No Magic Money Tree....

mardatha

It's sometimes hard woirk at first katie but you do get into the habit of it all. I would sell the RV for a Rayburn or Aga, have wanted one since I was about 5 and used to go to the farm for eggs. I had to help my son with the one they had in the Falconry place he worked, it was coal fired and nobody could ever get it to go. They gave me grouse or pheasant every time I went down there so was worth it...

Katieowl

mardatha wrote: »

It's sometimes hard woirk at first katie but you do get into the habit of it all. I would sell the RV for a Rayburn or Aga, have wanted one since I was about 5 and used to go to the farm for eggs. I had to help my son with the one they had in the Falconry place he worked, it was coal fired and nobody could ever get it to go. They gave me grouse or pheasant every time I went down there so was worth it...

I had a gas Aga in London... completely different heat to the Rayburn, Aga is on HOT all the time, you just move the thing you are cooking around the zones, you can boil stuff on an Aga...and make wonderful toast. The Rayburn doesn't do good toast!

Katieowl

I cracked Xmas Eve and used the drier to make sure we'd cleared as much washing away as possible, when DD came over Friday she'd changed all the throws over the chairs for the weekend so had a bit of a pile!

And when I came down Xmas morning the gadget was already reading that we'd used £2 worth of leccie 😮 OH had put the annex water on so he could have a shower Xmas morning, and also had left the oil rad in the dining room on much higher than I ever have it but we were going to be in there a lot of the day and the smalls were coming so it was ok. He'd layed a fire in the old fireplace, although I had told him that it wasn't safe to light it with the kids about, as it's too open even with the guard in front, but when we were all packed in there he could see it was going to be difficult, so he didn't thank goodness! That's a treat for us today!

I did mostly cook the turkey in the Rayburn although I started and finished it in the fan oven and we cooked the tray bakes of veg in there. By the time I went to bed we'd used edging up for £5 worth of electricity.... but hey back on track today!

I did do the obligatory Xmas Eve mark down run, which threw up some half price fish, smoked cod and smoked salmon, the thick bits you cook. They went in the freezer with some 93p Moroccan chicken thingies, and I got a bag of spuds for 10p. Got OH a pork pie too. There were a few things that I didn't buy, because we'd have no use for them but overall apart from a lot of reduced veg I think the supermarkets look to have been a lot more careful with their ordering this year? Has anyone else noticed that?

I did lots of 'shop at home first' and lots of staying out of the shops generally this year, I dare says lot of other people have too.

Mr_Singleton

K.Mack wrote: »

Have you heard of Tails.com? they tailor make food for your dog and you can choose a gluten/allergy free version i believe.

It is just jaw droppingly laughable how humans have enforced there own prejudices and fads diets on there pets.

Katieowl

Mr_Singleton wrote: »

It is just jaw droppingly laughable how humans have enforced there own prejudices and fads diets on there pets.

My dog S**T's blood if she eats wheat. Plenty of dogs have serious life damaging allergies. It's how we feed them that is wrong. It's not their natural diet.

Katieowl

We dived straight back in using the Rayburn after Xmas, and I've sat down with the Spendy Spreadsheet and studied it in great detail, I'm not sure I can see MASSIVE savings to be made, but it has flagged a few things up.

1) We eat a lot of cheese
2) My Almond Milk and the odd GF treat add up (I'm supposed to be on Atkins so ordinary milk is a no-no, but so are the GF treats) Something to work on!
3) Dogs are expensive
4) My 'other' spends were exemplary considering it was December, and I'm giving myself a pat on the back: Crayons, colouring £4 saved Xmas day with the smalls, diary £1, Amazon P&P for a 1p book, Pack of lighters requested by DS, a bottle of red wine which we didn't drink, £3.99 dog jumper, Pack of stella cider that was reduced £4.20, also not drunk but will be or used for cooking. Pack Xmas napkins which also didn't get used (next year), a pack of welshcakes I included in a posted gift, A Birthday card and flowers (reduced) for DD £5.90, stuff like savlon cream, and a reduced fern for .25p Total spend : £38.25

I made a saving by switching out some of the canned dog food for rice and mixed veg - the dogs both loved it, they thought they were getting hooman foods, and neither of them lost or gained weight. I had to order extra raw food for the other one, because the supplier wasn't delivering to my local pet shop over new year, so that was an extra expense. She's same price buying locally as buying same stuff on line, so I decided to stick with supporting a local small business.

I also saved a lot on the menfolks milk, by switching from the lovely organic local milk - so apologies the farmer for that I'm sorry you had to take one for the team.

We still have plenty of food in the house (cheese anyone?) and in the freezers. I've made another "Not shopping" list of all the veggies and bits to use up. Tonight we are having rice with the remains of DS's Xmas contribution of lovely local smoked salmon in, I still have tons of eggs from the chookies so will add hard boiled eggs, and dill for a sort of kedgeree thing, Tomorrow I am making a roasted cauli curry.... Meal planning even two days ahead is such a help isn't it.

Ending the month IN CREDIT :eek: by the skin of the teeths. But IN CREDIT none the less. Next two months are going to be a real challenge though, because I'm not back at work until 9th and its usually very quiet in the winter months. Working a bit today though have a birthday order to fill for the 31st

greenbee

Well done Katie! Fingers crossed that using up your stores will help you get through January OK, and you can start to build up a bit of a buffer.

What do you use the almond milk for? I use rice milk for porridge, but if necessary will make it with water, and other than that don't really have much use for milk - I get it when I have friends/family over and use it up in coffee, but when there isn't anyone else around I switch to herbal tea. I use longlife milk to make yogurt (much cheaper than buying if you eat a lot of it, less so if you don't eat much as you end up with it going off and having to buy a new starter).

If you can't cut out the things you use almond milk with, could you make your own (almonds are expensive too, but it should be cheaper to make your own and I'm sure you could use the leftover pulp for cooking)?

As far as work goes for the winter, how do you advertise? Could you put some new dishes on the menu either a. hearty warming comfort food (stews, crumbles etc) or b. healthy veg-packed (you could offer low calorie, low fat, atkins-friendly, paleo friendly etc if you're feeling inspired). People often steer away from indulgent food in the NY but if they're on a health kick they might like the idea of controlled portions.

Katieowl

Greenbee I use the almond milk in my tea lots and lots of it, its the only thing that keeps me going some days. I'm going to have another go with a tea that doesn't need milk (Green tea) someone gave me a box to try today. IDK about home made almond milk, as you say almonds are expensive, but I had some lovely home made hemp milk once, that might be a lot more affordable - hadn't though of that - you jogged my memory.

I have a FB page, but I don't advertise as such, because I am where I am on the day I'm there, but I could certainly stick a few fliers about, was talking with someone earlier about other things I could offer. I started doing the savoury food in the winter anyway, as you say people are very health concious after Xmas. One new customer messaged me today to say when I am back (9th) could I bring her 3 X GF bread. I think taking a couple more 'meal' things might be the way forward. It;s all veggie/vegan anyway, and often paleo.

greenbee

I might be worth a bit of promotion, and telling people that they can pre-order if they do it by a certain day (possibly different days for different things depending on how you organise yourself). If you use your FB page you can even let them know what frozen things you have in stock.

Knowing that you're going on the day with a guaranteed number of sales already would be a bonus. Would you be prepared to let people order and collect things outside your regular day?

Katieowl

Well I sort of do that anyway, I've made a cake and four doz mince pies today! I don't tend to sell from the freezer (apart from my GF bread) I've been collaring my regulars and asking if there's anything they want me to bring the following week. Don't think many of the regulars are on FB TBH. We all kind of rely on the overall marketing for the market.