Monday, 13-03-23: more-Low-Spend March

  Morning, everyone!

Focus less on the destination and more on enjoying the journey.

I heard something similar to that on YouTube yesterday and it resonated.  I am really enjoying this journey, despite the detours and potholes along the way.

Good, isn't it, because the more you focus on enjoying this particular journey, the more 'right' it feels, the more likely you are (I am, anyway) to stick with it all longer term

Yesterday's meals:

No breakfast; as expected, I simply wasn't hungry in the least and there's no point eating for the sake of eating.

A lovely Sunday dinner with chips rather than roasties.  When you use a Ninja, the only difference between chips and roasties is the shape you cut them.

No afters - I was so full up!

Lovely cheese and ham toasties with coleslaw and salad.

Nothing else - again, I was stuffed.

I think maybe I have paid back a few of Saturday's extra calories but that was not the intent in any way.  All I wanted was to get straight back on track and that I did.

Now to stay on it.  

Today's plans

B:  bacon and egg sandwich, mushrooms and tomatoes

Just what it says . . . nice and substantial, eaten a sensible time before circuits

SW:  one healthy extra B

L:  ham and yellow split pea soup, grated cheese;  fruit

I cooked yesterday's gammon in the slow cooker and it gave me the most gorgeous stock (it doesn't always) so I used onion, carrot, the stock, a garlic clove and some yellow split peas , boiled it all together in Thermione, blended it to very smooth and diluted the resulting thick puree.  It's still quite thick so I will add some milk when I reheat it and I'll be shredding and adding some of the left-over cooked ham as well.

SW:  one healthy extra A with some grated cheddar and some milk

D:  Korean style beef noodles; yogurt

I'm using the recipe from the ready meal I had last week and really looking forward to it.

SW:  half a syn for the yogurt

Ex:  Circuits today

Summary:

one healthy extra A

one healthy extra B

half a syn

What do I mean by low spend?

At the beginning of this year, as part of a de-cluttering thing, I did a detailed audit of all the food I had in cupboards, fridge and freezer and was somewhat horrified at how much stuff I had.
So I determined to make a huge effort to reduce it down and use it up with minimal waste.

January and February were no spend and low spend months respectively.  March is going to be another low spend month with just a few exceptions and, of course, all the essentials.  It has got to work with Slimming World.

'Essential' means  food such as fresh fruit, veg and dairy/eggs and other essentials including things like cleaning products and toiletries as needed.  A few other things will come up through the month but generally it is just real essentials as I see 'essential'.
Of course, all regular bills, direct debits, etc, will still be paid as usual - hey are essential.

It's really helping in these difficult times.  I am still able to save a wodge of my income (which is all pensions now) as I have done since I retired, plus a bit more.  After all, at some point, I will have to start replacing things - just not yet.