Falady's debt diary, How moneysaving can 3 cats be??

Larumbelle

My cat, Mittens, is spoiled and pampered, but when times were hard he had the three choices offered by Girliesurfer; thin air, coatch yer own, or cheapobrand.

My vet (wonderful, wonderful ver. Anyone in Cov, the pet vaccination clinic is a godsend (and my mate designed their groovy logo)) advised me that two days without food means the cat is a brat, three days MAY be cause for concern. You can check by offering them a can of tuna. If they reject the tuna, get 'em to the animal doctor.

Having said that, I put him back on his favourites as soon as I could afford to. I am going to end up as a sad old lady with cats as a substitute for children. I should feel ashamed or worried by this, but I don't

LOL falady when I read your last post I thought for a second that was what you were going to feed your cats!

falady

Hi all,

Well, I'm full of cold so have phoned in sick, so off work for the day.

A chance to do some more meal planning and check over my plan of action, at least! I'm also going to work out the JA overdraft and how we can clear this.

Love ali xxx

falady

Hi all,
Well, today I have been to asda and spent less than £20 - i'm very impressed! I got loads of beef mince, some chicken (both on offer), veggies, bread rolls, pasta and orange juice. I think reducing the food bill will be easy if today is anything to go by.

I have also been to the gym and cancelled my gym membership, so feeling pretty good about my moves to be debt free.

I've also spoken to a couple of friends about my debt problems and they were very supportive, which was nice.

Ali xx

Larumbelle

:T well done on the shopping! Have you tried finding out when your local supermarket makes reductions? That can help on the cost.
I find that buying meat from the butcher can be good as they can suggest cheaper cuts and how to deal with them. Also, if you don't know how to, ask a friendly butcher to show you how to joint a chicken. Buying a whole one and 'dismantling' it yourself is way cheaper than buying portions. Finally, if you are making a chicken dish that is stirfried or cooked in a sauce, try using turkey instead. Most people don't notice any difference, and turkey is way cheaper than chicken.

Having supportive friends makes all the difference. Unfortunately most of mine are either wealthy and have no idea, or are ostriches. That's why I spend so much time here!

I find that a cat makes a good person to talk to. Mine always agrees with me and loves me whatever I do wrong.

lunar

well done on being so positive, i have really enjoyed cooking since i started meal planning. mushroom soup is one of oh's faviourates.

hope your cold gets better soon, im just left with a cough after mine.

falady

Hi silvercharming,

Thank you! I know asda does good reductions from about 7pm onwards. As I usually go in the evening, this will work out well. Normally i'm at work during the day not sniffling at home (or in asda!). We generally go to sainsburys, but i'm going to sop around a lot more. OH likes sainsburys becuase it quiet when we go (he doesn't have much patience for 'slow' people or going when its busy) but as I do most of the food shopping now, i can go to asda / aldi etc and potter round at my own pace.

We have a very good butcher about 10 mins walk away, which we use quite a lot in the summer for bbqs etc, but i will go there when i need meat next, as I think they will be cheaper. They know my face now too, so i think would be happy to show me how to joint a chicken etc if i went when it was quiet.

I used to use turkey breast when i was a student, and had a look for it in asda today, but couldn't see any. Where do you get it from?

hi lunar - thank you. I wondered if i could have your recipe for mushroom soup? I haven't made it before. Mushrooms are 2 packs for £1 in asda at the moment, so i got some.

In exchange, one of my soup recipes.....

Pepper and sweet potato soup

fry off 1 finely chopped onion, 3 sticks finely choppied celery, half pack mushrooms. Add 1 finely chopped leek and a couple of rashers of chopped bacon if you've got some / want to. Cook it down gently till its all soft and golden. Add some chopped red / yellow / orange peppers (1.5 - 2 peppers) and some chucks of sweet potato (1 large potato), then add stock to cover and simmer until the veggies are cooked (about 20 mins depending on the size of you potato chunks). Whizz it up to make lovely thick soup. I sometimes roast the chunks of sweet potato and pepper with olive oil (or use roasted peppers from a jar) before i add them to the onion etc, which adds an extra level of flavour.


Speak soon,

Ali x
The soup is really delicious (even if i do say so myself!!) andvery filling.

lunar

Hmmm, ill try but i dont follow a recipie so my amounts will be guesses!

I packet of mushrooms sliced
450mls milk
450mls veg stock
1 onion
about a tablespoon flour, maybe a bit less
garlic
salt
pepper

fry s onion and garlic in small amount of oil till soft. add sliced mushroom, fry for 2 mins. add flour and stir in. cover and leave for 5 mins, stur occasionally. at this point it should be looking like horrible mush!

then add milk and veg stock in turn till you have put it all in. add salt and pepper to taste. bring to the boil. once boiled turn down heat and simmer for 10-15 mins. allow to cool slightly then mix in blender.

Poor soup into a clean ban and heat gently, dont boil.

when serving if you are feeling really naughty you could stir in a swirl of cream!

lunar

might try your recipie this weekend, it sounds really nice, thanks

Sola

We have 8 cats and put down 8 tins a day. They prefer the stuff in jelly (they puke on stuff in gravy or 'supermeat,' and can't have any dried foot after one nearly died) so we bulkbuy Whiskas in Costco a month at a time. I've snuck in Kitekat and Sainsburys/Lidl own-brand on occasion.

falady

Thanks for the recipe lunar. Reading back over my recipe post it sounds a bit smug - sorry! I'm not like that - really!