It's Time to Dig Out the 'New' Food ... and Exciting News

This is my main food cupboard, over the years I have called it many things, but these days it's just known as 'the food cupboard'.  (See HERE for when I acquired it in 2016.)  

It's always been one of the most useful parts of our home as it holds such a lot, and over the past day or so I have been finding out just how much food there has been stashed away in the bottom cupboard.

Over the past year or so I have been eating through all the tins in the top part of the food cupboard, alongside the few fresh things I was buying each week.  Finally, last week this shelf just had a few tins of salmon and a couple of very out of date green lentils, so it was time to start moving things up from the bottom cupboard and having a good sort out.

I was amazed at how much was in there, so much so that I am still in the process of sorting through them all.  Last year I moved all out of date food upwards and left the things dated 2026 and after in the bottom cupboard.  Doing this worked really well and it has meant that I could use things up in chronological order and therefore nothing has been wasted.  It also meant that anything that I bought and didn't use straight away was added to the lower cupboard if their dates were post-2026.  Gifts of food were added, things that I brought home from Mum's bungalow were added.  All added ... and then forgotten about until there wasn't even a tiny bit of space after Christmas.

Now obviously it is 2026 and with all this space in the top cupboard I am currently in the process of pulling out most of the foods with these best before dates to move them upwards ... and there is a lot more than I thought.  

So I decided to move up what I could and then make an inventory of what will still be in the bottom cupboard, so that I don't go out and buy any duplicates of what I already have.  I am on an extremely low budget until May of this year, so this brilliant stock of food alongside my Riverford veg boxes, that I wrote about yesterday, are really going to see me though nicely.

I'm hoping to finish off the sorting today, so if you are interested I will take a photo of my nicely restocked top cupboard and show it soon.

Talking about being on a super strict budget until May ... look what arrived on Saturday morning.  

I can assure you that I was on the computer and applying for my State Pension within minutes of this invitation landing on my doormat.  To be going from £77.45, plus the interest from my savings account, to £1001.18 a month is an amazing thought.

What will I be doing with all that money? 

 Well I can assure you I will not be wasting a penny of it and frugality will always be the name of the game in day to day life.  Just so that once our renovations on the bungalow are complete we will be able to afford some lovely little holidays.

Sue xx

Claiming My Riverford Prize

 

Now that I've virtually finished all the vegetables in the fridge drawer ... just five of the 9p Christmas potatoes and a cabbage left ... I thought it was time to cash in my competition prize from last year.  See HERE.

I enjoyed browsing the website and then picking which of the organic boxes that I fancied, and in the end I decided on the small seasonal fruit and veg box which seemingly is enough for two to three people, as an extra I added as organic salad bag.  I have opted for fortnightly deliveries to start me off and I will share some things with Alan.  

My prize will cover the cost of over three deliveries of the size of boxes that I have chosen, and will see me nicely through to the end of February.  Which is going to be very helpful while my budget is so low.  Sadly, I don't think it qualifies me for the current promotional offer which is to get a lovely hardback book with your first order for all new customers.  I should have thought on my feet and had a paid for order first and then used my prize vouchers.

But I have now got a Refer a Friend code to give to family and friends.  This will give me a bonus of £15 to my account and also give anyone who takes it up £15 off their second order.

My code is : www.riverford.co.uk/refer/6itkSKBZfVX_et22tQqIPQ

It's available for anyone in the UK to use as long as Riverford deliver to your area. You should also qualify for the free cookbook if you enter the cookbook code on your order.  

Visit the Riverford website for all the information you need, it all makes for fascinating reading anyway, even if you don't decide to sign up.  What a brilliant company they seem to be.

Riverford Organic Farmers - Organic Fruit & Veg Box Delivery

My first delivery will be on Wednesday of this week, I look forward to seeing it and letting you know how it is.

Sue xx

The Last Weetabix, and a Quick Roof Job

 

One thing to add to my shopping list today is Weetabix, well the Aldi version of Weetabix that is, they are much cheaper and just as tasty.  

I'm doing really well with only buying what I need and it's really helping the budget stretch.  At the moment I take time to evaluate everything that I am using up, and think about whether it will stay in my repertoire in future, these will as I am really enjoying a 'first breakfast' of Weetabix and some sort of fruit most days.

Usually it's with either banana as shown here, tinned peaches ... one tin does four days ... or at the moment some home grown rhubarb that I defrosted and which also does me four days.

In other news ...

Our chimney was removed from the roof of the bungalow this week.

A little stack remains in the loft space where it will remain.

We were very lucky that it didn't rain for the whole procedure so everything stayed nice and dry.  The roof and main walls are the only thing about our future home that we were happy and safe to keep.

The roof looking all perfect after the roofer did his stuff.

Yes, that is Alan's car parked on our neighbours drive.  All the neighbours are being absolutely brilliant about everything we are having to do, I think they are just glad to see the eyesore that was letting their street down being dealt with.

Small town life with good neighbours is a real blessing.

I hope you have a happy weekend. 💖

Sue xx

Smaller Portions ... and Mix and Match

 

Up until the start of this week the only book that I had read this January was this new book by Ella Mills, as lots of you know I read recipe and cook books as though they were fiction. 😁

It's a really good book and there are lots of corners of pages folded down now to remind me to make more of the recipes from it ... book purists look away, yes I fold corners.

I had all the ingredients in to make this recipe, Creamy Coconut Lentils, so I did.

I find myself eating much smaller portions these days so the recipe that said feeds four gave me seven me sized portions.

I cooked up a double quantity of rice and had one portion along with a pot of curry for my tea, I put the other half of the rice into the fridge along with another pot of curry for the next night and four went into the freezer for future use.

The one left was claimed by Alan, who diluted it slightly and used it as a gravy to pour over his Christmas turkey and ham pie that he had cooked from the freezer.  He said it was delicious, I cannot really imagine it, but he's always enjoyed mixing his flavours and textures up.

Sue xx  

Going Back to My Old Ways

 

I bought this washing up liquid back in November (see here), and because I quite like the simplicity of the bottle I left it out on the sink, and I used the liquid directly from the bottle instead of my usual decanting into a push top dispenser.

You'd think that by now I would know better wouldn't you.

Even though I thought that I was being careful with my little squirt into the washing up bowl each time I used it, I have already used well over half.  So the rest has now been decanted, where hopefully it will last me a bit longer.

Of course I managed to get all of the washing up liquid out of the bottle, first by pouring, then by turning it upside down and pouring a little bit more, then by balancing the bottle directly on top of the dispenser for an hour so it could drip, drip, drip.

Then finally by rinsing out the bottle and dropping the top into the bowl before I started on the teatime pots.

I will now see how long the second half of the bottle lasts me with dispensing rather than squirting.

Riveting stuff eh!! 😁

Sue xx