Just checked my bank balance. My payment has been made to Halifax. I now owe Halifax NOTHING! That’s my first debt gone! I have lots of others, but the feeling that one has gone is amazing! I then checked the standing order section of my online banking, cancelled the standing order and then doubled the payment to my other credit card! Enjoy the music xxxxx
Monthly Archives: May 2010
Wild Food.
Although we may well get the ‘June drop’ - every where I look the fruit trees are laden. I’ve also mapped where I saw blossom earlier in the year too. I have walks………..don’t mind if I don’t disclose do you? and I know where the Damson trees are heavily laden with young fruit. My apple tree and Victoria plum tree are equally laden. I’ve noticed the Hazel trees are covered in tiny nuts. Raspberries seems to have gone wild here too and pop out of hedges where there are blackberries and Sloes. I love Sloe gin, raspberry jam, damson wine and damson jelly and keeping hazel nuts to sit and crack and nibble on right through the winter. This might be a bumper year.
Sunday Fish and chicken ding.
I love Bank Holiday weekends. It’s half term for me so I get to plan and prepare for the next term and to save fuel, I will do this in the comfort of home. I will teach on Tuesday as a last revision session for my students and then go off to see my daughter in the afternoon. I’m really concious of the cost and impact of using my oven so we often have, soup ding, or chicken ding or even lasagne ding. I’ve cooked it before and I ‘ready meal’ it in the microwave.
I popped a tin (19p) of potatoes in on top of the chicken and added a large cup full of frozen mixed veg and cooked them on high for 14 minutes. I then take the meat and veg out and add some water to the cooking stock and bring to the boil and add gravy granule. Voila! Chicken Ding! Gordon Ramsay would not be impressed but all the food groups are covered for a few pennies.
In my attempts to stay away from the shops I ran out of dog food and cat litter! I made it to Morrisons within an hour of it closing. I now have no shame at all. I follow the price reducing people around to see what’s cheap. I bagged a real bargain today. I bought £11.38 of fresh fish for £1.96. I have frozen it. We don’t often have fish as it’s so expensive and I’m really looking forward to the meals I can make from this.
Menu planning and bulk cooking.
I don’t do what I do just to save money but also out of genuine concerns for the environment. The average family uses1.29 tonnes of CO2 on cooking alone. I try to use my big main oven as little as possible and bulk cook when I switch it on. I then re-heat with the microwave or in my mini oven.
My menu this week. Saturday - Bacon, cream cheese and mushroom cannelloni with salad. Sunday - Bacon wrapped chicken, boiled potatoes and veg. Mon - Cottage pie and veg. Tuesday toad in the hole, onion gravy and veg. Wednesday - Chicken casserole, cous cous and veg. Thursday - Sausages, onion gravy and veg. Friday Cottage pie and veg.
It also means that I don’t need to shop this week, again saving tonnes of CO2 as I don’t need to take the car out. I got to defrost the freezer today as I emptied it. It will be more economical and environmentally efficient when I use it now. I also save time in the week and a lot of electricity as this was all cooked at the same time in the same oven.
The cannelloni could have done with some more tomato sauce but I was trying to use up a half opened jar that the lodger had left. (I even watered it down to go further.)
So the bulk of the meals are prepared for the week and I’ve done my bit.
Spend day?
I keep reading about people who have ‘No Spend days’. I have one spend day a month and then I have nothing left to spend. Today I bought two tops, for £2.50 each from BHF shop, six grow bags and two chilli plants. I almost bought a dress in one of the charity shops but they wanted £5 for it, which is really too much. My total spend came to £10.48 and I don’t have any money to buy anything else for the month! Today I have emptied my freezer, everything is defrosting and I will create meals for 7 days. It’s going to be a tough old month and I’m keeping some determination in reserve. I’m having to put a lot of money by this month because I have car tax, a water bill and new work clothes for the Autumn term to save for.
Cheaper than chips
I can see the light at the end of the very long tunnel!
It may well only be a glimmer and a faint spot in the distance but I can see it. This month’s payment to one of my two credit cards is the last payment! I then snowball that debt else where. That now means I double the payment on my other credit card.
Since June of last year I have paid back £11,589 in debt repayments to Halifax, Abbey, Fiat finance, Lloyds personal loan and that does not include the £11,330 I paid towards my mortgage! After equating those scary figures, I worked out that the two of us: fed ourselves, clothed ourselves and ran the car on £130 a week, which is less than a retired couple who just live on a state pension! BUT WE DID IT AND CONTINUE TO DO IT!!!!!!!!!!
Since June last year I haven’t run up any more debts and every credit card we own was shredded. We have no spare cash but the fact that one credit card will go makes this all worth while and my other credit card will have a zero balance in two months time. Dave Ramsay, the American financial expert says “When you start knocking off the easier debts, you will start to see results and you will start to win in debt reduction.” It’s very true. I feel so good that I think I will frame the next zero balance credit card statement and remember the enjoyment I get when I look at it.
As I said, it is a long tunnel but I can now see the light in the distance.
That’s even less than Asda price!
We had to do some shopping this evening! I really want to cook something myself but after getting home at six I was just past it.
The shopping had to be done and we had to find the man with the price reducing machine and hound him mercilessly! We loitered and waited at every turn and there was a little Asda green man/woman decreasing the prices and we seemed the only people after the bargains. We’ve bought bread, some cooked products, some baked goods, meat, fruit and veg and all of our weekly shopping was drastically reduced.
It’s a shame I then burnt the pie (originally £2.87 and reduced to 70p) when I heated it!!! We’ll eat it anyway.
Tex mex cheesy chops!
We didn’t have Sunday lunch due to the hot weather so they chops had to be eaten today. I coated them with herby low fat soft cheese and sprinkled them with Tex Mex spices. They went into the mini oven for 30 minutes and we ate them with salad. The chops were 90p for two and my one chop obviously cost 45p. Supper cost £1.80 so 90p each!
Upside down tomatoes
The heat hit the mid twenties by mid morning in our garden. It’s extremely hot inland and I would have been glad of a day on the beach. We had an hour in Looe today (sorry forgot camera) as I needed some short and cooler clothes and there are a couple of good charity shops there. I bought some shorts, a smart t-shirt and a skirt for work. We did have a look at the beach but is was knee deep in families with happy children and I like beaches to be quiet. I’m glad I left the curtains shut as the house is much cooler for just keeping the sunlight out. I noticed, when we rented somewhere in France a few years ago that they have thermal curtains that keep the heat out as all the curtains were closed when we arrived with the windows open for a breeze. I can’t imagine the cost of A/C.
I’ve planted the tomatoes…………upside down in hanging baskets. I had toyed with the idea of buying the correct device to do this, but with the help of You Tube found a video of a homemade device. I used a bin liner, cut holes in it, filled with compost and the plants, sealed the top and inserted the top of a drinks bottle so I could water it.
The strawberries are hanging too. These plants love the direct heat and sunshine so long as they are fed and watered every day. The potatoes kept drying out too quickly so I have moved them to the side of the house, where they don’t get sun all day. I’ve also ‘clumped’ them together so they don’t get direct sun to the bags they are in.
