Away From The Madding Crowd

Humboldt

Hello and welcome.

Motivational quote of the week

Spring: a lovely reminder of how beautiful change can truly be – Unknown.

Money Saving

Our monthly grocery budget for me and my DH is £200 per month.  However, I am monitoring this with a view to increasing it to £250 because of rising costs.  Week 1 (26 February – 04 March) spend for March was £94.76. As always, week 1 always looks a lot because we stock up on basics.

The total amount of interest added to our various savings accounts in February was £157.38. After checking February’s current account statement, we transferred some funds to one of our cash-ISA’s and our easy access savings account.

March’s premium bond win was £0 (2024 total to-date is £250).

Saved £10.47 by completing our own holiday visas online rather than using a travel visa company.

Ordered our greetings cards for the year from Wh*stlefish.  Took advantage of their 10 cards for £10 offer, plus an extra 20% off code. Bought 20 quality cards for 80p each, paid for postage and saved £24.

This week’s main menu

Monday – David’s goulash (from my cut-out recipes book, I think that it was a Tesc* recipe). Last week Ald* had 400g of diced beef priced at £3.19, £1 off, not sure how long the offer is on. Beef was frozen until required. I will cook this in the slow cooker.

Tuesday – Ping Meal – As above (cook one eat twice – saves time and energy costs)

Wednesday – Roast chicken wings with lemon and cracked pepper (Nigel Sl*ter recipe), baked potato, homemade slaw, with salad (chicken wings were reduced in price and frozen until required).

Thursday – Imam Bayildi (Turkish stuffed aubergine – Pinch of N*m recipe, made previously and frozen until required), leftover homemade slaw, with salad.

Friday – Broccoli & Stilton soup (BB* Good Food recipe) with wholemeal pittas (stilton was reduced in price and frozen until required). I will cook this in the slow cooker.

Saturday – Italian meatballs in a chunky tomato sauce (Hairy Di*ters recipe) with wholemeal spaghetti (meatballs reduced in price and frozen until required).  This is a meal shuffle from last week because the peppered mackerel and potato bake provided sufficient for a ‘ping meal’ the next day.

Sunday – Cajun-spiced fish with hot salsa (from my cut-out recipes book, I think that it was a Tesc* recipe). This week Ald* had 240g salmon fillets on offer for £2.99.

Our breakfasts will consist mainly of overnight oats in various guises. Lunches will include smoked salmon with half-fat cream cheese on wholemeal muffins (smoked salmon was reduced in price) and some of the homemade soups from the freezer.

Healthier Lifestyle

Completed 2 free online workouts.

Step count last week was 44,598.

Completed 4 free meditations.

Simple Pleasures

Saw the first lambs of the year.

A trip to the coast and a long walk along the beach. DH and I appreciated the warmth of a café whilst enjoying the view of the rolling waves.

Thanks for dropping by and taking the time to read my diary.

DairyQueen

Why do you use an asterisk to replace one letter on each commercial company name? I don't think MSE differentiates and it's just an irritant to the reader.

Floss

DairyQueen said:

Why do you use an asterisk to replace one letter on each commercial company name? I don't think MSE differentiates and it's just an irritant to the reader.

I was about to ask the same thing.

mark55man

It hides the text from people googling for the shop itself.  So it protects accidental disclosure of MSE identities.  Some people like the extra privacy - maybe like net curtains to prevent accidental observation.  Not going to prevent a determined stalker but just good practice

Simple Pleasure - Solving other peoples obfuscations - like a free puzzle

Humboldt

@mark55man good morning and thank you (saved me a job).  Just wanted to add that if anyone is not familiar with businesses/companies that I mention in my diary, a simple cut and paste into a search facility will solve the issue. 

Today's simple pleasure - learning a new word 'obfuscation'.

mark55man

@Humboldt - L@ugh 0ut 10ud

bluenose1

@humbold - we didn’t win on premium bonds this month either, I say we as they are my husbands really.
Never heard of wh*stlefish before, great idea, going to copy and get my cards in as well from them, I normally go to Card Factory.

We are continuing with our 7 day meal plan inspired by your posts, I am really pleased as now have 3 batch meals in freezer for days we don’t feel like cooking.

My typical weeks meals are below.
Fried steak and roasted veg in olive oil (handy having a butcher as a friend)
Chicken Mangetout in Tamarind sauce (Gousto recipe) Extra portion made for freezer.
Pasta Vialli (Delia Smith recipe) Extra portion made for freezer.
Chicken roast dinner 
Leftover from day before chicken curry  https://mamalovestocook.com/leftover-chicken-curry/
Crispy chili beef BBC Good Food recipe
Poulet Au Vinaigrette or Chicken with Vinegar -a James Martin recipe. Extra portion made for freezer, though frozen before adding the cream.

For lunch we normally have home made soup and/ or a large salad.

Had ordered new table and floor lamps from IKEA, came today and thrilled with the quality and price. I even managed to assemble myself

Rich1976

mark55man said:

It hides the text from people googling for the shop itself.  So it protects accidental disclosure of MSE identities.  Some people like the extra privacy - maybe like net curtains to prevent accidental observation.  Not going to prevent a determined stalker but just good practice

Simple Pleasure - Solving other peoples obfuscations - like a free puzzle

But nobody can identify who the user is anyway from the username so I don’t get that point?

mark55man

There are different layers of privacy - we can't judge how and from what others want to protect themselves - the principle is why give away anything when you don't have to - it's not codebreaking but every clue helps - and while you may not care, others prefer no to leave no such hints

Humboldt

@mark55man good morning and thank you once again. 

I think that we now need to get back on track. Whilst I accept that everyone has their own views/opinions, I ask that my choice of privacy is respected.  The aim of my diary is to be supportive to others and to discuss MoneySaving matters. I would therefore like to take this opportunity to thank all those who read my diary, offer their thanks, and share their supportive stories and/or MoneySaving ideas. Let's keep it relevant.