Monday 9 October 2017

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

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