Sammie is Skint

Hi all

sorry ive not been around for a few days caught the lurgy off my boss and been battling a cold ever since

its a skinter than ever back end to this week what with bills and other expenses im hoping to spend as little as possible on grocery for the coming week

heck

i know when my bills are due out but some months a certain bill decides to alter the date it comes out, like today it wasn't due out until the 1st Feb so this morning i am forty something overdrawn-

bummer

im annoyed as now i will be charged £8 odd from the bank!! not very happy

anywho it will be pay day Friday then the routine starts again of splitting, saving and stretching the pennies for another week

 ho hum

so im making a quorn chilli con carne for tea tonight i will be stretching it out with extra tinned tomatoes, extra red pepper, and a whole tin of kidney beans,

only two for tea tonight so hoping to have plenty left over for portioned up freezer meals

ive had a look in cupboards and freezer so have thrown together a meal plan for the coming week and a shopping list of what we need


Thursday (tonight) - Quorn chilli con carne with rice and homemade yogurt flat bread
(making extra hoping to freeze a few portions of chilli)

Friday- Just me for tea tomorrow so it will be some of the above chilli or something easy like fried egg butty, sausage butty, noodles, or soup.
 ive not much of an appetite with this bloomin cold

Saturday/ Sunday - its just me at home so again easy meals, porridge, toast and soup, pasta or noodles, or something on toast, that will do me just fine

Monday- its always egg, chips and beans, i find this an easy meal when ive done a 9-6pm on a Monday and we all really enjoy this- kinda comfort food

Tuesday- Homemade mince and onion pies, cabbage and roast potatoes
( i will be making extra pastry and making quorn mince and onion pies and beef and onion pies for the freezer)

Wednesday - Just me at home so something easy for me or something grabbed from homemade freezer meals

Thursday - Homemade cauliflower cheese savory rice and onion fried potatoes

Friday- Homemade yogurt pizza, (in the freezer i have all the toppings i need, mozzarella, spinach, peppers, onions, and mascarpone) homemade potato wedges, baked beans

 (choice of puddings for the week  if anyone so wishes -rice pudding-ice cream-peaches-jelly)
will do some baking on the weekend, apple cinnamon buns i think ive apples to use up

Saturday - start again lol

so the actual grocery's i need to complete the upcoming weeks meals
Bread £1
3 litres Milk - £3 Corner shop
Fresh Orange x2 cartons -  £1.30 Tesco Value
Bag potatoes - 69p Home bargains
2x tins Beans 48p Tesco Value

3 packets cookies -  £1.20 Tesco Value
cereal bars - £1.00 Poundland
crisps - £1.00 Poundland

1 litre oil - £1.15 Tesco
Tea bags - £1.00 Tesco Red Lable temped to try Value ones 25p
Cheap margarine for baking 89p Tesco
Savory rice - Tesco Value  25p
Frozen cauliflower  - £1.10 Tesco

we have dog food and cat food, they need biscuits and treats £2 biscuits treats £3
we have laundry supplies
we have cleaning supplies
and we still have some fridge foods and fruit

so altogether a spend of £19.06 for the upcoming weekend and next week i can cope with that i think

ooh its blooming freezing up North, icy on the cars and roof tops again this morning although mighty better than a couple of days ago everywhere was frozen solid i literally ice skated to work lol

not much planned for the weekend fussy teenager is at the x's this weekend, OH is working away, im home alone with the fur babies, fish and Mr man (gecko)
lots to do at home thou the yard wants a good sweeping and a tidy up
i have a half decorated bedroom -tbh i just cant be arsed with it lol
everywhere needs a general tidy up
dont get me started on the front bush (ooh err, the privet hedge out the front :)
dog needs walking
and i need all the above groceries

and i cant be bothered with any of it as feeling all stuffed up with no energy
i shall have to force myself, you never know it might make me feel better

wishful thinking sammiantha

Catch up soon
Sammie xx

EDITED
**************
bloody hell i cant believe a gel pen at work must have leaked and ive not noticed it, i look like a chuffing smurf
all over me, one one has said anything and only just seen it all over my hands, and face when passing the mirror

one of them bloody days already !!

Saving money on shower gel

Firstly thank you for the messages regarding the RSPCA, they finally got back to me and have concluded that yes someone must have been messing around, i said they are welcome to come and check the house for birds if they wish but they insisted that wont be necessary

thank good for that
they also said there was no name as to who reported it, so i still have no idea!

apparently the inspector who came and left the card had also put on the system that it seemed unlikely the right address as my house looked far too tidy from the outside

lol i had to snort at that
even though the bush needs extreme trimming and there were leaves all outside the front door oops but im happy that they agree i have done nothing wrong

phew

****


So i used to buy our shower gels from one of the pound stores as i figures £1 or 99p was good value for some shower gel compared to some store own brands costing around the same, 89, 99p mark i just used to grab them from Poundland

Until i was in Asda one day and saw there brand of shower gel 250ml for 39p a bottle

hmmm 

i purchased some and can honestly say they smell amazing and clean you just the same

since spotting these and stocking up they can be tricky to find, just like anything else that's good value you will find them on the bottom shelf usually tucked away

but worth a look and definitely worth a purchase

even two bottles amounting to 500ml is worth  the 78p and still cheaper than Poundland

winner 

and i shall be buying these from now on and saving the pennies in return

they come in several scents and they even do a 2 in 1 shower gel and shampoo - double bargain!

The nourish and delight one i use to fill up the hand wash and smells lovely

If you see them give them a go, these will be permanent in our house and ive had no complaints from fussy teenager or the OH

Sammie xx

Coppering up

Good afternoon all, and welcome to a couple of new followers
💟💟💟💟💟💟

So far in January i have saved £25.00 and put it on the Pockit card

Coppered up all the loose pennies £5.00 worth

Paid January's penny a day challenge up front £4.96

Made a start on Febuary's penny a day challenge im upto £2.74 with £10.00 to go- im trying to get ahead with it and will pick and choose amounts from here on as and when i feel it, as and when i have a little extra money or not basically

OH has started saving £30.00 a week with work, so we hopefully wont miss it but at the end of the day we are down 30 a week so need to make the money stretch even more

a good start to January i think - im happy with that progress so far

Its cold again oop North but has been very sunny and dry out, starting to draw in a bit now thou, and feels a little chillier

not much going on today im thinking i may attempt to sort out the pan cupboard
i dread it every time
so many Tupperware lids and no tubs! no idea where they vanish too

i need to nip out for some fresh milk but we dont need anything else
tea tonight will be cauliflower cheese, with the reduced cauli, savory rice and southern fried chicken
easy enough and filling, plenty of tins of rice pudding, peaches, and bits in the freezer for puddings if we fancy anything

popcorn in the cupboard to make if we watch a movie tonight
and unopened wine and beers from christmas if we fancy a little drink

its football today we live a couple of streets away from the turf and all i can hear is
'come on burnley
come on burnley
'come on burnley

meh not into football at all the OH is and played a lot with being in a team for years, now a few friends play for man city ladies, its all waffle to me i just don't get it -lol
and apparently it isn't 'just a game'
hahaha


Thats it for today, im off to find my dressing gown and extra fluffy socks brrr its cold
hope you all have a lovely weekend, stay warm, until next time

Sammie xx

saving money with the laundry

I saw somewhere on a money saving forum i think quiet a while ago people talking about Enrituals laundry liquid, like the leading brands that cost a fortune this gel is in a 1ltr bottle and cost £1, i was a bit dubious at first but i have bought and tested it and can say cleans really well smells good and left my bath towels soft and fluffy even when dried on the line, previous branded gels and even store brand gels didnt even manage that .. if you see it give it a go il be buying this from now on, found mine in Tesco £1 for 1ltr bottle you know what Tesco are like for hiding cheaper products thou, this was found on the bottom shelf and pushed right to the back, i had to get on my hands and knees to get a couple of bottles haha i did get a funny look from id like to say a well to do lady in her 60's haha who cares eh? i have since found out you can also find it in B&M and Savers


blooming bargain i think and i get so save some money too as i think these will last a while as big bottles, ive been using 2 cap fulls as they are only small even washed the pet bedding and thats come up really clean, ive tried on a quick wash with 1 cap full and yep that does the job too..a definite keeper, i even forgot to put softner in one day and you couldn't tell the difference, still really soft clean laundry 

Lots of cleaning up to do today, wet again oop north but not as cold so thats good, ive been thinking im coming down with a cold or something it keeps flaring up then going again, i feel a bit under the weather again today so dosed myself up in the hope it buggers off again.

Ive just had to hide from a knock at the door does anyone else do this lol? i realised it was a group of Jehovah witnesses and i have nothing against anyone who is but i have told them time and time again that sorry its not for me but they keep knocking my door and i just couldn't be bothered with standing there for ten minutes while they go through it all again for me to say, again, sorry but this doesn't interest me..oh dear think it will be one of those days today, even messed the breakfast up ooops 

porridge disaster - i forgot i put it on

i might just go back to bed lol

sammie xxx

(y)

Pockit Card

Frosty here this morning, its white out.. brrr can always tell when it is without even looking out the window i let the cats out when i get up to make a brew before the OH goes to work usually around 6.30am first thing they do is run out and jump on the wheelie bins to reach the top of the wall overlooking the back street so they can have a look around,...switched the kettle on...waited...heard a jump...then a slide.. and a bump...yep its a frosty morning the cat has slid right of the top of the wheelie bin...chuckled to myself...poor Miss Darcy ...

last year i started saving with park for christmas it really helped as i knew i would have vouchers sent to me in november and it meant i could'nt spend them before xmas, the trouble was i was locked into  a direct debit every month that sometimes i struggled to keep up with as other bills and expenses were due too, i had a think about it and decided to get a pre paid MasterCard, i found one that didn't have any monthly charges and was free to get, and no overdraft, you simply have what you've loaded onto it,  i chose a pockit card


i have linked my regular bank card to it so i can transfer what spare money i have throughout the year onto it, if you do this you dont pay any charges to top it up you can take to a pay point to top up but they charge you 99p to do so

(Borrowed from Google)

the card arrived in about 3 days, easy to register and set up an account online

i have sent my card to my mother so im not temped to use it, shes impressed with it and now has one herself to save for xmas or a rainy day

thought these are a good idea you can top up and take abroad or have multiple cards in your name for other family members great for kids to use too, plus im not locked into a certain amount each month.

Eee thats all for now, p.s thanks for making me chuckle with the typo yesterday, proper giggled so left it just incase anyone else decides to read and they need a chuckle too, yep hard up here but not too hard up that ill be eating mice pies ha ha ha
Sammie xxx

Penny pinching

I ended up with a thumping headache last night so didn't manage the hill walk..

bugger!

I didn't fancy the stir fry either..

oh heck! 

that got shoved in the freezer

I wanted something stodgy and filling as feeling sorry for myself

 (well more of a cant be arsed mood to be honest)

into the depths of the freezer i went..

i grabbed a cheap 99p farmfoods cheese pizza

some reduced spinach balls i cooked and froze in november

a squishy tomato from the fridge

the last teeny piece of cheese

and threw it all on

i found some spiral fries in the freezer to so bunged a few on a baking tray shoved it all in and cooked for 30 mins

that jazzed up a boring pizza and was bloomin lovely, with leftovers for lunch today too

much better!

So while all that was cooking i diced up some going squishy toms from the fridge and tubbed them up for the freezer ready to add to a lasagne or pasta, and cut up the reduced baby corn i bought for 20p, brought to a simmer and popped them on a tray for the freezer too

ahhh

another job jobbed, ill add the corn to some currys i think or whatever springs to mind :D

The fridge is almost bare now, with only milk, butter, eggs, coconut oil, some sundried tomatoes and a tin of cat food, its all been used up

When i finish work this afternoon that will be my first job, i'll give the fridge a real good clean out

how does it get so mucky it gets wiped down every week!! 

The freezers a bit more full i think ill have a run through and see what i can use up and what meals i can cobble together for next week

easy tea tonight something along the lines of egg, chips and beans

or soup and toast

shopping day tomorrow

Sammie xx

literally turn my back for two minutes and the three amigos are at it again

straight up on the sofa on me blinking furry blanket

one snuggling on it 

one scratching it up

and one licking it

Ahhh thats better ive shoved nipper off mum night night

please play ball mum before you goto work

go on then!!!

god help me hahaha

Back in the land of bloggy world and some yellow stickers

Hello everyone

Its been a while again we've had no internet as the laptop decided to give up I thought there was a virus on it so eventually forked out for Norton antivirus software and touch wood it's been fine since, worth it at £19 for the year I think, I'm sure Norton used to be around £70 odd pounds a few years back..any who fingers crossed.

Grabbed some yellow stickers this evening spent a total of 89p

That'll do me

Two bags of stir fry 15p each

Packet of baby corn 20p

And a hovis multi seed loaf 39p

should have been £4.10 so a nice little saving

We'll have the stir fry tomorrow and I've frozen the loaf and will use for my breakfast and lunches in the week.

Now I've put on a bit of weight and suffering from a bad hip and back hells chuffing teeth only 36 and really feeling my age so ive started walking up the massive hill every evening with the dog absolutely kills me but when I reach the top I'm rewarded with feeling good and a lovely Tesco extra store, If I time it right usually around 8.30pm ish there are a few bargains to be had so all's good, and I'll only buy things we can use or need, that reminds me I had to get a tin of cat food the cats have decided they don't like anything at the moment only tinned gormet pate! Christ on a blooming stick even I don't get pate! Luckily have found some offers on it in town some places 3 tins for a pound and others 4 tins for a pound ..honestly!

Anyway Im still blaming my thyroid although it's probably the love of Jammie Dodgers that's got me putting on weight :D if I'm honest

Ah well we can't all be perfect

I'll be back soon

I promise

Sammie xx

Happy Wednesday everyone
a massive welcome to two new followers
Frugal Queen and Amanda Green
thank you millions <3

So ive decided to do the penny a day challenge, and working out if we could manage the 52 weeks challenge too, my thinking on this is if we try and follow it week by week, or have more money than other weeks pick and choose what we can afford to pay at that time ..hmm i might give it a go..we shall see as im putting all the extra into paying of  the debts we owe too, but if we can manage it and pay/reduce the debt this year then what we have saved from these pots can be used to finish the final payments or go straight into savings either way i will try try try 

spent nearly all the weekly shopping budget £4.91 to last us  until Friday for the weekly allowance to start again, sheesh had a bit of  a wobbly moment at the beginning of the week, but im plodding on and will get there, its all pay out at the moment, constantly checking the gas and electric meter to make sure we are on track, my DS is the worst for coming home from school and turning the central heating on full whack,even thou ive told him not to he does it anyway,hmm may have to switch the actual heating off on the boiler so it doesn't come on lol, i do put the heating on of course but only when its 'time' certainly wont sit there freezing but it doesn't need to be on all willy nilly .

Ive been watching a bit
of that extreme couponing, wow, i wish we had extreme coupons here, one woman's total grocery bill came too just over $2000 and only spent 1penny i just couldn't get my head around this at all totally gob-smacked
they have masses of stockpiles of food and non food items in their homes, like their own little mini marts most donate to food banks and the forces but hells teeth its crazy its on YouTube if anyone hasn't seen it ..this brings me on to my shopping, and its nothing like theirs!! i was thinking when i do my weekly shop and i have some spare change like this week then use it to buy bits for the 'store' cupboard, long dated items  and keep it for either when times are even tighter or winter or whatever, just to know we have some stores, things like tomato puree, garlic pastes, tin chick peas, tinned veg etc just build bits up, nothing like these extreme couponers lol i couldnt cope
 with all that in the house

and this is nothing to what ive seen on the programme (image borrowed from Google)


il be happy with just one of my little cupboards filled with extra staples

Very cold in Lancs this morning, im at work with gloves on sipping a hot coffee, may have to put the jacket on soon, needs must an all, but its dry and very sunny so not a bad day at all.
Theres leftover pasta bake and plenty of salad in the fridge for tea tonight, im having spaghetti on toast -i fancy that, cheap an easy.

And just one more thing, 
i cant wait for the £5 off Aldi voucher to arrive in the newspapers,worth a few newspaper purchases i reckon, does anyone know when they start?


until next time my friends
sammie x

A bit of this and that

hells teeth is still very cold up north, snow melted and its still wet and grey out!

welcome to some new followers

Thrift Delux, Sue in Suffolk, Lizzy Bee, Jules

thank you all very much

So not much happening over here at the moment plodding on with cobbling up meals from the freezer and cupboards, made a scrappy pizza on Sunday with lots of bits of things, was very nice, OH exclaimed better that those bought in ones ..great, thats what  i like to hear :)

Cheap egg chips and beans last night chuffing well enjoyed it too, we had
homemade microwave syrup sponge for pudding with a packet of instant custard
blinking lovely

(2oz sugar, butter, flour, 1 egg splash of milk 3.5 mins in microwave, put any topping in the bottom of the container and the sponge mix on top -thats it)

Ive got about £30 something left for shopping to last us until Friday when my weekly budget starts again, need some bigish bits this week so will be thinking up some cheapy meals to compensate for the rest of the week, im not working utill 2pm today so il walk to Aldis then onto Tesco for a few things and do the same tomorrow afternoon for the other bits.

we need
 cat food and biscuits (big T)

dog food (bigT)

chicken breasts  (frozen farmfoods)

tea  (any tea thats not 1cup from the 99p shop-usually 40 bags)
coffee (Aldi)

biscuits for the DS 

fruit squash 

fresh fruit wherever cheaper (Aldi)

a few vegies  wherever cheaper
a couple of onions

butter Bertoli or Clover (99p stores)

milk £ (Aldis)

cereal for DS (Aldis)

yoghurts (Aldis)
toilet roll
yeast (Aldis)
eggs (Aldis)
pastry (Aldis)
oats( Aldis)
still have spuds,loads of salad and some cheese
not a massive amount of shopping needed i was telling a patient thats all i need this week she couldnt believe it telling me her weekly shop is at least two A4 pages long !!!!!! i wouldn't want to shop like that every week, i bet she wastes loads too.

Anyway hopefully we can stretch the weeks food out there are bits in the freezer so il have to dig it all out and concoct some meals
I found a frozen tub on pasta sauce so thats tonight's tea sorted , pasta, and salad.

Another £10 saved as i did last week not massive but a saving anyway, paid some money of the CC and Catalogs unable to modify that tracker thing on my side bar at the moment so need to have a play around with that later.


Thats all for now
Sammie.