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

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

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

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

Remember the Coupon?

Remember the coupon that I got from Sainsbury's, the one that gave me £18 off a spend of £60 or more, well I only just remembered it in time.  I used it the day before it's expiry date, it would have been a shame not too.

What I did actually forget to do was to take a photo of the shopping when it was delivered.  I thought that I had, but it seems that the only ones I got were the coffee and rice, I was pleased with the long Best Before dates on everything so I took a photo.  Everything else had really good dates too, but seemingly my shopping came from a central hub not the local store so that explains a lot.

Order summary

Trolley total£69.75

Delivery cost£4.50

Coupon savings-£30.50

Total£43.75

That was my total after using my £18 off coupon and my available Nectar points.

I was really happy as my usual large pack of toilet rolls was finally on special offer.  I bought myself two packs of 12 double length rolls, but Alan said he needed some, so I gave him one of the packs.  Well it seemed a nice thing to do, after all he's always buying me bits and pieces of shopping. 😁

I also treated myself to my favourite pizza, and we shared this for tea the next night.

I also bought:

4 pouches of microwave brown rice

4 pouches of microwaveable vegetable rice

a ready made vegan quiche

a couple of large jars of coffee

some hummus

a very large bag of red lentils

6 small bars of dairy-free white chocolate

two bags of dairy-free grated cheese

and

2 twin packs of tissues

It didn't seem a lot of shopping for the full amount but with the coupon, the Nectar points and my nectar offers it all came down by quite a lot.  The delivery guys were lovely too, and came just two minutes after the expected time.  

I'll probably order online again ... when I get another coupon.  😄

Sue xx

My Easter Shopping ... and Temptation

While Alan was doing a final pre-Easter days work with the builders at the bungalow yesterday, I took myself off to the shops for the things that I wanted this week.  First I called to Aldi, gosh it was really busy considering it was only 9.30 am.  People with full trolleys and the Easter egg aisle was virtually impassable.

I'm pretty stocked up with most things at the moment, so these were just extras that I fancied and replacements for things I have used.  Of course I had to include Ginger's Tasty Licks, a very necessary thing at the moment as he is on two lots of medication from the vets, one for his arthritis and one for his over-active thyroid.  They must taste nice as we have no trouble getting any of his medicines down him. most unusual for a cat!  🐱

The receipt for posterity ... and price comparison in a years time.

Gosh doesn't fish and wine bump up the cost of the shopping, I may have to have another try at frozen salmon fillets, the last lot that I got were not that nice though.

Then it was round to Sainsbury's as I had a £2 off coupon for the little Oggs cakes and they are currently on Nectar offer at £3, so I got them for just £1 which makes them a very nice Easter treat.

I picked up some of Alan's favourite cough sweets, he eats them in the car when he's travelling, I like the black traditional ones but not the honey or cherry flavours, so they are all his.

So pretty bog standard shopping for me really.  

We don't do family meals or even visits at Easter any more, which is a shame.  So there's no need for us to stock up on the makings of a large lunch.  I think I am going to try and rectify this once we move and we have our lovely big open plan living area.  It would be nice to get everyone round once in a while.

As I paid for my Sainsbury's shopping the machine spat out a very tempting coupon.  It's £18 off a £60 online shop, I need to sit and have a think about this one as it is a really good offer.  Perhaps to good to miss ... I don't know.  🤔

Sue xx

Granny Would Be Proud

 

All today's photos are from Google Images

I've watched some really interesting YouTube videos over the last few days, slotted in here and there between shopping, visiting and visits to us.  Sometimes I choose YouTube in preference to watching a pre-recorded television programme because I can pick and choose and slot in viewing in the space it takes me to eat lunch or have a cup of coffee.  I can also watch it in preference to the news, as once I have heard the headlines I feel a real urge to take a step back.  After all there's nothing I can do except live my life calmly, quietly and as peacefully as possible.

https://youtu.be/2dmJVyRR4Mo?si=lCCb53A-WpPpETvz

28 minutes long

Just recently I have been watching a few tips and money saving channels and really retro ideas that actually make sense for now.  One that I came across on Saturday was this one. Try and ignore the annoying AI voice, but enjoy the photos that don't quite match up with the words, I found some of them made me laugh, so it was entertaining in every sense of the word.

Wouldn't a step back to a lot of the old ways be a welcome relief at the moment, well I think so ... but then I am a Granny.  😄

My washing goes out on the line in all but the worst of the weather, I shop predominately with cash, I don't buy what I don't need and I repair what I already have.  I reuse, recycle and re-invent before I throw most things away.  Oh, I make mistakes sometimes, but then don't we all.  But doing our best in difficult times can only be a good thing.

https://youtu.be/Y3Rg-UJ39pU?si=oXNdHGKyPI8CcGCU

Under 9 minutes long.

This more food based one is charmingly retro, and very on point with todays escalating food prices.  It's also American so I loved the completely different foods that it shows.  I do like the idea of 'biscuits and gravy' still popular I believe in the USA today, but for me in the UK that always brings to mind a dish of custard cream biscuits smothered in Bisto.  😐

This mornings little 'reset' was lightly stewing up six little apples that had lived in the fridge for far too long.  One portion for breakfast with a Weetabix and three more in the fridge for later in the week.  Nothing wasted, everything being used up in a good way ... granny would have been proud.

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

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

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