Frozen Assets ... and Retirement

 

The freezer drawers have been bugging me recently, it would seem with me they are either super organised or a complete mish mash of half opened packs thrown in any available gap.  So I decided to stock take yet again and go from the latter to the former in the space of a few hours.  

I think it was having that perfect new freezer with all it's empty drawers at the flat made mine seem all the more messy and out of control when I got home.

Taking everything out and wiping out the tiny annoying bits of spinach that were stuck everywhere took only a few minutes, so I decided to make a note of what was in which drawer and put everything back nice and neatly.

A proper stocktake. 🗠😀

It's always surprising to see how much food you have when it's usually out of sight behind a door isn't it ... and I've only done two of the drawers up to now.   I have a lovely amount of vegetables in the drawers, enough to keep me healthy for a good few weeks.  Now all I need to do is combine them with the things in the food cupboard and I should have lots of lovely meals at no extra cost to me.

Which is a good thing as we have been talking about our retirement plans over the last week or so, and Alan has finally handed in his necessary 18 months notice, ready for his actual retirement date of April 2025.  

As I am not due to retire until May of 2026 (providing they don't move the goalposts yet again), I would like to actually retire from the day job at the same time as Alan, closing the company down and finally being free.  To be able to do this I need to have a dedicated savings pot of one whole years basic salary, this way I will be able to continue to draw on that for the final year before my State Pension kicks in.

So being able to save money seems even more important just now ... time to sort out the last drawer of the freezer then!!

Sue xx

Remember When ...?

 

Remember when I got the last Booths voucher and decided to save it to spend on a treat for my birthday?  Well my birthday is nearly here, and the coupon date was almost up so I took it with me to Booths last week when I was picking up last weeks cardholder freebie.

Which made a nice treat for Alan when he got home from work . 

This weeks freebie is a dairy free chocolate bar which will be mine, all mine.  😊

And my nice birthday treat ... one of my favourite hand and body lotions, which along with the £5 coupon cost me just 60p.

Another 'Remember When ...'

Remember HERE when I bought the expensive tinned tomatoes and the cheap tinned tomatoes and decided to do a comparison taste test?  Well I did it, and the verdict is ... you do actually get what you pay for if you are eating them as they are straight from the can or want to make a lovely rich tomatoey sauce for your pasta dish. 

They are lovely rich and, as the can says 'finely chopped tomatoes' as fine as I have ever seen tomatoes chopped in fact and with hardly any watery juice.  BUT and yes it is a huge but when I make anything with chopped or any sort of tinned tomatoes I do tend to add salt, pepper, some dried herbs and sometimes some dried garlic powder and onion powder too, it's just what I'm used to doing.  Doing this made the cheap tomatoes taste better than the more expensive ones in my opinion.

I honestly think that I would buy the more expensive ones again if they were on a good special offer for those days when I just want to be able to open a can and pour them onto some freshly cooked spaghetti or straight onto a slice of toast for a tasty and nourishing breakfast.

So in my humble opinion you are not missing out at all by continuing to buy the cheaper version for day to day meals and sauces.  And of course the very best cooked tomatoes are the ones that you have in the fridge that have gone slightly too soft for slicing for sandwiches, so you quarter and roast them in the oven while you are cooking something else and then simply whizz them up into a sauce or soup.

To continue this theme of playing with my food, I have just bought another expensive and cheap version of something ... more about that another day.

Sue xx