Stoptober:Money Diet

My month runs from 24th to 23rd so Stoptober:Money Diet month is over for me. We made it with £44 left in the, very tight, budget. We learned a lot, although not apparently how to cut down on electric usage as much as I imagined.

We certainly were very good with food including the men of the house understanding that meat is not compulsory.  I wasted very little food. Two very small bags of frozen red cabbage which had both seen better days and defrosted when I left them on the counter top by accident, following a near miss of adding them to my plum jam. Some stewed fruit that I had in a dish on the bottom shelf of the fridge but perched on top of a horizontally stored 3l milk container. I just didn't see it or remember it until too late, which is sad because I was taking it to work for breakfasts before I forgot it. At least there was a lot left. And the freezer is crammed to capacity with food.

No takeaways. Sometimes when we are tired and it has been a long day then we are tempted but so far so good. Our challenge for this month is to make a home made 'Chinese takeaway' which is good enough for us to wonder why we ever thought we needed to buy one.

It didn't stop us going out but we were somewhat conservative in our spending. I went to one of my sons gigs and allowed a friend, who I had given a lift to, to buy me a thank you drink. Fahed went to poker three times. He came third twice, so his winnings were higher than his outlay, and broke even when they went to a proper casino to play, by stopping once his 'free money' was gone. Apparently the casino offers free money to the poker players to get them in and when it is gone they normally buy more chips. I dont think they make much from the poker boys but apparently it makes a nice atmosphere for the big spenders who are playing roulette and machines. Luckily for me Fahed just enjoys to play so he isn't tempted on the other stuff. |One documentary about Las Vegas was enough to cure him.

Back to talking about food, I also cooked a lot with my home grown apples.

So basically we did okay, so now lets do it all again in November. Same budget as October but with two cars to tax as well. So glad I filled that freezer when I did!