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

xnatalie81x

chika wrote: »

Re Sparklebox - the warning that our LEA gave was about the toolbar - nothing about a chatroom. Well before the media got hold of the story there were worries about the toolbar it makes you download to access some of the content. Anyway lots of people are happy with it but think twice before you use the toolbar. I fear this is way off topic so lets get back to being frugal and happy.

I'm thinking it is not off topic as it was a free way to keep my kids amused on a weekend but not in front of tv/ds/xbox/ps3 or wii..........yes we have all of those :eek: and it potentially could prevent images from my computer being used by !!!!!philes.......the reason i moved from a north london to borough to hertfordshire when i worked as a trainee probation officer - as long as the intent was frugal then the post is protecting children i cannot see much complaint in moving off topic. Bit different to any other off topic subjects lol

Skint_Lynne

Evening all,

I hope you are all having a good weekend, I have been trying my best to be good!! Had a leftovers dinner tonight, DH got steak and kidney pudding which was left from New year, it was massive and we could not eat it all. He complained at first about 'old food', which came as no surprise as he has played this card before, (long standing members will remember that last year, he would not eat my roast fillet of beef because it came from the freezer, he decided to have a kebab instead!).

He did concede, however, that the dinner was lovely. I was worried that it would not be nice 2nd time round, but I just put the pieces into a shallow plate and covered it with a saucer, wrapped it in lots of foil, and put it into a bain marie type of thing, but only in the slow cooker, and it came out beautifully done. I had steak pie and peas. I then made potato scones from the mash I had left, DH is taking them back to work along with some stornoway black pudding he bought today.

I am going to try and use up all the cooked meals I have in the freezer to make way for me cooking the raw meat I still have in there, ie make way for more batch cooking.

I have been a bit naughty tonight, I done an experiment with DH. He was a bit worse for wear and I decided to have a gin and tonic. I hide my bottle, because he drinks it and it's the only thing I like. I have one usually about once a week or even I can go to a fortnight. Anyway, he said that he would like a gin as well, but he had had enough, so I fixed mine and put a tiny dribble at the bottom of his glass and filled it up with tonic and ice. He said that it was the nicest gin he ever had. NEWSFLASH for him, there wasn't hardly a dribble of gin in that glass.:rotfl: I wonder if it would have been as nice if he knew what was actually in it, tonic anyone?:rotfl:

speak later guys. xx

batcatz

Hi, I've been using the spreadsheet and found I spend a lot on veg in Mr T.... so decided to get veg elsewhere. I was AMAZED when I went to Lidl cos for £1.95 I bought:
2 small cabbages (for the chickens lol), 2 litres milk. cherry tomatoes 39p! bag of red onions

That would have cost a lot more elsewhere. I've shopped there before, but never used to looked at prices. <slap!>

Also found woopsied organic milk for 45p in Mr T today and previously bought 10p loaves of bread for the freezer.

My friend is giving me her lovely modern electric fireplace and surround. It will be mainly for decoration as I have radiators, but I've wanted one for ages to replace a hideous gas fire that I don't use.

I've been walking instead of driving. I haven't used my car since Jan 2nd.

I've reduced my weekly budget to £80. Next stage will be £60. This is for everything except bills, insurance etc. I was using my amex to get the cashback then paying it off straight away, but it is a bit confusing so I'm trying cash only this week.

Unfortunately, I had 2 payments of £79.98 come out of my amex for WINE! I am a member of 2 wine plans. So I've cancelled one and will cancel the other too. It was no problem paying that when I worked, but that's a whole weeks money and has messed up my budget a bit now. At least I have a good stock of wine. lol.

The spreadsheet is great. I always had one for monthly bills/dd, but I used to keep all shopping receipts in the cupboard, but never got around to adding up my weekly spend.

batcatz

ooh, meant to ask if I can still use out of date flour? I discovered that ALL 5 packets of flour in my cupboard are out of date by 6 months plus. :-(

cw18

Plain flour I've never had a problem with being OOD.

SR or bread is hit and miss -- I try it once and see what results I get. With SR I can often get round poor performance by adding baking powder.

LilacPixie

Sorry I am poop at keeping up with this. I haven't been keeping too well. Good news and bad news ithink has came over the last few days. Firstly I am getting my DLA medical on 1st Feb but unfortunatly I received an appointment from my consltant today for 15th Feb, I presume something is up with my blood results because I was not due to be back until end of May. I am currently appealing the DLA decision made last febuary and the department of justice ordered a medical to be carried out so hopefully we will soon get some sort of resolution to it. Plus if i win any benefit due will be Backdated to 23rd Jan 2009 so it should might provide a nice little extra so some treats.

We have possibly foun a new house as well!!! Small problem we need to sell our current one to have the deposit :eek: Stress City!!

Cheryl sorry about your little doggie.

Badcatz I never pay attention to BBD's plain flour usually ok, selfraising is fine for small things but i wouldn't use for a cake that needed to rise perfectly

AEB ooo pool and grapes you are obviously not in Scotland!! In all seriousness I would love a pool. Very envious.

Fishcake - well done on the comps, what did you win?? I keep threatening to start comping but fear I would clutter up my house with more *stuff*

OH been geting meat from work again in the following vacumn packs 1kg beef stew, 1.6kg beef stewing steak, 1.13kg diced skinless chicken thigh and 24 chicken breasts. He also got a 4kg side of sirloin and a big U shaped black pudding. Spend £11.50. I actually think i need to get a 2nd freezer. meat is a bit hit and miss, its either loads on offer or none at all so it suits us to stock up for the leaner times. I have an old coal cupboard thing that we use to keep pushchairs, highchair, travel cot etc in as well as the xmas decs and stuff so thinking of clearing that out. I need to keep an eye on freecycle/freegal for an undercounter freezer. I would rather not pay £130 for one but it would save us money longer term. Spend in siggy is accurate but OH needs fuel for work on Monday. That will be the first time since Christmas Eve. I am happy with how I am doing even although we are over slightly in some areas but then we are under in some others so it all works out.

Does anyone have a nice bread roll recepie?? OH takes 2 rolls a day to work but likes soft rolls not crusty ones and not froze then defrosted ones as he says they taste funny. I was thinknig of making dough and freezing then cooking night before if we get freezer sorted.

rozeepozee

batcatz wrote: »

ooh, meant to ask if I can still use out of date flour? I discovered that ALL 5 packets of flour in my cupboard are out of date by 6 months plus. :-(

I once bought £100 worth of bread flour when it was on offer :rotfl:(OH eats lots of hm bread) and it went months, if not a year out of date. I would say the quality of the bread made wasn't as good but it wasn't so noticeable that you wouldn't want to eat it.

I'm hoping to get to a car boot sale today. I haven't been since before August when I found out I was pregnant and was so sick couldn't face the trips out so it'll be interesting to see if my new found frugalness will lead to changes in my CB buying behaviour.

On the subject of cheaper veggies and fruit, I was delighted to find how much cheaper they were in Aldi compared to Costco where we normally buy our fruit and veg (because of its superior quality to other supermarkets). Unfortunately, the cherry tomatoes were slightly green and decidely tasteless, not exactly a comprehensive test so we'll keep trying and it remains to be seen if the "price" of cheaper veg is indeed a loss of quality?

knithappens

just poppingon using my daughters netbook, my lapop hs a virus so until i can get it fixed i wont be around much hopefully be back up and runnign soo, will have to find a repair place.

patentgirl

Morning all
Had a NSD yesterday but need to pop to ALdis later this morning as got all family coming today for a roast got a lovely piece of beef reduced down after xmas so that has been in freeezer till now just going to make the meal plan for the week so i can get everything today save going out everyday for odds and ends it does mean I miss getting whoospies but I always seem to miss them anyway.
DH dug over some of the allotment yesterday that needed doing so hopefully we will put some onions in soon, he is making some raised borders down there at moment out of old wood someone was getting rid of so we will be more prepared then last year which was our first year at the allotment and it was a bit hit and miss somethings really grew others didnt do a lot at all, problem being we didnt get it till June.
Fishcake well done on the comp wins I used to try had a couple of wins nothing much but you have inspired me to have another go

candygirl

Had a relatively settled night with DGD, apart from the usual 2am screechathon:rotfl::rotfl:She is fed and watered, and is watching and singing to Peppa Pig at the mo:T:T
I am going into town with my friend today, and prob doing more looking than shopping, although Primark might tempt me:o:oIt's more for the day out, and natter than anything else;)
Wont be spending anything on food today, as i'm ok for that:D
Have got the start of a cold n sore throat so am dosing up on meds before it takes hold:eek::eek:
Have fabbily frugal days all xx:A