EH - Keeping on track. (AKA focus Woman! FOCUS!)

EssexHebridean

He'll live Starnac - it's a cold, but a fairly nasty one. Thankfully he's not one of those chaps who tends towards dramatising illnesses - that'd drive me mad! As for blagging the fare - I had little choice, I'd didn't have enough in my purse to get home otherwise! :rotfl:

HOWEVER - I declare today to be a NSD after all - got a lift home! Useful having. Boss who lives one junction further up the motorway than you do. don't be too impressed though - that's only 2 so far this month.

In spite of having spent nothing today, the fruits of some spending in Friday turned up. 3 new bras from the rather wonderful Boux Avenue as recommended by the lovely Souk. She's good, that girl. There were 4 - 1 didn't fit so will be being returned. I'm not constructed in a manner that allows for cheap underpinnings, so £38 for 3 bras is pretty good I think, and all the better as Mr EH is paying £28 of that as part of my Christmas present. Bargain!

EssexHebridean

Bleurgh - I may be losing the will to live already this morning! Female Boss (henceforth known as FP) is being more than averagely demanding - and also slightly baffling - apparently having to drop her children at school and then collect them again means that actually coming into the office is a complete impossibility - but she's only decided to tell me this this morning, rather than yesterday, when she could have done. :mad: This means that today will be taken up with a) a stream of people who were told in good faith yesterday, to call back today, unleashing streams of invective at being mucked about and b) repeated calls getting me to do things that she could do herself in a matter of moments if she was only IN the darned office! :mad::mad: Grrr!

Anyway - on a brighter note - an item that was out of stock when I ordered on eBay has netted me a £5.99 refund into my paypal account, and not only did I get the returned item sorted the other day, I also returned another item from my "rather lovely underwear shop" order which didn't fit right - so that will be £8 refunded to the CC. I'm pleased with this one as it was packed up the very same night it arrived and returned the next morning. For me that's quite astonishing! I also managed to snag one of the free Sky wireless boosters as mentioned on :money:'s email - which might stop our stupid concrete walls giving us problems with strength of signal. Not actually a "saving" that as I wouldn't have paid out for it, but handy to have if it's free.

Food going to plan this week, and netted another NSD yesterday so that's 3 so far this month - not great, but getting there. Tomorrow MrEH's car will require feeding though so there will be a spend right there. Daily steps also going OK - hit my 10,000 again yesterday and will do today as I've parked a couple of miles from the office. Be warned good folk of East London - the weather from approx 5pm - 5.30pm will probably be apocalyptic as a result! :rotfl:

Last nights sausages for tea had two salvaged from the pack to be turned into sausage pasta tonight with the remains of Sunday's roast veggies and a tin of chopped tomatoes. Sausages were £2.50 a pack but are seriously good ones (were bought 4 packs for £10 at the Good Food show in December) and when I can get a pack to make two meals that's pretty good going. I have also started on a meal plan for the next few weeks...will tweak that further, later.

Have a good day, all! :beer:

EssexHebridean

Mr EH is almost fully recovered from his cold I'm pleased to say, and *fingers crossed* I'm doing a decent job of telling the one that's after me to go away and leave me alone.

Another NSD yesterday - that's three this week, however all good things must come to an end as tonight Mr EH's car requires feeding. Should be about £50 or thereabouts and that will fill the tank - for regular mileage we go through a tank about once a fortnight. I'm hopeful that we're only 3 fill-ups off another fuel voucher too - it's as easy to fill up at Mr M's than anywhere else and their rewards scheme for fuel is remarkably generous.

An excellent walking day yesterday too with over 14,000 steps recorded - having walked the nearly 2 miles back to the car from the office I decided to add another couple of miles on by going to collect the train tickets I booked last week on the East Coast cheap tickets deal - so those are now snuggled safely down in my purse. The weather is looking good for our first stretch of Thames Path on Sunday too.

I'm planning a trip to the farm shop for veggies tomorrow - maybe we might make a Supermarket free week this week? Hopefully it will be a minimal spend week too as apart from fresh fruit & veg there's not much we need.

Planned spends over the weekend:
Food shopping
Oyster card top up for travel on Sunday - we'll each put £10 on I should think.
My car needs a headlight bulb - I'll twiddle with it first to see if it's just a loose connection though - otherwise the garage will need visiting as I can't do it myself.
Must pay my tax & NI - although *technically* this is not a spend as such.
Possibly a quick visit to a pub somewhere en-route on Sunday - depends what we find, but there will be a beer each if so. :beer:

Must make a list for tomorrow - I don't work Fridays (Hurrah!) but generally end up having an epic day of rushing about the place dealing with "stuff".

Happy Thursday all!

Pippilongstocking

starnac wrote: »

Wow I can't believe you have half a packet of biscuits that "need to be used"!!! Half a packet of biscuits is not a concept in our house unless one of the kids (probably DS) is using it against me while on the phone to childline

I too have faith that you will reach your MF date. 2017 doesn't actually seem that far away!!

Agree to the MF date!

Biscuits - :eek: the one food I CANNOT have in the house - never mind half a packet. Long story about university and eating so many I put on an extra shoe size (in real life) - biscuits are a no no - Starnac you did make me giggle though:rotfl:

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Oh good, well as long as someone does.... :eek:_pale_:whistle:

Seriously, we know it's possible, it's just whether it's probable that's the question! Anyway, remembered in the nick of time last night that Mr EH was out of the home made muffins he takes for breakfasts so I threw together a quick batch of those. This weeks food will be a potato-free zone - didn't have any but as we DID have rice, pasta & couscous a-plenty I decided against buying any either. OK Pippi - sit down, I know that a tattie-free zone brings you out in hives! :rotfl:

We also have the remainder of a rather lovely "posh" loaf bought from the gorgeous local artisan bakers on saturday, so I have decreed that tonight will be a "things on toast" night - probably eggs. Other planned meals for the week:
Tue: sausages, veg, couscous
Wed: sausage pasta incorporating the remaining roast veg from yesterday
Thur: Butternut Squash risotto - I'll lob some peas into this as well. Hopefully I have arborio rice - if not I'll turn it into a pilaff
Fri: A new recipe to try - Rick Stein's Goat curry from his new India book. :T
Saturday: Tea will be crumpets & cheese - lunch will be whatever I can find as Mr EH will be at rugby
Sunday: too far ahead to think about yet but lunch will be portable as weather permitting we're doing the first stretch of our Thames path walk - dinner might be a slow-cooker creation so we've got something to come home to.

Foods that need using:
The rest of the limes
The rest of the lemons
half a pack of digestives (might be another cheesecake coming on!)
A beetroot
The other half of the butternut squash.
Assorted bready things in freezer and lots of soups bought Y/S'd - factor these in for one meal a week from next week.

Meal plan sounds good - aside the LACK OF POTATOES. Im in such shock I've given them their Sunday name.

And, um, people have nice bread they don't gorge on all at once.

Who'd have known.:D

EssexHebridean wrote: »

I went all the way to Scotland and found you, so I can imagine! ;-)



I have to confess to having awful problems with putting pics up on here - how embarrassing eh?! :rotfl:

There will definitely be beer. Which means we'll get to see Pippi's "Beer Face" - very entertaining, is that! :D

Darn it, now with all you lot subscribing I really have got to stick to this lark, haven't I?! :eek:

Shudders at the thought of more BEER - YEUCH. But I'm glad you get decent entertainment out of it.

I'm glad you found her in Scotland but she nearly didnt find us! Thank goodness she's a persistent sort!

Mucho goodlucks with it all.

:A

Pippilongstocking

EssexHebridean wrote: »

I'm planning a trip to the farm shop for veggies tomorrow - maybe we might make a Supermarket free week this week? Hopefully it will be a minimal spend week too as apart from fresh fruit & veg there's not much we need.


Possibly a quick visit to a pub somewhere en-route on Sunday - depends what we find, but there will be a beer each if so. :beer:

Must make a list for tomorrow - I don't work Fridays (Hurrah!) but generally end up having an epic day of rushing about the place dealing with "stuff".

Happy Thursday all!

A few things

BUY POTATOES dont' make me post some.

Do make a list but dont' do too much, if that is indeed possible

Finally Beer - enjoy and save others from being inflicted by drinking a fair bit of it. Wretched stuff.



Well done on the steps and have a good un.

I was NOT off today but wracked up 13455 steps when out surveying and working. So I'm tired and happy!

Have a great weekend.

EssexHebridean

That step count is deeply Epic Stripes - well done! As for lack of potatoes, the spud shortage has been rectified - a nice bag of Desiree from the Farm Shop - grown on the premises I believe...well, not actually in the shop, that'd be messy! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: at the idea of tatties dropping through the letterbox - wonder what the postie would make of that?!

As for the bread not being eaten at once - their loaves are HUGE - honestly, you just couldn't eat a whole one in one sitting. You CAN eat half a one in a sitting though - don't be asking me how I know this....

Shopping went to plan aside impulse bought cauliflower. That now means I need to incorporate cauliflower into next weeks meal plan. As we still have a cheese-mountain this isn't likely to be massively challenging. Got 10p Y/S'd little pots of single cream too - needed a splosh of it for the curry tonight and will have to work out what to do with the rest. Too good to resist though. Grocery spend was £19.12 but £2.99 of that was Seville Oranges for marmalade so those don't count in the budget. :That means I'm a shade under half way through my budget for the month - which theoretically is worrying as I have 3 weeks of the month still to go...and I want to buy a chicken in there somewhere. Hmmm....we'll see.

Goat curry is in fact simmering away as we speak and smelling absolutely De-Lish-Us! Good old Rick, I do like his recipes. He waffles too - I like a cookbook writer who waffles.

Beer. Good thinking Pippi - I'd better open a bottle right now. :beer: :T :rotfl:

starnac

:rotfl: at you impulse buying a cauliflower!

As for the single cream- ever fancied making your own butter?? I seem to remember Team Pugh doing it I think?

I've never made marmalade. I've made jam quite a few times but never marmalade. Might have to see if our food budget will stretch to some Seville Oranges to make some.

I doubt the postman will be too impressed at carrying potatoes in his sack!

Greying_Pilgrim

Morning EH

So..... the curry??? What was the verdict? Delish, super delish or monumentally delish???? And what beer did you pair with it?

And yes, what has MSE done to us - that we go into confessional mode over the purchase of a... cauliflower :rotfl:

Have a good day

Greying

EssexHebridean

starnac wrote: »

As for the single cream- ever fancied making your own butter?? I seem to remember Team Pugh doing it I think?

We've made butter many times - although it really needs double cream rather thank single, but if we ever see heavily reduced double cream it gets snapped up for just that purpose! easiest method is to use an electric beater to get it to the just "seized" stage - you know the point where you'd no longer want to stick a finger in and eat it. We then transfer it to a large jar, pop the lid on TIGHT and shake like mad - after a short-ish time, it starts to separate. Keep draining off the whey and shaking some more, and you end up with a pat of the most delicious butter! This time last year we had MASSES thanks to MrT reducing 600ml pots of double cream to 3p a pot. We bought about 10!!

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

Morning EH

So..... the curry??? What was the verdict? Delish, super delish or monumentally delish???? And what beer did you pair with it?

And yes, what has MSE done to us - that we go into confessional mode over the purchase of a... cauliflower :rotfl:

Have a good day

Greying

Absolutely right about the cauliflower! I do feel quite content though that my impulse buying stretches to lovely veggies though, rather than clothes, or shoes, or un-needed fripperies! Far more financially healthy!

The curry was beautiful! The only changes I made to Rick's recipe were to substitute smoked chilli flakes for the Kashmiri chilli, to reduce the amount of meat - a kg of goat on the bone became just over 500g of goat off the bone. I also sloshed in a little more cream and reduced the amount of chilli a little. I used tinned toms rather than fresh - and added a half-spoonful of sugar to counteract any bitterness from those. Absolutely gorgeous - declared an utter triumph and I decided I should play it safe and froze the other half of it immediately it had cooled or there was a real chance we'd have the same again tonight! :rotfl: I remembered on looking that I had a pack of chappatti in the freezer too, so we had two of those each with it, and basmati rice. The remaining 100g of Greek yogurt that wasn't used in the curry had a little mint added and became a raita to have with it, too. :T

Beer was had after, rather than with - a Thwaites "Nutty Black" for me, and somebody or another's Green Hop for Mr EH. Both very tasty!

Yesterday's achievements:
Tax & NI paid.
Mortgage overpayment lump-sum made - which has had the current effect of knocking a few more months off...that will go up and down a bit over the next few years though as we start & stop the OP's according to the O/P limit.
New mortgage forecast done.
Money shuffle to take account of mortgage & tax money coming out of the high-interest paying current account - balance now back up to the limit for the 5% interest.

Right - things to do....pottering, mainly! Happy Saturday all!

starnac

thank you for the advice re butter. I didn't realise it should be double cream