First Big Shop of January

Our first big shop of the year was delivered on 14th Jan and the cost came to £50.62  I had ordered protein in the shape of salmon fillets, Quorn pieces, eggs, cheese and some vegetarian stuff like Linda McCartney pies & spicy beanburgers, and some bacon.  I have lots of frozen veg left as well as some fresh carrots, a leek, Little Gem lettuce (which stays fresh for ages) and apples.  I now have the makings of meals for at least 9 days.  I know I could have saved a bit more but I'm paying for convenience eg

Bottled water 12 for £2.15 = 18p per bottle

I need to take a drink with me wherever we go and it's much cheaper to bring one from home than to pay upwards of £1 each from a shop.  The bottles get recycled, some used at the allotment....

The Nectar bonus points gained on this order have taken my remaining total to £2.92 meaning that I can spend another £2.50 next time I need a few bits.  The one thing I did forget to order was tomatoes so it might be spent on those. Graham still has £10 remaining on his account.

Nectar points spent:  Graham £10.00     Angie £22.50

Boots points 565

Cash spent:  £51.39

Already half way through the month so I think we're on track!

Stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗

A Birthday Treat and First Batch of Card Donations

We had a lovely treat at the local nurseries' restaurant on Monday with Graham's birthday voucher.  I chose a fruit strudel and a pot of tea and Graham plumped for lemon meringue and coffee....

Both were absolutely delicious  and Graham ate every crumb.  Mine was far too big so I was glad I had taken a plastic box with me as I cut it in half and brought the rest home with me 🙂

Waste not, want not.... 

Over the weekend I managed to do a little more crafting and have finished a batch of cards which will be donated to the Hospice charity shop when I next go to the village.  The light is terrible today for photography.  In reality, the cards are much prettier than they look as the colours are not showing true.....

I want to work on some more female birthday cards next as I would like to give the charity shop a reasonable selection to try.  I'm using up the bits and pieces in my stash and if the Hospice can get £1 each for my cards I will be more than happy.  Every penny helps.....

What have you been up to this week?

Thanks for popping in.  Stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗

Still Eating Up The Bits, More Frugal Meals

 It's 13th January and we're still finishing off the odds and sods from the freezer, fridge and cupboards.  On Friday we ate jacket potatoes cooked in the air fryer with salad and prawns for Gray and cheese for me.......

 On Saturday I cooked a quorn cottage pie which was served with carrots, peas and lashings of vegetarian gravy 😁  It made 4 portions so we had the same again on Sunday, making it super easy for me to get on with other jobs to make use of our half price electricity slot.  

For today's lunch, I will air fry the potato slices which I picked up on Christmas Eve and put into the freezer......

......and serve them with a poached egg each (the last of the eggs) and a small tin of baked beans (the last tin shared)

I'm struggling to find a protein to serve with meals now so I've arranged a Sainsbury's delivery for tomorrow afternoon.  This should, hopefully, give me enough for another week or so, I hope for a bit longer in honesty.  That's if everything is in stock 🤞 Many of the prices have increased again since my last order before Christmas 😒 My £50 limit hasn't gone very far....

The good news is that our Daughter bought a voucher for tea/coffee and cakes at our local nurseries for Graham's birthday and we are visiting them this afternoon to choose our seeds for the allotment (to be paid for using birthday vouchers) and Gray suggested having some cake this afternoon.  As the slices of cake are huge, usually costing just under £5 each 👀,  I will probably take a box with me to bring back any surplus cake for later.  Waste not, want not!

Right-o I'm off to cook lunch....

Thanks for popping in.  Stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗

Free Toiletries From Boots....

I needed bubble bath and was also running out of handwash so took a trip to Boots in the next village in order to use my points.......

Bubble bath was 300 points

Carex Handwash 140 points

Dove Handwash 125 points 

Therefore 565 points used (59 left)

It was the ideal opportunity to pop into my favourite Hospice charity shop and ask if they wanted to take some of my handmade cards to sell. The manager was very enthusiastic and I've promised to make a selection and pop them in for him to see.  If he likes them, I'll donate as many as I have time to make this year.  That will be my new project!

We are still on track for a low food spend in January.  As the aim is to spend no more than £100 in cash , and I still have food in the fridge & freezer, I aim to have a Sainsbury's delivery of staples and fresh stuff next week.  The cap has been set at £50 for this order, which will leave another £50 max at the end of the month if we need it.

Graham also had over £8 in Nectar points left after the first shop, and they have gifted him another 250 FREE points worth £1.25 via the App, so he now has another lovely £10 to spend during the month 😁 This will come in handy week after next for topping up 👍

Nectar points spent:  Graham £10.00     Angie £22.50

Boots points 565

Cash spent:  77p

Thanks for popping in.  Stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗

Is There an Egg Shortage? And Traceability.....

We fancied poached eggs for tea yesterday and I was idly reading the egg box whilst waiting for the water to boil.....

Wow! White eggs!  I haven't seen any of those in a long while......

Inside the box is a lot of information on the markings on the shells.

O = organic

1= Free Range

2=Barn eggs

UK =origin

There is also an ID number, in this case 23064 which you can use to trace the actual source......

Wow! Who knew??

I wondered about the sudden change from the usual brown eggs to white ones and whether or not it's related to the recent bird flu outbreak. Perhaps the farmer has had to replace his flock with a new breed of hens?  Anyway, they had lovely golden yolks and tasted delicious...

I hope you are all keeping warm in this very cold and icy spell.  It was -4C last night, obviously nowhere near as cold as in Scotland, but I was glad of my dressing gown laid over the bed and my hot water bottle to cuddle up to.

Thanks for popping in.  Stay warm and safe wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗

Second January Shop, and a Busy Sunday

Sunday turned out to be extremely cold, with alternate snow and showers of rain, so we stayed indoors as much as possible.  It was half price electricity day so the washer, dishwasher and tumble dryer came into play.  I also cooked lunch in the oven making roast potatoes, roast parsnips and onion rings which we ate with the last of the carrots from Christmas, some sprouts from the allotment, and some peas for protein, topped with vegetarian gravy.  Delicious!

Whilst the oven was on, I made flapjacks with the last of the porridge oats and a bit of dried fruit.  Oops....someone had to test them for quality 😉

 Other than feeding the birds and dealing with the tumble dryer, which is in the garage, we stayed in the warm.

I did manage to get a bit of cardmaking done, luckily; after finishing chores on Saturday afternoon and then again after 3pm on Sunday.  I'll share my makes in another post.

Today we decided to do our shop for the week as the snow had melted and there was just drizzle.  It's forecast for more snow later in the week and we didn't want to wait and then miss the chance to go out.  This is what we bought ......

It came to a total of £22.57  I had Nectar points worth £22.50 so the shopping came to 7p in cash 👍 I didn't intend to buy bread but this loaf was just 40p, too good to miss.  I've put it into the freezer and can make bread pudding later in the month......

We ate the stir fry for lunch to warm us up and tonight I will be making cider veggie hotpot using the onion, broccoli, one leek and some carrots ( I already have potatoes and cheese) which will serve 4 portions.  That's dinner/tea for 2 days sorted 👍😁

 We will share the veg biryani and naan bread on another day......

Nectar points spent:  Graham £10.00     Angie £22.50

Cash spent:  77p

Thanks for popping in.  Stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗

First Book of 2025, A Bit of Colour & Crafting Mojo

I had received £10 birthday money in a card from my friend in November, which I hadn't spent, so just before Christmas I treated myself to the new Richard Osman book from the supermarket. I'd reserved it at the library but was still about 153rd in the queue and didn't want to wait a year or more to read it!  So I splurged £12 for my own copy and kept it back for the new year.  I read the first couple of chapters in bed last night and I really like it 😀

I'm a bit short of reading matter at the moment.  I've reserved The Long Winter at the library and am 3rd in the queue so might get that soon but other than that I will have to re-read books I already have.  The weather forecast is for snow this weekend so I will need something to read snuggled up on the sofa.....

It's was flipping freezing yesterday too.  We drove to our Daughter's house to collect something and it was 0.5C on the car display ❄❄

She made us a lovely mug of tea and offered us a pasta bake lunch.  How could we refuse?  It saved us cooking a meal at home last night and we had cheese toasties instead, using up the stale bread 😉

One thing that cheered us up yesterday was the sight of our Hellibores in flower.....

 I hope the frost doesn't ruin them..... 

I've really been neglecting my crafting over the last year.  I haven't made a single card, done any cross stitch, knitting or feltwork for the whole of 2023.  Not a bit of it and I'm beginning to feel the need to get creative again.  I hope to try some cardmaking today (Saturday) but it depends on whether or not Graham finds something to do by himself.  If I keep getting interrupted I will get frustrated and annoyed.  I really want to relax a bit....no....NEED to relax a bit....

Wish me luck!

Thanks for popping in. Stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗