Live on £4,000 for a year - 2009, Part 3

BigMummaF

Hello folks...I've just read Aeb's post & can't believe it's time for the new arrivals already :eek: Where has the time gone....
Many thanks for enquiries of Poorly Pup; he's doing incredibly well considering he's got a foot shaped like a kiddie's football once all the bandage is on it True to their word, we've been refunded for the tablets he refused to take so that took the sting out of yesterday's visit but we have to go back again for a change on Monday. The vet is a lovely young lady who has promised to only charge standard prices as she is on emergency cover for the bank holiday so that's a relief too. She reckons we're a family of 'dog whisperers' as Pup is so much calmer when we are allowed to stay with him which I've taken as a compliment *goes off to shine halo :A]
A bank card has turned up this morning so I may pop over to the cash point to see if I can activate it, although the fact I can't access any cash is also a bit of a release..we have to manage with what we've got & that's a position--if we're truly honest--many of us have not had to face.
I can identify with the concerns over aging parents too. Mum will be 85 in a couple of weeks & still lives in complete independence; she cooks every day & keeps house, just relying on my help to go shopping or the doctors appts etc. She is on a fair bit of medication [diabetic] & I've noticed that I'm getting more phone calls as she forgets which one is which, so I've asked for her prescription to be made up into individual doses at the chemist, so all she has to do is open the little packet & take her pills. The thought is it will still encourage her independence but give me peace of mind for a while longer. I've mentioned the pill minders you can buy in a pound shop[eg] but she flatly refuses to consider those cuz she's "not that ga-ga" so I'm hoping the chemist & doctor's surgery will help in my subterfuge that it is a "county-wide trial by the NHS" & not being done on my say-so.

For those who like cottage cheese...have a look on the bbc food site for today's episode Saturday Cooks or whatever it's called..the one with the lush James Martin :kisses2: I'm almost sure the guest chef used only jersey milk & vegetable rennet in a saucepan, then various straining through a j-cloth & chilling times. HTHS.

thriftylass

Hello all,

as Friday was already payday (Mo is bank holiday down south) and I won't have to spend any more money I'm posting August's totals already.

This month’s numbers were:

• Food + HH £194 (£64 over budget due to many ad hoc BBQs with drinkies)
• Bills £65 (£10 under budget due to less leccy)
• Other £340 (including wedding, hen do, birthday, leaving do, night outs - £140 over budget)
• Total £599

So considering our social calendar it wasn’t that bad as I was still able to save a fair amount, but next month has to/will be better.


I found two tins of pears in the cupboars that were two years out of date :eek: but still seemed fine . So they're bubbling away now to try making pear butter. I just passed them through a sieve (to get rid of the tough, stringy bits), added some of the sirup, sugar and cinnamon to the pulp. Found this recipe, which has a much shorter cooking time.

P.S. After envying you all for free berries etc I just noticed loads of blackberry bushes in our back alley (some in other tennements gardens though). But they're not ready yet (not that much sun and colder up here), guess that's why I never noticed them. Maybe I sneak out in to the neighbour's communal gardens on a Sunday early a.m.

sophiesmum_2

My pile of ingredients is gradually diminishing. Have chopped and blanched the runner beans into 4 two person portions for the freezer, made 10 jars of plum and gooseberry jam which tastes delicious, made 6 large jars of bread and butter pickles which look really pretty in the jars, and have also made 4 apple and sultana crumbles for the freezer.
Next up will be the green tomato chutney I think, and the 5 bean chilli is simmering away nicely in the slow cooker. Off to investigate how frugal neighbour is doing with the new hen houses:D

sophiesmum_2

This is what has been produced so far from the fruit and veggies I had earlier. There is still quite a bit of stuff to use up yet.
10 jars of gooseberry and plum jam

6 jars of bread and butter pickles

6 jars of plum and blackberry jam

6 jars of green tomato chutney

and 4 apple and sultana crumbles

At the moment there is about 10 jars worth of apple and blackberry jam bubbling away, after that I am going to have a play with the pressure canner and try and bottle the 5 bean chilli.:D Have already been round to frugal neighbour's and cadged more jars for the jam making:p

The apple and blackberry made 12 jars in the end so plenty for here and next door too

Skint_Lynne

wow,

you have been very busy indeed. I don't think that you'll need to go shopping for about 6 months. I saw the bread and butter pickles on someone's blog, the australian woman's, and thought they looked nice.

You'll need to let me know how they taste. Good luck with the rest of the cookathon. xx

slowlyfading

SM, you're amazing!!

Frugaldom

I am NEVER going to keep up with the neighbour, am I? :rotfl: Fortunately, my drooling and wistful looks were suitably rewarded with samples of SM's home produce. :T

Hope you are well AEB, it sounds like you have got to grips with things and I am really pleased you found good tenants.

Hello, Ddraig, nice to see you here again and it'll be interesting hearing how much of a difference all the renovations works make. Bet you can't wait for completion now! Let the countdown begin. :T (Countdown also beginning for the impending arrival of Aeb's triplets, too ).

On this side of the fence, HS completed the build of the new hen houses whilst I stewed down the 3kg of blackberries with a handful of windfalls from one of the apple trees in the garden. The fruit in now hanging over my wine bucket straining all the liquid out for jelly making tomorrow. Slow cooker is set to cook a batch of mince/veg/oats and we'll have some of that with homegrown potatoes tomorrow.

Loads to do tomorrow and then it's the run-in to DD's wedding! Where have the last 15 months gone? :eek: Can you believe it's been that long since I was preparing the buffet for 100+ on the shoestring budget using the hot plate when the cooker blew up in the previous house??

Our slabs got delivered, so DS has moved them all to the side of the house for us - what a pair of crocks we are here, between me with my dodgey knees and injured ankle and HS with a pulled a muscle in his back. Just as well DS was here, as the pallet of slabs was sat out on the driveway!

Catch up with everyone tomorrow and SM, if you do decide to stay up half the night playing with the new canner, Captain Beaky will still go cockadoodledoo at 6.30am. If there's no sign of you when I go out there, I'll let your mob out at the same time, save you prancing about the garden in yer goonie! :rotfl: Nobody knows it's jammies under my waterproofs. :rotfl:

grandma247

Well done SM thats a lot of work I hope you take time to admire them before you put them away they are beautiful. The best thing about it all is how little it cost, its wonderful. I love this money saving it makes you creative and is very satisfying.
Thriftylass Good idea on the pears. let us know how the butter turned out.
I have been looking at recipes using ingredients you would not normally think of using. One that caught my eye was pineapple jelly using a tin or carton of juice . It doesn't say how many jars it makes but I would like to have a go soon. I love pineapple.
I hope everyone else has had a good day and not too much rain.
I have been deboneing some chicken thighs this evening. Went to Mr Ts and got 6 boxes of fresh chicken thighs and drumsticks. They should have been £4 each but I got them for £1 each. We had some for tea and then I put all the drumsticks into bags for the freezer and got four bags of eight plus two spare in a bag for anyone who needs a solo meal.
The thighs are going to be turned into jar meals tomorrow so are sitting in the fridge tonight. Also got Four very large Aubergines for £1.12 and 2 lots celery 17p each,4 Marge 40p a tub plus a few other bits.
I am hoping to do either blackberry jelly or jam tomorrow too. I got about a pint of juice out of 2lb of blackberries. There are more ripening so will have a look maybe monday and I need to check my late raspberries too.

sophiesmum_2

Skint_Lynne wrote: »

wow,

you have been very busy indeed. I don't think that you'll need to go shopping for about 6 months. I saw the bread and butter pickles on someone's blog, the australian woman's, and thought they looked nice.

You'll need to let me know how they taste. Good luck with the rest of the cookathon. xx

SL - they taste delicious and are really easy to make. I got the recipe on the Down To Earth blog like you say, they look really nice too, would be great with xmas hamper stuff.

Grandma - Great bargains:T:T, the pineapple jelly sounds interesting too, let us know how it works out. Just reading the instructions now for the canner and then the chilli will hopefully get done sometime soon. Will try with water first though;) Would love to see some pics of your cnned stuff sometime.:D

grandma247

I plan to take some pics very soon.
I have had dg1 all week so been busy occupying her,4yrs old going on 12 I think. Like me she loves crafts so it is easy to find stuff for her to do. She was wanting to go on cbeebies one evening so I got the page up and then she said she wanted me to get rid of the task bar at the bottom so i did. Then she said "ooh I can still see that (the screen behind the page) can you get rid of it? " So as I was doing that I said "You're a fussy thing." Quick as a flash and with a deadpan face she "yeah I know"
Goodness knows what she will be like in a few years. Shes no trouble though, a very relaxing child to have around.