An Expensive Weekend

 

We seem to have spent the weekend and this morning giving all our money away, well that what it feels like.  Paying for the repainting and re-carpeting of the flat, then equipping it with the basics has not been cheap, but it is all worthwhile.

While we are using it we will have all the things that we need there for a comfortable time, and when we do come to sell it in the future it will be ready for showing.

We have ordered the bed and the fridge/freezer and they are on standby ready to be delivered.   Alan decided to buy himself a new television, so we will take his old one to the flat when we go, along with my old Freeview box and the spare DVD player we have.

We weren't going to buy a washing machine, but after a weekend with a poorly Pug* and lots of doggy bedding to wash, we thought it might be a good idea ... and it will fill the void that is in the kitchen next to the sink.

We went to Dunelm first thing yesterday to purchase bedding, curtains, lightshades and all the other things that you suddenly realise that you need.  Luckily between us we have managed to equip the cutlery and crockery parts of the kitchen and towels for the bathroom, so that is at least a bit of money saved.

But it's a lot of money spent!! 

 Oh well, thankfully it's almost all done now and I can stop gritting my teeth just long enough for my annual visit to the dentist.  Wish me luck.

Sue xx

*  Suky is much better now, it seems to have been a 24hr bug type thing, or perhaps something she picked up ... she's a sneaky, greedy little girl.

**  We are not really buying a set of bunkbeds!!  😄

Early Morning Canal Side Walk, Breakfast Out and More Spending

 

The dogs and Alan were having a long lie in this morning. 

 Ginger had been over to me for his daily early morning treat of Aldi knock off  'Dreamies' and a cat stick, and then he decided to go back to bed at his Dad's.  It was looking to be a good start to the day with the sun peeking out every so often between the puffy greyish clouds, so I decided to go for a walk on my own.

I did what we call the 'reverse loop', along the road up to the canal bridge and then down the ancient stone steps to the tow path.  Without dogs stopping at every bush, post or unusual thing on the verge to either sniff at or wee on, the walk seemed more peaceful and somehow stiller.

This is the first time I have done this walk without at least one of the dogs by my side, and it's strange but I noticed different things for the first time.

The tree stump with the painted pebbles commemorating someone who had died recently, the fact that the tow path seemed clearer and neater than usual.  The sparrows flitting in and out of the hedge, chunnering at me as I passed.  The stillness of the water and the lovely reflections of the trees and bridges.

As I neared home I noticed the tiny narrowboat called My Newt had sold. 

20ft Narrowboat for Sale - Springer Waterbug | in Morecambe, Lancashire | Gumtree

Well I'm assuming that it has sold, there was a notice in its window the other day saying 'For Sale £14k' and a phone number.  I was briefly tempted but fought the temptation admirably.  😉

Just after I got back home Mavis' face appeared at the window and Alan called round to ask if I wanted to go out for breakfast.  Never one to not to look a free Sunday morning breakfast in the mouth, I of course said yes.  And once Alan had taken the dogs for a brisk walk to use up a little of their excess energy we all set off in his car for Daisy Clough garden centre and tearooms, and breakfast.

It was lovely, and very busy as it always is.  People round here can still afford to eat out it would seem.  I left an hour later clutching the sugar I hadn't used, the napkin Alan hadn't used (waste not want not) and a packet of Courgette seeds that I really needed.  

Another £1.90 spent.

Along with the £27.70 I spent yesterday, in readiness for something that I am starting tomorrow.

My spending challenge has really taken a battering this month, and it's time to add up everything that I have spent now that the end of February is looming.

Oh and I did my first BIG shop yesterday, I need to find my camera and download the photo and add that to my running total.  I'll show you what I bought on the next post.

Sue xx

Reading, and My January Spending Round Up

 

As well as keeping my spending super low this year I wanted to get myself back into the habit of reading more ... it's not going that well.  

Over the course of the last month I have finished this little book and I still have three others on the go.  It just seems that I'm not getting myself in the mood for reading, and at this time of year especially that is really unusual for me.  I really must try harder!!

Anyway onto the spending round up for January.  

I shopped four times over the course of the month and the things I bought are in the photos below to refresh my memory.

6th January - £27 (including my haircut)

12th January - £7.80 - Booths

No photo for this one but - 22nd January - £7 - on a dairy-free birthday cake to take to Mum's.

26th January - £5.85 - Sainsbury's

27th January - Voucher Spend of £10

I am really happy with a total cash spend of £47.65 and a voucher spend of £10.

This leaves me with £547.55 in my cash stash and as you have seen from the previous blog post  ... still a lot of food in the food stash.  The freezer contents, which I have mostly been eating from during the last four weeks, have gone done really nicely, and I should imagine once I have finished eating from this weeks menu plan my inventory will have shrunk from three pages to just one.

So it's all going really well on the food front, I just need to up my game on the reading side of it.  This really is The Year I Stopped to Notice.

Sue xx

Finishing the Fridge ... and What Did I Throw Away?

 

Literally half an hour ago I finished sorting out the fridge.  It didn't take me that long because, as you can see, there wasn't that much in there.  

But just before I set to I enjoyed a breakfast of sautéed garlicky tomatoes on toast.  I had eaten the other half of the punnet last night in a noodle dish and they really were on their last legs.  I had to throw one mouldy one away and wash the others carefully.

So to answer the question in the title of this post, there were two things that ended up being thrown away, one mouldy cherry tomato and some lemon curd ... and that didn't even go in the bin.  It was just the dregs of a jar of vegan lemon curd that should have been used up months ago and wasn't.  I put some hot water in the jar and it dissolved away to nothing, so the lemon curdy water slid down the plughole and the jar went into the recycling.  

Now usually I would keep jars for reuse but this was one of those annoying multi-cornered ones that are almost impossible to get the last of anything out of ... so off it went.

Then with a reasonably full tummy I set to, emptied the fridge shelves, wiped them all down and while they were drying I took the photo at the top of the post.  I had to balance carefully on my little set of steps to get it, because the downside to a kitchen that has less than three foot of floor space is that you can't step back to get a good photo on your only worktop.  😄

Truly minimal!!

After I had put everything back on the shelves I emptied the door pockets and this is what I found there.  A two minute wipe down and then I put everything back organised just slightly differently.

On the top shelf the large plastic box holds the dairy-free butters, cream, crème fraiche, vegan hotdogs and Quorn ham ... along with two little Floras that must have come from previous visits to Booths for a toasted teacake.  There are also half a dozen eggs and my two tubes of purees, one garlic and one tomato.

The middle shelf has a tin of grapefruit segments in juice, ready for a nice chilled breakfast whenever I am in the mood for fruit first thing.  There is also two thirds of a dairy-free birthday cake, as it was my little brothers birthday yesterday, gulp ... my 'little' brother is now 59 so we met up at Mum's taking him a cake bought from Asda on our way.  Of course I wasn't going to sit and watch everyone else eat cake and abstain myself, so I spent £7 of my money on a cake for me. 😀

It's got a good date on it, so I will just have a slice of it here and there until it's all gone.

The bottom shelf is all things that are in use or that need using first, so the opened Naturli spread, my ready shredded mix for coleslaw to go with tonight's meal, half a block of Violife Feta-style cheese, a third of a jar of slightly watered down pesto and a box of out of date Pains au Chocolate leftover from Christmas.

I put the things that we take to Mum's when we visit ... the jellies and the cans ... into the top compartment of the door as they are only used every now and then.  For instance it's Alan that has one of the cans of orange each visit so that's a three week supply that I have left.

The jam and sauces, along with the picked beetroot and onions have joined the lemon and blackcurrant that I use in my morning hot water drink, back on the middle shelf and the sparkling water, milk and squirty cream are back on their usual one too.

So that's the fridge done, all neat, clean and tidy and everything except the ready-to-bake Jus-Rol Pains au Chocolates in date.  I had hoped to pop these into the freezer in pairs but it says you can't freeze them.  Although, I might try with two of them when I get them out to use, and we will just have two each.  I used to be able to eat three in one sitting ... but not any more!!

Sue xx

Back Tracking, Spending for the First Time This Year

 

At the start of December and knowing that I had my low spending year coming up I cancelled my subscription to the Radio Times.

I had taken out the subscription quite a while ago when I spotted an offer and it was a good deal for a while.  Then like so many other things the half yearly subscription rate had snuck up and up.  The last time the direct debit left my bank account it was for £72.80 and while not the end of the world I thought it was just something that I could happily live without this year.

My subscription had ended rather neatly with the Christmas double edition and I thought no more about it until I saw my Mum's new copy last week when we visited her, then I had the littlest pang of regret that I wouldn't be getting it.

Yesterday it was my first hairdressing appointment of the new year and I had decided that I would go into Booths on the way back to the car and pick up the latest copy and sod it before then I would go online and re-instate my subscription.

Result!!

When I went online I came upon this offer.

As a very recent former subscriber I didn't think I would qualify for the reduced rate but I did.  So now I am getting the next twelve issues for just £1 each ... instead of the £4 a copy it has now gone up to ... and then the next six months for the reduced rate of £49.60.

So I will be paying for this copy and next weeks copy out of my cash stash and then the direct debit will be coming out of our joint bank account as Alan wants to continue to share the Radio Times with me, and so it will not be taken from the stash.

First money spent this year:

Hair cut and tip = £23

Radio Times = £4

Twenty seven pounds gone in less than an hour - GULP!!

Sue xx