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

cw18

I tend to make a basic white sauce

1oz margarine/butter (melted)
1oz plain flour (stirred into melted margarine, bit at a time to ensure no lumps)
half pint milk (I warm this slightly in microwave before adding as I find I get less lumps, then add bit at a time - stirring all the while - ensuring it's fully absorbed before adding the next bit)

If I've poached fish in milk, then I use this as part of the milk quantity

Salmon I tend to grill, but not sure that won't leave it a bit 'firm' for a baby You could also steam it (then tends to go more tender than grilling)

knithappens

cw18 wrote: »

I tend to make a basic white sauce

1oz margarine/butter (melted)
1oz plain flour (stirred into melted margarine, bit at a time to ensure no lumps)
half pint milk (I warm this slightly in microwave before adding as I find I get less lumps, then add bit at a time - stirring all the while - ensuring it's fully absorbed before adding the next bit)

If I've poached fish in milk, then I use this as part of the milk quantity

Salmon I tend to grill, but not sure that won't leave it a bit 'firm' for a baby You could also steam it (then tends to go more tender than grilling)

thank you, i tend to do the fish in the oven wrapped in foil so nice and soft , will give the sauce a go in a bit.

Kiwisaver_2

CW18 loving your creative accounting, perhaps you can help me to make up for my misdemeanors today.

I had planned a list of three articles I needed to buy today and ended up walking out of the shop with five. :eek: One battery, a scrubbing brush to clean the deck, a door stopper to stop the front door slamming in the wind and some weedkiller. Nothing glamorous or extravagant about my life, eh?

Only I happened to walk down the aisle where they have the craft stuff and spied a book about Crochet screaming out with a half price label on it. Now I wonder where in heavens did I get any idea or inkling about taking up crochet? I haven't done crochet since I was at school and I used to make horrendous multi-coloroured, never ending granny blankets. I picked up the book had a leaf through and put it back, I walked away. Only I couldn't leave it there and went back, had another look and half put it back and next thing you know it was in my basket. Ooops!!

How, I wish I had the strength if Lillibet (thank you for your inspirational post) perhaps I can draw strength on that next time I am having a moment in a shop.

Still, the book was only $9.87 (£4) it was a bargain..... and has lots of basic stitches and instructions for small gift like projects.... and it will give me something to fiddle about with in the cooler months..... and I've been so good and spent nowhere near my budget to date... and I will utterly deserve it after I have finished scrubbing the deck.

Have a good day all, I'm off to bed to read my new book.

cw18

Kiwisaver - Look on it as an investment, and promise yourself you HAVE to make some things by using the book to recover the cost. Blankets for snuggling up under instead of turning on heating in the winter (definitely a money saver), and possibly presents for people too

babyboysmommy

I've made a really good start on the kitchen, just a corner wall cupboard & the one under the sink to go. I've put some on freecycle, some for a charity shop & I've a bin bag full of broken/damaged things. Has been a real eye opener, I had way more than I used.

Thriftkitten

I have decided to put myself in the corner with paper Dunce hat on,whilst hanging my frugalling head in shame, confessions for the weekend are as follows:spent £25 on pumpkin patch sale
£27 on 2 pairs of shoes for kids(one was school shoes)
£25 on kickers school shoes(sale)
took kids to charity dog show and entered 90% of the classes totalling £8.00, however it was all for charity and the pugs won "best pair" in the doggy class and 4th place in best rescue, so kind of a backhanded spend as was for charity.
Beginning of a new week and I fully intend to progress out of the corner of shame and having had a lovely freecycler drop off a slow cooker today I plan on trying to catch up and strap myself double seat belted onto the bandwagon.

Kittikins

Hi Thriftkitten, I wouldn't say that spending money on children's shoes was *bad*, if it was on shoes for you when you have a gazillion pairs in the cupboard already, then I'd be tutting I've got to buy DD's first pair of ballet shoes on Wednesday, and know that she'll be mithering for tap shoes too but am hoping to get away without having to buy those for a little while, as she's only had one lesson....

How sweet that your pups won prizes, you must be a proud "mummy"!

Hello everyone - I'm debating whether to do a SFT and up my baked bean mountain as the Mr T offer ends tomorrow, I have about 30 tins and DD does love a good baked bean or two.....decisions, decisions! Apart from that, I need to keep my purse snapped shut.

FrankieM

I have finally had my Approved Foods delivery...I have no idea where I'm going to put it all.
I got a grocery delivery last week that was a MS so I stocked up on basics. Thats currently still in bags in the utility room and I've got my Tesco shop coming tomorrow..yikes!!!
So, this afternoons challenge is putting all that away and doing a bit of baking.
Dinner is a lamb curry with leftover lamb from yesterday.
I'm also going to sort out this weeks meal plan.

Thanks for the heads up/reminder about the beans. I'm going to put some more on my order for tomorrow.

Happymrsh

Well, I think today should be a NSD which is always good.

I have spent the entire morning cleaning, scrubbing, polishing the car. All in a good cause though as we are going to sell it and hopefully make about £1000 which will be used to pay off a large chunk of the CC:j. Also it'll mean saving £35 per month on insurance and more on running costs etc. So am pretty pleased with myself that i spent soooooo long cleaning it
Just been to collect DD from pre school and now its time to think about dinner, chicken and leek stroganoff and rice, not to expensive to make and tastes yuuuummmmmmmmmmyyyyy:D

Hope your all having a good day x

danielley

Hello All,

Im still catching up, but I thought I would post my weekends activities;

Frugal things I have done this weekend;

Baked bread by hand for the first time ever -quite tasty too, but it didn’t rise very much, so I think I will ‘prove’ it next time.
Made a corned beef hash, into a sort of cottage pie, so it goes from 2 portions to 4 portions
Bought a loaf tin from the pound shop instead of paying Mr A’s prices
Picked up a grown your own Lettuce & Tiny Toms set which includes propagator and compost for half price at Homebase (now £1.99 each)
Stayed in on Saturday night – resisted temptation from OH to get takeaway (even though he was paying)
Parked a little further away on a retail park to avoid paying town centre parking prices – restricted to 2hr, but was only popping to the £1 shop anyway.
Priced up seed in B&M homestore. Mixed veg for 89p a pack. Will get some in a few weeks
Priced up seeded potatoes in Homeb*se £3.49 a pack, not sure if this is good value, will continue to research.


Non-Frugal things I have done this weekend;

Went to chippy on Friday night and got chips & curry for £1.70!!!!!! Only ate half and they weren’t even nice. I'm sure it was the price that left a bitter taste.
Allowed OH to buy chewing gum at inflated price in Co-*p
Bought Wine - supposed to be detoxing for weight loss.:o
Used instant Mash for Corned beef hash/cottage pie (was pretty cheap though 25p a sachet!)
Paid for upgrade to Premier seats at the Cinema (watching Avatar on vouchers- but OH wanted to guarantee a good seat – turns out we still had people talking all the way through it grrrrr

Will carry on reading now... just wanted to post this before i forget and disappear off the thread forever!