2014 Frugal Living Challenge

OneShowyWoman

You could try making bread without the expense of buying a breadmaker first. Honestly, it's easy enough if you're going to be around in the house for a few hours - I've been doing that for some weeks now. I just set a timer on my phone to remind me to check/knead the dough. Plus my stepdaughter really enjoys the kneading and pummelling, so we have a lot of fun together. There are loads of recipes online for easy basic bread making.

Mrs_Cheshire

My bulk buy food shop today, all this plus another 15 bottles of lemonade

vw_campervan_mum

Thanks Frugalsod I am trying to batch cook but only have small in-fridge freezer which is limiting. Make a big batch of something that does 2 evening meals and my lunches which works well. My DD is not keen on many soups/dahl cheap recipes which marks up a few meals. I have made bread but my low level of will power means I eat it immediately so it is not MSE and I am putting on lbs

Probably have enough to get me at least half way through Feb with only a £15 a week shop on fresh stuff so should manage to catch up on the budget.

Feeling very inspired and am far more frugal even though I have been trying to be frugal for nearly 4 years now - keep peeling back the layers to an inner core of frugalism :T

TM6

Do you womble?

I have just picked up an ASDA receipt and the APG was for £2.59
:dance:

oh and yesterday was another NSD

COOLTRIKERCHICK

hi all,


decided to finish work early and go to mr T on the way home rather than Arseda.. in the reduced section they had their 4 pack of reduced sugar beans, reduced down to 72p ( for the pack of 4) so I bought 10 packs...they did have a lot more, and REALLY was tempted to buy them all...lol...


also bought their value toilet paper to try, its the double size roll ones..


Sooo with the reduced bug I called in the co-op ( which is just round the corner)


Had 2 packs of braised beef down to a £1 each, huge bbq chicken pizza for 75p, and some other bits.


so then called into Arseda to buy some leeks and parsnips to make a nice beef cawl/stew for tea tomorrow..


as we do need a bit of a change from our own produced pork sausages, pork etc..

Florenceem

I went for a blood test then popped in the new Mr T expresso - got 3 jars of Robertson's Mincemeat - 41p each. Then I popped in to the near by Bogdons and the same mincemeat in there was £1.69 a jar. I did get a reduced cauli there - 50p.
Been sewing more dog beds today so I have spares for washing. Looked online - size of dog bed I made - £29 each - I have made 4 for £1.
I am going to use duvet off cuts left over from the dog bed inners to make Christmas presents - my DDs have cats so cat beds it is.

[Deleted User]

kb_soma wrote: »

I've been told that if you are tossing and turning at night, to get up, leave the bed and read until you start to nod off again. If you let your body toss and turn at night then it will get used to it and will think that it's okay to do that.

I'm not sure if this will help, I know it's hard to leave a warm bed. I'm terrible when I've not had enough sleep, I hope you get a full night soon.

Its worth a try, thanks for the advice. I did sleep slightly better last night having watched no TV. Although I did wake up I managed to get back to sleep again which is a first.

Goldiegirl

Frugalsod wrote: »

Also when you are trying to change your lifestyle it is actually more expensive for a while. You need to build up a stock of condiments etc and maybe buy the odd gadgets all before you can start to make the savings. .

That's what I'm finding at the moment - I've been doing a lot of stocking up this month


The bread maker that I bought nearly a month ago has been a roaring success.


The next gadget in our frugal arsenal has arrived today - a yoghurt maker. We love yoghurt, and eat a lot of it. I've calculated that, using the sachets, it'll be a bit cheaper per pot than the current yogurt we buy, and even cheaper if we 'grow our own' from live yogurt.


Also, I should now be able to switch to 2 -3 week grocery deliveries, as we won't have the constant need to buy more yogurt from the shops. My fridge couldn't cope with three weeks worth of yogurt!


We are going to start our first batch overnight on Friday night. Can't wait! :j

Frugalsod

his_missus wrote: »

I've never worked out the cost of making a loaf, it would depend on whether you used branded bread flour etc. I suppose. I've always thought of it as I'm eating better quality bread rather than the cost of it.

I've never successfully frozen my home made bread, it turned really dry after freezing. Forunately, with Hubby, it's never around long enough to be frozen :rotfl:

Like you mine has never been around long enough to worry about do I need to freeze.

I have worked out that a simple loaf will cost around 47p though a bread mix can be around 80p a loaf. Either way you will be saving quite a bit on the cost of shop bread, possibly as much as a £1 a loaf in savings. I use own brand flour and have no problem with it. If you use the fancy flour then it could be as expensive as anywhere.

Frugalsod

Goldiegirl wrote: »

That's what I'm finding at the moment - I've been doing a lot of stocking up this month


The bread maker that I bought nearly a month ago has been a roaring success.


The next gadget in our frugal arsenal has arrived today - a yoghurt maker. We love yoghurt, and eat a lot of it. I've calculated that, using the sachets, it'll be a bit cheaper per pot than the current yogurt we buy, and even cheaper if we 'grow our own' from live yogurt.


Also, I should now be able to switch to 2 -3 week grocery deliveries, as we won't have the constant need to buy more yogurt from the shops. My fridge couldn't cope with three weeks worth of yogurt!


We are going to start our first batch overnight on Friday night. Can't wait! :j

I make bread in my Kenwood Chef, but will be checking a friends loaf he makes in a machine and think through the idea of using a bread maker instead. Though if his are not much better than mine I mine give up on that idea.

I love yoghurt but do not have it enough to make a yoghurt maker worthwhile just yet. That might change.