FRUGAL LIVING CHALLENGE 2010, part 1. (Living on £4,000 a year)

Ansoff

Good luck DEBT with the flat, hope it is just what you want.

Had another day eating food from the freezer. Had a ham joint at Christmas that I had sliced and frozen. Had it will lovely fresh vegetables. Spent £48.00 on diesel but this will comes out of work expenses.

Ansoff

mooomin

JayJay14 wrote: »

What sort of bulb is it? Cos I don't think they work very well with low energy bulbs and I know that the light fittings we have in the lounge can't be used with a dimmer.

Is a low energy one. I don't think we have any other kind in the house.

grandma247

Larmy16 don't throw the flour out it will be fine for other things such as scones, batter for pancakes and yorkshires etc.

larmy16

grandma247 wrote: »

Larmy16 don't throw the flour out it will be fine for other things such as scones, batter for pancakes and yorkshires etc.

Oh dear - I might see if I can get it out of the bin!!! Thanks for that.

cw18

Aril wrote: »

Someone asked for my tuna bake recipe [sorry my brain is once again playing hide and seek with me again this evening]
We make it by cooking pasta [we just bring it to the boil, leave lid on and turn heat off for 10 mins so it cooks through], mix a can of tuna with a tin of sweetcorn and a condensed mushroom soup. Stir the whole lot through the pasta and put grated cheddar on top. If we're using the oven for something else then we'll heat it through there or quickly microwave it.

Ours consists of a tin of chopped toms, which I simmer on a low light for a while (to reduce the liquid) while heating through frozen peas and sweetcorn in the same pan. I add the tuna a few minutes after the veg, otherwise it tends to "mush".
The pasta is cooked until al-dente in a different pan, and then stirred into the 'sauce' - or the sauce is stirred into the pasta depending on the size pan I used for the sauce and the number of people I'm cooking for....
I grate mature cheddar which I sprinkle on top once served - the family were never bothered about it being 'browned' or 'fully melted', but using a fine grater generally means it starts to melt as soon as it's sprinkled onto the rest of the meal

I sometime add some dried herbs to the tomatoes from the 'off' as well, but it doesn't actually cook for long enough to release the full flavours from them.

sabs10

Hello All,

Just a little up date to my earlier post.

Have gone through all receipts - i even found one for 1 first class stamp. I have a habit of asking for receipts for all purchases. Just need to now put them on a spreedsheet so I can keep a running total of expenditure.

So it means i have been reasonablly sensible with my money. 7 out of 12 NSDs, and £144.77 spent so far. This includes 4 Christmas prezzies and 2 birthday prezzies. My girls have 2 parties to go to this month, and my bargin was a £5 gift reduced to £1.25 - along with their homemade cards and wrapping paper - we seem to be embracing the frugal life style well when i actually focus on what's been acheived rather than stressing over lack of funds. The extra bonus is that today my girls' term for dance class has restarted. I thought that we would have to stop as it is quite expensive. The teacher and i negotiated a swap of skills. She teaches the girls for around 2 1/2 hours per week, and i do her admin for her. As the admin amounts to more than she would normally charged she has also thrown in an adult dance class for me - 1 hour per week. Am well happy as my girls love their dance. Am now menu planning for next week's meals - using a bedrock recipe from economy gastronomy cookbook a friend got me for Xmas. Will keep u updated on the progress.

Well night all

sabs10

loopychriss

Kittikins wrote: »

LoopyChriss - sorry, but I've read elsewhere on this site that the Boot$ 75% sale is NOT starting tomorrow, they've postponed it for possibly a week due to the bad weather putting customers off going to the shops....

When I was in my local shop picking up an order the other day, the manager told me that the company had bought a lot less in for Christmas than in previous years, so the pickings are a lot slimmer this year.

Spent more than I anticipated in Mr T's today grrr....

oh no!!!! and just when I'd persuaded hubby that it was a good idea to go!!!

I've actually been sitting on the boots website this evening (it's now 00.18) and it says they're "currently refreshing their offers"... so wonder if the website offers will be today. Never mind, there's nothing I desperately want in Boots, just wanted to get some bargains as I've got some points to use up.

Thanks for letting me know, anyway.

aeb_2

I've caught up again - good babies tonight, just finished feeding and all peacefully asleep so going to get my head down early tonight. Much snow again here.

I stockpiled like mad in July/August so I've hardly had to go shopping. Just had to buy milk and fresh fruit really. Can't do without bananas! I like being a hermit but realise my children need to socialise

Frugal tip - I buy loose tea. A 125g packet lasts me for months. I like Mr T's own brand costing about 75p, so much cheaper. It took a while to get out of the T-bag habit but now it doesn't take any longer. (I'm not a total [STRIKE]martyer[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]mater[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]maytr[/STRIKE](sp?)idiot, I do keep a box of t-bags in)

Question from a 2 yr old -
Him, Mummy, will the grass die under the snow like it does under the tent?
Me, no
Him, why not 'cos it does under the tent and it is under the snow
Me,

loopychriss

flying_fresian wrote: »

Is a low energy one. I don't think we have any other kind in the house.

That is why it is flickering then.... we had the same problem with the dimmer switch and a low energy lightbulb and had to change the switch in the end as I didn't want to go back to normal lightbulbs.

candygirl

AEB you have a future genius there i think;)At a petting farm my little 2 year old niece asked me why the chicks were "trapped" ie in a pen, and kicked off when I wouldn't let them out:T:T:T