Fiscal Fast – 7 days no spending (at all)

forever_saving

I went shopping Saturday. So as of Sunday am back in until the weekend. I really can't get bits this week as really got to watch what we spend.
Tea tonight is hm chicken and veg pie using yesterdays leftover chicken.
FS

[Deleted User]

Oh dear today is shopping day, and after book club I am off to scour the shops for bits for DD who is a bit broke this month and needs a few things to tide her over until payday .I don't mind as she is a good lass and we've all been there at some point I'm sure, so who knows how much I'll have by the time I come home.
I also had donated to me a huge 2.5 kilo gammon ham frozen, and forgotten, from Christmas .I'm wondering if I should defrost and cook and portion it up and refreeze in portion as its an awful lot of ham for just me to get through.Any ideas or recipes would be great.

Kiwisaver_2

My purse remained firmly closed for another day.

7_week_wonder wrote: »

Afternoon all,
Kiwisaver you have got me salivating at the thought of rice pudding for breakfast! I've recently started doing surveys and I've promised myself a yoghurt maker when I've got enough points for an amazon voucher. (Yes I know in theory I could make yoghurt with just a flask, but it never seems to turn out right!)

Haha, no wonder I have been unable to shift any weight for a good few weeks now. Total lack of planning, meant I had rice pudding for breakfast, tuna and rice salad for lunch and more rice pudding with my dinner. I best not have anymore rice this week. :rotfl:

I have an Easiyo yoghurt maker and it is afterall nothing more than a glorified flask. I hadn't used it for ages as I had one batch ages ago that I probably didn't mix properly and it was lumpy and horrid, which put me right off of doing it again. But I had three packets of out of date mix in the larder, so forced myself to use them up these past couple of weeks. I have one more to go and now have the dilemma of whether to replace them with new or will I do the same and leave them at the back of the cupboard for another year before I feel compelled to use them up? :eek:

On the one hand I am busily trying to use stuff up and get rid, but on the other hand I am reading a disaster survival handbook which tells me I need to have all these things on hand to survive a week at home, before help might arrive. I quite like the idea though of planning it all and starting from scratch with a neat and orderly larder and survival kit. *Rolleyes*

I am thinking alot about the way forwardfrom here and thinking of keeping a very simplified stock of the basic things that I would need to make a selected menu of favourite meals - rather than having such a vast and random selection of stuff that I might use someday. It would I feel be quite easy to manage a smaller range of ingredients and just buy 'special' ingredients if I am planning to use them for something in the short term, rather than buying them to keep 'just in case'. A prime example being the jar of capers I have; I don't know why I have them and have no idea even if I like them, let alone what to do with them.

The past couple of weeks I have planned our main meals mostly from Mr Oliver's Ministry of Food and have found that provides a more than adequate variety for dinners. He suggests plenty of alternatives and swaps you can do to pimp things up or make something slightly differently with some simple changes of meat or herbs and then optional extras such as a topping of sliced potatoes, pastry or dumplings for a stew.

lally666young

Hello girls, sorry I havent been on at all these past couple of weeks. I have had the two weeks from hell. DH was working for most of them, so I didnt bother going out. Then the youngest came home with a bug which hit 4 at once!!!! Trying to fight over two toilets isnt funny. So I havent been in much of a mood to do anything at all. My boys are still off till next week!!!
I am not eating as I dont feel like it, my GP is starting to worry as if I dont start to eat something soon, I could end up in big trouble. So my tip is, get a bug, you dont eat,shop and all you do is sleep. No only kidding.
But I have seen things in a different light. I appricate things more and it seems like everything is moving a lot slower now. So I have spent very little money, made lots of homemade soup, lived out of the freezer, but the only one who has been eating is eldest DS, so he has cooked his own meals. Anyway glad to be back.

greent

£36 spent on a call out for my washing machine, which wouldn't open with a full load of wet washing in I need a new control fascia - so teh shop is ordering me one today - hopefully, all thing sbeing well I can have it fixed by end of week. Will be begging m-i-l for use of her wm in meantime... 6 of us means it piles up very quickly!

calicocat

:beer:........only spent £1.20 on cream.
This has today however been easy as haven't left the flat,spent the whole day messing about with the cat,to the point where I think she is now pretty irritated with me.
Haven't even eaten anything yet,but have stew from freezer de-frosting,and may have home made chips as a treat.

Can't remember who put it but HM chick pie is making me drool,I love NM chick pie and make it often,am now wishing I had got my self into gear and made one myself.

Going to shops tomorrow for food basics ,and will be straight back on it to stop me spending happy cash if I can until next pay day (28)

Friend is coming over tomorrow so at least not being a total hermit as not going out doing this and back to work wed.

And got some free strawberrys left today from a n/bour who I shop for sometimes as he has his foot in a cast at the moment..........strawberrys and ice-cream for pud.

No clue what to do with ham I'm afraid as don't eat it, other than adding it to pies and soups.

666young......you gotta eat, you need some kind of comfort food,hope you feel better soon.


Keep going everyone !
Walk away from the purse:T

calicocat

PS......chicken out of freezer,I have to make chicken pie now tomorrow as can't get it out of my head,and a batch of chick soup for freezer (that I am meant to be clearing?) But always roast and boil carcass for HM stock.

Ninno820

lally666young wrote: »

Hello girls, sorry I havent been on at all these past couple of weeks. I have had the two weeks from hell. DH was working for most of them, so I didnt bother going out. Then the youngest came home with a bug which hit 4 at once!!!! Trying to fight over two toilets isnt funny. So I havent been in much of a mood to do anything at all. My boys are still off till next week!!!
QUOTE]

Welcome back - glad to hear that you're on the mend.

Back to work for me and a no spend day. Orgaised myself to make a slimming world quiche and take it into work with a salad and fruit for afters. I have also rediscovered my easi-yo yoghurt maker and had bought a couple of greek yoghurt mixes - tasted wonderful! I have read somewhere on these threads that you can use the product to be a strater for milk and skimmed milk powder and therefore bring the cost down so I am going to investigate that.

Tea tonight is a Lamb shank - defrosted yesterday but not used when I ddnt feel hungry - along with veg from the fridge.

Limping along until wednesday!

lizzyb1812

Day Four

Still going well.

JackieO - how lucky is that to get a huge joint of gammon. Lots of things you could do - cut in half before roasting and give one joint to your DD? Roast it and slice into portions for the freezer - freezes really well. Use the bits that won't slice neatly in sandwiches, omelettes, quiches, with sweetcorn and mayo, with leeks and cheese sauce, pea and ham soup, with fried rice.

Stew tonight for me with peppers and venison from the freezer (venison was whoopsied) followed by home grown rhubarb and yoghurt. Lunch was the usual soup and sandwich.

Ran out of dog biscuits - the snack type ones - today, so improvised and made some. Nothing special - plain flour, chicken stock and vegetable oil made into a dough, pinched off into lots of little balls and flattened down before baking for about 15 minutes in mini oven until quite hard but not burned. Pup loves them :T

Lally - hope you and yours feel better soon. Have a look at the Easiyo thread - you may end up not even using any packets at all, just a basic recipe. Mine is a pint of made up dried skimmed milk with an extra 15-20g powder. Bring to blood heat in the microwave - takes one minute in mine and add a good dollop of a yoghurt you like from a small carton. I do mine in a food flask but it should work in the Easiyo thingy.

Puddleglum

Day one =:D

Lally hope you get well very soon. Agree that two loos and five dicky tums is very grim.

Beginning to get my head around using up the stock pile.

Hope all goes well for everyone tomorrow.

:beer: