Money diary // Christmas without a kitchen and goodbye Matalan

MONDAY

We are a few months into building works and have no kitchen so we've lost our sink, cooker and washing machine. All during a global pandemic. We've had to completely change the way we cook and what we eat. We did once wonder if we'd constantly be getting takeways but we've mostly managed to avoid this and have been really behaved. It is undisputedly a lot cheaper cooking yourself than ordering takeway or eating out. 

It's been especially tough without a washing machine. Luckily we know of a great little laundrette with marvelous rates. Otherwise known as my family ;) We've got into a little routine as I don't want to be hounding them every week. We meet up every 2 weeks for a socially distanced swap (dropping the dirty, collecting the clean) however lockdown has since put a stop to that.

Being the amazing people that they are, they have brought over boxes of food (well, pre-lockdown) so we have some easy meals that we can microwave. To date we have had a veggie curry, beef stew, dhaal, a moroccan fish stew and tonight we have meatballs.

Today I order the next batch of birthday cards for birthdays this month. I'm still doing the surveys in my spare time to go towards our card fund. It's usually peanuts but there are occasionally some gems when you can earn a nice amount for only a few minutes of your time.

One of the biggest joys of 2020 was how I re-connected with one of my good friends. We'd sadly lost touch over the years but there are some friendships that are meant to be and it's like no time has passed at all. With her birthday card and Christmas card already in the mail, I order her a little something for her to open on her birthday. 

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Greetings cards - £4.58

Birthday gift - £22.00

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TOTAL
£26.58
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TUESDAY

Today we tried our first ever slow cooker dhaal. It was such an effortless recipe. Yellow split peas and a variety of other ingredients and spices into the slow cooker before work in the morning and then after work, hey presto! It had a bit of bite to it so I may soak the dried peas overnight next time, but flavour wise, it tasted pretty authentic and was chuffed to bits with it. 

My find of the day: TeaPigs (bear with me).

TeaPigs and me go way back. I once received a box of their rhubarb and ginger tea at a blogger event in a goodie bag. I don't even like rhubarb but this tea is seriously good. I also got my sister into them too and seeing as she doesn't do tea in any capacity, it's the ultimate compliment. 

The problem is that you never see this particular flavour at the supermarket. So starting last year, I started ordering directly from the Teapigs website here as it was the only place I could find it. 

This time last year I bought my sister some but also some different flavours for the office to bulk up the order as it's a minimum £15 spend for free delivery.

This year they are doing a job lot of tea in a bundle offer. Monetary wise it sounds like a lot to be spending on tea, but as I have £10 left in my budget for my sister, I can give half the boxes at Christmas which will keep her going until her birthday when she can have the next lot as part of her birthday gift.

Admittedly it's nicer to receive the tin as a gift, but the tin is less good value for money (and she has already has a tin from me from another time), so boxes it is.

When I ordered this time last year one of my favourite flavours was Apple and Cinnamon so imagine my joy when I found this great hack.

Basically if you order from Tea Pigs and have a basket of £15 or more, if you add a box of x15 Apple and Cinnamon tea bags and enter the promo code APPLE, you get that box free.

Last year I added on a box of these for myself and I could again this year - but this time they were FREE

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A LOT OF TEA - £22.94

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TOTAL
£22.94
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WEDNESDAY

Christmas gift wise I haven't gone too crazy this year. I started a spreadsheet last year to manage my spending and adopted it again this year. With the pandemic, there is a lot of financial uncertainty and I didn't want to stretch myself in case either of us are out of work. Plus we're regularly paying installments for building works which is a pretty signifcant drain on the finances(!).

I did a lot of my shopping earlier in the year and made use of sales and Black Friday to make my money stretch further. I also sourced discount codes and used TopCashBack where I could (really recommend signing up if you haven't already!). Some sites I hadn't ordered from before so could use their new customer discount code. If you already have an account, you can always get around this by setting up a new account with a new email address.

I also recommend shopping around. I ordered some chocolate to form part of Mr Curiouser and Curiouser's Christmas gift and found it cheaper on the Next website than directly through Hotel Chocolat - weird!

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TOTAL
£0.00
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THURSDAY

I've been really disappointed with some of the delivery services lately. I ordered a few gifts from Marks & Spencer and at checkout was asked if I wanted to reduce carbon emissions and receive as one delivery rather than multiple parcels (always yes). Despite ticking this box, I received my order in 4 or 5 parcels. A couple of parcels contained a single (small) item nestled amongst a crazy amount of packaging. I'm sure you can understand how annoying it is to answer the door every day and all times of the day, not to mention incredibly wasteful in terms of cardboard boxes and packaging. There are so many companies that need to work on their eco footprint. 

We continue to cook in bulk, freeze leftovers, and defrost the batches we made pre-building works here (still going strong!)

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TOTAL
£0.00
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FRIDAY

Ok, so Matalan has overtaken Marks & Spencer in the irritation department. My parcel came in the nick of time before Christmas but I discover that they have sent slippers with two left feet and also that an item is missing. I ordered pyjamas a gift where you had to order the top and bottom components separately. I ordered a silky camisole, trousers and also shorts so it was interchangeable for different times of the year. The trousers and shorts turned up, the top did not. When I reported the missing item, I got told it was now out of stock. So I now have an complete set that I can no longer give as a gift. If I was in-store and the top wasn't there, I wouldn't have bought the trousers and shorts. Same for online. If their stock levels were accurate on their website, I wouldn't have ordered half the set without the top. 

Matalan customer services have been an absolute nightmare and are unwilling to help. There is a no returns label in the parcel so I would have to pay to return the items even though the error was on their side. This is ridiculous out of principle. I have been shielding for the sake of my family and given the pandemic, I don't feel comfortable going to a post office right now. 

Customer services 'helpfully' stated that I could return the items to store (again going outside) which is nonsense given there is a national lockdown and stores are currently closed. Also I don't have a store near to me which is why I always shop online. Matalan customer services have since stopped responding to me. I am done with this ridiculous company. With so many companies going under since the pandemic, you would have thought that customer satisfaction and maintaining company reputation would have been of upmost importance right now. Goodbye Matalan. 

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TOTAL
£0.00
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SATURDAY

One of my favourite discoveries of the year has been jerk chicken wraps. I ordered a Levi Roots meal kit in an online shop and fell in love with his Reggae Reggae sauce which is a sweet BBQ sauce with the heat of Scotch bonnet chillies. The meal kit is much like a fajita kit. It contains wraps, sauce and a sachet of seasoning which you stir-fry with your protein source and veg. The jerk seasoning in the kit was disappointing and didn't taste of much so I was determined that I could re-create a tastier version for less (meal kit £3.30). I used chicken and veg I already had and bought wraps (95p), jerk seasoning (90p) and the star of the show, Reggae Reggae sauce (£1.50). Whilst these incredients exceed the price of the kit, you only need a small amount of the jerk seasoning and Reggae Reggae sauce (especially the latter which is spicy) so it equates to a low cost per use each time. Meaning that it's overall much cheaper than the meat kit (AND a lot tastier). Warning, if you're a chilli wuss like me, trial a few drops of the Reggae Reggae sauce first - it is HOT!

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Tortilla wraps - £0.95

Jerk seasoning - £0.90

Reggae Reggae sauce - £1.50

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TOTAL
£3.35
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SUNDAY

Today I'm inconsolable as we learn we can't spend Christmas with the family. It's the first Christmas since my birth that I won't be with them and it's really hitting me hard. With the year we've had, it was something I was really looking forward to. 

I posted on social months ago pleading for people not to take risks and be stupid and cancel Christmas for everyone. And look what happened. I've seen it all. The people who have one 'bubble' one day and a different one the next. Our neighbours who constantly had friends over during lockdown. Whilst they're not British, if you choose to go and live in another country, you need to abide by that country's lockdown rules. Large groups of people in London not social distancing the eve before a new enforcement. People who went on UK mini breaks during UK lockdown when they should have been home (travel is a privilege not a right!). 2020 was the year that highlighted those with intelligence who are sensible and those that are godamn stupid. And sadly we have more of the latter in this country. 

I made so many sacrifices in 2020 hoping things would get better. I listened to the guidelines. We barely saw our friends and family. Some of my best friends gave birth and I haven't been able to meet their babies. I haven't physically been to a supermarket since before the first lockdown in March 2020. I haven't travelled. I stayed at home. I took extra care of myself so I could step in to help my vulnerable and at risk family if anything was to happen to them. 

It felt like a year of sacrifices for a non Christmas. We still don't have a kitchen so can't even cook a roast here. I have preemptively ordered a gammon, turkey and a beef joint for Christmas, all which can be popped into the slow cooker. I may not be able to do roast turkey or roast beef, but this year will be an alternative sort of Christmas with pulled turkey in brioche buns and slow cooked Italian beef ragu with lots of herbs. Not the same, but we will make it work.

Today we had a lovely food hamper delivered which really lifted my spirits. Turns out my Mum ordered it way back in March as she was so sure we'd all be separated at Christmas (turns out she was right!). I am even more excited by the fact that it's an Aldi Christmas hamper. I love Aldi. 

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TOTAL
£0.00
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TOTAL FOR THE WEEK
£52.87
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The festive season can be an expensive time with night outs and drinks and catch ups but lockdown put a stop to all of that. Money was saved from not having to commute and also by spreading the cost of Christmas and buying gifts across the year rather than having a big bill in December or money woes in January. 

Hope you are well and safe and healthy and sending you much love xxx

Writing it all out like this does make the little things hit home. If you decide to give this money diary a go yourself - or have any money saving tips - do let me know in the comments below!

MY PREVIOUS MONEY SAVING DIARIES

COVID-19 edition

What I spent last week (ouch)

Travel savings & PewDiePie's wedding at Kew Gardens
Curry night, sales and savvy substitutions
Chinese New Year and mattress shopping

The money diary of a London blogger

Home grown veg and a largely vegetarian week

Building works and life without a kitchen

Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

Money diary // building works and life without a kitchen

MONDAY

Building works have started after months of waiting. The main annoyance is that because our charming neighbours got party wall surveyors involved, the foundations of the build have had to be changed which meant we lost our kitchen immediately rather than later down the line. I wouldn't recommend living without a kitchen to anyone. I really miss having an oven. It means things like pies are out of the question. Which is ludricious during the autumn winter months, if you ask me.

Sure, I could buy ready meals and takeaways during this time, but I really want to limit doing this. Ready meals can be full of salt and sugar, plus I question the nutritional value of say the Hearty Food Co. range at Tesco which costs a tiny 69p. How much meat is that spaghetti bolognese actually going to contain?! And takeaways can really add up. As much as I love pizza, I'd much rather make my own as takeaway pizza is extortionate and is it just me, but are they getting more and more stingy with toppings? If I pay for toppings, I want toppings damnit!

So for the last month or so, we made use of our kitchen whilst we had it, and made meals in bulk which went straight into the freezer. This gives us easy meals, saves a bit of money and unlike ready meals, we know exactly what went into each meal. A fully extensive list of what we made:

• x8 portions of lentil ragu
• x6 portions of veggie lasagne
• x2 portions of veggie bolognese
• x6 portions of cottage pie
• x6 portions of gnocchi bake

... and then we ran out of space in our freezer! It won't last us for the entire 3-4 months, but it's a start.

We also cooked up a cauliflower curry and a potato and black eyed bean stew which we had to keep in the fridge because the freezer wasn't having it. Other than that, we also have leftover stirfry and leftover fish stew. Organised much?

We have some of the black eyed bean stew today for lunch. It doesn't taste anywhere near as good as my Mum's even though I followed the recipe. But nothing that some seasoning can't fix. For dinner we have the leftover beef stir fry with rice. 

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TOTAL
£0.00

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TUESDAY

Today the back of the house has come off and the house is starting to feel draughty. I find an old tin of ratatouille which is best before August 2020 but I find that tins last forever. It's a cold day so the soup-like consistency works a treat for lunch, although saying that, the ratatouille is nowhere near as good as the homemade one I attempted here. I serve with cous cous which may become one of our staples because all you need is a kettle. 

The only expense I had today was my monthly phone bill. Just £6 with GiffGaff (sign up here and receive free £5 credit when you activate your SIM). The beauty of being based at home for most of this year has been that I haven't used any data and constantly connect to the home wifi. And rather than making phone calls, I'm mostly using Zoom, Microsoft Teams and all manner of vid tech, all through my laptop rather than my phone. These changes have allowed me to slash my phone bill to the cheapest possible monthly tarif. 

Cauliflower curry for dinner. The recipe has spinach in it but we're all out of spinach so this time we use the cauliflower leaves instead and it's a revelation. Never throw out your cauliflower leaves - they're the best bit! The disadvantage of cooking in the lounge is the smell. Now the whole room smells of curry. 

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GiffGaff - £6.00

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TOTAL
£6.00
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WEDNESDAY

We have leftover fish stew for lunch with our own home grown tomatoes and if you thought the curry smell last night was bad... Come evening I've lit an autumnal apple and cinnamon candle to drive the smell away. Or mask it at least. 

Later we have gnocchi bake for dinner. Obviously the cheese isn't crispy because of the freezing process, but all the flavours are still there. I'd usually use mozzarella but I was all out so I used extra mature cheddar instead and it added so much more flavour. Definitely a keeper. 

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TOTAL
£0.00

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THURSDAY

We order an extension lead for our makeshift kitchen and a shelving unit as everything we need to cook with is currently in a sea of boxes and it's not an ideal arrangement. The shelving unit will be a makeshift larder for now and later moved to the office. We were always planning on ordering a shelving unit for the office, but it means it gets an added use now.

We have the last of the potato and black eyed bean stew for lunch. And with that, our fridge is looking decidedly empty. For dinner it's a game of freezer lottery and we end up having cottage pie. 

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Extension lead - £13.99

Shelving unit - £52.26

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TOTAL
£66.25
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FRIDAY

I get paid weekly and wake up to find the money in my account. It feels like more money leaves your account than goes in during building works so this is a nice change!

Today the shelving and extension lead arrive. Our hallway is now 50% fridge freezer and 50% cardboard boxes. 

We both have a defrosted roll from the freezer for lunch today with the last of our sandwich meat as we're both working through lunch today so it's a grab and go affair. For dinner it's another day of freezer lottery (veggie lasagne this time).

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TOTAL
£0.00

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SATURDAY

Our next shop is coming next week and we're getting really low on supplies. We use the last of our bread from the freezer for toasted cheese sandwiches and watch a scary movie over lunch. Because it'd be criminal not to on Halloween!

Today we build the shelving unit and it makes a world of difference. Now we can physically see all our plates and cups and ingredients. No more guessing which box contains the herbs and spices! 

We have a little table top hob for these next few months as we didn't want to be eating microwave meals for 3 months. Tonight is our first experiment with it so have something super lazy just so we can test that it's working. We heat up a Pataks curry sauce and add white fish and serve with naan bread. Simple but does the job.

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TOTAL
£0.00

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SUNDAY

Feeling a little more confident with the hob, we attempt an omelette for breakfast using black olives and extra mature cheddar cheese. We're out of milk and bread so we're having to be a little more creative with our breakfasts until we get our next shop. Eggs are a blessing at times like these. 

As we're out of bread, we have cheese and biscuits for lunch. I alternate between sundried tomato & balsamic chutney and a mild chilli chutney, both of which I find in the back of the fridge and are still well within date (expiry 2021).

For dinner we brave the portable hob again and try our first properly from scratch meal (fajitas). I have frozen peppers in the freezer from when Tesco made a mistake with an order, so it gives me an excuse to use those up finally, and I defrost some wraps I have in the freezer. The meal works a treat and we portion off some of our homemade spice mix to use next week for tacos.

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TOTAL
£0.00

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TOTAL FOR THE WEEK
£72.25
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A big part of saving lately has been:

• planning meals in advance and bulk cooking
• avoiding takeaways and over-priced ready meals
• rummaging through cupboards and the freezer for veg and pulses to bulk out meals
• striving for zero waste and using everything up before buying new
• being based at home resulting in a reduced phone bill and zero commuting costs

Writing it all out like this does make the little things hit home. If you decide to give this money diary a go yourself - or have any money saving tips - do let me know in the comments below!

MY PREVIOUS MONEY SAVING DIARIES

COVID-19 edition

What I spent last week (ouch)

Travel savings & PewDiePie's wedding at Kew Gardens
Curry night, sales and savvy substitutions
Chinese New Year and mattress shopping

The money diary of a London blogger

Home grown veg and a largely vegetarian week

Photo by Janine Meuche on Unsplash

Money diary // home-grown vegetables and a largely vegetarian week

MONDAY

One of my biggest annoyances is food waste. People who buy more food than they need. People who bin uneaten food when leftovers can form other meals. A large basis of my meal planning revolves around use of my zero waste spreadsheet where I examine what has expired or is expiring soon. My spreadsheet flags sweet potato, spinach and butternut squash. As the spinach is still in good condition and hasn't wilted too much, I decide this would be a good basis for a vegetarian salad. I find some lentils in the cupboard and we always have a variety of cheeses in the fridge, so locate some feta cheese. I chop the sweet potato and butternut squash into cubes and roast for 45 minutes, turning them often. Once cooked I stir these into the raw spinach, feta cheese and cooked lentils and drizzle with balsamic vinegar. Simple but delicious!

Butternut squash, sweet potato, lentil and feta salad

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TOTAL
£0.00
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TUESDAY

I love ratatouille but I've never made my own before which is criminal now I've learnt how easy it is! We had an accumulation of home-grown produce which screamed ratatouille. Tomatoes from our garden and a huge rounded courgette from my parent's garden. Our pepper plant, although growing, only has little miniature peppers on it at the moment, so I had to use shop bought peppers for now. I roasted the vegetables in olive oil and oregano for almost a hour, regularly turning. I then pan fried some garlic, added tinned tomatoes and incorporated the cooked veg and heated through. It's a relatively low effort meal but also cheap and healthy! 

Roasted mediterranean vegetables

Ratatouille from scratch!

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TOTAL
£0.00
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WEDNESDAY

As we prepare for building works to start, the initial plan was to have the extension built up with the knock through being relatively last minute so we could keep use of our kitchen. Due to party wall difficulties and nightmare neighbours, the foundations for our extension have had to be tweaked and with that, it means that the old and new floors will have to be done in one - meaning we will lose access to a kitchen right from the start. This has been a massive blow as this means we will be entering the colder months without a kitchen. As of now, I am starting to make and freeze meals ready like lasagne, bolognese, pies and curries that can easily be defrosted and warmed through in the microwave. 

I've been incredily behaved with clothes shopping this year as I don't fancy the faff with returns. I try to talk myself out of most things and then only proceed if it's a 'safe' buy (in other words guaranteed to fit). One thing I've been obsessing over lately is a beautiful autumnal mustard coloured sweater from Tu at Sainsburys. It was only £18 which is pretty good going considering that a similar item at ASOS or Topshop would set you back £30+. I resisted, telling myself I didn't need it. Then one day it was on sale and I knew how gutted I would be if I logged on the next day and it was gone. So I took a gamble and the sizing is perfect. It's slouchy, comfortable and an absolute dream to work from home in. 

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Knitwear - £13.50

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TOTAL
£13.50
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THURSDAY

My money diary I did in association with The Nottingham has gone live. I really recommend writing a money diary yourself, even if it's in a notebook and kept private. I find that writing it all down helps rein me in. Mind you, being home so much since the COVID-19 outbreak has really helped with expenditure as I'm no longer doing the commute and am avoiding the usual temptations.

Tonight we have bolognese with courgetti using courgettes grown from our own garden. It's so much ligher than spaghetti and a great way to get more of your five-a-day.

Courgetti using our home-grown courgettes

The size of this courgette!!

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TOTAL
£0.00
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FRIDAY

I've started at a new job lately and come 5.30pm I don't have the enthusiasm to cook anything too complicated which is where the slow cooker has come into its own. As we are facing a future without an oven once the building works start, I have grabbed a large sharing pizza from Tesco. I usually buy a cheaper pizza from Tesco but as it's our last home cooked pizza for some months, I choose one from the Finest range. It's still a lot cheaper than Pizza Hut or Dominos. We wouldn't usually buy sides but they currently have a meal deal where you can get pesto flatbread thrown in for not much more. Even though the pizza is vegetarian and minimalist, it's packed with flavour. In all honesty, I probably wouldn't bother with the flatbread again - garlic bread for the win! With that we have a movie night and watch Enola Holmes on Netflix (recommend!)

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Pizza meal deal - £5.00

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TOTAL
£5.00
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SATURDAY

I see a recipe in an interiors magazine for frittata muffins which sound amazing. I don't have any spring greens or peas like the suggested recipe, but you can use any vegetables in a recipe like this. I don't have a whole lot of veg left as we are due a shop next week, so I use spinach and mushrooms which I cook up with garlic in a pan. I then mix in a bowl with 4 eggs and some grated cheddar cheese. I pour into a greased muffin tin and bake. It takes a lot longer than the recipe says it will, so I watch it like a hawk and prod with a metal skewer until I'm happy it's cooked through. And the result? SO SO GOOD. Perfect for picnics, breakfast and lunch boxes.

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TOTAL
£0.00

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SUNDAY

The clearing of the kitchen and prep work for the extension has officially begun. And with that, we've started ordering bits and pieces to help us survive in a world without a kitchen and more specifically a sink, dishwasher and oven. For now we've ordered a washing up bowl and a drying rack. My partner is all about Joseph Joseph so ordered this washing up bowl (yes my eyes are watering too). I was adament I didn't want some white plastic coated monstrosity for the drying rack and found this copper drying up rack which is supposedly anti-rust. 

"Do we need a copper drying up rack?", my partner asks.

"Do we need a £36 washing up bowl?" I fire back at him

And with that, nothing more was said about the copper drying up rack.

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Washing up bowl - £36.00

Drying rack - £15.99

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TOTAL
£51.99

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TOTAL FOR THE WEEK
£70.49
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It's been weird seeing my outgoings shrink, but then again, I guess it makes sense. I no longer have commuting costs or naughty station purchases like breakfast or hot drinks. I'm spending a lot less on clothes than I usually would. It's become an occasional treat once every few months. Some days I feel down and in need a little pick me up, but I'm trying to get out of this mindset. I've been growing my own veg this year and you can really taste the difference, particularly with the ratatouille this week. Still not sure how I feel about the washing up bowl purchase, but one word comes to mind. Ouch.

Writing it all out like this does make the little things hit home. If you decide to give this money diary a go yourself - or have any money saving tips - do let me know in the comments below!

MY PREVIOUS MONEY SAVING DIARIES

COVID-19 edition

What I spent last week (ouch)

Travel savings & PewDiePie's wedding at Kew Gardens
Curry night, sales and savvy substitutions
Chinese New Year and mattress shopping

The money diary of a London blogger

Money diary // Coronavirus edition

MONDAY

I'm working from home so it's a no spend day. I find myself drinking a lot more water than I would in the office and I don't feel the need to snack. There is leftover chilli from the weekend which makes a fabulous lunch.

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TOTAL
£0.00
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TUESDAY

I have a Tesco delivery booked for today (note: this was before the latest madness where delivery slots are like gold dust!). I have a £10 off voucher that requires a minimum spend which is quite a bit more money that I'd usually spend on just a two person household, however there are lots of heavier things I want to buy that I'd struggle to carry back from the shops.

As you'd come to expect, things like toilet roll and pasta are out of stock online.

The shop arrives and lots of it is missing. Luckily the £10 voucher is still being honoured so I'm spending less overall AND still getting £10 off.

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Tesco shop - £54.00

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TOTAL
£54.00
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WEDNESDAY

It's sod's law that a lot of my clothes have suddenly decided that now is the time to give up on life. I have three pairs of jeans and a pair of knickers, all of which cannot be saved with a needle and thread (not that I can currently locate said needle and thread). I ordered replacement jeans from Topshop last week but I keep getting apology emails from Toppers about delays so gawd knows when they will arrive.

The novelty of being at home is wearing off already. I miss seeing people. Whatsapp just isn't the same as an IRL conversation. My mum pops over for a cup of tea and to drop off presents for the soon-to-be birthday boy (note: this was before the current social distancing measures were in place). 

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TOTAL
£0.00

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THURSDAY

Today is Mr Curiouser and Curiouser's birthday. This time last year we were in the Maldives, but this year - even before everything escalated to how it is now - we both collectively agreed not to make any travel plans.

He has a free day off from work for his birthday (a company perk) and is adamant that he doesn't want a fuss or anything in particular for his birthday. He just doesn't want to be out in public at the current time, or for me to spend a lot of money given the uncertainty ahead of us all these next few months.

Birthday boy decides he would like to visit the green space near to where we live and go for a walk given that we've been stuck at home so much lately. It's a lovely sunny day so we only need light layers. He wears his new super soft grey knitwear I bought him recently (which I'm secretly a little jealous of).

Once there, we opt for the longest walking route which is over two hours long. This route has a bit of everything. Woods. Two separate expanses of water. Wildlife. Bridges. Farmland. Fields. Steep uphill climbs. It's impossible to be tired or bored because there is so much to look at.

We see one or two dog walkers but mostly don't see another soul. We very quickly realise that not many people choose the long route as we encounter what we now call the fairytale meadow which has dappled sunlight filtering through the trees, a carpet of daffodils and super green grass that is largely untouched. It's magical.

We are out all morning and I offer birthday boy a pub lunch on the way back (again, before social distancing was in place), however he asks if I'd be happy to make my chilli linguine (a different one to this one here), a personal favourite of his. We have all the ingredients for it already as I was planning on making it next week.

His only other request for the day is that there are a couple of films he'd like to watch. Given that the day has been zero cost so far (he's a cheap date!), I look them up on Amazon Prime with the view to renting / buying. However some further research shows that both films are on NOW TV and it's actually better value to buy a monthly film pass as there's the benefit of having access to many more films. I am a little reluctant to spend any money with NOW TV due to my annoyance with them before here, but as luck may have it, as I haven't used my account in a while, I have access to a free 7 day trial which I immediately snap up. We watch one of his chosen films over lunch and then the other later that evening.

At the time of writing this post, our 7 day trial is coming to an end and we have made good use of it! These are just a few of the things we have watched: Us, Rabid, Escape Plan 3, Hobbs & Shaw, Toy Story 4, The Lion King, the latest Escape Room movie and tons of horrors and thrillers.

Another zero cost birthday treat centres about my aptitude in the art of full body massage. Birthdays can usually be super spendy but this year proved that money isn't the key. We had a zero spend day and my partner was raving about how well rested he felt to his co-workers the next day.

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TOTAL
£0.00

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FRIDAY

Not all of our online shop arrived and we are running low on food. Social media and the news stress how hard restaurants and local takeaways have been hit, so we reach out to our local takeaway in support. We pay online so no cash has to exchange hands, and the delivery is left on our door step, so all parties are happy. We'd usually eat more than we did that night, but we make a conscious effort to eat less so we have leftover food for other days. Especially as we can't guarantee that we will get another online food shop, or find anything left in the shops.

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Takeaway - £20.00

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TOTAL
£20.00

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SATURDAY

Due to missing items from our online shop, there a few things we need from the shops (note: this was before the social distancing measures were in place and we haven't been out since).

We head out super early but the shelves in Asda are already empty. We can't get everything we need - or much at all really - so we improvise and get out as quickly as we can. We see plenty of face masks, but the sight of a man in what looks like a full on gas mask is surreal.

Aldi is a lot better stocked - they even have pasta and toilet rolls - but their meat section is lacking. Our usual basket turns into two baskets as we buy more than we usually would. I mentally prepare myself for a really expensive visit, but Aldi as ever constantly amazes me on sheer value for money. Everything came to just over £30 which I'm still really chuffed about. Comparatively we didn't get much in Asda so the £18.30 spend there didn't sit well with me.

That night we plan on making a roasted Mediterranean vegetable filo pie which we've made before and is great for leftovers. However life has a funny sense of humour. When popping the veg into the oven to roast, the door of our oven gives up and will no longer close. We discover that if the oven door isn't sealed - i.e. shut completely - the oven just won't cooperate. It's a huge blow because tonight's meal relies on an oven, as does the roast dinner we'd planned for tomorrow.

As luck may have it, we have a tiny grill which is separate to the oven. We use this to roast the vegetables but it does take ages compared to normal. We then construct the filo pie and thankfully there is just enough room in the grill to cook it. It turns into a late dinner, but we are thankful that our ingredients didn't go to waste.

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Aldi - £30.20
Asda - £18.30

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TOTAL
£48.50

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SUNDAY

I have been sneezing loads and all sorts of thoughts are going through my head. Fortunately it's only hayfever and I start myself on a daily dose of Piriteze which thankfully stems the sniffing and sneezing.

We stay home today - and have continued to since then - and look into getting the latch on the oven fixed, but quotes range from £80 upwards. Plus there is no one actually available to come out given the current climate. We find the replacement part on Amazon for just £10 and after watching some YouTube walk-throughs, are considering to give it a go ourselves. If we can sort it great, if we can't then we will still be in the same situation anyway (sans oven).

Dinner is a challenge considering we were originally planning on a roast dinner. Seeing as we cannot fit a roast in the tiny top oven, we change our plans. Going through the cupboards, I find I have all the ingredients for homemade pulled pork and defrost burger buns that I have in the freezer. It's quite a large joint of meat and we are determined not to have any food waste, so we portion off a separate cut which we cook off and save for a stir-fry next week, and strip off the fat which we crisp up for homemade crackling.  For the main event, we create a marinate for the pork and put all the ingredients into my favourite piece of kitchen kit, the slow cooker. It takes six hours all in all and it tastes insanely good.

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TOTAL
£0.00

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TOTAL FOR THE WEEK
£122.50
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We are living in funny times. Our weekly grocery spend rocketed compared to normal. Admittedly we would have spent less in Asda and Aldi - or not needed to go at all - had our online shop delivered everything we asked for. I usually pride myself on my ability to plan meals in advance and sniff out bargains, however when the shops are empty and you can't get an online shop for love nor money, this presents challenges. Particularly when you lose the ability to cook oven meals.

This week was a real wake up call for me and if we're in this situation for the long run  - which I fear we will be - I want to be better prepared. There is no need to stock pile and buy things in excess depriving others - it's all about buying enough for your household, making savvy choices, and cooking in bulk for lower cost per head plus tasty leftovers to serve you on other days of the week.

Following this shock to the system, I emptied the fridge, freezer and cupboards, laid everything out, and made lists of what we physically had in the house. I then compiled another list, sussing out what we could cook with what we have. It turns out we are good for 14 more days of meals  - and I can probably cobble together more if I get really creative - which has done wonders for calming my anxiety. For now.

I hope you are all doing ok despite the madness we currently find ourselves in!

MY PREVIOUS MONEY SAVING DIARIES

What I spent last week (ouch)

Travel savings & PewDiePie's wedding at Kew Gardens
Curry night, sales and savvy substitutions
Chinese New Year and mattress shopping

The money diary of a London blogger

Money diary // Chinese New Year and mattress shopping

MONDAY

Morning trains were screwed due to a signalling failure (another great start to the week). The boards at the station were blank so I literally had no clue when a train was going to materialise. I ended up waiting for over an hour on the platform. In that time I could have walked home TWICE and logged on from home (a much more efficient use of time). I did contact my boss to say there was no telling what time train I'd get on and it'd perhaps be a better use of time if I could work from home. But I never heard back from him. Instead of gaining an extra 30-45 minutes of work from me that day (if I'd worked from home), he instead lost out on almost an hour's worth of work from me that day. There are no words.

When I finally got onto a train I was shivering like mad with icy fingers (despite having worn gloves). When I got into London I was shivering even more furiously. As luck may it, I had a fully stamped Caffe Nero loyalty card which entitled me to a free hot drink. This helped defrost my fingers but I did have to keep my coat on at work for a while until I stopped shaking. If I get ill from the whole experience, I will take great delight in phoning in sick.

That afternoon I watched trainline.com like a hawk. Any sniff of train problems and I would be off, giving zero fucks.

The silver lining? I should get a bloomin' marvelous claim back from the train company at some point.

For Monday night dinners, I've started cooking extra meals at the weekend so it's an easy re-heat jobby on Monday night. Things like veggie lasagna, chilli, etc. I recently found a lovely sounding Sri Lankan cauliflower curry recipe in the Aldi mag (also here) which I cooked up on Sunday. We reheated on Monday night and it was GLORIOUS. Plus it provided all the leftovers (x5 pots of it to be precise)

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Hot drink - FREE

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TOTAL
£0.00
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TUESDAY

I went for a lunch time walk to return a previous New Look purchase (a long story but we have time).

I'd bought some bits in the sale which were reduced even further at checkout (£17 total for pyjamas and ankle boots...not bad eh?). But probably reduced for good reason though, as the boots pinched like hell and the pyjamas weren't the greatest.

When I went to return these items, my local New Look store said they didn't accept returns on sale items = exchange only. Whereas my colleague ordered things from their online sale and they were more than happy to accept returns via return post. Go figure.

I obviously didn't want to spend any more in-store, so sought out the ugliest thing I could so I knew I wouldn't get attached and wouldn't be tempted to keep it. The closest thing I could find for the same cost was £17.99 so I had to shell out an extra 99p.

Fast forward to today, I went back and returned the unwanted £17.99 piece of clothing with no objections and no questions asked. So what pray tell is the point of 'exchange only' policies on sale items? Lesson learnt: there are always ways around red tape. It's annoying and a bloody waste of time for all parties, but at least the money is back in my account.

Whilst I recuperated the £17.99, some of it immediately left my account after I treated Mr Curiouser and Curiouser to some of his favourite chocolate treats. I went a little overboard but things like the biscuits and the chocolate honeycomb we can't get locally.

I also had to grab some peppers since the pepper I'd been saving for a recipe had sadly withered and died a sad death. I was already at the mercy of stupid Central London prices (£1 for a pack of peppers... ouch), but when I got to self checkout, they rang up a lot higher. I pointed out the shelf to in-store staff and asked why said item was ringing up higher than the shelf price. They were quick to apologise and refunded me the difference. Little victories and all that.

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Pack of peppers - £1.00
Snacks - £4.55

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TOTAL
£5.55
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WEDNESDAY

Following the success of the African and Caribbean cook off at work, there was another one for Chinese New Year. I didn't have a whole lot of time to cook this time round, so went fairly simple with more of a snack / side dish. I picked up ingredients for crispy kale and also had a heart attack over the cost of Waitrose sesame oil compared to the Asda or Tesco ones I usually buy. But hey, that's central London prices for you... At least the oil will last for several other meals

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Ingredients for food event - £4.21

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TOTAL
£4.21

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THURSDAY

The Chinese New Year work lunch event is today which means only one thing: FREE LUNCH.
Mine isn't quite free as I volunteered to make something for it (costings in yesterday's entry)

We didn't have as many volunteers to cook this time around, so food offerings were a little sparse. Saying that, we have a lot less people in the office at the moment, so it worked out ok.

I enjoy a big plate of chicken chow mein, crispy kale, lime fried greens, pork belly, a veggie rice noodle dish, aubergine, kale and chilli in black bean sauce and pineapple fried rice (the latter two being the MVPs). The company all sat together in the kitchen and it was a lovely social event with prawn crackers and fortune cookies laid out on the tables.

____________________

TOTAL
£0.00

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FRIDAY

Some of us from work go out for lunch. We do a spot of shopping first, then it's 50/50 between Wasabi and Tortilla. As I had the Wasabi pumpkin katsu fairly recently, I opt for a burrito. It's good, but I can't ever remember Tortilla being that expensive?? It does the job for meh Fridays, but I do feel myself falling into a food coma later that afternoon.

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Burrito - £5.80

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TOTAL
£5.80

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SATURDAY

We pop out to do our weekly food shop and as ever, we shop around. Most of our food comes from Aldi as it's such great value, however there are few items I can't get, like chickpeas, which I need Asda for. We have leftover crisps, sandwich fillings and hummus from when the family visited last weekend, so we pick up a baguette for an easy lunch. 

I was originally intending on making a beef dish that night but completely under-estimated how long it would take to prepare and cook. It was too last minute to defrost anything else we'd bought and stashed in the freezer, so we ended up cooking some duck we'd got in Aldi's special buy of the week and then had to improvise as I'd forgotten to pick up any potatoes. We feebly had one large carrot and one large parsnip each(!) which we cut into chips and oven roasted, and cooked up a big batch of French beans. It was a fairly small dinner, but it did the job.

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Aldi - £23.17
Asda - £8.56

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TOTAL
£31.73

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SUNDAY

I bought a beautiful rose gold table lamp in the Argos sale, however it is crazy bright and not at all suited for the ambient lounge lighting scheme I was going for. Plus it glares off the TV making watching anything nigh on impossible. We have an early morning trip to Argos to return said lamp before the crowds. So that's £30-something back in the bank. RESULT

Whilst at the industrial park, we look at kitchens (we are getting a kitchen extension done this year) and beds (our mattress has died and who can blame it? It's a 13 year old mattress). We get lots of kitchen inspiration and decide a 'mattress in a box' dealio like Simba / Eve / Leesa / Emma / Casper is the only way we are going to get a mattress up our impossibly tight stairs to our loft conversion.

For lunch we head to Subway as we had some vouchers through our door and thought it may be a good way of trying out the new vegan meatless meatball sub. We both LOVED it. Plus £3.99 isn't bad at all for lunch for two people (two 6 inch subs with a drink).

We have a chilled movie afternoon and then for dinner we FINALLY cook that beef dish we had an #EpicFail on the day before. It largely uses ingredients you typically already have in the house, so I only needed to buy the beef on Saturday. I also have a little bit of kale left from earlier in the week.

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Subway - £3.99

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TOTAL
£3.99

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TOTAL FOR THE WEEK
£51.28
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Highlights this week:

• a free hot drink can turn a day from shitty to fab
• stupid sales return policies don't actually work
• the cauliflower curry of dreams which was as fruitful in leftovers as it was cheap to make
• improvising with leftover ingredients can sometimes result in the best meals 
• Continuing to use vouchers and discount codes to make my money stretch further (a £3.99 Subway lunch for two people was a great result)
• not standing for over-priced items. Remember it is your consumer right to pay the advertised price, no more 

If you decide to give this money diary a go yourself - or have any money saving tips - do let me know in the comments below!

MY PREVIOUS MONEY SAVING DIARIES

What I spent last week (ouch)

Travel savings & PewDiePie's wedding at Kew Gardens
Curry night, sales and savvy substitutions

The money diary of a London blogger
Coronavirus spending diary

The NOW TV Black Friday offer which gave existing customers the middle finger

What do you think of when you hear the words 'Black Friday'? Chaotic stores with people arm wrestling over the last item on the shelf? A great chance to stock on Christmas gifts for less? So-called bargains that aren't actually bargains? People buying s**t they don't need?

I have always associated Black Friday with reduced price consumer goods and never really thought about it in a services capacity. Enter NOW TV.

I first became aware of NOW TV's Black Friday offer last year, and with savings of up to 60% off, whether you are an existing customer or not, it's definitely one to make you sit up and listen

There are Sky sports passes, kids passes, and my personal favourites: the entertainment and cinema passes. Offers range from a one month pass, a 3 month pass and the ultimate: the 12 month package (the latter being the bandwagon I leapt on last year)

WHAT'S THE DAMAGE?

At the time of writing this, the 12 month entertainment and cinema Black Friday pass rings in at £99. And whilst £99 sounds like a lot of money, know this:

1) The 12 month entertainment and cinema pass usually costs circa £252 (so it's a pretty decent saving)

2) The reduced price works out at £8.25 a month. With the cinema costing far more than this each visit, NOW TV gives me the chance to catch the latest movies freshly released before they've even made it onto Netflix or Amazon.

Since signing up to NOW TV's Black Friday offer last year, I've barely been back to the cinema and can watch many new movies a month than ever before - plus great Sky shows like Riveria (recommend) and old favourites like SATC and The Walking Dead.

THE BAD NEWS

With last year's Black Friday pass soon coming to an end. I hopped onto the NOW TV website here hoping to renew for another year. As an existing customer, I had to log onto my account and then head to the Black Friday offers section (this section personalised to each type of customer).

What first struck me was the lack of offers available to me. Despite being an active user of the cinema and entertainment channels, I wasn't offered anything in these areas - just a sky sports package (something I have never used and never will).  I couldn't see the 12 month Black Friday offer I was seeing splashed about on every TV advert left, right and center. I heard whispers of there maybe being a 3 month offer (also not there)

I did some further research and discovered the Black Friday NOW TV entertainment and cinema offers were only available to new customers and not existing customers.

I wasn't happy. And I wasn't alone. The NOW TV forums and help pages were (and still are) full of disgruntled existing customers left feeling very disappointed this Black Friday.

LAST YEAR

Admittedly last year wasn't exactly smooth sailing either. I had issues claiming last year's Black Friday offer because my existing pass had a certain number of days remaining on it which clashed with the Black Friday promotion dates. However having popped onto the NOW TV chat, I spoke to a very helpful customer services advisor who managed to resolve the issue for me without any fuss, and even sent me a new NOW TV smart stick in the mail.

THIS YEAR

I would love to say this was the same story this year (WRONG). The advisors on chat this time around lacked empathy and were really robotic (likely bored of hearing the same complaint over and over again) and were reeling off blanket responses, likely from some company approved script. I gave it a good go, but wasn't getting anywhere. 

The advisor I spoke to then had the cheek to say "stay tuned for our up-and-coming Christmas and New Years offers". I argued these were unlikely to be as good as their 60% off Black Friday offer and asked what these would be (they couldn't disclose). How can I "hang on" in good faith when I have already done this ahead of Black Friday and then been let down all because I am not a new customer? 

THE REALITY

NOW TV are unable to offer existing customers anything for their previous custom and year(s) of loyalty. There is no thank you or incentive for being an existing customer (rookie error NOW TV).

Not only that, but my existing Black Friday offer comes to an end soon and when it does, I would have to pay more than I did before for the service. As a loyal customer for the last few years, how is this fair?

The whole experience leaves many (including myself) deactivating their NOW TV accounts, not wanting to pay a penny more out of principle. Surely £99 is better than no money at all? Add onto that existing customers leaving NOW TV completely. There is no value to alienating existing customers, it never ends well.

HOW TO BEAT THE SYSTEM

There are several hacks to get around this if you are an existing customer and don't fancy shelling out circa £252 a year (and why should you?)

1) sign up as a new customer - in doing so, you will be able to claim the Black Friday offer (but check the offer is still available first). 

2) sign up for a free trial - NOW TV does free 7 day trials so if you are strategic with when you claim these, you can easily be covered with Christmas movies and entertainment for your family over the Christmas break. 

3) assess your usage and cut back - I have been on the annual cinema and entertainment pass for the last year and on reflection realised that I don't use the entertainment pass all that much (it's only really to binge watch a series like Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead). With this in mind, it makes a lot more sense to only purchase a one month entertainment pass as and when I need it. 

4) reduce the cost with Tesco Clubcard - I have spoken at length before here about my love for the Tesco Clubcard system. By shopping at Tesco and also using my Tesco credit card card elsewhere too, I can generate Tesco points which are then converted into Tesco vouchers. On the Tesco Clubcard exchange site here, these vouchers can be put towards days out and a whole wealth of other experiences. Often your Tesco vouchers can be doubled or tripled in value - meaning you get more for your money. NOW TV is currently included as one of the offers on the site and for every 50p of Tesco vouchers, this converts into £1.50 to spend with NOW TV. So say you needed a £9 one month pass (don't quote me on that number!), all you would need to do is use £3 of your Tesco vouchers (essentially free money!). 

WHAT'S NEXT?

I didn't sign up as a new customer out of principle and have deactivated my account. I may go down the Tesco voucher route next year, but will only sign up when I know there is a series or film(s) I want to watch. And even then, I will only sign up for a month pass. Because £10 or less a couple of times a year is still a darn sight cheaper than their £99 Black Friday offer. 

Did you feel cheated by the NOW TV Black Friday sale?

Image source: Pixabay