Living richly; simply and debt-freely

Hopefuljoy

Have just had a look at the larder for protein to keep us going and supplement my Li"l shop tomorrow. Six tins of sardines so at least three pasta meals will come out of that. Three lemon sole fillet and three salmon fishcakes in the freezer. Tortillas which are unopened and a full bag of quorn mince. Five frozen chipolatas I can make toad in the hole with. Pepper leeks onions and carrots and mushrooms to make roast veg with couscous or quinoa. Some tins of soup I shall take to work. We also have enough flour, tomato puree and cheese for pizzas. So this week we have agreed our only shopping will be eggs, milk and bread. I'm allocating ten pounds for this and fruit.

Because of DS's unexpected ski holiday we are very pinchy tight until payday on 24 Jan. In previous times that would have lead to mass panic and an overdraft, not now though!!! I refuse to go overdrawn. So for the next three weeks my budget will be, 30 petrol, 25 food (except this week), 10 spends. So a total of 65 per week plus 10 this week equals a grand total of 140. Game on!! I will let you know how I get on as you all really motivate me!!

supersaver1000

Wow Hopefuljoy what fabtastic planning. I am in awe.

Sardines and pasta? Really? Do you have any tips or a recipe? I'm not sure that I would like it, but would love to give it a try. I love making sardine pât!/paste with a bit of lemon and maybe Mayo. I think it's a good way to eat my oily fish.

I've had a school trip to pay for too, but glad it's all paid now, except for meals there and spending.

rtandon27

supersaver1000 wrote: »

...Sardines and pasta?...

SS - give this one a try - it was in this week's MrW's Thrifty Special free paper - amazed how many easy to make recipes were there this time, I usually recycle the whole thing but looks like we'll be making a few recipes from this issue!

supersaver1000

Rtandon thank you. Great recipe and website. Saved to my recipe folder.

liltdiddylilt

Wow Hopeful I am in awe of your planning skills and teeny weeny budget. I have got out the ingredients to have a go at making bread tomorrow (well letting it rise in the fridge overnight actually & doing it on Sunday when I will run out of normal bread). I am sincerely hoping this will stretch out the basics for a few more NSD's this week as I too need to run a seriously tight and leak free ship in January

SS thanks for the question that I was going to ask!! Rtandon thanks for the fab answer!! I am definitely going to give this a go. Sardines make me feel ill when I open the tin.. the little *spines* but I am determined to eat more oily fish! this looks yummy!

in_need_of_direction

I'm with you lilty. They look too much like creatures for me to tackle them.

supersaver1000

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

I'm with you lilty. They look too much like creatures for me to tackle them.

Ah, but did you both see the WR ones are fillets! Filleted sardines! I am amazed :rotfl:

mothernerd

Thanks from me as well for the sardine recipe ideas - another one who eats them out of duty 'they're good for me', rather than love of them - will have to adapt the recipe as I only get the ones in tomato sauce, but I rarely fry anything, I just pop them in the microwave with the herbs and spices to soften.

liltdiddylilt

Filleted!! Ooh I will have to have a pop in mr W.. or find a reason to do an 0cado shop since they stock all Mr W stuffsies

Glad I am not the only one though INOD as my mum calls me a weenie

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

I know it's late. But I thought that I better post. I'm having trouble keeping up with my own diary

I have read all your posts. Can I sum it up as :j:T:beer: all round? And Welcome and good on ya for de-lurking to judi24

I shall try to make a better response over the weekend, but we've an acre of *stuff* to get through, so........

Dinner last night was - in recognition of New Year's Day - a dish callin 'Hoppin John' from the Southern States of America. I make the Dean & DeLuca recipe - omitting the ham hock, but it's a flavoursome dish, and really ought to be wheeled out more often than just for New Year Picture here;



We [STRIKE]endured [/STRIKE] watched a film that we'd taped earlier in the day - hot tip, never, ever waste 90 minutes of your life (less if you skip the adverts, but still.....) watching, 'Christmas at Maxwells' - I don't know what was worse, the lack of a story line, the jumping back and forth in the time line, or the wooden acting.

Dinner this evening was a 'made up' dish, called Morrocan vegetable stew. I served it with cous cous and a dollop of yoghurt (mrL) with some sumac sprinkled over. Picture here;



I used butternut squash - using up half of the YS'd one I got from m&s before chrimbo - but sweet potato works equally as well, and in fact, Laura over at First Mess does a very similar recipe. It's interesting that she uses dates - I have some (well, it is Christmas, I got them cheap in the market), but I decided not to use them. If you're wondering about the food colour - I'm not too sure that my 'new' bowls are doing it any favours..... however, there is turmeric in the cous cous, so it was a funny shade of yellowy green - particularly when I added in the chopped parsley....... The bowls were on sale in w1lkinsons - not my preferred colour, but as mrA never have any of the white ones in stock to match my existing set... needs must! They are about the size I wanted however, so portion sizing will be wrangled under control

We had pear and blackberry crumble with a scoop of icecream for dessert. The pears were the last 3 of the mrW YS'd ones, the blackberries were the ones in the freezer - therefore more de-cluttering can be said to have taken place

We ate dinner watching Esio Trot. Very, very good. BBC at it's best I think.......

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

for compliments, freely given - made me and

for the sunshine

for 'sisters' - doing it for themselves..............

Thanks for popping in, answering plumbing queries, and being all round, good eggs. I appreciate it very much

See y'all later.

Greying - rocking that 80's shoulder-pad vibe!