Spend Nowt, Buy Nowt, Owe Nowt

XSpender

apple_muncher said:

You didn't buy chocolate?!!? I'm cancelling my visit to you!

I’m not much of a chocolate eater to be honest, prefer kiddies sweets, and was trying to avoid piling on the pounds in lockdown!

Plus DH would have snaffled the lot.  He has scoffed nearly all the 24 pack of crisps and all his beer cans in a week and ate half the curry I had made last night for DS and for a meal next week! A tad annoying as he wont go in to a shop as worried about his chances if he caught the virus so I have to do it but the more I go the more I risk bringing it back home. I am trying to go once every 10 days or so.  I went last Wednesday, except for picking up the chips on Friday,  and am not planning another visit until next week if I can help but I don’t think DH will last without beer for that long!  I am also out of frozen berries which I use every morning in my baked oats and in smoothies.  I will have to do some other flavours of oats and have a piece of fruit separate.  I did find a new flavour combination that will use up one of the toffee yogurts I have in the fridge.

We will be back in the garden today as DH is picking up a roller from a friend that will help finish the 2 areas that need turfing/grass seeding.  DS and I will be on soil shovelling duty. I also have cleaning the bedrooms and the loos on my list along with chocolate crispy nest making with DS and remaking the guest bed which didn’t get done yesterday and putting away a mountain of clean laundry.

I have found an easy GF recipe for sweet and sour pork balls which will use up the pork loin steaks in the freezer.  Will have a go at egg fried rice to go with it.  We will have this on Saturday night as a fake away.

I bit the bullet and ordered the enzyme treatment for the carpet.  I went for a large pack size as there is a lot of carpet and the mattress to treat and I am sure there will be further accidents to deal with as the doggie is only going to get older.  I have tweaked the budget and taken back out of the buffer pot the amount I put in from the reduced CC DD.  

I did the meal plan yesterday for the next 2 weeks.  Some days I am having to do a different ‘protein’ for DS as he wont eat onions and peppers but then I won’t eat beef so sometimes it’s me eating a different protein!

M - HM chicken curry for adults/chicken tikka using a jar for DS with rice
T - Meatballs (DH & DS) and tomato sauce/lentil bolognaise and pasta, garlic bread
W - Hunters chicken, sweet potato fries (adults) chips (DS), corn on cob and peas
Th - Sausage and leek slow cooker casserole (adults) Mince and dumpling (DS), mash, carrots, broccoli 
F - Traditional Good Friday Fish and Chips (delivered this time)
S - Sweet and sour pork balls, egg fried rice (prawn crackers if I go near a shop)
S - Chicken with stuffing, roasties, parsnips, carrots, broccoli and gravy.  Christmas pud or sponge pudding for desert with brandy sauce/custard

Breakfasts are baked oats, bagels, toast or cereal.  Have some baby spinach to put in some smoothies but no berries!  Lunches are sandwiches, soup, cheese on toast, omelette.

HairyHandofDartmoor

Can you hide some of the crisps and beer to stop DH consuming them all at once? I used to do this when my DH and the DC behaved like gannets. I would leave a week's supply in the kitchen and hide the rest. If the kitchen supply got eaten within a few days then people had to go without. When the week was up I'd restock from my secret stash. I did this to save money, but in the current circumstances it would avoid the risks of going into supermarkets.

XSpender

HairyHandofDartmoor said:

Can you hide some of the crisps and beer to stop DH consuming them all at once? I used to do this when my DH and the DC behaved like gannets. I would leave a week's supply in the kitchen and hide the rest. If the kitchen supply got eaten within a few days then people had to go without. When the week was up I'd restock from my secret stash. I did this to save money, but in the current circumstances it would avoid the risks of going into supermarkets.

I only bought 1 pack of beer today and hid the crisps or DS wont get a look in!

XSpender

As I was going to the local co-0p to buy beer for DH I did the shop I would have done towards the end of the week so I didn’t have to go twice.  It’s certainly not cheap in there!  I bought my Mum a box of her favourite chocs to send in the post as a treat and so she knows I’m thinking of her even though I can’t see her   They come in a plastic case (the ones the ambassador spoils you with ) so should survive the journey.

DH has done a great job with levelling the ground with his friend’s roller and has another big patch where he pond was filled in to do today.  I have priced up turf for both areas, approx £150, which can be delivered next week (or Saturday for an extra £30) but we would need to use the buffer for this.  There is also another section about half as much again that needs to be cleared before turfing.  We cleared another border yesterday and DH started edging the paths but the tool broke and will need to be replaced as we have metres and metres of edging to do.  DH found one on line for £26 but we haven’t ordered it yet.  Even with the turf and he tool it will cost us less to do much more with the garden than what we were going to pay the gardener to do before lockdown.  I want to amend the garden design I came up with to place our bench where the sun hits in the morning, not sure how to fit this in yet 🤔 The garden is a priority for us this year as we are due to remortgage to a new deal in November and the garden was mentioned negatively in the valuation last time.  And we still haven’t done it!!!!!  I am not expecting to implement the full garden design this year as we haven’t go the funds for lots of plants, a path and a patio but it could look a lot better than it does with some graft and a reasonable amount spent on it.

We finished tidying and cleaning the conservatory and it was lovely to sit in there yesterday and read my book.  

The carpet treatment stuff I ordered is arriving today so will treat the landing carpet and the mattress first.  

God, I make our house and garden sound like a right mucky tip, it’s not the bad, honest!

I will have to log on to my work laptop today to submit my CC expenses and have a catch up (social) call with my team.  I will have to attempt to do something with my hair first!

DH has discovered he likes my baked oats so I have made him blueberry and lemon this morning and I am trying toffee and Nutella with a banana on the side (3 syncs).

Hall, landing, stairs and breakfast room on the cleaning rota today and those Easter cakes still need to be made.  DS wants a hand finishing some Lego he started at Christmas and I should attempt to clear some ironing now the washing is up to date.

XSpender

I had a panic on this morning when I had a second look at the wee cleaner that arrived yesterday.  They have sent me the one designed for artificial grass not carpets and I was worried that I had ordered the wrong item as it cost quite a bit but my order clearly shows the same product code but without the AG at the end. Phew!  Emailed them this morning to request new delivery and pick up.

DH friend asked for his roller back yesterday as he had turf arriving today and shared the details of where he ordered it from.  DH rang them for a price at half 6 last night and as they are local it is coming tomorrow at a fair bit less than the figures I had been quoted on line.  It is embarrassing that this work in the garden has needed doing for 4 years for one part and 2 years for the other and will take less than 2 days work and under £100 to complete.  It’s going to need some watering with the lovely weather we are forecast.

I didn’t need to amend the garden plan to move the bench after all as it will get sun where it is but have added a short path around the existing rockery (reusing existing slabs for now) that we were going to remove and changed the shape of one of the borders.  We want to erect approx 20ft of fence as a screen across about half the back of the garden but this is the only significant spend still to be made.  We can’t afford the £100s worth of plants plus a new patio and new paths this year with the big drop in salaries and redundancy looming we would want to complete the new design.

Tidied up and renamed some of my YNAB categories this morning and moved the buffer money into my regular saver.  I will have to set up another savings account to put the rest of the EF in as I would like it out of our bank account.  It is not that I am tempted to spend it, one of the benefits of using YNAB is that you rarely look at the account balance, just what’s in your categories and the EF sits in it’s own category.  I want to see it’s positive greenness next to the negative redness of the debt accounts as it will encourage me to add to it.

I have underestimated what we will spend on food in lockdown and need to increase our budget from somewhere.  Yesterday another £30 was spent yesterday on Easter chocs and 2 GF tiger bread as well as some other stuff.  Everyone must be baking as the baking aisle was barren and I have run out of vanilla essence so will have to do without.

Kitchen cleaning on the rota today and I still have a pile of ironing to tackle.

apple_muncher

I don't think it's embarrassing at all, that the work has needed doing for a few years. I'm not going to confess how long our new bathroom suits sat stored under the stairs before we had it installed...

XSpender

apple_muncher said:

I don't think it's embarrassing at all, that the work has needed doing for a few years. I'm not going to confess how long our new bathroom suits sat stored under the stairs before we had it installed...

Glad to hear its not just us 

New wee cleaner coming tomorrow.

I am so glad I put the casserole in the slow cooker this morning as I am shattered tonight and my back is sore after I laid almost all the turf myself, trimmed (with kitchen scissors!), rollered and edged it.  I really enjoyed doing it so soon took over from DH who got to do about 2 strips  It looks great and we keep looking out of the window at it 

Apple crumble in the oven for pud and hopefully I will manage to stay awake until the end of master chef.

Suffolk_lass

Re shortage of vanilla extract - have you considered making some? if you have an empty jam jar and some vodka, the quickest way is to use a couple of vanilla bean pods and either split them and scrape out the seeds (and add them and the pods, cut into pieces to the mix) or cut them down to fit in the jar (splitting is quicker). Put them cut side down in the jar and cover them with vodka (not flavoured) and each time you go past, turn the jar a couple of times. It takes just four weeks to turn it into extract but if you leave it, it is significantly better after a few months. Cheaper and better. Needs must, as they say.

Best to water your new grass first thing and at dusk for a few days until the roots stretch down and get going. No walking on it yet!

XSpender

No vodka in the house SL but I hadn’t realised it was so easy to make so will consider making it in the future.  I have had to miss Worcester sauce out of yesterday’s casserole(used BBQ sauce instead), desiccated coconut out of a curry and vanilla out of my baked oats this week and I haven’t noticed much difference to the taste in any of them TBH and they are all recipes we have on a regular basis.

Not sure what we will do today except water the grass and enjoy the sunshine.  DH will potter in the garden, the front needs some light weeding, and possibly continue to jet wash the paths/patio in the back garden.  I do need to wash the conservatory, kitchen and bathroom floors and will clear some of the ironing pile I have been ignoring all week. I will also do a load of washing. DS and I will make some mini egg cookie bars for snacks. I think we will have a more relaxed day today as we could do with a rest!

The chippy closed on line orders by the time I got around to ordering last night but can ring up from 11am. I am hoping I can get a delivery.

Work have emailed to see if we want to not use our co cars for the furlough period with a possibility of not having to pay BIK. I would definitely take this option as we can use DH car and it would increase my income over this period.

apple_muncher

Good news re the car. Sounds v sensible!