My Week

I get the feeling that we should be hibernating at this time of year. The daylight hours are short, the weather has been either freezing cold (-2 on some days this week) or grey, dank and drizzling. It does not lend itself to making me feel like bouncing with enthusiasm for anything apart from sleeping.

I find that it is just a little flat at the moment so I don't feel that I have had much to write home about,   but here is what has been happening in my last week.

I am carrying on with my plan to empty the freezers an pantry and spend less on food. This week we had a traditional Burns Night meal (well traditional in our house) of haggis, home-made mashed potatoes (tatties) and crushed carrot & swede. I know it should be turnips (neeps) but I would much rather have carrot & swede so that is what we have. Of course the haggis was reduced to 70p and out of the freezer, as was the whisky sauce which had been reduced from £1.50 to 45p. This made three meals, one large portion for David and two smaller portions for me, one for the evening and one for my lunch next day.

We had an M&S reduced apple pie, 85p instead if £3, warmed through in the oven and served with single cream.

I had two M&S Gastropub meals of Venison Hotpot and Empire Pie which we had with new potatoes and green vegetables (reduced of course) one evening. Of course I saved money by using just one gas burner by using a pan for the potatoes with a steamer held over it to cook the vegetables. I prefer cooking my veg this way as they don't go soggy and retain some bite.

We also had two duck breasts reduced from £8.50 to £4.59 one evening served with potatoes and fresh vegetables.

The only things I seem to be  buying at the supermarket these days are vegetables, bread, milk and butter etc. I used a £5 off a £25 shop voucher on Friday and the balance of £36.40 on a gift card that I had received for Christmas. This meant my shopping bill was small change despite treating myself to some fresh flowers - white oriental lilies (my favourite) and a bunch of daffodils for the kitchen windowsill. Oh and a couple of bottles of fizz.... As part of our pantry and freezer clearout we have been using up some rather dusty bottles of red wine. I'm not a massive red wine fan so I decided to treat myself to some fizz, and my fizz of choice is a very dry cava.

eBay sales have been slow but steady this week with five items sold. These were a silk camisole style top which is now too small for me, a pair of sandals that I bought at the Cheshire carboot sale without trying on and found they were too small for me and a pair of briefs that were new and bought for me as part of a gift but we're not my style or colour at all. There was also a boxed set DVD and a no longer wanted black backpack.

I received a freebie Fitbit type monitor in the post this week. It is called a Moov Now and when I went on line they sell for around £50 so this was an excellent freebie to get. I know I applied for it on line but can't recall where. Anywho thank you to which ever company has sent it to me. I thought it might be like a Fitbit but on further inspection it is specific to using when exercising in the gym or jogging etc. I think this will be listed as I am not an exercise nut at all.

I also received free tickets for the BBC at media city. They are starting to film a new series of Porridge written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. I appliced for tickets to be in the audience for the filming of the episodes and got two free tickets for myself and David. We'll tie this in with a meal in a nearby restaurant beforehand and make this a great date night. I feel quite fortunate about where we live as it is only a 5 mile journey for us.

We are very slowly clearing out the house of unwanted items and I will be listing mainly clothes today. I reckon it will take me the full 2017 year to get rid of our excess clutter so I have to be in this for the long haul rather than wanting speedy results. I'll keep you all updated with how I do.