A new chapter is ....... FINALLY HERE

pennywisepoundstupid

Morning all, 7 NSD.

Busy couple of days at work, lots of outside jobs done with the weather being nice. So much better than being stuck in a classroom. Found out at the weekend that since i left my last place of work 2 more people have left, another is leaving at Easter and 1 is on long term sick, but hey governors continue to bury your head in the sand and ignore the toxic enviroment. Enough about that it's not worth my energy.

Finances all ticking along, no change as nothing in or out, waiting on a couple of survey payments, also excited that both me and DH will receive £50 from NW, love free money.

Plans for today are to reset house with a bit of cleaning and putting things back in their home, bake a lemon cake to use up dodgy lemons and probably a banana and walnut cake to use up even dodgier bananas, start Fridays shopping list and meal plan, I do know steak pie, fish and chicken is featuring on it so far, need to do a freezer dive, Also going to be an expensive week as i know we need cooking oil, dishwasher tablets and lots of other bits we are running low on.
Hopefully I will also get a bit of gardening time.

Frugal wins from the last few days(need to get back into listing these).
9 plastic tupperware tubs left behind in one of the cottages, all in good condition and left for recycling. They have been through the dishwasher and will be used for freezer bits. Some people are so wasteful.
Very sturdy bag for life also left in a cottage and now in my stash.
2 onions
I will add i am allowed to take anything left that isn't of value that would just be binned, obviously the ipad i found a few weeks ago was returned to the owner.
Dozen large plant pots from a friend.

Happy hump day xx

pennywisepoundstupid

Afternoon all and NSD no8. Rubbish nights sleep so lacking motivation today.

Gosh it's turned cold, apart from walking the dogs first thing and bringing in a basket of logs I have  stayed indoors and pottered about tidying, hoovered the upstairs and tidied toiletries box, nothing to add to shopping list this week so that is good.

Finances are still the same, in fact not much happening at all, I have had a £1 amaz0n voucher from yourvoice, I suppose it all adds up.

Spag bol for tonights tea padded out with lots of need to use up veg from the fridge, also used up some english muffins at lunchtime with poached eggs.

PWPS xx

debtfreewannabe321

Me too on rubbish night sleep and lack of motivation. Also on the spag bol 😉😆. I'm sat here at work in my summer trousers, winter jumper and autumn coat. I'm so confused 😆 never know what to wear as the weather changes so quick. It is super cold here at the mo too though.

pennywisepoundstupid

Morning all, glorious day and a better night sleep. Got up early and walked the dogs and then went off to grocery shop before it got busy.
This weeks budget was £90 and then £32.50 buffer for offers/yellow sticker items that will be used in future weeks as i like to reverse meal plan.
A&C fish box minus £10 off was £15.50 with delivery.
Mr S i spent £7 on groceries but used a £5 voucher to bring it down to £2 and a further £28.75 buffer money so a total of £30.75
Mr Al I spent £72 grocery and £4 buffer so a total of £76.
Total spent £89.50 on groceries this week an underspend of 50p , buffer i spent a total of £32.75 so an overspend of 25p, hope that doesn't break the bank. 

Meals for this week:
Fish pie
sausage and red pepper pasta
steak pie
Jacket spuds, beans, cheese, coleslaw, leftover bolognaise
Tandori chicken flatbreads
spanish omelette
Enchilladas

Baking this week will be scones, flapjack, banana bread and some sort of mincemeat slice to use up the open jar in the fridge.

pennywisepoundstupid

Banking checked and everything up to date, wodge of money has hit account so shuffled some about -
£17 in from surveys sent to emergency savings.
£100 sent to joint savings.
£85 sent to holiday savings.
£100 OP to mortgage.
£80 to pay off CC, mainly dog food and £7 cash back had been knocked off the balance.

Lit the wood burner as although the sun is shining the house is blooming cold, caught up with a few surveys and managed to peg a load of washing out, not sure it will dry though. Bottle of prosecco in the fridge that was left over from christmas. 

Enjoy the weekend xx

pennywisepoundstupid

Morning. 

Past few days the weather has been fabulous so any spare time has been spent outdoors whether in the garden or walking the dogs. Made lots of progress with raised beds and also moving pots around the garden to make better use of space. Oiled all the decking and any wooden planters/boxes and just spruced everywhere up.

Up to 10 NSD but have had a couple of small spends, £20 for dog training and £14 on dog snacks.
Finances are ticking along, i've received £28 fro surveys and TCB which has gone to savings and a £1 Mr S voucher from gfk. Redeemed a £25 M&S voucher from max1miles, i think they post you an actual gift card if i remember rightly so will watch the post for that. Also listed a few bits on £bay and have sold an item on v1nted for £1, at least it's an item out of the house . Few extra hours at work this week, all helps the holiday pot.

PWPS xx

pennywisepoundstupid

Morning, yesterday was glorious  .Washed down the outside furniture and then spent a couple of hours in the sunshine reading and finishing my current book, umming and arring about whether to start the next Kathy Reich book or to read The girl with the dragon tattoo.
Meal plan and shopping list was also made and fridge and cupboards sorted, chopped up the sad looking leeks, blanched and froze. Roasted off some parsnip in honey and froze, made a banana and date loaf to use up 3 past it bananas and froze half. emptied the upright freezer which we have been eating down and played a game of tetris and managed to get everything in the large chest freezer, cleaned out the upright and left it to defrost overnight, gave it a good wipe out this morning and switched it back on. 

Shopping done and an Ab1e and c0le fruit and veg box delivered to use the 2nd £10 off voucher, trip to the butchers to stock up on some good offers this week, bulk of the shop done in Mr Al and a small shop in B00ths.
Spend -
A&C - £12.25 (includes delivery)
Mr Al -£78.78
Booths - £2.97 grocery spend
               £11.21 buffer
Butchers £10
                £22 buffer

Total grocery spend £104 (£4 over)
         grocery buffer £33.21 (£8.21 over)
So a £12 overspend in total, hopefully i can pull this back next week.

Meal for this week:
Steak, salad, celeriac chips (date night)
Red thai chicken curry & rice.
Pulled pork baguette, fries, HM coleslaw/corn on the cob
Jkt spuds
Roast lamb, mash & veg
cottage pie
Quiche & salad

Lunches will be cheese and oatcakes, tuna/egg sandwiches and i'm going to make up a batch of spicy sweet potato and butternut squash soup as i have some potatoes that need using up and got a butternut squash in my A&C box.

pennywisepoundstupid

Postie brought me £25 giftcard this morning from max1miles, £5 from i say surveys into paypal and a £1 amaz0n voucher from gfk.

pennywisepoundstupid

Morning, where are the days going, now on 13 NSD.

End of the month slump, don't feel as though much is happening. Finances are ticking along and pots are filling up. I have made £14 on £bay and £3 on v1nted which will go into savings once cleared. DH sold something on FBM for £60 and has given me the cash. I might use it for this weeks grocery shop and then transfer the money from my grocery pot into savings. Put £40 of fuel in the car and this should last a couple of weeks as there is no plans to go anywhere far afield, just pottering around locally.
Next months budget has been done, DS 21st birthday so will be a little bit spendy, also my birthday which won't be spendy  . 
Plans for today are meal plan and shopping list using up as much from the stores as possible, make scones and if i have enough butter some mincemeat flapjack. 
Frugal wins -
Recycled packaging for £bay/v1nted parcels
Had half a tube of tomato puree left in a tube in the fridge and won't be using it up anytime soon, so squeezed contents onto baking paper in tablespoon size blobs, froze and put in a ziplock bag, so it's in the freezer ready to grab and no food waste.
Chopped up a heel of stale sourdough into small cubes and froze, these will get get chucked in the airfryer when i need croutons for Ceaser salad.
Made some seed pots from toilet roll tubes.

Take care PWPS xx

pennywisepoundstupid

Morning, weather not looking great for today so i think it's going to be inside jobs especially as next week looks lovely and i will want to spend any free time in the garden.

Finances are still ticking along, had a £1 amaza0n voucher from gfk and £1 Mr S voucher from y0urvoice panel. No sales on £bay/vinted but have found a couple of items to list over the weekend, low value but it all helps.

DH came home with 15 eggs yesterday, hens are free range and they occasionally decide to lay in a hidey place rather than the coop, hens do make me laugh they go and find hiding spots to lay and then afterwards come strutting along squawking and carrying like look at me i've just laid an egg. DH found these behind a hay bale and thinks 2 have been laying there as they are different coloured eggs some are beige some are brown. Water test first then I will crack them into a jug  and if they are ok we will be having scrambled eggs for lunch and I will make a quiche as that can be frozen for lunches next week. Oh and i will be doing the cracking outside just to be on the safe side, anyone who has ever smelt rotten eggs will understand why.

Yesterday was grocery shop day and as it was DD day off she tagged along which was nice, Had a A&C delivery to use last £10 voucher, I think i'm going to continue with this as i'm liking the fish box and so is DH, it is nice to have a bit more fish in our diet but will probably only get 1 a fortnight. Also received a free gift from A&C I could choose from milk, biscuits, yoghurt, cheese or chocolate buttons, I went for the organic mature cheddar and it is a 350g block so a good size and would have been over £5 to buy so a nice win and i won't need to buy cheese next week.

Grocery spends -
A&C - £34 (includes delivery &£10 off + free cheese)
Mr Al - £49.91
Mr S - £14.98 (used £2 in Mr S gift cards)
           £9.46 buffer

Total grocery spend - £98.89 (£1.11 under)
        Buffer spend    - £9.46 ( had £13 to spend this week due to last weeks overspend, so £3.56 under)

Meal plan (DD/DS are taking me out for Mother's day tea so 1 less meal to plan  )
HM cod,chips & salad
Fakeaway night - Pork stirfry & fried rice
HM tomato & lentil soup with cheese scones
Creamy spinach and mushroom chicken pasta
Cheese and onion pie & baked beans(filling made and in freezer just need to make pastry)
Roast chicken with garlic Mash potatoes and roasted veg (celeriac, beetroot, carrots and parsnips) 

Lunches will be quiche,salads using leftovers, soup and cheese or egg sandwiches. Bought some limes in Mr Al as they were part of super 6 so will be making a lime meringue pie at some point in the week and possibly some sort of fruit crumble to use up the glut in the freezer.

Happy weekend xx