£7k in 7 months...I hope!

MatyMoo

jtr2803 wrote: »

Hi Matymoo!

OOh yeah, I would love some ideas! We have a freezer but no microwave so I would have to be organised with the defrosting. OH normally does most of the cooking in our house but when I shop I tend to just buy what is on offer, I don't plan what we will eat or anything

I made:
Spag Bol Sauce
Stew
Mediterranean Sausage Casserole
Irish Stew
Beef in Red Wine
Mince
Irish Stew

As Mince, Stewing Steak and Lamb Chops were on offer. To make that lot I also bought tinned toms, mushrooms, Onions, carrots, parsnips, swede, turnip, peppers, potatoes and used herbs and bisto from the cupboard.

I did use a slow cooker so that I could do a couple of things without using the hob. I save all my marg tubs for using in the freezer but also found metal takeaway type pots in Wilkinsons @10 for a £1.

I take something out the freezer at night & put it on the fridge ready for the following evening. Then cook potatoes/rice/pasta and if I am feeling flush some extra veg to go with.

Chicken thighs are very tasty and cook nicely in a casserole but I didn't think I would have time for that too!

Luckily we love veg so most of the dishes were more veg than meat.

I usually run in to the shop on the way home and buy what we need for dinner that night and it can cost me £10 to feed the two of us for one night so this is way cheaper I'm going to try and do it monthly from here on.

LittleMoog

That's a really good list Maty! I'm planning a batch cooking weekend at some point this month, as we've run our freezer down to nearly empty now.

A few extra suggestions for freezing:
Lasagne - when I make one I freeze about 6 portions wrapped in foil. They don't take up much space as once they're solid you can tuck them into random gaps. The foil can be peeled off while still frozen and put them in an oven dish to defrost during the day before reheating. (can also microwave from frozen once the foil's removed if time is short.)

Curries and soups freeze well too, and it's easy to find recipes for 8-10 portions.

If I make casserole I also make extra mash and freeze it in bags - reheat in a pan with a little extra milk/butter and it tastes fine.

Braised red cabbage - I love this, but have you ever noticed that when you start slicing even the smallest red cabbage it multiplies to infinity?! Luckily freezes really well and great to perk up plain old sausage and mash rather than frozen peas. Plus no need for extra gravy

MatyMoo

LittleMoog wrote: »

That's a really good list Maty! I'm planning a batch cooking weekend at some point this month, as we've run our freezer down to nearly empty now.

Thanks

LittleMoog wrote: »

A few extra suggestions for freezing:
Lasagne - when I make one I freeze about 6 portions wrapped in foil. They don't take up much space as once they're solid you can tuck them into random gaps. The foil can be peeled off while still frozen and put them in an oven dish to defrost during the day before reheating. (can also microwave from frozen once the foil's removed if time is short.)

Don't ask me why but I am useless at Lasagne So in this house it is Spag Bol or nothing!

LittleMoog wrote: »

Curries and soups freeze well too, and it's easy to find recipes for 8-10 portions.

And Chilli They just didn't fit in with the ingredients I had this time round.

LittleMoog wrote: »

If I make casserole I also make extra mash and freeze it in bags - reheat in a pan with a little extra milk/butter and it tastes fine.

Must try this :T

LittleMoog wrote: »

Braised red cabbage - I love this, but have you ever noticed that when you start slicing even the smallest red cabbage it multiplies to infinity?! Luckily freezes really well and great to perk up plain old sausage and mash rather than frozen peas. Plus no need for extra gravy

Hmm, why hadn't I thought of freezing red cabbage :mad: I love it but as it grows as you cut it and I am usually feeding 1 or 2 it isn't something we have very often. Will be now

LittleMoog

Top tip for lasagne, let the white sauce cool until just warm and beat an egg into it before layering the lasagne. This helps it set while it bakes, and you get a lasagne you can slice and serve easily. It also helps if your spag bol isn't too runny.

Woowoo

Popping in to say hi, are the long work days nearly over?

jtr2803

Lots of info there for the batch cooking, thanks very much . My online shop has just arrived so going to try and meal plan from what's in the freezer and see how long it lasts! Then I might turn my hand to batch cooking

Hey Woo, noooooooooooooooooo lots and lots of rubbish long/hard days to go yet , I have kind of drawn the short straw this year as I normally do just one part of the year end process but because of my change of roles, I am having to do it all the way through!!

I think it's just going to be work, work, work, exam, work, work, exam, work, work XMAS! :rotfl:Roll on the December bank holidays just for a few days off

jtr2803

Hi all!

Think I have finally finished Xmas shopping for DD, got her another 2 books yesterday and won a board game for her, does anyone remember the 80's bpoard game Ghost Castle? I got one of them for about £12 :j. OH has given me £50 for shopping so that and £15 of change is hopefully going in the bank this afternoon.

jtr2803

Forgot to add to my last post....I called one of my creditors this morning as I was going to pay the balance off, according to payplan the outstanding balance was about £80, well according to the company it's over £120 :eek:, that's a BIG difference! I have sent Paypal a message asking them to confirm the starting balance of the account and the debt managers are going to send me a statement so I can try and work it out but that's not a great start

Woowoo

That is a bit of a worry, hope its just an error and you only owe the £80

jtr2803

I am wondering if Littlewoods added some charges to the account before they sent it over to the debt managers? I know £40 isn't a fortune but annoying all the same.

Well I have a good idea of my bonus now, my boss wont give me the exact figure as none of the results have been finalised but he was kind enough to tell me that it will be fractionally less than last year (which was £3.5k) . That's totally fair enough as our result was way short of our budget but that's going to leave me a little short! My figures included a bonus of £3,500 so I may need to adjust.

Not been a good financial news day really but at least I have about £25 of bids on Ebay I guess