Frugal Living Challenge 2011 - part 1

rubytuesday

HelenPie wrote: »

Does anyone know another link to the cookingbynumbers website, or something similar? The one in the intro post/in the OS board doesn't seem to work and searching for it doesn't seem to turn up anything....

Thanks,

H x

I was looking for that the other day and couldn't get it. I couldn't get lovefoodhatewaste either!

mooomin

Frugalish morning so far...

I went to the shops and returned things worth £93 so that money will go back onto my credit card, meaning it doesn't have to be paid out at the end of the month.

I bought yet more facewipes in Boots as I had another £5 No7 voucher. They really are the best wipes I've tried and I'm happy to pay £2 but no way will I pay their full price of £7.

Morrisons got £9 of my money, but I got some decent whoopsies for that as well as offers which will be put as Whoopsies on my spreadsheet so I can see how much I'm saving with these too. I was very pleased to get a whole chicken for £3 down from £4.30 so that's in the freezer for a later date.

I'm off to the cinema again this afternoon, making the most of my cinema pass. I need to put some stuff on Ebay, but haven't got time today so will do it tomorrow.

I have venison for dinner, but have no idea how to cook it. It's cut into chunks like stewing steak and I have a stew pack in the fridge with carrots, onion, swede etc in it. What would be the best way to cook it?

Hope everyone else is having a lovely day.

lynzpower

Afternoon all

Well lovely and warm here in the capital, I have been outside in short sleeves today ( I did have a hoody I took off as it was too warm :j)

I went out this am and took books to library. I have fines there, they are 2.20 ( not as bad as council library then) and got more books out

I then went to M&S to look for trousers, no joy there but I did buy this gorgeous floral holdall/ wheelie case thing that was 59 reduced to 10. We dont really have any cases/ bags and we are always needing one so I spend my Xmas voucher on that, so chuffed with it.

Then went as I had 5 off WYS 25.00 in M&S foods, you think they are not the cheapest but I got plenty of meat were 3 for 10er ( including whole small chickens) and massive cheese ( double the usual size for 3.50 each instead of 7) so I got 2 of them then that triggered the 5er off. Effectively, I got 2x chickens for free I am a bit selective about meat and my local butchers seem to flog that "plenty of water added" stuff from outside the EU which no matter how poor I would rather do without. I have been learning a lot about meat and its provenance through my course and a certain that buying british is the only way when talking about poultry. A whole chicken serves 3 apparently -although it dosnt say how many times

I have 3 more of these vouchers, whether Ill use them I don't know, I am certain we need no more meat for ages now, and the veg i wil get from the market.

OH wants to make tortillas today so it will be M&S chicken, tortillas, lettuce, peppers, spring onions etc. all veg I got on the market the other day, maybe some rice as well. if he makes extra dough it will be frozen this time ( we dont always do this- we should!)

Just a quick Q ( if your still awake at the back lol) when you get bleach on some clothing and it goes a sort of neon orange colour spot, is there anything I can do to get it back? I have noticed it on this black jersey top that I was going to wear for the new job, but I cant get away with it with this bleach stain. If I have to redie the whole thing then I guess its not really worth it? ( top cost 5er in a sale, a dye is about 3 - isnt it? )

Otherwise the rest of the day will include:
Baking a whoopsied ham I removed from the freezer for OHs lunch
sticking a quick cake in as well ( possibly)
Revision for exams- still!

dizzy_lizzie

Was trying to a find a site that I'd been on before were you put in certain foods that you had left and recipes came up for what you had in but I can't find it now. Was great for ideas using up left over food. Anyway I did come across this one
http://www.savvyhomemade.com/homemade-recipes.html
Not just recipes but craft stuff and home made beauty remedies etc as well and as it says in the title 'savvy' Only had a quick glance but it looks good.
Popping to toysrus now, should have gone a while ago but still on here. can't keep OH waiting any longer.
Catch you all later
Luvz Dizzy x
♥

lynzpower

Dizzy lizzie there is one called http://www.supercook.com/

thats pretty good, althoguh some of the things are american, so you have to call things american names ( only for somethings) eg icing sugar is powdered sugar on there

itsallinthemind

Flying Fresian I'd save the venison in the freezer for a nice meal with guests. It is more delicate than beef and is best cooked with red wine or brown ale, plus bacon, in a casserole or pie, so not really cheap if you take that into account. For say 1kg of venison, you would use aprox 2 onions, 2 cloves garlic, 150g ish bacon, 300ml beef stock then go for one of these versions: No.1: 2 sprigs thyme, 2 bay leaf, 2 tsp soft light brown sugar and 300ml brown ale, couple of carrots. no 2: few dessert spoons of redcurrant jelly, 1/2 bottle cheapy red wine and I dunno, 500g mushrooms. Should do 4 adults plus 2 small children at a guess. Gas mark 2, no idea what that equates to, for about 2 hours. Treat as you would beef at the beginning and fry off floured, but less time as it cooks MUCH faster. The bacon really brings out the flavour, so long since I have eaten, but I remember well Makes a nice posh casserole served with creamed potato and fine green WHOOPSIED beans

itsallinthemind

lynzpower wrote: »

I went out this am and took books to library. I have fines there, they are 2.20 ( not as bad as council library then) and got more books out

Just a quick Q ( if your still awake at the back lol) when you get bleach on some clothing and it goes a sort of neon orange colour spot, is there anything I can do to get it back? I have noticed it on this black jersey top that I was going to wear for the new job, but I cant get away with it with this bleach stain. If I have to redie the whole thing then I guess its not really worth it?

I thought all libaries were council. Oooeee.

Nope, not back, bar time machine. Let's face it, if you had one of those you would not really be worried aboout your top. I use a sharpie on my fave top I bleached. It is a very good black colour though and has not faded. I'm not sure it would work on a faded one. Beware though, you must wash with just blacks/jeans afterwards. I am always bleaching stuff :mad:

mooomin

Sadly it's defrosting as we speak...it is nice to treat ourselves though! The venison was free anyway, although I suspect there might be the odd shotgun pellet in there

rozeepozee

Hello guys. I'm hoping that I'll be able to keep the principles of this thread in mind, even if I don't manage to budget daily. I've bought a budgeting app for my iPhone (one of my fall off the wagon purchases of last year) so I can record my spends on the move.

cw18 wrote: »

Mine was 2nd eldest of a family of 4 children, with the only girl being the next one down. But she was expected to pick up around the boys !!!

Even after having done about 3 years in the Army and lived alone for years (including owning his own place for 4 years) he still liked to have the shopping and cooking done for him - but had to rethink the cooking one after we moved and he started working nights. He got sick of 'warm up' meals in the middle of the day (when he wanted his cooked meal and I was at work), so started spending a fair chunk of his money (or what was left after his booze) on oven ready meals - and couldn't see that this was basically the same as my leaving him a chilli / bolognese / cottage pie :mad:

My advice for my 8 month old twin daughters when they start thinking about partnering up will be: look hard at how your prospective partner's father behaves in the household as this is likely to be his primary role model. For the same reason, look hard at how his mother behaves and is treated by other family members as this is probably how you'll be expected to behave (even though this might only be on a subconscious level and not openly admitted to!) This is my experience. What do others think?

Oh, and my son (the eldest by 3 years), will be expected to do the same chores as his sisters when they are old enough!

itsallinthemind

flying_fresian wrote: »

I suspect there might be the odd shotgun pellet in there

Mr Tesco 'makes' it-shush!