Back to basics with pavlovs_dog: the £6k sprint

DedicatedDFW

Hi P_D, Popping in to wish you a Happy New Year - hope 2014 is a happy, healthy and prosperous one for you x

DedicatedDFW

pavlovs_dog wrote: »

I've begun researching veggie meals but a lot of what I've found so far have been recipes for meat free variations of dishes that usually center around meat, rather than anything groundbreaking IYSWIM. Will happily share recipes as and when we try them though.

I know exactly what you mean P_D

Calfuray wrote: »

Hey Pavlov

I had the same problem when I lived with my uncle, he was a vegetarian who didn't particularly like Quorn/meat substitutes!

Things we made:
Pea risotto,
Leek and Azuki bean soup,
Cheesy courgette bread,
Sweetcorn and courgette fritters,
Sweet potato burgers,
Cannelloni, (spinach/ricotta etc filling)
Puff pastry parcels - with spinach/pesto/tomato based filling.

Ooh thanks for these ideas Calfuray :T

nattypants

Happy New Year Pavlovs:j

I don't know if moneycurious posts so much nowadays, however she used to post some fab veggie recipes

pavlovs_dog

happy new year all, hope you enjoyed your celebrations last night.

another lazy day here whilst I still can. Pottering about in the study trying to discover the desk and floor space that I know is in here somewhere

Put up two of the light fittings that we had for Chrimble, so the hall is looking a bit more fancypants than it did before (we've been in the house 3.3 years and still have just bulbs in some rooms as I refuse to waste money on things to 'make do' until I find things I like. My mother has taken to calling me a minimalist ).

Had £40 cashback from Quidco (from purchase of B&C insurance), so first OP of 2014 has been made and we're out of the starting blocks

greent

Hello Pavlov! I shall be following your new diary with interest

pavlovs_dog

January's Jaunt to Financial Frugality

Trim the fat
* No spends on clothing or toiletries - shop the stash!
* Groceries - run down existing supplies to lower food spends. Aiming for sub £160
* Lunch to work - 20 days
* Collect food and petrol receipts to track spends
* find best deal on airport parking, hotel and travel insurance for Amsterdam trip

Getting shipshape
* money diet to ensure best value for money on all outgoings
* shop around for landline and broadband deal, both end mid Jan
* read up on Dave Ramsey's 7 steps, as recommended by Alchemilla
* establish realistic budget for 2014
* get recommendations for tradespeople to come quote for building works

pavlovs_dog

study slowly beginning to resemble a study rather than a dumping ground. Trying to use the 'touch once' system to deal with things. Also slowly beginning to de-Christmas the living room... I feel like the Grinch!

Need to try and find my non-festive avatar and actually change it back this year

running SB in the background - if I can manage 45 SB a day (normally aim for 30) I'll be able to cash out a £15 Am@zon voucher at end of January (slightly cheaper than 3 x £5 vouchers). Also trying to catch up on diaries and steal ideas :j

pavlovs_dog

finally finding a bit of motivation!

After an argument with their website, have booked airport parking for our trip to Amsterdam (got 10% discount through airport mailing list). Have also booked a lovely hotel. We always stay slightly outside the city in order to get the best hotel possible for our money. For those of you who know the city, we'll be staying by the Vondelpark which is about 20 mins stroll to the city centre but very near a lot of the museums we want to visit (pinterest now allow you to pin to a map which is great for visualising the distance between attractions). I usually book through hotels.com, but had a gander at quidco beforehand to see what the cashback rates were. Got all excited when I saw that laterooms were offering 12% compared to hotels.com's 8%, but on clicking through discovered they wanted £30+ more for the same room :eek: Settled on 10% cashback through expedia, with nectar points to boost.

clever timings of flights with my new friends Stelios means we have 4 and a bit days to take in the city (price of flights vs cost of hotel meant price difference for an extra night was negligible). Flights, hotel, airport parking and insurance works out at just over £192 pp. Money to pay for it is coming from my 'pocket money' account (general cheapskateness + leg injury + school inspection lend themselves nicely to not spending money so it has built up over the past few months).

just spending money to sort now. Also need to research whether we will get value for money out of the iamasterdam card scheme. Imagine we will buy at least a one day pass, we always pack loads in when we use these schemes (dublin, edinburgh, NYC to name a few we've taken advantage of).

kansaskitty

Congrats on the first Op of 2014, wahoo! Feels good, doesn't it?

You lucky bean going to Amsterdam! That's a fantastic price, I take it you must be going school holidays!? I wanted to book somewhere to go away for our first wedding anniversary in July but even cottages in he UK are coming out at over £400 for the week, without petrol to get there! I think they put the price up for dog friendly cottages, grrr! Our dog was our bridesmaid at our wedding ha so we definitely want her there on our anniversary trip... Without kids, our pets are our world!

Well done also on your SB and de-cluttering, a good job jobbed. Let us know what you think of Dave Ramsey's seven baby steps, I really liked them and tweaked them last year to make five of my own. They went out the window though I must say, ha! KK xx

Calfuray

Glad everyone liked the recipe ideas.

Thanks for the Super 6 link, think I may have to pop by Aldi tomorrow. Very jealous of your cheap holiday pavlov, sounds amazing!