It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?

YorksLass

I have a PAYG mobile - calls and texts only - that does me for what I need so I have no wish for a smart phone that costs a lot of money.  I'm not against progress and appreciate they may well be an "essential" for some, but not for me.  Or at least not yet.      

Nearly all meals this month have been made using what I already have in stock and I now have room in the freezer for those Xmas goodies.     I might even have some cash left at the end of the month.  

I've already made a Xmas cake, small individual cheesecakes, sausage rolls (pork, sage & onion and pork, apple & cheese) so just need to do mince pies later this week.  I've been buying a couple of extras over the last few weeks - chutneys, stuffing mix, cheese, biscuits etc - so just need meat, veg and milk and we'll have more than enough to tide us over into the New Year.

I also made a vanilla yogurt cake to use up the best part of an unopened large tub of yogurt.  I used a new-to-me recipe that I was a little doubtful about but it's actually quite nice.  It's easy to make and moist enough, if a little dense.  We've had a slice spread with butter with an afternoon cuppa and a second slice with a dollop of jam and served with custard for a pudding.  The one drawback is that it only keeps for 4 days at room temperature (because of the yogurt content I suppose) so I've sliced it all and frozen half.

Weather here today started on a promising note with a fair bit of sunshine but it soon clouded over and we're back to grey, with gusty winds and rain forecast for the rest of the week.  Ah well, another couple of days and we'll be getting a few extra minutes of daylight each day - bring it on!

MrsStepford

 Iceland often has offers on party food and before you move on in-store or navigate to another section on the website, thinking it's not for you, stop !

Many of the party nibbles can be removed from bag/box as required and all cook at the same temperature.

 Cooked and refrigerated, many are suitable for packed lunches e.g. Pizza bites, mini quiches, sausage rolls, vegetable spring rolls, tikka masala bites, chicken wings, cheese straws etc.

London_1

My DD got my Iphone a couple of years ago in New York when visiting my grandson, as back then they were cheaper than the UK so the handset has been mine, hence why I only have a Sim card .

Its been very useful keeping in touch with Danny in America as he likes to  Facetime me and have a chat ,especially now he's a Daddy, and although they haven't come over yet with the baby, we get constant stream of photos and videos which keep us in touch, and at 6 months next month she is trying to sit up and is doing her best to crawl. Her other great-grandma and I love seeing how she is growing and getting along, so to me the £5.95 a month now is worth its weight in gold

He came on my phone last Saturday and she was giggling away .My DD, her Nanny sees her on Danny's IPad and says good night to her every night. The internet has been a godsend as without it we would have missed out on this very special little lass. They waited 7 years before she arrived, and my eldest DD is so excited to be a Nanny at last bless her. 

I've just had some of the chicken casserole I made in my slow cooker, with cheesy mash and mixed veg and it was delicious. I have 5 portions put into ready meal boxes waiting to cool down then be lidded and frozen.
I even had 4 portions of cheesy mash left which will also be balled up in an ice cream scoop and frozen, so All my potatoes are used up now and in the fridge s I'm going away the only fresh stuff I have is a pepper some cheese and some eggs .So they will get used before Saturday,I'm out to dinner with one of my grandsons on Friday, so really only have two main meals to sort out  then the fresh stuff in the fridge will be gone and nothing thrown away  
Youngest DDs birthday today so I'll pop round in a bit and give her a quick hug and see her open her pressies.She only lives four roads away so I won't be more than an hour then home by which time the stuff will be ready to go in the freezer. 
The weather is still a bit wet so I'm hoping it will clear by 8.00pm.

Hope every has had a productive day and not got too wet

Cheers chums 
 JackieO xx

Slinky

Jackie did you get an email late last week from Dobbies reminding you to use your drinks vouchers? I'm sure we used my two at the beginning of the month, but we went and checked and there were two still on the card which we used last weekend. My OH was suspecting that they'd given people an extra two drinks to entice them into the shop to spend money (which did work, we bought a card and a calendar).

London_1

Slinky Not yet but I live in hope But then I go there every Tuesday for our coffee morning and as my eldest DD only uses her card to buy goods in there she never has the time available to stop for coffee I use her free coffees as well so I end up getting 4 a month. But I do usually have a wander round afterwards and sometimes bag a bargain I got lots of reduced bulbs last week which will look nice when they come up in the spring and were about a quarter of the listed price really nice ones that my DGS planted for me bless him  

I'm on a roll this week after getting a £25.00 p.a. reduction in my sim card by just changing provider yesterday, this morning I had my renewal notice from the insurance company for cover  and maintenance for my central heating and boiler. I rang them up and said I had received my renewal and before I could say anything else the young lady said "don't worry I'll sort you out a reduction if I can " so I said nothing and let her rattle her keyboard and I have got a £60 p.a. reduction in the policy and will actually be paying £5 a month less than I'm paying now.

 Happy Days especially I had only originally phoned to make sure that the premium would be taken monthly, and not yearly, as I will hopefully be moving next year. So with one visit to the phone shop, and one phone call this morning I shall be £85 a year better off.

 Not a fortune ,but better in my pocket than theirs and as is often said 'Every little helps' and with prices the way they are cutting even small chunks off your outgoings is a help 

 JackieO xxx

linz

...and buoyed by Jackie's success i've just rang RAC to discuss my renewal due on 5 Jan. (They want £90.99, got equivalent Green Flag quote for £60). They offered me 15 months for the price of 12 so I took that.

London_1

Well worth a phone call on the off chance, its saved you three months payments so win-win well done linz 


JackieO xx

DiamondLil

linz said:

I did not know about freezing garlic cloves, thankyou! I tried preserving them in salted water once but didnt think to freeze them  I love this thread, you learn a lot of others.

I whiz garlic into a paste and freeze in ice cube trays; once frozen, pop the cubes out of the trays and into zip lock bags, the into a second bag and store in the bottom drawer of the freezer. One cube of frozen garlic is approx.equal to two cloves. I do the same with ginger too - that bottom drawer smells lovely every time I open it.

YorksLass

Well, that was a wild night for sure, thanks to Storm Pia.  I'm a fairly heavy sleeper but was woken several times by the gales and heavy rain.  That, coupled with DH imitating a starfish in bed and the wind noisily sucking the water out of the toilet bowl, didn't make for a restful night!     

SM delivery arrived this morning, on time and everything P&C.  It was just a normal shop with one nod to Xmas - a tub of double cream - as we have everything we need.  I did buy the cheap sprouts and potatoes because we need them but didn't bother with the other veg offers; I already have carrots, a huge swede and onions and, although we do eat them, we're not that bothered about parsnips, red or white cabbage.  I suppose I could have got them but I'm really not up for chopping, cooking, freezing or pickling etc right now.  I have to admit to not being a youngster any more - what gets done gets done, if not then it doesn't matter.     

I got a lovely joint each of pork leg and gammon, both reasonably priced, with plenty for the freezer, not to mention pork dripping that I'm already looking forward to.  It's ages since we last had any.

One small (ish) rant on yet another price increase via shrinkflation - dried egg noodles that were £2.50 for 340g are now £2 for 266g, so an increase from 73p/100g to 88p/100g.  I do sometimes wonder if manufacturers think (or hope) we won't notice.    

Thanks to using up existing food stocks, December's grocery budget is holding up well with £20-odd left in the kitty.  I may use that for any bargains I spot post-Xmas, if not it can go in the Rainy Day fund.

A quick rummage through the yarn stash yesterday produced some white DK crafting cotton that I'd forgotten about so I'm knitting some dishcloths with it.  I think there'll be enough for 4, maybe 5.

Longwalker

Im officially K - knackered 

Storm Pia hit us Wednesday morning and really kicked in overnight, shes still giving it one now come near on 11pm. So of course me being a very bad sleeper got all of 4 hours, and that was on top of pure knackered, hey ho, Ill live

So last day off now till Christmas Day and spent 20mins moving 500 yards in town - OMG - gridlocked. Ok laugh away, our town has two sets of lights and three roundabouts and is a one way system so traffic is pretty much unheard of. 

So I hit Tescos, Pepsi max and veggies were on my TO GET list , 6 bags of spuds, 3 bags each of everything else, plus all the salad and fruit needed. Veg is now all out of the plastic and sitting in my Lidl Hessian bags in the cool dark garage. Hopefully that will keep it all at its prime till Boxing Day when Ill have the time to prep and freeze - and the space . Cleared out the fridge and have told mother theres only room for 1 X 2litre of milk and her yoghurt, shes not to buy food. Im trying to keep one shelf free for the Christmas Day left overs. But the trouble is, I already have "left overs' just not enough days in a year to eat them all

Had to sacrifice a bag of scones that were in the freezer that I had made last month. TBH they weren't great so the birds have probably enjoyed them more then we did.

I think I have remembered everything  - defo lifted a lemon which I usually forget and usually end up begging one from the pub. Veg, salad, streaky for the turkey, , Im sure I have everything

I shall pop into Tesco on Sunday just before close and if there is meat or fish properly reduced, Ill be playing freezer Tetris

I do blow the budget the week preceding Christmas and Boxing Day to take advantage of the sometimes huge reductions. We are oil heating which you pay in advance and its not cheap, and the electric bill comes in in the first week of January ( I thought it came in before Christmas but still not landed ) so we are talking a grand in expenditure before we feed ourselves so I need Jan to March to be as cheap as possible so come easter we are back on an even keel. filling the freezers calms me some what, I know I can make a meal out of nothing but 3 months of doing it, need  a bit of a back bone , a bit of cheer

Someone on another thread mentioned the Rowntree Foundation and their recommendations on income and how they decide someone is poor. Accordingly me and he are destitute !!!!  Yes we have a low ( below the median) income, we do have to be careful as a rule, but destitute ??