Back to basics with pavlovs_dog: the £6k sprint

Pearla*Merle

Sorry to hear things have been rubbish, pavlov So glad to hear your MIL is ok though & hope the break away was good. Have fun with the Aldee Armageddon shop, I did one of those a few days of those too.

Alchemilla

Thank God your Mum is on the mend. X

in_need_of_direction

Good to see you back and so glad you managed a break. Hopefully March will be better

DedicatedDFW

Hi PD

Hope you had a fab holiday x Sorry to hear about your MIL but good to hear she is on the mend and back home x

Can i ask if you've any tips for bargains from mr A's ?

pavlovs_dog

thanks all.

lovely feeling like I have time to potter today. Doing bits and bobs of school work, housey bits, catching up with the wonderweb etc.

DDFW - I tried a new approach this time of 2x £40 shops (to use 2 x vouchers) to stock the stores back up. The aim is then to shop from what we have in, with top up shops on fruit, veg, milk etc. We're perfectly happy with most of their range TBH, although you do need to be careful with F&V as it doesn't always last as well as you might like. As their popularity and customer base grows, we're finding it easier to get hold of things that we previously had to buy elsewhere (e.g bean/veggie burgers). More than happy to share my receipts and meal plan for the month for people to have a nose. Will post them later on :beer:

pavlovs_dog

Right then, as promised, here are our Ald! receipts.



PC not cooperating, so you'll have to turn yourself sideways if you want to be truly nosey £80.32 so far for March. Hoping to keep remaining shops below £20, should be more than sufficient for fruit, veg and oddities.

We have an unusual set up in that OH and I don't get to eat our evening meal together 5 nights out of 7 due to his shift pattern. This means that our meals need to be things that can cope with being cooked in advance, reheated and, in his case, survive a 10 mile cycle. This is why you will usually see more exciting/complex things on Monday and Saturdays, as these are the days we are guaranteed to eat together. Sunday lunch is something we also sometimes manage if our schedules allow. We're slowly trying to transition towards cooking more from scratch and freezing surplus to create home made ready meals (we bought a second under counter freezer for £40 off fleabay to help with this). Whilst I aspire to be suzy homemaker with all sauces etc homemade, life doesn't always permit this, so we buy ready made sauces, burgers etc as it currently works for us.

To give some context, I've tried to explain where things have come from. In all instances, we'll use up older stock before opening new things.

A - Ald!, AF - approved foods, F - freezer, HM - home made, S - stores, YS - yellow stickered (reduced)



Plan as follows

Tonight - pasty (F/YS), chips(F), beans(S - branstons bulk bought on offer)

Sun - chicken stew (F), dumplings (AF), mange tout(A), swede and carrot mash (A)

Mon - lentil (S), sweet potato(A) and spinach(F) dahl, samosas etc left over from mum's 50th indian snack pack (F), cook at home poppadoms (AF), mango chutney (S)

Tues- pasta (S) and meatballs (chopped up frikadellen - A) in sauce (S) with garlic bread (f)

Weds- corned beef hash (beef and spuds both A), beans (S), poached egg (A)

Thurs-HM chilli (F) with rice (S)

Fri - Battered fish (A), chips (A), mushy peas (A)

Sat - Burgers (A) in (YS A baps from F), sweet potato wedges (A), veg

pavlovs_dog

sorted out breakdown cover. AA wanted £65 to renew OH's policy on our car. Cancelled that and applied under my name. £34 and hopefully £14 cashback, which sounds much kinder to the purse strings. We also get 6 months free of their home emergency breakdown policy thrown in.

now trying to sort out broadband and line rental. Can't make final decision until tomorrow when I've bartered with existing suppliers.

Hurdler

Sound like you got a great deal there!

pavlovs_dog

been tidying up the accounts, which look healthier than anticipated having paid for mum's bday bash and holiday spends out of one paycheck.

Built in OPs, the free council tax payments and a random £50 bring 2014's OP total to £719.72 or 36%.

Lois_E

Hello again PD. Just been catching up with a bit of your diary. Might take me a while to read all of it, but I'll get there in bits and pieces. :wave: