Weekend Shopping ... and Admitting I Gave You Clues to a Puzzle You Would Never Be Able to Solve

 

While I'm still doing the Food Cupboard challenge and trying to eat down the contents of the cupboard I've not really needed to go 'proper' shopping for a long time, but I do like to have a few treats in for the weekend and this morning while I was running some other errands I decided to call into Booths for this weeks shopping.

As you can clearly see it's virtually all treaty bits ... but hey, I deserve a treat.  And YAY Ten Acre crisps are back in Booths. 😁

Dangerously for me our Booths now has a 'donated book' bookcase, raising money for local charities.  I found these two on it this morning. 

I loved the television series of 'This is Going to Hurt' so it will be interesting to see if the book is as good, or perhaps even better, and the other one well that's right up my street isn't it.  Alan thought I already had it but he was thinking of Hovel in the Hills ... which is a real favourite of mine.

October 2017

Now after much searching on both of my blogs I have to hold my hands up and admit that I think I have given you a teaser that you would never be able to solve on your own.  I was sure, in fact I was absolutely positive that I had blogged all about us buying our Welsh flat ... it would seem I didn't.  I must have done it all on Facebook!!

I'm sorry ... well at least a bit sorry. 😏

November 2017

In early 2017 when we were living in North Wales, we received a sum of money that we wanted to use in a sensible way for our future, so we decided to use it to buy a flat near Llandudno.  We had by this time already paid off the mortgage on our Welsh house, so we just re-mortgaged that to make up the rest of the money that we needed for a cash purchase.  

Our idea was that once we were too old to be able to manage on the smallholding, we would sell the Welsh house, move into the flat and use the money from the sale as our pension top up money.  In the meantime we would rent out the flat so that we could repay the mortgage as quickly as possible and not have any debt.

11th December 2017

We bought off plan, choose all our fixtures and fittings and the garden surfaces etc, and then on our way through to Llandudno to walk the dogs each week we would visit 'our flat' to check on progress.

27th December 2017

It grew quickly, and it was brilliant watching the progress and chatting to the workmen each time we visited.

11th February 2018

The day we got there and found that the scaffolding had come down and they had started on the pavements and roads was a good one.

11th March 2018

And on our next visit we could walk on the road and pavements and have a peek through the windows ...

... and even check on our 'garden'. 

9th April 2018

And just a month later the tree was getting it's leaves and the soil had been covered in grass.

So that was the birth of our flat.  Within a month of it being completed we had tenants in, a lovely young family who stayed for just over a year. Then they had a windfall and bought a place of their own, our next tenant was a nice young man who had a 'temporary' work contract in the area.  He has literally just given his notice in this month and will be moving on.  While he needed the flat and was happily paying his rent each month it seemed wrong to sell it so we held onto it.  Our mortgage had been paid off after just over two years so it has been completely ours since 2020.

Our plan was to sell it as soon as he moved out, once we had repainted and re-carpeted it, but then I had a brainwave and we had a change of heart.  With the property market being on a bit of a downer at the moment and sales slowing, we have decided to hold onto it for a while and use it ourselves as a sort of holiday base near the seaside.  Which cuts out any need for me to buy a caravan!!

We will be revisiting the flat next week and deciding what it needs before we start to furnish it very minimally so that we and the animals can use it on a regular basis.  After a while once the market picks up we hope to sell it on to a local couple or family as a starter home.

So it wasn't a cottage, or a narrowboat, a motorhome or a caravan ... it was a flat.  And one that you knew nothing about it would seem!!

Oops!! 😎

Hope you have a great weekend.

Sue xx

Shopping Differently, Being Gentle with People

 

I've started shopping differently recently.

Obviously I'm using up a lot of what I already have, so I don't really need to do a 'big shop' ... unless there are genuine reasons for doing that (more on that another day).  I find myself taking longer in the shop, enjoying the process more, and coming home much happier and more satisfied with my purchases.

This week for instance the above is all I needed, so that was all I bought.

The bananas are all 'singles', I smile every time I see the box that the single bananas get put into in our Booths supermarket.  It's message changes slightly some days, but basically it is a chalked note that says ... 'I'm single, can I come home with you?'

Happily 🍌

I'm not the only one shopping differently.

Since she became housebound my Mum's way of shopping has changed, for one thing my brother gets it for her now.  He took her shopping virtually every week for the last few years, but as soon as she could no longer cope with the car journey to the supermarket early last year, he took over completely and he pretty much gets it right each week, he was good at noticing what she loaded her trolley with when they were together and what he packed into her bags at the checkout while she waited to pay.

The things she puts on her list are pretty much the same each week, and until this last couple of weeks she has been determined to keep buying things like custard powder and baking supplies but this is making more work for her in the kitchen at a time when she can't stand up for long to cook.  So we have been introducing her to some ready made foods, custard in little plastic cartons that she can pop in the microwave, shop bought scones, ready prepared and chopped vegetables ... and she recently discovered for herself the wonders of frozen Baked Potatoes.

One of her little 'planet saving' things, just like I do, has been to write her shopping lists on backs of envelopes, scraps of paper or pieces of card, but these are now getting lost in the piles of papers that she keeps here, there and everywhere.  We had a good sort out last week and got rid of so many ancient lists and saved brochures etc etc.  So this week to make up for it I am taking her a posh shopping list pad with a magnet on the back, so that she can have it right next to her on the storage heater ... ready to add things to as she thinks of them and ready to read out to my brother when he phones for her list on a Friday evening.

Far too many people jump to conclusions when they see shopping trollies with lots of little plastic filled bags of ready chopped vegetables or fruit, small plastic pots of baked beans, jelly or custard and think that the person is extravagant or lazy ... or both.  Or that they don't care for the environment and are shopping in some willy-nilly fashion for no good reason, and I have to admit I have sometimes looked into a shopping basket and thought exactly that in years gone by.

We should always remember that we, and people like my Mum were more environmentally friendly before it became a 'thing'.  We took our own bags to the shops, we returned our milk bottles and our pop bottles to the delivery guy or the shop.  We carried home food wrapped in paper bags, chips wrapped in newspaper and walked to the shops for our food, the schools for our children and used public transport in preference to individual cars if we ever ventured further afield.

So if in our twilight years we have to take some shortcuts that will make our lives easier, happier and more manageable ... we should just do it.

Sue xx

Food Shopping ... and Monday Meal Prep

 

Although the money part of the challenge is now over (I ran out of cash), I am still shopping mindfully and making sure that I only buy what I really need ... and of course the occasional treat.

This week I bought the items above from Booths while we were there on Saturday morning for Alan's now almost compulsory weekend breakfast bacon roll.  Of course I never refuse to go with him as he treats me to a toasted teacake and a coffee ... it would be rude not to.  😉

We had to nip to Sainsbury's before we went home for some printer paper, so I took the chance to browse the plant based offerings.  My usual spread was on offer, but only in the smaller tubs.  At first I thought, no that's too much plastic, then I thought but that would be a handy sized tub for freezing leftovers or single portions of  curry etc ... so I bought two.

This week I want to try and use up all of the fruits and vegetables in the fridge drawers, some things have been in there for far too long.  So this Monday's meal prep consisted of chopping some of the vegetables for a salad mix and some to make a tray of roasted veggies.  I washed and wrapped what was left of the celery after using some in both of my prepared trays and took the outer leaves of the lettuce off and wrapped it carefully ready for use.

Of course once the roasted vegetables were out of the oven it would have been silly not to have some for my lunch, so I made a quick portion of cous cous and sat in the sunshine, enjoying the fruits of my labours.

As well as the veggies shown here I have some cooked beetroot, half a bag of Tenderstem broccoli and half a box of cherry tomatoes, so I want to make sure I eat everything up this week.  I'm on a mission to eat more healthily as I have let things slip a bit recently ... gosh it's so easy to do isn't it.

Sue xx

And with a Final Flourish ... I've Bust Through the Budget

So my non-challenge Challenge of living off the money that I made through selling things last year came to an end yesterday, with a final 75p being spent on top of a £10 Booths voucher.  Adding that to the money spent during April it sent me over the budget.

It was a good job I looked in my bag yesterday as the voucher would have run out last night, so we made a quick pit stop on our way out and bought just enough to make good use of it.  

The half dozen eggs and Vimto were Alan's choices ... it seemed only fair to buy him something with the voucher as he does help me collect the money on the Booths card by having a copy of mine in his wallet and using it every time he shops there ... and the larger pack of eggs and pastry case were my choice.  We are going to Mum's to watch the Coronation next weekend and I thought being able to rustle up a quiche for us all to share, alongside the little sandwiches and scones that I plan to make would be a good idea.

 A final Challenge spend of 75p in cash and a £10 Booths voucher.

I'll not list all the expenditures as to be honest it's all gone a bit to pot and my challenge diary money reckoning page is a scribbly mess.  I realised yesterday that I had included some items for the foodbank in my spending, that had been bought on the same receipt as my shopping in March and I had completely missed off a small spend in January of £5.85.  

I went down a worm hole of trying to make corrections and then thought, 'what the heck ... does it really matter'.  So as far as I can work out by the last day of April I had spent my full challenge pot of £592.20 plus an extra £12.57.  So, basically I have bought everything that I needed and occasionally just fancied in thee first four months of the year for an approximate total of £604.77.

Which averages out to just over £151 a month, or £35.57 per week for the first 17 weeks of this year, and I'm happy with that.  Especially as it also includes non-food items such as haircuts, books and an MOT.

Although the Challenge as such is over, I have enjoyed keeping tabs on myself so much that I will be continuing to log what I spend in the challenge diary and see how I react to the rules being even more relaxed, even if the rules were only shadowy guidelines in my head to start with.  

Maybe I'll spend the next four months just logging the money that I spend on food, now that would be interesting to me while I continue to work through the Food Cupboard food stash.  

In fact I have just re-photographed the food that I have here at home and I am intending to almost re-start the Food Cupboard Challenge ... only this time I will not be moving food from place to place as gaps appear.  Doing that has meant that some places look just as full as when I started back in January.

Do you want me to continue to mention my spending on here or are you all totally fed up with facts figures and photos of my shopping?  I'll leave it up to you.  😀

Sue xx

Shopping ... Again!!

I've been and gone and shopped again ... you knew I would didn't you!!

Just fresh stuff and some nuts that were on offer in the middle aisles, I purposefully avoided looking at any of the gardening supplies that were there ... well I might have browsed slightly but I stood firm and carried on walking past.  I don't know why a pot of Parsley made it's way into my trolley as I have some growing outside the front door in the old tin bath.

But it looks nice sat next to it's new best mate Basil in my new wooden box.  💓

(Don't worry I lined the box with a nice strong polythene bag.)

Alan treated me to a breakfast cup of coffee and a toasted teacake at Booths after my doctors appointment and before we shopped ... always go shopping on a full-ish tummy ... so while I was there I bought a pack of my favourite bread rolls and a birthday card for my soon-to-be fourteen year old grandson, where do the years go!!

That was another £4.05 spent.

I need to sit down and work out how much I've spent this month now that we are about to go over into May.  Gosh this year is going by quickly.

I have a feeling that I have just busted my budget.  😕

Sue xx

Thanks so much for all the good wishes and comments on the last post.  I have posted again to move it down the list as other peoples health issues on blogs can be deathly boring ... or maybe that's just me, I would never have been a very sympathetic or patient doctor!!  😐

What Shelley Said ....

 

On my post the other day about the end of quarter round up of my non-challenge Challenge, Shelley commented that perhaps I should still accompany Alan to the supermarket for the 'pleasure of getting out ...' and that perhaps I would 'learn to enjoy browsing'. 

What a brilliant idea I thought!!

So I went with Alan on Saturday morning to Aldi, yep ... as you can see from the top photo it didn't quite go to plan did it!!  😂

In fact it went to pot before we even stepped inside the doors.  Alan had gone to grab the one trolley that I would push for him while he shopped ... I didn't need one I wasn't shopping!   I stood looking casually in the direction of the plants ... that for once all looked very healthy ... and what should I see but TOMATO PLANTS.  I haven't even sown my seeds yet and here were some lovely tomato plants all ready to nurture.  I decided then and there that I would buy two pots.  One pot has a single plant and the other has a little bonus seedling, so it's a sort of buy two get one free.

There were no small trolleys available so Alan had to get a large one so I put my plants in the child seat and left the body of the trolley for Alan to fill up ... he had a long list.

Then I spotted the Iceberg lettuces and knew I was about to run out so I picked one up, moved the plants along a bit and placed them in a cauliflower bag that I found on the floor.  That's it I told myself firmly, there's nothing else I need ... oh except for some Corned Beef for Mum and Alan's butties on Wednesday, oh and some paracetamol ... ooh look hash browns, oh well I might as well get a bottle of wine .... oooooh the dark chocolate biscuits are back.

You get the picture.

I'm not a natural born window shopper or a browser ... and it's amazing what you can fit into the child seat of a supermarket trolley when you try.

I'd go and practice this browsing lark again, but I am swiftly running out of money so I daren't risk it. 😄

I spent a total of £27.47 in Aldi.

Then I got home and my birthday present to myself arrived in the post.

I've wanted this book for ages and when I spotted it on Ebay I just knew it would be my birthday present to myself.  It was £20 ... gulp.  

But as it was priced at £20 plus £3 postage and packing and I made an offer of £17 which was accepted, and so I got it for £20 in total, I do feel a little bit better about it.  And I absolutely love it, so I am happy, happy happy ... and what price happiness. 💝

So just one day later and my cash in hand total now stands at just £17.72.

Ooops  😁

I have my vouchers and my Nectar points too, so I am not even slightly worried about lasting until the end of May.  This week I will be raiding the freezer and the cupboard and not spending any more money ... and also not going anywhere to browse, to window shop or to look at food of any description.

Sue xx

Three Lots of Shopping ... and Hundreds of Missing Photos

 

Yet again Alan asked if I wanted to go shopping, and even though I didn't actually need anything except some hairspray ... I said yes.

At least I remembered to get the bloody hairspray!!

£36.78 spent.

50p spent

After spending the grand total of 50p for a days food the other day, my mind was wandering over what could be bought if you shopped for a week's worth of food in one trip with the same budget, and what meals you would make with what you bought.

So I went back to Sainsbury's the following day and did it.

This is what I came up with.

£3.47 spent.

The idea is that the weekly meal plan includes toast and marmalade for breakfast most days, and virtually all other meals consisting of something with potatoes and carrots and a smattering of onion.

It will be good to see how interesting I can make it with such limited supplies, although this time I have allowed myself a very basic store-cupboard, from my cupboard ... after all I am supposed to be eating my way through my food stash and streamlining my food supplies.

No wonder my head's in a whirl and I have accidentally moved all my photos from 2005-2010 to somewhere on my computer ... and I know not where!!

Sue xx

Shopping for the Fifth Time this Month, Vouchers ... and Gravy Bones

 

Yep, I've been food shopping for the fifth time this month, hopefully this will be the last time, maybe, perhaps ... who knows!!  😄

Seriously though, I needed another card, a sympathy one this time, the dogs needed some chicken and I wanted to buy Alan a sweetish treat for when he arrived home from working away for a few days late last night.  He needs something light and tasty or he'll succumb to cheese and Port, oh how those two foodstuffs lie in wait for him!  I thought a couple of egg custards would fit the bill nicely ... yuk if you ask me ... but he loves them.

The rest of the things were all for me to go with the fresh and frozen vegetables that I have in the fridge and freezer, and reasonably good for my Fast 800 diet.  I'm trying to keep it simple, just having things that I can make without too much thought while I have so much on my mind.

I remembered to say yes to the receipt when the cashier asked me and it is now stuck in my diary for posterity.  I need to add the totals up and see just how much of my original £592.20 I have actually spent.  The only real Challenge with this money is to see how long it is going to last me.  

Well I say 'only real Challenge' but as you know I am also trying to run down the stash in the food cupboard, which unfortunately seems to be mostly full of foods I am trying to avoid at the moment.  This will alter in a week or so when I move away from doing the Fast 800 every day and switch to the 5:2 TRE diet, which basically just doing the Fast 800 for two days each week and eating sensibly, but sticking with time restricted eating for the other five. 

This £10 off voucher for Booths came last week, and I might try and make my actual money last a bit longer by seeing if for one month I can buy everything that I need to go with things that I already have in the house just with vouchers and points.  

Well, maybe allow myself a couple of pounds for when the cost goes a smidge over the total of the vouchers etc., but that should help stretch my money out a bit.  I have M&S vouchers, this Booths one and just over £15 of Nectar points, I need to add them up and see exactly what I have.

Today I'll end with this cuteness as it is here in the lodge at the moment ... it's a pity you can't hear the snores!!

Ginger

Suky and Mavis

Mavis was signed off by the vets at her check up on Monday, and has been given the go ahead to start eating Gravy Bones again next week, something she will no doubt be very grateful for.  A walk is so much better when you arrive home to a little Gravy Bone snack.

Sue xx

Shopping ... and a Few of My Recent Meals

 

Alan asked me if I wanted to go shopping with him this morning, at first I said no as there were only two items on my list, so he said that he would pick them up for me.  Then I was showered and dressed before he got back with the dogs from their walk, and with the sun shining brightly outside I thought sod it, why not go.  By then there were four items on my list .....

I ended up spending a total of £30.29 on the above food, and a bit more on the Foodbank shopping.

I blame the sunshine and the lovely fresh produce for tempting me out and then tempting me to spend when it wasn't strictly necessary.  But it is nice to be stocked up on everything and I doubt I will have to go shopping again for a while.  

Oh, and our Aldi still has the '3 items per customer notices' on all the salad stuff.

There's been quite a lot of interest in the Fast 800 diet that I'm doing, so I thought I would show you a few of my recent meals to give you an idea of what I'm eating at the moment.  This is what I call my 'lazy breakfast' just a couple of eggs scrambled with some fresh spinach.

This was my breakfast on Friday, a Mediterranean Vegetable omelette.  It takes a bit longer but oh boy was it worth it.  I took a photo before I folded it over and lifted it from the pan because I usually make an almighty mess when I do that. 😄

But not this time!!

I used Violife Extra Mature Cheddar on mine and it was delicious. In fact it was so nice that I am having it again for my lunch today.

These are the contents of a wrap I made for myself one day for lunch.  There were so many contents that the wrap didn't stand a chance ... messy, but again delicious.

A nice simple tea from one night last week.

Those steam in the bag vegetables that I treated myself to from Aldi last week have been great.  A bit of an over-packaged luxury I know, but when you are hungry and temptation is biting at your heels sometimes it's just nice to get everything done nice and simply, already calorie counted and with minimal washing up afterwards.

I won't be using them for ever but while I'm doing this diet I may have to buy another pack when all mine have been used up.

This was an evening meal when I wasn't overly hungry, so it's simply a cheese salad and I decided to have the treat of a drizzle of mayonnaise.  It really hit the spot.

This was a lovely tea, just a simple fish, rice and peas with some salad to fill up the plate.

And on a day when I was almost thinking of throwing in the towel, luckily on my menu I had decided to make myself something simple, tasty and a bit more like my usual sort of diet when I'm watching a film on a Sunday afternoon.  A pizza!!

Using one of my wraps from the freezer as the base, simply topped with all the odds and sods from the fridge and using the last of my grated cheese.  As it was so thin I folded it over to eat it, so it was actually much more like a baked quesadilla.

So there you go, a little snippet of the foods that I have been eating on this diet up to now, and here is my new menu plan for this week.  It does make it easier to sit and menu plan all in one go and know exactly what I am eating each day.  The urge to cheat is lessoning slightly and up to now my only 'cheat' has been a couple of extra nuts one day.

During the first week I lost 5lbs in weight, three of which were in body fat, an inch off my waist and a couple of points off my BMI, but most importantly my blood pressure dropped by a decent amount.  So I am happy enough with this to keep going.

 I would be daft to stop now!!

Sue xx

Shopping, Birthday Cards ... and Poor Little Mavis

 

First let's get up to date on the shopping.

My 1st March shopping, including chicken and bread to take for Mum and Alan's lunch yesterday and two double packs of tissues as I had none in the house, some more lovely fresh bits to go in the fridge ... and when I saw the cucumbers I just had to get one!!  

Oh, and a bunch of Daffodils each for me and Alan, they are already open and looking lovely.  I HATE the smell of daffodils indoors, but while I still have absolutely no sense of smell it doesn't really matter.  😁

Sainsbury's £20.96

These have just arrived, but as I paid for them yesterday I am classing them as a 1st March purchase as well.  

They are just high protein shakes that I can use on the go, or it seems to also make pancakes or microwave mug cakes out of when I have a day when I am much too low on my protein requirements.

The Fast 800 Shop - £76.96

Sainsbury's £30.20

And unbelievably I was back in Sainsbury's again this morning as Mavis needed chicken and eggs for her soft food diet for the rest of this week.  She had 7 teeth out at the vets yesterday and has a very sore mouth ... poor little girl.  But she is happy and cheerful this morning after a breakfast of scrambled egg.

I also needed my March birthday cards so this added to my bill.  I have started buying the cards for the coming month right at the start of each month so that they are already for posting just before birthdays etc.  I still have to find a nice 18th card for my grandson, there were lots of lovely ones for girls but none for boys ... it's always the way isn't it.

I'm looking forward to next month when there is only my birthday ... and I don't have to buy myself one.  😀

Thanks for all the interest in me doing the Fast 800 diet, I will try and do some blog posts about it, but it's pretty new to me, even though Alan did it a few years ago and I read his books.  I remember trying the Intermittent Fasting part of it and the 5:2 diet and getting on really well, so hopefully it will go okay this time too.

I'll be back next time with more information on what I'm doing, the foods I've been eating up to now, and if I'm feeling brave enough my starting figures ... which are already on a downward curve.

Sue xx