I have lost my OS ways, help!

moments_of_sanity

joedenise wrote: »

Caterina - I made the butternut squash and lentil curry last night which was lovely. Both DH and I also had LOs for lunch which I have only just had. I don't usually eat as late as that but didn't get back from shopping until about 1.30 and then DD2 called to chat.

I've still got another couple of butternut squash ripening on the window still but they're not as big as the others we've had so I may use both together and do a bigger batch than usual which will mean a couple of meals into the freezer for DH and me. Not planning on cooking them this month as I've already done my meal planner up to DH's payday so not needed, but of course they keep for ages once they're ripe.

Denise

Joedenise, do you have the recipe for the curry at all please or could you point me in the right direction. I have a butternut squash and lentils just waiting to be curried.

Any ideas on what to do with 5 kiwi's? I bought them for my DD and she has 'forgotten' about them but I don't eat them as they are so would need to use them to make other things.

A lovely quiet day for me, finishing of a few Christmas place mats that I am making for a friend. A chilly day here too and haven't seen much sunshine so hoping tomorrow will be better and I can get some washing done before the weekend starts.

Next week DH's pay goes up by £1 an hour and I can't tell you how welcome the extra money will be, i think I might try and put a little bit of it into the savings account as with DD being at Uni it has been dwindling a little. We can't afford to send her a weekly allowance but we do buy her a few bits here and there when we can, this week I bought her a cheap phone as hers keeps going wrong and my lovely Brother bought her a printer so DH suggested we buy her some paper and some ink for the printer, hopefully that will mean she doesn't need to do a 45 minute round trip walk and pay 7p per sheet she prints. Some of her handouts are 50+ pages :eek:

villagelife

The good news this week is my car passed MOT with no problems so cheaper than I thought it would be.
I am today spending most of the day in the garden hopefully. I am thinking of building a dry stone wall to continue a small section of wall already built - I have plenty of stones to build it with. I have looked on youtube.
This weekend I will sort out more books for the hospital league of friends for Monday aswell as making christmas pudding, making soup for lunch next week, rake up the leaves to make leafmold. I must also tidy up the garden for winter.

Caterina

Good morning,

MOS you can use kiwis in smoothies, with banana and orange juice (dilute with water for less sugar content). Or just chop and add to fruit salad. Glad to hear about your DH's pay rise.

Villagelife excellent news re MOT! Enjoy your garden wall building (I am envious, could not build a wall to save my life!).

Yesterday I did not do much as I did not feel too well, but today I am better and planning to walk across the Heath to return the books to the library and get some more.

I don't think I want to do much more than that, just potter until this afternoon, when I have counselling with DH. We are going to leave it, we feel that we can iron out issues ourselves and don't want to take this space from others who might need it much more than us. So today should be our last session, freeing Friday afternoons, which is nice as all other weekdays afternoon or evening I have babysittings.

If I manage a NSD today I shall have accomplished my 10/10, I don't see why I shouldn't but it is a pity I did not manage this before, as the library cafe has the loveliest homemade cakes and tea at incredibly cheap prices, run by a charity that does reminiscence for older people. Ah well, better for the figure!

Tonight we will lie low as we don't want to be disturbed by the Halloween nonsense, trick or treating etc, as in the past we had eggs thrown at our door. So, early dinner and watch a DVD that I got out of the library a couple of days ago.

Tomorrow, 1st November, is the day that we can "officially" switch on the central heating, although it might not be necessary because it is so mild. But DS might feel different, he feels the cold, being so thin!

Have a good OS day.

moments_of_sanity

Caterina, sorry to hear you didn't feel too good yesterday. I hope today is a better one for you.

We have beautiful sunshine here and it is lovely and warm so I had a cuppa whilst sat in the garden. It looks such a mess now with everything dying back and desperately needs a tidy up. I would like to get some cyclamen and a few other winter flowering plants but can't justify the cost at the moment, why is it the garden centres always sent you good offers when you don't have any spare money! I have a £5 off a £25 spend, if only I had £20 spare! :rotfl:

DH's car taxed for another year and all paid in full so very pleased with that. My little car only costs me £30 in road tax a year so I am always shocked at DH's road tax bill but he assures me that £180 for 12 months is cheap :eek:

Dinner tonight is a takeaway treat of sorts, I had to pop into A$da's yesterday and saw that they had a takeaway meal for 2 priced at £4 so decided on that, looking forward to it and will certainly be making the most of it as I haven't had a 'takeaway' in a long time.

Right, off to tackle some weeding in the garden, hope you all have a wonderful OS day x

joedenise

MOS - I actually use a Slimming World recipe for the butternut squash and lentil curry but found one on the Nigella site which is similar: http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/butternut-squash-and-red-lentil-curry-2777; I also make my own curry paste rather than a bought in one. The one is use is from the BBC food site http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/how_to_make_curry_paste_37065.

Making it this way means that it's Free on SW!

Found a couple of wrinkled red peppers in the fridge so have just turned them into a red pepper & lentil soup. There are about 6 portions there so we'll have some this evening for supper; some for lunch tomorrow and the final 2 portions can go into the freezer for lunch sometime next week.

Denise

villagelife

I spent the day in the garden - I started building the wall not fantastic but relatively stable and is in a part of the garden in front that people won't be touching/leaning on it. I also swept some of the leaves up but it is a massive job.
I had to buy my roadtax yesterday and it felt strange not being given a road tax disc.

The sun and warmth yesterday made me feel so much better than I have been and felt stressfree for the first time in ages.

Today I am planning on spending more time in the garden and I will make the soup I didn't get round to yesterday.
This evening we are going out for a meal with friends we haven't seen in a while but I have allowed for it and it shouldn't cost too much.

Caterina

Good morning,

MOS, thank you for your good wishes, I am ok now. A takeaway treat sounds good, at least for once you don't have to cook and can put your feet up and relax!

Joedenise, you have inspired me now, squash curry it is, for my dinner!

Villagelife, yesterday was total bliss, the sunshine works miracles! How easy was it to buy the road tax? I have read reports of confusion and website not working.

Well, another month, another challenge or two. I signed up to the Grocery Challenge for £270, but £70 of this are specially earmarked for bulk buy if I stumble on an offer or decide to get a large bag of staples, grains or pulses.

Also a 10/10 NSD challenge. It will be rather challenging because I am away in Italy for 6 days and these will all be spendy days, and not for the household, but for DH and myself (think pizza, ice cream, wine etc..) but also small gifts and flowers for my aunties and cousins. Can't go there, be fed and watered and hosted, and not give gifts. They don't expect it, I know, but I want to.

Today I am going back to my monthly knitting club, after several months, as I can't stand knitting in the summer. The jumper I am making is made of chunky natural yarn and I just could not touch it in the hot weather.

Then back home, probably will help the men with some more DIY, does it ever end? Then cooking squash curry and watch the DVD I did not watch last night because I was too tired.

I might pick up a few veg bits in w8rose if I find stickers on them, otherwise it will be bottom of fridge veg to accompany the curry.

Ah, forgot, before I do anything else I need to hang the hm yogurt to drip as it came out too liquid.

Have a good OS day.

villagelife

Road tax was easy to buy on line. Really just type in the number on the renewal letter and confirm a couple of pages and then they take your money!

DS2 has just left to buy bits for costume for the party he is going to this evening. He was planning on leaving early and feels he has done!

sammy_kaye18

*skulks back in*

Hi all
Remember me? I well and truely fell off the OS wagon with an almighty bump!

So I am back and Im enjoying catching up on the thread. Things changed for me. I got ill with labyrinthitis in July last year which meant I had to leave my job, think vertigo, light sensitive, anxiety and sea sickness all at once......yay!
So I am now jobless, partner is still full time emplyed so thats something.
My little baby Holly is now 4 years old! and in full time school and Benjamin (the little baby I just had when I originally joined) is starting comp in September, hes now 10.
Oh yeah and I am now a MRS! :T Me and Owen finally tied the knot on September 26th 2014.

Anyway my story atm is I am in debt but rather fortunately it is not vast amounts (but its enough for me) I owe about £2,500 but I am currently unemployed due to ill health and awaiting hospital appointments so cant look for work either.

I do buy shop own brands

i am making use of the library for books for the kids and activities

my neighbour who I have helped out the last two years (she had a nervous breakdown) has given me her netflix account details to use so we have films available and do have film nights in

we also make use of local community fun days/library days etc which are free activities for the kids to enjoy.

This christmas I have set limits for the kids - £80 for my daughter and £150 for my son (daughter is 4, son is 10) but these are absolute max and so far have spent £20 on my daughter and she wont need much more as I have used freecycle, local selling pages etc.

I am looking at things I have to sell or list that I dont really use so will list them all to make a little bit of money back on.

I do need to cook more from home but I wish I could batch cook but I only have a fridge freezer with 3 small draws in - I did debate looking for a freecycled or cheap freezer/chest freezer so I can stock up on reduced items as well. I did have a large 140L chest freezer a few year back but when I got ill I could no longer really afford to keep it full so I sold it.

I am also hoping to make a few christmas items for the kids - stockings, pyjama pants etc as I have gotten a free sewing machine off freecycle too.

The council have just fitted me a new heating system and are putting up scaffolding on Monday to replace my cavity wall, reskim the outside of the house and fit a new roof so I should be heatproof well over the winter

I do make sure the bills are paid first. My husband pays the rent and takes care of all the car bills ie insurance, tax, tyres, petrol etc as I dont drive and my main bills I pay are council tax, water, gas, electric - my theory is the council tax/water/rent keep a roof over our head and the gas/electirc keeps us warm and fed - but these are all higher than usual as I am paying off debts (so I should pay £115 council tax, £40 gas, £40 electric and £45 water but at the minute I'm actually paying £140 council tax, £61 gas, £67 electric and £92 water until next year to cover arrears)

Heating only goes on as little as possible,

I dont have a bathtub only an electric shower.

I have blankets on the sofa and the kids have onesies for bedtime,

I have a tumble drier but try to use the airing cupboard, over radiator driers and washing line as much as possible still.

I take advantage of free things the school/library etc offers to get me out of the house so I dont have to worry about heating etc being on in the day.

Also I have two dogs who are good hot water bottles



My OS plan of action for tomorrow is

1. List the cupboard items and see what I can use to meal plan for the next week

2. Make a list of debtors and how much I owe. I will ring up tuesday morning (when kids go back to school) to sit and tell them my circumstances and make minimal offers - at least paying something is better than nothing. One debt would you believe is for £49 (its old rent we owe) so I will make a minimal payment but try and get this paid fairly quickly and then I can up payments for the next smallest debt and so forth - at least then I am paying something to most of them.

3. I will make a spending diary.

Im looking forward to rejoining you all again back on the boards.

x x x x x

bellaquidsin

Good to see you back Sammy, Congratulations on your marriage. I hope you will soon be well again and able to get the OS waggon back on the road.


Bellaquidsin.