1 mortgage, 2 babies, 3 years to be MF, 4 goodness sake!- weezl's diary

weezl74

weezl74 wrote: »

So I bought:

Goodies Mincemeat with brandy 820g 1 £0.99
CASE PRICE De Identified Sticky Toffee Sponge 10 x 130g tubs 1 £0.99
Buitoni Pasta Express Pennette 500g 3 £1.485
CASE PRICE De Identified Eat Smart Moroccan Style Cous cous snack pot 6 x 60g Blue 2 £1.98
CASE PRICE De Identified Lemon and Coriander Style Couscous 15 x 110g Sachets 1 £0.99
CASE PRICE De Identified Mediterranean Style Tomato Cous Cous 15 x 110g Red 1 £0.99
CASE PRICE De Identified Nut Roast Mix 8 x 150g 1 £0.99
CASE PRICE De Identified Supermarket Golden Vegetable Savoury Rice 15 x 120g Sachets 1 £0.49
CASE PRICE De Identified Supermarket Pasta Shells in a Tomato and Onion Mix 9 x 110g 2 £1.98
De Identified Simmer Soup Creamy Vegetable 59g Sachet 10 £0.99
Zanier Vialone Nano Rice Flavoured for Risotto Primavera 300g 1 £0.80
De Identified Approved Manufacturer - Orange Marmalade - 450g 1 £0.60
Loreto Spanish Olives Pitted Black 4kg 1 £1.49

Thanks ISOM and Lilac pixie

OK just calculated that in the above order with minimal extras required I have the basis of:

70 main meals
16 lunches
20 puddings
15 breakfasts

feeling even more in favour of approved foods now

phizzimum

Hi weezl,

all is good with us. the little frugalistas are enjoying the snow - it's given me a bit of a siege mentality but I don't mind that, I quite like the challenge of seeing how far I can stretch the food and using up all those things lurking in the back of cupboards!

we have chickens now too - very sensibly they are staying inside their coop.

Cazzdevil

I'm busy working my way through all of our utilities etc at the minute trying to save a few pence here and there. Just by cancelling extras (caller display, paper billing, mobile bundles) I've shaved £30 off the monthly bills so that's going straight into the mortgage. Not much but also not bad since I've hardly done anything. I'd already swapped for the cheapest tariffs etc so no savings to be made there sadly. But it's an extra £360 a year towards the mortgage.

shaz_mum_of__2

I did see the 10% off thing and had £27 worth of stuff in my basket but changed mind at last min i had a big order just before xmas and really have nowhere to put it

we had the nut roastlast night with added fried onions and pepper and made into a meatloaf with hard boiled eggs in served with roast potatoes and pumkin and carrot mash ....yummy

funny the basket i nearly bought looked almost like yours


Weezl if you enail them you may be able to add the tea if it hasn't been picked yet

What you going to do with all those olives i thought pasta type dishes, added in the couscous and make tapenade any more ideas

gallygirl

Weezl, I would serve the nut roast as it is but serve with home made tomato sauce as it can be a bit dry. Or you could make it like stuffing balls and serve with anything.

Only me here a lot of the time so not much point me ordering with Approved Foods otherwise I'd be joining you all

weezl74

shaz_mum_of__2 wrote: »

What you going to do with all those olives i thought pasta type dishes, added in the couscous and make tapenade any more ideas

What you said plus olive bread, olive houmous, tuscan bean stew,and if I find bargain feta and aubergines then I'll chop them finely add them, feta and herbs into couscous/rice and stuff it into fried rolled aubergine strips and then bake with a tomatoey sauce poured over (a bit like carnaroli?) But I'm open to other suggestions too!

gallygirl what veg do you serve with it? and does it do two people for a main meal?

cazz well done on your bills reductions:T:T:T:T:T:T how did you work out what you weren't using,phone package-wise?

phizzimum, does the cold weather affect their laying or are you still getting a few a day?

Cazzdevil

Hi Weezl,
Stupid really, I signed up for a £15 a month deal which gave me 100 minutes and unlimited texts yet my bills were still coming in £20+ each month so I phoned Orange and lo-and-behold there's a £5 a month internet bundle tagged onto it somehow so I cancelled that straight away. My deal's not supposed to end until November but I might see about cancelling it somehow as I can get away with using the company mobile instead.

I've been looking into ways to cut our energy usage too (given the weather lately I'm dreading the gas&leccy bill coming in since our heating has been on almost constantly). Worked out that using my hairdryer for 15 mins every day costs me almost £40 a year so I'm gonna try and cut the usage of that (which should be easier now since my hair's long enough to get into a ponytail), it'll be better for my hair too anyway.
http://www.citytrf.net/costs_calculator.htm Used this site to begin with then realised I could've worked it out myself had I used my noggin in the first place.

Wonder how much my washer & dishwasher cost to run...

SusanC_2

Cazzdevil wrote: »

Wonder how much my washer & dishwasher cost to run...

If you check the instruction booklets they may tell you how many units are used. Our dishwasher has details of kWh for all the different cycles. If not, you could always try searching on the manufacturers website as they may have details thre. excuse typos - on hold on the phone so typing one handed.

In_Search_Of_Me

oo wonder how much my washing machne costs to run a load...weezl...fess up if you worked it out...go on...bet you just couldnt resist could you?!! What was it then?!!
Just popped in to post a linky that will appeal to the frugal...recycle wool which for me would be great so my tast next week is to try! Weezl shall we have a bash as an actvity?!!
http://www.neauveau.com/recycledyarn.html
A faff but bearing in mind some wool is 8+ a ball worth while...
Cazz well done on the money off. Must investigate virgin mobile as they had an 8 offer which was 100 mins and 100 texts...

phizzimum

ooh thanks for that link ISOM - it's something I've been thinking of doing and I've started looking in charity shops for nice wooly jumpers I could unravel. so I've bookmarked that link so I can do it properly without strangling myself!

weezl - the chickens haven't been laying since the snow came. they lay less in winter anyway but I guess at the moment they need all their energy to keep warm. maybe my next knitting project should be for them!