The Books That I Read in September

 

Home Economics by Jane Ashley

I started the month reading this book, the one that inspired my trying once again to live for a week on just one pound a day, it made for a nice little challenge.  I enjoyed the book and have kept it to revisit in a few years time, to see if the prices that she listed for 2018 and which had seriously crept up this year will rise again ... somehow I think they will.  😕

Kept

The Missing Wife by Sheila Flanagan

I really enjoyed this book and whizzed very quickly through it, even though I was busy.  It was a well paced story about a woman being brave and finding herself again after being controlled by her husband for far too long.  It was a good story.

Donated

Happy Vegan by Fearne Cotton

While there were a few good recipes in this book, there definitely weren't enough to make me want to keep it or cook from it.  I am eating a lot more simply these days, so going through my cook books is making me quite ruthless in letting them go.  I would rather someone who wants to use them got themselves a bargain on the charity book table in Booths.

Donated

Holly the Café - Boat Cakes and Bakes by Joanna Gould

Sadly, this book is now only available as a pdf download, but following the link shows you a few of the pages from it.  

I bought my copy a few years ago when Joanna and Victor were living on their narrowboat Zero and working on Holly, their café boat, firstly the renovation of her and then making a living selling coffee and cakes every weekend from her side hatch.  Of course they were also making money from YouTube to fill the coffers a little bit more..  

The book has some lovely sumptuous recipes, all very easy to follow, I just don't make that sort of fancy cake anymore, sticking instead to the few basics that I know off by heart.  It's funny how life changes in so many ways isn't it.

Donated 

She by HC Warner

This was another really good fiction book, I seem to have gotten better at choosing my fiction recently.  It had a good twist to the tale, which I actually half guessed early on in the story, but that still had another twist in the tale at the end to make me happy.  Highly recommended.

Donated

So overall that was another month of good reading, there was one book that I just skimmed through and wouldn't recommend at all so I'm not even showing it here ... why on earth did I buy it, it was far too boring and technical for me.

Life is too short for bad books.

Sue xx

Made Happy by a Sink

 

On Wednesday of this week I arrived with Alan's lunch to find that he had cleaned up all the floors that he has been grouting for the last week or so, a knee aching and boring job but one that he has pushed through on.  He had also cleaned up my sink and got it, and the toilet ready to install.

I think the original sink and the modern version of the matching toilet go so well together, and in person they look even better than they appear in this photo.  I was so happy to see my sink cleaned up and safely in the bungalow, after it has lived at the back of the garage since the very start of all the demolition work risking damage from all the deliveries.

The porcelain tiles laid over all the floors in the bungalow look amazing and will help the underfloor heating radiate so well through the Winter months.  Alan still has the living room and dining room areas of our main room to grout and then he will be finished, it's been a tough job.

We also had another delivery this week, one that you can see in this very short YouTube video that I filmed last weekend.

https://youtu.be/3Ai1PNOplAc?si=4Xyg4gMZRe8xPiHs

It's nice to see so much progress.

Sue xx

The 3 Meals a Day for £1 in 2026 Food - Part Three and Final Musings

My little stash of freebies, picked up from all over the place when we eat or drink out ... something that I obviously didn't do at all on this particular week.  

Even though I gave myself permission to use from the stash, I didn't dip into it as much as I thought I would.  The salt and pepper sachets were very welcome and were probably the things that I used the most.  I had used a sachet of mayo on the toast that was under my beans on toast meals, but that was just about it.

The final two days ...

SATURDAY

Breakfast - Porridge

Followed by a black coffee and my last banana.

Dinner - Beans on Toast

Yes, I remembered to put it onto a bigger plate this time. 😄

Tea - Carrot and Lentil Soup

This was served with a slice of toast for dunking purposes.

Supper - Dahl and Rice

It was Saturday night and we were having a bit of a binge watch of something we had recorded so we both had some supper for a change.

SUNDAY

Breakfast - Porridge

The final day of my week on £1 a day, first I had a bowl of porridge and then ...

... I decided to finish off the last portion of the stewed apple.

Dinner - Dahl and Rice

A nice simple dinner, I could eat dahl and rice until it came out of my ears, there is absolutely no problem with repetition here.  😁

Tea - Spicy Potato Wedges with a Carrot and Red Onion Slaw

I had saved something special to have for my final meal of the challenge.  The largest potato was cut into wedges, par-boiled and then finished off in the Remoska for added crispiness.  With a nice fresh carrot slaw it was absolutely delicious.

So that was it, and it wasn't a bad week at all.  The careful planning made it all work out really well, I was never overly hungry, and if I was there was always something available to eat.

THE LEFTOVERS

I even ended the week with leftovers:

1 litre of Carrot and Lentil soup

675g Porridge Oats

500g Rice

1/2 tin of Tomatoes

Cumin - most of the jar

2 Crusts of Bread

and 1 portion of Dahl

And this is how a basic store-cupboard can be slowly built up, even on such a limited budget.  If I were to go into a second week I wouldn't have to buy oats or rice, and I would already have almost a full jar of spice in my cupboard.  So I would have the makings of two soup and toast meals and a portion of dahl and rice, so that's three dinner or tea meals sorted and enough oats to make porridge every day for the week.  Which means that I could concentrate on buying ingredients for the missing eleven meals.

I have already worked out that if I was going to do it for another week I would buy the following.

From Aldi:

Dairy-free Cheese £1.95

Red Lentils - 89p

Olive Spread - 1.25

From Sainsbury's:

1.5kg SR Flour - 70p

1 tin of Baked Beans - 30p

500g Spaghetti - 28p

2 tins of Plum Tomatoes - 86p

3 Onions - 31p

6 Carrots - 36p

Total - £6.90

With these ingredients I could add bread, flatbreads and pizza bases to the menu plan, a simple tomato sauce to be used on the spaghetti or pizza bases.  I could make another pan of dahl to go with my store-cupboard rice, there could be cheese on toast or on sandwiches with some of the onion.  I can think of lots of ways of carrying this forward.

It's been interesting doing this challenge after a gap of many years, and I think that I have proved that where there's a will, there is most definitely a way to eat for just £1 a day.

Sue xx

The 3 Meals a Day for £1 in 2026 Food - Part Two

 

Breakfast - Porridge and Stewed Apple

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday's food was relatively easy to both cook and eat, it was mostly a case of reheating what I had made previously.

The stewed apple waiting to be joined by the porridge.

Lunch - Vegetable Soup

I had the other half of this vegetable soup from Tuesdays meal plan, and yes I forgot to photograph that as well, so here's the jug again! 😄

I forgot to add that on both soup days it was served with a slice of toast for dunking.  Soup without toast is just very sad.   

Tea - Vegetable Stew and Toast

It was a small portion as I just wasn't that hungry, but I did have a couple of spoonful's of the stewed apple with a cup of coffee as a little bit of supper.

THURSDAY

Breakfast - Porridge and Banana

I decided to cook the banana in the porridge rather than slice it cold on the top.  It was a chilly morning, one of the first this year, with a heavy mist shrouding the garden.

Dinner - Beans on Toast

My dinner felt very different as I decided to open the tin of beans and have half on two slices of toast.  Beans on toast is a very British meal and a really comforting one.  This was very good but as I had put it onto a small plate, trying to eat this on my knee in front of the television proved ever so messy!!

Note to self - use a bigger plate next time. 😄

Tea - Dahl and Rice

It was so good to have a nice homemade ready meal waiting for me, no cooking and only a dish and a spoon to wash up.  This is one of the portions from the fridge and one of the six frozen blocks of rice.  I love that the dahl has moulded itself to the shape of the little plastic takeaway pot it was saved into.

FRIDAY

Breakfast Porridge with Stewed Apple

Yep, no photo ... I didn't do very well at all did I.  I could have cheated and had porridge one day this week for my breakfast and took a photo ... but I don't do that. 

The makings of my dinner.  

I saved a little bit of the red onion for later in the week and then used up all but one of the carrots, the smaller of the two remaining potatoes and the rest of the lentils.  The little salt and peppers from my freebie stash came in very useful as this really needed flavour adding.

Dinner - Carrot and Lentil Soup with Toast

This soup was delicious, and luckily I had enough to be able to have it again the next day.

Tea - Dahl and Rice

Another meal straight out of the fridge and freezer and absolutely delicious.  I could eat this every night of every week and never get bored with it.

Another day over and I wasn't flagging at all, maybe I'm a bit annoyed with myself now when I see how many photos I forgot to take, but that's just the way it was.  Life gets in the way and we all just do the best we can.  💚

I'll be back with the final part of the challenge next time.

Sue xx

The 3 Meals a Day for £1 in 2026 Food - Part One

 

The Aldi Shopping Trolley

So, following on from the last post, today I am starting to show you the way that I used the foods that I bought.  If you missed the first post in this series explaining what I'm doing and why and showing the receipts and the rest of the food ... it's HERE.

I'm keeping it simple and just showing the food and some of the preparation photos.  I am well out of practice with challenges and I have to admit to forgetting to take some photos, so I am simply going to use the same photo over and over when necessary.  

Breakfast was a particular forgetful moment!!

MONDAY

Breakfast - Porridge

I thought that as I had a full kilo of porridge oats, I would try to eat 75g each day instead of my usual 50g.  It was way too much for me, so some was saved to be used the next day in a slightly different way and I stuck to 50g for the rest of the week.

As I am not usually a big fruit eater and yet I wanted to keep this challenge as healthy as possible, I decided that rather than make myself eat an apple a day I would simply cook up all six of the little apples that I bought from Aldi. I do love stewed apple/apple sauce and I thought it would be a brilliant addition to my morning porridge each day.

On the worktop in the kitchen were these sorry looking specimens that had fallen off the tree in the garden the day before so I decided rather than waste them I would peel, chop and add them to the Aldi apples.

Dinner - Banana and Coffee

After all the chopping and sampling of the stewed apple I just wasn't that hungry at dinner time, so I simply had one of the bananas and a cup of coffee. 

The makings of a good old vegetable stew, with lentils for a bit of added protein.

Almost ready on the hob, but it looked sadly lacking in 'green'.

So you might think this is cheating a bit, but I went to the vegetable bed in the garden and picked three of our spring onions.  We have so many left and I do want to try and use them before the first frost gets to them.

The green tops went into the stew pan and the white ends were saved to be used in another recipe.

Tea - Vegetable Stew

I pulled out two portions of stew and then whizzed up the rest of the pan to make almost a litre of vegetable soup.

TUESDAY

The leftover porridge from the day before had been popped into the fridge overnight, but rather than just reheating it I decided to try frying it.

Breakfast - Porridge Patties and Stewed Apple

It didn't work very well, usually I would have added a spoonful of flour to bind it better but I didn't have any, yes I could potentially have whizzed up some of the oats to make oat flour but we are talking about 7.30 in the morning here!! 😄

It was tasty in it's own way and the apple sauce was delicious.

Lunch - Vegetable Soup

Lunch was half of the soup made on Monday ... yes I forgot to take a photo!!

Straight after lunch I started making the dahl for my tea.  Dahl is always best when cooked slowly and left to stand before eating.

It doesn't look much in my large pan but it made a lot.

Tea - Dahl and Rice

Four more single-serve sized pots of dahl went into the fridge, and two others were put straight into the freezer along with six portions of rice.

My £1 challenge ready meals at their best. 😁 

I always find that it's good to get ahead and make large portions of things at the start of the week before my enthusiasm begins to run out ... and of course it makes for less washing of pots later in the week too.

I'll be back with more days worth of food next time.

Any questions just ask away in the comments, but to nip any portion size comments in the bud, I have made all the portions that I am eating this week to suit me and my usual meal sizes.  If I had wanted bigger portions I could easily have had more porridge oats and a lot more rice, but I cannot physically manage any more than is photographed in these pictures.

Sue xx