Surreal...

I have been rather quite on here but sticking to my overall plan of saving and being generally good with cooking healthy foods all from scratch, focusing hard and trying to forget on what is happening in my 'real' life. Mum has been diagnosed with cancer... not just one tumour but actually two... how lucky is that? Tomorrow is the D day, she is going to find out if her surgeon can operate.
Huge bag of emotions in my head, something else that I have never experienced. On top of that I am trying to run my home, work full time and stay sane. I feel so sad and lost for words, it's all  swirling in my head.... I keep thinking that I don't want her to suffer, she is already weak and size 6.
I live long way from her so it so difficultly to cope with this long distance and I feel resentful that I can just put everything else's on hold and be there.

I got up early to morning at 5am so I can prepare for day ahead and gather my thoughts... will make some lovely rolls tonight, organic flour... I can't think of anything else.

I'm back after short break, no I did not go on holiday but simply too much work and family. I wish I went on holiday though... maybe somewhere Mediterranean hmm....
Bach to reality, still very much into my New Years resolution and I can honestly say I still have not bought anything else except food, which is amazing achievement for me.
I have been experimenting with making bread, cooking batches of food and generally trying to save like crazy for my new kitchen, bit slow process but I don't want to have any debts so best to save first.
Work has been so hectic this week, lots of driving, I'm so glad it's Friday..... I feel very tired and negative at the moment,  tomorrow I will try to get out and do some gardening, I'm hopeful...... we had thunder and lightning tonight I'm hoping that it will all clear by the morning.

Bread rolls for lunch

I have made some bread rolls this week, absolutely great for lunchboxes, family favourite.

600g of bread flour
160ml of milk
200-220ml of water
15g of fresh yeast,
 2 teaspoons of sugar
12g of salt
30g of oil, can be sunflower or olive oil.
Mix yeast with warm water, not too hot, add sugar and leave it for few minutes while you measure other ingredients.
Mix flour with salt in a large bowl and add  yeast mixture and followed by rest of the ingredients. Mix all until it forms dough, transfer everything onto the flat surface and knead for 10-15 minutes, I do 10 min normally, great for uppper arm workout! Dough should be wet but not sticky.
after the work out put few drops of oil into the bowl and put back the dough into the bowl, cover with it with clean tea towel and Rest it for 1hr in warm place.
After 1 hour the dough should be at least 2-3 times the original size, take it out knead for couple of minutes to get the air out, add your favourite seeds, cheese, or olives, shape it into snake like shape about 3inch thick and cut into 3 inch pieces, or larger if you want large rolls.
Form rolls and place on the baking paper about 3 inches apart, cover with tea towel and  let it rest for further 30 minutes.
Meantime heat up the oven, once rolls have doubled in size, place in hot oven and bake for 15 min on gas mark 180C.
Lovely fresh but also great after freezing, I have made few batches,  I store mine in plastic boxes so when I take them out freezer I just have to leave them out and not worry as everything is in sealed container.
Good luck, again very cheap recipe, I have used flour from Lidl 75p for 1.5kg, about 45 rolls,  bargin!

Busy weekend

After the life's dramas last week, weekend went relatively well, most of the weekend I've spent making all sorts of foods for the week ahead, mostly bread, biscuits and muffins for lunchboxes. I have reviewed my freezer last week and compiled list of items, so I'm determined to clear out everything that I have in there including several meals that I've prepared in anticipation of work emergencies.
I feel much better when I'm organised at home as work can be so unpredictable and consuming that mostly I feel out of control, so it's nice to look at my lovely freezer list and feel content.

Anyway today was major baking day after yesterday trial run of making bread rolls. I figured it out that I can make 36 large rolls out of bag of flour so very economical. Needless to say the rolls were absolutely delicious, so I have left out some for lunches and I have froze 2 batches for later in the week...yes I have added these to my freezer list... the reason I'm also so pleased, I never had a freezer list before usually I dig deep and defrost chilly instead of curry and so on....

I also made some cranberry muffins and butter buiscuits with some chocolate....hmmm... heaven!
Anyway here are some picks...

Ricotta pancakes

It's Friday!!!

I am so pleased it's Friday! Best day of the week, even when I was a child I always loved Fridays, it means the whole weekend ahead.....bliss...

Today I had coffee with my friend, just perfect way to round up the week, I really needed to just talk nonsense; cooking,  knitting and our fascination with recycling plastic zipper bags.  We both had some crap time last week or so worrying about our mothers but It sounds like both are now back complaining so things are slowly getting better, phew...

Terrible wind outside right now and the weather here looks very unsettled... hope not too much damage as my neighbours have scaffolding up over their roof so it will be interesting night ahead...

Cooked review of the week tonight, everything that is left in the fridge from last week with some lovely cheddar cheese, browned under the grill, heaven..

Such a good news!

Just a quick note, mum's results came back today and her biopsy is all clear, what a great news!  she told me her legs were like jelly when she went in to see her consultant, but she sounded so much better tonight.
She now needs to have a scan on the 11th Feb, she still can't  eat solid food, no meat or milk but at least that part of her body is ok and it has been given all clear.
I feel so much happier tonight....

First months savings

So this is the first month I have not bought anything that I don't need, overall spending for this month is £400.00 for food and petrol,  I think it's fantastic as my usual spend would be average £1400 per month. The funny thing is I'm mot sure what I used to buy, lots of things that I did not need, clothes, coffees, cakes, shoes... money just disappeared.
My aim is to save enough money to buy new kitchen and do all the building works required on our home. Today I have ordered all the units and worktops as discount offers were ending today. I am so pleased as our original quote was again reduced by 22.5% which meant saving of £1120.00 so happy!

We have also decided to buy our own appliances, handles and hinges as these items purchased from this supplier were very expensive and you can get exactly the same much cheaper, in case of handles at 50% cheaper.
The kitchen would not be delivered for 6 months as we won't need it until June because building works will need to be completed first and really None of it will start until I have better understanding what future holds for my mother. However it's lovely to take my mind  of things and plan my kitchen.

My mothers test results tomorrow...

I ate lots of cake today none of it made me feel any better, just huge and bloated.... no self control here I'm afraid, I'm so rubbish at it, especially when it comes to home made chocolate brownies.

Strangely I have not missed shops.... hmm....my husband started taking me more seriously now as initially he thought it was one of my little phases. Still it was lovely to pay in full for our kitchen today and not take get ourselves in debt over it....

This picture is of someone's web page, so pretty,  roll on summer!

Keeping busy

Weekend has passed quickly as always although I have been trying to keep busy to distract myself from thinking about my mother and her illness. The news isn't good......I keep thinking... why did she smoke....

So to keep busy, I have made some lovely brown bread, fig and walnut. Last weeks batch is long gone. I have made a decision that all my bread will be home made from now on , although it takes couple of hours it's worth it and it's cheap, artisan bread is expensive. I think bread is such a staple in our diet and it's so comforting when it's good quality.

I have prepared all my meals for next week to make my life a little easier. Also made some Mary Berry fork buiscuits, absolutely lovely, chocolate brownies for lunch boxes and I have organised my freezers, very organised system in place, lists have been produced so I know exactly what I have and
what I need to buy. This is the first for me... may it last.

These are so yummy..... three ingredients; 8oz of butter, 4 oz of caster sugar, 10oz of self raising flour, mix the butter with sugar, add flour, mix with your hands until dough is formed, divide into 4 and again each piece into four until you get 34 dough pieces, form small balls and flatten with fork, place on tray lined with baking paper, no need to grease, bake for 10 min on 170C.

Pants day

Not so great today..... some not so good news, my mother went in for her routine check up today and has been referred back to her oncologist for urgent tests tomorrow morning. I pray and hope that this is just a false alarm but she has been poorly since Xmas and low in energy. There is nothing I could have said to her tonight to make it better or give her more hope..... I guess we have to wait until tomorrow.

Bread

The home made bread was amazing, OMG! I am so pleased with my effort, it tasted so good and made my lunch so lovely. The thing about home made bread is that you don't need to eat a lot to feel full as there is no soya or other additives added so the dough is more dense and it fills you up quickly which means it's good for the diet.

I made one small sandwich with cheese and red onions, it was just like having a picnic on summers day, just amazing!

I have one more loaf for tomorrow and one in my freezer. I am already planning to make another batch on Saturday, this time I am going to experiment with linseed and sunflower seeds, although I do like a sweet taste of dates and cranberries.

It also it's so cheap to make three loafs it cost me just over a £1.00 as I bought the flour from Lidl for about 89p and yeast cost about 12p I  usually pay about £1.69 for one loaf of bread so great saving.

Husband is driving me mad as he is already trying to plan building works which we not suppose to start until end of the year, I can't get enthusiastic until I have at least half of the budget saved and at the moment I am 1/3 way to meet my target sum.

I am almost 1 month into this frugal living and the funny thing is that I love it, I have not craved any shopping sprees or even looked on internet for my favourites brands, I really haven't!

Small things like making bread and planning my veg patch has been so enjoyable that not much else matters. I suppose it's an advantage that I can choose to do frugal, but it can't be easy for people who have to live frugally all he time. 

 

I saw this on one of the websites, so lovely!

Feeling stressed so made some bread

I had a stressful day at work so when I closed my laptop this evening I made some lovely bread. 

Very simple recipe, 1.5kg wholemeal flour, 1.2l of warm water not too hot, 1tsp of sugar, good pinch of salt, fresh yeast 25-30g, you can get these from Sainsbury or Tesco bakery 50g bags for about 50p. Mix warm water with sugar and yeast, mix flour with salt separately, you will need large bowl to mix everything together. Add water mixture to the dry ingredients. Mix well and divide into buttered tins. You can add walnuts, dates, sunflour seeds, linseed or cranberries if you wish, depends on your preference. Leave the bread mixture to prove for minimum of 30 min. It should increase in size. Preheat the oven at 200C and bake it for about 40min, when checking don't open the oven as it may effect the dough.

Yumm... I'm so looking forward to my lunch tomorrow, I have added some walnuts and dates to my loaf today.

This is exactly why I try to bake as all the stress of work has lifted and I don't have to think negatively about tomorrow even that I'm at work. 

News

I woke up very early today, husband still snoring so this was the ideal time to catch up on news.

Theme of food continues through the papers, often with contradicting evidence, which is frustrating.
What is the matter with these people, the only thing it does it creates more stress for all those who try to lead reasonably healthy life. I just can't believe that so much nonsense is published out there..... I'm not into fad diets or trends, I don't buy ready meals, fizzy drinks or eat out much as I believe that processed foods and food prepared in restaurants is not always of quality.

Long shelf life is achieved through additives in our food which media chooses not to talk about. My friend made some bread for me it lasted 3days before mould started to appear, my usual bread lasts 3weeks in a plastic bag and it still looks ok, so it raises a question what is in my shop bought bread that it makes last so long and more to the point what are we eating and how do these effect our health??
I come from the family of people who live well into their nineties, most common thing they shared, they ate fresh non processed food that was home made.
Anyway must go, dog walking duty this morning, which I love.

I just love these poppies.

Life is a rollercoaster

My life is pretty ordinary, it has its ups and downs, usually most things work out well and things that I don't have control over I  just get used to.

I do spend most of my every week working, driving a lot and coming home to cook food for my family, then I do more work or watch TV.  When I read other blogs, most people appear to have so much more time then me to do creative things, I envy people having time to do things they enjoy, it would be amazing to have more time to do crafts, cook and relax and potter around my garden.

I'm constantly looking to change things around so I can have more time in the evening to do things I like but after 3 weeks of organising myself  I've realised that I'm actually too tired and unfocused to do enything in the evenings. But I will continue to prepare meals at weekends as it's nice not to get home and start making dinners. I want my family to eat healthy and because we're on the economy drive for 1 year cooking from scratch actually saves money. 

I'm coming up to week 4 of my challenge, credit card bill looks healthy, I'm so proud of us that we actually stuck to it, so far I had no cravings for shopping sprees, even my favourite shops don't interest me, WHat has happened to me? ....

 Meals for this week:

Pork meatballs with sweet potatoes and flat parsley in tomato sauce

Hunters chicken stew 

Potato and Brussels sprouts omelette with smoked sausage or egg.

Beef Goulash - receipe from Rick Stain

Seafood pasta carbonara- very quick to make just use seafood instead of bacon.

5 days meals.... easy.

I finally managed to have a massage which was my birthday present from my husband, hot stone and head massage. It was amazing, went in very stressed and came out all calm, relaxed and chilled, the 'big chill' lasted until tonight but now I'm dreading and getting stressed again as work tomorrow and I'm back to the same old thing.....

muffins

I have been working long hours this week, lots of driving too, so I'm so pleased that I have prepared all my dinners this week in advance. Total bliss to get home and not to have to cook full dinner...

today our jar of biscuits has done a disappearing act and nobody wanted to own up who ate the last few biscuits....hmmm I have my suspicions, husband was back from work at 2pm so he had plenty of time to munch his way through few....

I had some extra energy this evening so I've decided to make forest fruit muffins.

Tomorrow I will attempt to make some brown bread, my friend makes bread every day, it's so lovely so I will try to experiment a little too, particular that I have 6 bags of brown flour purchased just in case supplies run out due to snow....no not really, just another of my impulsive buys... why? ...not sure.

No spending this week so far except food shopping last Saturday.

Gravy tea

I thought I've cracked the art of making oat milk yesterday it all looked so promising. I've rushed out of bed this morning being very pleased with myself that I can have lovely cup of tea this morning made with home made milk... and I was So disappointed with the results, the milk went all gluppy overnight so when I poured it into the tea it was like drinking gravey... hmmmm..... lovely.... just what I wanted.
I had reasearched the recepies so it's even double disappointing that not all receipts on some of these lovely websites are actually what they say they are.
Husband went to M&S garage and bought the usual oat drink stuff so calmness has been restored in my life.
Oh no work tomorrow, weekend went so quickly.  What have I accomplished this weekend?..well ..... cooked diners for coming week, entertained my grumpy father on Saturday night, walked the dog in the rain several times and baked some biscuits. One great receipe from a friend (peacan and maple syrup)and chocolate buiscuits from glossy internet site which turned out not so good again.

Very proud of myself as no spending for 21 days now except for food, my food budget is still on target.🙂🙂🙂

Pension and cabbage

My friend popped over to collect something and brought an amazing home made loaf of bread and a jar of raspberry jam, heaven, I'm so looking forward to my breakfast tomorrow.

Today my husband was stressing and trying to work out his future pension prospects, he wants to retire in 3.5 years and sounds like he is actually looking forward to it, me ? .... I can't imagine anything worse.... although at times I hate things about my job, I love working and keeping busy. My work gives me purpose in life, independence and sense of achievement so I can't comprehend why he wants to retire early.

I made a red cabbage and walnut  salad today to go with pork chops for our dinner tonight.

Shredded cabbage, walnuts, red onion, olive oil, red wine vinegar and salt and pepper to taste, easy and very healthy.

Home made oat milk

I have stopped drinking cow's milk for nearly 6 months now as per advice from my doctor, during that time I have tried number of different milks; soya, almond, coconut, hemp and cashew nut but none of them  tasted really good in tea, then I came across oat milk, which is lovely.  However the special offer in M&S has finished last week and the milk costs around £1.40 per litre. I think this is a lot, so I started to experiment with making it myself.
I bought a small bag of oats at Lidl for 39p per 500g, so cheap.

1 cup of oats 

Add 5cups of water, can be tap water.

I used a hand blender to further breakdown the oats before leaving it to soak

The mixture was left for 3 hours, but it can be laft overnight.

You can add some dates (without stones of course) or some kind of sweetener if .you want before you mix it in a mixer. 

And here it is!!!

Looking forward to breakfast tomorrow!

I love the cold weather especially when I don't have to go out, last night our garden had a wonderful balnket of snow, but it didn't last long? Today I woke up at 4am panicking about traveling to work this morning, secretly hoping there is lots of snow on the road, but to my disappointment there was just lots of ice so I set off on my journey into London. Hmmm....

Tonight we had lovely organic sausages from our local butchers, heaven! fried onions, mash potatoes and runner beans with carrots, again simple food but so delicious. I have stopped buying my meat from supermarkets as I love the idea of local produce that don't travel three times around the world before they end up on my plate.

I've decided to plan my meals around seasonal food rather then use produce that are not in season and tasteless. So basically winter time- root veg, brassicas, pulses, lovely warm starchy foods that give you energy during cold weather, summer time - fresh salads, fresh and full of flavour again from local farms or my own veg plot. Anyway that's the plan......why do I set myself up with all these challenges?.. I don't know I certainly don't need to financially and certainly working full time there is little spare time and energy at the end of the day....  but I love just pottering around my home making things and cooking and I would not swap that for anything. I love where I live and every time I work in London I am so glad I can go back to my piece of heaven.

Here is picture of what makes me happy

Another ordinary day

Early start today 5am, ready to go and left at 6am hoping to get ahead of all the morning rush to my surprise everybody else had the same idea.

On my return from work grandad arrived wanting to use my iPad to get a quote for his insurance, 1 hour later with very stressed grandad we managed to sort out one of his insurance predicaments, Joy of elderly parents embracing technology...... hmmmm... 

Anyway following on, at 5pm I've realised that my child was not well, omg I need antibiotics and I don't have time tomorrow to do all the appointment fluff!! so Ive called the surgery and managed to speak with lovely receptionist who got me a prescription within 30 minutes... pushy parent in action or maybe just lucky to have sensible receptionist. 

Dinner made today in  30 minutes, 3 veg and meat, traditional, wintery food, all lovely. I also made a cake tonight as I'm still trying not to buy any sugary snacks or buscuits. 

Simple recipe, works every time!

1butter 

4 eggs

11oz of flour

2 tsp of baking powder

Mix it all together and then add anything you have in your cupboard, cinnamon, nuts or dried fruit, you can also use fresh fruit like apples, plums, raspberries, rhubarb etc. Lovely and cheap to make. I use normal butter as I don't like any substitutes.

It takes about 10 minutes to make and cook for 35-40 min depending on your oven. 

Today's creation is cinnamon, peacan and sultana, lovely as lunchbox treat. Oh and it's low sugar as I always use less sugar if I use dried fruit.

How much!!!

So, this week I had a major set back, we got our gas bill just under £175.00 for 1 month omg! I am sure we have not turned up the heating too often but obviously we did or maybe our boiler is not working efficiently. To resolve this New regime in the house- heating would be at 18C, oh boy and snow is coming tomorrow.

This week again I cooked three meals ready to go when I return from work, total bliss every night not to slave over cooker after long days work.

Today one of my colleagues was enjoying milkshake as part of her new diet routine, I had a look at the ingredients of which I did not recognise 80%, she was totally oblivious to it and insisted that she has 3 shakes per day, lovely I thought...hmmm apparently she used to have takeaways every night after work and this was her solution to get rid of the weight. She talk about the diet and did not seem to connect that if she only stopped pigging out on takeaways and cook something daily she would lose weight. Some people need a very large lightbulb to see the obvious. 

I love food, I don't eat expensive foods but I can't imagine eating rubbish, I would rather go hungry then eat crap food.  As I'm getting older I am thinking more about future and my health and I see eating good quality food as investment. I'm average size 14 obviously would love to be slimmer as most women do, but I would never spend £46.00 for shakes and think this would be solution to my weight problem. 

On much more positive note my friend gave me a drum for meat smoker so I'm going to get my husband to improvise and adapt it so we can smoke cheese, fish and meat. This made me extremely happy, family thought I was mad, but I seen one on one of these cookery programmes few months ago and really wanted one. Thank you dear friend ( I know she reads this) you made me very happy.

Still not shopped for anything except groceries on Friday and some veg on Sunday, all under £70.00 this week.

We had a lovely weekend, no shopping, just pottering around the house and long walks with the dog.

Until our two girls arrived this evening with all their money troubles. One of the girls who always appeared to have good grasp on finances and studies to be an accountant overspent and now she is feeling down and unhappy... well I kind of did not expect that one, obviously I am worried as I realised that at the end of the day you don't really know what your adult kids get up to unless they choose to tell you....
This situation is nothing that can't be fixed, nobody is seriously ill, money can be earned and saved again and it's just a temporary glitch in our life.
My husband is keen that they need to work it out themselves what they need to do....my take on it is that we help if we can, but as he says they will not learn anything if we bail them out.... every tim

I'm so pleased I made some chocolate brownies. Cup of tea and chocolate brownie.... troubles feel distant....

Ordinary day

I've spent my day working, taking my father to hospital, cooking, food shopping in the evening to avoid crowds I also managed to grab coffee with my friend, we kind of got into a habit of doing this on average once a week. My friend is very thoughtful, creative and she has this aura of wisdom about her, she has this sixth sense about things, it's so lovely to have someone to talk to about everything and nothing, always knowing that you will get some really sound advice.

Anyway unlike my lovely friend my dear husband let things down today and went on spending spree this afternoon and ended up putting a bid on eBay and bought a fire engine model. Apparently he could not resist ...hmmm.....as it was a model he was looking for and it was at bargain price of £3.50.... really!!! Such a let down... I did explain the rules of the game this year, nope.... clearly memory of the goldfish.

I am very happy as I got to the end of 1st week and bought nothing extra apart from milk, bread and food  shop today and spend £57.40, can't be bad, some bargains at Waitrose this evening did help keep the figure down. I find that if I shop in Waitrose I focus on things I really need rather then wonder around and buy all the bogof bargains that I will most likely not use. 

Anyway here is a picture of one of my favourite flowers just to help to Bring some summer dreaming in January. Sadly I did not take this picture.

Today was another non spend day, no lovely Danish pastries, no coffee, no impulse buying... I am amazed.... and to be honest I don't feel any worse that I have limited things in my life. I feel I have gained more control and I feel happy that I can actually do without material things.

Today I heated up one of my last precooked meals and I made some very healthy flat bread with Linseeds, to go nicely with curry.

Very simple to make and cost just few pence.
2 cups of brown flour, handful of linseed, pinchof salt, water, mix everything until pastry Has soft but non sticky consistency, form a ball, cut it in small equal sections and then roll it out into thin flat pancakes, one at the time, heat up a frying pan and brush with oil, put flatbread one at the time into the pan and fry for 2 minutes on each side, until slightly browned, you can prepare this in advance, lovely with curries or stews.

Husband cooking dinner!

My husband's culinary skills extend to boiling an egg on Saturday morning and making tea which he has mastered extremely well. So today I bravely asked him to boil some water to cook some pasta to go with aubergine sauce that I made earlier this week ( my version of takeaway)

On my return husband had everything under control, pasta was boiling in salty water, sucess! ... only to realise that he used the smallest cooking pot in the kitchen, as I proceeded to inspect his achievement, I  could not see any pasta floating in the water, hmmm... I asked him how much pasta did he actually use.... he responded beaming.. handful...I though well this will go well with our hungry daughter.
It took a lot of my energy not to say anything...... I was very proud of myself as I just smiled and thought this is interesting....

But to my surprise, I've managed to dish up 3 plates of food and it was just enough....well I was pleased I did not say anything before because it was actually enough well more then enough, which made me realise that I have been making too big portions for everyone.... I did not actually admit to my husband that he was actually right.

Is it a cake?

No it's healthy  fruit loaf - with reduced sugar replaced with sweet organic figs and golden delicious apples chopped into small pieces , something from my over stocked supplies, it took 10 minutes to prepare and 30min to bake.
4 eggs, 1 butter, 11 oz of flour, 2 flat teaspoons of baking powder, 2 tablespoons of sugar and any dried fruit you have in your store cupboard, I always soak my fruit in hot water for 10 min as it cleans it and makes it soft. You can use any baking tin it does not have to be loaf tin, I just used  a loaf tin to make it easier to slice it for lunch boxes. You can replace dried fruit with fresh berries or banana, you can also add some cinnamon, or other spices. Anything you have in the cupboard. No need to shop for ingredients.

 Yumm.... total indulgence...I love the way figs are still soft and gooey.
 

Good night x

Back to reality..

It's rare that I don't want to go to work and struggle to get myself motivated but today it was very hard to get going at 5am, so I worked through few possibilities of having a cold... nope, bad back....nope, migraine,...definitely not, so with no chance of anything cinister lurking, I made myself a lovely strong cup of tea and opened my laptop... lots of phone calls... bit more on my laptop... more calls.... checked laptop again... end of the day, Great!
I was very pleased with myself that dinner tonight was already prepared and all I had to do was to warm it up and put flat breads in the oven for 6min. Result....
Family were not too impressed with my healthy sausage casserole as it contained large amount of different beans to disguise that there was only 3 sausages! in the pot... but it worked, nobody left anything or dramatised.
Health and extremely cheap to make...

No shopping today, so no spending and tomorrow's dinner is already cooked. I am impressed with my planning skills definitely improving.
I've realised that little things make me very happy since I stopped spending time thinking what I want to get. I am so looking forward to checking my monthly credit card statement at the end of this month..

Speak soon.. x

What? I'm a dictator?

Husband is not happy with my new attitude to spending, I can't believe it! most men would be absolutely thrilled about their wives spending less but no not mine... apparently we did not vote on it as family....  what? I'm a dictator?
I am the only person that checks the bank account and budgets, so I did not think this would even concern him. Yes, I am self confessed dictator and I could not have it any other way, too much fuss over nothing, really?

Well I am not giving up, its day two of my challenge and I am stubborn by nature so I am going full speed although it's hard to keep resisting temptations. I went to our local M&S  this afternoon to get some bread, reductions were so tempting, strawberry tarts with lovely cream reduced, absolutely amazing, normally I would not even blink once before these would be in my basket, let alone think about how much it costs. So my new mantra dealing with any cake purchasing issues ' 1 minute on my lips 3 inch on my hips' it kind of helps and since I have also started 5:2 diet so it makes sense.

Today I have been extra proactive, I've cooked three dinners for coming week, so I have no temptation in visiting M&S garage again when on the way back from work and too tired to cook. So I cooked sausage casserole with home made flat bread, lamb curry with spinach and aubergine stew, all made from veg leftovers from Xmas. Result!!

For my creative needs today,  I made a baby chicken, perhaps it could be a suitable hand made present for one of my nieces.

Great start!

Today was my sister in law birthday so I made her some hearts, she loved the present and now these little cuties hang proudly in her home.
Today  was no spend day, normally I would be shopping but instead we went for a walk.

Happy New Year!

Day 1

Few months ago I came across a blog from a lady who lives in Wales, she inspired me to make my life much simpler.

So I thought New Year, new start and all that.... rather then New Year resolution which I usually give up by 10th of January, let's have a challenge....

So here it is for 1 year:

No new clothes ( I have wardrobe that will last 20 years)

No books, no make up (I have 14 lipsticks already all in similar colours.. why?? I'm asking myself).

No impulsive buying.

No takeaway food or coffees, cakes purchased in denial that one won't matter. 

No more stocking up on 8 jars of olives, 16 tins of chopped tomatoes, 10 bags of walnuts, maybe I thought world supplies will disappear. I have things in my kitchen cupboards that date back to when shoulder pads were in fashion... goodness me!

I told my husband few weeks ago of my plans, he just laughed and now he is terrified at the prospect of good life but he knows I'm stubborn so he will be supportive as long as soup is only once a week on our menu.

Oh.... No shoes, 42 pairs already!

Things I will do:

Cook from scratch every day and plan my menus.

Make gifts rather then buy.

Sort out my clothes, donate to charity, sell on eBay, recycle 

Make shopping list before shopping. 

Grow vegetables

Have some chickens in my back garden

I love boot fairs and so little luxury of £10per week on my indulgence.

I want to try some mindfulness as not too great at all the emotional stuff, but will try.

Spend more time with my family and not let work rule my life.

Record all my spending.

Save enough for new kitchen.

So here it is the first day of new me!