Thursday, 16-03-23: more low spend March

 Morning, everyone!

This week is flashing past so quickly.   I'm sure last weigh day was only a couple of days ago and here we are again tomorrow!

Yesterday's meals:

A few treats for breakfast after shopping.  They did taste great!

A bit later, I had an apple

Lunch was the meatball leftovers with a big old salad.

I made the cheesy chicken and ham pie like this.

I made the topping with cooked mash, an egg yolk and 60g grated cheese.

The underneath was a can of Aldi chicken in white sauce with added leek, ham, a bit more chicken (cooked)  and mushroom

I put the two together in the usual way and baked in t'oven for about half an hour.

It made four portions, each one half an A and half a syn (a quarter, in fact, but SW doesn't recognise quarter syns).  They're not huge portions but I can't manage huge portions nowadays.

Deeeelicious with some steamed veg.

No dessert needed.

Today's plans

B:  waffle (yes, again) with fruit and yogurt

I'm going to see what half the flour to one egg does.

SW:  half a healthy extra B and half a syn for yogurt

L:   ham and yellow split pea soup, one slice of toast for dunking; fruit

The soup is from the freezer and I will dilute it with m ilk and swirl (if I can) and tbsp Elmlea for serving.  I'll probably make croutons from the bread - cut into pieces, spray and air fry until crunchy.

SW:  up to half a healthy extra A (milk),  half a B (for the bread) and two and a half syns for the Elmlea

D:   a second portion of the cheesy chicken and ham pie, salad, coleslaw; yogurt

SW:  half a healthy extra A and half a syn for the pie and half a syn for yogurt

Ex:  SET class online

Summary:

one healthy extra A

one healthy extra B

four syns

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 - they 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.