Back to basics with pavlovs_dog: the £6k sprint

pavlovs_dog

Today I took advantage of the weekend offers at L!dl to stock up on branston beans and cheapo bacon for the freezer. Food costs have spiralled to around £40/week recently (there's only 2 of us) so this is an obvious area to make savings.

Rough plan is to run down the stores as much as possible in January. When the £5 off £40 a!di spend vouchers come out later in the month, I'm then planning on buying two papers instead of the usual one to do a big shop to re-stock the stores. We'll then hopefully repeat the cycle.

As a starting point I like the idea of seeing if we can make it to Sunday 5th January without spending more than a £10 on food (e.g. to get fresh milk, salad). On Sunday then I'll do a back to school food shop, which will inevitably be higher due to fruit, salad, lunch box bits etc, but main meals will be planned around making use of things we have in the cupboards/freezer.

Meals will probably go something along the lines of

Mon: Curry at outlaws
NYE: carpet picnic (all the left over cold cuts, cheeses, pickles etc)

and then in no particular order

gnocchi in pasta sauce
3 bean chilli & rice
fish & chips
chicken burgers, wedges and salad.

A job for next week is to investigate exciting vegetarian meals to help cut costs on a weekly basis. I feel a pinterest board coming on

pavlovs_dog

OH in work for a few hours today so with him out from under my feet I'm going to tidy up a bit. Bin/recycling day is Thursday this week because of the holidays, so going to see if I can fill a binbag, recycling bag and charity shop bag as I go.

Plan for tonight is to vegetate in front of the gogglebox with OH, eating the Christmas leftovers in the fridge. Need to raid the plonk cupboard and choose something to chill too.

DedicatedDFW

Hi,

i posted on here yesterday but the comp went off and i seem to have lost my post

I can't remember everything i said now but if you do look up any good veggie meals could you please share them I am looking for inspiration too

I also have weight loss as a target for me this coming year

Sounds like you have a lovely evening planned

Oh - and you inspired me to get the numbers down on paper for my mortgage so thank you

pavlovs_dog

I've begun researching veggie meals but a lot of what I've found so far have been recipes for meat free variations of dishes that usually center around meat, rather than anything groundbreaking IYSWIM. Will happily share recipes as and when we try them though.

tidying not going particularly well. In a bit of a can't-be-bothered mood. Doing the ironing in dribs and drabs. Running swagbucks in the background as I potter around. Trying to get into the habit of earning 30SB a day, and exchanging them for amazon vouchers to lessen the cost of Christmas (if anyone would like a referral just shout).

doing a digital declutter too and unsubscribing from lots of mailing lists. I haven't bought or been tempted to buy from lots of them in ages, and there are always restaurant discounts to be had on 02 priority moments, voucher codes and the likes so I'm not going to miss out.

Alchemilla

Weekend discounts at Lidl?
Have i missed them?

Calfuray

Hey Pavlov

I had the same problem when I lived with my uncle, he was a vegetarian who didn't particularly like Quorn/meat substitutes!

Things we made:
Pea risotto,
Leek and Azuki bean soup,
Cheesy courgette bread,
Sweetcorn and courgette fritters,
Sweet potato burgers,
Cannelloni, (spinach/ricotta etc filling)
Puff pastry parcels - with spinach/pesto/tomato based filling.

Hope you have luck on your hunt

I've utilised your stats this year again like you suggested to me back in 2012, it's so good for motivation - so thanks!

Happy New Year when it comes!

pavlovs_dog

Alchemilla wrote: »

Weekend discounts at Lidl?
Have i missed them?

every weekend they have a set of special offers, often based around a particular cuisine or meal (e.g. weeekend just gone was a breakfast special, with reductions on beans, bacon, mushrooms and fresh orange juice).

there is a thread on the food and groceries board each week to give a heads up of the coming offers that weekend. If you pick up the instore leaflet, they are advertised on the back page.

this weekend's offers are HERE - breakfast again!

You may also like the aldi super 6 thread, where some kind soul posts the fruit and veg offers for that fortnight, often accompanied by recipe suggestions for using them up.

pavlovs_dog

Hi Cal, some lovely ideas there. Particularly excited by the thought of sweet potato burgers (foods of the gods, combined :drool: )

Alchemilla

ooh thanks Pavlovs.

Pearla*Merle

pavlovs_dog wrote: »

A job for next week is to investigate exciting vegetarian meals to help cut costs on a weekly basis. I feel a pinterest board coming on

Ooh yay! :j I love pinterest Let us know if you find anything particularly fabulous, I could do with some more veggie recipes ...Oh, just read DFW's post, haha, great minds and all that.

PS. cheers Calfuray for those ideas, I'm noting them down too