Food Planning, Budgeting, Shopping & Cooking – Part 5

I’ve fallen a little behind, it’s been busy and my head has been less than good, I suffer from depression and sometimes struggle with just ordinary daily tasks, so as much as I am enjoying putting pen to paper….or fingers to keyboard……I do sometimes struggle, so please forgive absences, I’ll try not to be away to long!

So onto our week…..this is the week of 9th October.

The shopping bill looked like this….

  

We also had to get some extra bits not available from Lidl and we chose to shop in Tesco, so here’s the bill for that…..

On Monday Little Lady had a friend over and we all made homemade pizza.  I don’t have any photos, but the excellent pizza dough recipe is from the ASK Italian cookbook.  We use our breadmaker and put the ingredients in it in the order suggested for bread...yeast, flour then sugar, oil, salt and finally the water.  Our dough setting takes 45 minutes, of course you can do this by hand, but we use the time to chop and grate all the toppings!

Tuesday we had Prawn Stir Fry, I marinated the prawns in some Indonesian soy sauce, Chinese five spice powder, fresh crushed garlic and sweet chilli dipping sauce.  The veg was ribbons of carrot, kale left from the meals we didn’t make last week, mushrooms, broccoli and baby sweetcorn, the sauce from the marinade was enough to flavour the whole thing and we had it with a selection of noodle ‘bits’ gathered from opened packets of half crushed blocks of noodle….sounds a bit yuk, but they were in date and once cooked….how do you know?!  (you can always use these noodle bits instead of pasta in a Minestrone soup)

  

The Curry was a couple of leftovers that we had frozen, so we had a prawn one and a vegetable one, we served it with brown rice, homemade naans also from the freezer and some Indian nibbles bought this week in Tesco.  I’ll try and remember to get hubby to shown me the prawn curry recipe and post that one for you as it is completely delicious.

Friday night we chose to have the Beachside Paella from earlier in the week….its a hairy biker recipe that husband adapts slightly, really delicious…there’s a link and here's a photo….

Along with husbands delve into homemade batter for his fish, we made our own wedges instead of chips and I made chicken nuggets for Little Lady from Jamie Olivers Family Classics Superfoods book where he batch prepares these tasty little gems…..click to follow the link to The Happy Foodie who shares this recipe.  Here's a photo......

Sunday was Beef, Beer & Butterbean Stew and Dumplings….I always look up beef stews on Pinterest...like this one....

......and try different ones each time, if they don’t have butter beans in then I add them, likewise with beer which I swap out of stock quantity….I just like testing different ones, but I always stick to the same dumpling recipe (which I will also post another time) and make little changes, this time it contained fresh parsley, you can use fresh or dried herbs….or how about making sweet dumplings for a dessert with custard…plain with a drizzle of golden syrup and custard is gorgeous….or how about finely grating chocolate and adding it with….mmmmm…..chocolate custard or ice cream….

Ok…getting carried away there!

So that was our weeks food and minus the toiletries, a gift and Halloween lollies for any lucky callers and adding in the trip to the butcher, our total food shop for the week was…£80.95.  A bit more than was hoped for but we did buy meat and seafood for 5 meals…what a difference that made!

But I mustn’t forget that we also froze leftovers and bulk made meals such as the chicken nuggets and beef stew and fed a visitor on Sunday….so not bad.

I must also confess that I spent £1.50 on a charitable donation when I helped myself to a bag of windfalls from a cottage on my way back from work Friday afternoon.  They have an honesty box for our local Hospice, so I feel it’s a good exchange, the charity gets some much needed support and passers by use up the surplus that the homeowners kindly put out.

From these apples I made apple spice cake, an apple crumble and 4 jars of apple puree (lovely on Greek yoghurt).

So that’s the round up for this weeks food adventure….I’ll be going straight into last weeks in a day or 2!

Chat soon...toodle-pip,
Nora xxx

Food planning, budgeting, shopping & Cooking - Part 4

Yet again the week has flown by....hello!  How are you?

The week started as planned with the ragu and chilli....both delicious.  Kerry Ann's Chilli could have done with being more liquidy, so we added a second tin of tomatoes.  The final thing produced 12 meals so there's a good 8 gone into the freezer and I had a small helping with the leftover couscous for my lunch one day.

Wednesday we took a curry and naan's from the freezer, we couldn't be bothered to scratch cook as we were both so tired!  And on Thursday, we both fancied fresh, so we had jacket potatoes with beans, cheese and tuna mayo and a huge salad.  It used up lots of bits from the fridge and we cut another batch of salad leaves from those sewn in early September by Little Lady.

So the pie was moved to Friday night....gosh it was good, but Little Ladys foraged sweet chestnuts were a faff to peel!  I can see why people buy the vacuum packs of chestnuts and why they are quite costly.  But this wasn't about cost, it was about walking and foraging and making use of what we gather....if you have time, it's well worth it and a delicious recipe.

Saturday we visited Mum-in-Law, a 4 hour round journey.  She needed some bits so that added to the bill slightly......we ate at the care home and had snacks when we got home.

On Sunday we exhausted ourselves again with some clearing and sorting that needed doing in our storage unit, the aftermath of closing our business....we are gradually moving to smaller and smaller units as we sell and donate our equipment.  It meant that Saturdays meal was cooked Sunday as we all fancied a warming, simple something and lentil meatballs fitted the bill.  We used Jamie Olivers 7 Veg Tomato Sauce recipe for the sauce..it was sooooooo delicious, a great combo.

So the receipts for the week total £88.06, but only £64.82 was ours, and that included 2 new shirts for hubby making the food shop £47.82.

We sort of have a plan this week, but not much thought has gone in to it, its just a list of what we fancy!  And some choices by Little Lady who is having a friend for tea tonight.

It looks like this: 

Monday - Homemade Pizza

Tuesday - Prawn Stir Fry

Wednesday - Vegetable Curry and Naan

Thursday - Seafood Paella

Friday - Date Night (to be decided)

Saturday - to be decided

Sunday - Beef, Butter Bean and Ale Stew with Dumplings

We have now started to put together the outgoings for September so we can see the total spend....and what we managed to squirrel away in savings too!  Another step closer to retirement.  

We can also see that apart from our wages, we have additional income from things such as deals on our debit card, eBay sales, Quidco cashback and other odd bits.  We hadn't thought about these during our budgeting, so I'll come back soon and talk you through those, anyone can do this stuff you just need to know where to look!

My motivation is still retirement.

Each time I want to spend I ask myself if I REALLY need this, or is this just reducing my retirement pot and forcing me to work longer!  

Don't buy stuff, buy time to live your life!

See you soon....bye.

Nora xxx

Recipe - Nigella's Breakfast Pancakes

First off....freezing the pancakes and toasting from frozen in a toaster on the frozen setting worked!

Little Lady convinced us that they were delicious, so we tried one each....she was right!  We were surprised....pleasantly surprised.

This now means that everytime we have fresh pancakes, I will make up double the amount and feeze everything that's leftover for speedy breakfasts.  Great!

We did have one slight niggle and that was that the reheated ones weren't as thick and fluffy as we'd have liked.  But to be honest, I think that was more down to the size of the egg....it was HUGE!  Next time it'll be medium sized eggs or a touch more dry mix....maybe 165g instead of 150g....that should give a thicker mix.

Being such a success I thought I'd share the recipe.  This is not mine, it is from Nigella Lawson's book Nigella Express.

This is what you're aiming for:

The recipe goes like this: 

600g of flour

3 tbsp of baking powder

1tsp of salt

2 tsps of bicarbonate of soda

40g of sugar (can be flavoured sugar such as vanilla or cinnamon)

These ingredients can be mixed together and stored in an airtight container for use as and when the pancake lust overcomes you!  Remember though to use your mix before it goes out of date....use the dates on your dry ingredients to decide when this should be.  I think I'm going to make up at least double this to keep on hand.

The next step is for making up the batter to cook.

For each 150g of dry mix (or with a large egg maybe 165g) you need:

15ml of melted butter

250ml of milk 

1 egg

(For the melted butter I pop about 15g in the frying pan I'm goig to use to cook these and use the heat from the hob as it is warming to melt the butter.)

You heat a frying or pancake pan or griddle on a medium/low heat, you won't need any oil.

Mix all your ingredients together, I do this in a jug so that it's easy to pour the batter into the pan, these cook quite quickly, so it certainly helps with the production line technique!

You'll need around 11/2 - 2 tablespoons of batter per pancake.  Don't spread or fiddle with it.  Just pour or spoon it into the pan, it will spread where it wants to be all by itself....clever batter!  It'll only take 30 seconds or so to cook.  Look for the holes appearing on the raw side, you will only be seconds from flipping to cook your second side.

You can tell the order that these ones were poured by the stage of cooking.

By the time the bottom left pancake has holes and is dry round the sides, the top pancake will need to be flipped, then just flip at the same pace as you pour so that you know they are all evenly cooked.

After we had eaten as many of these pancakes as we could wanted, I layered the leftovers in a box between baking paper, labelled the lid and put them into the freezer....perfect!

As I said, next time, I'll make them thicker by using a smaller egg or slightly more dry mix.  It really is a case of experimenting a little.

EDIT: We made these as round as banana slices and layered them on to kebab sticks with bananas and strawberries drizzled with honey, we've also made them larger and stacked 3 for an American Pancake style brunch!

Next up, I think I'll share the fishcake recipe, until then, bye-bye.

Nora xxx

Food planning, budgeting, shopping & cooking - Part 3

Hello again.....

Here we are back with Part 3, doesn't time fly?

SO, how did the week go?  Pretty good so far.

Monday was Vegetable Curry all from the store cupboard and freezer, Tuesday was the Sausage Tagliatelle again from the store cupboard and freezer.....click to follow the link to Jamie's YouTube tutorial.  Here's a piccie of that one.....

Wednesday was eating up the leftover Tagliatelle (that really doesn't look like the correct spelling but spellchecker is telling me it is!).  The portions of pasta look small, but believe me...in the end it did 6 meals and could therefore have done with more sausage.  So having had leftovers, we still have a soup in the freezer.  Thursday we had another Jamie special, Lentil Bolognese and garlic bread, again all from the store cupboard and freezer.  Follow the link for the recipe.  We cook double of this one and freeze it....any shape pasta is ok, it tastes great no matter what!  And here's a pic of that one....

Friday was date night for me and hubby.  I went shopping after work and bought Little Lady treats for tea as she has been so good this week.  And I got some more things to get us over the weekend and for lunch next week.  Our meal was Greek salad with feta parcels and apart from some herbs and salad, it used up stuff from the store cupboard and fridge.  We also bought some Cranberry juice in order to make Woo Woo and Cosmopolitan cocktails from our store cupboard spirits (Vodka, peach schnapps and triple sec).

the meal looked like this.....

Today we've used up a stand and stuff fajita kit with fresh peppers and onions and chicken from the freezer.  It also used the remains of the salad, some grated cheese and a bit more natural yoghurt (instead of sour cream).  I have a loaf in the bread machine and we plan on bread & jam with cups of tea whilst watching Strictly Come Dancing tonight....Little Lady's choice!

She has also chosen Fish and chips for Sunday lunch!  We are going to experiment with making our own batter and chips and it will be a chance for me to make a batch of fishcakes.  They are based on a Hairy Biker recipe and I'll photograph our makings and finished product in another post very soon.

This morning, I made Breakfast Pancakes.  It's a Nigella recipe and extremely good.....pretty low fat too!  I make up a load of the dry ingredients and then use 150g of it with the wet ingredients as I need it.  We worked out that they cost under 3p each....a bit different to the 9-30p each from the supermarket!!  We've frozen the leftover ones and we are going to experiment with toasting from the freezer for a fast weekday breakfast.  I'll pop the recipe and photos on another post with costings and photos very soon.

So the shopping bill for Friday looked like this.....

I bought the cheese, crisps and salad for odd meals and for lunches throughout the week. Little Lady's treat was the Lasagne and sheep biscuit.  The mushy peas, fish and scampi are for Sundays lunch, herbs for Friday nights date night dinner and the rest to stock up store cupboard stuff.

So with Mondays shopping at £8.80, in total, this weeks food shop was under £40.

I have a list for next week, mostly fresh vegetables to make our vegetarian meals.  It's shaping up like this:

Monday - Pasta Ragu (Hairy Bikers go Veggie p101)

Tuesday - Kerry Ann's Veggie Chilli

Wednesday - Veggie Curry (not sure exactly what yet!)

Thursday - Veggie Pie (Hairy Bikers go Veggie P98)

Friday - Date night - to be decided

Saturday - Veggie Meatballs (Hairy Bikers go Veggie  p104)

Sunday - Lentil Roast with all the trimmings

This will be an interesting week in terms of costings....surely it has to be cheaper than meat and fish.

I will do those recipes and come back with how the reheating from frozen went on the pancakes, so, until I see you again...take care.....bye.
Nora xxx

Food planning, budgeting, shopping & cooking - Part 2

Well....this is going well isn't it?

Hmmm.....can you hear the sarcasm?

I think this saga should be a whole blog all of its own because its turning into a tall tale rather than a brief, matter of fact account of how it goes here!

The culprit........

Husband.

Oh dear....*shakes head in desperation*

You know that whole shopping list thing?  Yeah, that....what a crock of poop that whole idea is!  Take the list, then totally ignore it and buy what the hell you like whilst we still have a house full of food!

OK, rant over.

This is how it went....husband is given a shopping list......just a couple of bits to grab on the way home.  Nothing major.

Six things on the list were not required!  Not too bad....but that is the second time this week!  If he carries on like this we'll spend more on what we don't need than the things we do! Hahaha!

Bless him.....

They will get used, but, I'm really trying to see how much we can save by planning and budgeting!

Never mind.

Our week continued with the menu on the previous food & shopping post and we ate up the last of the soup and fish pie as lunches on Saturday.  Little lady had Friday off school ill, so we had fish-finger sandwiches by her choice using more bread and bits from the freezer - it is still full!

On Sunday I used the remainder of the white bread and eggs with some apricot jam and sultanas and made bread and butter pudding.....

Very nice....haven't had that for years!

The other job of the week was to take all the frozen bread crusts, plus those from the roll-ups and make breadcrumbs ready for treacle tart or fishcake making....

They'll go into the freezer for whenever that particular 'making' happens.

So meal planning.....this week we are trying to reduce the amount in the freezer.  The plan for this week is:

                         Monday - Vegetable Curry, Homemade Naans and nibbles (all from the
                                          freezer) and rice (always bought by the 5kg bag!)
                         Tuesday - Jamie Olivers Sausage Tagliatelli superfood (chosen by Little
                                          Lady because he is her hero....and its sausages!  It will use the
                                          rest of the pasta from Fridays meal, some frozen sausages and
                                          some veg from the fridge)
                         Wednesday - Soup and Homemade Bread (minestrone from the freezer)
                         Thursday - Lentil Bolognese & Garlic Bread (from the freezer)
                         Friday - Greek feta parcels (Jamie Olivers 15 Minute Meals), will use filo from
                                       the freezer and feta and spinach from the fridge....dont know what
                                       else we need just yet.
                         Saturday - Fajitas which will use up all the salad, yoghurt & cheese from                                                                the fridge and some chicken breasts from the freezer.
                         Sunday - Roast chicken (need to go to the butcher for this and it will cost around
                                        £8-10)

We also need more milk, eggs, some bread for monday lunch as the loaf will be in the machine!  We also need fruit for lunches and snacks and Little Lady has requested malt loaf for breakfast.  All I need for Tuesdays meal is a head of broccoli.

So todays shopping bill looks like this......

Let's hope hubby doesn't blow it later in the week! Tee-hee....

We think we are going for a vegetarian week after that, we have loads of lentils, beans and pulses as these are normal purchases for us and we usually get them a few kilos at a time.  Would be horrendous in this house if all our store cupboard stuff ran out at once...imagine the expense in one hit!  But we do need something to run out so that we can show the cost of replacements.

So until we meet again...bye!

Nora xxx

Roll-ups.....

Sounds uninspiring.....

Tastes DEEElicious.....

Its basically a twist on French toast.

Here's some inspiration.....

These are savoury....ham and cheese.

The first ones I made were apple....just seemed to go well with the cinnamon sugar.

The ones I'm about to show you the step by step for are strawberry, but there are loads of combinations.  Chocolate spread and banana, cream cheese and blueberry (this mornings other option)....have a look at my Pinterest board to see what inspiration you can find.

You will see I have a bit of a french toast obsession at the moment.....depending on filling they fit with my low fat diet and are surprisingly quick and easy.

These are the ingredients you will need.....

Plus a knife, rolling pin, flat pancake or frying pan and either tongs or a spatula.

First cut the crusts off your bread and beat the egg into a flatish dish or a plate with sides.  You can add a tablespoon or two of milk to your egg to thin it slightly if you feel its too thick to coat the bread.

I keep my crusts on all bread, I store it in the freezer until I have enough to make it worthwhile running it through the food processor to make it into breadcrumbs.  It then goes back into the freezer for the base of treacle tart or to coat my fishcakes.

Use a rolling pin to flatten your slices of bread a little....don't go too mad or it will be too dense to soak up the egg!

Pop a knob of butter into you frying pan and melt over a low to medium heat.

Now for your filling.  On this one I spread a little jam and then sliced strawberry onto it.

Roll them up and dip into the egg.  Let the excess drip off and pop it with the seam down into the pan.  Putting the seam in first seals it and helps when you come to turn it to cook it on all sides.

Keep rolling your filled slices, dipping them in egg and popping into the pan.  I get around 6 rolls per 1 egg and we find that 2 rolls is a nice amount to eat....of course we could eat more, they're tasty!

Once browned on each side remove from the pan onto a plate, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and eat on their own or with whipped or ice cream.

Here is a photo of the apple filled roll-up with cream....

I have to cook with very little butter, but if you cook with more you could probably roll these in sugar to coat them.  

We decided this morning that these have the taste of British Pancakes but the texture is more like a doughnut.  Either way....scrumptious!

I think I might be back with more recipes as there are some family favourites that I think I'd just like to document.

If there is anyone out there, why not leave a comment for me suggesting more flavour combinations....or simply leave me any recipes or links that you think I'd like.

So until we meet again, take care.

Nora xxx

Food planning, budgeting, shopping and cooking....

....is one of those boring sounding things that, again, just becomes obsessive and addictive!

Trying to come up with alternative meals, batch cooking, using leftovers...planning your menu so that you use all that you buy.

We love food, my husband loves cooking, I love baking (there is a closet WI member lurking inside me!).......

We fancy trying related hobbies like wine making and growing our fruit and veg.  In fact my top gift of the moment would be a foraging course!

There are two elements to what we decided to do about this.

* Cooking to a budget so that we know what we need to live on when we retire (part of our future planning)

* Planning meals for now and making the most of our shopping to reduce waste (that's where you may as well open your purse and shake the money into the bin!)

First we know we can cook, but how much can we cook?  How much can we cut back on pre-made items such as pasta sauce and jam.....not cut out of our diet....but maybe make instead of buy....!?

Where would we get the ingredients....shop, grow or forage?

How would we plan our menu?

The menu planning was easy, we've been doing it for years and have a broad formula of hints for each day of the week.....Sunday is Roast Dinner, Monday is pasta....midweek its usually Baked Potatoes with salad and various fillings, a slow cooker (crockpot) meal and around the world (the kids chose this name for their curry, fajita, stir fry night).  We have take-in (not take away, although it sometimes is!) on Saturday.  Friday night is now mine and hubbys date night (little one eats a hot meal at school and older daughter often cooks for herself), we generally cook together whilst getting slowly drunk enjoying wine or cocktails.....lovely end to the week.

So this is the formula that works for us.  I must also say that we do love vegetarian food, so meat and fish is not a daily occurrence here....

At the moment I tend to go shopping on a Monday.  Over the weekend I like to clean the fridge so I can see what needs using up and from that plan some meals that will use this.  Then once we have a menu, we put together a shopping list of what we need.

So as an example, I'll show you this weeks plan....not really a good example as we have some stuff to use, but you'll get the idea.....and I might do it again another week so you can see a more expensive shop.

We had some tomatoes and lettuce leftover, but needed more, we had some cold chicken and stuffing left from Sundays roast.  We had veg left from Sundays roast and both the puddings.  In the freezer we had a batch cooked meat spag bol and a veggie one, we had a bag of mixed frozen fish.  Our store cupboard is mostly up to date with herbs, spices, gravy granules, custard powder, baked beans, cereal and potatoes!

We needed some store cupboard replacements....porcini mushrooms and frozen mushrooms, chocolate spread and assorted crackers (for cheese).  We also needed the regulars like milk, butter, cheese and breakfast / packed lunch / supper bread.

Our meals were as follows: Monday - Lasagne
                                             Tuesday - Leftover Roast dinner (roll-ups for Little Lady)
                                             Wednesday - Soup and Bread
                                             Thursday - Fish Pie
                                             Friday - Salmon Tagliatelli (more roll-ups no doubt!)
                                             Saturday - homemade Pizza
                                             Sunday - Roast Beef & Yorkshire puddings

This was our bill......        

I couldn't get some things so I text Hubby the remainder for him to grab on his way home.  BUT....he didn't stick to the list!  The first 6 items were definitely NOT on my list!

...but hey-ho, I'm not complaining!

On Sunday I made a roast dinner, a crumble and an eves pudding, a loaf and a batch of scones. 

Yesterday I added a normal and a sweet potato into the leftover Sunday roast veg together with an onion, a bay leaf, salt and pepper and bouillon powder...boiled it to buggery (wondering if it would be purple due to the red cabbage) and once it was all soft, blitzed it with a little milk to thin slightly and hey presto....roast dinner soup for lunches and a dinner this week!

Monday we made lasagne from veg and meat bolognese sauce that we had batch cooked and frozen.  We had it with garlic bread and salad followed by portions of Sundays puddings....no waste (a little salad left for Little lady suppers and lunches).

Tonight we ate another roast dinner, I just cooked fresh veg and homemade Yorkshire puddings.  We will finish the Sunday puddings...so no waste at all from Sunday.  Little lady had cheese and ham roll-ups....

I'll soon be posting a recipe for those...they are delicious!

Tomorrow, we'll be having the soup as our mail meal...probably with the last of the loaf.  I'll be making more bread tomorrow.....yes, I cheat, I have a machine.

I'll come back soon with a round up for later in the week and the menu for next.  I'll also be posting that recipe.......I think I might post a few....quick, easy and cheap....and if I can get the hubby spreadsheeting....I might even be able to cost meals too!

So.....until the next time...

bye for now.

The 'how' of tightening our belts......

I think I ought to start with where we were at.

I had owned homes since I was 19.  Lied as you could back then to get a mortgage, bought dumps to do up, sell on and progress....living on beans on toast and doing without TV along the way!  Well, you do what you can to pay that mortgage and save.

At one point I had a full-time job, 2 part-time jobs and volunteered....oh the energy one has as a teen and into early 20s.......!

I worked for private companies so didn't have a pension, the houses were my nest egg.  I faltered twice along the way with housing crashes, but it all came good in the end.

When I met my husband I had a three bedroom semi with a small mortgage, a fair chunk of equity from doing it up myself and some savings as a cushion in case the roof or electrics needed replacing....you know how it is!

My husband had only recently started on the property ladder again after the break-up of his marriage, he had a 2 bedroom semi with a large mortgage and very little equity.  His mortgage was also one of those that if you pay if off you pay a penalty.

He worked full-time for the NHS so had a good pension in the pipeline which he had improved by adding extra years.

We both had 2 children.

Mine were the eldest and youngest, his, the 2 middle ones....but they are all ours.  We had known each other for 10 years as friends before we got together, so we all knew each other and the children were used to spending time together and playing....of course living together was a different thing altogether....the novelty of an endless sleepover wore off!

We all moved in to my house, sold his, used his equity and my savings to pay off my mortgage and put his mortgage on my house so that we didn't have to pay that penalty.  That gave us the money needed to build a loft conversion and increase my house from 3 to 5 bedrooms to house our family and also to replace my savings for those rainy day repairs and buy a used 7 seater vehicle to transport our brood.

Shortly after this we also opened our own business, an Out of School Club, this gave me a salary and childcare and as the Director he was able to top up his salary with Directors drawings and dividends from the company.

Over the last decade we have paid off about £40k from our mortgage and saved and invested what we had and what we saved along the way to give ourselves a healthy savings pot.  We have opted to keep the mortgage rather than pay it off because we earn more from investments and interest on our savings than we are paying in interest on our mortgage, so we may as well keep the money to make more money!

We now have a house worth around £400k and sufficient savings to pay off the mortgage and have about £50k left over.

So the plan now is to swell the savings pot and also to take stock and see what we can get rid of in terms of outgoings so that we can get an idea of what our spending will be like when we move so that we can plan our income and outgoings..... both now and into the future.

We both work, hubby for the NHS, building that pension pot and me for a friend as Business Manager in a care home for elderly people living with dementia.  Our business closed in July of this year, after 9 years we were given Notice to Quit the premises at our local school.  It seems our business had been put out for tender without our knowledge and therefore we couldn't tender!  It comes to something when a rival school sends their condolences that you are closing before even the owner knows!!!

Anyway, it was somewhat of a blessing in disguise as I had been ill for a couple of years and was finding it all a strain, but didn't want to let parents and children down.  At least this way, although underhand and unpleasant, it was a guilt free way for us to close and move on...which we have!

We went through our bank account and credit card bills.

We cannot get rid of the council tax or TV licence, those things are quite set in stone.  The mortgage was at an excellent rate already and my husband always shops around for our insurances and utilities, so those rates were as low as we could get them, the only thing we could affect is the usage on water, gas and electricity.  We both have to have cars, both are regularly serviced and in good running order, sourcing cheap petrol is about all we can do there.

Food, it's a biggie!  We always shopped at Tesco for ease, but we decided to give Lidl a go.  Whilst we still use our local butcher for the little meat we do use and we always buy organic milk and we need some specialist food for an intolerance, swapping to Lidl has made a huge difference to our food budget.  We also cook from scratch, even baking our own bread (which we calculated costs 59p per loaf!), batch cooking also helps.  We currently reckon that for 4 of us to eat well for a week costs around £75.....but we are still working on that...watch this space!

Thankfully neither my hubby nor I are brand tarts....we prefer good taste and value to supporting multi-million pound companies

Then there were hobbies, magazines, meals or drinks out....

I stopped both of my magazine subscriptions....and yep...don't miss them in the slightest....I've reduced my paper waste and if I want the latest ideas I can Pinterest it!  Hubby got rid of his 2 subscriptions and the Saturday newspaper delivery.

We have a Tesco credit card, so our points build and we use those for holiday cottages...

 and also for vouchers for meals out at our youngest daughters favourite restaurant.....

We pay off the credit card in full every month, if you are clever with you timings, you can get over 50 days interest free credit...

So we went through the credit card and worked out costs of drinks out, hobbies and clubs, clothes and shoes, haircuts....you name it, we listed it.  We have worked out cheaper ways, making things last longer or simply not bothering with it anymore.

That's not to say that if we fancied popping to the pub for a swift half one evening we would deny ourselves, of course not.  But its a case of doing it less frequently...finding alternatives....

We found ourselves a plastic wallet and we have made a spreadsheet (you could just note it in a notebook like we did the first ever time we did this).  I can say, that when you have to write down what you have spent your money on, you think twice about it if you can find a better use for it or if you feel the need to justify to your better half why you spent it!  Believe me, lots of magazines, craft items and shoes went back on the shelf!

Did I miss them?  NO.
Did I need them?  NO.
Am I pleased I didn't bother?  YES!

Whilst we couldn't do much to reduce the outgoings such as mortgage, utilities etc.  We managed to reduce our food bill and also to reduce what was going on our credit card....in fact it went from almost £2000 per month to £1200, and we are still working on bringing this down more.

In addition all this stuff we had that was taking up room and we would have to pay to move to a new house....time to declutter, time to decide what we truly loved.

I have an eBay account and in the first few weeks of auctioning, I had made £100.  This was not brand stuff....remember, I don't do brands.  This was craft stuff, childrens clothes they had grown out of, unwanted gifts, outgrown books, puzzles and toys....also CDs, games and books went off to companies like Momox and Ziffit...another £60+ in the kitty.....these items were nothing special...just our 'stuff' that was in reasonable condition that we no longer used or wanted.

Why not start today and see what you can sell or donate...if you need help deciding, why not try a declutter prompt like these....







You'll be surprised at what people will buy.  If you can't be bothered or don't need to make the money, how about sending it to a charity, but if you pay income tax, use your Gift Aid  to increase what they can make on your stuff.

Next time I'll tell you about our food planning and budgeting and how to have cheap or even free fun!

It might all sound a bit sad...but I promise you, we have fun doing this....it becomes obsessively exciting and to top it all, we both plan to retire next year at the age of 51!  What's your goal?  Retire early?  Pay off your mortgage?  Clear debt? Save for a special occasion?

Hope to see you next time,
Bye bye

The story of the 'where'....

Although I don't fly....or do boats....we have always tried to alternate a trip to France (and once to Spain!) with holidays at home.

As I said in my previous post, we went to France in 2013 and Shopshire in 2014.  We were due a trip abroad in 2015, but I just wasn't well enough so we opted for a staycation in our lovely home and made the most of living in the South East of England with trips to London, Hever, local cinema and theatre, a pick your own farm and the seaside.....interspersed with some playtime at the local park and craft kits and making with our Little Lady, you can see more here on my old blog.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time at home, but we had missed a change of scene.  So in February 2016 during half term, we followed this up with a week away in Cumbria ...oh...what a week!

We had snow, gales....sun....rain....and watched the mood of Teesdale through our cottage window. Low cloud, mist, snow.....bright and sunny....grey and moody...wow...what a place.

Hubby is from Durham, so the idea was for him to show me and Little Lady his home territory.  Little did he know that I would fall head over heels in love with the area.

On one of our days out we went to Housesteads Roman Fort, this involved a drive through Weardale to Alston and Hexham....we had to go the slightly longer main road route as it had snowed so the quicker route over the moors was not possible.

But that drive through Weardale from Stanhope to Alston....had my cheeks hurting from all the smiling.  What a stunningly beautiful place.  I had fallen completely in love.  So much so that we even visited estate agents AND viewed a property!  

I felt so at home.

And it reminded me of all the hours spent as a child drawing farms with dry stone walls and sheep....that I had never seen in sunny Surrey!

I was under no illusion.  It was maybe the best time of year to visit when it as snowing, blowing a gale, you were thrilled to come home and light the open fire, get your electric blanket on for bedtime. Shopping in Co-Op stores and tiny independent shops, more expensive, but thank goodness for them and their friendly smile and attentive service.

It was a surprise just how much time people had for you, to chat, impart local knowledge...make you feel welcome and wanted in their neck o' the woods.

Our local pub were so accommodating of my odd diet and cooked to order for me.....no matter where we are in the World, Selina and Tony at the Strathmore Arms will always be our local landlady and landlord.

If it could be as great as that at the worst time of the year.....it was truly a place to be happy in.  We reluctantly left after a week of sheer bliss, but knew we would have to return, not only to appease the addiction, but to be sure that at all times of the year, this was a place we could live in and enjoy.

Return we did and property searches have been red hot ever since.....so has the search for holiday cottages during school holidays!

Coming from the very expensive South East, we find property prices in the North very manageable. We also know that once there, there is no coming back....we couldn't afford it!

But to exchange a busy, stressful work focused life in a busy, expensive part of Britain...for a slower paced, quieter life giving us the lifestyle we crave....as they say...its a no-brainer!

Time for a rant!

There are some in the North that think that those of us in the south are rich and somehow lucky.  However, it mostly is not the case.  Here are some facts....make your own mind up as to who has the better lifestyle....

Fact: National minimum wage, national benefits and national limits...they are just that...national.  

Minimum wage is identical in Sussex and Cumbria.

Tax credits are identical in Sussex and Cumbria.

The £442pw limit of benefits (for a couple or single parent) out of which to pay your rent is identical in Sussex and Cumbria.

Rent this in Cumbria for £435 pcm....

Rent this is Sussex for £900pcm.....

As similar as I could find, both in nice towns, both cottages, both with small gardens.

Broadly speaking this means that 2 identical families with the same income from work and / or tax credits and who both have the £442 limit on additional support from benefits will have very different disposable incomes.  Whilst the Cumbrian family will comfortably cover their rent,  the Sussex family will have to find £465 per month more from their wages and capped benefits to pay the rent.

So, possibly not equitable....and not such rich southerners at all.

Anyway, we are fortunate in that we both work and we own our own home with a diminishing mortgage....but is that enough?

What do we do about income for the future?  What about pensions?  Savings? Equity in the house?

The 'where' is really decided....so now the 'how'.....

Lots to think about, but at this time, the most important issue was searching for a new car as our faithful Alhambra of 11 years which had shipped our huge family about, been our business workhorse, homelife dump run buddy for all waste going to the tip...moved house for our children and their friends....was sadly on its last pins.

We decided to undertake a little exercise we call 'Spendies' and write down all of our outgoings and keep a tight rein on outgoings to see how much unnecessary spending we I was making!

We got a notebook and pen and a plastic wallet, we wrote down every penny we spent each day, trying each day to spend nothing!  We put all the receipts into the wallet to be cross checked with the bank statement and credit card statement.

In addition we went through our previous statements to see what our regular bills were...could we get rid of things, change utility companies, shop differently.....

We also needed to review pensions, savings and state pension forecasts.....my husband was going to be in his spreadsheet element seeing if it was viable to escape the hamster wheel.

Next time more about the 'how' of tightening your belt without losing the will to live!  

Yes you can save, no you don't have to give up life all together!

Until then....

Bye bye...