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

chika

Fishcake_Random wrote: »

Hello all,
I've had a lovely garden filled weekend, putting some baskets on my fence with some Pansy and violas in. Makes my little patch of green look so much nicer already. Did mean a few spends though but not to bad.
Today's spends are 66p so far as I picked up another free bottle of comfort, some lady pads 75% off and a pack of disposable razors for OH 75% off. I was quite pleased as it works out at about £4 before offers and vouchers.
I will need to buy some bolognaise sauce later for £1 though and I've been thinking about trying to make some of my own. But how should I start???
Where would/can I get the tomatoes from?
Is it worth still buying it untill a tomatoe offer comes along so I have the jars?
Does it store in jars or do I freeze it?
I'm a complete newbie on this one so I could really use your guidance ladies. I buy one jar of sauce a week so thats £52 a year on sauce!!! Scary when you work it out.
Over to you ladies..........
x x x x x

Fishcake - you got some great bargains in Wilko - I need to investigate this free softener. Unless I can get a realley good deal on fresh toms I use tinned ones for bolognaise. I ususally stock up on tins when theya re on offer.

My usual recipe is

1 onion
4 cloves garlic
1 tin of toms
red wine (optional)
olive oil
mixed herbs
tomato puree

Chope and fry the onion until translucent - add the garlic when onion is almost done.
Add tomatoes, herbs, tom puree and a splash of wine and about 1/2 a cup of water.
Cook on low for about 1/2 an hour.

Sorry I'm not good at exact times and measurements but one tin normally does three of us. HTH

Fishcake_Random

Chika - I'm guessing that it freezes okay? I can't see any ingredients that wouldnt in there but worth a double check.

The fabric conditioner is the comfort naturals one that is on offer in wilkos for 98p at the mo. There should be a sticker attached to the lid that hangs over the front, its round and red with £1 off in big yellow letters. Double check the voucher carefully though because some other comfort products have a 30p off frebreeze(?) voucher on them that looks similer. You can either buy one for 98p and then get as many as you like on each visit or pinch a sticker off one on the shelf so you dont pay for the first one, not very fair but I've seen people do it. I have about 6-7 in the cupboard now which is enough for us for us as I only use fabric conditioner on things in winter (no point when line drying in summer). And now pick them up for a friend with a young baby and an elderly neighbour.
x x x x
x x x x x

Optimisticpair

This time I missed the shop window notice for the oil syndicate order and I only discovered there was a delivery happening because I was in the garden handy for the lost tanker driver to ask me where a house was. Fortunately he had 500 litres he could spare at the syndicate price 43.70 litre because he was bringing another load tomorrow. So a big spend this month but a small saving there. :j

My original budget didn't include the garden (setting up costs of the part being made into a veg plot) or the car costs and I can't come within a 5k budget to include both I've removed the car from the budget because it is necessary for work but fuel costs and parking costs will remain in the budget. I've updated my signature to show this.

I was hoping the budget was right for heating but the ground was still frozen when trying to dig some rose bush roots out this morning. I think we are three weeks behind weather-wise. The big old rose bush roots have to come out now ready for planting veg later. Considering that the govt are likely to increase VAT if not also stick it on more foodstuffs my veg plot isn't a luxury spend so it stays in the budget. I'm a bag of coal below half the coal budget amount now and I'll probably have to buy in a larger amount of wood than I expected to.

My only slippage was buying a grow veg magazine that I didn't NEED but it can go under the groceries spend. I reckon there will be some info in it that I can pass on in the green-fingers threads.

I'm still itching to get a few ducks but it's fitting them in that's stopping me. I wonder if OH would give up the off road parking space? :rotfl:

A solution to stopping my neighbour's cats crapping in the veg plot will have to be magicked up.

Best to you all.

XSpender

Hello fellow frugallers!

I have just caught up with the thread after visiting my Mum end of last week and spending time with DH over the weekend although this did include house work and finishing sorting the loft out;)

Congratulations to those with new babies and hugs to those who need one.

Been frugal with the oven today and cooked 4 jacket spuds for tonights tea and tomorrows lunches and my dinner whilst baking a ginger cake for this weeks lunches. Tonights tea is jp, salad and chicken for DH with some corn on the cob he slipped in the trolley on Friday when I wasn't looking. Just means he will get less chicken:p

Got some bargains at my mums and she gave me loads of stuff. 2 blankets, 3 bibs and a sleep suit for bambalino and 3 bottles of hair conditioner as well as being spoilt with lots of lovely food and edible treats.:) I bought a 29p shower pouff thing for DH from h0me Bargains and Mum says "I am sure I have one of them in the cupboard, I never use them." Got given 5 of them, an exfoliating glove and a towelling headband!Must be from all the gift sets she has received over the years:T

I always thought my Mum was frugal with cooking as she always cooks from scratch and never buys processed food or chucks food out but was suprised (since I saw the light and joined MSE) how many branded goods she buys and nearly died when she made 3 small portions of chilli from the same amount of mince I make 6 portions from!

Have had a look today at changing my calling plan with BT, just need to check if it is cheaper than Sky and will get that finalised this week.

It looks like my redundancy date is to be brought forward 3 months. It doesn't make any difference to the money/mat benefits I will receive but will mean I hand my co car back 3 months earlier. As I will be on mat leave and we have DH car I don't think it will be a great loss and I can then draw a line under it all. I will get the redundancy money in April and I can clear the IVA then instead of July. I would hold on to it but I don't think I would get much interest and I would rather have it completed.

DH went to see the new MD about his wages today, all very positive and it looks like he has the potential to earn more this year but no change to his basic or bonus structure was forthcoming after they reduced his earning potential by almost £7000 in 2008:eek:. His industry is picking up so his only option if he wants more money is to get a job elsewhere. They say they cannot do without him and know that if he did hand in his notice they would pay to keep him which seems a bit ironic to me ( where's that confused smillie when I need one?!?!;)).

Enjoy the rest of your day folks!

XS x

Lily_The_Legend

thriftylass wrote: »

I don't think the birth rate in Britain is the actual problem. Overall in the world, yes I agree. The birth rate in the UK is less than 2, so just sustaining numbers. People living longer and moving here ( guilty myself) are worse.

I saw Robert Winston on TV at the weekend and he said birth rates were falling here, which I thought was good. But then he went on to say he thought giving IVF to people in the developing world was a good idea. I wanted to chuck something at the telly! :eek:

Optimisticpair

Fishcake_Random wrote: »

bolognaise sauce later for £1 though and I've been thinking about trying to make some of my own. But how should I start???
Where would/can I get the tomatoes from?
Is it worth still buying it untill a tomatoe offer comes along so I have the jars?
Does it store in jars or do I freeze it?
I'm a complete newbie on this one so I could really use your guidance ladies. I buy one jar of sauce a week so thats £52 a year on sauce!!! Scary when you work it out.
Over to you ladies..........
x x x x x

I batch cook and the following recipe can be used as a base for spag bol, cottage pie and chilli con carne - you just add different things to make one of those to the basic sauce. They can all be frozen in meal size portions and reheated.

Basic sauce is

Dry fry 1 kg beef mince until brown but not cooked in batches add to a large stock pot.

fry to translucent 3 peeled chopped onions, add 4 chopped garlic cloves and a pinch of herbs and fry then add to the stock pot.

Add a tin of tomatoes, 4 beef stock cubes in a pint of hot water and a dash of worcester sauce to the stock pot. Simmer for about half an hour or until cooked.

The plain braised mince can be had as it is on baked spuds or reheated to go with pasta spaghetti etc. rice or baked or mashed spuds.

For Bolognese take a third of the basic mince add a glass of red wine (optional) 2 tins of tomatoes and more sweated garlic if liked. Simmer until cooked.

For Cottage pie take a third of the basic mince fry 2 chopped onions, 2 - 3 carrots diced small and add another dash of worcester sauce and simmer until carrots are done then throw in frozen peas ( to 800g of the basic mince try 400g frozen peas) simmer for 5-10 mins.

For Chilli con carne take a third of the basic mince chop 2 onions, add 1 tsp ground cumin, 1 tsp coriander, 1 tsp smoked paprika and more garlic if liked and 2 chillis (OR chilli powder to taste) and fry for 5-10 mins together, add one or two glasses red wine OR hot water and simmer until half the liquid has gone, add a tin of tomatoes and a tin or two of red kidney beans. Simmer until cooked.

There's no need to add salt or pepper.

The 1kg mince plus the other ingredients makes a good 12 adult portions. You can pad it out with more onions, red lentils or more kidney beans also. I buy tins of whole tomatoes because they are cheaper and squish them up.

I freeze any mince that's on offer defrost it and then cook the whole 1 kg. Yo can make the cheaper version if feeling skint or blow £3 on a bottle of cheap red wine for the batch and freeze what you don't use of the bottle if you like.

Do Lidle still do a cheap worcester sauce? It was very cheap but good, when I ran out eventually I found the fancy brand name one was over a quid for a very very small bottle in Tesco usually.

pagangirl

Hi all - you are right about the decluttering - have been at it for 2nd week and I can only just see the carpet 3 more bags paperwork recycled. 1 bag shredding to be done and 1 white cardboard box full of paperwork gone - yaaaay :rotfl:

Spent large amount of £1.50 whole weekend, went for lovely walk round local park this morning . Saw 4 sqiggles, 2 chaffinches, a robin and a woodpecker amongst other others. It weren't 'alf cold but love this weather when I can get wrapped up & go out. Hate the wind and rain tho

Have acquired slow cooker and am am off to investigate recipe thread, but know frugalites on here do use them, so advice please - instruction booklet says place the base on heat resistant surface - does that mean I can't put it on kitchen unit top ??? (And if not, what sort of heat resistant surface do I need) Sorry if stupid question

Frugaldom

BigMummaF wrote: »

... Then I wondered where the poor politicians would go for their quails eggs once F&M put the prices up :mad: ... [/QUOTE]

If they hold off until I have my laying hens, I'll supply them. Or they could go to C0stc0. :rotfl:

Lily_The_Legend wrote: »

I saw Robert Winston on TV at the weekend and he said birth rates were falling here, which I thought was good. But then he went on to say he thought giving IVF to people in the developing world was a good idea. I wanted to chuck something at the telly! :eek:

I thought our Government wanted lots more babies in the UK so we have enough of a growing work force to cope with the cost of keeping all the pensioners? Looking at the politics of population control on a global scale is absolutely gobsmacking, when you think of it. It's so tightly woven and so amazing that each and every Government act throughout the world can have such an impact thousands of miles away without most people even noticing it. The domino effect started centuries ago and once started, it can never be stopped. Regardless of who is in power, they're just the temporary guardians of an ever changing society that's probably already spiralled out of control. Resistance is futile, isn't that what they say? I say, life carries on regardless and we all have the same basic needs, it's how we meet those needs that makes us all different (IMHO).

Back on the frugal living track - why are gas prices being cut? Have you lot all reduced your useage so much that the national supplies are overflowing and they're on special offer to encourage you all to use more? :rotfl: I'd certainly have a warmer house if we had access to gas but would I burn more coal if they cut the cost? Umm... no! I'd save the extra to help cover the cost of whatever went up to balance it all out in the long run. :rotfl: After a year of hardly any interest on savings, you'd think it would have sunk in... the Government WANTS everyone to spend their money, they WANT you to cash in savings and invest in new stuff, they WANT you to trade in your bangers for new cars tied to 0% loans for 3 years. But you know what? People like us must really get up their noses when we still just don't spend money, so they'll try to hit us where we can't avoid the spending - oh yes, that brings me back to VAT on all foods. Is that what's known as a 'frugalution' (frugal revolution), because it went full circle? :rotfl: Frugalites unite!

zarazara

Continued digging over the veg plot today . Beans on toast for dinner.

ceridwen

Lily_The_Legend wrote: »

I saw Robert Winston on TV at the weekend and he said birth rates were falling here, which I thought was good. But then he went on to say he thought giving IVF to people in the developing world was a good idea. I wanted to chuck something at the telly! :eek:

....and regarding birth rates falling in Britain.....two thoughts:

- our population is still increasing though at the moment (courtesy of immigration I guess...)

- we arent self-sufficient (or anything like it....:eek:) in food. Hence - the birthrate in the World as a whole concerns us anyway - as they are starting to move in the direction of holding onto their supplies of vital things like food, etc, for their own people - hence less to export to us:eek:

I also have the vague thought running round in my mind that I think another country somewheres (China? One of the Gulf States?) has possibly bought a bit of British land (Wales?) to grow food for THEIR population here (hence some of our own land wont be available for us).

It is a growing trend certainly for some countries to buy up land in other peoples countries to grow food for THEIR people - and I do know China and at least one of the Gulf States have already started doing this...There is certainly enormous potential for conflict there - we've only got to ask ourselves how we would feel if we knew we needed extra land available in Britain to grow food for ourselves - but were told that we couldnt use a bit of land we had earmarked for this purpose because it belonged to some other country.....sparks flying stratospherically high methinks....

Hence - what the rest of the World does (regarding their birthrate) does affect us - and would still affect us even if immigration came to a total halt tomorrow.