Holiday diet + bank balance diet =

So, my holiday quest continues! I've been trying to combine healthy eating with money saving and the first step is:
Take my dinner to work with me! I do this usually however I've been a bit lazy recently and had started to buy Boots meal deals for my lunch. They cost about £3.25, so if I kept on buying one everyday I'd be spending £16.25 per week on my dinners! There's 8 weeks left till holiday so that's £130 spent on my dinner... And probs sushi everyday! I reckon buns and ham or pasta salad costs less than a fiver per week, so I'd say I'm spending about £40 in the 8 remaining weeks making a holiday savings diet amount of £90! Which I will more than likely spend on the first day in a scrumptious steak on the stone restaurant!

Wowzer I have to say, I never thought that those long winded maths questions would ever be useful......apparently they are! I will now enjoy my little tiny brown bun ham sarnies whilst thinking of the huge fillet steak I'll be eating in the sun!

I also went to a friends house last Friday for a gathering of drinks instead of hitting the bars in town, staying in is the new going out you know! This potentially saved me £50 just paid for a taxi there and back and alcohol. A bottle of vodka and diet coke- no beer even! A pint is about 170 calories, vodka diet coke is about 70 cals (single measure) so not only am I saving pennies I'm cutting down on calories. If I stay in for at least 4 weekends out if the remaining 8 that's £200 towards my holidaybobs.

Wowzer I'm saving £290 quid already! I also bought a metro pass saving £3 per week on travel do that's £24 taking me to a grand total of £314! Amazing work.

I also managed to avoid Yorkshire puddings on Sunday and had pork & couscous instead!

Bank balance diet....

So, my mortgage is on the up. Water rates have gone up, tv licence increase. April brings such disappointing post. I'd like a nice letter next please mr postman!

The delightful pending summer holiday not only means trying to achieve a leaner waist but also means saving some cash to spend on hols. I opted not to shop online this week, to try the local butcher and green grocer to save some pennies.

Veg: defo cheaper than the supermarket but less choice. I did get some gapes and blueberries at a fraction of the cost of the supermarket. It was a bit crazy really, some things literally only cost pence! Two full bags of fruit and veg for less than a tenner!

Butchers: bought some minted pork chops that were both cheap and tasty and without much fat. I also picked up some chicken breasts and intended to eat them on Sunday. I found myself out with friends instead on Sunday so didn't cook the chicken.... A day later... I checked some food standards website and it says that fresh chicken can be kept in the fridge for 1-2 days! Oooops shopping at the butchers FAIL!! I didn't check on the Internet how long the chicken was safe to eat until AFTER I had a pot of chicken soup bubbling away. The chicken didn't look off or ruined or smell bad but I wasn't going to risk it.

So although the meat was cheaper at the butchers I actually wasted money when I had to throw the chicken out. Hmmm lesson learnt I'll probably stick to the supermarket for meat from now on.