My First Shopping of February

 

My first shopping of February.  

A grand total of £25.04.

The prices shown are the prices that come from me having my Nectar card and me buying things that were on special offer.

I decided not to buy too much fresh stuff this week as I really want to use some of the frozen vegetables in the freezer and the last of the odds and sods of salad in the fridge drawer.  I treated myself to some healthier crisps and I needed a bag of the Harvest Snaps that I take to Mum's for us to go with our sandwiches.  I always make us a picnic lunch when we visit as Mum really appreciates not having to think about what to make for at least one meal a week.

These biscuits are a bit of a treat for me. 

 I got myself this tin just before Christmas filled with individually wrapped Oat Flips and they were delicious.  I do have to admit that it was the tin that drew me to them, I just love the colours of it.  But then the biscuits were so tasty and with such relatively good ingredients that I have been looking for them ever since the tins vanished from the shelves in Booths.  Then the other day I spotted the lady putting them out on the shelves and they were on special offer!

Not too bad compared to ingredients on other biscuits. 😐

So another eclectic week's shopping for me this week as I continue to eat my way through all the foods that I already have.  This morning's breakfast was three of my Linda McCartney sausages on one of the oven-bottom muffins with tomato ketchup ... a proper Manchester lass' breakfast.  😃

Sue xx

TEDx ... and Menu Planning for Five Days

 

I don't know why the dogs were so interested in Chris Van Tulleken giving a TEDx Talk all about Ultra Processed Food ... but they were.  

https://youtu.be/6DAbx5vkslo?si=8ign--JSgxFBYSRq

It's here if you want to see it for yourself, it's very interesting ... although Ginger the cat obviously didn't think so.  😄

Anyway I was originally coming on here to show this weeks menu plan.  It's a very simple plan this week, my main aim was to get the large tub of homemade vegetable stew out of the freezer, using it once as it is and again as a filling inside the two 'pie lids' that I have frozen.  After all a pie lid can be rolled a little thinner and turned into a pasty in the blink of an eye.  😀

 I've decided that having a five day menu plan is a better idea for me as something nearly always comes up that means I have to miss one of the days midweek, and it's good to have a couple of 'free' days to be able to move things to if necessary or to be able to eat leftovers on.

I wrote the freezer inventory out again to update it as there were so many crossings out on the original and a couple of things had been added.  As you will notice from yesterday's post this new one is already out of date as I haven't added the pots of tomatoey sauce that I made over the weekend.

There now they have been added.

Now that it's bang up to date I just have to carry on with it and try not to let it be ignored.  It is a useful thing to do as it saves me rummaging through all the drawers to find things when I need  them.  I'm also enjoying having a little bit of space in the freezer at last, and it means that I can start to batch cook things soon.  I ate the Mac n' Cheese ready meal for my tea the other day, it was okay but not brilliant and the list of ingredients was not good, I can make much better myself with a bit of thought.  

Maybe I should join the animals and re-watch the Chris VT talk again to keep me on the straight and narrow.  😀

Sue xx

This Week's Cookathon

This weeks cookathon done at the weekend was a simple tray of chopped veggies, Mediterranean style.  Roasted low and slow in the oven with olive oil, onion granules, garlic granules and lots of mixed herbs.

Half an hour later and the tray of veggies was looking delicious.

While the veggies were in the oven I tipped two tins of tomatoes, half a tube of tomato puree and a large chopped onion in a pan with even more garlic and onion granules, mixed herbs, salt and pepper, and half a teaspoon of sugar and had that puttering away for an hour or so.

Once that had cooled down I ladled some of the roasted veggies and all of their juices into the pan and whizzed it all up with my stick blender to a lovely smooth, thick sauce.

I ended up with five tubs of sauce for the freezer, all one portion sized and a larger two to three portion sized jar, to go in the fridge for this weeks use.  I also had a large tub of the Mediterranean veggies and a smaller one that I had over some rice for my tea.

If I remember I will take photos of the meals I make with all this.  I forgot to take a photo of the veggies and rice that was the first meal when the lovely veggies first came out of the oven.... but I'm sure you can imagine.  😄

In a bid to find room in my freezer for the tubs of lovely tomatoey, vegetably homemade goodness I had a bit of a sort out and discovered a couple of things that I bought before Christmas.  Indeed one that I bought before Christmas 2022 and still hadn't eaten ... it was either going to be evicted or it had to start paying me rent!!

 I also had a box of potato waffles that after reading the ingredients label of I decided I wouldn't be eating.  You'd think it was just compressed potato and perhaps a bit of starch wouldn't you, I did ... it's not.  I'm not really wanting to be eating THIS ... I'd rather eat a potato.  These were listed on the Olio App and picked up yesterday.  Then suddenly I had space for my sauces.

As I said the other day it's all a journey, not one that I am rushing into but one that I am actually enjoying  learning about and putting into action.

Sue xx

What Does My £25 Weekly Allowance for 2024 Cover?

What does my £25 per week cash allowance cover?

I was asked this question the other day when I was talking to someone, so I thought it would be a good idea to put the answer on here so that if anyone else is wondering they will now know.  😀

Basically to really simplify things it covers all my shopping expenses at the supermarkets or the food shops that I visit.  I buy most of my food and most of my cleaning supplies at the supermarket, washing up liquid, bleach, fabric conditioner ... I now use about a spoonful of this in each wash and have given up on vinegar.  I get my laundry capsules from smol, so they come through the post about three times a year, so will not be included.  As you saw the other week it also includes toilet rolls and other paper products which I always try to buy when they are on offer.  

Ginger's cat food comes from untamed through the post every month.  It's the first food that he actually eats all of so I am happy to pay for this outside of my own food allowance and to balance it out Alan pays for the dogs food.

My monthly allowance also pays for any personal items such as deodorant, hand-cream, shampoo etc.  but I usually try and ask for things like body lotion and hand-creams for Christmas or birthday so I tend to get stocked up as and when I can.

What I do to make some of my products last as long as possible is to decant things like washing up liquid, shampoo and cleaning products into push-top dispensers this makes things last a long time, well it does for me.  Some people might be more heavy handed but I find that just two presses is more than enough for a bowlful of pots or to wash my short hair. 

 I have my cleaning spray that has refills, so after the initial purchase of the spray bottle I do not have to buy a big bottle every time.  I also only use one multi-purpose spray cleaner for everywhere in the house.  One type of shampoo, one type of toothpaste and usually just one type of washing up liquid.

The two dispensers in the photos have just been filled this week, so putting it on here will enable me to see how long each fill-up actually lasts.

To help make the most of everything that I currently have in stock, since Christmas I have been using up any free samples that I have found in the cupboards, all the little miniatures of shampoo, hand-cream and face-creams that I had around the lodge, generally just making good use of what I already have.  Obviously one day all these will run out, but it's helping me realise how little of a lot of things I actually use.  It also makes me aware of what I will need to buy in the future to replenish supplies and also what I do not need to replace.

With January ending midweek I was sort of in two minds the other day about whether my allowance is £25 per week, (25 x 52 = £1300) or £100 per month (£100 x 12= £1200), which is a difference over the course of the year of one hundred pounds.  But I decided that as I get paid monthly and the allowance will be topped up monthly, it will be £100 drawn out of the bank on the first of each month,  I think that this was my first thought at the start of the year.  

Now that this months money is in my purse I can show you on the very top photo of this post what I had left over at the end of January.  A grand total of £14.79 ... yes I have just realised that there is a penny missing!!  Where is my other penny?  I'll have to have a rummage in my bag or raid my little money box to replace the missing coin.

So the first month has gone really well, of course I expected it to be easy as I have the freezer and cupboard still looking very happy for themselves and there is no worry about running out of most foodstuffs.  My first five weeks shopping trips have been quite eclectic, with me just buying things that I needed to replace fresh items eaten or things that I fancied for one reason or another.

January was a good month for the start of my Eating Well on a Small Budget.

Clicking on the links will take you to free samples of smol products and a great starter trial offer of untamed cat food.  They are not  affiliate links in any way, just products that I have used for a while. 

Sue xx

 

The Books That I Read in January

The best way to read any book, with the last of the Christmas biscuits and a cup of coffee and the sun streaming in through the doors on a Winters morning.

For this first look at what I have read recently I'm including the books I read just before and over Christmas, this was before this blog had properly started, so doing this means that I have them here for posterity, then after them there will be this months books.

I really enjoyed this one, it had an unexpected twist at the end.  

I just love Dylan Thomas, and this little book was a lovely read with delightful illustrations.

I whizzed through this one, I love Brian Bilston's poetry.

I started this and then somehow moved on to another, so now it will be saved until next December.  I just can't read Christmassy books when it's not before, during or immediately after Christmas.

I just could not get into this book, it seemed to go on and on with a strange not much is happening vibe.  I'll give it another go next Christmas before I decide to let it go.

Nigel gets picked up every year at Christmas time, I just love this book.  I probably would have carried on reading it after Christmas had my new books not arrived ... I'm  so easily tempted by a new book. 😄

A really good first cookbook from Madeleine Olivia.  There are some good recipes and ideas, and if you can get it at a good price (as I did) it's well worth having.  Especially if you want to experiment with plant-based meals, treats and sides for the first time.

Then this one arrived and I'm afraid it blew Madeleines out of the water for me.  There are some brilliant recipes in it from Ella Mills, and as an plant-based author with seven cookbooks under her belt, this just seemed so much more of a professionally written and better put together book.   

(She has 8 books if you include the smoothies book.)

My penultimate read of the month was October, October.  

I have to say this was actually my favourite of the month too.  It's just a well written book with a really good story, and of course with illustrations from Angela Harding I had to have it.

My final read of January has been this book ... Unprocess Your Life by Rob Hobson.  

He has obviously invented a new work as spell check does not like 'unprocess'!  But the book is good, it has a good grounding for anyone wanting to learn about ultra processed foods, what to look for and how to avoid them, alongside lots of recipes for making meals, sides and condiments that should help you to free your life from the mass produced things available in the shops.

I see more homemade mayonnaise in my near future, why did I ever stop making it myself I wonder?  But this is the sort of book that can help get me back on track, as well as teaching me about UPF in more layman's language than Chris Van Tulleken's.  I think they should be read the other way around if you are interested in learning about UPF, first this and then if you want to delve much deeper and follow the research go on to Chris Van Tulleken's.

So that's my round up of my January books and here we are into February.  It's a whole new and cosy reading month with 29 days of books to read just lined up and waiting to be read.

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. 📚