I'm eating out of the freezer and cupboards challenge

cheerfulness4

Thanks Lynsey and Lipstick for your help over the Wrights coupon.

Cross with myself as I forgot to add my AP foods order to my spends total. Now I'm even more over than I thought.

I'm going to attempt to really toughen up and keep the purse (or debit card) tucked well away and get stuck into using up some of these stores that have been lurking too long.

I've loads of stuff. I don't use it cos I'm getting too lazy to be imaginative with it. So much of my stocks are 'cook from scratch' items. I love cooking but I got sluggish with it over the winter months.

I remember D&DD doing a thread ages ago when the P.O strikes were on and she had little money coming in and I think I need to think along those lines. Drag out stuff from the back of the cupboards and think how to modify my normal recipes to fit it in.

So to begin with today for brekkies I had some toasted soya and linseed bread (15p reduced, delish!) with a portion tub of apricot jam (bought 400 for £1 yonks ago from bigbrandsforless :dance:) and coffee.

Lunch will be leftover chicken in a wrap (5pks of 8 for £1 from AP foods;)) with remaining salad bits in fridge and some burger sauce from AP foods. (this was 5 for £1 and too long ago for me to want to remember :eek: but it smells and looks fine so hey!)

Tea - fishfingers, mash and peas. (loads of potatoes since the 30p bakers some weeks back, followed closely by the £2 sacks. I have a glut! )

Kirri - what you growing? All behind with sowing here. Not even pricked my tomatoes out yet but they're looking good.

Lip_Stick

Morning all

Hope everyone is well. Ds is with his dad after school. I almost forgot and got a big pack of mince out to do our tea tonight. Put it back in the freezer before it had defrosted when I remembered I was cooking for just moi. So, now I'm stuck for what to do for myself. Probably will have a beef spread and tomato sandwich for dinner. May have the Moroccan lamb with couscous from the freezer for tea, and spice it up a bit.

Breakfast - we both had toast with jam on.

Fridge and freezer are both looking fairly well gone through so looking forward to doing a shop beginning of the month and having something different in the freezer. Will try and use one of the many cuts of meats/fillets of salmon I have in there first tho!

Cheerfulness - I know what you mean about getting a bit sluggish with the home cooking. I fancy doing something a bit different, but putting into practice is a different matter lol.

Kirri

cheerfulness4 wrote: »

Kirri - what you growing? All behind with sowing here. Not even pricked my tomatoes out yet but they're looking good.

Will be growing practically everything that is possible! In the ground are onions, herbs, garlic, shallots, potatoes. My parents do the greenhouse stuff ie toms, aubergines, chillis and that is all sown now. Lots more seeds to go in for everything else shortly, probably sow carrots and spinach next.

The earlier things that will be ready will be the rhubarb, asparagus, broadbeans then early potatoes. I like to have the freezer emptier by the time the broad beans are ready to freeze the surplus - I don't usually get it empty enough though!!

I'm just using up the last of the stored potatoes and have loads of stored shallots still and then the freezer is bursting with frozen fruit and veg from last year, it's almost out the door still! I hardly have any bought food in my freezer apart from some Quorn.

Produce level will probably be down this year though with the hosepipe ban, it's going to have a massive impact not to mention the considerable amount of extra time it will take trying to water by hand..

cheerfulness4

Kirri wrote: »

Produce level will probably be down this year though with the hosepipe ban, it's going to have a massive impact not to mention the considerable amount of extra time it will take trying to water by hand..

I only have a little garden now but found it exhausting watering by hand. My tomatoes were little survivors considering my neglect last year!

I love fresh broad beans. Can't remember what variety I grew but the flowers were so pretty, too. Tried garlic but it was very small although really tasty.

Won't be able to grow potatoes now as garden too small but one of my DH greatest joys was harvesting them. We used sacks as well as ground. Like digging for gold. Great fun.

I have so many seeds I am really hoping that I can cut down the spends hugely over the next 2 quarters. Never used to buy salady things and potatoes at the last house. Kept me going well into the autumn.

DH is going to finally check out the decrepit greenhouse. Some panels out and looking rough but I'm sure we could do something with it.

VfM4meplse

Kirri wrote: »

Will be growing practically everything that is possible! In the ground are onions, herbs, garlic, shallots, potatoes. My parents do the greenhouse stuff ie toms, aubergines, chillis and that is all sown now. Lots more seeds to go in for everything else shortly, probably sow carrots and spinach next.

The earlier things that will be ready will be the rhubarb, asparagus, broadbeans then early potatoes. I like to have the freezer emptier by the time the broad beans are ready to freeze the surplus - I don't usually get it empty enough though!!

I'm just using up the last of the stored potatoes and have loads of stored shallots still and then the freezer is bursting with frozen fruit and veg from last year, it's almost out the door still! I hardly have any bought food in my freezer apart from some Quorn

:T Well done you!

Kirri

cheerfulness4 wrote: »

I only have a little garden now but found it exhausting watering by hand. My tomatoes were little survivors considering my neglect last year!

I love fresh broad beans. Can't remember what variety I grew but the flowers were so pretty, too. Tried garlic but it was very small although really tasty.

Won't be able to grow potatoes now as garden too small but one of my DH greatest joys was harvesting them. We used sacks as well as ground. Like digging for gold. Great fun.

I have so many seeds I am really hoping that I can cut down the spends hugely over the next 2 quarters. Never used to buy salady things and potatoes at the last house. Kept me going well into the autumn.

DH is going to finally check out the decrepit greenhouse. Some panels out and looking rough but I'm sure we could do something with it.

I think it will take about 3 hours by hand at least compared to 30-60 mins by hose and that won't even be done as well. With getting to the allotment and back, picking and weeding on top. It will be a hard year if it's a dry, hot summer! I love it though!!

Garlic size seems to vary a lot on variety but yes always tastes good regardless. I like the surprise element of not knowing how many or how big they will be with potatoes. Hope you can sort the greenhouse out, makes such a difference to the veg that is harder to grow outdoors. We have to do tomatoes in a greenhouse as the blight is so bad here for outdoor toms. I can't wait to start eating fresh picked veg again..

Just got another pack of the Bird's Eye free seeds today, carrots (got the peas the other day). Have so many packs of seeds though from the last few years..

Thank you v4m, dread to think how much I would spend if I didn't grow veg!!

lyra

Argh, didn't think about the hose pipe ban in regards to watering veggies & fruit

Oh well, got some herb seeds yesterday & will be at my parents next week getting started on the growing :T I think if I didn't have their garden I'd do guerilla gardening or something! Planning: beans, carrots, spinach, herbs & some flowers in pots. Fail badly at growing tomato plants so always get mine from the local farm! Will get some more strawberry plants as well.

Had to pop to the post office & avoided buying anything at the co-op opposite :T They had jars of their truly irresistible Belgian choc sauce reduced to 90p, which is pretty good but contains milk so no good for me.

Will get a Wrights bread or cake mix at some point (with the coupon of course) but NSD on the grocery front today.

Chicken chow mein for lunch, toast for breakfast & might have a pack of mini lamb samosas I got whoopsied from Tesco for tea.

Got whoopsied pork & bread rolls so made up pork & apple rolls for tomorrow & Fridays lunch. Yum.

ms_night_ryder

Lynsey

Thanks for the 80p coupon, i have 2 bread flours in the cupboard, could have done with the coupon on sat as i bought the toffee mix, done it and everybody said it was way too sweet.

Tip for anybody buying the wrights mixes, asda seems to be way more expensive than sainsburys the cake mix is £1.89 for 1 in asda versus £1.59 in sainsburys, also the bread mixes are cheaper in sainsburys by between 5-9p

used the last of the salmon and sliced meat for lunches today, it lasted ages, will do a pork joint in the week for lunches etc.

Edwardia

We've got a hosepipe ban starting 1 April too, so I'll be out soaking everything really heavily before then and then top-up mulching. Our garden is teeny for a 4 bedroom house and without a lawn. I've been gradually changing plants to more Mediterranean style and mulching, so not a lot of watering, thankfully, which is good because we're on a water meter.

I bought two mini greenhouses in the end of season sale at Wilkinson and will get OH to erect those for seeds (Lidl are great for that). Self sufficient in herbs during the summer plus some fruit.

Post Budget thoughts.. we don't have kids or a car, don't smoke and only OH drinks. Council tax and rail fares have gone up again though and as OH hasn't had payrise for 5 yrs our disposable income shrinks and shrinks

dinx1972

I started a thread here and VfM4meplse pointed me in this direction, so here I am:rotfl:.

Last night I managed to use a packet of bacon lardons making a winter soup with them.

Tonight will be salmon based for myself and OH and breaded cod for DS14 and DS10.

Was going to pop into the local coop on way home to buy veggies to go with above, but remembered that we have carrots in the fridge and I am sure I have a small reminent bag of peas in the freezer from hell! I have half a dozen small new pots in the fridge that need using and I am sure I can rustle up a couple of bakers into chips for DSs.

Onwards and upwards, freezer contents used now stands at 5/44.