Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 1

mooomin

@erme I don't pray but I'll think happy thoughts for you

natnat13

Just been to Lidl and spent £26! Which seems like loads but I used to spend twice that a week in Mr t's. It's funny how your mindset changes isn't it! Anyway, I did what I would call a full shop, the only naughty thing I bought was a magazine everything else was food and is meal planned. For any knitters, Lidls have cheap knitting yarn from next Thursday I saw on the board.

Erme - fingers crossed for good sale and no don't think we've seen the bag, post a piccy! Re: St Johns wort I know people who have taken it for mild depression and found it very effective.

Dizzy - thank you for your kind comment, it did make me feel better.

Have a lovely, sunny day everyone
Nat xx

redglass_2

Hello everybody. What a busy thread this is!

OK, so I've been looking through the groaning store cupboards and making a firm resolve to eat the stuff instead of adding to it. We Are Going To Get A Grip Here. :cool:

I've been admiring Weezl's site and thinking I'd like to use one of her super-frugal meal plans when the Great Store is eaten up. One thing, though, I'm a singleton and the plans are for a family of 4. Of course it's not hard to scale down recipes but it would make more sense, frugally, to treat 4 portions as batch cooking. However, if I did that every time, the fridge and freezer would soon be bursting and I'd grind to a halt before I got to the end of the first month - then if I ate the same lot all over again it wouldn't be very good for nutritional variety as her plan is carefully calculated to make sure you get your vits over a year. You have to go on eating the suggested recipes week by week to achieve this, not repeating what you last ate (that's my understanding of it, anyway).

Is there anybody here who's used one of these plans (or a similar plan) and successfully adapted it for a person living alone? Or are there plans specifically for singletons? Can you give me any tips, please? Thank you!

Laushappy

Good morning all

Just wanted to pop on quickly to say Erme hope you do really well in your carbooting, cant wait to here how you get on :j

Aiming for a NSD but we shall see :cool:

cw18

As another singleton, I have to admit my freezers always groan after a batch cooking session.

But when I'm batch cooking mince I end up with a variety of meals. I make some of it into bolognese sauce (which can then also be used for lasagne), some for chilli con carne sauce, some for mince and veg (to be used as per cottage pie, though often served with a jacket spud instead), and some as the base for a 'macaroni casserole' I make (but never finish off in a casserole dish any more - more a mince and baked beans with pasta meal these days). I've never yet frozen any of these complete with pasta, rice or potatoes - so I guess that saves me some freezer space.

When batch cooking diced chicken/turkey I tend to turn some into casserole, some into chicken supreme, and some into enchilladas - though the latter tends to be eaten on the day I make it (and often the following day as well).

I cooked up 400g Whoopsied diced pork on Monday, using a Mr A sausage casserole mix that was lurking in my cupboards, and turned it into 4 portions of pork and baked bean casserole (with loads of whoopsied mushrooms thrown into the mix as well). As I'm currently out of freezer space I've been eating it every day since, but swapping what I have with it (mash, jacket, pasta) and what alternative veg I have with it (carrots / peas & sweetcorn / brocolli & cauli). I don't worry about eating the same meal several times in a week as long as that meal is reasonably well balanced in itself - and I don't usually repeat that meal for several months.

salski

I got all my fresh fruit and veg last night oh and yog's etc. So fingers crossed I wont need anything else for a while. I have spent this weeks grocery challenge money, this month we have put £300 savings away, £350 to pay off credit cards, and started chipping away at hubby's old overdraft - so chuffed to be dealing with our debts! We will be debt free in a couple of months and in the 6 years we have been together, thats a first!
Got a groaning freezer and store cupboard - need to start getting through it rather than buying more!!

salski

cw18 wrote: »

When batch cooking diced chicken/turkey I tend to turn some into casserole, some into chicken supreme, and some into enchilladas - though the latter tends to be eaten on the day I make it (and often the following day as well).

.

Can I ask what is chicken supreme and where will I find a recipe please hun? x

cw18

basically chicken and mushrooms in a creamy sauce served with rice (to which I add peas and sweetcorn to get my F&V count up). I admit I've always tended to use a packet mix for the sauce, but am currently working my way through a couple of packs of dried mix (complete with dried meat) that I got from App F00ds a while back.

G00gle offers up loads of different versions, and I know that in restaurants it's more often served as a full chicken breast than diced pieces.

salski

Thanks hun! Fab idea x

mogan6

Armed with my phone:o:o ha ha, I'm going to do my weekly shop at Mr M's this afternoon so it'll be interesting to see what I spend. I normally would be cringing by the time I get to the checkout.

I've done a meal plan for a week and written my list so we'll see.

Yesterday was an ok day. I went into poundland and bought some Bi5to gravy powder - £1 instead of £1.70:T

We're having chicken fajitas for dinner tonight, (all I need to buy for that are the peppers) and HM apple pie out of the freezer (need milk for the custard).

redglass, could you please tell me where can I find Weezl's site?

salski, good luck for your forthcoming event.

Mo
xx