I'm eating out of the freezer and cupboards challenge

quintwins

i found what looks like diced beef in the freezer (could be pork or duck i suppose) so were having casarole and roaties for tea, lunch is pasta bake, and the ever so healthy breakfast of jam sandwichs and apples

lindseykim13

Just wanted to pop in an say i have been reading this thread and a lot of you shop the way that i do -bargains, coupons and woopsie hunting! I also tend to not have a meal plan and make something up the night before or think about it at breakfast and get something out of the freezer. My main problem is if we have a busy day and i foget to sort something for dinner we end up with a takeaway so i must reduce that this year.

I would love to have an annual budget but not too sure what to include in it (takeaways/holiday food, pet food etc) i don't have a clue what we spend each week on food at the moment either as i tend to stock up on bargains when i see them and some weeks buy nothing at all. There are also 5 of us so not sure what a reasonable budget would be-going to have to work that one out. Would love to have a healthier year too and stop buying crisps and rubbish like that.

Oh and i forgot to add need to clear my 3 freezers and many cupboards of hoarded food.
Sorry turned out to be a longer post than i thought!

VfM4meplse

lindseykim13 wrote: »

Just wanted to pop in an say i have been reading this thread and a lot of you shop the way that i do -bargains, coupons and woopsie hunting!

Yes, it really is so motivating. I'm pleased to say that I now throw away almost nothing, everything has a use and I have no compulsion about following bbe dates.

lindseykim13 wrote: »

if we have a busy day and i foget to sort something for dinner we end up with a takeaway

Takeaways are unhealthy, a waste of money and don't even taste nice! Invest in a few tins of chickpeas / kidney beans and you can pull a tasty curry together in minutes.

lindseykim13 wrote: »

I would love to have an annual budget

Me too. I can get basic food in for well under £15 pw (it's just me, and I don't eat meat / fish / avoid dairy & eggs / v little processed foods) but then I have a huge supply of pulses and grains in my storecupboard which will last me for years.

lindseykim13 wrote: »

Oh and i forgot to add need to clear my 3 freezers and many cupboards of hoarded food.

Run these down as a priority, I bet you have at least 2 months worth of food stored ! Why not set yourself a budget of say £300pm on food alone for the remaining 10 months of the year for the 5 of you, I bet you'll have plenty to spare if you shop the MSE way. Let us know how you get on...

dannie

Since Tuesday I have been using up miscellaneous items:-

Several frozen bags of fruit or homemade jam made a 500gr cake.
A bread recipe from the freezer made quick sandwich meals.
Food flavourings, seeds and nuts are slowly being used e.g. dessert recipes.
Three bags of veg also used.

Hardly any shopping expected this year now and anything storecupboard/fridge freezer "surplus" will be handy due to expected New Year bills.

quintwins

morning all, we ended up having stew at mil last night so tonights tea is casarole here, lunch is hot dogs using the reduced sausages i got last weekend and the reduced hotdog buns i got yesterday, usual breakfast of toast and fruit i need to start using up the cereal cause we have loads but they've been asking for toast

Skint_Catt

bramble1 wrote: »

Lifted out some bacon and will do carbonara for dinner. Just need to get cream and eggs I think!

Ditto for us for tonight - bacon out of freezer, but using up half a packet of sauce mix too.

C xx

ms_night_ryder

Hey all

Yesterdays dinner was chilli defrosted and tortillas from oep glitch, will have the rest tomorrow, i added some dark chocolate grated into the chilli, as somebody in a chocolate thread mentioned that it adds depth and it was lovely, this choccie was leftover from hotel chocolate tasting batons as i dont like dark, but will deffo be adding it again as i still have 3 and half sticks of choc to use up.

Nothing from freezer today had lunch at slug and lettuce today and dinner was ms sandwich so free.

kittywight

sorry i havent been on this thread for a while, i had to change my internet provider


well my freezer was starting to empty ............ and then i did my christmas grocery shop

taken out sausagemeat,bread rolls and puff pastry for cooking tommorow eve, and will take my veg out tommorow for christmas
also my meat and hm gravy will be taken out tommorow should create a bit more room


my cupboards are still jam packed, i did a sort out about 2 months ago, and there were a few things close to best by date that i was planning on eating ................ which i didnt

think another sort out is in order after xmas
xxx

Lynsey

Just popped in to wish you all a Merry Xmas, have fun and hope all goes to plan with the Xmas lunch.
Decided to be pretty frugal and I'm NOT going "bargain hunting" today, even though there will be some great bargains later on. Got enough in the freezers and fridges now to get by. Probably a bad decision as you could be able to fill your freezers for very little money.
Did manage to get a medium crown for £8 and that will do with some gammon - should be enough for 2 days.
Just need a few things, double cream etc. and all set - haven't gone daft this year and no need to as shops are hardly closed.

Lynsey

Kirri

Don't go, there are too many temptations! I've just been to get some essentials, only spent about £8 though as there was really nothing I needed or couldn't make from scratch food wise! But even so, it's really hard to resist things I don't even need!! Like Christmas cupcake cases... when I have enough other colours to last years already. Really got to knuckle down and use what I have in 2012, have better organised, emptier cupboards and then I can just buy things I want to use straight away and have some space in my kitchen!

It is hard to eat things I have all the time rather than things I want though.. I think I will have to mainly eat what I have but once or twice a week buy something new to mix it around, otherwise it could get very bland..