Let's do this!

Lilith1980

Thanks Beanielou

Lilith1980

Well, I dragged my carcass out of bed this morning. I really didn't want to go back to work!

I really need to be more organised when it comes to lunches/dinners as I find myself running round like a blue-ar*e fly in the mornings making my lunch when I could do it the night before. I'm going to start batch cooking mine and hubby's lunches over the weekends. I can't do it this month as we didn't buy the ingredients, but I've already put some stuff in the shopping for the end of this month so we can have rice, chicken and veg in a sauce of some kind.

This morning I put some stuff in the slow cooker for a thai fish curry so that was ready when I got home. Whilst I was sorting that out this evening I cooked some mince and put it in the slow cooker along with some ingredients for a chillli, so that'll do us for two evenings

NSD but I'm getting a bit fed up with Swagbucks. I'm being screened out more and more, and it seems I'm putting in more information. I'm not sure how much effort I'll carry on putting into it.

Hubby is going to have to pay £150 excess for the damage to the car. I said let's use the money we put away to pay off our Cornwall holiday in June and then we can pay back the £150 over the next few months. It might make it a bit difficult to save some spends for Cornwall. Always seems to be something (I'm being melodramatic, I know).

Uniscots97

Lilith is there cctv showing who did it? If there is and they're recognised and charged they could be forced to pay for it

Lilith1980

Hi Uniscots....no, we checked with the hotel but their CCTV didn't cover the front of the car park which is a bit bizarre and something they should consider in future

The insurer did ask hubby about getting a police crime number but when he explained about the CCTV and the long time period in which it could have happened they said not to worry. He has no claims bonus protection so that won't be affected.

Lilith1980

I'm very proud of myself today. I have a real aversion to going into supermarkets to shop, and haven't done a monthly shop in a supermarket in years. I've done my online shop with Mr T for about 12 years :eek:

So, tonight I decided to take the bull by the horns. I went into Aldi armed with a pen and paper and went around writing down the prices of the items we buy most of, so that we can compare and figure out which will come from Aldi and which will stay with Mr T.

I've just put it all into a spreadsheet and it turns out we can save about £35 a month

My next challenge will be stepping foot into Aldi to do a full month's shop! I know the layout of the shop so I plan to write my list in the order that I come to the items, and also go as early as possible to avoid the crowds. I'm sure I'll get used to it

While I was in Aldi I spent just over £3 on eggs and some sugar, as I had some lemon curd which was in the fridge not being used and have just taken a lemon curd cake out of the oven. I'll let hubby have most of it as I'm trying to watch my weight :rotfl:

I have a right headache now after that spreadsheet stuff :rotfl:

beanielou

Well done on eating the frog

Lilith1980

beanielou wrote: »

Well done on eating the frog

Thank you

redofromstart

I hate supermarkets so tend to go very early and dash round as fast as possible. Avoid Friday mornings if you can - our MrAl is heaving by 9.30am. Monday to Wednesday at 9am by comparison is empty. Saturdays at 8 are ok, Sundays at 10 are not.

My preferred shop is the MrL opposite which is nearly always empty - except for Friday mornings when it often has as many as five people in.

Hope this helps!

Lilith1980

redofromstart wrote: »

I hate supermarkets so tend to go very early and dash round as fast as possible. Avoid Friday mornings if you can - our MrAl is heaving by 9.30am. Monday to Wednesday at 9am by comparison is empty. Saturdays at 8 are ok, Sundays at 10 are not.

My preferred shop is the MrL opposite which is nearly always empty - except for Friday mornings when it often has as many as five people in.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the tips! I was planning to go when it opens on a Saturday while hubby is working. I think I'll be better just going in on my own and getting it done, plus hubby has a habit of putting things in the basket that we didn't go into buy so at least I can keep control of the spends :rotfl:

Lilith1980

Evening all, what a miserable day. I don't think it's stopped raining! The pooch just popped out into the garden, came back in and plonked herself on my lap all soaking wet :rotfl:

I've done an inventory of our freezer tonight and we definitely have am abundance of frozen carrots - five 1kg bags! So I'll make some soup with some of it and they can certainly go with a few roast dinners and other things. We also have lots of frozen green veg so these can go with a few dinners over the coming month.

I'm a bit of a spreadsheet freak and have made a meal plan for next month so I can figure out the amounts of meat and veg we'll need to buy. I was worried hubby would think I was being too regimented, but he said he likes the idea of a meal plan so he knows what we'll be cooking instead of faffing about. He thanked me for pricing up things from Aldi last night -I think it would be too much of a faff for him but he's grateful that I'm looking at ways of saving us money

Not sure if anyone has heard of Noodle Campus? They're a site where you purchase items to use and review, but they pay the item cost into your paypal before you buy it. I've ordered a phone holder for my car for when I use the sat nav as I didn't have one. Hopefully it'll be good quality and will save me buying me own

My account switch with Natwest has gone a bit wrong as they have set up the account but didn't get the switching instruction. All sorted now though and they've said I'm still eligible for the £125 bonus

Hope everyone is managing to keep dry. Last day at work tomorrow for the week. I've got Friday off and was due to meet up with a friend, but she has cancelled so I'm going to sort through our DVDs with hubby and see which we can sell. I'm eager to start the decluttering process!