Last Day of January Catch Up Photos

 

Aldi 24th January - £9.34

I couldn't let January fizzle out without getting up to date on my spending progress, so here is a quick post showing what else I have bought with this months money since THIS post.

Booths  21st January - £5

I decided that eggs had to be back on the menu, so these were purchased.

Charity Book Table - £1

It was a good month for the finances really, helped in a weird way by us being too poorly to actually go shopping until earlier today ... that food is for next week so was paid for out of my February cash.  We didn't need to go shopping any earlier as we had almost a week of living of the tiniest amounts of food so nothing was used up.

I also had to cancel a hair appointment, so I didn't need to take any money out of my little emergency stash.

The cash left over at the end of January was £2.37, which will be added to next months allowance.

Freebies for January included a number of serviettes, a few sugar sachets, a little pot of Flora spread, a tomato ketchup sachet, two free cups of coffee at the garden centre, five bin liners, a vegan sausage roll, a coffee and a doughnut ... all from Greggs, using the app ... and a bag of coffee grounds for the garden, picked up from Booths.  Quite a good month for gathering things in and making the budget stretch just a little bit further.

I'll hopefully be back on Monday with a update post on the bungalow, although I can't do a walk around this week as a lot of the floors are missing.  😄

We are both on the mend now, thank you so much for all the well wishes.  It's been a tough one though and I wouldn't want to go through that again anytime soon.  Ginger also recovered very quickly and is now back to his usual self, thank goodness.  🐱

Sue xx

Oh Woe is Me!!

 

Just me, stood on my doorstep, pondering life.

Sorry to be missing in action, but Mum's care home went into lockdown due to Norovirus on Monday, one day after we visited on Sunday.

Guess what?

Yep, we both started with it simultaneously on Monday teatime ... thank goodness we have separate bathrooms.  Ginger started the next day, poor thing.  There's nothing worse than listening to your beloved pet yowl while jettisoning liquid from both ends.

On that note I will leave you, I'm not a sympathy seeking person. 😷  

See you next week, when hopefully I have more energy and brain power to write a proper blog post. 

 You would not believe the amount of corrections I have had to make on this little post!!

Sue xx

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

On the Porch, Drinking Coffee

 

This came up on my feed the other day and it really got me thinking.

I think it's all about the time of your life that you are in isn't it.  It's also that some people need to be busy all the time, some people need to be seen to be busy all the time, there is a huge difference.

I was the former, then I was the latter, then I felt guilty for doing less, then the guilt stopped.

Now I would rather be on the porch drinking coffee.

Ooh ... should we build a porch on the bungalow? 😀

No, I think decking or a patio at the back would suffice.   

Sue xx

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.

Preaching to the Converted, and Rifling Through Bins

 

I seem to have a plethora of little cut in half tubes of various things around the place at the moment.  But as you can see from this photo of the mini travel sized hand cream, originally picked up from a hotel stay, there is always a lot more in tubes than you can possibly squeeze out in the proper way.

I wonder how many years of throwing away nearly a quarter of my products I had!!

I know so many of my readers already do this, so I really am pointing out the obvious, but if it helps one person to see the light and save some money in these price rising times then it worth a bit of repetition.

This particular one looks so cute now that I have popped it's 'top' on.  😄

There's an even tinier one in the bathroom.

My lips really suffer in the Winter months, and even more so when I am constantly blowing my nose when I'm not well.  So having a few tubes of this in the bathroom cabinet has been a godsend.  But I'm not wasting even a drop of it.

There was a tube of toothpaste also chopped near the bottom, after I had scrapped all the contents down, but that is now all used up and it was the dropping of it into the bin that inspired this blog post.  

Yep, I get my ideas from everywhere.  😁

Alan asked me the other day if I had bought any kitchen paper yet. 

 As you can see here from the kitchen roll holder under my wall cupboard the answer is still no.  I think the last time I purchased a new roll was probably in either November or December of 2024, so I am doing well with my paper napkin saving from cafés etc.

I do have to admit to carefully retrieving Alan's thrown away cardboard roll from the paper recycling bin yesterday ... he had thrown away the cardboard roll off his kitchen paper with two pieces of paper still attached. 😧  

I will make sure to use them for peelings or wiping up and not for anything to do with fresh food making, although they were sat quite neatly on top of an empty box of assorted chocolate biscuits that Alan had for Christmas.

Sue xx