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

rozeepozee

BigMummaF wrote: »

The Offspring paid for mine for Mothers Day two years ago & it is by far, the best 'gadget' I possess! There's a thread dedicated to the panny if you'd like it, & you've spurred me to go make some cheesy bread for tonight's supper Now if only I could get my little darlings to appreciate the sc & hm soup...:o

Sneaky Ways to help eke out everyday things & Preparing for Winter for lots of tips on keeping costs down are just two places I would strongly recommend you take the time to read through. I've loads of others for gift ideas, packed lunches, recipes etc if anyone would like something...

I am soooo loving this thread. I'm at mum at mo so can't bookmark any of these but can't wait to have a good read when I get home.

Thanks!

annie123

Just been to tesco local to get a few bits, stops me from buying too much at the megga big MrS, and got some whoopsie bananas :j
Do like to start the year off with a bargain or two:D

I got so excited about putting the figures into the CW spreadsheet
that I got told by my DD ' you need to get out more!':rolleyes::rotfl:

Off to see how the whoopsie bit of it works ( to DD)

debtmess

sophiesmum wrote: »

You can reheat cottage pie fine in the remoska,either straight into the pan or in a smaller dish, also the veg but would get the cottage pie almost hot enough and then add the veg for a shorter time or else wrap the veg in foil before heating it.

Thank you, would this be the same for most things ie if i make too much of a pasta bake or similer

i really only used microwave for heating beans, soup or milk or rehating food so i am so loathed to replace it

nikki20022008

viv0147 wrote: »

This is a very useful site you put what you have in the fridge and your cupboards and it suggests meals you can make. http://www.cookingbynumbers.com

Thank you yayyyyy i'm going to sort out my food cupboard today and use all my bits this site is great

Puddleglum

little_miss_moneysaver wrote: »

It looks like we did well on paper last year, but I know if I was out i'd buy milk and bread for example out of "my money" then not add it onto my shopping diary. So this year is going to be stricter!

Oops! I've just worked out where I have gone wrong. I have £150 each month paid into my personal account and was going to allow myself £10 pw as pocket money. The rest to gradually pay off the overdraft. BUT if I buy anything on my list out of that and add it onto the spreadsheet eg groceries or toiletries or kids clothes that will muck up all the good work.

DOH!!!!!!!!!!

Back to the drawing board!:doh:

sophiesmum_2

debtmess wrote: »

Thank you, would this be the same for most things ie if i make too much of a pasta bake or similer

i really only used microwave for heating beans, soup or milk or rehating food so i am so loathed to replace it

Basically anything you could heat up in the oven you can do in the remoska in a quicker time

debtmess

Thia is what i have to work with food wise for the next few weeks as i havent a huge amount of food stoarge space, a bigger freezer would be nice, maybe its something i can buy in a few months time

Fridge
4 pts milk
2 tubs philadelphia
cheese strings (my son on asd spectrum is so fussy on what he eats its unreal
half tub spread
butter
brocolli
12 onions
15 carrots jar jam
tomato ketchup

Freezer
2 x 700g gammon joints
3 x8 pork sausages
small tub cooked chicken
half bag peas
half bag sweetcorn
2 whole chickens
1 pack chicken drumsticks
2 x8 turkey sausages
1 large pizza
bag chicken portions
4 packs mince
2 rolls of milk roll bread (one of the only things ds3 will eat)
lots of cooked turkey

cupboard
tins:
8 x 4 packs tomato soup
10 x 4 packs of beans
10 tins spaghetti
6 x butterbeans
6x chopped toms
2xsweetcorn
4x mushroom soup
9 x tuna
3 x ravioli
6 jars pasta bake sauce
12 beef oxos
11 chicken oxos
bottle olive oil
salt
gravy powder
jelly sachets
2 packs flour tortilas
custard powder
2 jars jam
spices
pack brown rice
pack brown pasta
sweet potatoes
potatoes

in storecupboard jars
lentilsd
pasta
rice
boiled sweets

48 wheat bisks
bag porridge
box mini weetabix
8 apple juice
various squash
flour bread/self raising
yeast
brown suger
tea
hot choc
coffe white sugar

thats my contents, im hopeing for it to last a good few weeks, any ideas gratefully recived as we seem to eat same things, ds3 lives on milk bread jam sandwichs, cheese strings, beans, pizza (sometimes) and dry cereal

bails

Okay, only made it to page 2 and have to go out for dinner now (it's cheaper than cooking ourselves here!) but will catch up soon.

I'm very jealous of everyone's budgets and can't wait to do my own when we come back; see, frugalitis gets you badly :rotfl: I'm going to use the second half of 2010 as a practice run for a big project I'm hoping to start in 2011; looking forward to joining in with you all then but will cheer from the sidelines in the meantime x

Aril

Hello fellow frugallers:j:j
Have done the weekly shop today [£15.51:j] and OH came with me so we didn't need to take the car as it was a small shop.
The freezer has also been defrosted:A - it's one of those jobs I hate the thought of doing but it's never as bad once I get going:rotfl::rotfl:Managed to get bread on offer at Mr T to fill up the space I had cleared as I believe it's more economical to keep it full
Thanks very much for the tip regarding using foil dishes for baked potatoes- I've just read that it's a good idea to sling a couple in the bottom of the oven when you're cooking other things and then you can freeze them. They wouldn't be crispy but hey I'm up for any frugal type of experimenting this year so that's where all my saved dishes will be used:T
Regarding lemon balm it's also yummy chopped up in salad and added to hm lemonade [I guess it would also work well in pre- bought drinks] Mine was bought for 20p from outside somebody's house and it grows like fury:D
For the rest of the day I'll shortly be heating through the rest of the onion and potato soup and I've got some OOD yogurts that need eating up. Tonight's tea will be pasta with peas and lemon juice, zest and a little olive oil with some grated cheese on top. The lemon was found playing hide and seek in the vegetable tray:D The weather is beautiful here today [I put all my frozen food in the garden when I was cleaning the freezer] so we'll probably head out for a walk around the local nature reserve. We can get there on foot and are members [a thrifty £5 pa for a family] and then tonight I plan to watch Cold Mountain which my friend has lent me and I haven't seen and make some inroads into my dollshouse carpet as OH has decorated the dollshouse bedroom for me and I'm now full of enthusiasm again. Woohoo!
Arilx

NualaBuala

Hi everyone!

It's cold and wintry here in Dublin, no new snowfall but what we had is frozen solid. I put the heat on at 3am:eek: (the cold air was aggravating my cough although my body was warm under so many layers) but it's off now and I'm toasty warm in layers of clothes. My cough and cold are slowly getting better:j I've had a frugal brunch of HM soda bread and special offer cheese. Will have a half price apple later for "dessert"!

Ceridwen, thank you for all those links - I will have a read. Funny you should mention co-ops. We have one here in Dublin and I joined recently. I find some stuff is dear but it's a wonderful place and I'd rather shop there than Tesco if poss. I plan to volunteer to get an extra discount so that will help. Here's the link in case there are any other Dubs reading this! http://www.dublinfoodcoop.com/index.html

Thanks a million for the info on organic eggs, I had no idea. I know I've really got to do a lot more research.:o I've found a couple of new sources and I've a feeling they're "the real deal" but will have to check them out as organic tends to be about 80c dearer than free range for 6 eggs and every penny (I should say "cent" ) counts!


flying_fresian, I too have about 7 shower gels - just for me! :D You are not alone! And since I tend to use very little (those mesh scrubby things make a tiny bit go a long way) they'll probably last me till 2012!!

mama67 wrote: »

I have an organic veg box weekly, get free range farm gate eggs, organic milk from the milkman.
Other things I buy which are organic or fairtrade are tea, fruit and sugar; meat is from a local butcher who can state origins.

I also buy recycled paper products and eco-friendly cleaning products the rest is as finances allow.

Hi mama67! Our veg boxes all seem very dear but I will investigate them again, they are such a good idea. You reminded me of something positive, so thank you! :T I buy 100% toilet roll from Lidl/Aldi and I think it is cheaper than any other toilet paper out there! I have enough to last me about 5 months. I've stopped buying cleaning stuff - I seem to just use bicarb and vinegar these days. Truth be told I think I'm a little bit addicted to them! I'll need another 5L of white vinegar soon but that's about it really.

rozeepozee wrote: »

We grew our entire veg crop in containers last year. I had "acquired" ten old plastic baths and we used these as "raised beds". We had a bath of beetroots (doubled as salad with the beetroot tops), carrots and strawberries, then the remainder was herbs and other salad veggies. Although you don't get much crop from some of these (carrots amounted to about two shopping bags worth) we had LOADS of sald veg as these grow really quickly. We were harvesting a bucket's worth of mixed salad leaves a day and adding a few eggs, anchovies, tuna etc and making it into a main meal. Really lovely and would have cost a fortune if we'd bought from the shops. Also the herbs helped us make gorgeous salad dressings which kept the salads interesting.

Hi Rozeepozee! I had such a giggle thinking of you "acquiring" the baths! I won't ask how! :rotfl:
What a great idea though and so much better than them ending up in landfill. I think I will focus my efforts on things that are expensive to buy and not that hard to grow like salad. I have some seeds for spring onions too. I found this morning that the parsley on my window sill seems to be still alive after all so that gave me a little hope that I am not going to fail miserably at this!


Hope you all have a lovely day!