Look After My Sink ... You Have Been Warned!!

 

We went shopping for some of the light fittings and shades that we will be needing for our new home on Saturday.  It was nice looking around B&Q and choosing a few new things.  They were all things that we needed as well as wanted, so I wasn't too unhappy about the splurging of cash.

We were going to try and reuse the old white plastic ceiling fittings for the main room lights, but when we called to the bungalow on the way home from Blackpool we realised that they are all different designs and sadly very yellowed.   So that is something else that we will have to pick up along with the light switches and plug sockets.

We are not doing brilliantly at reusing things that were already in the bungalow, but the whole place was in a very bad condition when we bought it.  Sadly the toilet that I was going to keep is now cracked, Alan was a bit miffed as he discovered this after giving it a really good clean before it was removed from the bathroom.

 

I have told him to warn the builders to really look after my sink.  Once the garage is rebuilt it can go and live in there while the rest of the building work goes on, as I doubt it would survive the removal of the floors once that starts.

But the garage is still a couple of weeks away, so I have my fingers firmly crossed that it survives.  

Sue xx

Did She Stay or Did She Go?

 

I used the last of the Lemon and Lime marmalade yesterday for my 'second breakfast'.  I had forgotten that it was even there, lurking as it was behind the large jar of silverskin pickled onions in the fridge.  I wondered when I had bought this as I really couldn't remember it appearing on any recent blog post, and I have been pretty on the ball with sharing my shopping for a long time now.

So I have just used the Search box and scrolled back, seemingly I opened the jar in August last year, (on this post) but there is no record of when it was bought.

Before I washed the jar out properly I added a bit of water from the kettle to it and gave it a swill, the liquid was then added to the curry that I made last night.  I don't know what difference it actually made to the flavour, but it made me happy that absolutely nothing had gone to waste.

Then I washed the jar properly and the label soaked off like a dream.  

With this fact, and with it being such a lovely jar it seemed a shame to put her into the recycling bin.  I tried to be hard hearted and tell myself that I had more than enough empty jars of assorted sizes.

You've guessed it ... she now lives in the cupboard with her friends, awaiting some random contents of some sort, one day.  😁

Sue xx

So ... How's My Shopping Budget Going?

 

We're halfway through January already, so I thought I would have a bit of a catch up of the shopping that I have done up to now this month, check my diary where I am keeping totals, and also count the money in my bag to see if it matches up and that I have left to see me through the rest of the month.  As you can see from the top photo out of my monthly £50 allowance I have a total of £17.71 left to spend, not too bad and if I am careful I think that I am on track for a good month.

I shopped for the first time on the 3rd and spent a total of £8.60, that's pictured on THIS post.  

4th  Rivington Services - £1.59

Then I had to dip into my money again when we were at the services as I needed a bottle of water.  I don't like paying service station prices for things really, but needs must occasionally.

We had gone to visit Mum and I only had one bottle of sparkling water to take with us.  I usually buy a pack of six small bottles of San Pellegrino every six months and then refill them from either a big bottle of sparkling water or from the tap for travelling in the car.  But I had thrown one away as it was in a bit of a state (aren't we all) not realising that I only had one left.

 Oh well, we were thirsty and we paid the price. 😄

9th  Booths -  £8.95

Then when we went shopping on the 9th, along with yet another loaf of bread, and a birthday card for my brother I bought my next pack of six so I don't have to buy an individual bottle again.

9th Aldi - £1.15

Also on the 9th as I was in Aldi with Alan, I treated myself to a pack of crumpets.

They are now split and in the freezer in two-crumpet sized portions, so they should last me a while.

Of course the odd one had to be sampled along with a cup of coffee.  😄

12th  Sainsbury's - £12

Finally to get us right up to date, I went to Sainsbury's at the start of this week to get my brother a card off my Mum, and happily the tissues are still on offer.  I had managed to get through over half of the last lot of eight boxes over the Christmas and New Year lurgy period.  Thank goodness I had bought them when I did.

This sort of bargain are the reason I have given myself an extra ten pounds each month, it's always nice to have some spare money when a real bargain is available.

I have a very small shopping list up to now for this weekend, so I think I will be able to stay easily under a £10 spend.

Sue xx

Filling Up Jars and Other Things

 

I find it really satisfying to use up the last of anything, so when my big jars are depleted of all their food supplies I take an unusual amount of pleasure in washing them and refilling them the next day after they have had time to thoroughly dry out.

I know ... I'm sad, but it floats my boat.  😄

It's even more satisfying when the contents of the new bag of something all fits neatly into the lovely clean jar without any leftovers.  But sometimes you have to make the best of it and have a big jar and a little one for things like my lentils.

Other things that Alan ... with a lot of help from the builders ... has been filling up this week include the foundations of the garage.

The builders filled with concrete and Mother Nature added two inches of rain.

 

The hole where the front door used to be.

The final thing filled up this week was the hole where the bathroom window used to be.  Our fridge freezer will be stood in this space, sometime in the future.  

I can almost see it now, well when this floodlight is switched on that is, without the light the old bathroom looks more like this.

We are making good use of the old front door and bathroom window as they are going to be used on the garage once the walls start going up next week.  We have also managed to save the original garage door, which will be going back on.

We are trying to make use of as much as we can both in a bid to save money and the environment.  The brick and block mountain currently in the garden from the demolished garage, is going to be used to bring the floor level back up before the top slab is laid, and the interior walls of the bungalow that are being demolished will be used to infill some of the floor cavities inside.  

The good stuff such as the old kitchen, the electric cooker, the interior doors and even things like the lightshades have now been sold and the bungalow is pretty much an empty shell.  Today Alan is up in the loft rolling up the insulation so he can get access to all the electric wiring up there to strip it out, and of course that is going to be reused too, with an additional layer on top to make sure we will be well insulated.

Sue xx

Gadgets ... and Simple Meals

 

I claimed the soup maker back from Alan a few months back, he wasn't using it at all ... the level of dust on top was amazing.  😄

He regularly makes soup but he makes a humungous pot full at a time, and he loves it so thick and unblended that his Granny would be proud.  She used to say that a good soup was one that the wooden spoon stood up in the middle of pan all by itself.  His soups are just like that.  I like mine in smaller quantities, blended and liquid enough that you can dunk your bread easily and even occasionally drink it out of a mug, and the soup maker is very easily controllable for all these things.

We've had this particular gadget for well over ten years now, we bought it when we had an Aga and wanted to be able to turn it off in warmer weather if necessary.  So we cooked with our gadgets anytime that the Aga was off.  We used the soup maker, the Remoska, the microwave, the rice cooker and the toaster, sometimes gadgets are very handy and it's always good to find the ones that work best for your needs isn't it ... as long as you have the space to store them when they are not in use.  I still use all those mentioned.

Anyway, with all this chilly weather the soup maker has been in weekly use, it makes me three good meal sized portions at a time, I usually have a couple over two or three days and pop one into the freezer for future use.

Other simple meals, not done in the soup maker, have been simple noodle dishes to make good use of bits and bobs from the vegetable drawer in the fridge.

And a really simple red kidney bean, cumin and onion mixture served with brown rice, using the rice cooker.

It's good over the years to whittle away at any gadgets that you might have bought and rarely used ... my brief foray into having an air fryer springs to mind ... but when you have limited space everything that you have really does have to earn it's keep.

I would say out of all my gadgets, my Remoska* is the one I would choose if I could only have one ... what would yours be?

Sue xx

*Gosh they are expensive now though, but currently on special offer.