I have made a couple of little splurges cash wise. We are lucky enough (some would not agree it was lucky!) to have inherited an Aga with the farmhouse. It is a 2 oven, special edition one which I posted about here. Therefore in anticipation of this, I have treat myself to an Aga gauntlet and some bake-o-glide. The research I have done shows that both of these items are must have, lifelong companions when you have an Aga.
Also my husband has bought an Aga toaster for the kitchen which is like a wire tennis racket that the toast goes inside and you ‘grill’ it on the hot plates. According to Agaliving, there is no cooked breakfast or toast quite like an Aga one. I shall keep you posted on whther or not I agree!
This week we have been moving items from my vacant Uncle’s
house where we are currently staying, to my parents’ house. We are going to make the final move from
there as it makes more sense to have everything in one place. They have kindly let us store lots and lots of
things at their house whilst we’ve been waiting.
The van is booked for moving day and we’re waiting to hear
where we will collect the keys from. No
doubt we will be sat ready to go from 9am and the reality is it will be nearer
3pm before we get the keys!
I’ve also been in touch with the company who are delivering
our stables and they are on track for delivery the Tuesday after we move in, as
is the bedding for the horses. The hay
and straw has been requested for delivery but I am waiting to hear back from
the farmer to see if he can deliver that week. Once we move in and get to know the
neighbours, we intend to see if there is a supplier from the immediate area but
for now I have found someone who is recommended but slightly out of the area.
My brain is full of ideas that I can’t wait to put in to
practice. One idea that I’ve tried with
intermittent success is menu planning, which I am in the process of doing. I need to stock our new pantry up, over time,
and this will begin with the first food shop.
I am getting it delivered to help myself but weekly shops after the
initial one, will be done at Aldi. All
menu plans and shopping, including prices will be recorded.
For the remainder of the ideas, I hope we don’t fall in to
the trap of trying too much at once, but we’re just so excited!
I should think over time shopping trips will become less, mine are very patchy now about every 4-6 weeks and we are only buying the staples like milk, sugar butter and cereal all our meat we have produced, vegetables we have grown and stored it been a great learning curve and still learning :-)
ReplyDeleteJust thinking about it sounds so fascinating, I can't wait to get going. Do you freeze your milk at all? I read on another blog that full fat and semi freeze ok but skimmed doesn't (which is what DH drinks typically) but we shall experiment. :)
DeleteMenu planning and regular checks of the pantry/freezer are good habits to get into. Plan meals around what the supermarkets have on offer and check mysupermarket for prices. I stockpile things when I see them at too good to miss prices. I am strict and go into the shop for that and only that. My last tip deal in cash.......watching it disappear makes you think twice.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tips - I have started menu planning which I have done hit and miss over the past few years. I'd like to get to the stage where I know if I cook 'this' on day one, then day 2 naturally follows as 'that' because of left overs, stock etc etc.
ReplyDeleteGood tip re the cash, I will start doing that once we're in as when it's gone, it's gone too.
You can't beat Aga toast, my 'tennis racquet' is in constant use :-)
ReplyDelete