I'm eating out of the freezer and cupboards challenge

donnajt

Kirri wrote: »

Watching Weight Loss Ward on ITV at the mo, enough to put anyone off shopping! Their food bills must be huge

Hear Hear Kirri - although junk is so cheap and always on bogofs or £1 a bag compared to a decent cut of meat :mad:

Lip_Stick

Morning all. Bit frosty here. Anyone would think it was winter!

Today should be a low spend day. Maybe need milk... oh, need electric, so will be a higher spend day lol. Got ironing to do, and WILL tackle spud's room.

Going to have chicken and mushroom pasta bake. Never made a pasta bake with chicken, I always make a veg or tuna one, so hoping it's nice. Going to make double the amount so I've got some LO for lunches tomorrow.

Dinner will be beans on toast as I ended up having a sandwich yesterday.

Lynsey - After buying whoopsies regularly, I find it hard to pay full price for things like meat again, even when I was working and not so bothered about saving the pennies.

Jane - That lamb curry sounds nice, have you a link to the recipe?

donnajt - Not looking forward to the cold weather one bit! Have got used to this mild weather.

just trying - lol, sounds like you have a smart, but lazy dd lol. How old is she?

Kirri - UK Job Centre Plus ‏@UKJCP
Improving UK unemployment may prove a difficult task, as #Jobseekers can survive on as little as one Pot Noodle per day. :rotfl:

donnajt

Lynsey wrote: »

That's because I need very little and I've got my "£60 monthly max" head on. I'm still actually scared to let the leash off and do a spend and not too sure when I will. Last year efforts have left a mark I suppose, but after March I will start to buy some nicer things .................. just NOT at full price. lol
I need to get rid of some "unwanted" items like the Quorn sausages (hubby will have a couple at a time with mash), some chipotle sausages need rid of and quite a bit of salmon. A pack of vol-au-vent cases and 2 tubs of ice cream. That's mainly the stuff I want rid of and that alone will create approx 1 free freezer drawer.
NSD's and low spend days are the "key". Just buy bits to make meals with what I have ....................... simple isn't it??



At least I'll get a chance to use the snow shovel!! Well hubby will. lol
I'm dreading it and loving the mild weather at the moment.

Morning Lynsey - £60 please come live with me

I had a packet of vol au vents - I defrosted and rolled them into one piece of pastry and made a couple of pies - although be careful as some of them are part baked now. You could make some nice lunches with them I love vol au vents...although not my stepmums, I am sure she filled some with a tin of dogfood once....

I think I am on NSD 5 :T but will have to double check, only going out to post birthday card and deliver avon books

recovering_spendaholic wrote: »

Have just had a bacon roll for breakfast. I made home made naan bread yesterday which turned out lovely, but there was loads of dough so I made half into rolls.

Have got a meeting at DD's school today becuase she is always late - I am dreading it but she isn't even a bit bothered!

Morning Recovering Spendaholic - can I ask what recipe you used for your naan bread - always wanted to make them but would prefer a tried and tested recipe

Good luck with DD's school....hopefully it will resolve the issue

Well got off to a cracking start today as its rubbish day

Feel quite embarrassed to hear about your lovely breakfasts especially as I found my xmas home made bounty bars and am scoffing them as we speak ... so good

lunch today is either leftover pasta or leftover spicy peanut noodles...dinner is curry tonight am going to try a packet of the onion bhaji mixes, any left overs will be used for wraps tomorrow's lunch

it is so cold this morning, turned the heating off at 6 yesterday when i was cooking dinner cos it was so hot...big mistake as i flipped it off timer and so we have all woken to a sub-zero house

right back to tea and bounty

Lip_Stick

Lynsey - kill two birds with one stone, and make salmon vol-au-vents... yummm.

Kirri

Lip_Stick wrote: »

Kirri - UK Job Centre Plus ‏@UKJCP
Improving UK unemployment may prove a difficult task, as #Jobseekers can survive on as little as one Pot Noodle per day. :rotfl:

PMSL I love that one!
I read your post whilst sitting here eating 1 measly banana

donnajt wrote: »

Hear Hear Kirri - although junk is so cheap and always on bogofs or £1 a bag compared to a decent cut of meat :mad:

I'm not sure most of them even actually cook proper meals at all, was fascinating in a gross sort of way. I'd love to know how much they spend in a month heaping in all those cakes and things!

donnajt wrote: »

.

what do you think of the predicted two weeks of freezing snow and sleet?

I like snow but then I can't use my car/get to the gym and will be a nightmare if I get any interviews as I can't walk in it unless I have DM's on! I've got used to this nice, mild weather as well. Might go and buy some bird seed tomorrow, Wilkos sold out last time it snowed.


Ditto, RS, on the naan bread recipe please - I've tried before without success..
We used to get detention if we were late, used to dread it! Was only late if the bus was late so was bit unfair.


Breakfast - banana again
Lunch - teacakes again
Dinner - not sure yet, maybe tofu/veg stir fry


Last night my vegan chicken had a piece with furry mould on it, had only been opened 24 hrs and well within date - cut that bit off which was a bit risky.. and ate it but had to eat the whole of the rest of the pack which I was hoping to make into 2 portions, lying awake last night thinking I might be ill but seem to be ok so far..

Lynsey - I thought you'd be spending more but you seem quite a frugal shopper this year lol.

madhatter_1

Hi everyone

I don't seem to be able to make room in the Freezer as take some meat out, we make the meal from scratch and loads left over so into the freezer the leftovers go LOL.

I still have 5 joints of pork, 2 half legs of lamb and a Turkey, so as you can imagine space is limited.

Guess I'll be eating more curries for lunch next week ha ha.

Not much in the yellow stickies at Mr T this week, but that is probably just as well ha ha.

Soup and ham roll today for lunch, chicken breasts stuffed with Parmassen and wrapped in bacon for tonight.

I need some more potatoes, but not prepared to pay £2.00 at Mr T for small bag, so will head to Lidl for the XXL sack instead LOL.

When will Lidl have there half price meat offers again, as they have been a bit slack recently. The Rump steak I got last year was lovely, but I have used it all up now Awwwwwww.

Well done everyone on your reduced item finds.

just_trying

Morning all, raining here today no frost, Donnajt was it on the news about the 2 weeks of sleet and snow, i never heard anything about it ?, aslong as i don't get it, though the kids would love that as it normally means days off school.

Recovering spendaholic, sounds like a normal teenage response, if that happened to me my 2 teenagers would be like it's no big deal completely calm and i'd be freaking out especially when you get teachers who think they can speak down to you. I am sure it will be fine good luck.

Lip_stick, she's 9 going on 19 at times if you know what i mean. She shares a room with her sister and it's normally her older sister who cleans it up, though she would claim they both done it !!. If she's at her friends houses the mums always comment on how she always tidies up, i just laugh to myself and think well she's not like that at home.

Have already been to the shop this morning as the magazine my dd was wanting was out today, also got bread had to pay full price and it's a dear little shop.

Food today is cereal for breakfast, lunch probably a sandwitch and dinner is going to be sausages and pasta.

Catch up later.

Lynsey

donnajt wrote: »

Morning Lynsey - £60 please come live with me

I might, just to try the bhaji's. lol
Remember, that's only for food and soft/hot drinks (though drinks are not needed at the minute) and not covering household/toiletries (definitely not needed).

Lip_Stick wrote: »

Lynsey - kill two birds with one stone, and make salmon vol-au-vents... yummm.

An option yes. I normally just fill with prawn cocktail or pate.

Kirri wrote: »

Lynsey - I thought you'd be spending more but you seem quite a frugal shopper this year lol.

I'll still stay frugal, but more in line with the thread title this year.
You know where I went wrong last year, by keeping on buying and filling freezers when I should have stopped around August and doing what I'm doing now. I reckon I could have come in under £1k, which is a shame.
This years spends will still be lowish, simply by using stuff up.
If I could meal plan, I'd save a fortune. lol
No diaries though, just updating simply when I spend and keeping track on here.

Jane, yes high cholesterol levels and medication looks a certainty - he wants to wait 3 months (from initial tests) though.

Beef in pressure cooker now and nearly elevenses.

Lynsey

Lynsey

Anyone see BBC and the food waste today??

The advertised website is interesting:

LOVE FOOD HATE WASTE

Some good tips and recipes there.
I hate throwing food away, but sadly guilty, but guilty to a very low level now.

Lyssey.

Kirri

I've just been reading that article about the food waste, really shocking, probably just as much on the amount of veg left in the fields as no good for the supermarkets to the level of food people throw away - though seeing how high some pile their trolley it's not surprising I guess.

I try really hard not to waste things now and really very little ends up in the bin. The only way to keep on top of this though is to really buy only what is needed in very small quantities.

The last year on this challenge has shown me really how little I do need to buy.. and what I thought was actually just a tiny top box freezer on top of the fridge can contain enough food to keep me going for months! I don't even like frozen foods though, food is so much nicer fresh so am still running stocks down this year on both frozen and cupboard items and will buy as I need..

Re your last year, yes shame as would have been good under 1k (almost same spend as me but for 2 of you!) but still, you'll reap the rewards of less spend in using it all up now.