Challenge Review, What Next? Cyber Attack Worries...

 It's May 2nd and last month's challenge is complete.  The first Sainsbury's delivery has arrived for this month containing all the bulky, heavy stuff I ordered and the total cost in the end was £61.96 including £2 delivery.  There was stuff for the freezer; fish portions, 3 bags of frozen fruit, ice cream and some sliced bread so that I can extract a slice or two as needed. I went over budget by £6.96 due to stocking up on a few tins and frozen goods in case of shortages ( did you know the shelves seem to be empty of baked beans? 😨) It would have been a bit counter productive to leave my stores empty of things I might not be able to get later on.  Now I think it's the perfect opportunity to spend my Nectar points instead of cash and it will save another £2 on delivery each week 😀 

 I have £15 worth of spendable points and Gray also has £5 so a decent amount between us. They will probably be used to buy some form of protein and fresh veg.  I'll share with you how we spend them.

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On the news last night, and all over social media, there have been reports of serious cyber attacks on big companies.  Firstly, there was M & S, which is still struggling to contain it, then close shaves from Co-op and now Harrods. I also know of another big company which was put out of action for a couple of weeks and which has suffered serious financial damage.  I am unable to say which one, but I have been personally affected by having some of my data stolen. I find it all very worrying.  Actually, no....it's terrifying.  I use both Co-op and M & S so my data could be at risk from there too.  Personally, I think this is yet another reason to keep using cash.  We all use online shopping for convenience, don't we, but we  have to be aware of the risks involved.  I draw my personal weekly 'frivolous spending ' in cash so there is always a little in my purse for emergencies such as power outages in shops.  It has happened to me in the past and will surely happen again.  If we become a cashless society how can we teach youngsters how to value money?  As it is, a lot of them struggle to count actual coins....

The Government is now telling us once again to be prepared:

 Keep a stock of bottled water

Stockpile tinned food 

Have an FM radio with plenty of spare batteries.

Hang on... FM? Didn't the powers that be decide to ditch FM radio in favour of DAB? Our little radio is not FM so would be useless in an emergency to listen for Government announcements !

I have plenty of candles so wouldn't be in the dark 😌

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How do you feel about using cash?  Do you use a card for everything?

Are you 'getting prepared' ?

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Tasks for today:

Return my library book

Drop a couple of toiletries off at the food bank collection point

Drop another batch of cards at the Hospice shop

Pop my Brother's birthday card in ( he will be 71 on Sunday 👀 How??)

Pick some rhubarb from the allotment for a Sunday crumble 😋

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Have a great weekend everyone 😎  

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

Angie 💗

  

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 💗