Day one

******Shopping list update******

I 'bought' a tin of tomatoes from my kitchen cupboard. These were from Tesco and when I checked online they cost a whopping 31p.  That's more than half my left over money...I remember when I was a student a tin of tomatoes cost less than 10p, but I won't get on that nostalgic soap box. I do wish however, that I had remembered to buy them from Quality Save, because they were about 25p there and that would make such a difference.

I also 'bought' two teaspoons of spices from the cupboard as well, I wept when I calculated it at 15p. I know spices are expensive, but one jar seems to last ages. But living in this heightened state of awareness of how much everything costs, I was shocked at how much that translated and affected my shopping budget.

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Day one was ok. I survived and it wasn't that bad. I had a lie in to 7am (believe me, round here anything after 6am is a lie in). Then I went to the 8am service and the first thing that passed my lips on Sunday was the Communion wafer, closely followed by the Communion wine.

When I got home our house smelled lovely. Everyone was enjoying hot buttered toast and marmalade, after a first breakfast of cereal and porridge with milk. There was also a lot of washing up to be done.
I made my porridge with water, flavoured with lemon curd and instantly regretted the lemon curd purchase. I wish I'd got jam, but it was 6p more expensive. The lemon curd was very sweet, and I struggled with the contrast of cardboard tasting porridge and sickly sweet lemon.

I spent much of the morning cooking and baking.

I made some flat bread with the flour and oil and water,

They aren't my hands, my little girl helped me make it, she thought kneading was great fun. I dry fried the bread in a frying pan, which made it soft and tortilla-like.

For lunch I had an egg poached in a saucepan, and wrapped in some flat bread. It missed the brown sauce I would usually put on it.

I also made a chilli (hence the spices) which I put in the slow cooker and I'll eat for tea for the rest of the week.

The chilli is something I would ordinarily make, although not with pearl barley and kidney beans! I have also made it more liquidy than I would normally. It tasted ok, but I didn't have any tomato puree or stock cubes in my budget, and I noticed they were missing. Still, 15p on spices and I should be able to manage it.

I have 14p left! 

Day one wasn't too bad, even with a children's birthday party thrown in and lots of fresh fruit, sandwiches, and crisps being offered round. I went to bed just after 9pm so that I didn't feel the need to reach for a biscuit.

Day two dawns ahead, I think today will be more difficult as it is a normal weekday and I have a routine, and part of that routine involves cups of tea and biscuits!!