From £6000 ----> £9000 in 2023.

NinjaSavingKat

Dinner last night was yellow sticker mushrooms and yellow sticker cabbage inside gyoza.. simple home made dough for the wrappers and a side of crispy chilli.garlic and soya sauce/spring onions. 

MovingForwards

I'm so sorry about your uncle, condolences to you and family.

Food and plans look great, the sweet and savoury buns are my kind of thing. I did wonder if you'd have a yoghurt maker in your Aladdin's cave of a home! Look at the soda str3ams for fizzy drinks, I've got a different type and it does make a difference.

NinjaSavingKat

Evening all. 

Car failed MOT last night. My mechanic (who also works part time at the MOT centre) took the car all day today to fix the miniscule issue that the "hit men", as they're known, found wrong with my wee darling. 

£18.50 to rebook for this coming Sunday and £160 in parts and labour. 

£178.50. Ugh. 

Few extra bits done to be absolutely certain. No doubt it would have needed done at some point anyway.

Bit annoyed, but we have emergency funds for this exact reason right? There is a peace of mind attached to knowing cash is available. 

Will update totals tomorrow and hopefully sit and draw up a new plan to scrape this back AND get car insurance money together to stay on track for £6k.

So determined now..

Skint_yet_Again

Sorry to hear about the car. Why is it we save an emergency fund then get annoyed when we have to use it 😆

I'm sure you will soon have put it back 

NinjaSavingKat

Morning all.. 

Yes that's so right.. imagine actually having to use the emergency fund..🤣🤣🤣..

Today is payday as I get paid weekly. One overtime shift and scrapping the unused food fund money and car money means I've managed to put another hundred (£300 total) into the Emergency Fund.. phew. 

Been so busy cooking I haven't managed to find time to sit and work on the Feb financial plan....BUT I HAVE 2 overtime shifts planed. They usually give me an extra £50 a time (ish!). 

MovingForwards

You're doing so well on your income and the O/T is a good boost.

NinjaSavingKat

Thank you.  I even went to Asda yesterday for one thing - cat biscuits - and walked out with only one thing. Proud! Lol. 

Don't read on if you are bored with food talk...... 

Massive batch cook yesterday .. literally started at 0930 when I came back from the gym and finished at 6pm.

Soya milk, tofu, okara (left over soya bean pulp) crackers, okara savoury pie case, pulled pork jackfruit, lentil and walnut bolognese, massive pizza from scratch for dinner plus a spare little one for the freezer ad TVP crumbles for my pizza (texturised vegetable protein or veggie dried mince). I call it "fake meat day".

I'll use half of the homemade tofu to create a pie filling with the leeks in the garden and half a leftover scabby courgette. It's an experiment..lol. 

My 4 little lemon trees have about 15 lemons between them so the plan for Tuesday is a "sweet" batch book - brownies for the freezer/work and lemon/poppy seed muffins. I have also located a slab of frozen coconut meat at the bottom of my tiny feezer so will aim to make some basic palitaw which is a Pilipino rice cake thats sweet... that should be a fun experiment. I also have some pandan leaves which will make a nice addition to some lentil dahl.

I am devoid of any regular veg I like to keep stocked. Down to the last 4 banana shallots. I have never seen my veg basket thingy completely empty. It's sad. lol! I have no fruit either bar some canned items. I think its important to keep going as I have food so I need to be grateful.

It makes you think about how lucky I truly am to have access to the garden (baby beetroot, kale, kohlrabi and leeks) and the lemon trees. 

I can stretch this out for at least another week and reassess next Friday (payday / shopping day) albeit I have already decided to skip a shop. I am working that morning then straight to get my next session of micro-needling and will need to go straight home. 

I think I can make it another 2 weeks. 

MovingForwards

Not many of us get bored of food talk and yours sounds fantastic and varied. 

Are you able to grow your fave veg and keep supplies up? We had great success with mooli / diakon (Chinese radish), there's year round leafy greens. While it adds to your workload, it reduces costs and is more free workouts.

NinjaSavingKat

Funny you should mention mooli... that's on my list for this year. And Japanese kabocha squash albeit it will go in the greenhouse this year as we had a storm and they were destroyed. 

Kale is still going strong but leaves are tiny so we will start again this year with new plants..

Leeks are still going and the purple sprouting broccoli is starting to come through again. 

I will hopefully get in and clean out the greenhouse.. I have salad seeds that could go down. 

Any natural slug / snail repellents? Am tempted to get beer and make little pits for them to drunk with and drown.. I don't like the idea of pellets due to birds/my cat!

MovingForwards

I've not found a natural one that works, unless you can have a pond to encourage frogs. Egg shells and beer doesn't work, sheep's fleece may help.