Extending our house without extending ourselves beyond our means

PurpleFairy26

Quick check in. Done budgets this morning so all straight before payday this week. Few more DD to go out. 

Yesterday we went out for a SD cuppa at a families garden. Was so good for the soul, first time in 12 weeks. Smalls felt like they'd been on a proper day trip out. As we were out for much of the day we didn't get much done round the house, but there's plenty of time for that! Despite being later back than planned we didn't get tempted by any of the drive through places on the way home and had the tea I had planned, albeit a bit later than we would usually eat. (Not that we do drive through normally anyway)

weather dependant this week will be about school work, some gardening and sorting another room in the house when we finally have some storage arrive. Am hoping for some more decluttering, recycling etc... when I can get in there. No point doing it before I have somewhere to put the sorted stuff! 

missymoo81

Hey PurplefAiry, I just wanted to say thank you so much for posting such thoughtfulness on my diary. Coincidentally  I have been reading my way through your diary! I’m currently on page 32! Loving your organisation and ability to make meals out of odds and ends! I’m going to carry on reading until I’m caught up. Thanks again x

PurpleFairy26

missymoo81 said:

Hey PurplefAiry, I just wanted to say thank you so much for posting such thoughtfulness on my diary. Coincidentally  I have been reading my way through your diary! I’m currently on page 32! Loving your organisation and ability to make meals out of odds and ends! I’m going to carry on reading until I’m caught up. Thanks again x

Well done on getting to page 32 🤣🤣 you deserve a medal for that alone! 

I’ve learned so much from this site and my freezer is definitely used to my advantage. Everything gets frozen to be used at a later date if I’m not going to use it now. Even if it’s 2 anchovies from a tin or a whole bag of spinach that slipped through my mean planning. It all gets used in the end and saves a fortune. On the bbc g00d f00d website one of my favourite features is you can put in an ingredient and it brings up recipe suggestions. I’ve found some lovely recipes that way. This week I’ll make Cumberland pie from there which I found when I had a swede without a home! It’s really yummy. It’ll be even quicker as I have topping frozen from last time that was excess. 

Thanks again for popping by. 

PurpleFairy26

Just plodding on this week. Not aiming to achieve too much. Anything that is achieved is a bonus! 

Need to do food order tomorrow for Friday delivery but hopefully won’t be too big as have done a plan based on freezer contents. I have cancelled my veg box for this week too. We still have some left from last week and so need to be sensible, although the raspberries did sound yummy! 

savingholmes

Hope you keep the grocery spend under control. I keep losing that battle. I was better before lockdown - but now I am only shopping once a week I buy more 'just in case' food than I would if I was comfortable just nipping out to a shop. 

debtfreeoneday

I keep trying to use the good fooood app and I struggle with it. Do you use that?

missymoo81

Hey PF, I’m def going to give using the good food website a go. And you’ve just reminded me I need to dig through the freezer and see what’s in there! I hope you have a lovely day.

PurpleFairy26

savingholmes said:

Hope you keep the grocery spend under control. I keep losing that battle. I was better before lockdown - but now I am only shopping once a week I buy more 'just in case' food than I would if I was comfortable just nipping out to a shop. 

I’m getting better during lockdown. There was definitely a bit of that at the start but now I’m back to meal planning and only buying what we need to avoid waste. Difficulty were having is we used to shop at L1dl for most things and then butchers and mr s or mr t for what we couldn’t get. But as we’re shielding we’ve had 1 slot a week which we’re grateful for but due to some items not being available or general stock availability and overall price increases (Without the value to non value sm benefits) it Is just more expensive. 

Am working through the freezer though which helps. 

PurpleFairy26

debtfreeoneday said:

I keep trying to use the good fooood app and I struggle with it. Do you use that?

Haven’t used it in a while but I’ve just been on now - thanks for reminding me about it - and it looks to have had a bit of a makeover, including a helpful ‘cook’ mode which means your screen doesn’t turn off whilst cooking. So will give it another go. 

PurpleFairy26

missymoo81 said:

Hey PF, I’m def going to give using the good food website a go. And you’ve just reminded me I need to dig through the freezer and see what’s in there! I hope you have a lovely day.

I set myself random challenges of eating out of the freezer to get stuff used and on my meal plan. Hope you find some treasurers.