Just Say NOvember 2013!!!

thriftylass

EyesWideOpen wrote: »

My worry and planning problem is not this week but making my shop last an entire week without top-up shops. Its my birthday tomorrow and I will host a family dinner on saturday so need to get bits on for that as well as regular meals. My main worry making the fruit and veg last without them going off. I gather some of you batch cook - is that how you make your veg last?

Onwards and upwards people! :T

That's my problem too as I constantly snack on fruit, so it doesn't go off but is gone. But often it's difficult to even if I have enough make sure that bananas, apples and grapes etc are still edible after a week, also since I don't have enough space in the fridge to store fruit and some veg that could be stored there. With veg I either batch cook or use fresh veg at the start of the week (like peppers, potatoes, carrots etc. Then towards the end I start using my stash of frozen veg like peas, beans and sweetcorn.

Did anyone see this article about Recession hits family spending on fresh food where they say people buy more starchy filling food now to save money. What do you think? I still buy loads of fresh (or frozen fresh) fruit and veg and just make them last longer or use them more senasibly, or buy them in cheaper shops. Or rather than expensive blueberries I buy apples in Aldi's 5 and veg that are in season.

MrsGSR

I could kill my DH. Ages ago we were invited to a surprise party but he failed to tell me when it actually was and it's this Saturday! He just said oh I'm going out on saturday night. Er thanks for the heads up. Still I've had my planned outing and I will be happy sat at home with a microwave curry (which is already in the freezer) watching a girly film on On Demand.
Still annoyed with him but I'll be the one quids in hehe.

Also think I might take some over time on sunday, that will help his hangover mwahhaha!

traveller

Hi everyone and happy belated birthday Mrs Toast! I'm happy to report a SFD today! Keep up the good work everyone :T

Mrs_Toast

Hello all,

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. I had a lovely day out with the family & only spent some of my birthday money & bought a xmas gift. DH did buy us lunch but out of his money.

Only has planned kids activities so £2.25 out of that fund and another SFD. Tomorrow will be a spend day but hopefully my last week day spend until next Thursday for my last night out.

£61.09/£120 petrol
£20.04/£120 food
£0/£10 beauty
£7/£80 earnt
2/20 declutter (bags not items as it's needed that bad:rotfl:)
£4.99/£40 xmas/birthdays
£5.75/£40 children's entertainment
£0/£5 emergency
2/25 SFDs

It's lovely to know that there are other MSEr's that are gluten/wheat free as it's very hard to save money when you need to spend £2 on flour or £3 on cereal. My lemon drizzle muffins were lovely but my bread came out cakey. It was using a white mix that was free so I can't complain.

My plan for tomorrow is 50p at local farm for DS, £1 birthday present, £1 for 4 birthday cards, £1 for craft club and the library. Hopefully I can get it all done so I won't spend until Saturday. Any money left Tuesday night from my weekly tax credits is going towards the credit card. Should be £20 plus the £7 I made at the weekend.

MrsGSR

NinjaSavingKat wrote: »

I grew up with my Mums bread! Mumsy was super careful with pennies back then ( I am 30 ) and bread makers were mythical creatures. We had "shop" bread for sandwiches but the home made stuff was reserved for slathering in butter and jam straight from the oven. My Mum was endlessly mixing, proving and cooking bread because we loved it so much. Smelling freshly cooked bread reminds me of home and it's always on offer when I return ( roll on Christmas )... however don't get me started on my Grandpa's ( Mums Dad ) white fluffly bread rolls. Last ate them when I was 8 yrs old in Australia.. I can still remember him aged in his 70's pulling them out of the oven...amazing stuff is home cooked bread!!

And MrsGSR - the hand mad stuff always comes out nicer I think. I have a bread maker courtesy of FreeCycle but hardly use it!

Oh yeah I agree. I worked for a family who had a breadmaker and insisted I bake all bread in it and I hated it. I do try and hand knead my dough a bit but I have CTS so I can't do it too much.

MrsGSR

thriftylass wrote: »

That's my problem too as I constantly snack on fruit, so it doesn't go off but is gone. But often it's difficult to even if I have enough make sure that bananas, apples and grapes etc are still edible after a week, also since I don't have enough space in the fridge to store fruit and some veg that could be stored there. With veg I either batch cook or use fresh veg at the start of the week (like peppers, potatoes, carrots etc. Then towards the end I start using my stash of frozen veg like peas, beans and sweetcorn.

Did anyone see this article about Recession hits family spending on fresh food where they say people buy more starchy filling food now to save money. What do you think? I still buy loads of fresh (or frozen fresh) fruit and veg and just make them last longer or use them more senasibly, or buy them in cheaper shops. Or rather than expensive blueberries I buy apples in Aldi's 5 and veg that are in season.

I'm exactly the same I buy fresh, frozen and tinned and use sensibly. Iceland do bags of frozen veg for £1, I buy fruit from the market and always have a few tins of pears in and I don't buy out of season.
It's not difficult and I think it's an excuse tbh, it's about savvy shopping and thinking outside the box by learning to be inventive with food.
My top up shops are mainly fruit and milk and it really helps that DH and I both work in retail!

PurpleJay

Evening folks

Today is another NSD for me. I took M to Argos to spend his birthday money and somehow managed to be in very close proximity to both Aldi and Poundland but simply didn't go in!

Food today has been cereal for breakie, and at lunch me and M shared a quorn cottage pie with oven chips, beans and gravy. I had savoury rice with curry powder and a bit of salad for tea. M had mash cheese and beans. Me an M have been snacking on fruit. I didn't get round to having mystery meal. It was still very frozen and unidentifiable at lunch. If it looks ok tomorrow, I might take it to work!

Back to work tomorrow after a week sick and a week annual leave. That will be a shock to the system!

I joined swag bucks last night so have been having a play with that today. It would be good to get some amazon vouchers! Took me loads of goes to get a survey it would let me take part in though.. Will have a read up on the Income Board.

I sold 2 things on ebay which after fees and posing will be about £12 - £13. A good start

luckystarr

Evening all

Happy belated Birthday Mrs Toast,:beer:

Update for NOvember today has been a spendy day .. went to ald! to get my donations for the food budget and picked up mushrooms and potatoes because i forgot them on weekly shop !!!!:eek: .. done some Xmas shopping (budgeted for) and nipped to sa!nsbur9s to get bread (again forgot ) and then had to get donuts for team meeting tomorrow so spent a little more than planned on the misc stuff :eek: but will make sure next week i plan better for the food shop .... as i am finding out this is a learning curve .. hoping for SFD's until Saturday now but all in all i am happy with how the challenge is progressing will check in on Wednesday as at work and no access to PC until then

Keep up the good work everyone i am LOVING reading the posts as they are keeping me inspired on on track !! :T:T

lovely-cup-of-tea

Didn't make it as a spend-free day as I needed to pick up some baking soda that I forgot on Saturday's big shopping grip. And now OH needs antihistamine as he's allergic to something that's making his hands itch. Looks like I'll have to get him a packet tomorrow. The good news is that I'm really 'aware' of my spending now. Baby steps, baby steps.

Fmess

Evening all

SFD number 3 today and took lunch to work, after finding an unwanted bowl of leftover chilli in my mum's fridge at the weekend

Also posted eB4y and Am4zon items and found I made £31.70

Think tomo will be a spend day as OH needs bread and cat food as the cat is eating us out of house and home (he brought home a humongous rat last night )

Can't believe how fast this thread had moved today, I've been trying to catch up in between working this evening and it's taken me all night!