2015 Frugal Living Challenge

Bambywamby

Sunny yet cold here today in East Yorks, a perfect Winter's day. I hope you are all well... or getting there. xx


Today I am going through my veg seeds to see what I have and haven't got and then I am planning what's going in my veggie plot. Suttons Seeds currently have £5 off a £5 spend... however it runs out on the 5th Jan, so if anyone is interested in buying some seeds/plants/bulbs etc... you'll need to be very quick. SUTXMAS14 is the code. P&P is £1.99

Today is also batch baking day. I am making stew, cottage pie, sweet and sour chicken, chicken korma, chicken stew with gluten free dumplings and a feisty chilli. I have an organic meat order coming today and I want to make as many meals as possible for the freezer.


Tonight I want to put a few things on 3bay from my decluttering sessions. May as well use the free listings.




Right... time to shake a tail feather.


Enjoy your day. xx

COOLTRIKERCHICK

THANKS for the heads up with the code re- Sutton seeds..


I need to go through my seeds to see what I need to top up, or try something new...etc..


I didn't sleep very well last night so was still no the old computer at 3am.. so I have only just woke up.. I feel I should have done something more constructive now last night .. re- clean etc..


I think the only thing I need to get today is milk, and see if there is any reduced salad stuff, as we are slowly bringing our tortoise out of hibination.. put the head mat etc back on.. even though I haven't seen it yet this morning, I has been walking round under the hay lol..


starting to have a nice few bits to put into the general auction... even though we might start taking booking/taking it down next week, it will not be sold until the next 2 auctions.. depending on how busy it is.. but at least it will not be in my house..


going to make spag bal today, and I will be prob get all the ingredients prepped and ready for tomorrow morning... to go into my now dusted down slow cooker.. will prob boil and mash potatoes today ready for tomorrow, so will only need to ping them when we get home from work tomorrow ..

Ken68

Just found a use for spent tea bags, once exhausted they make a good de-greaser. Whether it's the rough texture or a magic ingredient, not sure.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

I have got some A$DA basic oven chips in the freezer, we down graded to them, but they are naff lol.. any suggestions on how to use them up??


Think we might buy a deep fat fryer again, to make our own, as you cant beat 'proper' home made chips...


EDIT.... going to do a spag bol. put it into a low pie tray, then, when I re-heat it for tea later, will put the frozen chips on top, and cover with cheese..

maria3104

Wombatchops wrote: »

Morning all. Was very naughty yesterday, we went shopping yesterday to look for tandem buggies, the kids were acting up, so DH persuaded me to have dinner out while we out (a pizza restaurant). It was very nice, but not budgeted for. Am I still allowed to stay in the challenge?

I have a question for you (I know I keep asking them, but you've all been so helpful so far). Baby number three is coming on 19th Jan, so want to batch cook and freeze some meals in preparation. I've already got tomato and pepper soup, chilli con carne, spag bol, lasagne, and cottage pie on my list. Does anyone have any other frugal ideas?

Love this, we all fall off the wagon occasionally. That is why we are here, to help each other. I remember 20 years ago having my third baby. It was so exciting.

I did what you have done batched and frozen family size bags of spag bol, beef stew, froze milk, froze grated cheese, butter, bread, infact anything I could freeze to save the day when and if I had a bad day. Actually by being so organised and I luckily had a very easy third baby it was a breeze.

Have fun and keep being as frugal as possible on days when you can be. It is still massively better than never trying!

Maria, who has incidentally just decluttered 2 drawers of DH farming clothes, (actually rags).:rotfl:

Wombatchops

Thank you bambywamby and maria3104. I've got a list as long as my arm of what needs to be done, but the batch cooking is a priority because I'll be having a caesarean (my third one, but this time it won't be an emergency one), so I'm trying to make my life easier for when I'm out of hospital. The strange thing is, I don't really know if I'm more excited about the baby or scared about the op. I think it changes depending on my frame of mind at the particular moment I'm thinking about it. But I really appreciate people's well wishes and suggestions.

Bambywamby

A C-section is an incredibly safe operation and what's more, you're usually awake so there are no worries about not coming around from the anaesthesia. I have had two C-sections and I think they are a marvel of modern science. I had my wee one three years ago by C-section and I was back home sat on my sofa within two days, no pain, just stiffness when I moved. I also had my son twenty years ago by C-section, I was in hospital for 10 days, laid in my bed with morphine and drip. Wow have things come along... and for the better.
It's natural to be nervous of any operation but as you know they pass so quickly and you tend to focus on the health of your little one during the procedure and forget all about your own worries.
If you feel sick, dizzy or get tingly arms just tell the anaesthetist and they slightly alter the medication in the drip and it works straight away. And of the two epidurals I have had... I never really felt either. With my daughter I had gone into labour and it was quite a relief for my bottom half to go numb lol.


Good luck with the op, not that you need it. It is such a very small part of what is a lovely/scary/exciting experience... and as you know the true pain/work/agony begins after they are born; when they don't sleep for six months or reach the terrible twos... or the really dark dark time... when they reach 14. :eek:

And just to keep this on frugal topic lol ... those yukky surgical stockings they make you wear, are worth keeping afterwards. I stitched them together, stuffed them with old rags and used them as a floor draught excluder for the dog's room.


xx

X X

Bambywamby

The plan for today is:


* To exchange a couple of toys that the little one got for Christmas for clothes


*Take the dog for a long walk, free exercise and fresh air.


*Declutter my utility room. It has become like a mini storage room... if there is a free surface something gets put on it. Anything not required will be either sold, donated to charity, put on Freegle or recycled.


*Make chicken stock in the slow cooker from yesterday's chicken carcass and add it to a lovely root veg soup I plan to make later.


* Try the box of peppermint and nettle tea I have been kindly given by my son. He knows I like herbal teas... but I have never tried nettle before.


*List some detritus ('cough' lovely goods that are cluttering up my house) on 3bay.


*General tidy round.


Have a lovely day Frugaleers. xx

*Jellie*

Great to see all the inspiration and tips here.
Don't think I can sort out my seeds tonight but I'll do it asap so I can keep my eyes peeled for other deals if I miss the Suttons one.
Have just double checked freezer inventory and DH has stocked up bulk buy stuff at Makro.

I'm trying a new batch cooking system. I've been batch cooking for a while but found we were getting a bit fed up with keep eating the same meals. New system is to batch cook main meals for 3-4 months at a time. I made about 3-4 portions for each meal I make so there is lots of variety. I have a menu planning board with the options listed and number of portions left. Monday is fish night (fish pie, baked tilapi, salmon filo parcels) Tuesday homemeade pizza, Wednesday chicken (chilli, curry, pie etc), Thursday meat (lamb curry, italian sausage sauce, spag bol, fajitas, enchiladas etc) Friday treat night! (fish cakes, chicken kiev, fish and chips, breaded chicken). I don't include weekends!

So far it is working well and is providing convenience and variety. Spend a week batch cooking but since I still have 3 months worth of meals in the freezer plus plenty of stock to make more as these run down I'm happy.
In terms of shopping we had very heavy bills for a month and should then be lighter for 3 months- will be interesting to see if there is any overall difference!

[Deleted User]

Wow Bambywamby, your batch cooking session sounds truly impressive.

I am just getting round to getting myself organised. OH and I have been ill over the New Year and we came home early form a holiday up north as I was so ill. Thankfully OH didn't have any symptoms until we got home or driving back would not have been possible.

So cases have not been emptied and put away and all the lovely Christmas gifts we got need to be sorted and put away too. I really need to spend some time getting washing and Ironing done and some cooking.

The plan today is:
1. Put all clothing away from cases. Cases back up into loft.
2. Clear away Chrimbo decorations.
3. Tree put on freecycle as it is really too big for us now since we did up the living room.
4. Strip bed and put fresh bedding on.
5. Take pastry and steak out of the freezer to defrost for lunch/dinner tomorrow.

I also need to phone HMRC about NI payments.