How Many Times Do You Shop Each Month?

 26th - Sainsbury's £21.03

Whenever I share my shopping I get comments along the lines of 'I don't know how you manage on so little' or 'I have to spend a lot more' etc, and I've never really explained it well enough really.  So it's totally my fault.

I buy all the food that I need, and yes occasionally some of the food or treats that I just want or that  temptation leads me into buying, to top up what I already have in the house.  Most of you have seen my bulging cupboards and know all about my on/off stockpiling for a rainy day.  This year that has all been done with money that I have made selling things off while decluttering prior to our forthcoming move, and not always from my very limited food budget.  I've done well, and while I have been eating very well I have also built up quite a respectable stash of things that I need and will make good use of.  Every shopping trip has something that gets popped into the bottom cupboard, one day I just know it will all explode outwards with a flurry of assorted packages and tins littering my tiny kitchen floor, it really is that full.

I was definitely seduced by these lovely strawberries this week.  No sooner were they home than they were washed, trimmed and popped into the fridge for random snacking moments.

It's almost the law in the UK to have strawberries at the end of May and into June, then as soon as the lovely homegrown fresh flavour starts to diminish I rarely buy them anymore.

Some people eat the green tops too, while I can't stand to do that nothing gets wasted here, and they get added to the fruit scraps bag in the freezer ready for the next round of compost heap jelly.

Booths £8.35

Yesterday I had to call into Booths for some bread for Alan and while I was there I thought I would get some for myself too.  They had none of the sort I like, indeed the bread shelves were pretty spartan.  I guess everyone is either picnicking, barbequing, or simply living on sandwiches and buns.  I got myself some buns instead and will make do with those.  

I can use the teacakes in the top photo instead of breakfast toast, they are already sliced in half and in the freezer waiting to be called upon.  As you can see I was tempted by a quiche, some of the bought ones tend to be a bit hit and miss, but these Higgidy vegan quiches are full of flavour and delicious hot or cold, we both like them so I will be sharing.

The fridge is looking very healthy going into the weekend, the quiche was still on the worktop when I took this photo.

Anyway, the title of this post is 'How Many Times Do You Shop Each Month?'

 I went back and checked my own total after noting down what I had spent up to now this month, and I have shopped eight times in May. I spent a total of £99.37 all together, which averages out at a very respectable £25 for one person for a week.  Some of the cash from my limited housekeeping and some from a couple of small sales of household stuff. 

 Eight times seems excessive but we tend to stop at the supermarket on the way back from somewhere, or just pop out for a couple of things, and it's been a long time since either of us did a proper 'weekly shop'.  I find it so much easier to manage this way, and looking in a lot of the trollies in the supermarkets during the week, so do a lot of other people.

Sue xx

Living on Leftovers, Fancy Pants Pretenders

 

In this heatwave I have been careful to keep an eye on the food, even the things in the fridge so I can make sure to use everything up while it is still reasonably at it's best.

Standing out for me the other day was a chunk of red onion and a slightly sad looking courgette, so I added a few other things and roasted them, et voila ... lots of lovely cooked vegetables to add to a few different meals.

The first meal was a freshly baked baguette with leftover tuna and hummus.

With some of the hummus still leftover, I decided to add it and some of the vegetables to some pasta.

It was really tasty, and there were still lots of vegetables left over.  So they went into portion sized pots for the freezer.

They may seem like quite small pots even for a single serving, but I find they are more than adequate for me.  This is what one pot looked like on a flatbread pizza last time I did this.

Alan switches to cold drinks in this weather, me ... well I drink coffee.  Hot, black, caffeinated coffee, no iced versions or fancy pants pretenders pass my lips.  😄

Sue xx

Lawn and Order

 

*

Lawn mowers were out in force this weekend, not at our house I hasten to add, we are most definitely a lawn free zone.  But it seemed that virtually all the neighbours were either cutting grass or power washing their patios.  Oh well, if they've all got their little plots done now, peace should reign supreme for the rest of the week.  😄

Over at the bungalow the plumber has now installed an indoor stop tap that will one day be hidden under the kitchen sink ...

... and an outdoor tap.  

Which means that one day in the not too distant future, we will be able to annoy our neighbours with a jet washing session.  😁

Sue xx

* You really need to have watched Law and Order at some point to understand the joke.  😄

Cash, Food ... and Cheap Holidays

 

This is the last of my cash until my pension hits my bank account, which will be soon I hope as I was down to £31.31 at the start of the week, and it's even less now that I've been tempted to buy a few things.  

I spent £10.39 in Sainsbury's the other day, all on things that I had either on a Nectar price or a personal offer, so it was worth getting them while they were cheaper.  Even if that does mean that I now have just £20.92 left in the kitty.

I really did fancy some ice-cream for the bank holiday weekend, so even if that was the only thing not on an offer, it was well worth the £3.25 it cost me.

This morning we went to Morecambe for breakfast and it was going to be a walk on the prom, but it was so chilly with a really low lying sea mist and a cold breeze, we didn't stay for long.

Before we left though I picked up my unused sugar packs from the café, and then we went into the animal charity shop for a quick browse.  Alan bought me this tiny little cup, which will be adorning my Christmas tree along with my other miniature china pieces later this year.

On the way home Alan wanted to stop at the big Sainsbury's to get a pack of steaks for his tea, so we called in.  The 'Bake at Home' baguettes were £2 a pack or 2 packs for £3.  So Alan gave me one of the packs along with the promise of half his cucumber and a carton of orange juice. 

 Who said romance was dead.  😄 

In other news ... my bus pass arrived this morning, so there has been much teasing and planning being done by Alan.  He fancies some holidays around England being done via bus routes and bed and breakfasts, it should work out a very cheap way to do things.  We'll see. 

Sue xx

Acquiring Things, and Letting Things Go

Mum's windowsill in her care home room holds her most treasured possessions, not that she knows they are, but I can talk to her about the memories behind them over and over ... and then they make her smile. Her walls are full of family photos, and we regularly go over and over who the people are with her when she asks, but she sees no one except for me, Alan and my brother, so she really is losing track if we talk about anyone else.

It makes me realise that not acquiring things, as we have purposefully done for the last few years, (apart from a few special things), has been a really good move.  We don't need any souvenirs from our holidays apart from a few photographs, there are no fridge magnets or little jars of sand to remind us where we have been.  Just the memories and some photos to jog those memories, in case they start to slip away in the future.

When we enter the world we come with nothing, and then immediately start acquiring things, at first via our parents and relatives, and then with great gusto and lots of relish when we are independent adults striking out for the first time.

Of course while I have donated most of my randomly acquired things and ornaments in a bid to declutter my life over the years, there are some still things in the 'memory box' that I have. It being a memory in it's own right as it was made for me by a blogging buddy when we moved onto our very first farm.  I may even need to revisit that at some point and photograph the 'things' and just have them that way.  We'll see in the run up to our move what will happen.

Of course I have lots of books, but even my book buying has almost ground to a standstill.  I have paused my Amazon Prime membership. With no deliveries and little on Prime that I wanted to watch on television there didn't seem any point in supporting a huge company with a multi-multi billionaire at it's head.

Taking my life down to a simple level, and a much more satisfying stage seems to be such a good idea.  One day I too might only need a windowsill to display my possessions. 

Sue xx

Filling Up Spaces, and Shrinking by the Week

 

I called round to the bungalow with Alan's lunch on Monday, to find that he had been busy filling up the space in my bedroom with the stud walls for the en-suite.  It completely changes the look of the room now.

It actually feels smaller than it appears in this photo and will feel smaller still once the plasterboard goes up and the whole bungalow is plastered in a couple of weeks.  

As a reader mentioned the other day, we are shrinking by the week.  At the beginning the bungalow was 880sq ft or 83 square metres, I think we will have to have a re-measure once all the walls are completed as all the exterior walls will have come inwards by around 4" due to the insulation.

After having a lunch break with Alan, I headed for home to do some more filling of space.

I managed to get some roasted vegetables, pasta and peas and some stewed apple in orange juice, made up to fill that empty shelf in the fridge.  I also took a tub of grated Christmas cheese out of the freezer and opened a jar of pesto to have with some of the pasta for my tea.

It's nice to see it looking a bit healthier in there again with things to give me inspiration for this weeks meals.

Sue xx

Shopping, Using Up the Bits ... and Perfection

 

We went to Aldi on Saturday, as is now becoming a ritual to start the weekend off.  We have a coffee in Booths and then get over to Aldi nice and early before the masses arrive.  Although to be fair our Aldi seems even busier on a Sunday!

I mostly bought just what I needed, which this week was Weetabix, orange juice and paracetamols, but I was obviously influenced by a talk that I went to last week on inflammation and osteoporosis.  Where we were reminded how important it is for many ailments, especially those that include any sort of inflammation to 'eat the rainbow'.

Well I managed to get four colours of the rainbow ... now I just have to eat them more regularly.  😄🌈

My receipt for posterity ... and to celebrate that I am managing to get to the end of my pension-less days by the skin of my teeth.

As I went to the fridge to put my new purchases away I realised just how much progress I had made eating up all the little tubs of leftovers last week.  So, as I always do, I moved the last couple of things off this shelf and gave it a good wipe down.  Cleaning the fridge one shelf at a time is so much easier than having to hoick everything out and do the whole thing all at once, with it beeping at me like a crazy guinea pig.

This week I think I will concentrate more on the bits and pieces in the freezer, of which there are many little bags, tubs and half packets.  I want to batch cook some more meals and all the tiddly bits are just taking up too much space.

While I was peeking in there to see what I had, I spied the blueberries left over from our final Riverford order.  So as I had a very ripe banana glaring at me from the side, it just had to be a batch of Blueberry and Banana muffins*.

I used my usual method of weighing the eggs and then adding the same weight in flour, fat and sugar and as luck would have it, I had the exact amount of flour left in the jar to be able to stick to this criteria.

Perfection. 

Sue xx

*There are no photos of the finished muffins ... we ate them all. 😁

Old Food ... or Leftovers

 

I was reading some comments on an Instagrammers feed the other day, she's the queen of frugality and uses things so well. But, as is the way when someone gets successful online, the negative nellies and keyboard warriors turn up to put their derogatory comments in, and try and get their comments 'liked' by other people.  

One of them said that she wouldn't dream of saving or eating leftovers, and that all leftovers were was 'old food' and should be thrown in the bin.  Wow!!

Happily lots of people were not of that opinion, and I am one of them.

The other night for instance, I was having some spicy potato wedges with a fish portion, and some frozen mixed vegetables and I couldn't quite finish them all.  Did they go in the bin, no they did not ... an idea came to mind straight away so they were quickly cut in half and put into a little tub in the fridge.  

My fridge seems to be the happy residing place for lots of little tubs this week and I am working my way through them all.

I tipped some frozen peas into the pot with the wedges ready for action, took a rather large egg out of the fridge to warm up, and got the little pot of Flora brought home from a meal out ... et voila the makings of a nice little meal all ready to go. 

Ten minutes later it was all in the pan and I was busy making a nice cup of coffee to go with it.

Another few minutes and I had a nice dinner all ready to eat.

That is most definitely not 'old food'.

Do you love your leftovers?

Sue xx

Wildlife ... and Renovations

 

Heron and Greenhalgh Castle Ruins by Dermot Cummins

Isn't this a lovely photograph of a beautiful spot in our town.  I asked the photographer if I could share it and he said I could.  The river is the River Wyre which snakes its way all through our small town.  We are very lucky as well as supporting lots of wildlife, such as the herons and kingfishers, we also have quite a few otters that have returned to the river.

And now, ladies and gentle for your delight and delectation ... yes I am old enough to remember 'The Good Old Days'.  I don't know why I loved it so much as a small child, but it taught me the words of a lot of the wartime era songs, which on occasion I baffle Alan with, here's this months walk through of the bungalow.  

Alan asked me to do another one at the weekend before he fills in all the interior walls with the insulation.  I'll have to have a go at editing all the clips together at the end and make a movie won't I.  😄

https://youtu.be/haO5B4hHrRA?si=o3K-MlEizo7qCopB

I don't know why I talk so softly on these, it must be not wanting to bombard you all with my Mancunian tones in such an echoey environment.

Sue xx

Pies ... and Dates

 

One minute I was looking in the fridge for an egg to make myself a fried egg on toast for my lunch, and the next I was making pies.

I do that sort of thing a lot, it's as though I have a brain that tells me to do something else other than what I actually have planned.  Hey, brain just who do you think you are, who's in charge here ... and where is my fried egg? 😐

Instead I stood looking at all the little tubs of leftovers in the fridge and the roll of ready made pastry that was well out of date, and decided to add them all together and make pies.

The potatoes were actually boiled and in lovely big pieces, but I warmed them up for a few seconds in the microwave, mashed them up with a fork and added in some of the onion chopped into small pieces, and all of the cheese in that tub ... plus a little bit more for good measure.

As I was cutting out the pastry circles I realised that there wasn't going to be the usual perfect fit for my four bases and lids, then I remembered Angela mentioning quite a while ago that the pastry pack sizes were now smaller ... shrinkflation at it's invisible best.  

  Happily though I just about managed to roll out all the scraps to make a circle that just about covered the fourth pie.  No little pastry 'chef's perk' of a couple of jam tarts for me then from now on.  Unless I make my own pastry, which of course I should do.

They are very tasty.

 I had one for my lunch straight out of the oven, I gave one to Alan when he got back from the bungalow after a days work, and the other two are temporarily living in the fridge.  I don't think they are going to make it to the freezer though, they are far too delicious.

Someone asked me the other day if I was still writing the dates on any long term foods that I buy for the cupboard.  The answer, as you can see from this weeks photo is yes.  😊

Sue xx

Always Space for Just One More

 

As you will have noticed Alan had a busy week at the bungalow last week, so when 2pm on Friday afternoon came around and he phoned me to ask if I fancied meeting him at Booths for a coffee and a spot of lunch of course I said yes ... I don't need asking twice.  😄

After some sandwiches for Alan and a shared bowl of chunky chips alongside our coffees, we went downstairs and picked up a few bits and pieces that we both needed, and lots of Ginger's favourite cat food.

I spent £8.40 on the three items of food and I may have spent another £3.99 on a Dahlia.  It was a beauty I couldn't resist.

The next day on our way home from a breakfast at the garden centre, picking up our monthly free coffees while we were there, we stopped off at Aldi because Alan wanted to do his 'proper shop'.  I bought this lovely trolley full.

As well as these flatbreads which I use as pizza bases, and which went into the trolley after I had taken the photo.  

In Aldi I spent £20.95, and as you might have spotted in the trolley photo I was pressured by it's beauty into buying another Dahlia.

Alan said ... 'Will you have space for it in the garden?'

What a silly question to ask a gardener, there is always space for just one more. 💚

Sue xx

One Day It Will Be a Bedroom

 

One day I may just have a bedroom like this.

I do have a bit of hope, as up until Thursday of this week the windows of my bedroom were boarded up.

And now I have windows.

I didn't think I would be so excited about a bedroom window.  😁

Or a bathroom one.

It's made the world of difference to the bungalow,  instead of dark gloomy rooms and builders lamps, there's light so that everyone can actually see what they are doing.  

Alan's first job at the start of next week is to start to move the stack of plasterboards that were left in the exact place where he has to start building the wall for the bathroom ... that was really handy wasn't it.  😐

Yesterday was a really good day in the bungalow, the windows went in, the solar installation was finished, the gas board came to cap off the gas pipe in the pavement off our property, and the plumber called to discuss the first round of work he needs to do, including putting in a stopcock under where the kitchen sink will be.

Yes, one day soon I will also have a kitchen.  😀

Sue xx