Reporting Good Things....... and Not So Good

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It's always good to be able to report on positive news:

  Well.... in addition to the increase in the (Old) State pension this month, I have had an increase in my Civil Service pension of .....drum roll please.....  1.7% equivalent to £1.50 per month! £18 per annum! Woo...🙄 

As this is my own personal spending money I'm glad of any uplift but our rent has gone up by 3.2% so why not my pension?  Typical isn't it🙄  I'll therefore keep my  'frivolous' spending at £10 per week and let the £1.50 per month payrise roll over for emergencies.  My £10 is usually spent on any charity shop finds, maybe a coffee out, a drink in a pub, sometimes half the cost of fish and chips out, although at £10.70 a portion that's now a rarity 👀

If you want a reminder of my personal budget it's on my post of 15th November 2024.  I'd put a link here but can't work out how to do it.......

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More pleasing news....I took another batch of my cards into the Hospice shop just in the nick of time last week.  There were just 8 left in the basket to which I added another 16.  A lady pounced on them immediately! By the following Friday, the number had dwindled again to 9 so I'm hoping to make more in the next few days.  Each one sold raises £1 for the Hospice. 😊

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That's all for now folks.  The weather is warming up and the plants are thriving.  The first butternut squash seedling is bursting through! Exciting times!

 

And what a difference a day makes!

Thanks so much for popping in and stay safe and well wherever you happen to be.

Angie💗

How Many Meals? Inside My Fridge, Sell and Save Update

 We are heading for the end of the month and the final days of my challenge to save on food delivery costs by shopping in store and eke-ing  out the food without spending the 4th week's food money ( if you get my drift?)  With just 4 days left including today, Sunday, I will definitely achieve what I set out to do.  Our bank balance is healthier by £55, my fridge and freezer are tidier because I'm using up the odds and ends and we've still eaten well.  Today, my fridge looks like this....

As you can see, there's not a great deal left in there apart from loads of veg in the drawer. The next 4 main meals will be:

Today: lots of veg ie roast potatoes, parsnips, swede, carrots and peas with yorkie puddings (frozen ones because no eggs left ) and gravy.  We will probably have some cheese for tea as there's a bit left, maybe on a jacket potato with salad.  We can have a slice of the poor cake which fell into my trolley the other day too 😂

Final days:

Pasta bake

Chunky vegetable soup (homemade)

Cod & veg bake (frozen cod)

I have planned an online food shop for 1st May mainly to stock up on heavy items and cleaning products which are running low as well as tins and some frozen items like bags of fruit which are on offer.  I'm not going over my normal weekly budget of £55 though, including £2 delivery costs.

Luckily, I haven't needed to spend all my Nectar points and have £12.50 left to spend.  In addition, I will get points on my May 1st shop to add to them.  I'm tempted to do another food challenge for the second week in May so please watch this space!

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Sell & Save Update:

As you may remember, it's our Grandson's 18th birthday at the end of July and we would like to buy him a decent gift so I've been selling off anything we don't want/need on eBay.  To date the fund was £17.04 and I've had 2 small sales this week netting £10.10 therefore the total is now £27.14

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That's all for now as it's half price electricity time (11am -4pm) and I'm washing and cleaning as well as cooking!  We will have our cooked lunch and then I'm hoping to make more cards for the Hospice shop this afternoon.  That will be relaxing.

Thanks so much for popping in and commenting.  I don't always get chance to respond but I appreciate every single comment, thank you 💗

Angie 💗

How Many Meals? Ekeing Out The Supplies, 'Free' Stuff....

Thank you for the very helpful comments on my last post 👍  The eggs were, indeed, fine and were eaten on toast for lunch 😋

 Today,  Friday 25th April, gets us closer to the end of the month and a new injection of cash in the food budget, but there are still 5 days to go until then and 5 main meals to sort out.  Yesterday, after the Spicy beanburger baps at lunchtime with our Daughter, we felt so full that we didn't want any tea other than a bowl of soup.  By 9pm we fancied a bit of cheese and crackers but there were no crackers 😕 so we ate 2 shortbread biscuits each instead.   Just as well really, at least we escaped indigestion!  Anyway, I wanted to buy crackers and apples today so did another mini shop using Nectar points.  The cake simply fell into my trolley and I left it there 😁 It was a bargain at £2 reduced from £3.50  With the current egg prices, I couldn't really make it much cheaper myself......

The shopping came to a total of £4.79,  21p under £5, and I  certainly didn't want to waste any points so bought just one red onion for 23p to make up the difference.  

 Therefore £5.02 spent as follows:

Nectar points: £5  (leaving £12.50 available)

Cash: 2p  (51p left)

As we ate a hot lunch today consisting of plates of delicious veg and gravy, we won't need much for tea.  I think cheese and crackers, and a slice of cake will hit the spot.  Maybe an apple later tonight.  We have Gardeners' World and Beyond Paradise on TV so a very relaxing watch tonight 😀 ....

Any plans for the weekend?

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Thanks so much for dropping in once again.  Do stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗

A Small Shop, St George's Day, Forgotten Eggs & Another Meal Plan......

I hope you all had a lovely Easter and enjoyed the bit of sunshine as well as the much needed rain for the gardens.  We had a lovely Easter Sunday lunch at our Daughter's house followed by the original Charlie & the Chocolate Factory film on TV with Gene Wilder.  Those were the days, eh ! Do you remember it?

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Yesterday, we wanted a couple of tomato plants from the local nurseries and decided to do this week's top up shop afterwards to save another journey as well as a drop of petrol 😊

This is what we bought with the the remaining £8.97 food money:

I know we could have saved £1.95 by not buying the water but I do drink a lot of water during the day and our tap water smells so strongly of chlorine that I can't drink it.  Gray drinks tap water with a drop of squash in it so that it tastes ok, but I prefer plain water.  There were an extra 10 Nectar points on bananas so I bought just one ! 

The total came to £8.44 leaving just 53p in the budget.

We now have just our Nectar points to spend for the rest of the month.  I have £18.20 worth of which I can spend £17.50 so that will constitute our food budget until 1st May.  I will need to spent some of that on protein like fish or meat for Gray, but I'll see what's on offer when I need to shop again.  Meanwhile I have the makings of meals for the next few days:

Quorn Chilli & rice

Spicy beanburger baps & salad

Cheese & leek pasty (home made)

Pasta bake

Cod & vegetable traybake

There are 4 eggs left, dated 21st April 😟 I forgot I had them.  I'll have to do the 'float' test and we'll eat those tomorrow if they are ok 👍Plus there is about 6oz cheddar cheese.

Some of the cheap Easter veg has been prepped and frozen for later including a swede, and I roasted some potatoes in the air fryer to reheat at a later date.  Anything to make my life easier!  More prepping will be done tomorrow if I have time.....

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

Angie💗

A Top Up Shop for Easter. How Much Money Left?

We needed a TV guide for the holiday weekend so I made up my mind to do a top up shop at the same time.  Once the visiting family had set off for home on Thursday, I set off for Sainsbury's.   DD wanted another bag of the 15p potatoes so I got us one each as there were literally mounds of them in the shop.  The baked beans shelf was half empty with no small tins at all.  I picked up 2 large tins for the store cupboard,  a tin of rice pudding on offer at £1 (our favourite brand) and a tin of pears. Instead of using up my flour I got two loaves of bread; white for Gray and seeded for me.  They can go in the freezer and slices pulled out as needed.  Of course I got tempted by some hot cross buns 😜 Well, they were on offer at £1.25 instead of £1.80 for 4.  How could I pass them by! Milk, yogurt, cholesterol drinks and biscuits (only 49p) also found their way into my trolley.  Gray asked me to bring him some mint imperials which he paid for......

 

There were a few yellow stickered items too.

Peppers @39p a pack, cucumber 29p, cookies 75p and some prepared melon and grapes 34p which came in handy for Graham's dessert.

The total spent was £16.23 minus the mints £1.35 = £14.88

This leaves £8.97 cash   

It's beginning to look do-able to last the month without drawing more cash.  That would be fantastic.....

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Thanks so much for popping in.  If you celebrate Easter, then I wish you a very happy one.  What have you got planned?  If you don't,  then have a good few days of relaxation 😊

Do stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗

How Many Meals? Week # 2.....

 

Challenge Day 8 Thursday (onwards)

Thursday begins the new week for the menu plan.  I feel that I have posted the gist of what we are eating on this challenge, and I don't want to bore anyone rigid with endless photos of our main meals 👀, so for the forthcoming week, I'm just listing the meals for which I have all the ingredients.  They will not necessarily be eaten in this order but next week's meals will consist of :

Pasta bake (1 main meal + 1 lunch for 2) with crusty bread

Quorn Lasagne (2 main meals) with veg

Cod tray bake (lots of veg in that)

Spicy beanburger baps with salad

Cheese & potato pie

Easter Sunday lunch @ our Daughter's home (no cooking! yay!)

Lunches: 

Lunches will be simple sandwiches/ toasted sandwiches, soup or egg/beans on toast.

The exception was yesterday. DD and GD came for lunch so I made hot dog rolls with onions 😊Veggie sausage for me, pork sausages for the others 😊

There are also 4 eggs and half a block of cheese left for the week.

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I still have £23.85 cash left.  I might buy more milk and I will definitely need a  TV guide for next week's viewing, but I'm debating whether or not to buy some extra tins of beans, fruit, a bag of flour etc I'll let you know what I decide on.....🤔

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

Angie 💗

How Many Meals? Days 6 & 7

 Challenge Day 6 Tuesday

The  last of the bacon with a poached egg, half a small tin of baked beans, leftover boiled potatoes roasted in the air fryer and toast....yummy...cheap and cheerful ! If my bacon looks overdone it actually is.  I'm not really a meat eater and I can only eat very crisp bacon 😉

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Last night it rained at last.  It began around 7pm, rained steadily for several hours and it's drizzled on and off all this morning too.  It was exactly what the garden and allotment needed.  Thank Heavens.  Hopefully, it will put much needed water into our butts in the garden. 

This afternoon we have decided to run a few errands and then club together for a pub lunch.  The pub we have in mind has a cheap lunchtime menu so it shouldn't cost too much.  The cost won't come out of the food budget anyway, as it's a treat 😌 So....

Challenge day 7 Wednesday

Pub lunch  👍

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

Angie 💗

How Many Meals? Day 5, Lidl, & Planning For Shortages.....

I have read that bread, flour and eggs could be in short supply in the near future so I don't want to deplete my stocks completely.  I do have bread and rolls in the freezer as well as a good supply of flour for baking and bread making, but I'll need to bear potential shortages in mind when food planning.

I usually pin up my meal plan in the kitchen, noting the meals I can make but we often decide on the actual day what we want to eat as it depends upon what we decide to do during the day.  Our main meal can be lunchtime or evening. It doesn't matter either way.

Challenge Day 5 Monday

It turned out to be a very chilly day, especially after such a lovely weekend, but we needed a walk and some fresh air.  We tootled off to Himley Park, armed with £3.50 for 2 hours parking and a pack of home prepared sandwiches each.  Gray paid the parking fee and, after a long walk in the (windy!) wooded area (this really gave our leg muscles and glutes a work out! 😮)  I paid for a pot of tea for two in the cafe.  £4 for a sit down in a warm room and a large cup of tea each felt like a bargain!

Our evening meal consisted of pie, baby potatoes, the last of the cauli, green beans, sweetcorn and gravy...

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Himley Park looked particularly beautiful.....

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Well today, Tuesday,  was the first day of the sale of price war veg in Lidl.  By 11.20am, when we got there, lots of the stock was already depleted but I managed to get what I wanted:

2 bags of potatoes @15p, 2 bags of carrots @ 8p, 2 bags of parsnips also @ 8p, 2 green beans @15p, 2 swedes @ 8p, 1 spring onion bunch @15p 

I couldn't believe the prices 8p !  I will give a bag of each to our Daughter on Thursday when she comes to visit because she has invited us to lunch on Easter Sunday.  

In addition we bought some cholesterol lowering drinks for me and a bag of brown onions.....

The total came to £7.30 which included some sweetpea plants for the allotment to attract pollinating insects.  When I take that off, the total spent was £4.31.....

This leaves £23.85 cash to last another week.  I will need to buy a TV guide later in the week and possibly some milk as I've been eating porridge for breakfast and have used more than I expected to.

Have you managed to get any cheap veg yet? 

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

Angie 💗

How Many Meals? Day 2, 3, & 4 and Black Country Museum Update

On Friday I picked up a few things I needed from the village market veg stall.....

The baking potatoes are enormous and will probably be shared between us once more.  Neither of us have the appetite that we used to have.  It must be an age thing 🤔 Do you find that the older you get the less food you want?  Anyway.... 

 I spent £3.29 leaving £28.16  to carry forward.  Not cheap...but beautifully fresh and I'm supporting a local veg business to boot.

Challenge Day 2 Friday

Gray had a generous portion of his slow cooked beef stew made with carrots, onions and leeks served over a jacket potato, but I preferred a jacket potato with cheese and salad 😊

Challenge Day 3 Saturday

Lunch consisted of bacon sandwiches and, after a bit of work both at the allotment and then in the garden at home (it was another beautiful day)  our evening meal consisted of :

 

Fish, oven chips and baked beans, accompanied by a cheeky glass of red wine 😃

Challenge Day 4 Sunday

It was half price electricity day so earmarked for washing.  As it was cloudy and so much colder than the day before and rain was forecast, the tumble dryer was put into action to dry the towels. Three loads of washing completed.

To take full advantage of cheaper electricity I decided to use the oven to cook the roast potatoes and also to make a rhubarb crumble for pudding utilising the delicious forced pink rhubarb from the allotment which I picked yesterday.  I took some rhubarb over to our lovely new neighbours as they love it too.

I won't insult you with a photo of a plate of veg and gravy! but we had roast potatoes, steamed cauliflower, peas, French beans, the last tiny carrot and Yorkshire puds.  Gray added another portion of beef stew to his.  This leaves one portion in the freezer for next week.

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P.S.  I previously forgot to mention the upcoming events at the Black Country Living Museum.  There's a 1960's Evening on 17th May ( I thought of Vix for this one) and a 1940's Evening on 12th July ( I'm sure Sue Hall would love this one!)  Not sure yet if we can manage the 1940's event but it really appeals to me 😀

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

Angie 💗

Lidl 15p Veg Update....

 Just popping in for a quick 'heads up'  Lidl price war veg will be on sale from 15th to 21st of  April...

There will be British potatoes, swede, carrots and parsnips, plus green beans and spring onions all at 15p per pack.  I intend to try for a pack of each if I can.  

Have a great Sunday!

Angie 💗

How many meals ? Challenge, and a Day Out....

I have definitely decided to turn April into a food challenge.   I want to make the food I have in the house, plus the remaining £31.45 cash, feed us for 2 weeks and then use whatever Nectar points I have accumulated to feed us until the end of the month.  I'll show our main meals to you on here.  Sometimes it will be lunchtime and other times an evening meal,  depending on what we are doing during the day.

Day 1 

Salmon baked in the oven with half a jacket potato and salad plus half a shared bottle of Madri 😄We weren't particularly hungry (and you'll find out why below....) so it was plenty.

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Today we took a trip to Bewdley because it was promising to be a really beautiful day and we fancied a walk beside the river. We've had no rain for a long time.  Gardens are bone dry and the river as low as I've seen it for months.

We could clearly see the river bed .....

Severe flooding has been a big problem here. The flood defences for the opposite side of the river are taking their time but progress is definitely being made, although the bridge is still closed to traffic in one direction and we had to find an alternative route home.

Below, the metal plates which the flood defences can be attached to can clearly be seen......

It cost an eye watering £4.80 for 3 hours parking 👀 We took sandwiches with us but did get tempted by a small bag of chips from the chippy to share at a cost of £2.80 Well....it would have been rude not to wouldn't it 😋

All in all a lovely day out with plenty of fresh air.  Tomorrow we need to go to the allotment and give it a good watering,  I need to take my book; The Long Winter, back to the library and drop another batch of cards in to the Hospice shop.

That's all for now.  Thanks for popping in and do stay safe and well wherever you happen to be.

Angie 💗

Taste Testing a Freebie, and First April Shop....

I mentioned that I wanted to try having a Sainsbury's delivery every 2 weeks instead of weekly from now on, in order to save £4 per month on delivery charges.  Yesterday was the first delivery.  It came in at £78.55 so was almost bang on budget.  This leaves £31.45 to last until the Wednesday 23rd (2 weeks time)......

I have the makings of:

 Beef for stew for Gray (3 meals)

Salmon portions x 2

Bacon (2 meals)

6 sausages (for Gray...for a sandwich / sausage & chips)

6 eggs

2 fish portions in batter

Quorn mince

I have enough milk to last 2 weeks, rice, pasta, butter and basics like tea bags,  coffee, spices etc

Bread and rolls have been put in the freezer and I  have bread flour and yeast if necessary.  With a few pantry items added I should manage for 2 weeks until after Easter.  I will, of course, visit the supermarkets to try to get some of the cheap price war veg.  Asda is going to sell their packs of veg for 10p each 😀 I think they will be on offer from 15th for 4 days only.  Unfortunately,  we don't have an Asda near us 😏 but we do have Sainsbury's and Lidl. 

Speaking of which, Lidl had an offer on Graham's App for a free product.  There was a good choice but he chose a pack of their mushroom pies 🥧 which retail at £2.69 (I think).  He got them FREE.  After 35 minutes in the air fryer, they came out crisp and tempting....

.......the filling was more like mushroom sauce than actual mushroom filling  but it was piping hot and really tasty......

The ingredient list wasn't too bad really but I don't think I would buy them at full price....

I want to see how long I can go with creating meals from what I have, certainly without spending more than the £31.45 left.  The 2 week plan will take me up to 23rd of the month and I'm debating whether or not to use my Nectar points after then instead of spending cash  to see us to the end of the month, as our bank balance has taken a battering with all the price increases, car insurance etc we have had to fork out for.  Actually it would save even more on home delivery costs wouldn't it 🤔😃£2 delivery this month instead of £8 equals £6 saved.  That's enough for some salmon @ £4.25 as well as the cheap veg!

Watch this space!

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

Angie 💗

Our April Treat/ Date Night, Black Country Adventure.....

 Our treat last night was a visit to the Black Country Living Museum for their special event:  Red by Night

The special event began at 6.30pm sharp and it was a showcase of everything Black Country.   There were chain making, and nail making demos as well as exhibits of everything from the last century revolving around Black Country industry and shop trade. 

Was this called a hurdy gurdy?

Steam engine.....

There was a brass band playing in the Workers Union and I LOVE a brass band! ......

There is a whole new row of shops which has opened since we last visited and it was a real blast from the past for me.  I used to use most of the shops in my youth when I worked at the Inland Revenue in Dudley.  There was Stantons music shop where you could listen to the music in a booth before you bought it, Preedys tobacco shop (I never smoked), a hairdressers ( just look at the prices!)......

A sweet shop which sold penguin biscuits three times the size they are now.  Does anyone remember Frys 5 centre bars?......

Camp coffee from the Co-op anyone?.......

A typical living room from the 1950's.  Remember the flying ducks?.....

Of course we had to brave the long queue for some fish and chips 😁  They are cooked in beef dripping so I only had a portion of fish and pinched a couple of chips from Graham's portion 😇  Afterwards we visited the reconstructed Elephant & Castle pub for a drink to wash them down........

The others drank pints of local ale whilst I plumped for another blast from the past, CherryB.  Also on offer was Babycham and Pony which, I seem to remember, was a kind of sherry (yuk).  The CherryB was sweet and not as alcoholic as I remember, but I enjoyed it nonetheless..... 

Afterwards (it was pitch black by this time)  we went back outside to enjoy the street musicians and the fire performers.  The smells, the sounds, the sights, and the colours were fantastic.  We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  Hats off to the organisers, staff and volunteers who made it all so authentic.

Total Spend

Entry tickets 2 x £12 =  £24

Fish & chips                  £16.30

Drinks for 2                   £10.60

Total :  £50.90

Thanks so much for popping in and a big thank you for all the comments on my last post which I'll respond to shortly. Stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗