Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2015

Ches

cheerfulness4 wrote: »

. :T


More excitement in the Cheerfulness household, DH has been oftered a permanent contract with his new job (after watching 4 newbies get let go last week we got a wobbly on so he's absolutely overjoyed as he loves his new job)
:j:j:j

Brilliant news. :j

cheerfulness4

misstara- He wishes he'd been able to make the change sooner. We'll never be rich but its lovely to see him so animated when he speaks about work and I love hearing the stories each day, some sad, some hilarious. There's never a dull day.

Hope you got some good reductions there, Lynplatinum. We'd be sunk without the YS's. We eat very well on very little these days. £8.80 sounds like a really good spend!
I constantly amazed at what some spend at the SM. They must have big incomes.

Got my receipts together so here's todays grocery spends.

DAY 19
Money Spent Today - £4.21 Vouchers Spent - £0
Money Spent in Total - £51.07 Vouchers Spent in Total - £5
Money left in purse - £5.93 - Float left- £0/£15
Jan non-foods left- £1.18/£15


I bought 1lt veg oil @ £1, sugar @59p, tin of chopped toms @ 20p, lrg drum black pepper @ 99p, 4pts milk @ £1 and pk bourbons @ 43p.

From the non-foods budget I got 2x fairy liquid @ £2 and pk Oven Pride @ £2.99.

Now the latter was a bit naughty because I've realised I've left myself light in the non foods budget and I've still one more lot of loo roll to go before the months out.
The loo roll is definitely going down faster this month, but we've had a few visitors. Might have to offset that and do a bit of visiting ourselves.
I probably can easily afford to take a little from the foods budget as that's going fine. So long as the final figure comes to £123 at the end of the month I don't mind.:)

cheerfulness4

Ches wrote: »

This brought back a flood of memories as all my girlfriends and I did this in the 70's.

I did the 2 pairs of tights trick, too. Mum taught me to do the thing where you paint nail varnish at the end of a ladder to stop it running as well. I always ended up with nail varnish all over my legs.

vhalla1478

These posts bring back so many memories of the 70's and before! I was of the baby boomer generation but as my mother was a war widow I think all these money saving ideas came quite easily as they were necessities. Both of my children (girl and boy) learnt to cook and sew at an early age, and when my son was in the paras he used to make his fellow soldiers soft furnishings etc - a real new man.

Here's a really quick and cheap recipe. Put on a pan of boiling salted water and throw in pasta. Whilst this is cooking melt a knob of butter in a second pan and chop up a head of broccoli, and half a tin of anchovies. Place in saucepan with the melted butter and dried chillies to taste. Put lid on saucepan and turn down heat to moderately low. By the time the pasta is cooked the broccoli mixture will be ready as well. Mix it all together and enjoy. I've also made it with cauliflower which is tasty as well, although I must admit I prefer broccoli. Cheap and nutritious so you can feel virtuous whilst you're eating it!

Mamma85

cheerfulness4 wrote: »

I did the 2 pairs of tights trick, too. Mum taught me to do the thing where you paint nail varnish at the end of a ladder to stop it running as well. I always ended up with nail varnish all over my legs.

Yes I did this, but I usually ended up sticking the tights to my leg!:o
I wear mine under my jeans to keep warm on the school run so no one ever sees them.

Did some mending yesterday, fixed two holes in my jumper and DD1's glove and the underwriting in my bra, it was poking me, except after I fixed it and wore it, the other side has gone! Typical.

Finally using my (new to me ) bread maker. Ashamedly I've had it for over a year now and not used it once . It was my dads and he hardly ever used it either.
But this morning I'm doing a banana oat loaf it, (with some very old bananas )
It's making some funny noises, so fingers crossed it turns out ok.

I used a similar recipie to make banana oat muffins and they were lovely, even fruit and veg disliker DD2 liked them.

cheerfulness4

Banana oat Loaf sounds lovely. Hope it works out for you.

I remember peeling the crusty, nail varnished tights off my legs, too. The things you begin to remember. The 70's bring back lovely memories.

There will have to be a fair amount of 'making' in this house today. Unexpected visitors coming later and we've eaten most of the biscuits already. We've been so greedy this week!

Eldest DS is coming round this afternoon so I'm going to make my crusted chicken with HM wedges for then. I've defrosted part of a YS tiger bagette to make breadcrumbs and cheese/thyme and lemon with be added to that. I've some cream cheese that needs using so I'll stuff the chicken with that to make it special.

A quick look in stocks under the stairs has reminded me that I have some chocolate caramel dessert kits from AP Foods. I'll make two kits up as they are mean portions and I'll leave those chilling in the fridge for later.

DH got a text last night from a friend who has asked if he can pop round. He's lovely and deserves something more than a Savers Bourbon so I've found some Flapjack kits, again from AP Foods so I'll make up 2 boxes of those and drizzle the little bit of chocolate in the cookery drawer I have left.
There should be enough to send DS1 home a few when we deliver him back to his little flat.

Panic averted then it seems and, with a little bit of work, I won't need to spend anything out of my budget on the treats and I'm minimising stocks that are taking up space I need in this new house. :T

I'm hoping my circular needles get delivered today. I'm itching to get started on my waistcoast.

Mamma85

Well banana loaf is all done, it smells lovely but it's very wee lol.

I'll try self-raising flour next time.

cheerfulness4

I found my cakes came up smaller in the breadmaker, too.


Circular needles just been delivered! Shame my son has also just arrived at the same time and I've cooking to do. Best get a shifty on.

Mamma85

Well banana loaf is all done, it smells lovely but it's very wee lol.

I'll try self-raising flour next time.

Cheerfulness your crusted chicken sounds lovely!

vhalla1478

Speaking of bread makers, has anyone got a good recipe for wholemeal bread and/or onion bread, using a machine? I also have one from a car boot but it came without instructions and I can't find it online.

Part of my new year resolution is not to waste my existing assets; so am now continuing with a Candace Bahouth needlepoint rug that I bought at least 5 years ago. A similar kit, same size, by the same designer is now £575!!! Who can afford to throw away that much? And I've loads of clothes to make for my granddaughters and daughter-in-law. so sewing is most definitely on the agenda.