Tightwad Kitty's $$$ Stretching Blog

When I first got my computer & printer, I didn’t connect to the internet for a few years as I was still learning about computers & printers. I didn’t know much about downloading so I printed off the net when first got it. Now it’s time to go though some of these old printouts that I had made then. This was when money was very short and I became very interested in frugal living or ways of cutting costs big time. Some of these printouts are no longer available on the net or very hard to fine as these websites have been revamped or closed down years ago. Anything of interest now I will keep and get rid of the rest as most are more than 10 years old. The only one that I still can get online is

Dollar Stretcher all the others have gone or no longer have this information.

Some of it makes very interested reading now and I can see how these did shape my ideas over time but its time to let go.

Don’t you love water leaking somewhere at least I could pinpoint where this time. About nine months ago just before Christmas, I had my street redone while they were doing it the workmen cut the water pipe to my house and had to fix it. A few weeks ago now I found water leaking on my footpath so much that when I put my finger into the grass the water was up to my palm deep I rang the local water utilities and finely they came out to fix it up the new join had given way. After that was fixed a few days later I found I had rusty water leaking in my laundry down the wall. I had a hole in one of my pipes; a plumber came to fix it up yesterday this cost around $90 after a pensioner discount through a pensioner group I had joined. This is not bad after all the water leaks over 20 years I only had to pay for 2 repairs all the others were on the street side of the fence.

Four major water pipe bursts on street side and two minor pipes on my side costing me under $150 to repair over the past 10 years. If I have to replace the old pipes, this will cost around $1000 they are over sixty years old so I know that at some point they will need to be done. I will now budget for them and have this money ready for if or when that happens. All is working well at the moment so I am not in any hurry for it to be done now!

Our water bills are still going up whether we use to much water or not as the power to be are charging like a Bull in a China Shop, we now have to pay for all infrastructure of new dams and recycled water plants and Desalination Plant that doesn’t work after 2 years yet!

Update

desalination plant

As I work on 28 day cycles, my dates may be out to a calendar months so here are the figures for my last period.

It’s time to start again on reviewing my monthly daily living allowance.

These are the categories for this challenge.

Items === Approx Budget===Spent

Eating out===$35.00=====$32.60
Groceries===$135.50 ==== $86.74
Non-Food===$17.00= ====$9.00
Clothes ====$35.00=====$5.00
Grooming===$15.00=====$21.00
Gas======$25.00
Pets====== $50.00=== ==$78.14
HH items===$42.50======$54.94
Fares== ====$9.00 =====$20.00
Entrainments= $12.00
Garden =====$10.00=====$36.00
Gifts & Donations =$35.00=== $25.00
Medical =====$15.00=====$2.95
Misc ======$9.00
Personal Allowance =$85.00 ==$48.28

Budgeted for this period $530 spent $419.65

No Spending days over the 28 days = 18 days in total.

I have been spending a little more on some books and gardening over the last month, also had my haircut and donated to the Pakistan flood too! As I had more bus rides in August I had to top up my bus ticket again. I did spend extra in my budgeted bill area as it was time to pay some large bills this month and in the coming months so will need to kept this area under control as more large utilities bills are due before the end of the year. My credit cards are still paid in full each month. I am still under my budgeted allowance so I am on track.

Put extra photos in Pic posts while it's working!

I have added more photos to some of my posts that I have photos in.

Look up pic for quick look.

Some ramdom photos from Ekka


Quail & Pheasant


Bark painting


Start of main Sideshow Ally


Cermic plate


wombat

Finding things that I can afford to buy in charity op shops now days is rare as they have put up their prices up to nearly new or prices you would pay on Ebay or Antique stores, in fact some Antiques store are cheaper than some of our charity shops for the same things. I don’t buy that much collectible but I do look at them. Now I have started to go back to looking at Garage/Yard Sales. Just last weekend I went to one, the lady was quite nice and had the prices at reasonable inexpensive level.

I did buy from her as she was planning to leave the unsold stuff for the taking next day, I bought a black handbag hardly used, two money wallets in black hardly used, Gold Gomesh Keyring never used that I will put in my gift box for the future, tartan scarf, two teaspoons, one a collector item that will go with my collection of stuff from my old job. What else oh! Black & silver rolled neck jumper classic style that I can wear out at some time, Pair of cargo shorts in my size for summer, cookbook, and small brown ramekin dish as brown is not in at the moment. For me colour doesn’t count but size and what I can use it for does. I have a got a lot of bit & pieces in the way brown dishes so it will match anyway. This is how I can get things a lot cheaper as I don’t worry about matching colours nor get rid of things because the colour doesn’t match. It’s just a Rustic country style. Well anyway I just paid $7.00 for all the above and the real retail cost new would have been around $150 mark.

It’s time to start again on reviewing my monthly daily living allowance.

I have been spending a little more on some books and cookware over the past few months than I really should on my monthly allowance but it’s spent now so I will to have work around that and make up for it over time. I am still just under my budgeted allowance so I am on track.

These are the categories for this challenge.

Items === Approx Budget===Spent

Eating out===$35.00=====$42.05
Groceries===$135.50==== $109.77
Non-Food===$17.00=====$4.29
Clothes ====$35.00=====$69.95
Grooming===$15.00
Gas======$25.00
Pets====== $50.00=== ==$7.47
HH items===$42.50======$117.39
Fares== ====$9.00 =====$20.00
Entrainments= $12.00
Garden=====$10.00=====$19.96
Gifts & Donations=$35.00=== $36.00
Medical=====$15.00
Misc======$9.00
Personal Allowance=$85.00 ==$75.39
Note only one amount is no spend

Budgeted for this period $530 spent $502.27

No Spending days over the 28 days = 14 days in total.


I have to still line up some painters for quotes the outside of my house over the next year this should be my major expense if all goes to normal here. I think I just like having the money in the bank and not spending it. I do know that it will make me save a lot more when I do spend it as I don’t like not having money in the bank as safety blanket for me.

As for banking in the past month I have saved over $200 in cash so you still can save money on a pension but need to make choices on where you spend your money. As for saving money on things I will save that for another blog.

I got very tired last time I was there, so I went again to look at some of the place that I missed then.

I found out that Showbag pavilion, horse stables and Dog show pavilion are the ones getting pull down next to start their makeover it will take over 15 years to do and many areas will be moved around as they progress in this makeover. So each year some thing will be in a new place and it may be a temporary home only for a few years. I may never see it finished in my lifetime. They are planning to have open it all year not just for the 10 days at EKKA show time. The grounds has it’s own railway station which they are hoping have open all year around but it on a bypass ring loop so if they get a new line underground built that in the pipeline they may link in with it and its next door the major hospital which has a bus station running pass it. Major roads bypass and tunnels have been built near this site so it a site ready for big development but lucky for the show grounds, they are ones doing the development for next 100 years plan which includes the Show (EKKA) only 3km from CBD. It you take up and buying into any of the building sites planned its taken as granted that you can’t complain about any noise or people in the area as it’s in a special noise zone area. Parking will be another issue too with only 1.5 car spaces for each unit only.

They are planning to build on out side of the showgrounds and go up in the centre for the pavilions

Enough rambling on for now until next year!

Some pictures

CBD in the background


Planning

It looks like I need to go back to writing without pictures full time. I did a test run with one lot and it down again this morning.

Will try to put up new post today.

These displays are some of interesting ones this year.

First prize EKKA in under 15 - (A 11 year olds winner entry)
1 layer cake

90g butter (3oz), softened
2 eggs
1 cup self raising flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons cocoa powder (8 teaspoons)

Grease or line a 20cm (8 inch) ring tin with baking paper.
Beat ingredients together for 4 minutes.
Cook at 190C (375F) for 35 to 40 minutes

NB: Most likely beaten in a cake mixer or processer the recipe doesn't say.
Cup are 250ml and tablespoons are (20ml) or 4 tsp.

Source - The Courier-Mail

We have coming up a MasterChef series with children cooking soon! After watching three series of MasterChef, 2 full series and Celerity Masterchef now all the children wanted have ago too!

If these photos are anything to go by the next generation will be able to cook or not kept out of the kitchen and may be less obese children too!


This one is a mini-masterclass for 5-10 year old. It’s a taken on day when primary school children were taken to the show as class lesson.


This one is a picture of some cake icing in a new category for 6 -10 year olds. Only very best were shown and won by two 8 year olds who mothers are cake- icing teachers.


The entries on the bottom of this picture were done by next age group 11 -15 year olds.

Heres A few more Pictures

Childern School Work Competions

I went to the first day of

EKKA as it’s commonly known around here for the last 135 years. The showground are on prime real estate, just a few kilometres from the CBD. They are changing it a bit and putting in a few apartment blocks, shopping area & restaurants which will become part of the EKKA when the show is on. They will have to put up with a full EKKA show each August as the EKKA is not moving at all and any extra events during the year as it’s hired out for events too! It will take time to make everyone happy but they will not kill the show. I didn’t see the new plans for the grounds as yet! I do know that I wouldn’t travel to another area if they did move it.





This picture is of the show bag pavilion which was to be pulled down this year so it may not be around much longer.


This one is of one the streets at show time. Only one main road is closed during the show. Others are more like side streets within the showgrounds.


Looking up the closed Main Road


This one is antique farm machines with the small children sideshow ally in the background.


Start of Main Sideshow Ally
The main one takes up a quarter of the showgrounds and can be expensive. So far I haven’t ventured into that area and some years I never get that far!

Sugar

Another go at keeping these photos here.

I fine that canned tuna is one of my frugal proteins as I have posted recipes a few times. It's easy to use and an economical here. We can buy it in 3 sizes 95g, 180g & 420g most are just plain tuna in brine, springwater or oil in Chunky or flaked. There are numerous recipes printed for using canned tuna.

Pasta & Tuna - 1/2 can flavoured tuna, 1/4 cup tomato sauce mix- balance of tuna used for lunch with lavish crackers

Tuna Pasta

1 can 95g Tuna - Flavoured Tomato & Onion or other flavour
2 cups of spiral pasta
1/2 jar of pasta sauce
Dried parsley
Seasoning

Cook pasta as instructed
Mix tuna & pasta sauce into a microwave dish, add seasoning & dried parsley to taste and heat until hot.
When pasta is cooked drain, and reserves a little pasta water to pour back over the pasta and add tuna pasta sauce mixture to pasta and serve on 2 spaghetti bowls.

Serve 2
For one serving divide in half.
Serve with a green salad

Tuna Recipes posted so far here.

Italian Bean and Tuna Salad

Tunisian Tuna Salad

Easy Tuna Dish

Update on -Easy Tuna Dish

Tuna Mornay

Tuna with macaroni and peas in the comments section

200g -250g frozen fresh broad beans
20g butter
1 tsp herbes de Provence or other dried herbs
2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced or 1/2 can tomatoes drained and diced
Salt and pepper

1. Cook the broad beans in boiling salted water until they are just tender, about 8 minutes.
2. Drain and refresh the beans under cold water. Peel off the outer skins, if preferred.
3. Melt the butter in a large frying pan and add the beans, together with the herbes de Provence.
4. Add the tomatoes, salt and pepper. Heat through, stirring continuously.
Serve immediately

Serves 3

Note: Remove any yellow beans use only green ones, do a taste test.
I used a Spicy Italian Mixed Herbs that I have in the cupboard and kept it the fridge for about 3 days after cooking also reheating the amount that I was eating that night in the microwave.

Herbs de Provence

1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon summer savory
1/2 teaspoon lavender
1/4 teaspoon rosemary
1/2 teaspoon oregano or basil
1/4 teaspoon sage

Herbs de provence is best made with dried herbs as fresh herbs lose their flavour if the cooking is longer than about 20 minutes. This blend is excellent in soups, on potatoes, rice, pasta, fish, roasted vegetables or bread. Mix with 1/4 lb butter for a real treat.

Both my fridge and freezers are full as my friend as cleaned her freezer out and we went shopping today and she bought me a cooked chicken and 2 T-bone steaks as well buying her self the same. I got 4 x 1kg each bags of frozen fresh broad beans & large bag another kind frozen fresh bean. I did give two kilos away of broad beans and re-bag the balance into 200g portions which will give you about 3 servings when cooked. I found an interesting recipe that I liked for them. I will post the recipe later.

Broad Beans Provencale

I had one of the T-bone steak for dinner tonight now I can’t let go to waste can I! I had fresh mushrooms in butter, grilled onions slices, cabbage, an egg to go with it along fruit salad & ice cream.

I need to think about my meals for next few days as I will eating out twice in the coming days. Its EKKA time here again I did post about it a few year’s back now in August 2006.
Ekka -August 2006

I ended up in the city again, and did some shopping too! I had to go the Chiro for my monthly visit. The other day I found a pair of walking shoes on sale 50% off, so I ended up getting a pair as the ones that I am wearing are over eight years old so are coming to the end of they life as going out pair.
Cost just under $70.00 as they are leather uppers and with a descent sole.

Had lunch and coffee while I was there, I got senior discount coffee, getting a larger size for the same price as regular size $3.50. Bought $6.50 special deal on the Japanese Teriyaki Chicken with Vegetable and Rice it was the large size for the same price as the small size saving $2.40

So my savings on regular prices was $74.00.

I had a great day in the city today! I went to lunch at Casino again with my ex-workmates. We haven’t worked in 12 years next month, all of us were retrenched at the same time and enjoying our retirement now. We do meet every month like clock work not always the same ones but someone turns up each month, this time nine of us turned up about the normal number for our group.

Before lunch I set out to pay all my bills that are due this pay. This saves me an extra trip of running around early next month as most are due then. I like to pay as many bills over the counter as I can as this is away I can remember that I haven’t missing them. It’s a route now to pay the bills on certain dates that I go to the city. Some of the bills are paid via bank debit and another’s via post then the council rate bills are paid at the main counter so that I remember that they are paid and I get my discount and all credit card bills are paid when I am near the banks again over the counter. I did buy some birthday cards for the August Birthdays, another USB stick, A Moroccan Cookbook that I wanted, top up my fare card which is called a Go Card here which allows me travel around without having to find change for fares.

Costs
Lunch _________$13.50
Gambling ______$8.00
Fares __________$20.00
USB stick_______ $12.99
Cookbook ______$14.95
3 Birthday Cards _$2.00
Bills total ______$505.00

Total __________$576.44

It’s up and running just waiting for my rebate to come back. So after waiting 110 days for a team to come an install it for me! Why so long, a lot of red tape as someone (Federal & State Governments) didn’t do they job right the first time around, no safety checks were done that everyone was working on installing solar hot water and ceiling batts had the right certificates to do the jobs. Four young workmen died in the ceilings here installing ceiling batts which is the other option you could have had done. I had ceiling batts so went with the solar hot water option.

I will not know if I will save any money for another three months as it was installed two days the last meter read. I am working on that I will save about 4 kWh on Hot water and third off my power coming down from 16 kWh & 4 kWh per day to around 9 kWh per day for both. Prices are rising for our power here in leaps & bounds, another price rise started on 1st July for electricity and water is going up too! I am still using around same amounts but the bills are still going up. I have budgeted for extra $200 but mine may stay around the same because of solar panels & solar hot water installed. I do sell back to the grid but now I will use most of this to run the solar hot water pump.

I do have a slit system where the 400L water tank is on the ground and the panels are on the roof the only drawback is they had to put the panels on west side of the house and my solar panels are on the east side of house. Ideally they should be facing north but I never had the room to put either there. But I do get between 10 to 14 hours sun per day 365 days of the year. It’s good to live in the Sunshine State.

Over the past few weeks I have been working my way though Garage Sale (Yard Sale) storage area. This is the area which I place anything needs to go at some time. I have had a few tradesmen here over the past year or so and have not got into that area for while. If any needed to be move they just move it out of the way and everything ended up in that area. So that I no longer know what’s there for certain anymore!

Very near my storage area for my bulk toilet paper and empty bottle stash. As I couldn’t get into this area without a clearout but I didn’t find any toilet paper so far but found 5 large boxes of empty bottles. I will cull them down to one box and give away or recycle all the others.



Two boxes in the front on left are to be culled further and all the others boxes to be recycled or given to a jar maker in the basket. They are just taking up to much room.

Update:- I will put up the photo again when crashing of photos stops.

I just found a copy of 300 Sensational Salads by Lucinda Hollace Berry - 1982 booklet of 46 pages in our local second hand bookshop for 50 cents for my Retro Cookbook collection. I found plenty of copies that anyone could buy online, as a great example of how not to set out a cookbook and it is by the looks of it, a study in some US collages too!

Why I am I so pique about this cookbook if I had to rate its layout, page numbering and picture details and index. I would give it a 0.5 /10 overall. Why give it 0.5 rating, it did fill every page with a picture or recipes. Some recipes were repeated again later in the book also. There is NO order in the layout, NO page numbering, NO picture details and NO index. Now the recipes themselves are interesting and I would rate recipes on they own at 7/10.

So set out to fix it for myself so I will put up two styles of index in My Pages on the side here for anyone to find if they wish to copy & paste. My own copy had been numbered in part by the previous owner so I finish it off and set out to make an index.

First by listing each recipe per page then separating the dressing from salads and alphabetical listing them into two groups. Any further can be done by those who need to do so.

Many of the recipes use fruits as ingredients in the salads and dressings.

I will just post one salad with dressing as example

Tangy Golden Apple Vegetables

1 Golden Delicious apple, in 3/4 in cubes
1 medium zucchini, in 1/2 in slices
1 medium carrot in 1/4 in, slices, cooked crisp-tender
2 tbsp chopped green onion
1 tbsp chopped parsley
Tangy Basil Marinade

Combine all ingredients; mix well.
Chill thoroughly.
Makes 4 -100 calories servings.

Tangy Basil Marinade

Combine 2 tbsp white wine vinegar, 1 tbsp oil, 1/4 tsp crushed basil leaves, 1/8 tsp salt & dash pepper. Mix well

300 Sensational Salads by Lucinda Hollace Berry - 1982

There would be away to update this recipe by changing the way you sliced the vegetables, may be in ribbons or baby matchsticks instead of slices. Both the zucchini and carrot could be done that way and the apple could be slice in a different way too!

Other recipes can be found

Marinated Mushroom Salad

5 recipes and copies for sale

Its awhile since I blogged here!

So a quick rundown of what’s been happening around here.

I took a short break as my son cancelled all my favorites when he downloaded his iPhone download last time; I ended up with his favorites not mine. It’s lucky that my favorites websites are noted in any down load that I had taken. I use this method as a tracker so I know who to get credits any phrases that I post or keep on file. All ends well as it did clean out the deadwood in that favorites list.

I will try to post a bit more regularly from now on.

It’s time to review my daily living allowance for last month’s budget.

These are the categories for this challenge.

Items===Approx Budget===Spent

Eating out===$35.00=====$72.35
Groceries===$135.50 ==== $76.61
Non-Food===$17.00= ====$19.64
Clothes ====$35.00=====$5.00
Grooming===$15.00=====$18.00
Gas======$25.00==== ==$65.50
Pets====== $50.00=== ==$26.61
HH items===$42.50======$77.50
Fares== ====$9.00 =====$26.60
Entrainments= $12.00 =====$23.07
Garden =====$10.00
Gifts & Donations =$35.00
Medical =====$15.00=====$38.15
Misc ======$9.00
Personal Allowance =$85.00 ==$67.20

Budgeted for this period $530 spent $515.72

No Spending days over the 28 days = 10 days in total.

I didn’t bank any Money this month owing to paying my credit card off in full after buying the security doors $1600 worth now to replace my emergency fund over next few months by cutting back on the above where I can.

I have had a few blowouts in some of listed items but overall still came under budget just. All my bills are paid and up to date. All smoke detectors have to have new batteries along with some other batteries so the HH items budget was a little bigger than usual. Personal allowance was mainly books and only one was new. One was a collector’s item a craft book printed in 1918 on stencilling on clothes of all things. As for eating out I did dine out a few times this month and gas I was driving a lot in March too!

Trying to use my food stockpile up is slowly working down but no hole in the pantry or freeze yet.

This week I have used some chicken drumsticks and chicken sausage, I made them into meals for 4, this give me another 6 single servings plus the two eat that week. This is how I use my stockpile, I cook recipe for 4 that I can freeze then eat one and freeze the other 3.

This week I will be making a Caribbean Chicken and Fish Chowder both these I have in Maggi sauce mixers that I am trying use up.

Today spending is part of my Bill budget so I am not panicking about it.

Car service $430, car insurance $551 then you have in 2 weeks time my house insurance $880. Paying my credit card off for the security doors $1600 and in full by the end of this month. Lucky for me I did budget for all these bills in this period so that money was sitting in the bank earning interest I just love that don’t you.

In the past few weeks someone broke into my house and stole my handbag! To make matter worse I was a sleep at the time. When I work out what they took it was over $900 worth in value. As I had my new mobile and digital camera plus an expensive wallet in it!

I did claim on my insurance and got back over $600 with excess of $200, it does pay to have photos or receipts of your purchases what you keep in your handbag this did saved me from not being able to claim. I keep everything even the box that coin wallet came in which was lucky as I don’t think they believed me on that one as the price was on that box as well as the style name and worth $160.

I have taken steps so that it will not happen again. By replacing my security doors as they were getting old and the fly mesh is how they got in. So bought 2 new security doors the best that I could afford I will need now to save to replace the emergency money fund that I used. I put in Crimsafe doors as these are the best one here they cost almost $1600 fitted. I am a great believer in safety first and will spend money when my safety is in jeopardy.

I am now back to normal and feel a little safer now that the doors are in.

As I am always finding it hard to find time to do things around the house, I have started to write lists of what I can do in a certain time frames. Here one of them.

1. Empty your handbag out and clean it out.

2. Stack magazines and remove the old ones

3. Check and toss the junk mail

4. Empty a trash can and recycle bin

5. Sweep the kitchen floor

6. Put on a load of washing.

7. Empty a load of washing

8. Fold a load of washing

9. Write a menu for the week

10. Add things to your grocery list

11. Empty the sideboard top and dust and polish.

12. Stack your dishwasher and put it on.

13 Empty your dishwasher and put them away.

14. Put your shoes away

15. Hang up your clothes and put away.

16 Water indoor plants

17 Pick up items that need to be taken to another room and put away.

18. Make a list of things to do

19. Jot down important dates on your calendar.

20. Start your anti virus program on your computer.

21. Give someone a smile

I cant get into the Forum area of the Saving Advice only the blogs.

This is what I am getting.


Fatal error: Cannot redeclare getmicrotime() (previously declared in /home/savingad/public_html/debug.inc.php:4) in /home/savingad/public_html/beta/debug.inc.php on line 6


I hope next time I come in I can get on thanks.

I have a large cane basket that I have put items of food that I wish to include into my menu in the coming weeks. This along with wants in the freezer is to be used first.

Stockpile list to work with.

Basic staples
Rice
Pasta
Noodles
Cereal
Rolled oats
Flour
Lentils
Chickpeas

Items in the baskets to be used next
4 cans of Tomatoes
425g Tuna Chunks in Brine
310g Corn Kernels
420g Heinz Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce
95g Tuna with Tomato & Onion
1 jar x500g pasta sauce
1 x can 400g pineapple pieces
1 x can 400g Apricot Nectar
165g can Coconut Cream
180g pkt of Rich Tomato & Cracked Pepper - last one
1 x 45g pkt Fish Chowder
1 x 45 Caribbean Chicken mix - last one
1 x 400g can buttered mushrooms
1 can 3 Bean Mix
Can of Plum Pudding
Butter Cake Mix
Jar of Fruit Mince 410g
Mixed Fruit 375g
2x 825g can Apricot Halves
2 x pkt Flavour Jelly Mix
1x 400g Skim Condensed Milk
420g Cream of Mushroom Soup

Protein
500g ground beef
Basic mince mix
Whole Chicken
breast o f chicken
250g diced chicken
2 steaks for grilling
Bean patties

Plus basic spices & other condiments.
Basic vegetables in fridge & freezer.

What can I make meals out of this list?
This is what I came up with so far
Steak with mushrooms, grilled onions and mixed vegetable
Tomato Sauce - 2 can tomatoes + tomato cracked pepper sauce (sauce makes about 4 cups)
Spaghetti Bolognaise = basic mince + 2 cups tomato sauce - 3 serves plus Chilli mix
Chilli Con Carne = 1/2 Basic mince used for bolognaise, 1/2 can baked bean, chilli powder - 3 serves
Caribbean Chicken with rice -flavouring packet + 250g diced chicken, pineapple piece & juice, & peppers - 3 serves
Pasta & Tuna - 1/2 can flavoured tuna, 1/4 cup tomato sauce mix- balance of tuna used for lunch with lavish crackers
Roast chicken - with roasted vegetables and chicken for salads - 4 serves
Tuna Mornay Fish chowder + tuna + coconut cream + corn kernels - 4 serves
Tomato soup - made from can of tomatoes - 2 serves - lunch with toast
Beans salad - 3 Bean Mix + diced shallots & celery

Jelly & Apricots
Plum Pudding & custard
Boiled Fruit Cake
Fruit mince tarts
Cookies made with the cake mix + Skim Condensed Milk.

Any meals that have more serves that I am unable eat in one day, which can be frozen, are for next weeks menu. Ones that cant be frozen then are use later in the week.

Made and used so far
Tomato Sauce
Pasta & Tuna
Spaghetti Bolognaise
Chilli Con Carne

Saving Money so far of grocery surplus
Banked = $162

This week s menu
Spaghetti Bolognaise
Apricot Chicken with rice
Steak and onion with vegetable
Omelette with tomato sauce
Bean patties with vegetables
Beef Stir Fry
Pasta & Tuna

Its time to review my daily living allowance for last month budget.

These are the categories for this challenge.

Items === Approx Budget===Spent

Eating out==$35==$43.85
Groceries==$135.50 = = $57.38
Non-Food==$17.00= =$3
Clothes ==$35==$44.95
Grooming==$15.00==$7
Gas==$25.00 ==$0
Pets== $50.00 ==$88.83
HH items==$42.50==$30.00
Fares== $9.00 ==$0
Entrainments== $12.00 ==$3
Garden ==$10.00==$0
Gifts & Donations ==$35.00== $2
Medical Prescription ==$15.00==$6.90
Misc ==$9.00 ==$0.50
Personal Allowance ==$85.00 ==$50.23

Budgeted for this period $530 spent $337.64

No Spending days over the 28 days = 11 days in total.

Money banked this month $400

Review of Daily living allowance which is part of my waste not want not challenge this year, these are the areas which I have dont a fixed spending amounts but can go over board at any point. But can cutback quickly if the need does rise. Medical out of pocket expenses not covered in the fixed budget. Approx amount are for one month.

Here is a summery of spending this period. More spending in some areas than normal as I had to replacing a stolen handbag, is the reason that this part of budget is over. Pet food this month is over owing to it being on special so I bought enough for a few months. Eating out was a little higher than budgeted for but at times its a can be lot higher than this amount too! I am still trying to cut back on buying too many books this year.