So it Begins - The Accountability

sams247

@joedenise Yes! Thank you, I will try this. And it reminded me of last winter. One of the disaster areas for me is when the shops do 5p veg. I get a glut and then some. So I was happily batch cooking yet more stew and found the freezer drawers (freezer 1) and freezer shelves (freezer 2) crammed to bursting. So I ate stew for 4 days solid 😂. I at least look at space before I batch now! But my ADHD loves a little plan….. at least for a while, so I shall set this as August challenge 😎

in_need_of_direction

I could happily eat stew four days in a row

sams247

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82070402#Comment_82070402

Well day 1 and 2 were great. Day three ok. Day 4….. I put mint sauce in to change the flavour and got better 😁

On the subject of stew, I believe what makes or breaks a stew is the gravy. So I start every stew with the gravy base that is of the type of stew I want, this is important to me particularly as I don't use meat at all in my stews. My grandmother used to say I couldn't call it a stew if I didn't have lamb or beef in it, she said it had to be a casserole. But as I put dumplings in it, I classify it as a stew ha ha.

If I want essentially a nice rich stew I use vegetable stock, a thick vegetable or mushroom soup (and I don't mind if this is home-made or from a carton), I add a spoonful of marmite, a good dollop of cranberry sauce, a few splashes of Worcester sauce, and a little bit of tomato purée. This makes for a great tasting stew in my opinion. I add a variety of vegetables depending on what I have, but I always, always, add potatoes. In all of my years I have never, ever been able to make dumplings so I tend to rely on Aunt Bessie for these. 

If I want the stew to be more ‘lamb’ based I leave out the cranberry sauce and I add mint sauce instead and  I also leave out the tomato purée.  With both of these stew bases - I divide them in two, one will be just vegetables and potatoes and dumplings, the other one I will add either juicy marbles beef (shredded) or some type of ‘Quorn”.

sams247

I started this month with great intentions, particularly with my food budget. And no matter what my bank says, I feel that it has been a failure. To be fair, I have not spent any more money than last month but as my objection my goal was to spend less I have obviously failed. I am taking this as a learning curve from which I will improve next month. I have several different ways of trying not to buy food next month. And we shall see where we go from there because what else can we do. 

I did not spend extra on anything else and I put some money into my emergency savings which I have not previously done so that could be called a success. Payday is Monday and that's when I will reevaluate the month ahead. My wages fluctuate a lot depending on overtime and I'm aware I didn't do much overtime this last month.

I spoke before about juicy marbles, the meat replacement product I use sometimes. I have included a couple of pictures here, one to show the ‘meat’ itself, and the other to show it being used in a mini roast that I took for my meal at work. Whilst others bring sandwiches and soup I bring cooked dinners :-)

The stuffing is in a square because I make it in a big tin then cut it into squares and freeze all the portions I'm not using at that time.

Breakfast today was porridge with maple syrup and fresh cherries, lunch was some a home-made pizza slice with pineapple (yes I love pineapple on a pizza) tomatoes and mushrooms and I served this with some chopped up cucumber and a drizzle of sour cream and chives. Tea is shown in the photo and it will be my beef roast

Lolina

Oh wow, that looks incredible! Drooling here 🤤😄

sams247

Today I have done the most money controlled thing we can do, I only took cash. I was just headed for a little mooch around a town I haven't been to before but I decided to only take cash with me rather than get tempted to buy lots of different things. I bought a very ‘necessary’ keyring from a charity shop (I love key rings and have a collection strung from my bag), and I treated myself to a slice of quiche from a bakery to have for my lunch. I absolutely adore home-made quiche. So I didn't spend very much at all and who's to know what I would've spent if I've had my bank card with me.

Breakfast today was simple porridge with maple syrup as I have run out of fruit and don't intend to go to the supermarket until Monday which is payday. Lunch will be the slice of quiche I bought and I’ll have the remaining salad to go with it. As I have been talking about stew, I have made one! So tonight I have stew and dumplings.

sams247

I have had a good long hard look at Gousto. Trouble is most of the recipes I would choose I think but I can make that. So Gousto is on pause. I still think it might be a good idea as it might cut down my supermarket visits, therefore will eventually save me money, but I have to be convinced that it's a good thing that I will enjoy as well for the money.

Today is a no spend day as I am at home all day.

Breakfast this morning was my final crumpets, topped with peanut butter, topped with banana, topped with honey, topped with Chia seeds. And very nice they were too. Lunch I have blended the last of the stew to make a soup, and I chopped up the remaining dumpling, covered it with cheese and baked it in the air fryer until it was crispy and I will drop those in to the soup as sort of croutons. Tea tonight will be a vegetable tray bake, I will grate cheese on top to give me a crunchy topping, and I will crumble over one of the stuffing squares to give it a nice sage n onion flavour.

in_need_of_direction

could you give yourself a challenge to produce a week’s worth of gusto meals yourself and only buy what would be needed? It’d be interesting to see what the price difference would be.

sams247

@in_need_of_direction oooooh thats an idea!!

sams247

Today I have had to take a good long hard look my finances in consideration of the month ahead. My lovely plans on paper don't necessarily work, as I have a lot of outgoing this month. I have some social events that have been planned for a very long time, and I have three family birthdays this month. These somewhat change my budget. 

So what I've decided to do is concentrate on managing my budget and keeping everything within coping range, and if I have anything left at the end of the month then I will put that into my savings pot. Seriously, I will have to work very hard to have anything left over but I shall do what I can. All I can do is what I can do, just keep going.

I think that I'm going to seriously challenge myself in the food department as well. If this month is going to have two social events and three little birthdays to celebrate then that should be sufficient for extra fun and I'm going to try very very hard to half what I spent on food in July. That's going to be more of a emotional challenge than a practical one as I think I have enough food in my freezer to get by with a few shops.

I think August is going to be interesting to say the least.

I have an additional consideration challenge wise in that I applied for a flat a few months ago and I was told it was a 2 to 3 year wait. I had a phone call today to say that the flat is available if I wanted it. 

Thing is because I thought I had a two or three year wait I went and rented another flat. And I currently love the flat I'm in. I love where it is, I feel happy and secure there, I have nice neighbours it is in a really nice safe neighbourhood and it has amenities that I can walk to. 

The flat I applied for that has suddenly become available would be £250 a month cheaper to rent. But it's a studio flat and at the moment I have two bedrooms. Obviously a small flat would also save on my bills, so financially the studio flat seems the best option. But I'm incredibly reluctant to give up a flat I'm really happy in. It's such a quandary

Breakfast today was a most indulgent and very nice chocolate croissant., Lunch was a salmon fish cake with salad and coleslaw, and tea was quern sausage wraps with salad and chilli jam. And a really nice pistachio ice cream as a treat when I came home.