Shopping Catch Up for the End of the Month

 

24th  Aldi - £19.88

I didn't really need anything but on the way back from somewhere else Alan suggested calling into Aldi for the few bits he needed, so of course I volunteered to come in and push his trolley for him.  😁

A few cool salady bits, some ready cooked salmon ... gosh what a splurge ... and some ice-lollies.  Also they finally had Gingers favourite Tasty Licks in, these are really good for hiding his thyroid medication in twice a day, luckily he is addicted to them.

As we shared a trolley, we also shared the receipt, my things are in the box.

24th  Barton Grange Garden Centre - £3.29

So that's where we were on our way back from before the Aldi shop.

These buns are a bit expensive but they are delicious, and they make a nice treat every now and then.

27th  Aldi - £17.85

I may have splurged on some more salmon, this shop seems to be a bit fishy and winey, perfect for the hot weather.  

The receipt for posterity.

I had planned to write this post today, but after reading Sue's blog first thing this morning, I thought I would also add up everything that I had spent this month on food for myself.  Seemingly it has been a grand total of £113.39.

All these little shopping trips really do add up don't they, especially when I keep buying fish and wine.  But I guess life's little pleasures are never to be sniffed at, if you can afford them. 😄

The little laughing face is there because the cash is quickly running out on the bungalow renovations, so I might have to tighten the belt a little bit over the next few months.

Sue xx

June Renovation Updates

Last week the bungalow was fully rendered on the outside, so now it now looks neat, crisp and very smart. 

 I think the neighbours are starting to really appreciate that the worse house on the street is now looking much better and no longer lowering the tone of the area.  Of course, once the skip and the outdoor toilet are able to be removed it will be better still.  😄

While Alan was able to fit all the outdoor plug sockets, lights and other accessories, the solar panel guy came back and installed the electric car charger.  Don't worry Alan's work will all eventually be signed off by a fully competent and qualified electrician, before our building inspector signs the property off as now being ready to be lived in.

This was the state of play yesterday when I went round to the bungalow to do a pre-plastering walk through ... today this has changed already.

I can hardly keep up at the moment, the three plasterers, a grandad, dad and son work together so well and so speedily, they are a sight to behold.  How they have worked so well in this heat is beyond me ... however when we went round a couple of hours ago they were all topless!!

 https://youtu.be/-8ZCVRLmqw8?si=GIPTqtflrVKmRoRx

Hopefully the plastering will all be finished next week, at the speed they are working at perhaps even halfway through the week and I can do another walk through.  

Today we were actually sat in Booths ... where is was SO much cooler than home ... with a coffee and a cold drink each, designing the front garden and the off road parking area.  It won't be done for a while but Alan needed to know what stones to save before putting the rest in the skip and sending it away.

Exciting stuff, well it is to us, I do hope that you are enjoying the updates too.  😃

Sue xx

Seven Different Ways I Have Saved Money This Past Week

1.  Making one meal go further.

Alan was feeling exhausted after working with at the bungalow all last week, so we splurged and had a chip shop tea to round the week off.  It was just too much for me, so I saved half of my fish and chip meal for the next night.  It warmed up beautifully in the Remoska, but it's always a shock to see how much fat comes out of fish and chips when it's reheated.  😮

Enough to put you off getting it again?  No not really, once in a while it's perfectly okay to have a little treat, especially when it actually lasts over two meals.

2.  Using up sad looking vegetables.

I've been using up the contents of my fridge this week, so the tail end of carrots, celery and onion were roasted together, to make us a sort of carrot wellington.  It's on the menu every week at Mum's care home and we have always said that we should give it a go.

Once cooked it was all wrapped in some homemade pastry and cooked until beautifully golden brown.

  Unfortunately, my camera has been playing silly b*ggers recently and deleting random photos, especially the last one in each series I take ... so my gorgeous pastry extravaganza has now vanished into our stomachs and the ether.

I thought I had  gone mad so I did test it out, and yes out of a set of three photos, the last one vanished!!

I am now double checking and taking duplicate where needed ... another money saving thing as I really don't want to have to buy another camera.

3.  Making good use of free food.

I had half a sachet of a 'freebie' tomato ketchup, so I found a burger in the freezer and made sure I used it all up.  It might have been free, but even so I wasn't going to waste half of it.

4.  Using what I already had open.

I wanted a bit of sweetcorn to add to my tuna salad sandwich mix, so rather than open a full can I stood at the worktop and picked some out of the frozen mixed vegetables.

5.  Shopping Lists

A letter came for me with a blank A4 sheet of paper added for some reason.  As I was just about to write out my shopping list, I turned it into six shopping list sized pieces of paper and used one straight away.

6.  Replacement for breadcrumbs.

There were a lot of Weetabix crumbs left in the tin last time I refilled it, so I tipped them all into a jar ready to add to banana and walnut muffins ... I forgot to do that.  So instead I thought I would try them as breadcrumbs to coat two mashed potato and tuna fishcakes.

It worked a treat, and surprisingly didn't taste too much of Weetabix.

7.  Free guilt-laden napkins.

On Sunday when we were getting our motorway services lunch on the way back from seeing Mum, I headed back to the table before Alan, telling him that I would get the napkins.  I had forgotten that he is a bit deaf in one ear at the moment and he didn't hear me ... so he too picked up some napkins.  I felt guilty but there's no way to push them back into the dispenser, so instead I will make good use of them at home.

Just seven of the ways I can think of that I have saved us a little bit of money this week.  Of course there are probably many more, but so many things are done without even noticing yourself do them after a lifetime of watching the pennies.

What have you done recently that helped out your budget in some way?

Sue xx

Catching Up - Bread, Doughnuts, Fights ... and Experiments

 

It was a tough visit to Mum on Sunday so the doughnut on the way home at the service station, eaten after the lovely, and for once hot, vegan sausage roll was definitely needed ... although, wow, they are super sickly sweet.  Thank goodness for a lovely black coffee to take the edge of it.

We both ate up, and then sat and people watched for a good ten minutes just to decompress.  You do see all sorts of folks at the service station, I do still get cross with the messy ones though, especially when they have children with them and just wander off leaving all their mess for someone else to clean up.  Just what sort of an example are they setting for their kids?  

Yes, I will be turning into a loudly tutting old lady soon.  😞

We got home on Saturday after a couple of hours picking up building supplies ... yes most weekends are now spent browsing the delights of Wickes or B&Q ... to find that Ginger had just been in a spat with another cat defending his garden.  His poor little nose was dripping blood and over the course of the afternoon his face swelled up quite alarmingly.  He looked like he had done a round or two with Mike Tyson.  I had washed it thoroughly, he's a gentle cat and he let me do it with only a minor wriggle and complaint, and we both spent the rest of the day monitoring it closely.

By bedtime he could see out of his eye again, and these photos were then taken the next morning so I can monitor if any infection sets in.  I think for his first ever cat fight he has gotten off quite lightly.

19th  Booths - £1.60

This was literally my only shopping for this week, and sadly it is not very nice bread.

As they were much larger slices than the bread that I usually buy, I thought I would have a little play this morning.  I made myself three mini 'quiches'.  I cut out circles, pressed them into my muffin tin and left them in the warming oven, while I chopped some pepper and let an egg come to room temperature.

You can see each stage in this photo.  First chopped pepper dropped into the lightly toasted bread base, then a little sprinkle of cheese, and then finally one beaten egg divided between all three.

It made for a very tasty little breakfast, eaten an hour after my Weetabix, yes I am still on Hobbit breakfasts.  😄

I've been doing quite a bit of playing with my food just recently, and it's always nice when it works out.  

Sue xx

Saving Money - Absolutely No Waste

One of the first steps to saving money is to have absolutely no waste.

To use everything up of everything that you buy, whether that be eating all the leftovers and composting all the vegetable bits that are inedible, or making good use out of every last drop of something in a tube for instance.

I have spent years now cutting the ends of tubes to get out all the hand-cream, face cream or as in this case toothpaste.

It's surprising what is still left in there after you have already spent a week squeezing, shaking and scraping down the tube for all your worth to get the product out.

Of course I don't want the product to go hard or go off with the tube cut into pieces, so I always cut out a middle section then use the bottom as a top.  It works a treat.

My little nail pencil, which was once the length of a normal pencil, is now just over an inch long, it's hard to sharpen it these days, but I will persevere.  While it is still there, I am still using it.

All I ask of life at the moment is to live simply, to have enough of what I need, to make the best of what I have ... and to be grateful for each and every day.

What is one money saving tip that you would add in the comments to help others that might not have heard of it?

Sue xx