New year plus new decade equals, new diary

charhen19

TT’s done for the day and I’m up to date with everything else. One kitchen cupboard cleaned out already this morning - why is it I’m always awake at silly o’clock on the one day I don’t have to be up early? �� ����!♀️

Dishwasher unloaded and one load of laundry on, dried laundry folded and put/hung away. Slow cooker ready to go on later with curry in there (meat was ys from the freezer). Hopefully be enough leftovers for lunches tomorrow.

Ys sausages in a baguette for breakfast and then I’m off into town to get a few fresh bits I need and any ys bargains I can dig out - happy Sunday everyone!

charhen19

Another cupboard cleaned out and another load of laundry hung out - I’m on a roll today! Also been through my “spares” makeup drawer and got all the odds and sods of ends of foundation bottles and eyeshadow pots - determined to use them up this week to create some space and delay paying out for more new ones.

Recycling and bins done ready for tomorrow morning. Breakfast done and cleared away - I won’t be slimming down any time soon if I carry on like this ��

charhen19

Monday morning is out of the way so things are looking up!

TT's done for the day (I try to remember to do it before I get out of bed in the morning). Washing machine and dishwasher loaded and turned on before I came out so OH will unload dishes and hang laundry when it's finished as he's WFH today. I do like to keep on top of these things. We try to only use the dishwasher every few days but the WM rarely has a day off and some days has to do 2 or even 3 loads although I'm trying to be better at this.

All food brought to work today and no reason to spend any more than £1.85 on a birthday card at lunchtime. (Hopefully less, although I've never found a cheaper one in the only shop near work that sells them)

YS thai fishcakes for dinner tonight with YS mashed veg and tinned sweetcorn. Hopefully I'll get another kitchen cupboard cleaned out on the way too. I found a stash of individually wrapped teabags when clearing out the other day (samples/giveaways) so working our way through them to avoid buying any more until payday.

Will be a very tight week this week leading up to payday on Monday, however, I don't really need much - few bits like bread/veg and hopefully my loyalty card points will cover those. Will definitely need petrol but £10 should cover it and I have that set aside. Fingers crossed nothing untoward arises! After today 6 days to go!

charhen19

I found a £1.80 birthday card! Small victories and all that!

Transferred £1 to my EF and £3 to the furniture account - slow and steady wins the race! :T:T Sig. updated.

Also found a large pack of leeks on YS for 35p.

charhen19

Up to date with:
*Penny a day jar (upto end Jan now)
*£1 a day jar (upto end Jan now)
*Daily Tilly Tidying of the mortgage
*Emergency fund building - albeit VERY slowly!
*Clearing out the house - although still a lot to do including getting OH on board
*Furniture balance coming down - paid over half of the balance in 10 months of a 24 month agreement
*Ebaying - got a few items on there but could deffo do better, lots to sell so just need to get down to listing it then it pretty much takes care of itself. OH is out tonight so will get on the case a bit.
*All breakfasts/lunches/snacks brought to work - been 100% spot on at this. Nearly all of the Christmas "goodies" have been used up from indoors now so should be able to start being a bit more fruit and veg/salad based from after this weekend.
*Still not smoking - the last vape juice I bought, instead of lasting me usually 10 days, lasted 3 weeks so subconsciously cutting down there too. Must keep on at this.
*Maintain/drop some weight - well I have maintained and hopefully the drop will come once my meals are healthier after this weekend.

charhen19

So lunch today is YS macaroni cheese ready meal and dinner will be garlic chicken with tinned new potatoes and YS leeks in a white sauce.

Is it possible to roast tinned new potatoes? And would I par boil them first and just treat them like fresh potatoes? ie. same amount of cooking time, oil etc. Never done it and just wondered if anyone has tried - thinking of keeping things varied so we don't get bored.

No reason to spend anything today so I'm not going to!

charhen19

I popped to the shops at lunchtime but there were only cakes on YS so I manged to not spend anything.

One item sold on ebay so I'll package that up tonight and post it off tomorrow. Will list at least two items tonight, one to replace the sold one and another.

Blackcats

Hi Charhen, you are very motivated and focussed.
Might be a bit late on the tinned potatoes question but my mother in law used to put them in the oven For about 15 minutes, dotted with butter and salt and pepper and covered with foil. They don't crisp up but taste a bit different to usual. Not worth putting on the oven just to do them but quite nice.

charhen19

Thanks blackcats - I’ll deffo try that another time. To be honest I only started using tinned potatoes recently - I thought my OH would be horrified but he actually said they were really nice steamed and could we have them more often!

charhen19

Another day - and once we hit lunchtime today we'll have made it halfway through the working week!

In days gone by Wednesdays was the day everyone from the office went over to the local pub at lunchtime and shared a drink (minimum £7 glass of wine) and possibly even lunch (minimum another £8). We did this as it's the only day we can all get out together.

These days we grab a can of diet coke/cuppa soup (from a multipack of course) and sit in a spare office to catch up. It's not about where we are, it's about having a break from the computer screens and having a natter together. Whilst the people at the pub are lovely we save it for birthdays/special occasions now and it feels like more of a treat.

So it will be a diet coke for me today with home made egg mayo and crackers for lunch. Dinner will be a pasta bake - leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

Ebay parcel posted and need to list some more bits tonight.