My £2 a Day Food Shopping Challenge

With the colder weather coming and me feeling a bit lethargic at the end of a Summer that we never really had, I decided to set myself a Challenge.  

A proper Challenge just like I used to do on my 'Challenging Myself' blog.  It's one that I will post about each and every day just after it happens all through this week.  And this challenge is:

My £2 a Day Food Shopping Challenge

My very first challenge on that old blog (which is always in the Blog List on my sidebar), was in 2018 and was a £1 a day food challenge aptly called 'The Eating for £1 Per Day Challenge'.  That one was done by buying all the four weeks worth of food in virtually one go and then using it over the course of the twenty eight days that the challenge lasted for.  Then in 2021 I did another low budget challenge, 'The £3 a Day Challenge' but this one was going out just before each meal armed with a £1 coin to see what I could buy for each meal ... so I shopped three times a day.  Luckily I lived just across the road from Sainsbury's then!

So this time I decided to switch things up a bit, allow for inflation and go for a £2 per day challenge, with each new amount being available one day at a time.

I decided to allow myself the luxury of a very basic pantry.

Instant coffee, olive oil, salt and pepper, mixed herbs, chilli flakes, garlic granules and a tub of stock powder.  That's it ... I did say basic.  😁

Here are the rules that I gave myself for the £3 a day challenge, slightly modified to fit this new one:

I will go out each day armed with my shopping bag and £2.

Any change can be carried forward to the next day.

Any food not consumed can be carried forward to the next day.

Yellow stickered foods are allowed, indeed they are positively encouraged.

I will take photos of the shopping and of any meals prepared from it.

I will post at least once daily for the whole week.

I hope this all makes sense, any questions please feel free to ask today and I will try and answer them.

Sue xx

Something for the Weekend?

 

I called to Booths on Wednesday to pick up something for Mum and picked up this weeks freebie.  This week it was some fruity tea bags or to give them their posh name Botanical Infusions.  No matter what you call them I didn't like them at all, so the remaining still sealed bags will be dropped into the foodbank trolley next time I am there.

My favourite biscuits were on offer at two boxes for £3, so I treated myself, and as you can see the charity book table hijacked me on the way out.  😁

Then yesterday Alan wanted to call to Booths for a coffee and for a few things for his tea, so of course I went with him.  I managed to spend £6.35 on a few things for the weekend for myself.  I do love Pontefract cakes, seemingly my grandad did too, although I never met him.

With his coffee Alan had a bacon butty and we shared a bowl of chips.  They were very generous with the mayonnaise, salt and napkins ... so the leftovers came home with me.

I've just found this photo on my September photo page, seemingly we had a very similar coffee outing earlier this month, the only difference being that there is only one napkin with this little freebie haul.  I do need to go through my bowl of freebies in my little cupboard it is overflowing with all sorts of useful things, it's time they were used.

So including these two little shopping trips, my Total Spend for this week is £22.74.

I'm under budget for the second time this month. 😀

There's something completely different coming each day for the week ahead, with a total spend of £14 or less ... watch this space. 💖

Sue xx

A Trip Down Memory Lane ....

 

Back Alley Hebden Bridge 1

Photography Fran Wilson

Isn't this image just so atmospheric, I love it.  Images like this really jump out at me and make me drink in every detail.  I follow Fran on Facebook and all his photography is just wonderful.  I did get his permission to share these images here.  He's a nice guy.

Back Alley Hebden Bridge 2

Photography Fran Wilson

When I bought my little terraced house in Barrow in Furness after my divorce in 2004, the back alley was very similar to this, although we had small back yards behind our houses not just an alley as seen in these photos.  So most of us could bring our wheelie bins back into the yard after the dustbin men had emptied them, leaving the alley much clearer.

Once emptied they were always left at the end of the alley for us to collect them.  As I always kept mine super clean if I wasn't there to get it sharpish, someone else would claim it as their own.  I painted a large No. 17 in white gloss paint on it in the end to try and stop this, but to no avail.  By the time I sold that house there were about six bins out on bin day with a large No. 17 painted on them. 😄

The front of the houses.  

As you can see  from this photo  there was always ongoing repairs to the brickwork of these houses as they were bought and sold, this was partly due to bomb damage during WW2.  This street is not far behind the Town Hall which was used in the film Housewife, 49 with Victoria Wood which was set in Barrow in Furness.  Of course the town was a major target during the war years as Barrow is the home of a very large shipyard formerly known as Vickers ... and this of course is how I met Alan as submarines are built there, and sail in and out of the yard.  

We started our life together in my house on this street nineteen years ago next month.

My lovely little cat Pepper, the one my salt cellar is named after, sat in the back yard of my house.  The upright piece of wood was his scratching post and the one he's sat on his sitting plank.  He didn't like to sit on the wet concrete after it rained, but didn't mind wet wood.  💖

Sue xx

Catch Up - Last Weeks Shopping and This Week's Shopping

 

Last weeks shopping, done on Friday ... can you tell it was a scorching hot day.  

Perhaps that day was called 'Summer', everyone was in Sainsbury's buying up cold drinks, alcohol, barbecue foods and ice-cream.  I guess I sort of joined in as I grabbed some dairy-free ice-cream options before the freezers emptied completely, although it was more in a get the makings for sandwiches kind of way for the food.  

We were going to Mum's on the Sunday and she had requested corned beef and tomato sandwiches, luckily Alan already had some slices of corned beef, so I got myself some Quorn ham-free slices, so I could have a similar lunch, and a couple of fish fillets so we could have homemade fish and chips when we got back.  Much cheaper than the temptation of the chippy.  😀

A Total Spend of £15.30.

Then I called into Sainsbury's yesterday to drop off some puppy training pads to the animal shelter's collection trolley, so while I was there I thought I would shelter from the rain and pick up a few bits.  

As I nearly always do I wandered the aisles, noting prices, looking at offers etc. then I spotted that my favourite tissues were on offer again a twin pack for £2.50 instead of the usual £4, just like they were in April (see HERE)

As I was on the last box of the previous purchase I decided to stock up again, saving myself £6 in total, it really does make sense taking advantage of these offers doesn't it.  Hopefully, these should now last me for the rest of the year.

So, spending-wise I'm doing much better this month, managing to stay well under my budget again, and as I have a little challenge that will mean another low spend lined up for next week, I should be able to see this month out with a bit more of a cash safety blanket back in my little money pot.

Sue xx

Art, Freebies, Meals Out and Weather

 

Lilac By Sergey Khamalyan

Gosh what a weekend of weather.

 Friday was scorchingly hot, luckily I was indoors and able to hide from the heat for most of it, although Alan downed tools early, we went out for lunch and then he had a sunbathe in the garden.  Yes, he's a worshipper and I'm an avoider.

I brought a strange collection of freebies home.  

The sugar and biscuit arrived with my coffee and I didn't really need as I don't take sugar in my drinks, and I wasn't in the mood for a biscuit straight before my lunch, but they will be made use of at home and of course they are included as part of the cost of the coffee.  The lemon wedge that came with my small fish and chips, for once wasn't on top of the little fish goujons but on a clear part of the plate, so I thought that would come in handy for one of my morning hot lemon drinks.

It was a tasty lunch but I occasionally find myself having to grit my teeth at the cost of eating out, although as it is one of Alan's favourite things to do I don't like to say no too often.  But £9 for a 'small fish and chips', basically two fish goujons, a dozen fat chips and a little pot of peas ...  I bet I could recreate it for way less than half the price, but then I would have to make the food, wash the pots, pay for the electricity etc etc.

So it is a lovely treat and I am always grateful.

 Saturday it was slightly cooler so we went out to Williamson Park early in the morning to take Mavis for a nice doggy walk, there are always so many other dogs there.  She loved it, although I usually still struggle a bit on the walk up to the café, which is situated way up the biggest hill and behind the Ashton Memorial, this is the big building that you can see when you drive along the M6 near Lancaster.  But these days I am doing it a bit better each time, of course it helps that I know there's a cup of coffee at the top.  😄  

Mum's little bungalow on a slightly sunnier day back in June.

Then yesterday it was torrential rain and dark grey skies from first light right until after I fell asleep at the end of the day.  Luckily we had already planned to visit Mum to take some needed things, do a few jobs and have our lunches together ... this time a packed lunch made by me ... so we were safely ensconced in the car through a lot of the bad weather, even if some drivers did make the motorway seem like a very dangerous place to be.

Once we got home we relaxed in front of our respective televisions and relaxed the evening away ... and still the rain fell.

I hope you had a good weekend, what was your highlight?

Sue xx

Disappointment, Grapefruit, Art and Laughs

 

Alan brought me a present when he nipped out to Booths one day last week.  A £5 pack of biscotti type biscuits.  FIVE POUNDS ... I thought they would be magically tasty, but they are boringly bog standard. 

What a disappointment, but what a lovely thing for him to do.  💖

I have to say I am loving being able to eat grapefruit again.  

The doctor has had me on all different kinds of blood pressure tablets over the past year or so, desperately trying to get me to a more normal reading range.  The last one was the sort that you can't eat or drink anything to do with grapefruit.  As this is one of my favourite breakfasts this has been hard, so I gave all but one of the last of my rather large stash to Alan to stop me from giving in to temptation.

  Now that my tablets have changed to the last available one it seems that they do not react in any way with my second favourite fruit and I can once again eat it.  I might have to go and claim back a couple of my tins from Alan's cupboard.  

He won't notice ... will he? 

I have to say I am loving these memes that I keep coming across, the ones using old oil paintings as the background.  What a brilliant way to discover art and laughs.  😄

I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Sue xx

Flowers, Snuggle Bunnies and a Mystery Read

 

I don't often photograph my flowering plants, but with the chilly days we have been having just recently, these have been really lifting my spirits.  A little ray of sunshine in such variable weather.

Lots of little rays of sunshine.

The whole plant wasn't doing well until recently and then the sudden heavy downfalls of rain last week brought it to life and now it is glorious.

Another beauty is this Anemone 'Ruffled Swan', I don't usually remember the names of plants, but this one suits it so well.  Every stage of these flowers is beautiful.  I love the drooping, lilac tinged heads before they finally open their faces to the light.

Don't worry I'm not going to become a flower and plant bore, they are just making me smile and deserved a mention.  Oh, and I've finally got some more courgettes ... but they are still not much wider than a pencil.  😄

In other 'not so flowery news' ... the air fryer has gone!!

I decided that I loved the space it had left more than I loved the occasional convenience that it gave me.  So after just one day on Facebook Marketplace, I found it a very good home with a single elderly man who's oven had just given up the ghost.  So everyone is happy and I have £20 to go into my Christmas fund.

Finally, a couple of cuddle bunnies who were not impressed by the gloomy morning the other day, and jumped on the chair to snuggle up together.  I was going to hoover but that would have been rude, so I sat quietly in my chair and read through the unusual read that has started my book reading off this month. 

My mystery read.  😶

Sue xx

The Books That I Read in August

 

The first book of the month, a week into August actually, was this one ... of course I had to 'style' it a little bit for the photo.  😄

Life Unstyled by Emily Henson

I used to read a lot of 'house' and 'style' books when my job involved merchandising shop windows and laying out the interiors of both the shops that I managed and the shops that I owned, mostly borrowed from libraries as some of them were very expensive volumes.  But over recent years I really haven't wanted to.  I barely remember buying this, but it was nice to have a read through it.

For now it's back on my shelves, but it may not stay there.

The Marmalade Diaries by Ben Aitken

Next I read this book, it is highly recommended and I took my time, savouring the laugh out loud moments and his brilliant and very observant writing.  Set out in diary format it was an easy book to pick up and put down over the course of a very busy month.

A definite keeper, I have all his books.

How I Lived a Year on Just a Pound a Day by Kath Kelly

My final book of the month was this one, a re-read that I really enjoyed. (It's only available in the used section on Amazon now though.)  Last time I read it I remember acting on many of her suggestions in the run up to Christmas.  I have just looked up when we did the 'free nights out' and it turns out that this was a re-re-read.

Here is my first re-read on my other blog.

I wonder if it is still possible to do this sort of thing, I bet it is, but living on just £1 a day ... virtually impossible even just for food I think.  But I might give it a go again.  😀

Not many books this month, but two of my favourites are now vying for the top five spot that I will be choosing at the end of the year.

Sue xx

I would just like to point out, that although I provide links to Amazon for all the books that I read each month, not all my books are bought from Amazon.  If they are some of them were bought from the Used section rather than full price.  

I share the links so that you can learn more about the books that I write about for yourself, or read reviews from others that have read them.  Of course most of the books I talk about would also be available from your local library, and if you are very lucky you might even find them in charity or thrift shops.  

There are so many ways to bring books into your home if you love reading. 📚

Walks, Beds, Tractors and Cash

 

Last weekend we took a trip to our favourite local garden centre.  After a quick walk around their little doggy walking orchard, Mavis wasn't really in the mood as there were strimmer noises coming from nearby, we had a spot of lunch and then went into the open greenhouses to fulfil my mission.

I had pulled out the raspberry canes just before the fence was re-stained as they had been attacked by something and were looking dreadful, and to be honest I don't like raspberries very much anyway!!

I needed something nice to fill the gap and we both agreed perennial flowering plants would be much better there.

Mission accomplished.

I think it looks so much better now, and we can both enjoy the flowers from our respective  patio doors.

I am keeping this one raised bed near the shed as my only vegetable growing area, it's all I need and want for the moment.  The empty space was full of kale until the other week, then the cabbage white caterpillars decimated it over the course of two days.

Alan's pride and joy, his recent purchase from a food fair in Morecambe a couple of weeks ago and now fondly known as 'Tractor Man'.  I bought Alan the fuchsia that's in it from Sainsbury's (for the grand sum of one pence, they were selling off all the Summer plants) as he was gutted that the little pot of marigolds that it was displayed with was not part of the sale. 🚜

I must say it's a relief having the garden so low maintenance now, which is not something I thought I would ever say until very recently.

End of month figures:

This month I have spent a total of £139.40.  😮

Which, if you have been following along supersonically carefully, means that you know I now have only £6.38 in my carried forwards amount.  Am I worried by this, not at all, it is a brand new month tomorrow and I can visit the cashpoint and get my next £100 ... which this time I will try not to spend all of.

I hope you have a great weekend. 💖

Sue xx

'These are a few of my favourite things ... '

 I was pegging some washing on the line yesterday, and as I did it in my usual neat fashion with certain pegs used for certain things ... some don't leave marks on clothes, some hold fine things on sturdily and some I just like the best ... I realised that I had favourites in lots of my day to day things.

Here are my favourite pegs, with my favourite spatula, my favourite chopping knife and my favourite chopping board.  The little cat is 'Pepper' my favourite and only salt cellar.  He's called Pepper because he's identical to one of the cats I first had when I met Alan, strangely enough the other one was called Ginger, she was a real beauty with a mind of her own.  I accidently broke the Pepper that held pepper.  😄

 

I almost forgot my favourite teaspoons.

I took these from my Mum's cutlery drawer when I left home to get married at 18, they were the only ones we had for a long time.  They came with me once again when I divorced my first husband, he got all the furniture and I got my son, my books, a steamer and my teaspoons.

It's funny what comes to mind when you are pegging out your smalls isn't it.  😄

https://youtu.be/0IagRZBvLtw?si=qQ3-TvQAmkdVsgzI

What are your favourite things?

Sue xx

What Do You Do on a Wet Bank Holiday Monday?

 

What do you do on a wet Bank Holiday Monday ... well after a day of working up in his office for Alan, reading for me, and then a bit of television while my cake baked, when Alan said he was going shopping you just know I was going to say "yes, I'll come too" don't you.  

I told myself that I would only buy some fresh things and a loaf of bread ... I really have got to stop lying to myself.  😄

I'm only joking as those of you who know my wacky sense of humour will realise, I actually did quite well.  Somehow wine and chocolate biscuits have now fallen into my 'fresh foods' category, although the odds of them living here long enough to go even slightly 'off' are miniscule.

My receipt.

I bought a larger than usual bag of baking potatoes as Aldi were completely out of loose baking spuds and the packs of four were so light as to not be worth the 75p cost.  So for twice the price I have definitely got more than twice the potatoes.

I have now totally blown the August budget and used up most of my savings from previous months too.  😳

Earlier I had gotten all the ingredients out to make a cake.  Banana and walnut this time, using my trusty, never fails 'all one weight and virtually all in the bowl at once' method.

My egg weighed 60g ... so the flour, margarine and sugar were all weighed out to that weight too, then all mixed thoroughly together with a dash of vanilla extract, before adding the banana and mashing that in.  Finishing off with the chopped up nuts and a quick stir before baking at 180° for around 25 minutes in a lined 1lb loaf tin.

Then I forgot to take a photo of the finished loaf ... this is a very similar looking one that I made in January 2023 and shared on my old blog, just to give you an idea of the finished article. It was very tasty and we had half each over the course of the evening.

Now the Bank Holiday over and we have  a long wait until the next one, which of course will be Christmas Day ... I bet it's still raining then!!

Sue xx

 

I've Gained Sixteen Inches ...

 

I've gained sixteen inches ... of worktop space that is not me personally.  

I couldn't resist that title, sorry.  😄

I decided on the spur of the moment the other day to put the air fryer away and claim back my worktop and my double hob.  I realised that I have been cooking in a completely different way since I have had it, and I want to go back to how I used to cook. 

This is how it looked on the worktop with the air fryer in situ, and the top picture shows that the toaster and kettle now fit back in their old places taking up much less space widthways too, and I get to use the back ring of the hob without having to move the kettle out of the way.

With such a small worktop space in my kitchen every inch matters and sixteen inches is a lot to lose, especially when it's something that only gets used every couple of days.  Obviously I have no space in my tiny kitchen for the air fryer to live in any of the cupboards, so it is temporarily living in the bottom of my wardrobe while I decide if it is something that I want to keep.

It feels completely different in the kitchen now with so much more of the worktop showing, I have to admit to really liking it again.  We'll see how it goes and I'll report back.

It made me think more about my breakfast this morning.  

I used the last of those Mediterranean veggies, I thought I better had before their birthday came around, and had them on a toasted oven bottom roll.  Normally I would have put the hummus spread, veggie topped rolls into the air fryer to melt the cheese,  but I just sprinkled less cheese and left them as they were. 

It was even more delicious than usual.  💚

Sue xx