Giving every £ a job

joedenise

Blackcats said:

Thank you for the interest in my cupboards. 🤣
today I learned that failure to manage a spice kit subscription has resulted in 16 boxes of meal kits - equivalent to £40 which has left my purse and not yet earned it's keep.  We signed up to simply cook during lock down - incentivised by a promo code but more because we wanted to have cooked at home treats to replace our numerous eating out treats.  They are really good kits but we just haven't been factoring them into our meal plans recently and even worse we haven't even been logging in to make our choice so the meals have been selected for us.
anyway, I've paused the subscription and arranged the boxes in a very neat and orderly way on their own she,f in the newly clean and tidy cupboard.  We've put ancho glazed salmon and spicy sausage and leek penne on next week's meal plan.  On 2 different nights obviously.  Most ingredients can be shopped from home.

The 5 year out of date cup a soup that's been hiding in plain sight has not made it onto any meal plan and sadly is now languishing in the bin.  I don't even like cup a soup but I think I bought a packet to take into the office many years ago,  

tomorrow is jars and  non-savoury tins day.  Feeling giddy with excitement already (not)

Had to look up what ancho flavour was as never heard of it!  Having looked at it I think I would quite like it!  Just hope it isn't too strong a flavour for salmon!

Blackcats

@PennysIntoPounds - I hope you resolve the housing issue soon - it must be very difficult and you are always so upbeat.  Until you get your own cupboards you are very welcome to vicariously enjoy mine but unfortunately the out of date chicken cup a soup is no longer available for sharing.  

Yes @savingholmes - some items will need to exit the premises.  Only trouble is that OH hates throwing anything away. He was very reluctant to even let the cup a soup go until I suggested he had it for lunch.  

Out of date tinned rice pudding has been heaved out from the back of today's cupboard.  However I found a tin of pineapple rings that I'll use to make the 70's classic upside down cake to take with us to a lunch next week with the carton of custard that is in the cupboard.  Also found an enormous tin of peaches and a tin of evap .... another trip back in time to the 1970's is beckoning.

one of my 1 year fixed savings product matured this week.  When I got my pension lump sum I made a real effort to make the money work hard for us.  £385 in interest today and I've re-invested the capital and interest into the NS& I 6,2% 1 year account.  

This month's personal spends budget for me is now under attack 🤦‍♀️  I found a long forgotten Tiffany silver necklace (I really did spend whatever I wanted back in the day).  I never had the matching earrings (how on earth have I managed without them is a tragic mystery 🙃).  Anyway I bought a pair of earrings from not on the high street that will look like a match and give me a really nice jewellery set.   

Ps the Tiffany necklace wasn't in the jars and non savoury tins cupboard in case anyone was wondering! 

Blackcats

@joedenise - I'm not entirely sure about the ancho glaze with the salmon either but we seem to eat so much chicken that I thought we'd give it a go. 

PennysIntoPounds

Thank you Blackcats, it is difficult and I'm a deeply cynical misery-guts irl! But I'm appreciative of having two people in my life who love me and are happy for me to stay with them. Apologies if it sounded like I was rebuking your lack of enthusiasm about dusty jars, I appreciate it's more fun hearing about someone else doing tedious jobs 😁

Fab news about the reusable food, the maturity and reinvestment, and the long forgotten Tiffany necklace!!! (Sorry, a long forgotten Tiffany necklace merits several exclamation marks.) Do you have somewhere in mind to wear your necklace and new earrings?

Could you maybe put the subscription food on Olio if you're not going to use it? An environmentally friendly and nice thing to do anyway, but if you list five things before (I think) Sunday you'll be entered into their draw to win a £100 T*sco voucher...

savingholmes

Great news on the necklace and earrings.

That's a lovely amount of interest to get too - good you've found another 1 year home for the money at a decent rate.

EssexHebridean

Another one here loving your progress though the drawers and cupboards!  I've never had enough of either in the past for them to get particularly out of hand - although our old storecupboard is a bit of another question on that front... 

Good work on shifting the money - I top have a 1 year fix shortly coming to maturity and so need to work out where to re-home it - now I think about it that NS&I one might be worth investigating. 

Blackcats

@PennysIntoPounds and @savingholmes - I did wonder whether to mention the forgotten Tiffany necklace but I decided that it entirely represented my old self.  I really couldn't afford that necklace but I expect my credit card had enough space on it for me to spend Mr MBNA's money.  I loved the anticipation of the visit to that shop and felt very special making a purchase from there.  I liked the beautiful necklace, box and bag - was it about status or keeping up with the Kardashians?  I really don't know but I feel entirely different about high end brands now.  My hairdresser proudly showed me her £2500 Pra da  handbag and I didn't want one or feel envious,in fact I wondered how you could fit a purse, a phone, some keys and other handbag related junk into the tiny weeny bag.

Anyway when I described the necklace as forgotten that was a euphemism for missing presumed lost .... so I'm happy to have re-discovered it and to have found some earrings that will look like a good match for it and I shall wear them often and enjoy them.  Also if @foxgloves can own up to buying a large brass rubbing in her spendy era I can bring my Tiffany necklace along to the confessional.

@EssexHebridean - thanks for the cupboard encouragement.  After treating Sunday as a day of respite from cupboard duty I launched myself into savoury tins today.  Not literally launched but vigorous sorting and tidying has taken place.  To summarise ....tinned tomatoes a plenty, copious tins of beans - baked, mixed, black, re-fried and sweet corn. It appears that we have just been buying tins and ramming them into the drawer and then buying more tins next time we went shopping.  No need for any more tins for the next couple of months!

Tomorrow is the spice and herb cupboard.  This really is a little cupboard of horrors - disorganised and it looks like there have been some spillages so it's a bit grimy too. 

foxgloves

I am supposed to be clearing out kitchen cupboards but have barely done any! The pantry is going to need some serious re-jigging as I'm running out of space because of all my seasonal preserving. Cauldron of pear chutney bubbling away on the hob as I type....
F

EssexHebridean

I'm in the smug zone with cupboards right now - even I haven't had time to make mine untidy/disorganised yet! (Although it won't take long!) 

Blackcats

@foxgloves - you inspired my kitchen cupboard mission!  

@EssexHebridean - I'm loving the smug zone - I bet your cupboards are beautifully organised.

All I can say about my latest cupboard tidy is Worcestershire Sauce x 6 bottles!  I like a splash in soup, casseroles, cottage pie etc but I don't think I'll need to buy any more for quite a while. 

Money saving today ... we were contemplating going to a local pub for curry night at £15 per head, excluding drinks.  However OH is very fussy with curry and we both anticipated that we might be disappointed.  So instead we bought some good quality stewing steak from the butcher (which means we are still supporting a local business) and made a slow cooker full of the most delicious beef madras.  There are 4 portions to go in the freezer too.

we are still swimming 3 times a week and  it only feeling better for it we are even enjoying it too.

bank accounts are quiet until 18th when 2 payments go in and 1 payment to a regular saver goes out.  Not sure if I've mentioned that I'm now council tax neutral.  My savings pot now contains enough to pay the final £1800 for this year.  The original bill is £3800 so I'm happy to have got to this stage.  I'm still paying monthly to eek out a bit of interest to make myself feel better about my most hated bill.