The £3 a Day Challenge - Day Three

 It was ironic that on the morning I had £2.06 to spend on my breakfast I was just not hungry at all.  I wasn't going to shop just for shopping's sake even on a Challenge, so I left some of the porridge oats I bought yesterday to soak while we went out with the dogs.

When we got back I made the porridge and Alan helpfully gave it a bloody good stir for me while I was busy doing something else, this and a spot of over cooking made it very claggy and stodgy, so I only ate half of it. 😞

Oh well there's always lunch I thought to myself.

Heading out with yesterdays overage of £1.06 plus this mornings unused £1, and now the lunchtime £1 saw me with a vast budget of £3.06 and do you know it made it harder rather than easier!!

At first I thought I'll splurge on a ready meal and I went into Booths, but I saw nothing that I fancied and just couldn't make up my mind what to buy.  I was about to buy some hummus when I suddenly pulled myself up short, why spend over a pound on hummus in Booths when I could get it much cheaper in Aldi.  So I left Booths and went 50 yards across the car park to Aldi ... and suddenly everything made sense.

Lunchtime Shopping

Mixed Leaves - 57p

Baked Beans - 22p

Coleslaw - 79p

Hummus - 69p

Total = £2.27

Leaving me with 79p still available.

A bit of everything I bought along with one of my remaining two potatoes.  Absolutely delicious and just what I needed.

Teatime Shopping

Microwave Rice - 45p

Tin of Tomatoes - 28p

Total = 73p

Before I have any comments telling me that this is the most expensive way in the world to buy rice, yes I know ... but I have so much rice in the cupboards here at the flat it seemed stupid to buy another kilo of rice that will obviously not be used up by the end of this week.  

I was also tired and hungry and looking for an easy tea to cook, I almost bought a jar of curry sauce to go with it, but I pulled myself together and bought a tin of tomatoes instead to add to my curry powder, half onion and some of the beans left over from lunch.  Easy rice is a real treat when you're tired and just want to sit and eat.

And with a handful of my lunchtime leaves, it made for a lovely tea.

Cash Carried Forward £1.06

... oooh a touch of deja vu here!!

Food Carried Forward

1 potato

porridge oats

SR flour

3 cloves of garlic

celery

5 lemon slices

1 apple 

1 banana

most of a tub of hummus

1/2 tin of tomatoes

1/3 tin of baked beans

1/2 bag of mixed leaves

a portion of curry

4 pitta breads

The apple is now in the fridge and the banana is in the freezer as I'm planning to have a smoothie for my breakfast, I'll add some of the oats to that but I'm definintely not having porridge again 😀

Sue xx

The £3 a Day Challenge - Day Two

Day two and it was a lovely morning so I nipped over to Sainsbugs nice and early before the doggy walk.

Armed with my breakfast £1 plus the 30p carried forward from yesterday, I knew I could go for a nice healthy breakfast with a bit of fruit included.  I had a look at the prices when I was there yesterday and fruit is the most expensive thing to buy in the fresh food aisle and the majority of it is packed in plastic so you have to buy multiples, which although cheaper in the long run, for the purposes of this Challenge makes them out of my price range.

Bananas are always the cheapest fruit to buy.

A TIP -  if you're watching the pennies don't buy single bananas from Aldi unless they have really large ones available.  At Aldi they are charged at 13p per fruit regardless of size, at Sainsbury's you can get bananas starting at around 8p.

Breakfast Shopping

500g bag of oats - 60p

2 bananas - 18p

1 apple - 30p

Total £1.08

Leaving me with 22p change to carry forward.

My Breakfast

I was going to have the apple later for elevenses with a cup of coffee, but I just wasn't hungry.

Lunch Shopping

Bag of SR flour - 45p

Change = 55p

Leaving me with 77p to carry forward.

Some pastry made with oil was on the cards for lunch using the leftover stew from yesterday as the filling for a couple of pasties.  

With lots of extra pepper and some salt it made for a good pasty filling.  I compress my fillings into one of my breakfast bowls and then divide into two, et voila ... the right shape to fill a pasty with no air gaps.

They might not be the prettiest pasties in the world due to the pastry being so short it was like a deliciously savoury shortbread ...

... but they were so tasty I ate this one and then went on to try and eat the other.  

No chance once I got to almost halfway through I was so stuffed I offered it to Alan, who had already had his lunch, and he wolfed it down in a couple of minutes ... he's always happy to help 😁

While the pasties were in the oven I used the same bowl to weigh out some flour to get a head start on tonight's tea.

And five minutes later my Tagliatelle was drying on a coat hanger 😀

Teatime Shopping

Haha ... this looks so random!!

I needed an onion and some garlic to make a tasty tomato sauce for my tagliatelle and as this really was all I needed when I spied the lemons for 30p I thought why not.  I have been missing my morning lemon slice in hot water and now I don't have to miss it anymore.

Onion - 16p

Garlic - 25p

Lemon - 30p

Total = 71p

With 29p change from this particular pound.

Tea

Tagliatelle with garlicky tomato sauce with a pitta garlic bread.  Gosh this was so tasty and so filling and added bonus ... I do not need to fear vampires tonight  😄

Cash Carried Forward

£1.06

Food Carried Forward

2 potatoes

celery

half an onion

porridge oats

1 banana

1 apple

6 lemon slices

half a bulb of garlic

4 pitta breads

I'll be back tomorrow with Day Three, it's going to be good starting the day with extra money and I will be able to leave some oats soaking while I walk the dogs.

Sue xx

The £3 a Day Challenge - Day One

 

On a bright and sunny Monday morning I trotted off to Sainsburys armed with my re-usable bag and a single pound coin, my logic being that if I didn't have any more with me I wouldn't be tempted to go over for my first shop of the Challenge.

It worked.  I had planned to have tinned tomatoes and onion on toast and I managed to get all the ingredients I needed.  There was 22p left over, ooh I thought, is that enough for some garlic?  But on walking back to the fresh produce aisle I discovered that the bulbs of garlic were 25p each 😞

Oh well, it meant that I would have an extra 22p to spend somewhere along the line.

Breakfast Shopping

6 wholemeal Pitta breads - 35p

1 onion - 15p

1 tin tomatoes - 28p

Total 78p

22p change

My Breakfast

Leftovers

Five pitta breads, 2/3 tin of tomatoes and most of the onion.

The pittas were the only way I could afford to get any bread to make my breakfast a complete meal.  The cheapest loaf was 55p and it was that pappy cheap white supermarket bread that I just would not have enjoyed (they had no cheap brown loaves left).  Actually the pittas have worked out well, as when I cut them in half they fit neatly into my tiny toaster.

Time for Lunch ...

Lunch Shopping

4 baking potatoes - 45p

a head of celery - 43p

1 carrot - 5p

Total 93p

7p change

Everything peeled, washed and ready for chopping, I decided to add another potato after I had taken this photo as I do like a higher potato ratio in my stews 😀

The bowl on the right was my lunch and very tasty it was too, and the bowl on the left a more strained version and with all the bitty bits from the pan is going to be the filling for a pasty.

A colander full of the washed trimmings and peelings ready to go into the freezer to give me a pot of 'free' soup in a couple of days.

Leftovers

Two baking potatoes and most of the celery, now washed and wrapped so it stays nice and fresh for the whole week.

And then there was Tea ...

After a day of walking, cooking and cleaning up the mess at the house I'm afraid on the way back from the evening doggy walk I just went down the easy route, and as these Aldi No Cheez Bakes were on offer at 99p (instead of their usual £1.29 I think it is), I just bought these.

Teatime Shopping 99p

change 1p

Half an hour later and my tea was ready.  

Not magnificently nutritious but it hit the spot and with a cup of coffee and the latest Midsomer Murders it made for a pleasant evening before an early night.

So not a bad  first day and there was money over ... a whole 30p.

Which will roll forward to breakfast tomorrow and give me a little leeway with my spending, and perhaps encourage me to eat a little more healthily 😃

Food carried Forward

5 pitta breads

2 potatoes

most of a head of celery

2/3 tin tomatoes

Sue xx

Challenge Two - The £3 a Day Challenge - The Rules and Information

The £3 a Day Challenge starts today and to give myself a head start so that I have something to show you tomorrow after I have bought the meals, obviously I have to fill todays post up with something else other than the three shopping trips.  So here are The Rules I have set myself ... very minimal and basic rules 😄

I can have a basic store-cupboard larder to give me some back up.  It's pictured above and that is it, no other dipping into the cupboards or fridge for anything else  to pad out or flavour my meals. 

It includes:

Coffee

Olive Oil

Basic Salt and Pepper

Stock Powder

Curry Powder

Mixed Herbs

 

I have £21 for my 21 meals for the week long Challenge.

The Challenge will run from Monday's breakfast until Sunday's tea.

Meaning that on each day for seven days I have £3 to spend.  

One pound of which I will take out with me each time I go out to buy the food for each meal.

I will go out armed with my own shopping bag and try to buy as little food in plastic as possible.

Any change can be carried forward to the next meals allowance or to the next day.

Any food not consumed can be carried forward to the next meal or the next days.

Yellow stickered foods are allowed, indeed they are positively encouraged.

I will take photos of the shopping and of any meals prepared from it.

I will post at least once daily for the whole week.

I think that's it!!

Now, for those of you who have only gotten to know me recently:

I don't eat any meat.

I do not and cannot eat anything containing dairy ... even a smidge.

I am allergic to avocados and duck or goose eggs ... random hey 😄

I try to limit my bread intake as it makes me feel podged.

There that should add some interest to this week and make things just that little bit harder!!

Back tomorrow with Day One.

Sue xx

At Last ... A New Challenge on the Way

I mentioned over on my other blog A Smaller Life that I was missing my Challenges, then I came up with an idea, threw it open to see if there was any interest, and boy oh boy yes there was.  So today I am having a wander around the local supermarkets, sussing out the viability of it here in this small town and will most likely be kicking off the Challenge tomorrow.

What is the Challenge I hear those of you asking that do not read my other blog.  Well after watching Toba Courage's latest 'Broke in Lockdown' Challenge from day one through to day seven I have decided to shamelessly steal part of his idea ... and you know me, it's the food part.

Below is the actual link for those of you that read my blog posts on your phones as I have found the photo with it's built-in link doesn't seem to show on Android phones.

Broke in Lockdown - 

(135) Filling surveys & Buying domains for money - Day 1 - YouTube

So the basic premise is that for the next seven days I will go out armed with one pound to buy food for my breakfast, then take out another pound for my lunch and then finally yet another for my tea ... or dinner if you're posh  😉  That's £3 for each days food.

As mentioned on the Smaller Life post (see HERE if you want to read it for yourself) this actually gives me £21 for a weeks food, much higher than some of my previous Challenges which have seen me with a total budget for a week of just £7.  So it should be very achievable, the difficulty with this is that I only have one pound up front each time ... and maybe a few extra pence if the previous meal has come in under budget.

It should be an interesting one this time and of course it fits in well with me not having the space to store much in my tiny fridge or being able to make meals ahead and freeze portions.

I'll be back in the morning with a post about the basic rules of the Challenge there's not many really but it will be nice to get them down and it will give me the chance to get a day ahead with the food ready for posting about it.

Sue xx

The 'How Many Books in 2021' Challenge

 

Last year I set myself the Challenge of reading 100 books in the year.  This year there is no numerical target to aim for, no pressure to read to bump up numbers, just a record of what I do read for my own memory and amusement ... and as you can see my main bookcase is empty. 

 I am currently in the process of selling and buying houses and living in a rented flat so my books are in a state of flux.  They are on shelves here at the flat and in boxes in our storage container, boxes under the bed and piles on my bedside table.  As I read I will keep or discard but once I have moved my lovely paper friends will be all around me again, once again in this bookcase, in my lovely 'new to me' curved one, in the kitchen and ... well everywhere really.  

I love books and I am not afraid to admit it.

January Reading

1

2

3

February Reading

4

5

6

March Reading

7

8

April Reading

9

10

May Reading

11

12