Cleggie's frugaltastic journey to financial freedom!!

Florenceem

Piquant wrote: »

I am always reading Cleggie, with you every step of the way!

How about I tell you what dish and how I am making for dinner each day? Nearly everything is very cheap, I try to keep the food shop to about £15 weekly. I'm only cooking for me, but I like a generous dinner I tend to double the portion size and have the second portion for lunch the next day.

Tonight it's Cheese, Potato and Leek Bake

• 4 small leeks finely sliced
• 2 medium potatoes peeled and sliced
• Small tub of creme fraiche
• Lots of very mature grated cheddar cheese
• Seasoning

Layer the leeks and potatoes in a shallow dish. Beat the creme fraiche with a fork until it's a little less solid, stir in nearly all the cheese and add seasoning. Then spread the mixture over the vegetables. Top with the remainder of the grated cheese and bake for about 40 minutes at 190/mark 5. It is cooked when the potatoes are soft and it is a rich golden colour.

I normally serve with a small salad and crusty bread [I have a breadmaker so nearly always have bread with my meal]

Piq

Sounds yummy - thanks for the recipe.

cleggie

Thanks Piq I have copied and pasted it into my 'recipes to try' word document! It sounds really yummy!

Well, confession time- i went shopping at Lidl and spent £24.71
That means that i only have £35.29 for food until Sunday, which shouldnt be a problem to be honest, as i have everything i need for meals. Besides,the ex called to say he is having the kids Fri-Sun, so thats 2 less meals i'll have to find this week (Fri and Sat night).

So, going to update my signature in a minute.


Off to play 'Just Dance' with the little ones now.
Spag bol for dinner, with garic bread, all ingrediants aready found in the freezer and cupboards.

Barbeduk

Hi Cleggie,

Yes, went to Antony near Torpoint, it's absolutely beautiful there tho as we always have the kids with us we've only managed to walk round the house once! Gardens are fab although all the Alice stuff has gone now. NT membership is £39.75 (single); £43.50 (family, 1 adult) if you join online and pay by dd. You also get to park free at the beach car parks they own which is handy when you live in this neck of the woods.

Piq, yum! I have all those ingredients in the fridge so guess what tomorrow night's tea will be!:T

I am really cross with myself as apart from dog walk and !id! run I've been in all day but haven't made a cake. Might need to quickly soak some dried fruit to make a tea loaf as we're supposed to be picnicing tomorrow. Think the weather may be against us.:(

Have a good rest of the day!

Spiggle

Hi cleggie,

Thanks for your good wishes, we went to southern Spain for the week. While it wasn't quite as warm as hoped it was certainly better than UK!!!

Just reading Barbeduk's post to you re National Trust membership, you can get 20% cashback for a membership purchase through the Quidco site. I just thought you may be interested.

You've been doing really well by the way, you should be very proud of yourself.

All the best,
Spigs

cleggie

Hi all.

Barb- you must live quite close to us then, as Torpoint is ony about 20 miles from us. We often go to Looe beach, but i dont think thats NT?

Spigs- nice to see you. Glad you had a nice time in Spain. You missed all the nice UK weather and have returned to THIS- rain and horrid weather!!

rising_from_the_ashes

Piquant wrote: »

Tonight it's Cheese, Potato and Leek Bake

• 4 small leeks finely sliced
• 2 medium potatoes peeled and sliced
• Small tub of creme fraiche
• Lots of very mature grated cheddar cheese
• Seasoning

Layer the leeks and potatoes in a shallow dish. Beat the creme fraiche with a fork until it's a little less solid, stir in nearly all the cheese and add seasoning. Then spread the mixture over the vegetables. Top with the remainder of the grated cheese and bake for about 40 minutes at 190/mark 5. It is cooked when the potatoes are soft and it is a rich golden colour.

mmmmm yum that sounds great - always have leeks & potatoes in & will get a tub of creme fraiche the next time I'm at the SM:T

cleggie

Have been looking into having 'themed' meals.
I was thinking about making some homemade sushi, but will attempt to do it on a budget (not this week, but the following week).
I looked and found this thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/902351 if anyone else is interested.
I already have everything for a chinese meal (chow mein) so thought japanese sushi, mexican lasagne (from nigellas book), Spanish paella, italian HM pizza, american KFC were all options i could look at.

Barbeduk

Yep, Looe is a firm favourite with us too, we were supposed to be going there today but it got rained off! You'll spot us on the beach, we're usually sitting on the sea wall with a huge picnic! I'm just over the other side of the Tamar bridge in lovely Devon.

Themed meals, blimey, some nights there lucky there's anything on the table!:rotfl::rotfl:

Thanks for the tip off about Quidco Spigs! Will look into that. And glad to hear you had a good holiday.

PennyGrabber

cleggie wrote: »

I am off to Taunton on Thursday, its an 170mile round trip, so am very glad that i have most of last weeks petrol still in the tank, as i'll definitely be needing it, as well as this weeks £20 petrol!

Ooh, why are you off to Taunton?! I grew up there, and my mum still lives there, so I'm often there!

Spiggle wrote: »

Hi cleggie,

Thanks for your good wishes, we went to southern Spain for the week. While it wasn't quite as warm as hoped it was certainly better than UK!!!

Just reading Barbeduk's post to you re National Trust membership, you can get 20% cashback for a membership purchase through the Quidco site. I just thought you may be interested.

You've been doing really well by the way, you should be very proud of yourself.

All the best,
Spigs

Hi Spigs, and welcome back! Hope you had a lovely time.
Thanks for the advice re 10% off, I've been thinking about getting a nt membership for a while now, so that might make it even more worth it.

Barbeduk wrote: »

Themed meals, blimey, some nights there lucky there's anything on the table!

My thoughts exactly!! What about a trip around the British Isles? You could do haggis, lancashire hotpot, cornish pasties, somerset pork and cider casserole, demmsher dumplins or cream teas, bubble and squeak (apparently London!), faggots (wilts), tatws rhost (Wales) and I can't think of any more right now!!

Plus, by and large, it looks like we British are cheaper to feed than many other cultures!!

cleggie

Morning all!

PG- i have a friend who lives near Southampton, and i live in Cornwall, so Taunton is halfway for us both. Doesnt take long, about an hour and a half. If you are ever there at the same time as me, we'll have to make sure we meet up for a cuppa if you like (MSE style of course- flasks!! )

I am looking forward to getting back into some kind of routine when the kids go back to school, and am going to start setting my alarm for 7am every morning again, and getting the kids up at 7am, so it wont be too much of a trauma for when they are back at school next week.
I do like getting up early in the mornings, and going to bed early too.

What to do today:
Check OLB
Avoid SM
Clean out kitchen cupboards
Price up kids new beds
Strip beds and wash bedding/towels
Get out for some fresh air- a walk in the woods.
Dusting-front room
Hoovering-whole house (thank god its a small house )
Put clothes away


EDIT- JUST A QUICK QUESTION. IS THERE A PLACE ON THIS SITE WHERE I CAN ASK IF PEOPLE HAVE SEEN ANY DEALS FOR BEDS ETC?