CHRISTMAS MISSION #3

GOOD MORNING WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY!!

Your shorthand for today's BASIC PLAN is....

* MR

* ZONE 4 - SLEEP - DECLUTTER OR CLEANING

* ZONE 4 DAILY MISSION 

* DAILY FOCUS - ODD JOB DAY 

 * CHRISTMAS MISSION - #3

* PAMPER TIME 

* ER

This week we've started our 30 CHRISTMAS MISSIONS!!....

First we need to ensure we've done our MR, we've eaten, washed, dressed to shoes,  tidied up after ourselves in our bedroom, bathroom and kitchen.

Once you've done that, complete the rest of your WHB and then 15 mins of ZONE DECLUTTERING or CLEANING in your SLEEP ZONES using your WHB list as a guide.  Remember to be logical, start with removing the sheets if that needs doing, then featherdusting, dusting and polishing surfaces and furniture, windows, mirrors and other glass, then vacuuming (you can include the bed before you put the clean sheets on!)

This week we're working in ZONE 4 - SLEEP and today's ZONE MISSION is to dive under the bed!  If you can, clear it out, do a declutter, find homes for the stuff you want to keep and lets leave under the bed clear...except for your slippers maybe! Ensure you give it a good vacuum and rid youself of the hairy tumbleweed!

Our 3rd CHRISTMAS MISSION corresponds with ODD JOB DAY!

Gather together ALL your ODD Christmas wrapping supplies, yes ALL!  That's wrap, ribbon, tags, sellotape, scissors, pen, address labels, stamps, gift bags and cards! GO through these things and get rid of anything past its best and if you need any extra supplies like sellotape or cards, get them on your shopping list for ERRAND DAY.  

Why not invest in some plain brown wrapping paper, it'll do for any celebration gift, you can just jazz it up with a suitable coloured ribbon, it's cheaper and takes up less room than a roll of wrap for every event!  Put it all together in a bag or box ready to start using.  If you have a spare space, make a wrapping station, if not, put the box near to your dining table so that it can be quickly pulled out to wrap gifts.

If you are someone who likes to make their own cards or wrap, get those supplies together, make sure you have all you need and put any requirements on your shopping list.  It might also be a good idea to schedule an appointment with yourself to have some craft time and get going with making and writing cards.  This would make a great PAMPER opportunity. 

I love this mission,  it's the first real Christmassy thing we do.  I love seeing what I've got and planning what I want to make or buy.  It's an easy one and great that it's the first real thing, as sending Christmas cards is often the first Christmas activity we do isn't it?

ER is the bookend of your day....after your main meal, get the dishes and pans cleaned,  wipe down your dining table and worktops and give your sink a quick clean round.  You could even set your table for breakfast ....or set up your coffee making for the morning ....or put a load of laundry on a timed wash to finish as you're waking up in the morning...get ahead of yourself! 

WOOHOO! 🥳  Hyggelig Christmas here we come!! ⭐️

Looking forward to tomorrow, until then,

Toodle-ooo 

Nora

xxx

CHRISTMAS MISSION #2

GOOD MORNING TERRIFIC TUESDAY!!

Your shorthand for today's BASIC PLAN is....

* MR

* DAILY FOCUS - DESK DAY (PLAN AND PLAY)

* CHRISTMAS MISSION - #2 - CHRISTMAS PLANNER OR JOURNAL 

* ZONE 4 - SLEEP - DECLUTTER OR CLEANING 

* ZONE 4 MISSION - CLOTHES PILES

* PAMPER TIME 

* ER

This week we've started our 30 CHRISTMAS MISSIONS!!....

First we need to ensure we've done our MR, we've eaten, washed, dressed to shoes,  tidied up after ourselves in our bedroom, bathroom and kitchen.

Once you've done that, complete the rest of your WHB and then 15 mins of ZONE DECLUTTERING or CLEANING in your SLEEP ZONES using your WHB list as a guide.  Remember to be logical, start with removing the sheets if that needs doing, then featherdusting, dusting and polishing surfaces and furniture, windows, mirrors and other glass, then vacuuming (you can include the bed before you put the clean sheets on!) and finally remake your bed.

This week we're working in ZONE 4 - SLEEP and today's ZONE MISSION is to focus on clothes piles.  Whether these are a pile of clothes in your bedroom or a pile of ironing or a pile of washing....get stuck in!  As you go through, make sure that youre not washing, ironing or hanging up something that's too small, too large, damaged beyond repair, not comfortable, not flattering....don't just do the same old thing! Get rid of things that you don't enjoy wearing and make room for the things you do enjoy wearing!  Pack away summer clothes and get out your Winter Warmers!

Our 2nd CHRISTMAS MISSION corresponds with DESK DAY as it's a planning task. 

We need to make a Christmas Journal or Planner.  You can find these online,  often free, you can buy one or you could just add a couple of sheets of paper to the back of your binder or notebook and simply make up your own notes.  You can scribble them down or you can draw out boxes and decorate with some stickers,  this could be your PAMPER TIME project.

If you are going to buy a journal, pop it onto your shopping list for ERRAND DAY. 

Your ER is the bookend of your day....after your main meal, get the dishes and pans cleaned,  wipe down your dining table and worktops and give your sink a quick clean round.  You could even set your table for breakfast ....or set up your coffee making for the morning ....or put a load of laundry on a timed wash to finish as you're waking up in the morning...get ahead of yourself! 

WOOHOO! 🥳  Hyggelig Christmas here we come!! 

See you tomorrow, 

Nora

xxx

Christmas 2026

 

This is a slightly ambitious idea, but.... I'm going to try it anyway!

For some time I have lost my mojo and been quite down, lacking motivation to even do the things I enjoy.  My energy is not what it was and like many others it started after we tried to return to 'normal' after covid.  

I innocently took the jabs believing I was doing the right thing and suffered some of the most awful side-effects....and still caught covid from a client!  At which point I gave up having them, but the damage was done.  Feeling like someone had removed my brain and replaced most of it with cotton wool!!

Apart from that, I enjoyed the lockdowns, going my own quieter pace, spending time with my husband and daughter without school runs, growing our own vegetables,  collecting the eggs from our hens, taking time to cook everything from scratch, daily walks in our beautiful countryside and basically home-schooling our daughter.

It showed us that a slower pace suited us, in fact it was so calming.  We lived without someone elses structure and timing imposed on us, true freedom.  I discovered everyone else's 'normal' was not me!

Anyway, although I came here to retire, I found there were people in need of support and so I began caring for the older people in my local community,  what a privilege and a blessing it has been.  Working one to one or two suits me very well, so well in fact that I invariably stay longer and do more than required on my visits.  I can genuinely love them and look after them.  The beauty of self-employment and not working for an agency. 

But, here I am having lost the thread of housework, a house that really needs some TLC after a flood and the impending Christmas celebration which, for the first time in this house, will be attended by all 3 sons, 2 daughters-in-law, our 17yo daughter who still lives with us (maybe her boyfriend!) and possibly my Father-in-law....with his dog! That's 9 or 10 adults requiring 6 or 7 bedrooms....which we don't have!!

The race is on to declutter, clean, decorate (as in paint not make look pretty...although that too!) and organise space for everyone to relax and enjoy!

Oh...and we hold a Christmas party every year around 18th December!

I need to get some routines and habits in place, I need to find time to do DIY, declutter as we finish painting rooms and refurnish, work, support husband and daughter, eat decent food, get decent rest and organise presents, cards and celebration food.

So.... I thought I would encourage myself by posting my aims and recording my progress and maybe encouraging someone else to achieve.  But more than that, to post daily for myself, my discipline and as if it were someone else posting and telling me what to do!

I've given myself lots to do, that's the perfectionist in me.  But I won't be beating myself up if I don't achieve it all, I shall just be pleased with any progress from where things stand at the moment!

I hope this reaches and encourages someone else out there and we can do this together.  It would be lovely to have company.

First job of the day is sanding beams in the loft, I'm off to put on some grotty clothes and my face mask!  Delightful I assure you!  

Must dash...lots to do!

Toodle-oooo

Nora 

xxx

Fun for Free

Back in the 'how' of tightening our belts post, I promised to share some ideas on free fun....yes....fun doesn't have to be expensive!

OK, you can buy Merlin cards, Sky and Netflix, go on expensive holidays, buy designer brands.....but you can also do other stuff and have experiences that your children and you will still enjoy and have lasting memories from.

One of my daughters favourite things is a jar full of lolly sticks! Not just any old lolly sticks. Oh no!  But we have something like this one.....

Ours are pretty colours.....  And each one has on it an activity that she loves.

Cooking, games, foraging and walks, bike ride, time on Wii or PS, books, board game, bake cookies, DVDs.....the choices are endless, you know what your children like....go with that!

The ground rules are that the jar comes out in those dull moments and the activity has to suit the time available.  If we only have 20 mins, it's not likely to be cooking or Monopoly!  But we can fit in a quick game on the Wii, some TV, read a story or a chapter of a book or walk to the park for a quick play.

We love the lucky dip element of this....you never know what you're going to end up doing!

Hubby and I plan Date Night on a Friday Night, we cook a meal, try wine or cocktails and either watch a film or play a game, Canasta is one of our favourites....well, my favourite...haha!  Since my husband reminded me how it goes, I've beaten him every time!

We also do free advent calendars.

Little Lady may get a chocolate calendar from grandparents, so we like to do an alternative activity one.  It usually includes a trip to buy our Christmas tree, a nativity service, visits to Christmas lights, making gingerbread biscuits.

This year I have been putting aside Christmas stories & DVDs, and I'll be adding craft kits and cooking items for weekends when we have more time.  She'll get a numbered parcel to open each day with something to do, mostly these are gift bags that we save year on year and a free printable for a label, I like the ones with Bible verses on them that over the days tell the story of Christmas.

These are fun for the kids to do, but also fun to put together.  If you fancy giving it a go, there are loads of ideas over on Pinterest, like these.....

Activity Advent from All Things Simple

Book Advent by Here Come the Girls

Baked Advent by Butter Hearts Sugar

How about getting into the spirit of Christmas by giving to your local food bank with a Reverse Advent like this one......

...from The Mad House.

For any time of year there are lots of free things to do with children, these are advertised locally and there is this page too.... https://www.dayoutwiththekids.co.uk/blog/free-fun-fun-family-days-out-that-don-t-cost-a-thing.  You can enter your area and find out what's happening.  And why not look out for craft events, they are quite often free as they are paid for by the sellers.

Don't forget that walks are free as are bike rides.  We have lots of lovely parks and countryside in the UK and also many of the Beeching rail closures have been made into beautiful flat trails for walks or bike rides.  Keep it cheap by taking your packed lunch and drinks.  You could also pick up a disposable BBQ as many parks will allow these.  Go to your local play park and take Swingball or frisbees, balls, hoops....you'll be amazed how many new friends your children will make with a few toys to share....we used to take a beach tent with us for shade and storage of our stuff out of the sun.

My daughter likes nothing more than being given some pennies and let loose in the charity shop!  She has found some nice clothes, games and books.  Or do the reverse, have a play day at home where you make all the puzzles you can find and the ones you no longer want can be donated to a charity shop in order to make room for buying new ones...or purging the toy shelves before Christmas or Birthdays.

We have so much in our homes and so much free stuff available in our communities, take a look and remember....do you want to buy that THING more than you want to buy time to LIVE!  The more you save, the sooner you can give up work and spend quality time at home.

Any ideas for free things to do  would be great, please leave a comment with your ideas, until the next time, toodle-oooo!
Nora xxx

Stretching your pennies and finding deals

This is a very personal post in terms of saving money as you may already do lots of this, some of this or none of it!  And I'm sure that there are more things out there than I am going to talk about here....but here we go on a few financial money saving ideas!

One of the first things you should do is set yourself up on a Cashback website like Quidco, every purchase you make will give you money back, you can get quite a lot back over the year just by renewing insurances, switching utility providers and buying new appliances through a cashback website.

If you have a credit card, this is good for you credit rating.  You should look for one with extras like cashback or points, again money saving expert is good here.  You should pay it off in full every month, NEVER leave a balance to accrue interest....this is the slippery slope!  If you have a card that's to the limit, look to swap it to a card offering better rates of interest or even a period of zero interest on balance transfers and then use the savings you going to start to make to pay off this balance as quickly as possible!

Let's start big and get smaller (although saving money mounts up no matter how small the changes - translate your savings to a yearly figure and you may be pleasantly surprised!)

Mortgage - sounds obvious, but shop around and get the best deal you can.  If you are on a fixed rate that is coming to an end, be sure to start before it ends, you need time to think and fully research the deals out there.  Try to do this yourself, look on sites like Martin Lewis's Money Saving Expert.  The subjects he covers are amazing.

Rental - don't rent bigger than you need and make sure you know what is included or excluded (all bills excluding phone, does your rent include council tax?) And make sure that  you are claiming any housing benefit you are entitled to.  Contact your local council for this.

Council Tax - ensure you are being charged the correct amount and receiving any discounts for single person or disability etc.  Most councils charge council tax over 10 months, but you are entitled to have this spread over 12 months.  You can also do this yourself by calculating the annual cost divided by 12 and setting up a Standing Order.  This also makes it easier to budget monthly.

Utilities - ensure you are on a good tariff and where possible switch to new providers using a cashback website.  Make sure you keep your usage down.  You don't need an app or a SmartMeter to tell  you when to turn the lights off or put on a jumper rather than turn up the heating!

Food - don't always choose the brand your mother bought, try out something else, switching to own brand products makes a huge difference to your food shop, ask friends what they eat or use and get personal recommendations.  The other big thing here is cook from scratch.  The more the supermarket has to fiddle with your food for you the more expensive it will be.  It's also usually more processed and therefore not as good for you as the fresh stuff.  Use your butcher or fishmonger, you can shop plastic free and they do great deals.  It's better to eat 1 good piece of meat a week and 2 or 3 inferior cuts.  And look at your portion size, our protein and carb intakes are too high, these should be less than half the plate, the other half should be fibre rich veggies and salad!

Fuel - when needing to top up your tank, go to one of the fuel comparison sites, these will tell you the cheapest place to buy fuel, this might be your supermarket, or some place just off the beaten track on your way home from work.  Look out for vouchers too!

I think that's most big, regular things we spend money on.  Remember, when you buy something with a designer label or a brand, all you are doing is lining the pockets of already wealthy people with your hard earned cash.  Be sensible.   Why not try local producers and suppliers, refill shiops and farmers markets.  It might seem expensive, but when you can buy exactly what you need and it tasted better or is more filling because it has less interference than big brand food. 

Use you charity shops and why not learn a skill to make your own gifts for friends and family, make your own greetings cards, use a generic wrapping paper or brown paper rather than a themed one...save those gift bags and recycle.

You can also make money by selling things you no longer want or use.  Try eBay for selling items and more specialist things like old DVDs and phones or books can be sold via Momox, Ziffit or Music Magpie.  Or have a fund day out at the car boot by hiring a pitch or take a table at your local church hall or school and have a fun morning selling your stuff and meeting new people!

We saw this as fun, we competed with ourselves to see how much we could save.  We had a book to write down all cash purchases, it's amazing how I suddenly didn't want the coffee or the magazine when I knew I would have to write it in that book and part with my hard earned money!

Good luck...and happt retirement!

Chat soon, 

Nora xxx

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

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

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.