Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 1

Green_Queen

Laushappy wrote: »

One thing i have been doing is saving money in a pot in my wardrobe, so far have put in a fiver and a tenner, the idea is that i secretely save a few hundred pounds over the year and then suprise my husband with the extra cash we have :T

What an absolutely lovely idea and a super surprise i'd like to be on the receiving end of. Maybe if I choose a different location each time instead of just the wardrobe I could eventually surprise myself!:rotfl:

Made a savoury tart last night out of some puff pastry I got on offer and ended up with a smallish portion left over (not big enough for another tea/lunch)
So I have added it to the freezer collection of similar size portions from all different meals ready for a leftover tapas night inspired by our favourite vegetarian restaurant where you can have a small bit of everything on the menu as a dinner (not that I am comparing my food to restaurant quality!)

rubytuesday

grandma247 wrote: »

NB you could make meals such as chicken and veg casserole by just putting all the ingredients in a bag and freezing it as is so you can just pop it in a dish and cook. I used to do this a lot when I had all the kids at home and I worked.

Grandma would you have to defrost it first? I'm not good with this freezing marlarky although I just took the remnants of a curry out today for tomorrows dinner after I'd managed to identify it! :rotfl:

A NSD food wise for me but I got up early to go to a meeting with Natural England about my walking group at the new council offices - five floors completely open plan -an amazing building but rather Big Brotheresque and popped into the Charity Shop after. These may be getting a bit lethal for me as I seem to find something every time! I've been very pleased as I've mentioned before I've been able to replace the cardies and jumpers the moths got and as I've lost weight I need new clothes but at some point I'll have to call a halt to it as I will have enough.
Today however I didn't buy any clothes for me. I bought a lovely fleece for the OH, he doesn't have enough cozy things and looked hilarious borrowing a huge cowl necked jumper of mine last night, a lovely silver spoon (I have a spoon fetish) and a few CD's of people I had never heard of but I liked the covers or the sound of the songs.
One is playing now and it was a good choice.
So ten pounds spent today.

lynzpower

hi everyone

Feeling really rough today so Ive sadly had to take a day off. Im powering through a few things thoguh just to keep productive although Im about to retired to the sofa with a bowl of leftover stew and the duvet I feel shocking! ( cold, chills, sneezing) have not been right since I stopped smoking cigarettes again ( lol) I think it is the end of flu.

I have been doing a few bits and pieces,like to make the most of the time! have sent a letter to the tax office for a rebate and another letter to the bank with more info tha they need. I ordered my C pulse vouchers, 10 arcadia adn 10 argos, we need some curtains desperately and C shops have not come up with anything so hopefully argos will in the end. Organised for very to collect the stuff for a refund tomorrow from OHs work. I have done a couple of loads of washing. just finishing off some powder and have worked out I can use a shot glass amount of powder and all is clean and smells nice! I have been gradually reducing what I use and the shot glass is the perfect amount I think! I should stretch the rest of this box out through most of feb hopefully. ( then will use soap nuts)

House of fraser stuff went back for refund yesterday, at 35.00

have spoken to the bank and shuffled some cash around, will probably book the flgihts for holiday later.

Im hoping I can do a total no spend week on food etc next week which will save 50.00 for holidays. I went to M&S yesterday and got plenty for 20.00 ( inlucing some lovely reductions!) thefreezer is rammed now. Leftover stew for lunch and chilli, rice, sour cream and sweet potato wedges and salad for tea- all from stores, hopefully one of the rarer NSDs!We do have plenty in now!

Have some stale slices of bread Ill process into crumbs this afternoon for te freezer.

Have got part of the bursary on its way to me which is quite overdue, and must thinkabout donig the application for the housing benefit soon as OH has taken a pay cut we might be allowed a bit now.


Anyway, hope everyone is Ok,

nuala, sending you hugs,
ERME hope you are feeling ok,

anybody struggling to contain the budget- keep it simple is this a want or a need!

grandma247

rubytuesday I did not defrost but if you were short on time you might want to in the microwave. You just add at least half an hour to the cooking time. Pieces of chicken are easy to cook from frozen where a whole one is not. I used to put mine in the oven and let it cook away by itself for a couple of hours while i did something else. Today if i was doing it I would probably just chuck it in the slow cooker in the morning from frozen. We do not usually eat much before 6pm and sometimes 7.30 so it is in a long time.

rubytuesday

grandma247 wrote: »

rubytuesday I did not defrost but if you were short on time you might want to in the microwave. You just add at least half an hour to the cooking time. Pieces of chicken are easy to cook from frozen where a whole one is not. I used to put mine in the oven and let it cook away by itself for a couple of hours while i did something else. Today if i was doing it I would probably just chuck it in the slow cooker in the morning from frozen. We do not ususally eat much before 6pm and sometimes 7.30 so it is in a long time.

I'm a Luddite without a microwave but I didn't know you could cook chicken pieces straight from frozen. Thanks for that Grandma as I have some in the freezer I was going to use to make a stew.

lynzpower

the problem with cooking meat especially poultry and pork) direct from the freezer is that some "parts" may remain frozen. this amazingly can still happen in casseroling. But smaller chunks of eg breast will cook through from frozen a lot better than say a chicken quarter. Campylobacter is your big concern really with undercooked chicken.

However, many meat products can be cooked diretly from the freezer ( ie chicken burgers and so forth)

I personaly wouldnt cook meat direct from frozen but the Im the sort of person who would rather cook a frozen burger from defrosted state!

Laushappy

Hi guys

For those that might be interested:
There is a company called GRAZE that is offering free healthy snack boxes delivered to your door and the first box is free and the second week you get the box for half price (advertised in a popular newspaper). Containing all sorts such as bread, nuts, seeds and flapjack.
I have just ordered one and you do have to enter your card details, however they express that you can cancel at anytime, so effectively you can get your free box and half price one (full price is around 3.50 so would get second box for 1.75 or so).

The link is below and also the voucher code.

SUNTLEFREE
http://www.graze.com/suntel

I'm quite excited by this freebie! :j

Laushappy

was meant to add: then you can cancel after your free or half price box.

enjoyfinancialchallenges

lynzpower wrote: »

the problem with cooking meat especially poultry and pork) direct from the freezer is that some "parts" may remain frozen. this amazingly can still happen in casseroling. But smaller chunks of eg breast will cook through from frozen a lot better than say a chicken quarter. Campylobacter is your big concern really with undercooked chicken.

However, many meat products can be cooked diretly from the freezer ( ie chicken burgers and so forth)

I personaly wouldnt cook meat direct from frozen but the Im the sort of person who would rather cook a frozen burger from defrosted state!

lynzpower I don't eat meat but after seeing programmes on the TV about how burgers are made I wouldn't cook them from frozen either. Or any other meat product either come to think of it, especially sausages!

Oh, the Graze boxes are fantastic and very addictive, yum, yum, my daughter gave my address to them and I got a free box and paid for more three times a week for a while but I can't do this thread and afford them now, they were a want not need.

dizzy_lizzie

Green_Queen wrote: »

Made a savoury tart last night out of some puff pastry I got on offer and ended up with a smallish portion left over (not big enough for another tea/lunch)
So I have added it to the freezer collection of similar size portions from all different meals ready for a leftover tapas night inspired by our favourite vegetarian restaurant where you can have a small bit of everything on the menu as a dinner (not that I am comparing my food to restaurant quality!)

That is a great idea

Also hello to miss empty piggy
Lynzpower that sounds awful, hope you feel better really soon, meanwhile hide yourself under that duvet and keep warm.
Sorry to hear about the rotten luck slowlyfading. Sometimes it's like one step forward and two back!
I've given up on keeping track of spends. Still being careful though. It's because I didn't start it on payday and then just felt out of sync with it. Nevermind will start for definate again next month.
It's great reading how well everyone is doing with the spends and making meals from store cupboards
Luv Dizzy x
♥