2014 Frugal Living Challenge

abby1234519

OH and sprog are eating at his mother's tonight. Which means I am left to clean the bombsite of a kitchen. Also realised there is a load of melted lard on the bottom of the oven from yorkspuds. I am hoping its set, easier to scrape off innit.

No tea for me tonight. I'm dieting still! 3lbs down apparently but thats probably all water weight. Having said that I have had a carby dinner every night so possibly it is fat. I'm a chunkymonkey anyway so it better be fat.

I've got a large pack of defrosted pork mince to cook tonight. I was going to do chili etc but I wonder whether pork mince works as well as beef? I've got it in my head that it will go all chewy. Bolognese is our dinner staple. We've lived on it for 7 days in a row before. I just cook it as a mince base and then add cumin etc one night, another night I make lasagne. However it will last longer this time as tonight is my last meal before NO FOOD EVER AGAIN. Maybe not ever again.....I've done pretty well, I'm on my third day or possibly fourth (lost count) of not eating through the day. I've been living off diet pepsi which isn't ideal but its helped me through the initial stages.

Shortie

Afternoon all!

So the mortgage advance come through today - paid my Dad off, and now need to chase down the final quote for the heating work as well as get hold of an architect for the building work drawings

In other news, I'm having a hungry day today - I seem to have a super hungry day after a night shift for some reason.. And I didn't plan to bring extra food with me. My tummy is already starting to gurgle after I ate my lunch at 12 - oh dear. I think I'll hold off another 30 mins and raid the other Mug Shot in my drawer to save myself from raiding the vending machine. And then planning for an early night tonight (she says, knowing full well that she doesn't sleep well the night after my night shift - I see to wake up at bed time???

Roll on Saturday, I've booked and paid for the £1 cinema. Will pull out some snacks for us all to munch, we'll hit the cheapie food shops near by, munch lunch in the car, and then have a free sesh in the soft play (we have membership cards). Only thing to buy there would be a jug of squash for me and the kids, and if Mr Shortie wants a coffee (but will suggest that we take a thermos flask with us and we have a tea/coffee with the food in the car, and see if he'll just have squash with us in there?

SarahB1989_2

abby1234519 wrote: »

OH and sprog are eating at his mother's tonight. Which means I am left to clean the bombsite of a kitchen. Also realised there is a load of melted lard on the bottom of the oven from yorkspuds. I am hoping its set, easier to scrape off innit.

No tea for me tonight. I'm dieting still! 3lbs down apparently but thats probably all water weight. Having said that I have had a carby dinner every night so possibly it is fat. I'm a chunkymonkey anyway so it better be fat.

I've got a large pack of defrosted pork mince to cook tonight. I was going to do chili etc but I wonder whether pork mince works as well as beef? I've got it in my head that it will go all chewy. Bolognese is our dinner staple. We've lived on it for 7 days in a row before. I just cook it as a mince base and then add cumin etc one night, another night I make lasagne. However it will last longer this time as tonight is my last meal before NO FOOD EVER AGAIN. Maybe not ever again.....I've done pretty well, I'm on my third day or possibly fourth (lost count) of not eating through the day. I've been living off diet pepsi which isn't ideal but its helped me through the initial stages.

I don't like beef so have always used pork or lamb mince for chillis etc and it cooks fine!

Apparently diet drinks make you crave sugar (cos your body thinks it's getting it from the drink and gets confused when none arrives) so you end up eating more - if you're just trying to fill up on liquids try water?

DawnW

SarahB1989 wrote: »

Disgusted my flatmate by taking out of date eggs off her when she was going to throw them out - have tested each of them in water and they're all fine, despite being about 10 days over the use by date. Looking forward to a fried egg sandwich for breakfast!

Well Sarah, I have chickens who lay the eggs that we eat, and you might tell your flatmate that, guess what, they don't come out with dates stamped on them :rotfl::rotfl:

Payday today :j and looking forward to doing Feb totals tomorrow (sad, I know )

Small spends today, but no big shop will be needed this weekend after last week's marathon one, as we have loads of food in

lhead123

Happy to report a NSD today and a very productive day too.

Dd was at nursery so managed 3 loads of washing, scrubbed the balcony tiles of all their green slime that accumulates over the winter, made beef stew in preparation for the weekend when me and oh work opposite hours and dont have time to eat together, and raided the freezer and cupboards to make pork stir fry....still got a few beansprouts left - any idea if you can freeze them? Or freeze cooked noodles? I dont want to waste them, but haven't got any , ore meat to make another stirfry until middle of next week, and not got enough fresh veg to make a veggie one!

Im currently at work and left my purse at home so I can't buy anything on my way home. Just got to remember to make myself a packed lunch for tomorrow and not be tempted in Mr T when I do a client's shopping and I should have another NSD tomorrow xx

Florenceem

Managed another frugal day. No spends. Sewed an apron and made two Birthday cards. Plus used up dodgy fruit to make a crumble.

Goldiegirl

Evening - I've been at work today, which, as usual means a NSD.

But work was pretty intense, there's been a few issues during the week, which means procedures have been tightened up, and it's mega busy anyway, being the month end.

The thought has been going through my mind..... Could I retire a bit earlier ? Maybe next spring? Won't make any decisions yet, but it's a thought that is now out in the open.

I've been able to finalise my grocery spending for February - 65% of last years monthly average. So, I'm delighted with that. But the money saved will go towards the car service.

I'm going to read for a while, then get an early night.

DawnW

Goldiegirl wrote: »

The thought has been going through my mind..... Could I retire a bit earlier ? Maybe next spring? Won't make any decisions yet, but it's a thought that is now out in the open.

Why not? I am going to

We won't have nearly so much money as we have now, but we don't need much. Our modest home is paid for, we have some savings and aren't very interested in holidays and buying stuff (just as well, cos we won't be able to afford it). We will go down to one car at some point. I have a small 'sensible' , cheap to run one, and OH has his mid life crisis big truck 4 wheel thingy, which I won't drive :eek:

Hopefully he will grow out of it (where did the roll eyes smiley disappear to?) or we can come to some compromise....

Goldiegirl

DawnW wrote: »

Why not? I am going to

We won't have nearly so much money as we have now, but we don't need much. Our modest home is paid for, we have some savings and aren't very interested in holidays and buying stuff (just as well, cos we won't be able to afford it). We will go down to one car at some point. I have a small 'sensible' , cheap to run one, and OH has his mid life crisis big truck 4 wheel thingy, which I won't drive :eek:

Hopefully he will grow out of it (where did the roll eyes smiley disappear to?) or we can come to some compromise....

Lol, when I said next spring, I was thinking Spring 2015!

Like you we are in a good position, we don't have a mortgage anymore, we will go down to one car, and we have pretty much all we need.

But we would like to do some good holidays for a few years, so I feel I need to boost my savings a little bit more before we finally stop work.

I'll be really interested to read about how you get on when you stop working - you are my role model! :rotfl:

abby1234519

SarahB1989 wrote: »

Apparently diet drinks make you crave sugar (cos your body thinks it's getting it from the drink and gets confused when none arrives) so you end up eating more - if you're just trying to fill up on liquids try water?

Yes they do. However I'm not eating so.......can't eat more if I'm not eating at all!

I'm just not hungry. Which is odd