I'm eating out of the freezer and cupboards challenge

gailey_2

Hi guys

cold day today, full of a cold still and been up with baby whos still poorly.

annoying still running out of flipping things

brought small bottle value squash 2days ago and its gone
brought new tub of butter 500g half gone!
ran out of milk so brought 4pints today.
ran out of crips brought 6apck seabrooks from poundstretcher as hubby whinged about value but have 13year ols stepson here so 6 I brought this morning all gone.!
No dried pasta left.
run out cooking oil!
did buy cereal £1 in mcols yesterday.
out of potatoes as used last of them for sheperds pie so having rice and frozen veg with stew tonight.

we still have reduced biscuits
apples in fruitbowl.
nearly out yogurts again last 4days co-op been out of stock of value so ended up spending £1 on wildlife.
spent £20 on reductions in total last week but still struggling.

yesterday brought value washing up powder £1 as get through least box a week.
thankfully still got bog roll/washing up liquid run out spray so using hot soapy water in empty stray bottle.

All the reduced bread and bakery items have really helped with breckfasts.

got 3packs of diced beef defrosting to make stew.
had to buy choped tomatoes and dried herbs today to do that.
as sytepson over thoiurght best have enough meat or they will moan.

which means out of 6 brought other day using 3 today, will use 1 tommorow for stirfry and have 2packs left in freezer +2packs of mince and half pack cocktail sausages.
will cook half packs sausage rolls again today as snacks.

brought reduced icrecream cones yesterday and value ice cream so kids get tasty dessert later at least.
we have sugar and coffee. breads running low but still enough until wed.
out of oven chipps too and frozen veg running low.
would make a cake or crumble but would use too much sugar, eggs and butter.

did buy 4packs reduced 2pk naan breads yesterday to freeze,
then jsut need reduced meat and will do curry.
the reductions and offers will dictate my meal plan.

best go start the stew not quite defrosted so blast in micro on defrost.
clean fridge
do meal plan for next 2days and hope some stuff sells so can maybe get valentines meal deal tuesday.

Lynsey-Hope you dont mind me asking as amazed how well you manage.

I know you exclude booze, household and toilitries within yours where as mine is including all that within grocery budget.

sorry if seem a bit dim.

but you spent £27 because you have lots in freezer and storecupboards.
did it require much money to stock up? therefore enabling you to keep your weekly amounts low?

I started on back foot on this challange as was so broke november/december only brought bare essentials and let store cupboard run way down.

went to poundstretcher today some good food deals or grocery longlife

so going to focus on 4different poundshops this month as well as

aldio super six
lidls weekend
reductions hunt
big farmfoods shop

also going to get some new tubs

batch cook few meals to save me time.

so 1 big sheperds pie
batch chilli
batch of curry
batch of spag bol
lasagane
fish pie.

Lynsey

gailey wrote: »

Lynsey-Hope you dont mind me asking as amazed how well you manage.

I know you exclude booze, household and toilitries within yours where as mine is including all that within grocery budget.

sorry if seem a bit dim.

but you spent £27 because you have lots in freezer and storecupboards.
did it require much money to stock up? therefore enabling you to keep your weekly amounts low?

Gailey, when I first came on this thread it was because I had too much in my freezers, I couldn't resist the "whoopsies" and just kept on taking them every time I saw them.
Cost wise I'm not too sure as I didn't have a budget then, though I did sometimes set myself a weekly target of £20, for fun really to see if I could manage it..........often failed.

The original idea of this thread was not to buy apart from basics and to use just what you had. I like decent enough meals so would never have been able or imaginative enough to use just what I had.
So, last year I set a monthly budget of £100 (apart from December) for food etc and managed that every single month.

This year as a follow up, I set the annual challenge, something I considered very seriously because of the duration. Anyway, I decided on it and will continue and hope I don't fail (I'm terrified of that!).
Coupons also kept the costs down last year.

I think it may be hard to get your initial "stash", depending on finances, but once you have that, then it's just tick-over time (remembering there are only 2 of us). Because of the amount of stuff I have, I no longer have to go out and pay full price for things like meat, only buy offers and vastly reduced items now. Things like Lidl really help, max the deals if you can afford it and have the space. Aldi Super 6 also for fruit and veg.

Get to know you shops to grab the reduced items, again max up initially to stock up and then just to replenish. That's my stance anyway and may not be suitable for everyone, you have to organise and have the time.

My low spends of this current year could never continue and will increase now. It depends on what bargains I manage to grab - never failed in approx 8 months though.

HTH

Been out most of the day and just snacked.
Popped into Sainsbury's and bought 3 bags of vivaldi potatoes for 10p per bag (reduced from a sill £2 per bag) and a packet of hot cross buns (wholemeal) for 29p - total spend 59p and over £7 at Sainsbury's silly prices.
Good to see the current Aldi Super 6, cheap veg for 2 weeks if I can't get any reduced stuff.

Pork casserole for dinner.

Welcome to new members joining up, have fun and save.

Lynsey

bramble1

Evening all, Cooked OH stew for dinner with HM dumplings, he will have a lemon meringue pie with ice cream for afters while he watches top gear. I left a small portion of stew for me, but don't fancy it so dog will get that for his dinner and I will have something light.

Making a wrap with lettuce, cheese, reduced quorn meat and mayo for my lunch. Need to defrost a wrap, think there are 3 left in the freezer, so thats my lunch will wednesday sorted! Will do corned beef sarnies for OH with some sausage rolls out the freezer.

Need to purchase milk, lunch meat and eggs tomorrow, might try to go with out the lunch meat, we've got cheese, a tin of tuna and with eggs could do egg mayo sarnies which will see OH to the end of the week.

So managed NSDs yesterday and today! minus tomorrow's small spend i hope to make it to the weekend without a shopping trip. I like my friday night sainsburys run, keeps me out the pub!

Got the good food magazine, and there are hundreds of recipes I want to try! So will start a list going of things I need. 16 days till my payday, so need to be sensible. Want to really run down the freezer in this time. think there is enough for 16 meals!
2 x packs of meatballs
2 x pork chops
1x sainsburys KFC type bucket (in case of hangovers!)
2 x chicken kievs
2 x mexican chicken things
1 x belly of pork
1 x quiche
bacon
2 x packs sausages
puff and short crust pastry
loads of type of bread
2 x burgers

plenty to work with!

abitofhelp

made cheese and broccoli soup out of cheese stash from freezer and a bag of yellow sticker broccoli, i'm sure i have forgotten how to spell it doesnt look right. also taken out of freezer french bread slices to make garlic bread with tomorrows soup for lunch. i used the stock i made today out of the cooked chicken i bought reduced last night. i used the remains after jointing it. however the meals i made out of the bits chopped off are now residing in the freezer. i will do my upmost to make sure they are used this week. enjoy your evening.

Kirri

Welcome pixnmix and abitofhelp

Today:

Breakfast - toast and marmite

Lunch - bread and cheese and more choc cake - cake is almost gone so I might make another this week as I have plenty of ingredients in!

Dinner - used some of the big jar of couscous with some of the halloumi in a flour/paprika coating, with various veg I already had here. Will probably have this again tomorrow to finish off the halloumi. Followed by a couple of clementines.

Lynsey

Gailey, forgot to ask, but how many do you "cater" for??
Hope you and little one recover quickly, very quickly.

Kirri, you love you cakes, wish I could make good ones!!

When I pop in to Aldi later in the week I'll get the veg to make a pan of minestrone.
I had a good recipe for a great pizza dough once, but can't find it!!
Might try and make the pizza dough in the breadmaker and make some calzones. I like an oil based thin dough.

Lynsey

recovering_spendaholic

Hi everyone - hope you are all enjoying the weekend! Apart from being driven demented by my truculent offspring I am okay!

Food wise I have been a bit hit and miss on the using up stuff front - I made a huge chicken biryani using all storecupboard and fridge stuff on Friday and I cooked it in the oven. I cooked it for too long and must have added too much water because it all turned to gloop! It really was unspeakably awful so it didn't get eaten - I was so cross with myself. I did manage to resist the temptation to get a takeaway to compensate and had beans on toast instead!

Lynsey - I absolutely love that Lidl cheese and onion quiche - I was at a friend's last week and had it for the first time - it tastes so much nicer than other quiches I have made or bought. I don't live too near to a lidl but next time I am by one I will stock up!

Littlewillow - your cupboard casseole sounds lovely!! Alot of the time I think I would like to be a vegetarian, but then I feel like bacon and give in - spineless!!

Bramble - I love the Good Food mag but it is expensive. I have been looking out for the 3 issues for £1 offer but haven't seen it recently.

For lunch today I defrosted a large cumberland sausage from the freezer and did baguettes and fried onions to have it with. It was nice but the cumberland sausage was sooooooo salty - I have been reducing my salt intake and now find that some things I used to like taste way too salty. Kids wouldn't eat the cumberland sausage (said it looked like a giant "poo") which upset me a bit but they had some chicken goujons from the freezer in their baguettes so it was okay. Dinner tonight was jacket potato, roast chicken and sweetcorn which everyone ate without complaint, and for afters I made a chocolate cake traybake with ganache topping, using stuff from my baking box. I now have loads of very salty cumberland sausage to use up - any ideas??

I have a Sainsburys order coming tomorrow which is due to cost around £70 - I ordered some on offer Persil, meats, a chicken and "feminine hygiene" stuff (which costs me about £50 a month).

Off to watch call the midwife!

Kirri

Lynsey wrote: »

Gailey, forgot to ask, but how many do you "cater" for??
Hope you and little one recover quickly, very quickly.

Kirri, you love you cakes, wish I could make good ones!!

When I pop in to Aldi later in the week I'll get the veg to make a pan of minestrone.
I had a good recipe for a great pizza dough once, but can't find it!!
Might try and make the pizza dough in the breadmaker and make some calzones. I like an oil based thin dough.

Lynsey

I should add that I gave some of the cake away, though I could have quite easily have eaten the whole thing myself in 2 days All you need is a hand mixer and you'll get perfect cakes and the right recipe for the size tins (Mary Berry Baking Bible has a great and basic recipe for 6, 7 & 8" tins that work perfectly!).

Yes do the pizza dough in the bm, it's so easy - I find it's a good 'treat' item that you can make from the storecupboard usually.

Lynsey

recovering_spendaholic wrote: »

I now have loads of very salty cumberland sausage to use up - any ideas??

Skin them and make balls and use it in a pasta bake, hopefully the tomato sauce and herbs will reduce/mask the salty taste.
Use them as a meat base for a curry, again might mask the saltiness??

Lynsey

Lynsey

Kirri wrote: »

I should add that I gave some of the cake away

Was that the crumbs to the birds??

I'll be making an apple pie or apple turnovers on Tuesday or Wednesday - 1 pack of puff pastry to get rid of.

Lynsey