Live on £4000 for a year - Part 2

MrDT

Hello ladies! (and gents if there are any here other me!?)

I've had a pretty decent week, not been posting but have been reading

I'm still running down the freezer, but it's very nearly empty, when it has defrosted I can go out and do a proper food shop, won't be cheap, but has to be done. I've had some pretty strange mix and match meal combinations for dinner this week I can tell you!

I went out last night, spent nearly £40, but it was worth it, had a really good time and it's not something I do particularly often anymore Been suffering today though, haven't managed to step outside at all lol!

Realised earlier that I didn't have stuff in to sort my lunch this week, not good, lunch at work canteen would cost about £3 to £4 a day - unacceptable when I manage to do my whole grocery shop for about £60 a month! Sooooo, I had a bit of an experiment:

I'm a bit limited as to what I can take as a packed lunch as there's no microwave or anything available to me. Shame I thought, I have tins of beans and a loaf in the freezer that needs using, if we had a microwave and toaster I could have beans on toast. Then I got thinking Well, I'm one of those freaky people that really likes cold beans, but I don't think my colleagues would think it normal for me to be sat at my desk eating cold beans from a tin... So I drained most of the sauce off a tin of beans, plonked in the food processor along with a bit of ground paprika, mixed herbs, black pepper, and the juice of half a lemon, and blitzed it. I now have a smooth paste that spreads easily as a sandwich filling, so I'm pretty much having 'beans on toast', but more like 'bean paste in untoasted bread' :rotfl: I don't know if it'd be to everyones tastes, but I like it, and the other half of the lemon was added to a glass of water since i've also run out of squash lol!!

I'm looking forward to going shopping haha! In the meantime I'll just keep getting creative

To stay on target for 4k a year (or 3k for 9 months in my case) I have about £20 to last til the end of the month. I'm almost certain that this ain't gonna happen, just the leccy meter will swallow that much up! Still, not to worry, I can claw it back later on I reckon :cool:

I'm thinking of doing a very early christmas shop this year too. I have a credit card that gives me 4% cashback for the next couple of months, slips own to 0.5% after, so maybe buying my big purchases now would be a good idea.

I sold my car last weekend so that has been a welcome boost to my house savings. I've also gone and created a very childish but very effective visual aid to see how my savings are coming along. I know it looks a bit silly, but every £100 added to my savings is another 'brick in the wall', when all the bricks are filled in it means I could probably buy a house with ready cash. What's more likely is that I'll aim for say 25% as a deposit. Seeing the bricks appear and clearly see that I'm getting closer to my goal helps motivate me, so I don't care if it seems silly

Oh, and finally, the cider is coming along incredibly well. I bought a proper bung and airlock yesterday, have added the final litre of juice and am just letting it do its thing now. It might be ready for bottling next weekend, and if it is I'll have a little taster then to see what it's like and will report back :beer:

Right, gone on far too long now. Have a nice sunday evening all

mumzyof2

broke_mum_of_three wrote: »

Mumzy, I have been very good and added everything in my spending list, its not just food:eek: There are five of us in the budget, I keep thinking maybe it was a bit unrealistic the total of £5200 I gave myself, but I'm still going for it and whatever the total is this year I am going to beat it next year:T

Do you know why i wrote that..because i thought i was on the GC thread..iam sorry lol

bails

Hi guys!
Just a quickie as we're just back from Wales - I saw the tail end of a conversation about black pots in Mr M, are these good for potatoes as I need some more? And any ideas where the cheapest compost is please? Thanks muchly.

Will catch up properly with you all tomorrow, hope everyone had a lovely weekend x

ps two of the kittens are out of their box and exploring, v cute!

Marru

OOH Bails - What was the surprise???!!!

sophiesmum_2

Bails you can't just post and run we are all waiting to see what your surprise was

Black pots are good for spuds, and asda currently doing 75? litre bags of compost for £2.97 which is not bad if you don't want to cart the huge bags around.

CharliesAngel

MrDT wrote: »

I'm one of those freaky people that really likes cold beans

:rotfl::rotfl: me too... preferably tins of beans and sausages... bet that would make good paste!!!


CA x

whitewing

wedding bails???

redglass_2

slowlyfading wrote: »

Hey guys, I need some help! My housemate was using broccoli for tea and was going to throw away two big broccoli stalks. I thought I could use them somehow and asked if I can have them - can you make broccoli soup? Or does anyone have any other suggestions?

Hi Slowlyfading, my friend always uses these - she just cuts them up and puts them in with the rest of the broccoli. She did it when she was steaming some broccoli for me and the stalks were fine, so I'm going to use them in future.

Frugaldom

looby-loo wrote: »

nyk, you may be incresing the number of nails in your garden...

Nooooooooooooooooo...................... please not more snails! I actually think the beer is working! They all get so drunk that thet can't get home in time for cawn and the birds grab them all! Ddraig - there were a few had gone OTT and were past the point of inebriation but they did look like they'd had fun, so would have died happy. I'm just trying all ways to prevent the slugs & snails eating the plants as there appears to be no point in relocating them. I'll need more salt, more egg shells and more beer.

Mumzy, hope you have a great time whilst your mum's visiting. Hope she wasn't bringing any more duty frees or you'll never get around to quitting at this rate. :rotfl: I've taken a photo of my potato tub for you, will IM it so you can see the size the potatoes will grow.

Bails - ???????????????????????????????? Come on, spill the beans (but not MrDT's cold bean sandwich paste). What happened in Wales? (The parts you CAN safely tell up on a public forum). :rotfl:

I didn't have a BBQ tonight, instead, I was very good and took time out from gardening to make the spag bol, as I had already defrosted mince & some spicy sauce. I got loads more done outside and the salad leaves are amazing! They seem to replace themselves overnight! The potatoes are all getting ready to flower, so I'm hoping the bag bought from Mr T's will be the last bought for some time. The mint replaces itself overnight as well, so the 'savers' ice cream won't last long, as we all love it with freshly crushed mint and a little grated chocolate mixed through. Yum! All that's missing is chocolate sauce, but that would be too extravagant... unless I see it on offer somewhere. I've have now planted cayenne chilli peppers, beetroot, cauliflower, artichokes (long term plan), sweet peas, lavender, rosemary, basil and thyme. I staked out more of the brambles - still don't know if they are blackberries or raspberries - and I had to move 'Big Jim' to the other wingowsill beside some cherry tomatoes, so they are now all south facing.

Updates on my homepage, as it has become an obsession trying to keep it up to date. I'm just amazed how quickly everything is growing!

Finally, I have listed some of my cherry tomatoes on Freecycle because I have far too many. Thank goodness I only planted half the seeds! If they all fruit, I'm going to have to either sell some or make chutney, ketchup, loads of pasta sauce and tomato juice.

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend. MrDT, I'll be interested in finding out how your cider turns out as I nay have stacks of apple juice (if I can manage to make an apple press) this summer. I'll let you know how the rhubarb wine making starts.

sophiesmum_2

Nyk I have raspberries and blackberries in garden they look very alike but the raspberries have smooth stems and the blackberries are full of spikes.
Blackberries also have white flowers which are out about now. Hope that helps.