Buying a little piece of Middle England; Manifesting my way to mortgage free.

debtfreewannabe321

beanielou said:

I would go for 3 months EF. 

thanks for your input @beanielou I am erring towards this for sure. I enjoy seeing the savings go up, I also enjoy seeing the biggest debt any of us will ever have come down though, so once I reach 3 months I think I will swap back over to MOP mainly

skint_spice

Spring is in Scotland this week. I think it’s leaving at the weekend so it might improve for you then.

With the house move it sounds like you did what you needed to do at the time but hopefully you will get to your ideal location soon.

debtfreewannabe321

skint_spice said:

Spring is in Scotland this week. I think it’s leaving at the weekend so it might improve for you then.

With the house move it sounds like you did what you needed to do at the time but hopefully you will get to your ideal location soon.

Ah enjoy it! We've had nothing but rain here ...we seem to have our own micro climate. My sister 13 miles away says it's sunny and we've had torrential downpour all morning with only the odd break. Crazy. We had flash flooding here the summer we moved in and thought wth have we done 😂 or definitely has it's own mind regarding weather.

I'm not sad we moved here I do love my house we got lots more sq ft than we would do in our ideal location. But I miss being able to walk to local landmarks and the art galleries and museums etc. Can take the girl out the city but I think she always will long for convenience 😂 or summink like that 🤪

debtfreewannabe321

Okay so I've spent an hour having a rearrange of the living room. DP would have done his nut if he knew I'd just moved a load of heavy furniture 🤭 I got DS to help though as soon as DP left for a meeting.

The front room needed a shuffle of energy and the easiest way is to move the sofas around. I figured it was best to do it now BEFORE my chiro appointment on Friday so he could put me right again 🙈😆. 

Anyway now it's done I'm not sure I like it....hmmm....it's kept me busy though so made my last day of the month a NSD!

beanielou

What are you like woman!! 

debtfreewannabe321

okay done meal plan for the month and already ordered 2 weeks worth of shopping (1 for tomorrow, 1 for next friday so I get my slot they seem to go quickly here).
I'm going googly eyed having spent over an hour on my meal plan and Mr T ordering....

Right so for May's meal plan, it is 4 full weeks and 2 extra meals the two extra days I will eek out the shopping an extra day during the month to find these. 

Week 1: (25th Apr- 1st May)

1.    Lasagna (x2) (Roasted Vegetable Lasagne Recipe | Vegan Recipes | Veganuary)

2.    Curry (x2) (I make my own pastes/concoctions up...Grandad was Indian learned a lot from him)

3.    Hotdog and buns with chips (air cadet night)

4.    Tofu, stir fried veg & Rice dish 

5.    Lemon chik'n & rice (tofu) (sauce another air cadet night)

6.    HM Chick'n & mushroom Pie, roast potatoes, veg

7.    HM Sausage casserole & mash

Shopping came in at £131 because I needed olive oil (ugh it's SO expensive!) and loo rolls and had to stock herbs and spices up (and at £1 a jar they rack the bill up nice and quick).

Week 2: (2nd May-8th May)

1.    Sweet Jacket potatoes with salad, beans and cheese (AC night)

2.    Chilli (x2)

3.    Sticky cauliflower & rice (Asian Cauliflower {Sticky Sesame Cauliflower} - The Big Man's World ® (thebigmansworld.com))

4.    HM pizza, wedges and salad (AC night)

5.    Ratatouille with mash

6.    Subway plant balls and fries

7.    Roast

That shop is coming in at £84 so far with the meals all on there, fruit, salad, and also bread, cereal and milk. If I need any more basics topping it up it might be more. But if I can keep to around that price that would be good and be ok for the budget.  

Week 3 (9th May–15th)

1.    Spag bol (x2)

2.    Curry from freezer

3.    Bean pasties and wedges with salad (found recipe through GC link which I have saved- AC night)

4.    Greens and caramalised tofu with rice (Jerk Smoked Tofu with Pineapple Salsa and Coconut Rice (veganfoodandliving.com))

5.    Sweet jacket potatoes

6.    Fajitas (AC night)

7.    biryani ( Vegan Biryani - Loving It Vegan )

Need to do shop for this another day.

Week 4 (16th May- 22nd)

1.    Sweet Potatoes with salad, chilli and cheese (AC night)

2.    Lasagna from freezer

3.    Chilli (x2)

4.    Sweet potato cakes with smashed avocado (Vegan sweet potato cakes - Vegan Food & Living (veganfoodandliving.com) 

5.    Jerk smoked tofu with pineapple salsa and coconut rice

6.    Jacket pots (AC night)

7.    Pasta & salad

Need to do shop for this another day.

Added links in to recipes where I am using one if anyone fancied a change up (and if they work)....I think we are all bored of cheap boring dinners here  and the same old same old which has made us go off piste and over budget, so I have tried to add in a few new ones this month and budget for them. Looking forward to them, they will usually be our Saturday night ones for a fakeaway feel ...and the AC (air cadet) nights I need quick, easy meals so I have two of those a week too. I have tried to balance random dishes with a thousand ingredients (the fancy new ones) with things like Jacket Pots and spag bols. I lost my meal plan half way through last month ...just kinds lost my way with it so need to be more organised this month. Hoping to end the month with at least a few extras in the freezer too so help with the end of May half term week off. 

beanielou

Blimey, I can barely meal plan for one week far less three. 

HotDog2020

Hi, I noticed you didn't put in your lunches and breakfasts, I supopose you just didn't think they were worth mentioning, but I wondered if you had added them to the shop. I am impressed with your Home cooking skills as you can be from a distance, all appears healthy and wholesome, personally I prefer to eat meat, is that a bad thing to say on here? It seems MSE is a place to congrigate if you are vegan!

Congratulations on your meal plan, take it easier from now on won't you, listen to DP and good luck at the chiro. Wishing you well. HotdogX

debtfreewannabe321

HotDog2020 said:

Hi, I noticed you didn't put in your lunches and breakfasts, I supopose you just didn't think they were worth mentioning, but I wondered if you had added them to the shop. I am impressed with your Home cooking skills as you can be from a distance, all appears healthy and wholesome, personally I prefer to eat meat, is that a bad thing to say on here? It seems MSE is a place to congrigate if you are vegan!

Congratulations on your meal plan, take it easier from now on won't you, listen to DP and good luck at the chiro. Wishing you well. HotdogX

Breakfast I never eat. I drown myself in tea instead until midday always have 😆plenty of that in.
DP eats toast as does DS and DD is hit and miss with BF too but will sometimes eat a slice of toast. So I always order four loaves of bread at least And all the spreads. I don't bother putting them in as they're always the same.
Lunches are usually leftovers or beans on toast or sometimes I fancy falafel and couscous with salad or a cooked brekkie/ brunch..I'm not great at eating during the day though I graze until dinner usually. DS will eat whatever I make him and DP too. DD always has the same and gets upset if I change it. So every shop always has her cheese, cucumber and wraps 😆.
So every shop also has all the bits to make stuff like this during the day. I should probably change it up a bit but honestly doing the meal plan for just dinners is so time consuming I can't be bothered 🙈🤭
Thank you though ☺️❤️

debtfreewannabe321

beanielou said:

Blimey, I can barely meal plan for one week far less three. 

If I don't do it now I will get confused easily with where I'm at with the budget and what's for dinner 😆. I tried monthly bulk cooking and that seems to work well (the monthly bulk shopping didn't lol) so I try to make the meal plan for the month so I can plan batch cooks and also make sure I'm staying on track with budget. A lot of the more expensive meals are towards the end of the month so if I can't afford them by then I will swap them out for a freezer meal or something cheap when it comes to ordering the food.
Everything is so expensive these days I've hardly any snacks in my shop and it was still £130. Suppose not too bad for four adults portions but still ...
If it were just DP and I, I think I would ease up on it but DS eats SO much I find this easier to do. 
I'm all ears for any other tips of meal planning and shopping though! 😁