Simple living in the country - back to basics

Cheery_Daff

Thank you both 😊 There are various reasons we're not eating with Mr Cheery's dad that I'd rather not go into here - sorry, I shouldn't really have brought it up, I should have known you'd all make good, sensible suggestions that we can't take up. I was just pondering options, but of course you don't all know the situation and the restrictions, and I hadn't thought about how it must sound from the outside.

I promise we're not just being mean leaving him to starve while we munch a picnic in the car 😮 I do realise now how it sounds like we might have been 😮

EssexHebridean

Definitely didn’t sound that way to me Cheery - and anyone who “knows” you here won’t have imagined that was the situation either! Families can be complicated, no?!  Good plan to come up with better food choices for the car!  Stuff we find works well when we’re travelling and want the ability to eat on the go - 
- oatcakes - Al’s and Lil’s both do lovely seeded ones
- fruit - just remember a bag for peel/cores etc if needed
- trail mix type stuff - easy for the driver to just dip into and grab a few bits at a time
- good quality cereal bars - we love the Eat Natural ones, they do some super tasty options
a lot of that is also stuff that can be on standby at home and just grabbed when needed - or indeed if you think you may have to dash off at short notice left in a “grab bag” ready to pick up on the way out. Still not substantial meal territory, but definitely better than a bag of crisps and a twirl in terms of nutrition and satiety! 

Cheery_Daff

Thanks EH, and some good nutritious suggestions there! 😊 Families are indeed complicated 🙄  

I might add that to my 'preparations' list to have a car picnic (and also a rubbish bag - we are SO bad at just leaving rubbish on the floor of the car, it's outrageous 😮)

KajiKita

Totally didn’t think you weren’t feeding or being kind to FiL! You are making a lot of effort to look after him

In this weather, could you take a flask of soup to share in the car?

KK

Cheery_Daff

Right, banks fettled, all looking ok. So far we've spent £36.35 on food & household in January, which I confess is more than I thought - but I can see I've included dog food (when the dog was here), and the smoothie maker in that, so that's not too bad. I'd put aside £100 on top of the supermarket vouchers - we've not even touched those yet, although I think that's on the cards for this afternoon. 

I've only spent £4.64 out of my personal spends, aside from the gym membership (which I have actually used this month - only once though...). We've spent £121 on diesel so far this month though - all those trips to see Mr Cheery's dad are adding up, but that's ok, we won't be rationing those of course. 

Payday Tuesday, so hopefully that extra bonus will arrive, and I must dig out that cheque - Mr Cheery is going to pay it in this week. 

Plumber is here! Very exciting. Also very cold out there and they had the back door open for a while so my fingers are a little chilly. Hoping they'll have finished shortly so we can go for our weekly trip to the cafe

Off to make a list of food to use the vouchers on! 

Karmacat

It's sounding good, Cheery!   I wonder if the dog recognises you?  🐶 Hope the plumber fixes things quickly, and you can get your cafe trip in at a time that suits you.

savingholmes

Hope the rest of your weekend is more relaxing

Cheery_Daff

Thanks folks 😊

Cafe trip done, and gosh it was lovely to sit there with a drink and a book, and my notebook for scheming 😊😊😊 We've got £13.80 of vouchers left, which will only do one more breakfast trip, or two more if we just do drinks.

M0rri$ons also done, bit busy in there for my liking, we usually go late evening. £52.72, and I had enough vouchers to cover it, but the cashier insisted he couldn't give me change from the final £25 one! Utter rubbish of course - technically they're goft cards, not vouchers, and whatever you don't spend is left on there - I've used them like that plenty of times. However, it was busy, there was a big queue, and I wasn't going to quibble, so just paid the £2.72 cash. £100 worth of vouchers (sorry, gift cards... 🙄) left, and we hopefully won't need more than one more of these type of shops in January, so this should last into Feb 😊

savingholmes

Lovely to have vouchers covering main expenses and treats

Cheery_Daff

KajiKita said:

Totally didn’t think you weren’t feeding or being kind to FiL! You are making a lot of effort to look after him

In this weather, could you take a flask of soup to share in the car?

KK

Oops, sorry, missed you there KK! Yes, a flask of soup isn't a bad idea. I'll add it to the list 😊

savingholmes said:

Lovely to have vouchers covering main expenses and treats

Yes, it's most pleasing!! 😊😊

I'm off out to meet a friend tomorrow - that won't be covered by vouchers sadly 😂😂 We're meeting in a park though, so hopefully the weather will stay kind. We will be making use of the cafe though! But I'll have breakfast before I go, and choose something light rather than a big meal I think. 

Right, home now. Need to unpack the shopping, then warm up with a cup of tea before deciding the main business of the afternoon. Friends are coming at 6, but we're in a pretty tidy state at the minute so not much needs doing except making some pizza dough (with the new yeast we just bought! And I WILL throw the old stuff away!) 😂😂