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

Happymrsh

xnatalie81x wrote: »

Tonight i am cooking bolognese for dinner with 1/2 pack of tesco healthy eating frozen mince. I shall cook the other half and add carrot, mushrooms and tin of beans and add gravy to make cottage pies for 2 more dinners so 1 pack 500g mince makes bolognese for 5 and cottage pie for 10

FOCUS ON : Lunches (this week i will be concentrating on my lunches) MONDAY - SUNDAY

DS1 and DD - egg mayo (eggs from own hens of course and hard boiled) sarnies x2 = 30p, 2 hm cakes 20p, cucumber sticks (cucumber 99p) 9p, youghurt 8p, squash 10p (tesco value blackcurrant squash 58p for a big bottle) = 77p for 2

DS2, me, oh - 3 packs approved foods chow mein noodles 30p (plus enough left over for DS1 and DD lunch boxes tomorrow which is effectively FREE)

I just wanted to say I am totally inspired by how well you manage you foods and what you all eat, i think it is fantastic. And the fact you got 3 meals for a family of 5 out of one pack of mince is amazing and that is my goal for this week :T

shaz_mum_of__2

sandwiches taken out freezer at 8 am ready at 12 noon here!!

rictus123

Got my music on and browsing the forum. Perfect way to avoid spending

pink_numbers

Hi everyone, just doing my spreadsheet and I am starting to feel really bogged down by it again.

Do you ladies have anything that you don't count towards the total amount spent? I was trying to keep this month's vet bills out of the total, but that means I will end up with two running totals of how much I've spent this year, and it's a headache...

How do you solve such issues?

Brighton_belle

mama67 - many thanks for the link to the waste reducing site - LOTS of food for thought there to work throuh over a week or so, but also in it was a link to professional decluttering site that has helped me focus on where I still need to be ruthless and get storage solution right now that a quater of our lving room needs to be an effective space for me to work on my moasics etc.
Have had a jolly hour indulging myself by mentally shopping online for new shelving storage. Now deleted from 'basket and I am working out ways of doing it at a fraction of the cost.

Great ideas for sharing the forum load:T.

Lodger hasn't been recycling stuff since he moved in 3 months ago and I keep rescuing bottles and paper and card from the bin. Finally mentioned it to him and he confesses that he has never lived in a house that recycled before.
Delighted to say that after having 5 'mates' to stay in his room for 2 days (with full permission), he laid out the extensive collection of bottle and cans on our kitchen surface and asked what he need to do and where to put them:j

FrankieM

Congrats slowlyfading

nyk I loved how your garden looked too. Especially with your 'farm animals'

I finally managed to serve the soup up for dinner. Had to do it with some pastry slices I had in the freezer as well as bread. I'll have to make sure I make more next time so I can do it just with bread.

I part roasted a load of parsnips I'd bought cheap at Aldi and put those in the freezer. I've still got quite a few carrots but they seem to last well in the fridge so I don't have to rush with those.

I was all set to update cw's spreadsheet but my purse is in my other bag...from my bank account, though I have overspent by £750 (ooppps) That was for bulk butchers meat, stocking up the cupboards, an Approved Foods order and some coal. I'm sure it will all even out in the end

I put a food/eating plan together for myself this morning but came home from Uni starving, tired and cold so it all went down the pan...I'm still doing the cross trainer everyday, well at least 5 out of 7 so that should make some difference. I can find myself getting into a panic, thinking I've got to join a slimming club, but actually I just need to be patient with myself. Its going to take a while to break habits I've been doing for ages.

[Deleted User]

nykmedia wrote: »

Time for another quick catch-up and update. The weather here is pretty miserable but it stopped raining long enough for us to start preparing this year's square foot garden! :j Make progress while the son's off work! :rotfl: Rather than witter on needlessly, I took a couple of piccies instead. Managed to bake a tray of oat biscuits, too.


Gave a good home to 4 railway sleepers, DS and HS have just moved them into the garden. I'm expanding my square foot garden this year from 32 squares to 56 squares and a footpath down the middle. Old one now all unfenced and have set the feathered critturs upon it to do the weeding, fertilising and digging for me. :T


Look at their progress! Many hens (& ducks) make light work.

Wagons ho, frugalers! It's time to kick the old homegrowing project into gear by starting the preparations. If I grow it, I don't need to buy it and last year's square foot garden grew me an amazing amount of food despite it being my first year of trying this.

Cuppa time and a freshly baked biscuit, then it's cooking, freezer reorganising, kitchen tidying, more paperwork and some accounting.

That's one very happy-looking ducky:T

cw18

pink_numbers wrote: »

Hi everyone, just doing my spreadsheet and I am starting to feel really bogged down by it again.

Do you ladies have anything that you don't count towards the total amount spent? I was trying to keep this month's vet bills out of the total, but that means I will end up with two running totals of how much I've spent this year, and it's a headache...

How do you solve such issues?

As I have a category for vets bills, I include it all as it crops up.

I'm waaaaaay overspent at the moment (spend of £129.70 from an annual budget of £180), but only another emergency/unplanned spend will push me over budget at year end.

xnatalie81x

Happymrsh wrote: »

I just wanted to say I am totally inspired by how well you manage you foods and what you all eat, i think it is fantastic. And the fact you got 3 meals for a family of 5 out of one pack of mince is amazing and that is my goal for this week :T

I add 3 carrots, a tin of beans and almost a full tub (the !1.69 ones from mr t but on special for !1) of mushrooms and gravy made up very thick to the cottage pie mixture and top with mash and it makes 3 hooooooge pies- for bolognese we add mushrooms and any other veg i can sneak in lol but we have lots of pasta and small amount of sauce. Bear in mind my kids are 5,3 and 2 so don't eat huge amounts (unlike their mum who is obese and dad who is 6'4 and hearty apetite!)

Happymrsh

xnatalie81x wrote: »

I add 3 carrots, a tin of beans and almost a full tub (the !1.69 ones from mr t but on special for !1) of mushrooms and gravy made up very thick to the cottage pie mixture and top with mash and it makes 3 hooooooge pies- for bolognese we add mushrooms and any other veg i can sneak in lol but we have lots of pasta and small amount of sauce. Bear in mind my kids are 5,3 and 2 so don't eat huge amounts (unlike their mum who is obese and dad who is 6'4 and hearty apetite!)

Well mine are 8, 4 and 3 so they don't eat huge amounts either, and us adults both have healthy appetites too :rotfl:

Will definetly be trying to watch my food much more closely now