The thriftyish way to debt freedom

thriftyish

Progress, not perfection.

Meals.
We usually buy pizza on Fridays. Yesterday, we used up an almost-expired tin of steak mix and made homemade steak pasties with vegetables. With shop-bought puff pastry, but homemade is on my list of things to make. DD3 cried at the lack of pizza, I have homemade pizza planned for next weekend, so back to a cheaper normality.

I uncovered some Asparagus soup in the freezer I had frozen weeks ago, defrosted it in the fridge and had DH reheat it (still recovering from surgery), he showed me as it went in the pan as it looked a bit grim. He was angling to throw it, but it turned into the most delicious soup, reheated thoroughly with a bit of cream. Good job since I have another 2 huge containers worth of it in the freezer from when Aldi was selling packs of asparagus at 50% off.

I am back on a diet too, so lunch today was homemade couscous salad with egg. I used the new food processor to grate some carrot, apple and celery. Celery and apple were both delicious grated in salad, and the celery juice was lovely. 

I have a meal plan for the week that is centred around batch cooking and using up the food that is almost passed its best from the cupboards. 

Tomorrow I want to make in bulk:
Flapjack
Lunchbox cake
Twinks hobnobs (first time making)
Pizza dough
Bread
Simple pasta sauce
Quiche

Growing
Had a quick trip to Lidl to buy seeds, and then for compost. Since my degree isn't taking up my time, I want to get some things growing in the greenhouse and garden this year. My aim is to have a herb garden and some veggies like chard, peas, mangetout, onions, squash etc in the garden, and then tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers in the greenhouse. I topped up on extra herb and veg seeds online at home. Spent about £35 all in all, looking forward to seeing some first harvests. More than I wanted to spend but the right time of year to buy seeds and I know I can get a good return when the harvests come in.

Clothes
Most of my clothes come are secondhand. Bought DH two pairs of sliders from V!inted, and a present for my nephew. 

Investments
We had some money invested in stocks, and with the craziness of the world we have withdrawn them back into cash, sadly not before losing at least £100 (on car savings) and more on longer-term savings. Reading the news is a daily shock lately, I don't have the words. We need to have a serious think about what the best financial option is for overpaying vs saving in May when the mortgage moves to our new deal.

New Bed for DS
We spent £130 on some wood to build a bed for our eldest who is 14, it arrived yesterday. He wants a floating bed, and the cheapest online is more £££. Small savings and he gets exactly what he wants. It's the last thing to do for his bedroom renovation, almost finished!

Honeysucklelou2

Hi Thriftyish,
The garden ideas sound great…hope you have a productive growing season!