Living on next to nought - is that the key?

little_sweetie

Thanks so much for that Greying and sorry,igamogam but no skin is definitely a blessing! I thought after I posted that I could just microwave it. :doh: It would solve the issue of sticking to the pan.......

rtandon27

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

...can't stand the stuff ...

I'm with you on this one Greying!

OH loves it though, he gets to partake when it's red stickered in the clearance section!

supersaver1000

Had a weekly shopping bill of £24.22 including 18 triple velvet loo rolls for sick squid.

Just had delicious HM wedges/oven chips - verdict was 'not enough' - with Jack's home made pizzas. We put on a lonely green pepper from the bottom of the fridge. Mushrooms, tomatoes, mozzarella, tomato pur!e and pesto from the fridge. Plus a 25p tub of coleslaw on the side.

We are all stuffed and very happy. HM choc orange marmalade cupcake with cream for pudding. Never eaten so well for so little. Thanks GP.

ps. I chopped up the chips - quite chunky, then put them in a bowl with salt and bit of oil. Laid them on a big tray and baked them, then took them out for 15 mins and covered with foil while pizza cooking, and put them back on for final 10 mins. Delicious

pps. Thanks Sweetie. I am as usual thinking will everything be okay' but I really need to be brave and bold. Life is too short. Thanks to everyone on here I am starting to make the most of what I have got. Thank you.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good evening :hello:

Oh h3ck! The thread is getting divisive over rice pudding!

Igamogam - lovely to see you - I recall the crust from my youth _pale_ Each to their own mind

little_sweetie - tell us ya made the pud???!!??

rtandon - little of what ya fancy and all that - DP would eat the tinned stuff if I let him :cool::eek::D

Well, how went your Doris Day Day??? I have to report to ye, that we had no triumphs and no Calamity Jane - suree, I can call ye Jane kint I? Now we're acquainted and all???? :rotfl:

I have spent money, so May has ended on 15 NSD's. Met the target, but......

The Winning Team - also known as *Team Greying* has scythed through a mountain of tasks today, much of it mundane, but 'tis done none the less

Considering it is DD Day, how come I've THIS earworm?????

Dinner this evening was a homage to the wild wild west. We had Jack's burgers on HM oatmeal baps, with lettuce, tomato and marinated onion rings; with Red-eye coleslaw and Texas tayter salad Erm, no recipes exist for this lot - mucho poetic licence was distributed Actually, the baps recipe is based on an American recipe, but I managed to louse it up. I think that the recipe is great, but just let me make it again *properly* before I direct you to it Picture of it all here;



DP declared it delish, and I have to admit, it was something of an improvement on some of the dishes that you may find on offer in certain burger joints

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

for our collective sense of fun, joining in and silliness - a real tonic. Thank you

for DP who works hard - and is blossoming, blossoming, blossoming before my very eyes

for musical theatre - don't it make ya feel good????

Thank you so very much for popping by, reading, commenting and joining in. Know that you are appreciated, very much by me. Always



See y'all later.

Greying

beanielou

Did someone say they make their wedges in the halogen?
If so for how long?
I bought a round tray thingy but it was too big.

supersaver1000

Hi Beanie Lou. I was going to give the wedges a try in my halogen but it's not big enough for 3 so will try in week.

I didn't buy a round tray for mine, I bought one of those bendy chip baskets from the pound shop. Cooks the oven chips a treat so I wonder how it would do for HM chips. (It's square, but bends in very nicely). Will let you know how I get on

beanielou

Thanks supersaver.
Keep me posted.
MOstly now there is only me

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello: And THANK YOU btw

So 1st of June...... already :eek:

How did May's challenges go?

Food Bank donation - made

15 NSD's - well, I bagged those - just, but I have to say, it was a struggle, and as I overspent on the food budget, I think that there is a direct correlation!

7 Ready meals made and frozen - I made 5, and came up against the problem of lack of freezer space. If I'd of had the space, I could have made the 7 and it would have been a real help!

5/7 Ready meals eaten - needless to say, the 5 RM's proved their worth! I wish I had a bigger freezer, batch cooking is no problem, storage space is!

7 Salads - 6 made/eaten out of 7 target Technically, there was a lot of salad on last night's dinner plate too! But I won't cheat. Given the variable weather of this month, I think that this is a fair reflection. I've enjoyed learning more about salads and will be looking to expand my repertoire - especially utilising sprouted seeds

May *b's* - 5/7 - I think I probably missed to count something here, but the principle was *use up* so I think that I've done reasonably well on that score

And we all remembered to celebrate Doris Day Day, as a bit of fun to celebrate ^ Pity I didn't actually stick to the budget - that would have yielded celebratory fireworks

We made it through May, but I have to say I'm not jumping for joy at my overall budgetary performance Two factors are colliding to make it increasingly difficult to stick to our £80 food budget. One is that we rarely seem to drop on any useable food that is YS'd. When it is YS'd, it seems that shops only drop the things down to the prices that the discounters are charging anyway In addition, we are trying to get a good balance of fresh vegetables, salad and some fruit - and as you know that ain't cheap We only have a little market here, not a full blown, many stall-holders street market, and the ironic thing is, that the fruit and vegetables are dearer than M&S and Waitrose charge :eek:

So, instead of moaning, what am I going to do about it? Well, as you know, the £80 a month is for all meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner. We don't eat out, so there is no purchasing of lunch/dinner from any other budgets Therefore, DP and I have discussed it, and as I'm regularly going over budget by an average of £15, we're going to raise the budget, for 2 vegetarian adults, to £100 for the month. *GULP* June will be a slightly odd month to try this out, as we've a week's hols to shoe-horn into the days, however, as we're self-catering, not a lot will be different if I'm honest - we still take a pack up lunch everyday and we don't eat out. With the one exception being that we might have breakfast at a funky little cafe we know, on the last day of our hols. It gives more time to pack up our stuff and you're not washing up a whole load of stuff before you leave

I am slightly nervous though - after all, we are raising the food budget by 25% in one fell swoop. It does not reflect household income, which has remained fairly static

Right, so back to today. Currently we have pavement splitting sunshine :j

I have my list and meal-planner made. Wonder whether I can persuade DP to help me get most of the non-perishables on the list today? It would get the task out of the way. I'm planning on Aubergine Bhuna being tonight's meal if we don't go shopping - told you it would bring on the sun :rotfl:

I cannot therefore say whether we will have a NSD, as DP is currently abed snoozing........ Still, as the shops ain't yet open, I'll not deny him a lie-in I am however, going to set 15 NSD's as my target for June

Right, I'm away to put the kettle on.

Thank you so very much for wandering in, reading, commenting and helping each other out Mucho, mucho appreciated, as always by me

See y'all in a bit.

Greying

little_sweetie

Hi Greying what a wonderful sunny day! :cool2: It must be 'cos I'm sitting here in shorts and I don't get these pensioner legs out for nothing

I think you have done amazingly well on your May budget and, in fact, I don't think I could feed the two of us on £80 a month, full stop. Our budget is £50 a week although that does include cleaning stuff, washing powder & softener, loo rolls, kitchen roll, toothpaste etc I rarely have anything left at the end of the week.
My foodbank donation comes out of my personal spends. I conducted an experiment on Friday when DH wanted to come shopping with me for 'a bit of exercise' :cool: I bought a 15p tin of rice pud and asked DH not to pack it as it was for the foodbank. "the what?" he said, "the foodbank" I replied, "what do you mean" he said, "I put it in the foodbank trolley" I explained patiently. "You mean you bought it and now you're giving it away!" He said. I rest my case......as donations come from my own pocket money (he earns and keeps his own money to do with as he wants) then my donations will continue to be my own business

little_sweetie - tell us ya made the pud???!!??

Yes, dear Greying, I made it this morning. I decided to microwave it rather than risk my one good pan so looked up the quantities on BBC Good Food website. It has taken much longer than suggested on the recipe and it is still ever so slightly 'al dente' and so thick you can slice it :rotfl::rotfl:I took a slice, mashed it with some more milk and re heated it for 30 seconds and it was ok. I can say no more than that...except NO SKIN!....When DH returns home from work I intend to add milk and reheat it slowly in the pan to see if it helps. He always puts a big dollop of jam on it anyway so it might turn out to be passable. Watch this space.....

BTW your burger tea looks smashing, as are the buns. I had a go at making wholemeal bread yesterday but I'm not pleased with the result. It came out much too heavy. My previous attempt at white bread was yummy but I did prove it in the airing cupboard. Yesterday, there was no heating on so it proved in the kitchen. Maybe that made a difference? Anyway, I ate some for lunch and have frozen the rest for later. It should be ok to dunk in soup or something. One thing you have all taught me is waste not want not! Thank you!

sunnyskies2

Hi

Yes, hasn't it been been a beautiful day - bought a few cucumber seedlings from a young entrepreneur, about 14!, from my local bootfair - 20p each:)

Wow Greying that is a small food budget - I'm just starting out on food (and everything else) budgeting:) - family of four £90 pw seems ludicrous in comparison but I will slowly get it down....will take it in small solid steps and hopefully then I will have more chance of succeeding.

Little_sweetie - my great gran used to make rice pudding on the hob - she cooked it in water first till al dente and then finished it off using milk - it works well this way too has doesn't catch quite so easy and saves a bit on the milk.

Best wishes

Sarah