"Treats" we can't enjoy anymore

Ticklemouse

I've tried the Tesco HL ones - but wasn't that impressed - maybe I'll have to adjust my tastes on baked beans. The kids didn't like them either. Haven't any left to compare, but what I used to do was mix one tin of HL with one tin of Tesco ordinary - that made them palatable and would reduce the amounts of salt/sugar per portion somewhat.

Mrs_Thrift

spendaholic wrote:

Thanks Squeaks and Mrs T.

I've not had to give everything up because I'm a boring ol' fart and don't drink or smoke or anything like that. But I am missing my takeaways - although it's not the takeaway itself, it's the not-having-to-cook-it-myself I'm missing. I'm a bookaholic and have had to curb my spending there, which I'm only managing because I have a whole library of unread books. So I'm getting around to those now, too.

So I'm cheerfully missing things at the moment.

I know what you mean about missing the not-having-to-cook bit, but making batches up and putting them in the fridge / freezer for another night is an easy way around that, then you only have to re-heat things. Mr Thrift and I don't mind having the same thing two nights running sometimes, so I can make two pasta bakes at the same time (which takes just as long as making one), stick one in the fridge, then the next night we just add grated cheese to the top and bung it in the oven. Mr Thrift even manages to grate the cheese, hehe!

(I shouldn't be so cruel to him, he's actually a good cook, and does his fair share, but I'm enjoying trying out new things at the moment, so tend to do most of the cooking, often making it up as I go along!:D )

Lillibet_2

Spendaholic

If you are still enjoying your takeaways (for whatever reason;) I'm with you on the no cooking thing by the way) and they still fit into your budget I wouldn't worry about giving them up. There may come a time when you naturally don't find yourself enjoying them anymore, in which case you'll start to make alternative arrangements whiout really thinking about it but don't worry if this doesn't happen:beer: .

On the books front, when you get around to needing new reading material try investigating yoru local libaries (mine are tiny & rubbish for what it's worth but not everyones is) & I find Amazon market place a great source of cheap(er) books which I can re-sell for very little loss or even sometimes a profit, also there are a couple of online book re-cycling schemes on the net where people share books with each other for the cost of the P & P etc. Sorry, no links to hand but I bet someone on here will have them?? My biggest book problem has been learing a little patience & waiting for paperbacks instead of rushing to buy the hard backs, I'm hoping my impending new arrival will cure me as I probably won't have time to read for the next 10 years:eek: As long as he doesn't arrive before I finish the new Harry Potter......Oh and I will need to find time for the new Patricia Cornwell novel later this year.......Oh and.....Oh this is going to be impossible!!!!

needmoney

I don't think this is off topic but if so sorry.
Did you see that show last night where the chap spent £200 on eye cream!!!!!:eek:

When she downgraded him why didn't she just take him to Superdrug or somewhere to buy cheaper products, he obviously was not the kind of person to seriously long-term take to making his own.

Also if she was really genned up she should know that the experts say there really is no such thing as 'eye creams'. From what I've read time and again the skin under your eyes, although thinner is no different from the rest of our faces.

spendaholic

Thanks again!

Mrs T: This is what I have been doing - making sufficient to last another evening. And I suppose I'm secretly enjoying it as it's good fun seeing how to save money and eat good food at the same time. Sometimes we'll eat things 2 days on the trot, but more often I'm cooking stuff that can be saved a little longer or frozen. I'd started by buying readymade meals at Tesco, but that was just stupidly expensive.

I've been on here exactly one week now (bows), and I'd already detected this as a problem and last week and this week we've gone all week with just Friday as takeaway night. And am I looking forward to that this evening!

Lillibet: The book thing is where I struggle with my conscience - a bit like free range eggs v basics eggs. As a struggling author who has had to "go back to work" I hate to deprive fellow authors of their hard-earned royalties - and only about 1% are in the high earning bracket that makes headline news. Most of us plod on earning between £5k and £25k a year. Every time we buy a secondhand book we are lining the seller's pockets and not the author's. Nobody thinks twice about buying CDs or paying for downloadable MP files because, after all, these artistes need to earn a living. But the same people don't seem to think that authors need to earn a living.

Don't get me wrong, I think that book sharing and all the other things you mention are highly commendable and a great way to get people reading. But personally I'd rather go to a library if I was skint because at least that way some authors get what's known as public lending rights, which can earn extra cheques of between £40 and £4k per year.

I also donate all of my old books to libraries too, as they're not given much money to buy books any more, favouring computers and the like instead. At least this way those few authors who are elligible for plr get a bit extra, even if it is only about 4p per book.

Ebooks are much cheaper than real books, but my "habit" requires me to touch and feel those crisp, clean pages ...

But yes, I have to let my conscience argue with my pocket on both the books and the eggs issues.

Curry_Queen

spendaholic wrote:

But I am missing my takeaways - although it's not the takeaway itself, it's the not-having-to-cook-it-myself I'm missing.

I also miss the not-having-to-cook as we used to have a fair few take-aways, at least 1-2 a week ... but I'm with Mrs T on this one and when I cook now I make double and freeze half so on my bad days I can just grab something from the freezer and re-heat it, which means not only am I saving money but also still eating healthily too

You can probably gather from other posts that we don't even enjoy take-aways like we used to now we've got used to HM food, and I never thought I'd ever say that

Give it time and take it a step at a time and I bet you you'll be posting similar comments in a month or two

Curry_Queen

spendaholic wrote:

As a struggling author who has had to "go back to work" I hate to deprive fellow authors of their hard-earned royalties -

You'll be pleased to hear then that books are another thing that I just can't give up and as long as I can afford it I do buy new

I've just got this thing about being the first person to read a nice clean crisp book, and I'm also very anal about not bending spines or turning page corners, so after I've finished reading it still looks as new and sits proudly on my bookshelf

I have bought books on Ebay, and currently ploughing through the Helen Forrester series I got there recently, but in hind sight I wish I'd got them new off Amazon (probably paid just as much 2nd hand!) as they are rather old and a bit battered and are the type of book I'd want to keep and re-read again at some point

spendaholic

Curry_Queen wrote:

I've just got this thing about being the first person to read a nice clean crisp book, and I'm also very anal about not bending spines or turning page corners, so after I've finished reading it still looks as new and sits proudly on my bookshelf

Oh, me too! :T

And if I find I've accidentally bent a spine, I'm mortified.

My grandma used to instill in me that books were very precious and should be looked after. I loaned her one of my hardbacks once, when she was quite old, and I caught her not just dogearing a page, but bending back the corner to half way! After I'd finished screeching at her, she said: "But that doesn't damage the paper like dogearing does." What?!

Galtizz

Curry_Queen wrote:

Ooooo yes that's another one we no longer buy! DS used to run down the shop for a tinned Heinz sponge if we fancied pudding but now I can make one just as quick in the microwave and add whatever flavouring I like to it


... and much cheaper too!!!!

Any chance you could post your recipe in the recipe board?

I haven't had a Heinz pudding in ages and now I'm craving one :rolleyes: don't want to BUY one :eek: but don't know how to make them


Oh, and getting back on topic I miss being able to go out for a meal. I don't miss the expense but the food is all oviously frozen and full of e- numbers, salt and it all tastes horrible now.

Lillibet_2

I'm completely the opposite, I like my books to feel "read" & loved:o , a well read book just looks like it's been enjoyed more. I once heard a story about a house bound reader who used to send her family off to the libiary once a week with instructions to bring back a "nice dirty book"! No not a Jackie Collins, but just a very well read one, as she took this as a sign that it had been enjoyed by lots of others & was a type of recommendation!


Spendaholic, I take your point about authors royalities, it's something I hadn't considered in the past & you have a very valid point. I have previously donated unsold/unwanted books to charity shops or hospitals, I will investigate if my libriary wants them in future. However, the illegal downloading of music relates to illegal copying of the music not re-selling, you can still legally re-sell cd's, music etc on the same basis as books without the artists receiving royalties. Afraid if it's a choice between affording second hand or going without instead of new I would still default to second hand, surely an authors work is better read for no profit than not read at all if it comes down to a hard choice?

Have I gone totally off topic now.......sorry Squeaky, consider my wrist slapped:p