2012 Frugal Living Challenge (Part 1)

purpleorchid

i pushed myself to bake tonight as i had things in the fridge that needed using.

last week i bought a beef joint which was £7.10, but as i saved £15 something with vouchers etc, i decided to class the beef as free.
cooked beef the other day in slow cooker, cant believe how tender it was. anyway have made 2 dinners and 2 medium sized beef and onion pies which will do me for 6 meals. i used puff pastry that was reduced to 40p.
for the pies i just cut the beef into chunks, sauteed some onions and then poured over my homemade beef gravy, then what was left from the puff pastry i attempted some kind of pizza lol. used tomato sauce, tabasco sauce, peppers, onions and cheese. oh n salt and pepper. whilst the oven was on i also cooked chips to go with my chicken in black bean sauce which i made the other day, and also some roast potatoes to go with the beef dinner. so the oven was well used, and the cost of the pies and pizza really free. quite pleased with myself now. will have to find room in the freezer though lol. best stop cooking for few weeks, need to try my new slow cooker for desserts now.

Luv P
xx

purpleorchid

have learnt something new, blind bake pastry when making pizza or pies otherwise the bottom wont cook thoroughly. ah well the pies are fab n taste yum but the pizza was undercooked so went in bin, ggrrr. but it was a small one thank god and as i said i learnt a valuable lesson.

Luv P
xx

Igamogam

Solar panels installed today so we are now generating our own electricity and contributing to the grid

dizzy_lizzie

Yay Ruby well done on the presentation. Especially when you've been so poorly :j
Leeds Met and Leeds Uni are two of the unis DS has been offered places at. Who knows your DD and my DS may end up at the same one

Purple I'm sorry to see you're still poorly. I really hope your health improves soon.

ThriftySister you take care too and get plenty of rest.

Warm hugs to everyone
x

rubytuesday

Ooh exciting Dizzy she is definitely decided on Leeds University.

My co presenter was also ill so we had little time go over things together.

She used my daughter as a case study so it was very personal but it was very powerful.

Next week I will be giving some training at an organisation based on the first presentation I gave so it's all go at the moment!

rubytuesday

What a relief Marmalade has just slinked in the front room!

She hasn't been in such fine fettle the last day or so but every time I think it's goodbye she perks up and the vet is happy with her so I'll wait a couple of days to see if she is teasing us or not.

SandraScarlett

I wrote a long post, wishing everyone help and support - and then it disappeared into cyberspace! But I just wish everyone well, and an extra big virtual hug for all those going through a rough time.

xx

Thrifty_Sister

Morning all - feeling a little better today, considerably helped by all your kind words. Wonder if you know how much a few words helps people when times are hard? The support that you give is amazing - this is a lovely thread to be part of.:A:A:A

rising_from_the_ashes

Igamogam wrote: »

Solar panels installed today so we are now generating our own electricity and contributing to the grid

:j:j Brilliant news!:D

I'd love some but can't see this being my "forever home" so will have to wait a bit. I did look into it (briefly) last year and the pay-back time was around 7 years so no worth it if I'm not going to stay.

rubytuesday wrote: »

What a relief Marmalade has just slinked in the front room!

Phew, I was just going to ask if she was back ..... congrats on the presentation:D


Having a lazy day - not been feeling great for the past few days so decided yesterday to take this morning off work (finish at lunchtime anyway) and have had a nice lie in reading the Kindle:D.

I've been hanging onto my last couple of annual leave days in case I get a new dog so I could take a week of 1/2 days when they arrived ... no sign yet (please let it be soon!) and as Weds is a 1/2 day I've still got enough left to cover this.

Need to use them by the end of March so now having a dilema of do I take them (which would mean a dog would arrive) or keep them (which would mean it didn't) - as you can probably tell, I'm a great believer in "sod's law"!:)

Pretty horrible outside so don't think I'll be going far!

natnat13

This is a lovely thread, hope everyone is feeling a little better today x x