£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

earthgirl

Great food shopping reductions! Hope the work wasn't too bad. Love the idea of turning an oil tanker!

JWPopps

Goodness me you're so busy!! I hope you get a 'proper' day off soon

Cherryfudge

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

As butter is so expensive now, there's a bit of a trend for making your own - ys double cream is ideal - have you considered this, if only for cooking.

I remember reading on here that it's best to wash it after you've strained off the buttermilk (great for scones, as you will know) and then add a little salt. This will stop it going rancid too quickly. It does't keep for long but it's ideal for cooking and you can freeze it (in portions)

Seconded. An electric whisk, large bowl, about twenty minutes and a good book to read while you whisk. Oh, and when it looks like scrambled egg, you're most of the way there. I've made my 2nd batch and would definitely do it often. At Christmas I might try turning the YS brandy cream into brandy butter!

Treadingonplaymobil

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

As butter is so expensive now, there's a bit of a trend for making your own - ys double cream is ideal - have you considered this, if only for cooking.

I remember reading on here that it's best to wash it after you've strained off the buttermilk (great for scones, as you will know) and then add a little salt. This will stop it going rancid too quickly. It does't keep for long but it's ideal for cooking and you can freeze it (in portions)

It won't surprise you to learn that I've made my own in the past. However have not seen reduced cream (in fact, I never seem to see reduced anything good in the supermarket, I suppose I go at the wrong time), so I suspect it would cost just the same with normal priced cream. Will keep an eye out though.

earthgirl wrote: »

Great food shopping reductions! Hope the work wasn't too bad. Love the idea of turning an oil tanker!

OMG client was here for eight hours (about three hours longer than usual for this sort of thing) and it's a flat rate payment, so I really felt like I was working for free by the end! It rarely happens though, so I don't mind the odd time it does.

JWPopps wrote: »

Goodness me you're so busy!! I hope you get a 'proper' day off soon

Me too! I am really feeling it after working nonstop for basically the whole of September. I have another week and a half of being very very busy then fingers crossed it will slack off a touch.

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 33: Day 2

I have my mum here this week, which will take a huge chore burden off me - she is great at getting the laundry mountain destroyed, keeping on top of cleaning etc. Which will really make a massive difference as I still have so little free time.

Hoping to get the website soft launched today (ie it will be launched but I won't go wild pushing people to it for a few days) so I can get some more friends to visit and make sure it all looks good. I'm tentatively optimistic about how it's all come together though.

to do today
1. Plan week.
2. Make sourdough.
3. Make quiche for packed lunches.
4. Weigh ghee.
5. Work work work work work.
6. Stew some of the apples my mum has brought with her - we go through enormous quantities with breakfast when we have them.

to do this week
1. Launch website! Finally.
2. Spend a little time on smaller business - it has been SO neglected in recent weeks.
3. Redo SOA once DH has been paid (assuming pay rise finally comes in!).
4. Prep October's YNAB categories.
5. Start to plan advent calendars and Christmas presents so I can get a handle on spending.

to do this month
1. keep the total spend for the month below £3,500 (last month was miles better than the previous average £3,900, going to try to repeat the feat). More or less on track. Ish.
2. get my new website finished and launched (crosses fingers, toes and eyes).
3. just work as much as possible and make some money back to recover the enormous shortfall that faces us this month! Going better than expected, although still need more work in to actually clear the CC

apple_muncher

How on eath are you fitting your mum in to your house too?

HairyHandofDartmoor

You're doing really well ToP, you're a well oiled machine at the moment . Were you tempted to fake an urgent errand when your customer stayed for so long?

armchairexpert

I wondered where she was sleeping too! It sounds like just the thing you need, though, an extra pair of hands for a while.

And hey, look how good your shopping is now! That's SO good remembering you were spending £600 and upwards once upon a time.

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 33: Day 3

Laughing at everyone wondering how I fit another body in my house. It's small, but it's not standing room only! We have a sofa bed in the living room. It's a pain when we have non-early-rising guests as it puts that room out of bounds (we tend to move down there and give guests our bed if we know they are late risers), but fine with someone like mine or DH's mum, who get stuck into the day fairly early.

Client today, plus a long long backlog of work to clear that didn't get done yesterday due to some bad planning on my part (something I thought would take about 15 minutes took about two hours :eek: ). Also need to do some baking - lots of boring food going into lunch boxes this week!

Hoping to have five seconds spare to think tomorrow, then it will be full on hectic again for a few days, but there is light at the end of the busy busy busy tunnel and I will be able to stop feeling sorry for myself! Going to a conference for the first part of next week, but then commitments ease off massively and I can catch up and calm down a little. Even for me, this month has been frenetic.

Budgets looking a little sad, but less sad than I expected it to. Looking forward to DH getting paid and balancing some of it back out again.

to do today
1. Clean house for client
2. Bake biscuits
3. Catch up on work list
4. Make courgette 'pasta' to have with leftover bolognese sauce tonight - my mum brought some monster courgettes with her.

to do this week
1. Launch website! Finally.
2. Spend a little time on smaller business - it has been SO neglected in recent weeks.
3. Redo SOA once DH has been paid (assuming pay rise finally comes in!).
4. Prep October's YNAB categories.
5. Start to plan advent calendars and Christmas presents so I can get a handle on spending.

to do this month
1. keep the total spend for the month below £3,500 (last month was miles better than the previous average £3,900, going to try to repeat the feat). More or less on track. Ish.
2. get my new website finished and launched (crosses fingers, toes and eyes).
3. just work as much as possible and make some money back to recover the enormous shortfall that faces us this month! Going better than expected, although still need more work in to actually clear the CC

Savertobe

On the client staying too long issue, be clear how much time the fee buys and what the regime is once they are ensconced in your care - i.e. an agenda. Long days do not work anyway people can only take in so much at a time - like you with your super scrimping habits!

Looked at the sourdough recipe and thinking about trying that next time.

Good luck.