Car woes

The Fiesta failed the MOT today - lots of rust underneath apparently - I blame the winter we have just had and the amount of salt that had to go on the roads for months - it can't have helped!  Anyway, into the garage with it tomorrow, and then a major re-adjustment of the budget, no doubt...

Frugal gifts

This is the gift package that we eventually put together for my careers advisor friend and her husband this afternoon.  

Home made, home produced and home grown was the way to go!  UJ contributed a lovely bunch of fresh asparagus spears, some of our home made sloe gin was decanted into a nice bottle, some fresh eggs from the chooks, and some lemon muffins and buns completed the gift parcel.

They were delighted with it!  I did say to them that I had thought of buying chocolates and wine but thought that this was more personal and more interesting, and they agreed!

We had a very enjoyable 90 minutes with them in Cambridge at one of their houses [they split their time between here and Surrey] and discussed lots of the aspects of university applications; they were very helpful and gave the EFG a good few pointers to make her application stand out from all the others!  She is going to start drafting her personal statement [500 words] and they will read it for her and suggest amendments.

On other matters today, the FH's warfarin level [INR] was tested this afternoon and was satisfactory again, thank goodness.  

PS I did buy more food

The FH was not happy at the lack of onions in the house with corned beef hash on the menu, so I went to the Co-op whilst I was in town and picked two nice looking onions.  One for tea and one for stuffing the chicken on Saturday.  32p spent.

Onwards and upwards

(image from guardian.co.uk)

The EFG will be making her application for university in the autumn term, and I have been concerned at the lack of advice she has had so far.  When I think back to the half-termly meetings I had with my school advisor at this stage, and consider all the opportunities for help I was given, I think that perhaps she needs more help!

So where better to look for that help than my own advisor from 23 years ago?!  I have remained in touch with her throughout the interim years, and although she retired some years ago, she is a lovely lady, now married to another retired teacher, whose experience in this field is more recent.  I sent her a note last week and she has agreed to meet with us, with her husband, tomorrow and see what they can do to help the EFG. They may do no more than raise a lot of questions for her to think about, but that will be an excellent place for the EFG to begin.

Now I just need to squeeze the budget a little harder and find a gift to take for them to show our appreciation......I need inspiration to strike!

Shopping and meal plan

I started this morning with a rummage around the cupboards and the freezers.  A slight oversight on my part has reduced the weekly budget for the next three weeks to £71.50 instead of the £90 odd we originally had - a bill arrived that I had forgotten about!

So, with money already allocated for Piano, the FH's lunch club and church, and then spends yesterday amounting to £12.50 for a new pair of school shoes from Asda for the YFG and personalisation of her gym comp T-shirt, we are down to £39 for the week......

A meal plan soon emerged, with little shopping really required.

Today - Leek and potato soup, served with hot sausage rolls [family] or pitta bread [me].  The soup and the sausage rolls were all in the freezer - so not a penny spent there.

Tuesday - Corned beef hash - we have corned beef, veg, and potatoes all in stock and all I needed for this was some chopped tomatoes at 31p.

Wednesday  - Tuna pasta bake - we have heaps of pasta, some condensed celery soup and lots of frozen veg in store for this.  All I needed was a tin of sweetcorn and some tuna.  I won't be able to eat this, but I hope to spirit away a portion of corned beef hash to keep for Wednesday!

Thursday - Sweet and sour chicken - we have sauce in the cupboard with rice, and the chicken thighs are in the freezer.  

Friday - Baked potatoes with cheese and beans - I have a veritable baked bean mountain in the store and it is time some of it was eaten!  The FH will likely add a touch of curry powder to his beans too.  I will just have beans, and no cheese.  There will be salad, perhaps, if there is any left!

Saturday - Roast chicken dinner - there is a large chicken in the freezer which will make enough for two days here - with roasties, perhaps a Yorkshire pud, and lots of veg and gravy on Saturday and then...

Sunday - Chicken leftovers - either chicken risotto or a chicken and veg pie topped with mash.  I'll have the risotto for sure and the others will either join me or get the pie.

And with that in mind, I went shopping, armed with a list!

In Lidl, I bought cheese, chocolate for the YFG, tuna, sweetcorn, bananas, apples, lettuce, bread and cat food.  Total spend in there was £11.25.

In Sainsbury's, I chose lunchbox cakes and shampoo for the YFG, some treats for me on special offer, bagels for the EFG's lunchbox, along with ham for them both, chopped tomatoes for the corned beef hash, and Vitality drinks for the FH - with all the medication he is on, he seems to benefit from some friendly bacteria in there too!  Total spend £14.36.

I could have managed without the treats, and the YFG could have had some home made snacks in her lunchboxes, but this week is a rest week for me, with no gymnastics, and after yesterday, I just wanted a little break!  I did ask her whether she wanted me to make anything today, but she is feeling worn out from yesterday too, and suffering with a cold, so she didn't care to comment...

The other spend whilst we were out was a new watch battery for the FH, at £5.

By my calculation, that leaves us with just £8.39 for anything else we need this week at all.  Shouldn't be food anyway!

Fenland gym stars

Apologies for the lack of post yesterday - by the time I got home from the gym competition last night, I was shattered.  There was just time to make a speedy supper [two and a half leftover sausages, chopped and cooked in a pan with a tin of tomatoes and some onion gravy powder, served over pasta - for the gang, and a tuna pitta for me!] before I watched Case Histories, and went to bed!

(image from amazon.com)

The gymnastics competition was held in the north of the Fens, hosted by a club there, and there were several clubs in the competition - one from Norfolk, one from south Lincolnshire, and one from Peterborough joined us at the host club to make up five clubs on the day.  It would be a lie to say that the competition was stiff, especially at the lower levels.  There were little six year olds being coaxed and coached through their routines by their coaches, gymnasts bursting into tears because they couldn't remember what they were supposed to be doing, and it was all very relaxed and forgiving - children got another go if needed.

In several categories, our gymnasts were only competing against other gymnasts from our own club, so the competition was good in a sense because we do push them to high standards, and we don't enter children for competition until they are ready.  We were congratulated by one judge in particular on the standard our children achieved on her piece of apparatus, which gave us all a boost!

At the higher levels, where the YFG was competing, the standards shot up.  Even so, she was competing against only three other gymnasts, two from our club and one from Norfolk.  Our three took the medals, with the YFG getting the Gold [proud mummy moment] and the more experienced of the other two getting the silver.  The third placed gymnast has only been with us since September, and had only done Floor and Vault at school prior to that, so we are very pleased with the way she has developed on Bars and Beam to be able to enter a competition already.

It was inspiring for us and for the girls to be able to watch other gymnasts doing more complicated moves that they will need to master before next year as they all need to move up a level if we do that competition again.  

The total medal haul for the club was impressive, and we were very proud of all 19 of the gymnasts we took.

Crunching the numbers

Following on from this post about budgeting, I have this morning just considered our budget for the next three weeks.

(image from en.wikipedia.org)

We start with what we have got [the balance in the bank and any cash], add on what is expected in the next week, and have a total from those figures.  Then I look at what demands there are on that money: quite a few this time - taxing and MOT for the Fiesta [£205], and the bills that are due between now and the 7th June [£250.60], and my NI bill [£68.90].

I take that second total away from the first, and it leaves me with a decent amount.  BUT I have to deduct the amount I still need to put into savings from that [£550] and that leaves us with just short of £95 a week for the next three weeks.  And that is for all discretionary spending - food, fuel, activities, donations, medicines, gardening bits, gifts, toiletries, etc....anything that is not a direct debit or a previously considered bill.....

Out of that weekly amount I know that I have to give the FH £4.50 for his lunch club, and the YFG will have a £10.50 piano lesson two weeks out of the three [one is half-term] and our church giving will also come out of it [usually £5].  That leaves us with £20 spent most weeks before we actually start eating and driving the car.  I know that I put diesel in my car last week so it won't need any this week, but it will be in need of a top-up next week, so that will have to be taken into account.

Given that I have fairly good store cupboards, I think that our food spending could be covered easily by about £40 a week, so I am fairly confident that the savings goal will be achieved.  But all it needs is the Fiesta to fail the MOT to put a spanner in the works, but we will take each event as it comes and just wait to see what happens.  It runs well, is well maintained and looked after and there are no strange noises, so fingers crossed!