Should itsthelittlethings spend less on coffee?

joedenise

Yes

If they're frozen in a block I would get them out at least 24 hours before cooking but better 36 hours to make sure they are completely defrosted.

itsthelittlethings

Thanks. I’ll get them out tomorrow morning.

A quiet evening. I’m making squash curry. I’ll have half with rice tonight and the same again tomorrow. I’m also doing a wash and watching tv. I’ll be in bed early yet again.

itsthelittlethings

Got the sausages out last night as I forgot to get them out in the morning, only to discover there are only ten of them when I really need twelve. So I will probably have to pop to the butchers this afternoon. I’m furious with myself.

Put some stuff in Olio and people are coming to pick it up tonight. It’s nice to declutter.

I bought a new bath mat last night as my old one was completely mouldy. Putting it on a high wash didn’t seem to get rid of the mould, but did make it start to unravel. Sometimes new things are justified although I probably could have looked on Vinted first. While I was in the shop (Next Home) I saw a bed of just the style I’ve been wanting. It was only £215 plus £15 delivery and pretty sturdy. I am seriously debating buying it when I get paid. I would put my old bed on Olio. Decisions decision. Any thoughts welcome.

Roll on the weekend!

joedenise

Yes

Rather than buying another couple of sausages just cut the sausages up into smaller pieces, say each sausage into 3 pieces.  I don't think it matters if sausages are whole in a casserole and nobody will notice if they are 1/3 of a sausage short of what you wanted to give them as there will be quite a few pieces in with the veg!

itsthelittlethings

I realised I literally go past a butcher on the way home so I popped in and got a couple of sausages. The casserole is in the oven and I’m waiting for my guests.

I know what I’m getting people for Christmas so I’ll order it tomorrow (we do a secret Santa for adults and are celebrating Christmas early to all be together). 

Today at work was great, really enjoyed it. It flew by as well!

itsthelittlethings

Yay, Friday. Finally!!!! Need to finish washing up and pack for tonight in a minute. Can’t wait for my weekend away.

Dinner last night was lovely and the casserole turned out really well. Everyone said it was really nice. I might offer to cook again next week as I am on an early shift and then my sister can do it for two weeks. My great niece is so gorgeous! Young babies are a lot of work though. I’m impressed with how my niece is coping.

Going to shop for Xmas presents now.

jwil

Enjoy your weekend

itsthelittlethings

Went out for a meal with my mum tonight. It’s the local restaurant week and they had a special menu. Unfortunately they had run out of prawns in the shell and liver and bacon, which was what my mum was going to have, so she was a bit disappointed. We both had fish pie for our main, which I thought was quite nice. We might go to the butcher tomorrow and get some liver to make up for it.

We’re just sitting in front of the wood burning stove and planning a trip out on the tide tomorrow if it’s not raining.

£26 on the train, £2.30 baked potato at lunch and a double espresso at the station. I also bought Christmas presents this morning. I have nearly finished as we do a secret Santa for the adults. I’ve slightly overspent on the kids compared to what I budgeted. I’ve spent about £100 and have £30 more to get. I budgeted £80. I also combined birthday and Christmas for my secret Santa recipient to get them something better.

itsthelittlethings

Just doing some budgeting. I’ve got £13 left in the food account, so will need to pull some money over from weekly spends for food probably, even just to buy breakfast fruit and cheese and bread for lunches. I also need to get ingredients for spanakopita although maybe I’ll just eat what’s in the freezer and make that next month.

I am in my overdraft with enough room to cover the last of the bill direct debits. I also have £20 wiggle room in case of any Apple Pay or card payments that don’t show up in my regular payments.

For weekly spends I have £80 left and a friend owes me £50 which they will pay back on Tuesday. So that is £65 a week from Monday which should hopefully be ok although as I said I will probably need to get some food out of that. I would absolutely love to get to the end of the month without using my credit card and I think it’s achievable. I won’t be going to London though.

I will ideally need to get another small gift for my nephew (am getting him a first knitters book as he loves knitting and I think he’s ready to start looking at patterns), and a £5 toy for my great niece from the Early Learning Centre. I’m also going to put £10 in a bank account my niece is opening for her but I can do that in December.

I could really do with looking at my food budget. I budgeted £250 and put £275 in the bank account. I have pretty much bust that budget. I know that my coffee at home costs around £45 a month and the special milk I have is around £35 a month. They are my major luxuries and I don’t know if it would be cheating to have a separate budget for them or whether I should really be thinking about cutting them back. I guess it depends on my priorities. Maybe I’ll work out how much they cost a year and see how I feel. That’s what I did with takeaway coffee. Once I realised I was spending the equivalent of a nice holiday every year it just didn’t seem worth it.

Either way, without the coffee and special milk I’m spending around £200 a month on food. Single person, no alcohol, no pets, rarely eat meat. It’s still high but not ridiculous.

itsthelittlethings

Coffee and milk cost about £550 a year. I think that is proportional to the value they add to my life.