The Simple Bare Necessities feat. Gratitude & Recipes

in_need_of_direction

I used to think I wanted to be a librarian. By visiting my local library, I discovered it was being used as a free crèche. So not for me.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Up with the larks again! Except i have a little companion this morning...... Still DH's snap is prepped, and I have a cup of weak coffee on the go, so all is well

I have printed off a R0yal ma1l 'opt-out' form to (try) to stop the unsolicited junk mail that they shove through the door. You can only stop it for 2 years at a time, and my period is coming to a close. Not that the multitude of posties that have done this route in that time have routinely bothered to comply with my request. We get a 'regular' for a while - and several have taken note from the start and I've had polite discussions with several and they've done their best to remember from that point on. But all the newbies, subs, temps and 'I'm just covering today' brigade have been extremely lax and just shove as many leaflets through as they can get away with. If you have addressed post to be delivered, and they have pizza leaflets to get rid of. Tough.

I wonder whether with rising prices there will be more junk food/takeaway leaflets, as a basket of shopping will look increasingly expensive against a cooked 'meal' delivered to your door (not that takeaways are cheap), or less. I think I get irked by the pizza ones the most - I can, and do, make my own! Oh, and I'm sure this is UK wide, not just a feature of Greying Town; but the irony of 'fast food' being delivered by a branded franchise of cycle delivery people, skinny in lycra with top notch road racing cycles, is not lost on me...........They are forever schlepping into the king o' burghers shoppe when I pass.

Our tea this evening will be pizza - huzzah! and take that identikit branded pizza producers! I'm going for black olive tonight I think, with YS'd m&$ cheese outta the freezer. I'll need to make some topping sauce though, as I know I've none of that in the freezer. I don't know whether to use some of the remaining m&$ YS'd potatoes - did I say they were lanorma variety? (I've used all the maris piper) to make wedges - or whether to have a bash at 'doing a nigella' to the remaining pack of gnocchi and turning them into roasties? I think, in view of budgetary squeakiness, I'll ere on the side of caution and do wedges. Leave the gnocchi for another conventional meal.

This post must be right boring - BG has fallen asleep on my arm. Why couldn't they have done that in their cot, an hour ago :huh: :rotfl:

Well, my coffee is finished and I don't think I've owt more MS to witter on about. I will carefully weigh up whether to invest some of my 27p in bananas today - it will depend if m&$ have small bananas in or not. I am determined to come in on budget for March though. Going forward, I don't know what to do really. I was chatting to someone the other day about grocery budgets, and said, I wouldn't mind if we ate luxury items every other day, I'd have some metaphorical 'fat' to trim, but our eating choices are pretty pedestrian really. Still, I've have a look back at my purchases for March and see where the money went.

Ta for popping in, reading and chatting. I'm enjoying it immensely.

Greying X

hex2

I went off buying avocados for a while for similar reasons. We also had 4 persimmon go from rock hard to rotten this week - meant to be a boy treat but now in the compost.

I have recently started going to the local libraries - community one in the viallge and in the local town. It's nice to try out new cookery books even if I just read them like novels. I like reading about food a lot, just not particularly actually eating much. What was useful was finding out that (in this county at least) is that you can also borrow eBooks using your library card number and a pin. I've had a few cooking books that way too.

I spent my drop out years working Ina second hand bookshop. It was both awful and wonderful, paid to read but I either spent all of my wages on books or people would buy things when I was in the middle of reading them.

I've noticed that since I have been at home I shop more often, and maybe this is what makes the budget creep up. If I forgot something before then we either did without or I got it in the over priced co op under protest. Someone has eaten all the bananas? Tough. Now I would overshoot from school run to get the bananas, buy three bargains at the same time and cripple my budget that way instead. Hope this makes sense.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

hex - that makes perfect sense. I sometimes think that I spend more on YS'd goods than if they had not been discounted - I buy them and certainly do my level best to utilise them, but had I thought a little more about what I had in stock, or just prepped something simple like soup instead, the money would not have exited my purse. You're right to mention it, because i want to explore every avenue, and be able to say that I am doing my best to be budget concious (without being boring) at all times. Then, if I'm still running out of money, then it isn't down to my management, it is down to other factors which must be explored.

Anyway, the good news is that I got through March with 8p of my £150 food budget remaining :j Now, i know that £150 is alot of money - so in many ways it distresses me that I have spent so much But 1 thing that i am pleased about was that in recording my spends, I have got my budget back under control. In January, i ended up with a £20 overspend (iirc) of my (then) £140 budget. OK, so the budget has increased, but I've stuck to it.

It is interesting noting things down, as you can analyse (if that is your thing ), Although i bought 2 small bananas yesterday (for 19p), we have used them today, so i didn't include them in my banana analysis, but i bought bananas 12 times, at a total cost of £9.09, making my average spend each time 76p, or just over a kilo each time (with current m&$ prices). I thought we were spending a fortune on yoghurt (perhaps we are), but I bought 4 x 1kg pots (mrL - greek style), spending £5.96. I could possibly cut that expense to half if I make my own with uht milk. It is something that I will consider, but also I have to bear in mind that I've not as much time/free hands with a baby to care for. I did however, think that the yoghurt expenditure would be higher, so was surprised. Milk and bread consumption stayed roughly the same, but the expenditure on milk was more, because the price has gone up.

Also, I surprised myself that £20 of 'bulk' purchases had been made in March. I bought 5kgs rice, and of lentils. 60 cod fish fingers for £3.75 (bargain!), 5kg of onions for £1.79 (mrL xxl) and 2 bottles of EVVO for £2.98. all things we will use/have used. It happened they came all at once, but they were at prices too good to turn down.

DH is on board in essence, but he has got used to buying what we're out of. He used to be quite bad with money before we got together, and comes from a family that relied on HP (that dates us!), and weekly payments for things. Funnily enough, over the years he has adapted well to notions of saving up for what you want, and of seeking out best prices (the internet has helped with that obvs), and for substitution. I do think we've been thrown a little by having a baby, but we're trying to get back on track, and I actually think that we're doing well in the broader picture.

I found some lovely clothes for BG in a charity shop yesterday. I had to get on my hands and knees and rootle through the 50p box. For which i got a mix of Primarni, n3xt, mrT (f&f) and mrS(tu) labels - but I went for what was needed and what was in good condition, looking at the size first and then the maker. And the maker is more about the size rather than brand snobbery, certain shops size small. I've got some nice things, with plenty of wear left, so £5 well spent. This money comes from BG's budget, so the food budget wasn't affected.

We did have pizza last night, with wedges. i did take a pic - will post later once loaded up. But the wedges were very well done........

Curry tonight, sweet potato jalfrezi.

I've got to get somethings from the high street. DH has a list of things to get from mrL. April budget spending is underway! Still, we're out of coffee now - thankgoodness there was enough for DH this morning, as there wasn't any left for me

Right, best shift a tail feather and get sorted to go out. and I won't feel the need to visit any coffee shops - t'ain't in the budget! :rotfl:

Thanks for your ongoing support. Appreciated.

Greying X

Cheery_Daff

Excellent work sticking within the budget Greying! :j :j Most impressed

beanielou

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Excellent work sticking within the budget Greying! :j :j Most impressed

As am I

beanielou

https://www.facebook.com/bbcscotlandnews/videos/1513610771996469/?pnref=story

This is the reality for disabled people in our society today.
Makes me sad to be disabled & to be a human being.
I have a pain in my heart.
Please watch it. Thank you.

rtandon27

GP - your grocery budget analysis is most interesting! Just love understanding how others monitor their spends & comforted to know that I'm not the only one who bulk purchases the staples!

Working in the big smoke, I'm constantly surrounded by those who just don't cook at all, have no clue how to manage a household let alone a budget & eat every meal out at outrageous prices. It's always very grounding to come back to the 'reality' of MSE and hear that the art of household management is still a reality!

On that note, off to take stock of the fridge, tally up what's still left & see what can be used up before making a grocery list for the upcoming week! (Rubberizing a chook into broth also in the plans)

ETA - can't remember if I replied that yes sweetheart cabbage is the pointy one & a lovely mild fresh flavour!

Greying_Pilgrim

beanielou wrote: »

Please watch it. Thank you.

I see your point beanie - Claire comes across as a reasonable and rational young lady, who the system has failed. I don't have the answer to how a 'perfectly' organised welfare system would operate to stop people being failed. And there is no reason why compassion can't be built in as standard - lacking compassion does not stop abuse of the system, but surely a compassionate approach makes the world of difference to folks who are required to navigate the system because of their needs. I'm sure rules and compassion are not mutually exclusive, they shouldn't be anyway. But I suppose it is a reflection on our society that organsiations never look at the person sat in front of them, they say, 'these are the rules' and then sit back with pursed lips. I hope that Claire gets assistance to reinstate her payments under the new scheme. I want to live in a society where we have a functional and effective welfare system.

________________________________


We wandered up the high street which was jolly busy. There were several things going on in different places, which was drawing crowds :T and I'd forgotten that one event was on (hadn't taken in the date, rather than forgotten about the event itself), but was totally thrown off track to see a couple of people wandering along in....... do I mean 're-enactment' type clothing? They were somewhere in the 1500's I'd guess. Rather incongruous amongst the 21st century bustle........:D

I steeled myself and walked past several coffee shops...... And then bumped into someone I know who was going for a coffee - and I so very nearly invited myself along...... :rotfl: Resisted though!

We saw Baby Greying's Grandpops, so had a few words, but as we were both heading in different directions and Grandpops was on a schedule due to bus timings, we didn't discuss the state of Brexit.....

MrL is apparently OOS of half the stuff on my list.......*sigh*. I wish they would either stop selling people things (;)), or perhaps twig that they are quite popular, with quite a large customer base and, y'know order more in in the first place........

The fruit bowl is now full, we've bananas, oranges, apples and lemons (?) for a grand total spend of £3.41 - everything except the bananas courtesy of 'ome bargins.

YAY! DH has come home and I've a cup of coffee in front of me :j I don't think I'm addicted to caffeine, but I would quite happily drink ONE cup of coffee a day and eschew tea totally. Tea just doesn't hit the spot for me - I'm weird, I know!

rtandon - I was thinking of you yesterday, as I happened to spot 'sweetheart' cabbages on the shelf in m&$ Mmmm, I've never had a stage in my life where I have been able to afford to eat out all the time. I've had to try to budget (with varying degrees of success, I shall be honest ) all along. I remember when i moved into a bedsit after starting a low-paid job which I had to commute 100 miles a day to, and running out of money for food increasingly earlier as each month passed. Those were cr*p times. But I got through them, and ended up with a better paying job that was based in Greying Town, and which I could walk to when the weather was nice or when I needed to

Right, I had better go, as DH is currently looking after BG (they miss each other so ), but we've both got chores to attend to, so we'd best go and see how we'll divvy the afternoon up.

Greying X

rtandon27

In the spirit of use up what we have, OH delved into another adventure in vegetarian cooking! A lot of work, but this recipe was absolutely worth the (his;)) effort! YUM!

Inherited the quinoa, purchased the creme fraiche (:eek: - not really expensive! - just full price!), bought the brussels on a YS deal:T - everything else from the stores except the sage which is from the neighbour's garden :rotfl:

ETA - oops - cross-posted - scrolling up to have a read...