Fiscal Fast – 7 days no spending (at all)

GreyQueen

Wow, I can't believe it, evening on Day 6 an NO money spent all this time. The world still turns, who'da thunk it?

I have just eaten Bucklings-filets according to the can. I do believe this is German for smoked herring fillets. Either that or the small print on the back of the can is lying.

Anyroad, Mum gave me this and another can of something similar from her cupboard at Easter. Not as a special gift, y'unnerstand, just happened to come across them when she was tidying. The other can was BB 2009 and I ate it 2 weeks ago and have sustained no perceptable harm and this one was BB Dec 2011 and will probably murder me..........:rotfl:

Mum is a bit wary about BB dates but I have a devil-may-care attitude and have eaten canned things several years out of date and never get a gippy tummy. I was reared on 1970s school dinners, which is a bit like letting trainee paratroopers loose in the Highlands and making them eat worms; anything else is positively delicious by comparison.

Each of these cans has done me two meals with veg. I put the herring in the top (solid) section of my 3 teir steel saucepan, had the last of my h.g. french beans from 2011 in the middle and some tired and wizened examples of the last of 2011 h.g. spuds in the bottom. They're good enough to mash.

I'm reading that book Tescopoly and it's an eye-opener even though it's 5 years since publication. That is enough to give a body indigestion. I shall be making every effort to avoid Mr T from now on, which is kinda difficult in some respects as they have taken over the centre of my city and you can hardly find a non-Tesco food store. And my corner shop sells sex toys rather than milk and newspapers.:p

I take comfort that the Clubcard data they've got from my shopping habits is going to be a fat lot of use to them as I have one of the key-ring tags for Mum's card and they're getting data from 2 households of different sizes about an hour's drive apart.

I still haven't run out of food. I have apples, 2 huge parsnips, a chunk of broccoli stalk, 3 onions, eggs, a bit more bacon, some cheese and bread rolls. There is a big bag of h.g. broad beans in the freezer, plus fish and a few of those oblong plastic containers of Freezer Surprise.It could be veggie chilli, it could be more stewed pears. No milk and no chocolate, however.

I'm a bit tired after work and other things and didn't really get in until nearly 6 pm. Tomorrow before work I plan to make another batch of bread rolls and leave them to rise, and when I come home I shall make apple pie and use the oven for both (or overlapping) for more fuel efficiency.

Many thanks for the Be Ro website, I have bookmarked it for future persual.............

Keep away from the purse, ladies, you know it makes sense.

7_week_wonder

Evening all, I've gone back mainly lurking as I'm just not able to FF with various things going on at the moment. Though, as other people have commented, just reading everyone else's posts is keeping me on the straight and narrow as far as spending goes. And I am having a field day using up all my freebie supplies (mostly cosmetics, but also tea-bags, hot chocolate etc.)

I too take great delight in playing with the minds of the people who analyse club card data. My last spend, about two months ago, was £28 on cat food and a four-pack of J20:p. I only went to T*sc* because of a combination of a great pet-food deal and a "please come back and do your shopping with us" voucher.

Anyway, carry on the good work everyone, I'll enjoy reading and will be back as soon as I can!

Puddleglum

Well,7 days achieved and today I went shopping, no more until a week tomorrow. It was a bit tricky as DD and particularly DS are at the stage where they have hollow legs. The biscuit situation was helped by DS buying his own midweek but I am not counting that as a spend because there were 2 packets in the cupboard, he just didn't look hard enough! Hiding bread in the freezer so they could have sarnies today was a great idea as they tend to wander into the kitchen and make a snack fairly frequently.

While we must have saved money on food, I have had to spend extra on the miaowsers though. Both cats have sort of gone on hunger strike. They are refusing to eat the generic supermarket food, even in freshly scrubbed and polished bowls. Instead they are catching mice at an alarming rate and leaving bits lying around the house. I know that catching mice is in their job description but this is ridiculous. They catch rats too but for some reason, rarely eat them. So to cut a long story short I have bought some more expensive cat food in the hope of tempting them away from the mouse diet.

Hope all is well with all, P.����

lizzyb1812

Internet still affected by rain, but just to say no spend today - weekly shop tomorrow then back on the Fast.

lizzyb1812

Puddleglum wrote: »

I have had to spend extra on the miaowsers though. Both cats have sort of gone on hunger strike. They are refusing to eat the generic supermarket food, even in freshly scrubbed and polished bowls. Instead they are catching mice at an alarming rate and leaving bits lying around the house. I know that catching mice is in their job description but this is ridiculous. They catch rats too but for some reason, rarely eat them. So to cut a long story short I have bought some more expensive cat food in the hope of tempting them away from the mouse diet.����

Sorry, but it's springtime and nothing will be finer than freshly caught mouse. But most mousers will be bringing in presents rather than catching food. Hope you don't have a dog - mine thinks of left over dead mice as chewing gum :eek: Needless to say both feline and canine are wormed.

Puddleglum

lizzyb1812 wrote: »

Sorry, but it's springtime and nothing will be finer than freshly caught mouse. But most mousers will be bringing in presents rather than catching food. Hope you don't have a dog - mine thinks of left over dead mice as chewing gum :eek: Needless to say both feline and canine are wormed.

That is so right Lizzy! If it isn't mouse flavoured, it isn't going in. On the bright side though I won't have to buy any more cat food for yonks even after the mouse supply dries up. :beer:

niksyg

It's the start of day 3 and I have been up for an hour already working on my dissertation...feeling very well behaved and motivated...for once

No spends on the horizon today...off to work in an hour, uni this afternoon and then gym tonight. Te fridge is full, the freezer is half full so no signs that we should be running out of food :T

GreyQueen

OK, did cheat a little. Went to a pal's yesterday and she gave me 2 cups of tea with milk in...........;)

Have just made the batch of bread rolls, a quick knead and then into little patty-balls and onto an oiled baking sheet and left under a tea towel. They'll spread out and join up and look like proper wholemeal bread rolls by the time I'm home. Leaving bread to prove for a few hours really develops the flavour and rolls are quicker to bake than loaves. Shop bread is soooo unpleasant compared with home-made and lawdy don't they want a pretty penny for it.

Thus far all I'm really feeling deprived of is milk and chocolate and the only kind of fresh fruit I have is apples, so a touch bored with them. But at this latitude, and this time of the year, wrinkly stored apples would be about all we could expect unless we were importing. Early rhubarb is just about ready but I'm never quite sure if that's classifiable as a fruit or a vegetable.

I'm finding this new way of life really productive and interesting and intend to carry on, in a modified way, after today. I shall go and get milk (and chocolate ) and go to my independant greengrocer after w*rk tomorrow but will set a target of maximum spend of £5 to the end of the month and see what happens. That spend will be for food because I have a few other things I have to buy (new tyre for pushbike) which I can't get out of, plus I wanna browse the charity shops for one or two little bits on my wants list.

One thing I have noticed is a reduction in my household waste. The bin week co-incides with the week of the Fast and my black sack has only a few grammes of non-recyclables in it so I've brought it indoors so they don't waste the sack by taking it away. I recycle everything I can, sometimes going to ridiculous lengths like taking stuff to my family in another council area, but there has always been some stuff I cannot compost, recycle or repurpose and nearly all of that has been food packaging.

So, no food shopping means next to nothing in the rubbish. The Fast has really made me aware of how much stuff is lurking in the nation's cupboards, overlooked and unloved, until it gets binned. I'm sure if we could have what we waste spread out before us on a tarp and see it all at once and in one place, we'd be shocked and ashamed of ourselves. I've been as guilty as anyone due to disorganisation and overshopping, although there is no way I've wasted the 25% of food I've purchased as some articles quote as if we're all doing it.

Beggar all has escaped my attention this week, bar the approx 3/4 pint of milk which turned in the storm, and now I know how to utilise sour milk in scones, that won't happen again.

Later today, I shall assemble the remaining veggies (onion, broccoli stalk, parsnip and tired tatties), and craft a soup of some description, in addition to having the rest of the tinned fish for my tea with tatties and the start of the last bag of the h.g. 2011 broad beans. The 2012 beans are already 3 inches high on the lottie.

Once the last of the tatties are eaten, which will be by the end of the week, I shall switch over to pasta as have copious amounts due to some canny purchasing before the prices went up. There is also some rice on the premises. I shall do pasta and rice until late June/early July when my crop comes in and I'll enjoy them all the more for the absence.

OK, time to get on with the day. Have a good one, all you lovely Fasters.

Laters, GQ x

Kiwisaver_2

Puddleglum wrote: »

They catch rats too but for some reason, rarely eat them. So to cut a long story short I have bought some more expensive cat food in the hope of tempting them away from the mouse diet.

Mine's a rat catcher too, mainly for sport and recreation rather than for eating. I tend to think what happens is they find a nest and hence the daily catch and presents come for a week or so and then we'll see nothing again for months and months. The last one he brought in was during the night whilst I was sleeping, he had hauled it through the cat flap very much alive and squealing. OMG :eek:

I'm feeling confident that I will make seven days this week and getting quite used to this now, so much so that I don't want to stop. We've eaten incredibly well this past few weeks and I am constantly looking for ways to eke out what we do have. I can however see that the days are numbered before I have to go and do a full shop. I tidied another pantry shelf and sorted and decanted a few things into neatly labelled jars and cannisters today, so it's all looking far less cluttered.

Today we've had beans on toast for brunch and chilli beef burritos which made a nice change to have something other than rice or pasta.

For tomorrow I have ham and half a leek which may become some kind of glorified macaroni cheese / pasta bake effort or even cannelloni. I doubt I have enough milk for cheese sauce though, so we'll see. It might just end up being leek and potato soup and a ham sandwich. Decisions, decision!!

Ches

I am so intrigued by this thread that I have browsed my way through every post. I tried the grocery challenge but dipped out as it soon became apparent that it really wasn't food that I was overspending on, it was everything else. I would love to join in the FF if I may and try to fast on all spending (except d/d's) as its the clothes/shoes/hobbys spending that is still out of hand. I have large amounts of food stock in as I already menu plan and shop for the month and as not all of it gets used in the month it was intended it has built up. I will try to eke the food/toiletries/cleaning stuff out for longer than end of April and all other spending until errr?... as long as possible. I will allow £20 per week for milk and commitments I can't cancel as I don't think the OH will accept no milk for his tea but as he eats most things I concoct I won't moan about that. Tonight we are having something with pasta. We have rather a lot of pasta as it was bought on BOGOF ready for when the GC visit but now they are all older they don't come here after school like they used to so it doesn't get used. Neither OH or myself are very fond of it but I can't waste it so I have taken a chicken breast out of the freezer to go with some sort of sauce. I have cream and sweetcorn etc so will let you know how that goes. OH had squishy tomatoes on toast for breakfast and I expect we will have a sandwich for lunch. Looking forward to seeing how far I can go with this. See you later.