50p a day til Christmas - healthily?! Weezl's next challenge...

frugalswan

I'm feeling much more back on track today, much more Weezl-like The bones from the roast chicken we had on Thursday are now in my slow cooker with water, herbs and an onion, and I've shelled some peas my mum gave me to go in the freezer. I've also made a draught excluder for the living room window (the curtain isn't long enough to prevent draughts), and the OH was so impressed he asked if he could have one for his office, just in case any managed to get underneath the curtain in there.

A big thank you to Weezl and everyone in this thread. Tomorrow I'll have a go at costing something, and then seeing if I can get the costs down! I'm going to try and get to Asda to get some of the 50p deals (if the OH gets off the phone), but otherwise I'm going to scope out the local Asian Supermarket to see what's there.

In_Search_Of_Me

Morning weezilites...food sure is expensive! Am debating getting the herby thing because it will fit nicely in the kitchen...did wonder whether I could get away with a window box but prob is that if it fell it would hit someone on street below...dont fancy being sued, esp round these ere parts!
Nowt spent on food today (just as well with all I've spent of late!). Did get fabric for my kimono dressing gown that I'm going to make and also a pressie. What are you making mrs m? at the moment I have a cross stich, patchwork baby quilt, mums welsh quilted pillow and my dressing gown on the go and then want to make a blind for my bathroom window (only taken me a decade!!)...so many plans so little time.
Weezles are you still sane?!

MRSMCAWBER

Hi In Search Of Me...

Heck you are busy :rotfl:

Im doing "in her garden" for my mum for xmas....



i will post a pic later of where i have got to


then the celtic ladies series for me... 2 1/2 down -3 1/2 to go... plus others im being good and not starting until the others are done :A :rotfl:

Im knitting little stockings to hang on the Xmas tree -i do these when the light isn't quite good enough for x stitching . I have toyed with knitting square to make a big blanky -but im not sure yet ..

Once i get some smaller patterns im planning on x stitching book marks, scented cushions to give to the hospice who looked after sis at home ..so they can raise funds at their open days.... but thats a long term thing.. planning on making loads and taking them back in one batch next time we go home. I think im going to have to get my mum to get me a couple of magazines as i never do small x stitches.. I have loads of dmc threads n fabric...just need the bloomin patterns :rolleyes:

Oh and i have just been given a big package of white satin..if anyone has ideas for that :rotfl:

We would have time for all these thing if we didn't have to shop n cook wouldn't we

right back to the sewing i go

cw18

MRSMCAWBER wrote: »

Last time i was in Hohne..

That's where my son headed out to for his posting on 20th July, having finished his training at the end of June.

BigMummaF

I've spent most of the morning reading thru the Stardrops thread....I knew it was an exceptional cleaner for the price, but people are really going to town about it on there!

It crossed my mind that it would be the sort of thing that would fit into Weezl's budget rather nicely, plus satisfy ISOM & Ceridwen on the ethics front, cuz apparently it rates higher than the ecover type brands for being 'green'.

BigMummaF

Forgot to say that those growing thingies like CW is looking at have been discussed on one of the Greenfingered threads.....I read so many bits that I must apologise for not being able to say exactly where, & not being clever enough to do the pretty 'here' bits:p

Anyhooz.....the recommendation was to put summat like a bottle full of water into the centre of the pot first, fill up with soil then carefully remove the bottle & replace with a gravel-type mix. You would then use this central 'column' to make sure the water reached down to the roots of the plants as opposed to drowning the ones at the top & letting the others die from thirst.

The size of the bottle would depend on the size of the pot, so I'm guessing if the bottle reaches almost to the top of the planter, that will be enough. The original poster used a length of drain-pipe in a strawberry planter if that's any help

cw18

Went into the next 'proper' town today for a mooch, and while there I had a look around the market. Have told hubby I'm heading up that way again as soon as I reclaim some space in the freezer....

He picked up some bacon on Thursday so he could have bacon barms. He thought he'd done really well paying a reduced £1.50 for 227g of bacon, but I shuddered when I saw the price ticket as that makes it almost £6.61/kg, and the Mr T value I normally get is only £4.32/kg at full price..... He then claimed he doesn't like the value stuff, though it disappears quickly enough if I put any in the fridge But one of the stalls at the market had 454g packs at £2.20 each - or 3 for £6 (making it £4.41kg) - and I think he'd eat that one, so not a lot dearer than my normal (and it did look less fatty too).

Potatoes locally are around £1.99 for 2.5kg, but I got a 5kg from Mr T for about £2.20. At the market a 7.5kg bag (and they looked nice) was £2.30-£2.40 !! So if I take my shopping trolley with me (and plan meals properly) that's another potential saving to be had There were also loads of fruits and veggies I've never heard of (or seen before - like white peppers?), so next time I'm up I'll also take a notebook and pen/cil to jot some down. Then I can do some digging on the 'net to see what new possibilities they may open up.

But I'm also planning on going up towards the end of day on a Saturday. The chicken leg quarters are still the £5 a tray they were 3 years ago, but you now only get 10 to a tray instead of 12. I used to go in the last half hour/hour of the day, and regularly got them on BOGOF.... so if they still do that it means 20 for a fiver -- or 25p each. So lots of chicken casseroles for us if I pull that one off :rolleyes2

Called into the cheap freezer centre too - the one there is the same chain as our two more local ones, but bigger. I had noticed that the last few times I've been into the local ones I've come out almost empty handed -- and even hubby had commented on that being very unusual for me. Went round the larger one today, reached for a couple of things that were possibles for a quick tea tonight (I have to be out by 5:45pm to get to my daughters for baby-sitting duty), but always winced when I checked the prices...... 99p for a 'plated meal', or 60p for the meat part of a meal to which I'd have to add potatoes (and possibly veg). With a daily average of under 70p that makes them expensive -- and generally much smaller portions than I'd make of anything, so everyone would be picking at stuff later tonight too :eek: Guess that explains why I've regularly come out without anything over the last couple of months

And on the way home we went past an ethnic shop that said on the front that it specialises in rices and pulses -- so I may try and remember exactly where that was to bob in and see what they offer at what prices too.......

littleredheadedgirl'75

hi all,it's taken me 3 insomniac days to read all this thread & its FABULOUS!!!
thankyou so much weezle & everyone else,my condolences mrs macawber.l find myself muttering a lot in the s.markets cos things are so expensive in spain (**sighs** l miss MOC's & boots points!!!) & have had benefits stopped so a very big shortfall :eek:(
no work for OH either :mad:)
just wanted to say,a lot of chinese shops do soy & oyster sauce very cheaply;also some stock japanese stuff like miso soup powder all three of which l think make stuff taste more 'meaty'.
my ma always put veg into mash in all sorts of combos & nutmeg into plain mash...
xo to you all :beer:
p.s. quick thought..has anyone got a recipe for tiramisu?
l will post more cos l know lots of tricks for chinese food having worked in takeaways!

In_Search_Of_Me

wow mrs m thats an awful lot of stictching! I tend to do small myself! just back from nice meal but almost had a heart attack when I worked the bill out!! Definately need to live on what I have for a bit!! Very nice meal but breath takingly expensive! Thankfullly I dont go out for a meal that often! Weezl pilfed sommat nice for you and it wasnt sugar!

foxy-tigger

MRSMCAWBER wrote: »

Morning folks..

Hi loumac.... we are in Bielefeld .... Last time i was in Hohne.. I LOVE Germany and if we could afford it i would live out here when hubby finishes in the army..but there is NO chance of that :rolleyes:

Well we went Blackberrying ..not as many ready as i was hoping for -but we will be doing another trip next weekend -hopefully by then the masses of fruits that are on will be ready -fingers crossed;)
I did get enough though to try out that blackberry grater cake/bake thing i wanted to have a go at :T so that will be tomorrows task -whilst hubby is golfing.. I have to give hubby his dues.. he got right into it...hacking through the undergrowth with his golf club :rotfl:

Picked up a few more whoopsies that are now stashed in the freezer :T

• 7 lots of fresh sliced green beans, 30c each instead of €1.99 :eek:
• 2 packs sliced roast beef,
• 2 big tubs jersey cream ...
• Then 5 huge red peppers that im going to roast off with some of the extra tomatoes and chilli out of the garden -then i can freeze in several bags to add to pasta ...
• plus 2 punnets of nectarines
• and 500g black grapes that will soothe my fruit fetish for the weekend ...

so that wasn't bad for €9.50... saving €26.86 off the full price :eek: .... I still can't believe just how much some things are when at full price I mean €1.99 for enough green beans for 2 :eek: ... glad im planning on growing even more beans next season

I have a loaf of bread underway and i think thats as much as i need to do today.. the rest of today will be spent x stitching/knitting .. :T ..think i will also look through some of my books for some cheap tasty filling meals ready for autumn/winter
have a great day everyone...hope we are all off doing something nice:D

So How long will the punnets of Nectarines last you Mrs M?!?!?!?! He He :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
A day?!?!
I love nectarines tho. only buy them when they are on special offer here!:o:o

xxxxxx:A