Frugal, thrifty, make do, mend! Let this debt come to an end!

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, tasty pizza! 🤩

I'm sorry, having read back i realise it looked like I was being a bit dismissive about the pension age, I really didn't mean to be! I agree it very likely will get further and further away and we may indeed need to be 75 by the time we get there 🙄 

Good luck with window shades for the camper. We've made them for a couple of different cars/vans we've had. In one, Mr Cheery cut them to fit from MDF and they just kind of pushed in. In another, I made blinds that were black on the outside and red inside - but I can't for the life of me remember how we attached them to the car! Possibly just long strips of heavy duty velcro?

Moorviews

Our camper loo is the Freedom Trail 10 litre portable flush toilet. It was under £40 when we bought it about 5 years ago. I couldn’t find any availability as it appears to be out of stock but it is similar to the Hi gear one. We haven’t had any problems with it and definitely no smells! There are loads of different options for alfresco conveniences aren’t there?!!!

Elisheba

Cheery_Daff said:

Ooh, tasty pizza! 🤩

I'm sorry, having read back i realise it looked like I was being a bit dismissive about the pension age, I really didn't mean to be! I agree it very likely will get further and further away and we may indeed need to be 75 by the time we get there 🙄 

No, not at all. You just raised the perfectly valid point that it was still just an idea. Don't worry about it at all. If we can't have an open discussion then we are in a pretty pickle indeed 😁

Elisheba

Good evening, Sunday savers,

I've had a lovely, quiet weekend. Watched a few films, read a bit, got a few jobs done round the house. Nothing very taxing and I've just lit the fire and intend to chill in front of it for the rest of the evening.

I needed a few messages today, and couldn't face going to nearest big town, so went to the C00p in the nearest small town, which is much closer. I had £1.25 in various money off vouchers, and in all the bill came to just over £18, which will come from the monthly food budget and which is still looking very healthy so far this month. Picked up another packet of yellow sticker veggie sausages for 80p I think, so they are in the freezer. Lovely as that is, I do wish they would yellow sticker something veggie other than sausages occasionally - I've got loads of them, and not much in the way of other fake meats 😂.

I made bread in the breadmaker earlier, and it has turned out very well. Had a slice still hot, with butter and honey earlier. Dinner tonight is going to be a Quorn Escalope with beans and chips when I finally get around to making it. The escalopes were half price, so I got 2 packets, and there was another 50p voucher off Quorn products, so £2.50 for 4 all in all which I thought wasn't bad when it would have been £6 full price.

I took silly dog for a walk around a village close by after the food shop, and had a good old nosy around. One side of it (it's bisected by an A road) is very pretty indeed. It always always seems to be worth looking a little off the beaten track - you never see the nicest bits from the main road. I also spied a jet foam wash at the garage in the village, which is £3 for 6 minutes, so at some point soon I will take the car there to be made clean and shiny.

I need to do a meal plan for the upcoming week. I have lots of lunch things in, but need to think about dinners. I really should have made a cottage pie this weekend, as I have everything in for it, but didn't really feel like it 🙄. Maybe I'll just do veggie mince and tatties during the week. Also got some pasta bake in the freezer, and could do something resembling a stir-fry one night. Still have some pizza dough if I fancy a pizza one night as well. I'm out for dinner both Friday and Saturday night, so don't need to worry about them. So that's pretty much a plan then 😁.

Hope everyone's weekend was lovely and relaxing, and you are feeling rested for tomorrow and the new week.

SuzeQStan

Hey Elisheba - sounds like a lovely relaxing weekend. Just love a cottage pie especially in winter  - but I’m fed up of winter now so I’d even start eating salads if it meant spring was on the way 🤪.  

Good prices on the Quorn 👍🏻

foxgloves

Many a time I've set out to make a cottage pie & it's ended up being savoury mince with potatoes instead.....both quicker to make & less gas use as it doesn't need to brown in the oven. It's not lazy, @Elisheba, it's canny!
F

Elisheba

Evening, all,

I've not posted in a couple of days as I've not been up to much to be honest 😂. That's a very good point @foxgloves about mince and tatties being more frugal than cottage pie.ive not made either yet so taking it to next level frugality 😂.

I finally bit the bullet and ordered the camping stuff for the car today. Got a 5% discount off the loo and some bits to go with it, and payed by Amex so will get 0.5% cashback, so that was good. I'd really like it all to arrive by Thursday as due to commitments 2 nights in a row in my old town it would be good if I could just stay there for the weekend. The shades for the car aren't even showing as being pending off my bank account though, so I'm not holding out too much hope. It could be an address issue as when I manually put my county into address boxes it doesn't like it - my postcode is for the nearest city which is a different county (and a different country 🙄). 

I got the washing out on the line yesterday for most of the day, and most of it was dry when I brought it in. It has rained all day today though, so that dry spell was just a flash in the pan. More rain due tomorrow and Thursday so it'll be flooding again before we know it.

Got pancakes made tonight so feeling vaguely accomplished. They were the Scottish type, so sweet and thick and fluffy. I scoffed quite a few, but have 2 big ones left for breakfast tomorrow or the next day. I've run out of lemon though, so not sure what I'll put on them.

I've got the heating on this evening as I was feeling a bit chilly. I agree with you @SuzeQStan - can't wait for Spring and Summer now - thoroughly sick of the wet and cold. Very muddy walk this lunchtime through a field - I did remember to take an overdue library book back on the walk though. I had left it until the last day to renew online, but it had been reserved by someone else and I couldn't renew, so nothing much to be done.

Speaking of library books, I read a really good one which I finished yesterday. It's by Helen Rebanks and called The Farmer's Wife. I had previously read a couple of books by her husband, James, which I thought were extremely good, and I thought I would give hers a go. It's about her life growing up as a farmer's daughter, and later a farmer's wife. I couldn't put it down - it's unashamedly a woman's narrative and it's not twee or idyllic. There are recipes in it, but honestly the best bit is her story - exhaustion, breastfeeding, rows, financial worries, and all. She doesn't do much farming herself, but the farm still dominates her life. I thoroughly recommend it, and no doubt will be buying it for several  people as a birthday present this year.

Other than that, all is quiet. The car camping kit is my only spending so far this week. At some point I'll probably buy a bird feeder as well. I did some googling and think I would quite like to make my own fat balls for them, so might only buy seeds and nuts to go on it.

Hope everyone's week so far is going well. Before we know it it'll be tomorrow night and half the week will have gone!

Elisheba

And a pancake picture, as it is Shrove Tuesday... The chocolate sauce is not my favourite, but it needed using up after I bought some for my nieces *cough* almost two years ago now 😳.

beanielou

Butter for the pancakes

SuzeQStan

Pancakes mmm 😋 - yours look gorgeous! Mine tonite was choc spread with ice cream.  

Will check out The Farmers Wife - thanks for the recommendation 😊👍🏻

l