What a busy few days in the household and the weather really doesn`t know if it`s coming or going. Yesterday was rain and more rain, it was also verrrry cold and windy, today looks very fresh, but the sun looks like it`s fighting its way through the clouds, so fingers crossed no rain today.
I`ve had a look at the freezer and cupboards and made my meal plan for this week. I will probably be shopping for ingredients most days, but will be sticking religiously (fingers crossed) to my list.
So for this week we will be having:
MONDAY- Shepherd`s pie and veg
TUESDAY- Sausages, wedges and baked beans
WEDNESDAY-Garlic chicken, sweetcorn and salad
THURSDAY- Chilli
FRIDAY- Homemade pizza
SATURDAY- Chicken pieces with couscous
SUNDAY- Roast.
Yesterday (Monday), I had to only buy 250g of mince from Tesco for dinner which came to £2.00. I bulked the rest of the mince with some soup and broth mix, onion, tinned toms and added Worcester sauce, beef stock and some dried herbs (all from my store cupboard). Once the potato was added to the top it made a very handsome meal (with the addition of some veg on the side). Now usually, this amount of mince would no way be enough for the boys, but after bulking it out with the extra ingredients it was enough. I also brought a couple of chicken breasts for £2.50 for the chicken wraps for packed lunches. I managed to squeeze enough chicken for 4 wraps (1 wrap each) and bulked out with some salad and sweet chilli sauce, yummy. so that was just under 63p, by the time I added an apple 15p, juice carton 15p, yogurt tube 11p and crisps 17p, packed lunch for the boys was £1.21. A lot cheaper then school meals, plus with 1 of the boys being a bit on the fussy side, I can be sure he`ll eat this.
Right then, I`m off to sort through my seeds, which I`ve been trying to do for the last couple of days.
MrsB
xx
Tuesday 12 January 2016
Sunday 10 January 2016
First week of my grocery budget.
Sorry, it`s been about 5 days since my last post, but I`ve been pretty busy, with the kids going back to school MrB going back to work and me cooking, baking and budgeting, as well as working. Sorry I haven`t any pics yet of my bakes etc. I`m hoping to sort this out this coming week (fingers crossed).
I set my budget for grocery shopping at a very generous £100 for this week and hoping to reduce this as the weeks go on. So how did I get on? Well I spent £88.17, not too bad, but of course I could do a lot better. I used a mix of the local shops (butchers, bakery, greengrocers and mini market, then did one shop at the large Tesco near us). Unfortunately the bakery will be just a treat every now and then, as this is a little too expensive, such a shame as I would like to support the local shops where possible. There was no meal plan for last week, as I wanted to use up any Christmas food left over, but I`ll be doing one for next week, later today, so hoping this will help bring my spends down.
A first for me, was to make choc chip brioche bread. I tried 2 recipes both from the internet, I can`t remember where I got the first recipe from, but it was a disaster. It said to use plain flour, which I thought alittle odd, as it was a bread I was making, it did prove up, but not as much as I had hoped and when I baked it, the bread was dense and the crust was uneven and horrible. I did freeze this as I thought I could maybe make this in to bread pudding or bread and butter pudding and I`m afraid the recipe, went straight into the bin. The second was a success. This recipe was from `The busy mamas` and it was so light and delish, that the boys kept going back for more. It`s quite a long process, with the first proving taking over 8 hours in the fridge, then another 3 hours for the second proving, but well worth it. It is something that I would love to make more of in the future.
I set my budget for grocery shopping at a very generous £100 for this week and hoping to reduce this as the weeks go on. So how did I get on? Well I spent £88.17, not too bad, but of course I could do a lot better. I used a mix of the local shops (butchers, bakery, greengrocers and mini market, then did one shop at the large Tesco near us). Unfortunately the bakery will be just a treat every now and then, as this is a little too expensive, such a shame as I would like to support the local shops where possible. There was no meal plan for last week, as I wanted to use up any Christmas food left over, but I`ll be doing one for next week, later today, so hoping this will help bring my spends down.
A first for me, was to make choc chip brioche bread. I tried 2 recipes both from the internet, I can`t remember where I got the first recipe from, but it was a disaster. It said to use plain flour, which I thought alittle odd, as it was a bread I was making, it did prove up, but not as much as I had hoped and when I baked it, the bread was dense and the crust was uneven and horrible. I did freeze this as I thought I could maybe make this in to bread pudding or bread and butter pudding and I`m afraid the recipe, went straight into the bin. The second was a success. This recipe was from `The busy mamas` and it was so light and delish, that the boys kept going back for more. It`s quite a long process, with the first proving taking over 8 hours in the fridge, then another 3 hours for the second proving, but well worth it. It is something that I would love to make more of in the future.
MrsB
xx
Tuesday 5 January 2016
Challenge for 2016 - Saving £6000
Right now, I have taken a big and scary decision, to see if I can save myself a whopping
£6000
in 2016
It`s going to be a BIG challenge for myself and the family, but hopefully by the end of the year, this money will go towards paying off our biggest debt
THE MORTGAGE.
I know that the grocery budget is to blame for some of the overspending and looking at old receipts and statements it`s an embarrassing amount of over £100 a week. So this has got to change. Also going out and just buying something that we want instead of stopping for a moment and asking ourselves, "do we really need this, can we do without it " or "can we get it cheaper if possible"
Yearly bills, like house and car insurance etc. will need looking into as well as trying to up my income somehow.
So let the challenge begin.
Cook Books from the Library.
Well I finally sorted out my S.O.A and now have made up a spreadsheet for all my individual budgets that I`ve got. I`m feeling more in control of the finances and able to go through which goals I would like to achieve.
Over time I`ve been pretty lapse with my spending in the food department. I think with working and looking after the family, this has taken a bit of a back burner, I`ve either lost track of the spends, by making little trips to the supermarket most days or come in from work, too tired and ordered a take away, lazy I know.
Meal planning will definitely help, but just weekly to start with and with Christmas and New Year now finished, it`s time to use up anything left over, which is not a lot really. That`s kids with bottomless stomachs for you.
So yesterday in between my shifts, I was able to very quickly pop into the local library for 10 minutes and grabbed some cookbooks, in the hope that it might inspire me. To be honest I didn`t have a good look inside, but it was the title of 2 of the cook books that grabbed my attention.
`Love the leftovers` Murdoch Books
`The thrifty cookbook` Kate Colquhoun
`Making fresh pasta` Aliza Green
`Best ever dishes` Tom Kerridge
The Tom Kerridge book took my fancy as i`ve already got his `Proper pub food` book, that I treated myself to a few months ago, so i`m very much looking forward to trying some of his recipes from this book. The pasta book, well I thought why not give it a go and of course because it was from the library the cost was £0.00. Very frugal.
Mrs B
xx
Over time I`ve been pretty lapse with my spending in the food department. I think with working and looking after the family, this has taken a bit of a back burner, I`ve either lost track of the spends, by making little trips to the supermarket most days or come in from work, too tired and ordered a take away, lazy I know.
Meal planning will definitely help, but just weekly to start with and with Christmas and New Year now finished, it`s time to use up anything left over, which is not a lot really. That`s kids with bottomless stomachs for you.
So yesterday in between my shifts, I was able to very quickly pop into the local library for 10 minutes and grabbed some cookbooks, in the hope that it might inspire me. To be honest I didn`t have a good look inside, but it was the title of 2 of the cook books that grabbed my attention.
`Love the leftovers` Murdoch Books
`The thrifty cookbook` Kate Colquhoun
`Making fresh pasta` Aliza Green
`Best ever dishes` Tom Kerridge
The Tom Kerridge book took my fancy as i`ve already got his `Proper pub food` book, that I treated myself to a few months ago, so i`m very much looking forward to trying some of his recipes from this book. The pasta book, well I thought why not give it a go and of course because it was from the library the cost was £0.00. Very frugal.
Mrs B
xx
Sunday 3 January 2016
Happy New Year everyone.
Well, 2016 has started well. The Christmas decorations have been packed away and I`ve given the home an early `mini` spring clean, this is ready for next week when everybody should go back to school and work and I can also get back to some sort of routine. My mountain of paperwork has been reduced greatly and the important bills etc. have been sorted into their own folders, so I`m ready to go through these, when I come to doing my S.O.A (statement of affairs) which is a statement of my incomings and outgoings for the household.
My S.O.A is my first building block to becoming more frugal and thrifty and then I`ll be able to sort out my goals for this year.
I know one of my goals, I really want to have a go at growing more at home and my F.I.L has an allotment, which is quite close to home, so I want to try and have a go up there, if time allows. Food shopping is becoming more and more expensive every year, so more veg growing, will be the way to go.
Mrs B
xx
Well, 2016 has started well. The Christmas decorations have been packed away and I`ve given the home an early `mini` spring clean, this is ready for next week when everybody should go back to school and work and I can also get back to some sort of routine. My mountain of paperwork has been reduced greatly and the important bills etc. have been sorted into their own folders, so I`m ready to go through these, when I come to doing my S.O.A (statement of affairs) which is a statement of my incomings and outgoings for the household.
My S.O.A is my first building block to becoming more frugal and thrifty and then I`ll be able to sort out my goals for this year.
I know one of my goals, I really want to have a go at growing more at home and my F.I.L has an allotment, which is quite close to home, so I want to try and have a go up there, if time allows. Food shopping is becoming more and more expensive every year, so more veg growing, will be the way to go.
Mrs B
xx
Wednesday 30 December 2015
Start of something new...
Well 2016 is almost upon us already, another year has almost past. So much has happened this year, that it has just flown by. I have decided that 2016 is the year to start being a lot more frugal and thrifty with money matters, I have goals to achieve for the future years ahead, so 2016 will be the starting block.
Well where do I begin? I`ve made a list of goals to aim for, these are achievable, but will need time, patience and winning the lottery LOL!. To start with, I really need to sort through the mountain of paperwork, that is scattered everywhere, mainly bills of course. So this will be my first port of call, to sort through and throw out what isn`t needed (I`m a bit of a hoarder and have a tendency to keep old instruction manuals of items that have long gone). Then organise the paperwork somehow, to start of my journey. So for now wishing you all a Happy New 2016 and I`ll see you on the other side.
Mrs B
xx
Well where do I begin? I`ve made a list of goals to aim for, these are achievable, but will need time, patience and winning the lottery LOL!. To start with, I really need to sort through the mountain of paperwork, that is scattered everywhere, mainly bills of course. So this will be my first port of call, to sort through and throw out what isn`t needed (I`m a bit of a hoarder and have a tendency to keep old instruction manuals of items that have long gone). Then organise the paperwork somehow, to start of my journey. So for now wishing you all a Happy New 2016 and I`ll see you on the other side.
Mrs B
xx
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