Friday 6 February - What small DFW things will you do today?

twiggy86

Maria - please don't die!

Frugal friends I have a question - what do you use to clean your oven? Is there a frugal "My grandma used to use..." way rather than splash out the cash on products?

ziggy2407

milliemummy wrote: »

Hi everyone, room for a little one? Have been lurking but feel its time to say hello properly!


Today I will/have

LTW...hummus & salad sandwiches
Check bank.
Do one poll
Walk to work & back
Found 41p roadkill ( on my wall...guess someone was sat on it last night and it fell out of their pocket!)
Find some things for eBay
DS1 doing dinner tonight.


Not an NSD as need kitty food, but its on offer at Waitrose so will save a couple of quid.

And just to pass on my thanks to all you regulars, you've given me tons of ideas just reading through the threads:T

Welcome, you've joined a fab thread

xJOJOx wrote: »

I only watched the first couple of minutes off eat well for less. It just seemed to be the exact same as the previous week, just swapping the food. Was kind off hoping it would move to a different area each week but as it seamed like it was going to be exactly the same with a different family I switched it of. I did enjoy the food info the previous week but I can watch them online without all the other rubbish :-D

£355 a week shopping! I spend £20-£30 including everything needed for the household and I reckon I could cut that back a little. I eat well, at least 5 fruit n veg a day, meat and fish 3 meals and 1 dessert plus snacks! It only goes up to £30 when bulk buying nappies/wipes and washing powder. I do like to keep a good stock in so if I'm too poorly Or poor :-D to go shopping me and my little family are ok. I been there before when your making meals out of thin air, possible but don't really want to do it again!

There's still lots I can learn, but not off that tv show...

I watched it and was hoping they'd teach more and did think they would have involved the children. I got a bit fed up of hearing how difficult it must be having 4 young children and life being busy, but life is busy for LOTS of people irrespective of the number of children - no-one truly knows what goes on behind others front doors. Wonder if the programme makers have any familes involved with a low disposable income that they can really help.

maria3104 wrote: »

have cold or flu, feels like pneumonia. Will probably not survive!

Have spent day in bed and am heading back there now.

Maria:mad:

Oh dear, get well soon lovely lady

xJOJOx_2

Hey twiggy

There's me and my two daughters (one very small) and I normally try to freeze a portion too.

I shop around all the shops for best prices and I buy enough for the week and freeze. This alone saves me £5 min, more if I ended up topping up at local (which I use to do) i know which shop best for which. Never do all in one shop anymore. It's just riddicously the amount food can vary from store to store. I do write a shopping list and meal plan, however I make it felixable, so if something's on offer I'll swap the meat etc on list. I do do a lot of scrimping in meals too, ie if cooking pork I'll chop some off and freeze for a stirfry (don't need much meat) same with bacon always chop some up and freeze to throw in meals to enhance flavour. I never ever throw anything away. There's loads of other things I do, all things I've picked up on os boards. I actually eat a lot more varied and healthier than I use to and more believe it or not!!

X

foxgloves

JoJo, I'm not on such a tight food budget as you, but you & I definitely have the same approach to stretching food. I batch cook to get 'spare' meals for later in the month stashed in the freezer & even if there's just one portion of something left, I'll freeze it for jacket potato night. We have a JP night about once a week & each top them with whatever we fancy from the freezer.
I do the same with bacon too. I'll skim off a couple of rashers to freeze because there's a nice Weight watchers pasta recipe I like to make which does 4 good portions (that's 2 days of dinners for us) & only requires 2 rashers of bacon! Ditto peppers. They are always expensive for decent sized ones, even in summer, so I cut the tops off for chopping & freezing, then I've got some ready to use when I next make pizza.
I think of this approach as 'Paying something forward' towards another meal. It works, because it's storing an ingredient which then won't need to go on your shopping list next time you fancy making whatever it is.
I reckon we could teach that Gregg Wallace & his friend a thing or two, lol.
F x

twiggy86

I definitely think you could show them more than a thing or two! I generally do all my shopping in Lidl, with the odd thing from Mr A (if I'm going into town so I get free parking) and Mr T. I'm still getting used to portion control - like mash, I never get it right and either end up with too much or not enough! And I'm never sure what is freezeable!

DawnW

twiggy86 wrote: »

I definitely think you could show them more than a thing or two! I generally do all my shopping in Lidl, with the odd thing from Mr A (if I'm going into town so I get free parking) and Mr T. I'm still getting used to portion control - like mash, I never get it right and either end up with too much or not enough! And I'm never sure what is freezeable!

Mashed potato freezes fine Twiggy
Most things are freezable

Bobarella

Hi All

Just joining in the food shopping conversation. I feed 2 adults, a 6 year and a cat for £40 a week. I shop for as many YS items as I can, always use the roadkill I find for taking a few pence off at the till, womble reciepts to get extra points, literally never throw anything away ever, & base meals around what's cheap that week. I have a rolling menu of staples that I can adapt to what's cheap or reduced. We don't drink any alcohol anymore and that budget does breakfast, packed lunches & dinner all week.
We eat more low cost protein now in the form of pulses than meat. But we don't go hungry. Oh and I bake every week too. Shop bought cakes cost a fortune compared to home made.
I use all the Supermarkets other than Asda and Morrisons due to proximity.

Have you done the grocery challenge Twiggy? I find that has helped me so much. We have gone from £260 in October to £180 for this month. It's a fun challenge.

Bobarella

maria3104 wrote: »

have cold or flu, feels like pneumonia. Will probably not survive!

Have spent day in bed and am heading back there now.

Maria:mad:

Poor thing. No running round this weekend for you lady!

xJOJOx_2

I normally cook too much mash on purpose, too make potato cakes with or fish cakes. You can freeze mash, it may just need a little extra butter or milk. I would proberly put in fridge and use within a couple of days.

Yeah foxgloves I think we could :-D I deceided those family's are not real familys anyway. It's impossible to spend that amount of money on food, unless 3/4 of it goes in the bin!??!!

Hoping to do some growing this year too as it's the first time I've had a garden in my adult life!! Just a small patch I think to begin with. So that will shave a little more off plus I want to show the children where food comes from etc it's amazing how little some know! I talk to older girl a lot about where things come from but it be nice to show her too xx

xJOJOx_2

Don't forget farmfoods and even bm! In bm they had pop tarts for .89p instead of 2.78 from asda. They also get a old of 'test' branded products ie banana flavour sugar puffs 50p box. they have lots off bargains knocking around

I've just started baking boberlla :-D did some lovley coconut cakes the other day. Only doing little cakes, mainly for the children as I'm not meant to have any sugar.... It also gives me half a hour to have a brew while the children are stiring... going to try banna cake next.. You think that baking takes a lot of time but if you fit it into your sechdule its not so bad

Xx