Last weekend was rather more "spendy" than frugal, and I suspect this one will be the same! On the plus side however, we came back from Ludlow Food Festival last week with lots of nice foody-goodies including lots of fruit and veg, and I already have plans for making the most of what we brought back! In a week where you KNOW you're going to be a parting with cash, it's important not to take your eye off the ball altogether. It's easy to slip into the mindset of thinking that as you've already spent "X", you might as well spend Y, & Z, as well! That got me thinking about the little "wins" we've had in the course of the last week.
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| Ludlow Castle - iPhone Panoramic |
One of the things we brought back from Ludlow was a couple of packs of diced goat meat. Yes, you read that right - goat. It's nothing new to us as indian takeaways we've used in the past often offer up a "meat" version of their korma which is almost certain to be goat. It tastes a little like lamb, or mutton perhaps, same sort of beast, anyway, and the packs cost us £5 each as we bought the two of them. not the cheapest, but good quality, well cared for animals, which is as you know, our watch-word in such things. One of those packs has already made its way into the slow cooker with lots of veggies, a couple of tins of chopped tomatoes, some water, half a block of creamed coconut and some spices. 6 double-portions of goat curry later...! One was eaten for dinner in the week and the other 5 have been frozen to make quick ready-meals for chilly evenings. the other pack of goat has been frozen for the time being too until we have some more freezer space. We also bought sausages and bacon from one of our favourite suppliers who we only get the chance to visit once a year - MrEH has eaten two sausages from one pack already and the other four were cooked, sliced and mixed with Potatoes, leeks, peppers and some grated cheese. The bacon will be eked out, a few rashers here and a few rashers there - when food is this good you don't need a lot of it! I have plans for a potato and onion bake with some - proper winter weather food! I'm quite happy to spend a bit more on food when I can get good value out of it like this.
The food brought back from Ludlow, combined with what we already had, means our "regular" food spends came in at just over £4 this week - just milk for MrEH, mushrooms (can't go a week without them!) and a bag of peppers. For a change I went shopping without a list - well I hardly needed one just for those items, did I?! "That Supermarket" have sent me another nice wodge of vouchers so I'll be exploring using those next week.
On the subject of Food festivals etc we're starting to plan once again for our annual trip to Birmingham for the Good Food Show. Our accommodation was booked some time ago to get the benefit of cheap rates - we're paying £55 in total for the two nights we're staying. It's a budget hotel, but it will have everything we need - a bed, somewhere to wash, and other required facilities! it's also on the main bus routes both into Central Birmingham, AND out to the NEC, so is perfectly located. With two of us travelling the cheapest way to travel will be in the car - especially as we'll come back via somewhere to do some Christmas shopping, too. We're planning on making the most of the trip by meeting up with a big group of friends from the beer festival on the Saturday night which will be fabulous, and we'll attend the Food Show itself on the Sunday, as we usually do. The final piece of the jigsaw was the show tickets themselves - I've been holding off and holding off and my patience paid off - as earlier this week they appeared on the "Clubcard Boost" rewards site - cost to us £6.50 per ticket rather than the £23.25 online booking price! That is one heck of a saving!
I finalised arrangements for my travel to Devon next month, and managed to score one of the Money saving Expert / Red Spotted Hanky £10 credit codes as well, making one section of my journey down completely free of charge!
How's your week been? Spendy or save-y? If the latter, have you had a few small wins to make up for it?
Robyn
2 comments:
It's been a bit spendy as I've bought last minute bits and pieces for KL as she's leaving for uni tomorrow. That's been made up for by me winning £20. Each month I spend £4 on the lottery which is run by the local heart charity which supported me after I had been in hospital. I see it as a donation really - giving something back to them, so to win £20 is a bonus. I also make a donation to them at Christmas rather than send Christmas cards to anyone. The money means more to them than a card would to people I don't see from one year to the next.
I used to donate regularly to our speedway supporters club via a scheme Scarlet - and twice managed to win the monthly draw which was a bit of a result! Lovely idea to donate in lieu of christmas cards too!
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