A Year in the Life of...

savingholmes

I hate paying for delivery too - and returns even worse

girlatplay

savingholmes said:

I hate paying for delivery too - and returns even worse

Oh returns.  I refuse to buy from places that I have to pay to return stuff.  I rarely do return things anyway.  One time I ordered from a place that charged for returns (didn't realise) and the item was faulty.  I contacted them and explained and they agreed to pay the return charge 👍🏻

Quiet one for me today.  LMG is working later so I'll have the place to myself.  I need to set up my workstation in case I have any problems.  Don't want to leave it to the last minute.

I think I'm going to make some spinach and cheese muffins for snacks next week.

I bought containers for the soup I made and I have 5 large portions in the freezer.

I made a vegetable lasagne last night as LMG loves it and has been pestering me for it for ages.  We get 6 portions out of that so LMG had one last night (I went to bf's), she has one for her break today, I'll have one today for either lunch or tea, which leaves 3.  I'll freeze those and they'll get used up as we go along.

I had a sachet of easiyo in the cupboard so decided to make up some yoghurt.  I did something wrong and it didn't set 🤦🏼‍♀️  I think the water I used was too hot.  Disappointed.  I've seen some recipes for making yoghurt from yoghurt you already have so I might buy a small pot next grocery day and see how I go.

I've been logging my spends so far this year and I've spent so much money. It's only been a week!  I'm sure it will calm down when I start working again but I'll need to be careful as the balances of budgets are looking a bit low for this point in the month.  I really need to clean out the food cupboard in the kitchen so I can see what we have.  I don't think there is a huge amount for meals in there, it's just that LMG puts her protein bars in there and they take up loads of room so everything else gets shoved in until I sort it.

savingholmes

Perhaps you need mini containers on the shelves so you have slots for different types of food so its easier to see what you have and what you need to replace?

Goes back to hiding tidiness in her new to her bureau!

astrocytic_kitten

I love a good veggie lasagne, I never make it though as I find it such a faff (I don’t enjoy cooking). Lucky LMG!

Joining you with the spendy week. Half my debt accrued from my old habit of making massive online clothes orders then returning most of it…awful for the environment and if you’re returning £200 worth of stuff easy to feel like the £70 you’re keeping is actually quite sensible. Repeat multiple times a month and you have exponentially growing debt 🤦‍♀️

girlatplay

savingholmes said:

Perhaps you need mini containers on the shelves so you have slots for different types of food so its easier to see what you have and what you need to replace?

Goes back to hiding tidiness in her new to her bureau!

I did that with the herbs and spices and it works really well.  We were just saying that we need to get a basket for her protein bars.  I feel that once we get those under control it will be better as the cupboard is usually manageable.

Ooh I've always wanted a bureau but I just don't have space for one.  Lucky you!

astrocytic_kitten said:

I love a good veggie lasagne, I never make it though as I find it such a faff (I don’t enjoy cooking). Lucky LMG!

Joining you with the spendy week. Half my debt accrued from my old habit of making massive online clothes orders then returning most of it…awful for the environment and if you’re returning £200 worth of stuff easy to feel like the £70 you’re keeping is actually quite sensible. Repeat multiple times a month and you have exponentially growing debt 🤦‍♀️

I hadn't made it for ages for exactly that reason, it's a faff.  I was quite impressed with myself though as I started it at 4pm and it was in the oven by 5.10pm.  LMG said it was great too (it was not bad, I had it for lunch-ish today).

I know exactly what I have spent on but it's all stuff that was needed/will be used so it's not actually frittering.  The biggest expense was the two eyebrow pencils; £46 and free delivery.  I could have bought one for £23 and paid £3.95 delivery, to then have to do the same again in three months so effectively an extra £8 that I wouldn't have needed to spend.  £23 of it is coming from next month's allowance but I've still bought in the first week of January.  I justify the cost of the pencil because I used to use a well known high street brand which I loved but it was £8 a go and I was getting through them in about 2 weeks, if that.  These dearer ones last me about three months.  I'll check that as I started a new one on Thursday so I'll see when it runs out.

girlatplay

I have set up my workstation ready for Monday.  I am missing a cable.  I never plugged the second monitor in when I started working from home (nearly two years ago) and just used one and the laptop so didn't realise I didn't have it.  I have ordered one from the online rainforest shop which should be arriving tomorrow.  I'll claim it back on expenses but I'll probably get my knuckles rapped for ordering it as the IT manager probably has loads lying around.  I just want to get set up ready and I don't want to wait until he gets round to sending me one.

I made the spinach and cheese muffins.  They're adapted from a spinach and feta muffin recipe I have.  I didn't have feta so used the cheese instead.  I have made these loads of times with varying ingredients so they'll be fine.  Recipe makes 12 and I can freeze them so that's snacks for work next week (greedy bucket that I am, I usually have two at a time.  In my defence they are not huge).

I still have 4 jobs to do from the list I made a few days ago but three of them are chunky so I don't want to start them right now and the fourth is to use up some veg from the veg box that doesn't arrive until 18th, haha.  Thought I had more potatoes than I did and I was going to make some potato salad but turned out I had used them all and had to buy some extra for the meal plan.  I really want pot salad now though so that's a job for when the box arrives.

I nearly forgot to have lunch so heated a portion of lasagne at 3pm.  I think I'll have to test a muffin for tea since I'm not hungry yet.  I can't eat late and I don't want to be starving at 9pm.

savingholmes

You are sounding very organised. I've done bits but am in that never-ending stage where I spend more time procrastinating that doing the thing would take... I'm nearly at the bottom level of the clutter on the desk in the lounge so that's progress. Problem is I then need to start on the boxes I hid underneath it!!

Food sounds tasty.

boxofpaws

Spinach and cheese muffins sound good. I always have frozen spinach because I like it in sauces but it takes a while to get through a bag. Could you use frozen, do you think? 

girlatplay

savingholmes said:

You are sounding very organised. I've done bits but am in that never-ending stage where I spend more time procrastinating that doing the thing would take... I'm nearly at the bottom level of the clutter on the desk in the lounge so that's progress. Problem is I then need to start on the boxes I hid underneath it!!

Food sounds tasty.

I'm not feeling organised.  I have been really lazy this week.  I did the food because I'm determined to stop wasting. I did the workstation because I don't want to be doing that on Monday morning.  Dishes and laundry are up to date but that's all.

girlatplay

boxofpaws said:

Spinach and cheese muffins sound good. I always have frozen spinach because I like it in sauces but it takes a while to get through a bag. Could you use frozen, do you think? 

Yes!  When I first started making them it was with with frozen spinach.  Let it defrost first and pat dry then shred it up a bit.  I used about four pucks.

I amend the recipe to suit what I have in. I don't like sun dried tomatoes so I leave them out.  This is the recipe I use:

https://www.taste.com.au/recipes/spinach-feta-muffins/f4765f1a-3896-4b31-b5e6-966903ae07e5