Tuesday, 14-03-23: more-low-spend March

 Morning, everyone!

Yesterday's meals:

Breakfast.  After taking the photo, I put the top slice properly on top and halved the sandwich but only wanted one half before circuits.  The other half I wrapped in foil and had it warmed up in Nellie when I got back after circuits and that worked well because . . .

. . . I had an online meeting at one thirty so didn't have 'lunch' until almost three o'clock.

The soup was delicious but I totally forgot about having cheese on it!  Oh, well . . .

Then I had an apple

This was the Koran-style noodles recipe.  I can't honestly say it was that much nicer than the ready meal but, as the ready meal was lovely, that's OK.  What I made turned out to be enough for three - what you can see and two more portions pretty much the same.  One's for today and one has gone into the freezer - I MUST use that, and the two soups, very soon.  The idea is to use up what's in the freezer, not add more to it!

Again, I was full up so no yogurt.

Today's plans

B:  waffles, fruit and yogurt

Gizmo II arrived yesterday, a day early, so I can have waffles again and I will have one waffle with the fruit and yogurt and the other either as a snack or as dessert after dinner.

SW:  one healthy extra B and half a syn for a mullerlight

L:  Korean-style beef noodles, maybe a small side salad; fruit

It will be interesting to see how much the flavours develop.

SW:  one syn if I have salad cream

D:  meatballs and pasta with extra veg in the pasta sauce, maybe a side salad; waffle with yogurt

I'll use my recipe to make the meatballs and I have rather a lot of fresh tomatoes so I think it will be a fresh tomato sauce rather than a canned tomato sauce.  Someone said about putting a little bit of babybel inside each meatball and, as I have some from the SoW hamper last Friday, I might try that and see.

SW:  one healthy extra A (15g cheddar in the meatball mix and a babybel cut into little wedges/cubes) plus half a syn for yogurt

Ex:  Groove class today

Summary:

one healthy extra A

one healthy extra B

two 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 - 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.