A new 'tougher' thread... and so it continues

prepareathome

We had a cheap meal tonight - I made chicken soup yesterday with 4 chicken thighs so we just had the soup with rice for dinner ( we didn't eat till nearly 10pm so that was quite filling , so tonight used the chicken with two jars of Mr S basic curry sauce ( bought them for 9p each in summer) and used up nearly a full carton of plain Mr S basic yoghurt I had opened to put on fresh fruit salad last week and just had nothing to use it on since and not been in the mood to eat it on its own, yet it probiotic and very nice and creamy, and in past chances are it would have been given to dogs, that had to be used by today, served with 250 rice. We like a lot of sauce that is why I used two jars. So that is us well and truly stuffed.

While out shopping I decided to buy another big bag of the only food my dogs eat as its already £21.45 reduced and if prices rise I dread to thing what it will go up to, real price £28.75 so at least they have food till around Feb. This means no money to go away towards Aprils bills, but if things don't get to bad will be able to put it back when I come to the week I would have had to buy their food. Hubby and I can live on less and different food but not the dogs they are to old to change now.

Rowan9

Hello all
I popped into M0rrisons on my way home and bought a chicken, a pack of diced turkey thigh, salad and a bottle of wine :cool:. We've had the wine with tonight's tea (fishfinger club sandwiches (fab!!), spicy wedges and salad) and in the oven the chicken and the turkey stew are cooking. Will sort out a few teas with that and sort out for the freezer.
Very cold here and i think to be -1 tonight. Soup to make tomorrow night or at the weekend as I can't be faffed doing that tonight as well. Fancy something that sticks to ribs.
Well at college today I said to a student 'pinch punch first of the month' and he said 'whaaaat?' - had never heard of it. Is it only an English thing? My students down south always said it as they punched each other (no, I did not punch the student ha ha).
Going to read a bit of my library book and lie on the settee in a while. Not doing much tonight!
W

lizzyb1812

Having looked at the cheap family recipes site I put grated carrot as well as lentils in my chili tonight - couldn't tell the carrot was there at all :T Also put in two cans of kidney beans instead of 1 so I've got 6 good sized portions from my small pack of mince when I'd normally get 4. Padding stuff out has never seemed necessary before as I'm cooking for one but the cost of those 2 extra portions was 18p each so it's definitely something to do again.

I realise now that there are still more ways I can cut down on expenditure and that I've become a bit complacent about my efforts. Thickening casseroles etc with breadcrumbs or well cooked rice had never occurred to me, although I have used instant or leftover mash for this.

For anyone interested there's a programme at the weekend on Sunday BBC2 7pm "The Party's Over: How the West Went Bust" with Robert Peston. Might have some views on what happens next?

ellanutella

Am in a very bad mood thanks to the usually adorable kittens. The littlest one has peed all over the wicker sofa in the front room, used to be my late Grans and now I've had to throw the cushions and foam away, tried to salvage it but was no good. So Whilst I'm in there clearing up she sneaks in again and pees on the floor!

Only just finished clearing up so all the chores I was meant to be doing tonight haven't been done, been on my feet all day at work, no tea ready and I'm paranoid my house smells of pee. Not cool.

However had a lovely OS day yesterday, made baileys champagne truffles and brandy fudge plus a lovely chicken and veg soup which I made out of HM stock for the first time ever. Did it in the slow cooker too :) I'm now pondering whether to ring BG up enquiring where the bill is, or whether to leave it until the new year. Haven't had one since the price rises in August, but when I rang up in July to again, ask where my bill was, we were apparently down on 6 month billing so I don't really want to request a bill that's not ready yet. It shouldn't be too bad (minus the extortionate price rises) as we're very careful.

Anyway, rant over, so pleased this thread is back :T

Rowan9

Charliemaine - I know how hard it is, lost my mum one early January and my dad in a december. Kids young at the time. Just take days one at a time. Kids keep you going. Don't think too much ahead to Christmas just now, just baby steps at coping with parts of each day. Thinking of you and all your family.
W

mardatha

wmf, I've never heard of that 1st of the month thing.

Gigervamp

mardatha wrote: »

wmf, I've never heard of that 1st of the month thing.

Have you not? Maybe it is a southern thing.
We used to say "Pinch, punch, first day of the month, no returns." (The no returns bit meant the other person couldn't do it back to you!)
Then the other person would say "A punch in the eye for being so sly." And the 1st person would then say "A punch and a kick for being so quick, no returns to any of it."

We were pretty violent as kids! :rotfl:

maryb

When my DD2 did that to me, I gained her reluctant respect by turning it into a Soviet Russia joke,

In Soviet Russia you don't pinch and punch ze first day of ze month - ze first day of ze month pinch and punch you (said in very bad Russian accent)

Softstuff

GreyQueen wrote: »

Softsuff Gonna have to fold to your magnificent Food Poker hand; can only offer 16 tins red kidney beans, 10 tins chickpeas and 2 of Mixed Bean Salad. Bah! Am am ashamed of myself.

Didn't even know that lentils came in tins but there they were in Little Mr T this afternoon sure enough and at 58p each. Blinking rip off.

Lentils in tins are my equivalent of fast food :rotfl: With a tin of lentils I can make curry for two in about 6 minutes if I serve it with couscous. And these were 40p a tin. So about 70p for curry for two, not bad really.

I have dried chickpeas and tinned chickpeas, dried lentils and tinned lentils. That way when a meal needs to be quicker, there's something there to use. A lot of the reason for this is only having 1 hob, it means that if I'm boiling a pulse, I can't do anything else, so I have to wait for the lentils to boil, then fry off the onions and spices, make the curry, then cook the rice, one after the other! A task that would take 15 minutes with 3 hobs takes 45 minutes with one.

Previously I've batch cooked the pulse and frozen them in portions. But with Christmas coming up there's no room at the inn for that (have to fit in about 50 mince pies shortly....).

Went to the nearest city shopping with MIL yesterday. Wow there were a lot of people with chock full trolleys of Christmas crap. There's some really lovely stuff in the charity shops at the moment, so it looks like some of them decluttered first!

lilac_lady

"Trolleys full of Christmas crap" :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:You are so right Softstuff.

Frugality rules for most of us at Christmas too so the thought of buying a lot of expensive things to eat when I can either make them or do without them is so unappealing.

I knew that I'd started to cut back on supermarket purchases when I bought 2 mushrooms instead of a plastic box of them.

Reading the posts, I'm going to free up some cupboard space, sharpen my elbows and do some shopping for tins and bottles. All on offer, of course.