figure that for 34p for 250g, they are way cheaper than the tinned cherry tomatoes (even if you're lucky to bag them from HB) - and yes, of course for canning they are picked and processed at the peak of ripeness and are tinned sunshine, but as I am going to cook with these anyway, and they are going to be frozen first, I figure they are worth a punt. Actually, in the interests of accuracy, I have just gone to taste a tomato. They're not too bad - they do have that slight acidity that you get - you know that you've eaten a tomato. Mmm, actually, i'm well pleased with them

I also popped the last £10 out of the 'social' budget into the credit union emergency fund :j. I was beginning to think that November has been a bit of a dud, what with not meeting the NSD's etc, but do you know what, I have put £20 into the CU from the social budget - we have had 2 bottles of wine and I have bought some beer for 'C' mas and I have bought the stamps for the 'C'mas cards. In addition, one of the younger members of the Greying extended clan had a birthday this month. They were sent a cash gift, which was partly out of the grocery budget, and partly 'haircut' money (my appointment didn't fall in November) - so slight jiggle of budgets needed, but we're still feeling the after effects of the key episode, and are not 'there' yet with having spare cash for every single thing - particularly when the car keeps breaking down etc. And then we also gave our donation to the Food Bank, which came out of the grocery budget. The 'metal money' that went into the emergency fund was a 'one off', but it's nice that the EF was boosted this month. I must update my siggie. Still £390 to 'get' by April next year!

So, in summary; £20 'saved', £30 'earnt' and saved, extra postage stamps bought outright and a cash birthday gift given, a food bank donation made, along with the bulk purchase from the food co-op paid for out of storecupboard savings, and to top it off all other 'normal' bills were paid. That's an example of a 'win' month I reckon

So, all in all November has been better than it 'felt' IYSWIM. October was a better month, but I think that as 'sustainability' is the key, I am still learning so much each month, that it all contributes. Yes, of course it is great if you can 'better' each month on month, but sustaining a good life on a small budget is key for us, so I'll take the 'wins' however marginal Mind you, I do sometimes think that DP is scuppering my efforts, I just happened to be in the right place this morning to stop this weeks TV guide being cast into the recycling rather than last weeks. I think too many pics of pouty brides confused DP a little...... :rotfl:

I'm going to have to give some consideration to what we tackle in December, but also to the bigger picture. I have this niggling feeling that I need to set some 'deadlines'. It seems to be the key factor in all the super achievements that we have seen our friends on here making

Dinner this evening will be curry. I am going to make a new curry for the first time - it is the 'Pau Bhaji' from Rick Stein's India series/book. But I am using a spice mix that I found on the internet, as his relies on a shop bought mix. The actual curry as served in India has 'lashings' of butter added into it and for serving - so please, before anyone has apoplexy on my behalf, a) Rick has cut down the butter in his version anyway, and b) I probably will cut it down further ........

Right, I've a ton of stuff to do, so I'd better get moving.

Thank you for popping in, for reading and for your ongoing support - I continue to be astounded and appreciative in equal measure

See y'all later.

Greying