Giving every £ a job

savingholmes

The dining at home sounds fab. Especially with all the trimmings. 

Enjoy your time off.

Alchemilla

Your day off sounds lovely. Enjoy!

foxgloves

We like to do this with some of our weekend meals too, @Blackcats. Our conservatory doubles as our dining room & has fairy lights, candles, etc, & a little retro stove. I think setting the table nicely always makes a meal feel more special than eating from a tray in front of the TV, although we do more of the latter in winter. We too have favourite meal combos which work well as 'fakeawsys' & make us feel treated. A good opportunity to try out new recipes too.
F x

[Deleted User]

Oh blackcats I love your life!  I love the idea of themed nights - not sure why haven't thought of that one before!

Enjoy your time off.

Blackcats

Thanks for popping in SH, Foxgoves, Alchemilla and Rebecca.  

The meal nights are fun.  Before lockdown we spent a lot (and I mean a lot) of money each month on eating out.  Sometimes they were good meals and quite frequently they were mediocre with the occasional awful meal.  So despite making token gestures about cutting down it was covid restrictions that forced us to have a re-think.  

It turns out that planning a meal, choosing  ingredients and cooking together is much nicer and much cheaper.  This Friday we are making teriyaki salmon with vegetable noodles which is quick and tasty for a Friday night.

I've just had my car serviced and MOT'd and had some proactive remedial work done.  We are going to keep the car for a couple more years - running costs are low, road tax is £0: insurance is quite cheap too so it makes sense.  The car savings pot is depleted and although I know that's what it's there for I still find it hard to take the money out.  There's still enough in the pot to pay for insurance when it's due in August and I'll have topped it up again by then.  I quite like the new sensible me though I don't always recognise her.  

lucielle

I hate taking money out of pots!  It’s daft and as you say that’s what it’s there for. 

L

Sun_Addict

When Mr SA was working we used to spend a lot of meals out, I’m going back maybe 10 years and we spent on average £200 a month on two meals/drinks out. We used to try different restaurants and not all were good. We used to go every other week and I looked forward to the weeks we didn’t go out more than the ones we did 😆

Another one here who hates taking money out of pots.

MissRikkiC

Thanks for all the ideas! 

We haven’t done the themed cooking night for some time, probably since my daughter was born to be honest as we’re both usually shattered by the time she’s asleep. However I think once the kitchen is done I might get a calendar entry in for a nice evening together 🥰

Alchemilla

We hardly eat out now, but used to do it so often it was no longer a treat, and it is true that often you think "I could do better than this at home".

[Deleted User]

We've stopped eating out too recently - it was such a big thing for DH and I but, like you, we found that sometimes we would have great meals and sometimes we'd walk away £60 or so lighter (lunch) thinking it was rubbish or meh.  And obviously covid and then trying to cut back generally, I think we would now rather cook at home, esp as DH has totally upped his game.  I love the sound of your friday night supper.  I also love friday nights!  Not long now until you won't really have a distinction between friday and other nights you lucky thing!