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