Wednesday, 31-01-18

So here we are at the last day of January.  I shall be doing my end of month financial check today, going through each payout and pay in, ensuring that nothing has been missed and moving any excess over to savings.  There will be excess because this month I have two state pension payments (as they are every four weeks rather than monthly, goodness knows why) so that will all go over and next month I don't pay any rates/water rates, so I will add that up and move it too.

What I don't do is a detailed analysis of exactly where everything has gone although I admire people who do.  It just feels too much number crunching for dyscalculic me who has to add up the figures at least three times, perhaps more, to be sure and even then . . .
(I know you can set up tables in Excel with formulae, etc, but I haven't the foggiest how to do that!)

I know I don't have much extra apart from the above but this month I have funded the car service and a short break away over half term so I'm not too concerned.  I've also bought some rather better quality (and more expensive - ouch) secateurs as the last two cheaper pairs both fell apart in my hand while I was using them.  I've bought a dress pattern, a few recipe books and other bits and bobs but have stayed well within my income.

What I haven't done is had any takeaways, eaten out or bought wine, all of which were habits in the past.  I've been careful with my eating for health reasons and it's all working together to save what comes to quite a lot over the months.

Moving on . . .
Today's food plans
B:  porridge, fruit and yogurt
L:  scrambled egg on toast, yogurt
D:  it's going to be a concoction based on Sue's blog (Cottage at the end of a lane) entry last week describing how she made a sausage and egg pie with a side salad

Mine won't be the same as Sue's as my leftovers are different and I won't be using an egg.  I have some pizza sauce left over from yesterday which is just a mixture of home made passata, tomato puree, tomato ketchup, garlic puree, herbs and seasonings.  I also have some sausage meat in the freezer from a YS purchase ages ago that I split into portions before freezing.

So I will spread the sausage meat into the bottom of a small oven proof dish, maybe with some added mixed herbs and maybe also some Savers stuffing mix from an opened packet.  Then I will add some pre-roasted veg (onion, mushroom, red pepper and baby corn) mixed with the tomato sauce.  Over that I will spread some sliced, cooked potato as a topping and spray it with oil.  Half an hour or so should see it ready to eat!

Thanks very much for the idea, Sue.

From the freezer
Just the sausage meat

The frugal factor
B:  Very frugal with home made natural yogurt and savers tinned fruit
L:  One egg and home made bread
D:  The sausage meat is YS, the tomato sauce is leftovers and the potatoes are the very last of the garden grown ones while the salad is also what's leftover from yesterday evening.




I'm trying to use up the multitude of stuff in the freezer.
I want to make the most of my hard earned pension so am aiming for sensible frugality in my meal planning and making.
I have gall bladder problems, high cholesterol and high blood pressure so am taking myself in hand with low fat, high fruit and veg, generally healthy meals but with plenty of flavour - and frugal.