EH - Essex > Hebrides...the next step of the adventure?

savingholmes

Meal preparation sounds good. Hope you find some calm space over the weekend

foxgloves

It sounds as though you cook in a similar way to me, @EH.....lots of little bits & bobs frozen rather than wasted, then fished out for stock & soup making & batch cooking. It's so helpful to have some days where a home made 'ready meal' can just be fetched out of the freezer & heated up. We have surplus milk atm, so that will mean either a rice pudding or a batch of Cranks' creamy onion soup.
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milann

The cooking all sounds delicious……can’t beat hm stock for a base for soups and stews 👍

EssexHebridean

I love HM stock Milann - but when we’ve only got one freezer in operation I can’t always find space for it. I froze our last two chicken carcasses though with the idea that I could do what I did today - yank them out, and then immediately make soup with the resulting stock. Foxgloves it’s such a fab bonus to have little oddments in the freezer ready to add to stock isn’t it - and small bags of veggie trimmings take up so little space! My aim is to have very “low pressure” meals for next week - and to make sure anything that needs cooking sooner rather than later is used, of course! SH I had a little bit of extra calm this morning for sure - woke early as something had disturbed MrEH - I went back to bed for a while although he decided to stay up (it was 0645!) and didn’t wake again for another two hours! 

A bit of a spendy day today but all cash so no impact on banks. £7 on groceries at the market - a good haul though - 2 big bags of crisps for £1 , 2 boxes of decaf teabags for £1 a box, 2 pouches of mixed rice & grains for £1, a big bottle  of washing up liquid (made from fairies 😉) for £2, and 2 bags of Bombay mix for £1. Also picked up a couple of tubes of toothpaste for £1 for both, and 2 bars of nice chocolate for £1 as well. We also grabbed a tray each of Busy Lizzies and trailing lobelia to brighten up our pots - MrEH has already started popping those into various places. 

Soup was cooked (and partially eaten) at lunchtime - and also made another two tubs for eating another time which have been frozen. There’s two tubs of chicken stock added to the freezer as well for future use. Tomorrow’s stew for lunch is in the smaller slow cooker now ready for switching on overnight, and I plan to make the pasta bake tomorrow morning. 

The other spend today was to fill MrEH’s car with diesel - painfully it’ll need filling again next weekend to drive back up from Devon though. We could have got away with not doing it until the 1st but decided we may as well just bite the bullet and use some of what remains in the joint account to get it done. 

I did meter readings last night - it looks like currently we’re still using a little under our existing DD amount each month. I’m still trying to think of further ways to cut down on use, but of course when like so many of us on here you’ve been looking to drive bills down for so long already it gets increasingly difficult to to work out where anything more can be saved doesn’t it. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Suffolk_lass

I know what you mean about the lack of wiggle room to drive down costs of energy further. I read an interesting article in The Times Money section yesterday on this subject. Crucially it did not just look at the usual things like boiling the kettle with only the water you need; it also compared the cost of stove-top vs electric kettle (conclusion = gas hob cheaper but electric kettle probably more environmentally friendly) also slow cooker vs oven - oven may be better for less than an hour as SC takes 8 hours typically at 80w. I might see if I can reproduce it on my thread if time later

savingholmes

I agree on budget wiggle room. I'd already downshifted most of my grocery products. I'm actively managing my energy and water use. Already minimise trips out to minimise fuel - although trying to have more of a life so that fluctuates. No longer carrying debt (outside the mortgage) is a big help. Definitely being rewarded now for extra frugality earlier. Sales of stuff also help - must find more to list.

Glad you got some extra sleep. Sounds like you got good bargains recently too. Enjoy your day.

EssexHebridean

There is no question in my mind that frugality with a longer term vision in mind - like paying off debt, or overpaying a mortgage by making small savings here and there in the budget - pays dividends. It worries me that people who were starting to think about doing either of those things but won’t now be able to pay as much will now feel it’s not worth it at all, though. We started off OP’ing the tiniest about in the mortgage and were absolutely astonished how much difference even that made once applied over the full term - and that in itself acted to spur us on. 

Sorted out some more garden stuff this morning - yet more cutting back of the winter jasmine - it’s glorious but does seem to grow at about twice the rate it’s possible to keep it trimmed. MrEH dealt with planting out some more of the nasturtium seedlings and the final few tomato seedlings - he put the chard in as well although to be honest it’s looking so leggy we’re not convinced it will do anything. I also gave our bay tree a good haircut on the gate side - I cut it pretty hard flat on that side to stop us getting soaked when we pass it after rain! I’ve also made the pasta bake ready for tomorrow - there was enough sauce left to freeze a pot full so that’s another “make ahead” of a time consuming sort of job. 

Now off to Mum’s for more clearing and sorting! 

foxgloves

Am convinced winter jasmines have triffid genes. We knew our big one at the front would be lost to the builders' digger, but as it was one I'd had for ages - the original was in my parents' garden & had been there since we were little - I took 3 divisions from it. I gave one to my sister & can report that the two which I replanted against the new fence are already kicking out new growth. I expect they'll be triffidding all over the place again within a couple of years.
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Suffolk_lass

Ooh, I like the new word; triffidding (watch out for future use)

milann

My ds had 1 tiny winter jasmine along a rather long fence……by dividing and putting a stone over low branches that rooted easily and were later  transplanted…..the fence is fully covered in just a few years. That little plant certainly paid for itself 👍