Back to basics with pavlovs_dog: the £6k sprint

Pearla*Merle

You lucky thing, I wish I could find an envelope with £110 in it! I haven't even found a single penny on my decluttering mission, what's wrong with the world? :rotfl:

pavlovs_dog

just a quick check in. Sticking to the meal plan is going splendidly, as is taking my lunch to work. I'm also eating much better as a result which is an added bonus. Provisional back-of-a-beermat-plan-from-the-top-of-my-head suggests next weeks grocery spend will also be around the £20 mark.

I'm managing to keep up with my revised Swagbucks target of 45/day (in order to cash out £15 am@zon voucher at end of month). Adpoints also going well, got maximum of 250 points for Sunday (which counts as first week as it resets at 23.59 every Sunday) and have managed 195 so far this week. Each 500 points is worth £2.50, so another slow burner but it all helps.

currently putting feelers out about exam marking. They're not currently recruiting for my subject, but hold all applications on file until jobs become available.

today is our 4th consecutive NSD, although I'll need gogo juice for the car tomorrow else it won't gogo much longer/further!

hope you're all well. catch up properly on the weekend no doubt (when I should be writing my yr11 reports :whistle: )

Alchemilla

Doing brilliantly Pavlovs. Xxx

glitterjunkie

Well done on the meal planning and bargainous weekly grocery spend! I think we are trying to do similar in really cutting back on groceries as this is 1 area which can easily creep up without you really noticing isn't it? Freezing things isn small portions sounds good

Im off to look at this Swagbucks you speak of now!

kansaskitty

Great updates, keep on keeping on!

pavlovs_dog

glitterjunkie - happy to refer you if you want, PM me

pavlovs_dog

glitterjunkie wrote: »

Freezing things in small portions sounds good

like ice cubes of wine

(before anyone is :eek: at the thought of leftover wine neither of us like to drink red, we only use it for cooking :beer:).

Calfuray

pavlovs_dog wrote: »

like ice cubes of wine

(before anyone is :eek: at the thought of leftover wine neither of us like to drink red, we only use it for cooking :beer:).

I do this with ice cube trays of pesto, if I open a jar and won't use it up in time

Alchemilla

Brillant idea.

pavlovs_dog

survived the first week back, although I'm yet to get back into work mode. Need to up the ante now - mocks to mark and reports to write today, coursework and assessments to mark next week and a parents evening on Thursday to contend with. Busy, busy, busy!

I've kept up with adpoints and swagbucks through the week, and have also done a p!necone and yougov survey. adpoints seem hit and miss on what you can achieve week by week, but am on target to cash out £12 @amazon voucher on SBs at end of month, and am toying with numbers to see if I can sustain it on a monthly basis. Would certainly be a big help towards Chrimble if I could have £160odd 'free' money at my disposal :think: I was also referred by one of the lovely ladies here to register to do a form of mystery shop for the post, shall see what comes of that.

I remembered my lunch all 5 days, so am 5/20 on January's target. We stuck to our meal plan all week, and have again planned this week's shop around using up what we already have in. We will easily be able to do the same next week, so we're on track for a low grocery spend January. Food wastage has vastly decreased as a result, and I'm less freaked out seeing a very empty fridge come Thursday, safe in the knowledge that we know exactly what we'll be eating to last us until next food shop.

This week's grocery total came to £26.74. We will need more milk so it will rise by about a quid. Made the mistake of shopping too late in the day yesterday. No YS bargains and s*d all fruit and veg left Fortunately our route home took us past a!di, 2 L!dls and MrM, as it took 4 shops to get all the fruit and veg we wanted. We did take advantage of cheapo bangers at L!dl and have bought a chook which I will SC and strip the meat to freeze in meal sized portions as we have plenty of sauces in the stores that require chicken. £3 well spent as it will balance out over the next 2 weeks or so.

Meal plan for the week

Sat: veggie burgers, potato salad wedges
Sun: gnocchi in sauce, garlic bread
Mon: Roast dinner with Pork chops
Tues: Veg tagine and cous cous
weds: chicken supreme and rice
Thurs: macaroni cheese
fri: curry and rice

In a bid to decrease use of cling film and tin foil (for £ and green reasons), we're making better use of tuppaware to store leftovers in the fridge. Used some christmas gift vouchers to get one of THESE today for storing cold cuts etc

In other news, my clever OH taught himself some basic electrical wiring and changed a light fitting so he could put up another of our christmas light shades in the hall this week. He isn't particularly practically minded so is proud as punch that he managed to do it all by himself :T