Slimmer New Year.

Dear reader,

I'm sure everyone is looking forward with planning and good intentions. Today is Wednesday and the  
Weigh in day for those who have joined in.
I was worried this morning when I placed the scales on the floor (carpet adds pounds) I got on very gingerly and discovered I was back to where I had been two weeks ago. 14 stones, 4.4 pounds.

I was a little bit happy as, despite good intentions, I didn't hold back over Christmas.

Tomorrow starts the new year when I will really go for it again.
I have still not food shopped and used the rest of the chicken in some yellow stickered rolls in the freezer for today's lunch for Big Man.I got up really early as I had to work today and made some lemtil and tomato soup for me to take to work.
Soup is the way forward for me in both money saving and healthy eating. I put onion and tinned tomatoes in a saucepan with a chicken stock cube and two handfuls of red lentils. Left to simmer for about 20 mins and stick blended. Took in my food flask with a small brown roll with a mere scraping of low fat spread.

I had found a small tin of tuna in the cupboard last night and have some Approved Food instant mash pots and lots of spices. Result! Thai fish cakes with some of the savoury rice I made yesterday.
I added some chopped onion, chilli flakes, Thai curry spice and the made up mash into a bowl with a tablespoon of flour. It was still quite wet so I made them into little cakes and flattened them onto a saucer with some lemon and herb crunchy crumbs, also an AF purchase.

It made 8 so hoping to have some left over for lunch tomorrow.

Tomorrows dinner will be the pork mince mixed with herbs and rolled into tiny meatballs. I will make a curry sauce and use my butternut squash and tin of chickpeas along with the meatballs. Served on the rice again.

These are things that I would usually have left in the cupboard and freezer and I'm chuffed to have used them up.

I will do a food shop on Saturday and will be keeping to a £50 budget. We are hoping to be debt free (excluding the mortgage) by Christmas 2015.

A huge motivational hug to all my weight loss buddies. I hope we can really get some great results next year. If you would like to join us, just drop me a line and I will add your name.
There's no pressure to divulge your weight, it's just a friendly, supportive bunch of people who might just make themselves a little more healthy next year. I'm hoping to start with some easy recipes. I know I have got some great ideas from other bloggers and readers, perhaps we can share some more.

Lastly, have a wonderful evening whether you celebrate the NewYear or reflect on the year just going. There will be people coming into our lives and people leaving. Some will have had terrible years, some great years, maybe the best is yet to come.
A wise person once said to me, treat every day as your last, one day it will be.

Happy New Year.
Xxx

My frugal kitchen.

Dear reader,

I must welcome new followers so hello to Denise, A Suffolk girl, Julie @ Dragonfly Gems, Tollyterrier, Laurie, John Gray, Flips100, The Silver Bunny, Angela, Helen Graham, Doo, Sue15cat and possibly others on bloglovin. A huge hello and thank you for following.

I am still off work and as we have decided that 2014 is absolutely, totally, without doubt going to be the year for us to bash, batter and destroy our debt, I decided I would be frugal in the kitchen today.

After a load of washing had been put on and several cups of tea and reading the papers online. (Terrible news of Michael Schumacher who fights for his life,they report) I trotted out to the kitchen to see what there was in store. I knew there was hardly anything in the fridge but I like to be creative

I had frozen the remains of a roasted chicken, there was probably about half left and had put that in the fridge last night to defrost along with two yellow sticker pork chops. 

We're £3.10 reduced to £1.88.

Pork chops were put into the slow cooker with a sliced onion, a packet mix of sausage casserole, a small tin of baked beans and a carton of Approved Food chopped tomatoes with another carton full of water.

I also found the lest of a sack of onions and peeled them all and chopped them in the food processor. I always do this so I have a ready load for cooking.

I made a huge saucepan of savoury rice with onion, garlic and Indian spices. I fry them first then add rice and double the amount of water. Once boiled I turn it off and let it steam.

I saved two portions for tonight with the pork and will freeze another two portions for another day. I find that freezing my own rice is fine and never have any problems with it.

I didn't have anything much to make for lunch so got some flour, water and yeast and made a pizza base. I topped that with BBQ sauce, again from Approved Food and topped it with an out of date ( only by a day) mozzarella cheese, onions and a bit of the chicken shredded up. It was really tasty.
Here's a link to make pizza base Easy peasy

The log burner is on and the washing is drying in front of it. We don't have the heating on as we are just in the lounge and its warm enough with us both in fleecy bottoms and tops.

Tomorrow will see what else can be rustled up from nothing. I have half a cooked butternut squash in the freezer and a tin of chickpeas in the cupboard so I'm thinking of a curry.

In my freezer is a half bag of parsnips, same of sweetcorn, a packet of pork mince, frozen chips and some cooked apple. I have some instant mash so was thinking of a kind of pork burger. Think fish cake looking with some sweetcorn and chips. There is also a pack of frozen rolls. Maybe pork burgers?

I have lentils, rice, chopped tomatoes, flour, loads of sauces and spices, a tin of mixed beans, instant mash, some salami that came back from my mums, some tins of baked beans, also from mum and some lasagne sheets. Maybe a pork lasagne? Does that sound weird? I'd like to not do any food shopping until the weekend.

We are just about to look at our energy suppliers and see what savings we can make there. At the moment we pay a set amount of £40 electricity (they have just reduced it from£50 after a refund and £44 a month for our gas. 

I hope you have a good day whether you are back at work or at home.

Tomorrow will be the last of the year and I can't wait to save, save, save.

X

Fallen trees and giveaway winner.

Dear reader,

I'm so sorry I haven't been able to blog. I had hoped to do our weigh in despite it being Christmas and also my giveaway. I have been without the Internet  since the 24th.

I may have told you that big man and I went to my parents on Christmas Eve. They live in Kent and although they didn't have flooding where they live they did have terrible weather on the 23rd.

The two elderly neighbours opposite planted fir trees some 50 years ago which are now huge and one of the branches of one broke and fell across the phone lines. It has completely snapped and several houses in the road have no phone lines and hence no Internet. BT hope to fix it next week. I wonder if they charge the tree owner?

We have just got home after a long drive, roads were bad especially the M25 and took us 3 hours but we had good discussions on our forthcoming frugal year.
We had a great time there with lots of dog walks in the countryside and enevitable, lots of eating.

I will recommence the weigh in on Wednesday but for today I will announce the giveaway winner for the Moneyless Man book is........

.*****Everyday Life on a shoestring.******
Please send me your address, I won't publish it.

So many people wanted to read this book, I wish I had more copies. If I ever see it cheap somewhere I will buy it and pass it on. It is frugal living hardcore.

Am a bit jaded tonight so will be back tomorrow. (I'm also a bit scared of getting on the scales but I promise I will be truthful) I've had a wonderful time with my family and big man so if  I've gained, so be it. I will get it off soon.

I hope your Christmas was wonderful and you all had a great time.

Speak tomorrow.

FIB. X

Pushing debt out of my life.

Dear reader,

Blowing a gale here in Bucks. The trees are bent over and I am loathe to go out. We are here in front of the log burner watching Del Boy promise a "steak meal" to a refined lady!

I hope all is going well where you are and you are organised and prepared.
We have significantly cut back on presents this year. I have been working through our money for the coming new year and have added, multipled and subtracted and come to the conclusion that we are skint!

Our mortgage rate expires soon so we are hoping to get a better rate and use the extra money to pay our debt off quicker.

Look out for an extra frugal year from me next year as we are determined to give a really hard push to debt.

I always have a food read of Frugal Queens story when I need a bit of inspiration.

Speak soon,

FIB. X

Wonderful Wednesday weigh time.

Dear reader,

A massive well done and WOW to you all for sending in your weights and losses. I'm amazed that at this time of year we all seem so focused. WONDERFUL.

I have just got in and done dinner after a 12 hour day at work so just a short post to say I WILL be replying to all your comments. Last day at work tomorrow so will be done at the weekend.

Also don't forget my new giveaway for a great book. You must be a follower of my blog and just send me a comment saying you would like the book and I will enter you and do the draw next week.

So everyone,have a great last day at work of that's you and don't drink too much if you are at the office party.
On a serious note, please, please make sure, if you are using mini cabs this time of year, that you only get in a mini can that you have pre booked. The driver will know your name and where you booked it.
If one pulls up and offers to take you-that is illegal. Is called touting and they are not allowed to do that and they know it. Not taxis which have a special number like a little plate with a number on or the black taxis that we know so well. There are some dodgy people out there who hunt around looking for tipsy girls this time of year. Please keep your wits about you.

X

Weight loss Wednesday giveaway

Dear reader,

I promised a giveaway of the Bottles of Fry Light, the one cal spray that Fry Light kindly sent for me to give to two of my followers and weigh loss Wednesday buddies.

The two names that were drawn out are Katie-Jane and Alison B43.
Please send me your addresses and I will send your Fry Light bottle.

I have just cooked dinner, Big Man is a fan of roast potatoes and I cook these with minimal fuss and minimal damage to my diet as follows. Par boil, drain, shake up, put on baking tray and spray with Fry Light. Cook until brown and crispy.  Just like the regular way but very little fat.

I know next Wednesday is Christmas Day so I'm not expecting a huge weigh in day. I will use this week to try and cut back in preparation for the big stuff fest that is Christmas and Boxing days.

My next weeks giveaway is open to all, you just have to be a follower of this blog.

It is a book called, The Moneyless Man, a year of freeconomic living by Mark Boyle. It's a paperback  book and I will post it anywhere worldwide cos I'm nice like that. I have read it and its very interesting. No so freeconomicly priced for a paperback as the original cost was £10.99!

Please leave a comment saying you would like the book and I will draw it some time over Christmas.
I will do a blog showing the winner a few days later so don't worry if you are too busy for blog reading next week.

There have been some great starts this week and some brave people have shared their weight.Some people are starting on their first diet, some like me are starting out again. I made small changes last week and dropped 3 pounds. Small things make a difference as we know with money saving.

A lot of you are cutting down on bread and that is one of the things I did last week. I felt a lot less bloated. I had a few crisp breads instead of bread and I'm sure it helped.

Anyway, well done, keep going. If you stumble one day, start the next day fresh, don't give up. It will be worth it in the end. No more tight waistbands-that's what I hate.

X.

Weigh in Wednesday week one.

Dear reader,

Here is the list of Weigh in Wednesday challengers.  I have counted in 25 of us and have included a couple of you who will start in the New Year or after Christmas and some who already weigh in elsewhere.
It's really motivated me to know there are 25 other people out there doing this with me. I've had some great comments since I invited you all to join me and its nice to know I am not alone in wanting to lose weight and hopefully get a little fitter while doing so.

Anyway, here is the list and here is my weight..........I weighed myself last Friday when the scaled were brought back to life.
 I was 14 stones and 4.4 pounds and this morning I am 14 stones and 1.2 pounds. For readers not in the UK, a stone is 14 pounds or 6.350 KG.

Pam-good life in Tydd

Rambler

VC

Katie-Jane

Highlandhearts

Maria

Emma Watts

Miss Piggy Bank

Jan 

Helen Mortimer

Donna Scott

Welsh Poppy

Alison B43 (in the New Year)

Treaders

Trudie

Kate

Sue

Simplesligo

Donna

Bets

The silver bunny

Karen (after Christmas)

Angela@Tracing Rainbows

Eileen T

Rosie

Come on then everyone. Have you weighed yourself today and made a note? Are you brave enough to share? I will add a progress bar I think as I love them and they are an instant motivator. 

I shall do the giveaway this evening at 2000 hours so everyone has had a chance to comment and weigh.  I have two more giveaways lined up and will publish the new one tonight as well.

I am interested to hear of any festive recipes that you use that are weight loss friendly.
Can you do one little thing between now and Christmas Day to lose weight? Perhaps reduce the sugar you use by half a teaspoon, go for a daily walk maybe to see Christmas decorations, only use butter or spread on one half of the sandwich (bet you wouldn't notice) challenge yourself to eat one more portion of vegetables a day even if its carrot sticks or a tomato in a sarnie. I don't mean to preach as you already know all this I'm just trying to think of small steps that we can all try and maybe you can think of some for me too?
My running has made a huge difference to how I feel about myself. Yes, my calves are agony but I can now run 3 and a half minutes without stopping instead of the 1 minute when I started. I feel cleaner and fitter already and Big Man says my bum is firmer (but I reckon he's just saying that to have a touch)

Much love. X