The Simple Bare Necessities feat. Gratitude & Recipes

rtandon27

Hello GP - just popped in to catch up on your goings & doings...

Thanks for the Q prompt - just checked & a whole 1 pound was sitting there waiting to be claimed :rotfl: - now winging it's way to my account...

Over the years, I've had about 40 to 50 a year out of them until the past couple of years, with more and more items not tracking correctly! Not worth the effort to chase them up TBH as the price I've bought said item at has been the lowest anyway & amount of cashback due was just the 'cherry on top'.

Last year and this, more has gone to the premium fee than I've received back...:o ...so a reconsider of the worth of their services is in order...

Here is a link to downgrading your account, should you feel the urge to follow through - looks like it can only be done near or on the anniversary date of your account...

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

beanielou wrote: »

Thank you thank you thank you for your donations.
We have just had to have a big drive for food as we were so short of so many things.
Those pies are always very popular.
You are awesome.

Aw, beanie, shucks i'm very sure I'm not awesome , I get mucho, mucho things wrong, mucho, mucho of the time. I enjoyed putting together this donation - which is NOT halo-inducing, i genuinely got satisafaction from working from the most-wanted lists and seeing 'how much' I could get for my ££. Whilst I don't eat meat, I never buy things that I wouldn't consider eating myself, or which are of dubious quality (if meat), so it gets quite interesting. There's no denying, even with the internet, the research to get the most value for money is time consuming, and you have to have access to a range of shops to really get best bang for your buck. I will be the first to say that had I tried to do this using only one of the 'big four' supermercados, my donation would have been 1 maybe 2 bags (bearing in mind, tins are heavy - boxes take up space, so bags are not full to overflowing), and not the 7 bags for life that I achieved with a bit of thought. I was pleased to be able to do it - you know, like knitters love knitting for charity, or runners enter marathons to raise a bit of dosh



Although I forgot to add that I did the totting up this afternoon, and I had managed to only go 51p over budget with my buys. It then occured to me that I had bought 5 additional 'bags for life' from h3r0n and mrT to give over my donations, so actually, I was within 1p of my budget - and it seemed to be quite a 'worthwhile' amount handed over. Well pleased- in a non-big headed/blowing own-trumpet way - just feel that I achieved what I set out to achieve :j:D


Mmmm. rtandon, I think the 'anniversary' route is probably the way forward - it's obviously not crystal clear from the sign up that you can either have 'premium' or 'basic'. Which to be fair to tcb, i think was more obvious (i had the basic account with them). I'm not sure there will be an anniversary of my membership - i'm not the kind of consumer that they are looking for........


Goodness today has flown. I think that I remember at least 2 minutes of the day where there wasn't rain, the threat of rain, or mizzle in the air.........


Tea this evening was earthy red wine risotto YES! on.a.school.night :eek: A darn tasty dish My wine was mrL, mushrooms mrAl, stock cube mr0x0 (heavily reduced in..... h3r0n? HB?), and my risotto rice mrL. Oh, and a tip most definitely picked up either from JM herself, or from a comment on her website/twitter a/c was regarding the stock cube. i happened to have a veggie 0x0 cube, the suggestion was, that the foil is not just wrapped around the cube in the most efficient form. If you gently (without tearing) peel the 'corners' away from the cube, to look more like a 'crisp packet' you can then 'crumble' the stock cube, whilst it is still encased in it's wrapper, and then tear a corner and let out the powdered stock cube. Dear reader, let me tell you that this approach works :j Definitely a tip that i will use here on in Thanks Jack & followers!


I picked up some tinned potatoes for salad today from mrAl (mrL have stopped stocking them ), and also in £stretcher, I picked up some miso sachets. I think you are supposed to make soup out of them - or a drink (think vegan bovril). They were out of date (OOD), so were only 10p for a pack of 10 ORGANICK sachets funnily enough they are promoted as 'road trip refreshment', so we'll see if they make the cut for later in the year. I'm pretty sure it was...... redofromthestart that mentioned the 99p 'miso noodle' kits in £stretcher some weeks back, so thank you for encouraging me to scour the shelves to see what else was available And I have seen those noodle kits in other supermercados for their 'proper' price :eek:


Today I am grateful for these 3 things;


a car to pootle about in

BG being remembered/fussed over/thought well of............ [:o:):D]

achieving summat meaningful.


Ta for popping in. Appreciated. Greatly. Always.




Greying X

EssexHebridean

Oh Greying that made me laugh - I used to do that with stock cubes (when I used the oxo type) absolutely years ago - I think that was probably a long while before Ms Monroe had even picked up her first wooden spoon, and certainly before she grabbed a pen with her other hand...! As soon as they stopped using straight foil and went to the packet form, that was always the way forwards. Doesn't work so well with the knorr type though, the softer ones, although even those you can mash about a bit which helps them dissolve.

in_need_of_direction

i thinly slice the knorr ones

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:


We've been mostly keeping out of mischief, keeping to the bright side of the road, and remembering that life is for living and having fun.


We went on a day trip out on Saturday. We got a tip-off about an attraction from a Forum chum, and have been trying to get there since about April time. Each time we'd decide to go, it would either blow a hooley or lash down with rain. Not so good for experiencing the attraction, and for certain sure, not good for travelling in. Anyhoo, Saturday came and the stars aligned and the sun shone, so off we set. We called into the local market town first. We perused the chazzers - nowt doing tho - and then we went round the market. DH got some new socks :j :rotfl:and we had a good rootle thru the contents of the hardware store - but bought nowt We decided to partake of some light refreshment, and whilst the 'markethall caff' was an awfully strong contender at 70p for a mug o'tea and 40p for a slice of toast (thick), we ended up heeding advice over-heard on the street to try out the church coffee morning offa the market square. Whilst I made the mistake of asking for a 'cuppa tea and a cuppa coffee' - so got lovely teacups and saucers (mugs were actually available), our whole bill for 1 x tea, 2 x coffee, 2 chocolate cup cakes (so well decorated), a fruit bun and pick of the biscuits placed on each and every table was....... £3.40. Wonderful. Lovely tasty home-made cakes, and good hot tea/coffee, and a warm welcome from all the volunteers helping out :T


The attraction was a few miles on from the town. We had a real old-fashioned day out. There was limited technology - although the receipt machine was whizzily wirelessly connected to a tablet (I'm easily impressed by little things - humour me ), there was no 'licensed character tie-ins', and no need to 'exit via the gift shop'. It was just a chance to enjoy the experience, the location and being together as a family. Priceless. We took a pack-up lunch and found a shady spot (needed in the el-scorchio sunshine :cool:) to munch it, whilst the entertainment literally 'came to us' and we just watched the world turning, watching other people messing about and having fun (and cheating massively ), swayed to tunes from 'hits-ray-dee-O-FM', or the valiant live performers when we could hear them above the radio outside broadcasting blast.......It were just like glasto......... :rotfl:


Food - well the grocery budget had been holding up quite well. But I've now £1.50 left I'm a bit niggled, as I've tried everso hard this month to rein in spending and have used up loads of stuff out of storecupboards, the freezer etc (about the only thing I'm grateful to the pants weather for, in all honesty). But it's only the 25th and I've £1.50 left!!!! Having said that, I HAVE funded, almost in it's entirety, my exceptional donation to the 2 FB's. That was a quarter of my budget. I had intended to fund the donation from another source, but I wanted to see what I could achieve with the June budget. I'd like to say that I've not much more food to buy until the end of the month. But we're all but out of spreadable butter/marg (marg when budgets are tight, spreadable butter at the start of the month........), and I'm responsible for providing lunch for chums this week too......... I'm still going to try to keep my 'overspend' to a minimum. I've stuff in that will still make decent meals.



We've been eating a variety of stuffs - we did have cardboard box fish, oven chips and mushy peas on Saturday night, which I was welcome of the simplicity of preparation, after our day out. I used up all the mrM 15 various weight FR eggs that I got for £1.85. One day to the 'BB' date, I used the last 2 eggs. They both 'stood up' in a jug of water (but didn't float), but smelt perfectly fine when I made them into omlettes. I also boiled 2 for egg mayo sangers on Saturday, and they did NOT burst in the water, so they get the thumbs up from me Pity MrM isn't my go-to store for shopping tho. But I would get them again, if I was instore.


Tea tonight was a curry plate. As I got another punnet of cherry toms for 99p, I made Thakkali (tomato curry) which is a recipe of R1ck St3in's. I've only ever made it when I had home-grown tommies or when I've fallen on YS'd tommie bounty. I certainly wouldn't use vine-ripened tomatoes for this curry myself......... Accompanying was lentil dhal and boiled basmati. BG had a small ramekin of dhal and eventually ate it all up.........



Currently I am grateful for;


Simplicity

opportunity

creativity


Ta for reading. Appreciated.


Greying X

rtandon27

Good to 'see' you GP & thank-you for the lovely little story of the comings and goings 'chez toi'

teapot2

Sounds like a lovely day out and all the better for not being tied in to lots of merchandising etc :j

Suffolk_lass

All sounds good GP and there is a small amount of relief that the eggs stood the test of time. I don't often recommend things and even less often do people follow my suggestions so I did feel personally responsible for their quality. IYKWIM

Greying_Pilgrim

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

All sounds good GP and there is a small amount of relief that the eggs stood the test of time. I don't often recommend things and even less often do people follow my suggestions so I did feel personally responsible for their quality. IYKWIM

I do love, but they were good for the price. My only observation, would be on this occasion, I think it was something like 8 days left until the 'BB' date, from the day I bought them. I used 15 eggs in that time, as I made cake and a couple of other dishes that involved eggs - plus we had egg-mayo sangers twice. Normally, I might struggle to use up 15 eggs in just over a week - as BG won't eat them anymore [rollseyessmiley], but that may have been 'one of those things'. Perhaps I get a box another time, and there is a longer date on them. I don't mind using older eggs - as long as they are safe to eat, which is what has irritated me about the mrL eggs that are supposed to be 'plenty' in date, and yet are clearly acting like 'older' eggs, full of air and apt to explode on boiling.



So thank you for the tip - it was and is, appreciated


Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:


I feel a bit of a fraud reporting in to say that we had cardboard box fish, oven chips and baked beans for us tea, after having a day out! This is a MSing site, after all!



Whilst the fish and chips were bought out of July's grocery budget this morning, the only good thing to add is that h3r0n had the Av1ko brand oven chips back in stock :j they are our favourite :j They didn't have much of a stock of fish fingers in though, and I think £2.50 isn't the best price for 20 'unnamed' fish from the Grimsby processing company.


But our fish supper was nice, and quick to prepare


we spent the afternoon at a local(ish) open garden. It's one I've been wanting to go to for years. We didn't go last year because of the heat (very open spaces, and not alot of shade), and were wondering about this year. However, whilst my perception of not much shade proved correct, the heat was manageable, and cloud cover provided relief from absolutely searing sun rays (although I know it's still a danger). Admission was very reasonable for adults (think a cup of coffee at one of the high-street chains), and kiddies went in for free. There was plenty to sniff, touch, look at, and play on. We discovered that BG isn't too keen on getting overly close to horses, but likes to talk about what horses do very much..... :rotfl:


Tea was a bit over-priced (cups too small!) and the cake - whilst homemade, was a bit dry, and again, over-priced - but certainly cheaper than alot of the high-street chains....... still, we paid our money, ate our cake and drained our cups



We enjoyed time out together as a family, making memories, and all for the cost of a splash of fuel in the car and what amounts to the price of a cinema ticket in some parts of the UK......


I've certainly not done very well at this MSE lark in June, although technically I did come in under budget on my groceries. But I wanted to come in under budget and buy the exceptional FB donation...... But I no longer think such things can be done. Food is expensive. We waste very little, I could run down stocks to virtually nothing, but I don't think that would impact much on what I would then spend each week/month. I do try to meal plan, we do have 'simple' dishes, and we do try to eat from the main food groups - with the exception that we don't purchase meat.


I use up things well out of date - but don't expose others/BG to such dare-devil behaviour, so again, little of what we have is wasted.



I don't know what the answer is.


Today I am grateful for these 3 things;


family time


being amongst the birds, bees and trees... horses, frogs, butterflies and sheep........................


DH's hard work on an ongoing DIY project


Thanks for popping by. Hope to have better :money:reports in July........


Greying X