Bramble Cottage Diaries

JAMIEDODGER

peb said:

So pleased for you.  I nearly missed you were back 

Hey Glad to be back!

JAMIEDODGER

Food shopping done. In the end, I went yesterday so I didn't have to have 2 days spending so today will be another NSD.

Total Spent:

Morrisons: 

Food: £15.34

Tesco:

Food: £11.33
Household: £3.25
Seasonal: £3.25 (some crackers for the cheese board at Christmas)

Lidl:

Food: £44.59
Household: £3.11
Pets: £0.69

Total food spend week 2: £71.26

Total food spend for November so far: £185.87

Total food spend remaining for November: £134.13

Household, pets and seasonal all come out of a different part of the budget, but still part of my housekeeping cash budget.

I didn't need fuel so no need to pay for that this week either and I shouldn't have to spend any money for days now.

This morning I popped the gammon in the slow cooker, this should do all the Chicken and Ham pies for the remainder of the month. Made a huge curry which is now in the second slow cooker and will be dinner for Saturday night and the rest will be frozen for later on in the month. Added some potato to it to bulk it out.

Also whizzed up a months worth of pie pastry crumbs in the food processor, saves on washing up and five portions of pastry crumbs are now in the freezer in individual bags ready to add water and bring together into pastry when needed.

OH is on a night out tonight so I've put his sausages in the freezer. Its sausage, mash and onion gravy this evening.

Made chocolate brownies last night and we all had a small square with one scoop of ice cream as a dessert. DS3 took one square in his lunchbox to the day centre which he attends on Thursdays and Fridays. The brownies went down very well and everyone liked them.

Also made mushroom soup for lunch, cost about £1.30. There was enough for four portions. Myself, DS1 and DD had one portion each for lunch, I had mine with a couple of crackers and they had bread. Enough left for my lunch tomorrow.

I've been back and forth between the kitchen and my sewing room all day, making up orders as work is really busy right now and have managed to get a good amount done today.

Tonight I shall probably have a lovely soak in the bath and read my book then watch some TV and do a bit of work on my scrappy crochet blanket.

DrCarrie

What a wonderful adventure to be on! For a long time, I have wanted a small holding since I read the Fat of the Land when I was about 15, I am 50 now. So clearly it's a dream for me. But maybe a cottage with a garden will suffice now. 

Sunscribed. 

JAMIEDODGER

DrCarrie said:

What a wonderful adventure to be on! For a long time, I have wanted a small holding since I read the Fat of the Land when I was about 15, I am 50 now. So clearly it's a dream for me. But maybe a cottage with a garden will suffice now. 

Sunscribed. 

A cottage with a garden sounds wonderful!

It has been our dream for over twenty years, but it's only now we are actually in a position to be able to follow it.

Got a couple more rows done on my scrappy blanket last night while watching Station 19.


Plan for today:

- Make a huge meat sauce on the hob for lasagne tonight, bolognaise next week and bolognaise bake the week after. Two packs of (750g) mince should stretch to 15 meals for us.

- Complete more sewing orders. I think I have just shy of 20 bags to make, hoping to get a massive stack made today. Youtube on the iPad and spend most of the day at my sewing machine.

- If I get a chance this afternoon, make a banana bread while the oven is on for the lasagne.

- Have a tidy and reorganise of the fridge. It's a bit of a mess in there. Should have cleaned it out before I went shopping but I forgot. Will do this while finishing off the dinner.

- Need to make up some card orders as those too have increased over the last few days.

- Have another NSD.


DS3 is about to leave for the day centre, so when he has gone I will make a start on the days list.

savingholmes

Will follow with interest. I would love to do similar 

JAMIEDODGER

Another NSD today:)

Yesterday I made a huge batch of bolognaise sauce. It turns out I made enough for 20 meals from 2 packs of mince instead of the 15 I expected. Result. Lasagne was delicious and went down well.

Didn't get a chance to make Banana Bread, but today I made Apple & Raspberry Crumble using the last of the raspberries from the garden for pudding this evening. The smell of the raspberries took me back to the summer Leftovers will do for tomorrow night.

Am almost up to date with the bag orders that need to go out on Monday, so I will probably take tomorrow off and get back to it on Monday morning.

Dinner this evening was Chicken and Potato Curry, which went down well.

Looking forward to a rest day tomorrow and a nice Roast

WelshmansDaughter

I love the sound of your cottage. Do you watch Mossy Bottom on YouTube? 

JAMIEDODGER

WelshmansDaughter said:

I love the sound of your cottage. Do you watch Mossy Bottom on YouTube? 

Yes I loved his older videos but he doesn't post much nowadays and there is much less about the actual day to day of the smallholding, which is the stuff I am interested in.

A spend day today as I popped to Lidl to pick up a few things using the money I got from when my aunt passed earlier in the year. I spent just under £160, but got an airfryer, two cast iron casserole dishes and a cast iron pan, and a new stick blender with whisk and chopper accessories. My old stick blender is rubbish and hurts my hands to use, this one is fab.

We rearranged our kitchen cupboards to accommodate the new stuff and reallocated some less used items to the understairs cupboard. We aren't going to get rid of anything other than the old blender, which I shall put out next to the bin for this weeks collection.

OH cooked up some chips for lunch to test out the airfryer, and I made some HM mayonnaise (which was delicious) with my new blender using the whisk attachment. I will probably make egg mayo for sandwiches with the rest for lunch tomorrow and maybe Tuesday.

I am now hoping for no spends until Thursday. With what I bought today at Lidl, I qualified for the free bakery item, £2 off shopping and free W5 item. I think the shopping this week, or maybe next will push me to the 10% off shop, which will be great towards the Christmas meat etc.

All orders are now finished and packaged ready for postage tomorrow morning. I think I have about 62 orders to go out which is great. Its been a really good weekend sales wise. One customer ordered 18 bags! I will be very busy this coming week, as I also need to prep for the two-day craft fair I am doing next weekend.

Lovely roast today for dinner followed by the remainder of the crumble from yesterday for pudding. Tomorrow will be the leftover chicken in a chicken and ham pie with veg and potatoes.

After the busy sewing/order prep weekend I am now shattered and am fit for nothing but curling up on the sofa, watching some mind numbing TV and working on my crochet blanket.

JAMIEDODGER

A NSD today:)

Got all the orders done and off to the sorting office this morning, and then straight back to work on the latest ones. All fabric has been cut for all outstanding orders and tomorrow I shall spend the day at the sewing machine completing them or at least as many as I can do in a day. More orders came in this afternoon, so I shall cut the fabric for those on Wednesday and finish them on Thursday after the food shop.

Chicken and Ham Pie for dinner with roasties and veg, then I am off to see my friend this evening for a little catch up.

Tomorrow's dinner is Chilli Bake, so an easy one as the chilli bit is leftover from last weeks dinner.

Aiming for NSD no 5 tomorrow:)

JAMIEDODGER

Another NSD in the bag for yesterday and hoping for another today.

Plans for today:

Work:

- Lots of card printing. My Christmas cards sold pretty well at the last craft fair, so I am going to be working on a big batch of those today alongside any card orders that will be going out tomorrow. They will also need price tags.

- Making up some badges for the fair, not sure if these will sell but they are usually a good seller in my shop.

- I will be going through all current handmade items stock, choosing what items to take, then pricing/labelling up.

- After a big sewing day yesterday, I will be packaging outstanding orders and prepping them for a postage day tomorrow.

Home:

- French Pie with potatoes and veg tonight. Pastry crumb is prepped in the freezer for pie lid, so need to make the pie filling and prep the veg.

- Sheets need changing, washing from yesterday folding and putting away, and I need to put the hoover round.

- Meal plan outline is done, but I need to firm up choices and do a food shopping list for tomorrow.

- Drop off kids to hairdressers this afternoon, and collect when done.

- Check over YNAB to make sure everything is up to date.



I am waiting for an email back from the architect, with bank details so I can pay Stage One of the house build plan. Its a £5k invoice so shall hopefully pay that tomorrow. He can't start working on it for about three weeks, but at least we know we have started the process. Very exciting though.

OH was on an overnight last night, that should bump up the pay packet next week