Head out of the sand. Saving for a shiny future

savingwannabe

Lol. You lot are making me hungry. I have unknowns in my freezer too.  Forest well done on savings you are doing soooo well. We are all becoming Percy Thrower's Blue Peter have a lot to answer for. lol. Please let the weather stay this lovely for the rest of the month.. 

ForestBluebells

Well I’m regretting my decision to cancel my gousto box to save money 🙈 I had a lovely roast chicken on Sunday and leftover vegetables for lunch Monday but my attempt to turn the chicken and leftover carrots into a curry ended up being one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever tasted. I changed track and tried to do a tomato based rice dish which I also chucked due to being horrible 🙊 I had cereal for dinner in the end 🤦‍♀️ I’m a good cook but apparently only if I follow a recipe and not having all my usual ingredients meant I was bodging recipes together which just didn’t work.

maybe I need to start going to the supermarket again but I’m scared. It’s too few and far between getting an online delivery slot. 

I’ve got sausages out the freezer tonight to have with mash and peas so I can’t mess that up at least 🤞 

had a bit of up and down recently about not feeling like I’ll ever be able to move to a better home. I like my place but don’t want to live in a 1 bedroom flat forever. What with me putting a lot aside to make up for lost time on pension contributions and having to save for the next 5 years to build up my emergency fund to £10k (should get there end of this year if I don’t spend all my savings towards annual costs) and towards replacing my car I don’t know how I’ll ever get enough to upgrade to a bigger home. 

I currently put aside £200 a month into investments but realistically this won’t amount to much and will probably be best used to retire a few years before state pension age or clearing any mortgage before retirement. 

Feeling a bit like I’ve lost track again. I’m currently looking into ways to boost my income on top of my full time job and freelance job that can make a meaningful difference to my plan 😫

MovingForwards

Ok, you've had a few blips with cooking, it happens! Let's get you back on track 😊

Buy this book, vegetarian nosh for students book, it's usually under £3 from 3bay, doesn't matter which edition you buy. Quick, simple and filling meals. I throw in meat with some of them, as it's vegi based it cuts your food bill a bit. Give me 10 mins and I will send you a few recipes. They should be with you via PM.

Madras curry powder, tinned tomatoes and a veg stock cube is a basic curry base, assuming it's Indian curry.
If Thai curry then Mae Ploy Red Thai Curry Paste, coconut milk is the base.
Can't find the Chinese paste we use.

I know it's more fun having the individual spices, frying / toasting then crushing them, but at times it's nice to let someone else do the work.

Re-evaluate your financial position in a few days, when you are in a better place. You can stop putting as much into your pension as you are, just to give you the ability to save more, it wouldn't be forever and you can pick up your higher pension payments in a year or two.

savingwannabe

I totally sympathise over the food issue, I'm struggling with food shopping as I am relying on neighbours to shop for me. My food is just a mishmash of whatever i get. It is so hard we are always beating ourselves up for not being good enough with saving for houses, pensions I am the same but we have to remember we are miles ahead of many others and we are doing the best we can. 
Try to enjoy the nice stuff and stay strong ok, hugs, swx

ForestBluebells

Thank you MovingForwards. I had a nice sausage, mash and veg dinner tonight and I’ll have a sausage and egg sandwich for lunch tomorrow followed by sausage And veg pasta bake for dinner. Hopefully I’ve got a suitable jar sauce to use. 

Good idea about stocking up on curry pastes etc. To be fair I have a lovely Japanese curry roux in the freezer which I use to make katsu curry with and just use 1 block of roux a time so I should stick to something like that and not just mix curry powder with coconut milk and hope for the best 🤮 I’m not even a fussy person I’ll eat almost anything so that shows you how bad my cooking was yesterday 😂

I do love Thai so that’s a good idea too, how long do you keep the pastes once opened? Or maybe I could freeze it. I’ll get some in my next shop.  What I’m finding hardest is planning the meals to have enough fresh ingredients to cook them as I’m getting such sporadic deliveries and due to asthma I have been too worried to go to the shops. I haven’t got into a new swing on how to plan meals in the current situation. Cereal for dinner is becoming too common 🙈 

Now it’s cooling down I can go back to my freezer chilli con carne and cottage pies, again not my best cooking but edible this time. 

Ill redo my financial plans on the weekend when I have time to properly get my head around it. I think I was just feeling sad as I’d like more space some day and wasnt sure how I’ll ever achieve that and wasn’t feeling like I was on track again. 

ForestBluebells

savingwannabe said:

I totally sympathise over the food issue, I'm struggling with food shopping as I am relying on neighbours to shop for me. My food is just a mishmash of whatever i get. It is so hard we are always beating ourselves up for not being good enough with saving for houses, pensions I am the same but we have to remember we are miles ahead of many others and we are doing the best we can. 
Try to enjoy the nice stuff and stay strong ok, hugs, swx

Yeah I should Just be thankful I do have my own home on a single salary. I live in an expensive area so it was hard enough to get this place which in all fairness is perfect for my “needs”... I just “want” something bigger 🙈 I think just because I had a conversation with my mum the other day and she mentioned about me living here for the next 15 years and that made me sad as I’ll be 50 by then and I’d like a house someday with a bigger garden. 

It’s a weird time to be alive right now. I did used to worry about pandemics in the past (germaphobe) and cant believe we are actually living through one! 

It’s so hard to get meals right without going to the supermarket isn’t it! That’s why I’ve been getting weekly gousto boxes but it means my food spend is higher. I’ll try skip at least one week a month and plan some simple meals. I think I’d feel safe going to the farm shop locally and can get fresh veg there for any recipes... might not be able to get any more complex ingredients though 🙈

MovingForwards

The Indian madras curry powder is the dry packet one which keeps for ages in the cupboard, world food supermarket section or local corner shop / Asian supermarket.

The Thai and Chinese ones we keep in the fridge and just take a blob out when required. The Chinese one is like take-away Chinese curry, great with rice if you don't feel like cooking properly or haven't much in to make anything you want.

If you mixed Indian curry powder with coconut milk, I can understand why that didn't work as it needs the stock filler.

We keep frozen peppers, peas, spinach in as one of those can alter a meal to something a bit more interesting.

Rice cooked in coconut milk is nice, but try and pick it from the world food section as it's cheaper. We stock up when it's on special offer.

Frozen peas thrown in to boiling rice for the last few minutes are a quick, cheap addition and add colour.

My 'default' food is 'Indian curry', usually I knock up a vegi one, if I've the energy then I do it from scratch with individual spices, butter, tomato etc.

Split red lentils, Indian madras curry powder, veg stock cube, onion, water. Can make a curry or spicy lentil soup, depending on how much water you add.

Potato and spinach curry, follow the above.

If you like falafel, buy packet mix and get a few meals from it. Just mix as much as you need, or do the lot and keep them in the fridge when cooked.

Cheap pita bread I keep a packet of in the freezer, goes with curry or the falafel.

Now you've posted up about what you eat, I can have another look through the book and send more recipes to you. Hopefully some of the others have given you a few ideas.

It's easy to feel everything is going wrong, that's why it's best to leave plans for a few days get back on track, then revisit what you need to. If you don't feel like it the weekend, do it next instead 🤗 

ForestBluebells

I’m honestly not fussy I will eat anything (well as long as I’ve not butchered it like yesterday 😂). My go to freezer meal is chilli con carne, bolognese or soup (I ate all my soup though. I also do a lot of pasta dishes. I usually (pre-COVID) would go on Instagram for inspiration and then choose recipes based on cupboard ingredients I want to use up and plan a whole weeks meals then do 1 shop a week. Now that’s All out the window and I’m really struggling to cook anything fresh without the usual access to ingredients. I’ve got my leftover roast chicken in the freezer now so could maybe do a chicken soup although not sure if I can defrost that then cook and refreeze so that might not work 

MovingForwards

If it's cooked, frozen, defrosted, turned into a different meal I wouldn't be refreezing it.

Perhaps think about cupboard supplies with the added bonus of fresh ingredients, if they get delivered, take a bit of pressure off yourself.

Skint_yet_Again

Hope you are ok ForestBluebells. You are a more adventurous cook than me. I tend to use premade sauces the lloyd grossman thai green curry was nice & I’ve just bought his Thai red curry to try. 

If I want a basic curry sauce I make gravy with gravy granules & madras curry powder added before the water. Sometimes I fry some chicken & onions then add the gravy/curry sauce & chuck in a few frozen peas & whatever veg/cubed potatoes i have to use up & simmer for about 20 mins. 

Don’t feel downhearted I think you are doing really well