woah... are those MY finances??

Fmess

You sound like my double! I plan rooms in my imaginary future house! I used to do it when I was a kid. My gran would draw out rooms and I'd decide where all the furniture would go. I've been known to design a few rooms on the B&Q room planner when I get bored. They show you the finished rooms in 3D, I love it!

I'm going to have to make macaroni cheese! Might see if I can squeeze the ingredients into this week's shopping budget, if I can find some gluten free macaroni

Hope you feel a bit better tomo stewby - big hugs

Night all

PheoniX

Hi Stewby :wave:

I've been reading your thread with interest since day one and wanted to comment on how brilliantly well you've been doing in embracing the whole money saving mission! You have come a long way in a short space of time and you should give yourself a big pat on the back.. :T

Try and keep your chin up Stewby, the debt free journey is full of highs and lows. I think when we take personal responsibility to address and take control of the financial part of our lives, it's an inevitable part of the process to take stock of other areas too which may or may not be related to finances. It's natural to re evaluate where we are, what we want and where we're heading..

I agree that we can't change the past, we made decisions then because they felt right at that particular time. Maybe with the benefits of being older, wiser and more experienced we may have done things differently but then again we live and we learn!

I love your enthusiasm for cooking! My culinary skills leave a lot to be desired but I've already made it a New Year's resolution (!) to start making things from scratch .

Hope you're feeling better and that you have a nice day..

PheoniX

heartbreak_star

I used to hate veg too...but I tried a little bit at a time and realised it's just root veg I don't like!

Can you try and make soup? Home made soup is very filling and will get lots of veg down you.

Liking your diary and I hope you feel better soon, all of you poorlies!

HBS x

stewby

Hi there PheoniX and heartbreak_star... hello again to my usual suspects.


Well... today has been a spend-free day and a bit of a disaster day all in one. My maths is very "off". Bit too chicken to go on the oa thread and admit my stupidity.


Out of £180 left in my budget account at the beginning of the month, I am down to £37.52 (plus I still have the £10 that I made from smush).
:eek:

I think I have forgotten to include my £34.96 spend in new look in my budget which is why it has dropped so much but I am quite gutted as I thought I was doing so well still having half my money left halfway through the month.


I never used to cook at all PheoniX (used to live off sandwiches, yep, not even ready meals and whatever my parents made when I "dropped in" surprisingly at suppertime).


I find batch cooking more fun than normal cooking as it means you are making stuff for later as well. I am honing my skills by baking sweet stuff. (great excuse or what!!)


My dad makes soup and I use my new "blitzer" (got it for xmas from 'santa' last year) to mush up the veggies. My dad makes amazing lentil soup. It's delicious. He made me a big pot last time so I could blitz it and freeze it for later. (afraid I am very spoilt rotten and a right proper daddy's girl which is why he is mentioned a lot).


Feeling a bit rotten still but getting better. Spoke to OH today and hopefully he understands that he was a bit of a plonker. Hopefully good news on the horizon for him too. (fingers crossed).


Hope everyone has had a good day and fmess and scooby are both feeling better today.
hugs.

scubaangel

Don't beat yourself up too much Stewby, this is the first month of properly budgeting and you know about the New Look spend.

My cold seems to be a little better, still got a stuffed up nose and permanent headache but feeling generally better (if not happier overall).

And a big YAY for good things on the horizon for the bloke, and a bigger one for him realising he'd been a plonker. :T

PheoniX

Hi Stewby,

Dont be so hard on yourself, it was a mistake easily done.. Its early days for you yet and all this caper of logging and monitoring everything takes a bit of getting used to!

Your dad's lentil soup sounds fab! And I bet it's even nicer when it's made for you to blitz . I have a favourite lentil stew that I make when I have the time and can freeze 5 portions if I follow the recipe. Chicken pesto pasta is also another favourite for batch cooking. I pop a meal in the microwave to heat from frozen and take it to work in a food flask. I dont know how I ever managed without a flask..

Unfortunately, I'm not as gifted as you in the baking department! My most infamous culinary nightmare was a creamy rice pud that turned into a flapjack! :eek: I dont know where it went wrong but I swear I followed Deli4's recipe to the t!

Although I would love to make homemade soups, Im quite a fan of juicing on occasions as you can get all the nutrients without preparing and cooking veg

Glad to hear youre feeling better, hope you have a chilled night..

PheoniX

Fmess

hey

Don't worry about the budget/maths, my maths always goes wrong (and I got A level maths ). My bank account is empty but according to my OA I should have few pounds left Also my 'house' account looks worryingly full of money, although there are a couple of Dd to come out in the next few days. I will wait and see!

I love the sound of your blitzer. I would make everything into soup! Just batch cooked pesto pasta for lunches

Glad OH has realised he was a plonker, did he come to that realisation on his own or did you spell it out for him? grrr men!

Hope you all have had lovely evenings

stewby

Hi everybody.

This is my blitzer...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hinari-MB280-Genie-Multi-Attachment-Blender/dp/B000GG4MCU/ref=sr_1_1?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1381872375&sr=1-1&keywords=magic+bullet

Well, it's not my exact blitzer, I got one from aldi but it is the same idea (just a bit cheaper). erm, might have been lidl, I always get those two muddled.


To explain my cooking "ability", I will tell you a story about making a roast chicken for my family. Basically, the chicken was so dry it absorbed the saliva in your mouth and grew.


Between that and the vinegar soup (my first attempt at sweet and sour chicken where the cornflour clumped and didn't dissolve so I just scooped it out and served anyways). My poor brother was the victim in that case (he also had the roast chicken).


Think I will update my sig and just come clean on the oa thread. No point in hiding my mistake. Hopefully they will be kind cause I am a wee bit of an eejit normally.


I explained my feelings and OH understood how it had been upsetting. Then we kinda got a bit of progress on the job front so it's been a bit of a better day today.


Back to work tomorrow so will be nice to get a break. (feels a bit weird saying that after my previous job).


Hey scooby... fingers crossed you get a response from your e-mail.


It sounds awful to say but I am glad you are having the same problems fmess. I felt do awful when I saw my balance.


Work is very simple... cereal and sandwich then I have supper once I get home. And I can't be bothered shopping so there should be another three spend-free days heading my way.


Hope everybody is doing well and remembering it is not long until the weekend!! (for those who have the weekend off of course).

stewby

Just writing out my "whoopsie" on the oa challenge and it suddenly occured to me that I am not as horrendous as I thought.

At the beginning of the month I gave £200 to my parents and put £20 in the "holiday" pot.

On the 10th September, I had gone through all £400 of my budget account (although we were down at an airshow and spent the weekend away).
Here we are on the 15th October and if I look at it as a whole... I have only spent £142.50 out of £400!!

That is actually a pretty brilliant achievement for me. So I am now feeling quite good.
:j

Fmess

Well done stewby! That is an amazing change in just one month! Plus just think of all the other good habits; baking, batch cooking, SFDs

I think I've discovered my maths error and it's the OH! He's been boring money from me (again) and I didn't record it as knew he was paying me back (but he hasn't done yet )

Hope you have a good day at work, can't wait to get back home this evening and in my PJs