Live on £4000 for a year - part 4 (Oct - Dec 2008)

Marru

I had my neighbour's girl to sit here with DD when I popped into post office and coop. Needed to get some eggs and the pack of 12 large free range ones were now over £3.- :eek: Bring on small holding and chickens.

I didn't manage to get extension for my assignment, it has to be in tonight and I am feverishly working on it. DD has conveniently recovered so she is jumping all over the place and chatting constantly as she has been sleeping all day I don't have any idea what time I will get her to bed.

Have changed my signature. Will try to stop drinking completely, no relaxing glasses of wine for me anymore. I was going to start after Christmas but no time like present. I trust you to come up with suitable punishment if I slip.

Brighton_belle

Janey51 wrote: »

Brighton belle I have never used dried eggs before. I read about them in WW2 cookery books.
Can you use them as ordinary eggs for baking?
How much are they and what section in Lidl would you find them?

Janey, when I said I was popping into lidl's for powdered milk & eggs, I meant 'powdered milk'.... and (normal) 'eggs':o . However, I 'm glad to see I have inadvertantly triggered more frugal ideas:D .
Decided to go mad in the end and buy a litre of normal milk and some normal eggs from local co-op to save the extra trip to lidl. Got month's meat supply from butcher, including a couple of local rabbits for £3.50 each. Posted ebay large parcel, relieved I had estimated the postage corrctly and was then sucked into local charity shop where I bought a brilliant clothes dryer that with 'a click of a button' folds down for storage - it's a 4ft high sturdy indoor circular one for 2.99:j . Also bought a red zipped hoodie and discovered that particular red really suits me.
Thriftylass - budget looks good:T Welldone for sorting that, a great start. I too am excited about the new year and being in from the beginning.

Frugaldom

Janey, I Googled the dried eggs and found this SuperCook link but I can't find any prices. Mr T still do their cheap eggs at £1.49 for 15 but the Organic ones are over £3 per dozen. Chickens are looking quite economical, especially if they can free range (cuts down on the feeding).

Penny2myName

I buy 12 free range eggs from my local vegetarian cafe in town for £1.60. Will be buying two dozen this week so as to cover for all the baking.

tryingtodobetter

Good Evening

Just popping in before I hit the books for the night. Had to go into Uni today for one lecture that was just an hour what a waste of petrol :mad: :mad: but I did manage to find a top for only £8 to wear to the two Christmas meals that I am going to.

Nyk - I haven't played the free bingo on Ga*a for ages is it still running? I signed up to Tak£ a Br£ak bingo last night so I will be doing the scratchcards on there and Littl£w00ds, I will be using this money to pay towards my car tax in August.

Hope everyone has a good evening.

TTDB.x.

purplevamp

thriftylass - :T Well done on getting your budget sorted. I need to get my bum in gear

Marmite is my secret ingredient in a lot of my dishes (:shhh: don't tell anyone)

Marru - I hope your DD is feeling a bit better, it's awful when they're poorly isn't it? My DD had a temperature last weekend. At it's highest it was 39.3 :eek: . It's best to keep them off school or nursery for at least a day after they get back to normal, it sounds like she was better at home. Good luck with your no drinking. I'm sure we'll keep you in check

Spent 20 minutes queueing in the post office to post 2 ebay parcels. Spent a fortune in £Land but had a bit of an unintentional bargain in Woolies. I got loads of half price xmas cards for family, and also managed to get a silver shrug and black 'prom' for DD for only £6.40. It wasn't until I got home that I realised the cashier had only charged me for the cardi and not the dress. Half of me thinks I should go back but the other half of me screams ":j bargain!!" It's for my SIL's wedding next year in Ireland which had already cost us nearly £500 in flights and accommodation...


Edit: My imeasure rating has gone down to a C from a B!! Not good.

candygirl

TTDB what are the scratchcards?I've seen them mentioned a few times and have no idea

tryingtodobetter

candygirl wrote: »

TTDB what are the scratchcards?I've seen them mentioned a few times and have no idea

Both Littl£w00ds bingo and Tak£ a Br£ak bingo do a free daily scratchcard. You have to have a balance in order to play the scratchcard but this can be as little as 10p (please correct me if I'm wrong) You can also sign up to Littl3woods through Qui*c0 for some cash back. Hope this helps.

candygirl

tryingtodobetter wrote: »

Both Littl£w00ds bingo and Tak£ a Br£ak bingo do a free daily scratchcard. You have to have a balance in order to play the scratchcard but this can be as little as 10p (please correct me if I'm wrong) You can also sign up to Littl3woods through Qui*c0 for some cash back. Hope this helps.

Thanks hun x:A

redglass_2

Hi
I've always kept salt out of pulses until they are cooked, but one of my swisher cookery books says this is an old wives' tale. I reckon if you play it safe you can't go wrong, after all you don't lose anything by only adding salt at the end. What really does make a difference, though, is the age of the pulses. They look like things that will keep forever but they don't, they get harder and harder. The last time I used up some ancient yellow split peas they were like bullets :eek: . Perhaps age is the problem with yours, Nyk? Chick peas also get very hard and can become so tough as to be unusable. In general it's not a good idea to buy tons of dried pulses unless you know you'll get through them fast. The exception might be lentils as these cook so quickly anyway.

The TIghtwad Gazette says you can replace an egg in any baking recipe with a small amount of soy flour and cooking oil. I haven't used this tip but it's supposedly very reliable. Now, I'd like to give all my fellow frugalists the precise measures, but can I find my copy of the TG? No way! Maybe someone else can supply the information....