Live on £4000 for a year - Part 3

Frugaldom

I've just done the 'no need to knead' bread recipe and have left it to prove (itself worthy of 4 loaves) :rotfl: Meanwhile, I read the label on a can of Homepride cook-in curry sauce. I was really lucky during my bulk shop at Mr T's because when I ordered 20 cans of store's own brand (4p per can) they only had 14 in stock, so sent me half a dozen 'posh' ones for the same price - I had ticked the 'replace if out of stock' box. Anyway, there appears to be 165g of stuff that contributes to the 5-a-day, which is just over 2 portions (80g per portion) so I added 400g of diced peppers and onions to the sauce, along with the diced chicken. We've already had approx 100g f&v per person, so 1200g - 300g = 900g. If I deduct the 565g for the curry I am left with 335g to make up before the night is out! Off to see how the bread is rising now, will be back to let you know if I come up with any frugal ideas for topping up the F&V 5-a-day.

lyndasharp

I've been having dried apricots as a snack instead of chocolate or biscuits - a good way to get an extra portion of fruit but they still taste sweet enough to stop the cake cravings! I've run out now though, will stock up again next week!

Derry trip is all sorted, booked into a hotel and I'm just going to meet bf's Mum for a cup of tea when I'm there.

I spent last weekend in Margate, then drove up to Lincoln for a weeks work, now I'm back in Swindon for 3 days to do lots of washing before I head off to Derry. I keep waking up wondering where I am! Lincoln was an expensive week, not done the adding up yet, but I have earned about £400 extra, so I think a few nights out catching up with friends there won't have dented the budget too much.

Typically, bf has come down with a horrible cold now that I'm back here and was looking forward to seeing him again after a week apart. He just sat on my sofa sneezing for a few hours, then had to go home to bed! Hope I don't catch it....

Got a nice surprise in the post when I got home today, shampoo and conditioner to test! I was running out, so that saves me having to go and buy some. It's through a TNS survey, in case anyone was wondering.

sophiesmum_2

Nyk, if you had each day

• a glass of orange or other fruit juice
• a portion of pulses added to a meal or salad
• a banana

that would leave you wth only 160g per person of veggies to include each day to reach the minimum. You could vary the fruit juices, vary the pulses from baked beans/lentils, chickpeas, butter beans etc, swap the banana for any other portion of fresh or dried fruit.Don't forget for cooking frozen peppers are much cheaper to buy than fresh,as are broad beans,and lots of others but still have good nutritional values, and usually less air miles/storage.Also you are paying for weight that you are actually going to eat and not the extra leaves,stalks,peel that you throw away:rolleyes:
Foraging is useful too. I picked 12-15lbs of blackberries last year, for jams, crumbles, pies and just to freeze to use in yoghurts, smoothies etc, we are just getting to the end now .
I think the main problem you are going to have is to accomodate the likes and dislikes of the others in the house,and your access to mainstream shops.
I made my oldies banana splits the other week and bought 27 bananas in asda for £2.69. I could have got them cheaper than that in costco but didn't want to travel to get them and asda is only 5 mins away.

sophiesmum_2

Nyk have a look at this website www.5to10aday.com it is canadian and they advocate 5-10 a day minimum. There is a recipe bit on there where you can input F&V ingredients you have and it will give you a recipe.


Just checked the nhs site and blackberries are 9-10 blackberries =a portion , so definately worth foraging and storing in freezer etc, think i will try dehydrating some this year. Around here they are green at moment.

Marru

Hi,

I think I just managed my 5 today:

Glass of orange juice
Lettuce and tomato in a sandwich (that I bought for DD when out and about as she said she was hungry but then didn't eat it)
Apple (same thing it was for DD and I ended up eating it)
Carrots (raw and cooked)
Baked beans

I didn't think I could do it but it seems easier than I thought. Getting variety for me would be tough. When college starts in September I need to be more organised as I need to take my lunch with me. I need to go to Weezl's thread and have a look at all the yummy sandwich fillers and see if I can do batches and freeze them to then just take with me in the morning.

Talking about foraging. You know that one of my piggies has been poorly. I asked an animal communicator (who I met at the course) to find out how I can help him. She told me to get him dandelion leaves. So I have now every time I take The Dog for a walk been foraging dandelion leaves for him and that seems to be the favourite food ever and goes down like a storm. And it is free. How about that - a frugal piggy.

DD went late to bed as we were naughty and were watching music videos on my computer (I hope she didn't get traumatised of bit of U2, Alanis Morisette and Sheryl Crow) and I have just come out from my bath that I allow myself on Saturday evenings instead of quick shower. Off to bed now methinks.

Night night,

Marru

Frugaldom

sophiesmum wrote: »

Nyk, if you had each day

• a glass of orange or other fruit juice - Trying to do
• a portion of pulses added to a meal or salad - already do
• a banana - Trying to do

that would leave you wth only 160g per person of veggies to include each day to reach the minimum. You could vary the fruit juices, vary the pulses from baked beans/lentils, chickpeas, butter beans etc, swap the banana for any other portion of fresh or dried fruit.Don't forget for cooking frozen peppers are much cheaper to buy than fresh,as are broad beans,and lots of others but still have good nutritional values, and usually less air miles/storage.Also you are paying for weight that you are actually going to eat and not the extra leaves,stalks,peel that you throw away:rolleyes:
Foraging is useful too. I picked 12-15lbs of blackberries last year, for jams, crumbles, pies and just to freeze to use in yoghurts, smoothies etc, we are just getting to the end now .
I think the main problem you are going to have is to accomodate the likes and dislikes of the others in the house, and your access to mainstream shops.
I made my oldies banana splits the other week and bought 27 bananas in asda for £2.69. I could have got them cheaper than that in costco but didn't want to travel to get them and asda is only 5 mins away.

Hi SophiesMum, thanks for that You hit the nail on the head! It costs about £10 in petrol for a trip to our nearest large supermarket - the joys of rural living - hence the reason I don't go very often and need to rely on the Co-op for most fresh produce. Tomorrow, however, we are heading out for the day, National Trust card in one hand, picnic in the other, rain, hail, sleet or snow!The place we are going is only a couple of miles from a Mr T store, so I'll be stocking up on fresh orange juice and fruit whilst still trying to stay within my £40 a month budget. Pity it hadn't been near an Asda, as I have a £10 voucher for there! Never mind, it's being saved for next visit to mum's.
Tonight, whilst baking the bread, I baked some cookies and managed to fit in 10 portions of sultanas and got 30 cookies, so 3 cookies must equal 1 portion! That's my story and I'm sticking to it. :rotfl: It almost solved the problem of today's missing 335g, but we were still 95g (31.66g approx per person) short, overall. Unless I count the strawberry jam we had on the hm bread, which had to be assessed when it came out the oven!

Have fun tomorrow, everyone. I'll be away most of the day but will catch up and update my spends as soon as I can.

sophiesmum_2

MMMMmmmm cookies:D sounds like a plan to me:D

Enjoy your day tomorrow Nyk, hope the sun makes an appearance:cool:

sophiesmum_2

Marru wrote: »

Hi,

I think I just managed my 5 today:

Glass of orange juice
Lettuce and tomato in a sandwich (that I bought for DD when out and about as she said she was hungry but then didn't eat it)
Apple (same thing it was for DD and I ended up eating it)
Carrots (raw and cooked)
Baked beans

I didn't think I could do it but it seems easier than I thought. Getting variety for me would be tough. When college starts in September I need to be more organised as I need to take my lunch with me. I need to go to Weezl's thread and have a look at all the yummy sandwich fillers and see if I can do batches and freeze them to then just take with me in the morning.

Talking about foraging. You know that one of my piggies has been poorly. I asked an animal communicator (who I met at the course) to find out how I can help him. She told me to get him dandelion leaves. So I have now every time I take The Dog for a walk been foraging dandelion leaves for him and that seems to be the favourite food ever and goes down like a storm. And it is free. How about that - a frugal piggy.

DD went late to bed as we were naughty and were watching music videos on my computer (I hope she didn't get traumatised of bit of U2, Alanis Morisette and Sheryl Crow) and I have just come out from my bath that I allow myself on Saturday evenings instead of quick shower. Off to bed now methinks.

Night night,

Marru

Marru, ours used to like dock leaves as well as dandelion leaves:D but if they are used to dry feeds too much can give them the runs:rolleyes: . You can use dandelion leaves in salads for yourself too;) will add to your 5 a day;)

Marru

sophiesmum wrote: »

Marru, ours used to like dock leaves as well as dandelion leaves:D but if they are used to dry feeds too much can give them the runs:rolleyes: . You can use dandelion leaves in salads for yourself too;) will add to your 5 a day;)

Sorry - can't find it in my dictionary. Need to check it out in Wikipedia tomorrow. Defo logging off now...

Frugaldom

Marru wrote: »

Sorry - can't find it in my dictionary. Need to check it out in Wikipedia tomorrow. Defo logging off now...

I can still seeeeeeeee yooooooooooou. :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: