The Simple Bare Necessities feat. Gratitude & Recipes

pinkypig

I've finished your diary:). Now I have a Greying Pilgrim shaped hole in my life:rotfl:
Just popped into to say I've thoroughly enjoyed it, its so refreshingly real and you're so upbeat. I'm now approaching my cooking with new vigour and am determined to try some new things so thank you
I also think the food you produce for the money you spend is amazing - you're my new nutrition guru :A

PP xx

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

pinkypig wrote: »

I've finished your diary:). Now I have a Greying Pilgrim shaped hole in my life:rotfl:..............

I also think the food you produce for the money you spend is amazing - you're my new nutrition guru :A

PP xx

:wave: to pinkypig The whole thing? Wow! Oh, but please, I don't think I know enough about nutrition to be quoted on it. I sometimes think that I get it wrong for us, so please don't listen to me

Well, i've woken up to my slight snuffle being slightly worse - but at present, it is just a snuffle. BG is still coughing a little, and possibly has a sore throat - but can't tell us, obvs I don't know where this bug has been picked up from. We'll hope to shift it soonest.

I had slated a bake for tea, but don't really want to put the oven on, unless I have to, so I'll have a rethink of that one.

Looking after BG, decluttering, tidying and exercising are on the cards today I think we have all we need, food-wise, but I'm out of my 'valerie' tea and we definitely need loo paper.

Right, best get shifting a tail-feather. There is snap to be prepped (forgot to add that DH's snap box is included in my grocery expenditure - bread, cheese, bananas etc are all out of the pot - DH doesn't buy lunch, unless we've run out of bread or time, which does happen, very occasionally, but not routinely)

Ta for popping by and reading. Appreciated. Greatly.

Greying X

Cheery_Daff

Morning lovely Greying, have a hug from me ((((()))))))

I think you do excellently with your food budget food is just expensive sometimes! Yesterday I bought 3 apples, 4 pears and 4 satsumas from our local fruit and veg shop and it cost £4! For some reason I was shocked - it's "just fruit" after all, but I suppose at least some of it has been shipped half way round the world... I am quite out of touch anyway as Mr Cheery does the main food shopping in our house and doesn't really keep track of everything he spends (but just tries to spend as very little as possible)

Can't wait til I can start growing more of our food :j although apples and pears will take me a while and satsumas is probably never going to happen :rotfl:

I spent a year tracking how much I grew in my tiny space and how much I saved - with compost and new pots etc it wasn't much over shop prices - but making tea with something from the garden certainly made me more inventive and I bought fewer 'extras' from not going to the shops as often (which you don't do anyway)

Do you have anywhere you can grow a few bits? Don't want to add to your workload of course

Silver_Queen

GP, for your reference we are a household of 2 who spend around £150 per month on food including lunches, but the one of us who’s not me has a habit of eating out for lunch and dinner at least four times a week (on her own dime - not included in the £150)

System

My OH and I are vegan and vegetarian respectively and it would be a miracle to get our food budget down to what you spend (plus create all the inventive food you seem to have - when I get home from work I often feel like slumping on the sofa and never moving again which doesn't help!). You do well to get YS food where you can and shop around... Some months are simply more expensive when we run out of certain staples/don't have storage space for bargain items! I suppose I'm lucky as I have a brand new Aldi next door to a home bargains in walking distance from my house AND a POSH lidl opening on my route to work which does very much help to bring our costs down, my OH eats an ungodly amount of food and it is so often I go to eat something to find it has miraculously vanished!

Great deal on loo roll in my local tesco at the moment (4.50 for 38 rolls).

Thought you'd like to know you inspired me today to think about what I've got in the fridge and I've remembered I have 2 packs of 50% off asparagus from Aldi, celery, frozen brocolli and green beans along with some vegan oat cream leftover from an xmas hamper, teaming all the above with a jar overflowing with arborio rice, bouillon and stock cubes. Green Veg risotto for dinner and I plan to make enough for hefty leftovers if I can convince OH to stop being so greedy and eating all the extra before I can get them in a tub in the fridge!

I tried marmite marinated tofu for the first time 2 weekends ago, it was so delicious I'm already thinking about having that for tomorrow's dinner with some silken tofu I found lurking in the back of a cupboard!

Greying_Pilgrim

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Yesterday I bought 3 apples, 4 pears and 4 satsumas from our local fruit and veg shop and it cost £4! For some reason I was shocked - it's "just fruit" after all, but I suppose at least some of it has been shipped half way round the world...

Ay up Cheery Yes, that is part of the issue with me. I'm thinking 'but we're vegetarian, it should be cheaper...' and it's not getting me closer to keeping to/getting under budget. Mind, I got tofu the other day - the cheapest I could at £1.50. It did one tea for me and DH. I saw a receipt for a family of 5 that were meat-eaters, and some of the meat items on their receipt were less than my block of tofu :eek:

Silver_Queen wrote: »

GP, for your reference we are a household of 2 who spend around £150 per month on food including lunches, but the one of us who’s not me has a habit of eating out for lunch and dinner at least four times a week (on her own dime - not included in the £150)

:rotfl::rotfl: I just found that so funny SilverQueen, thank you for making me larf - appreciated


Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

sauceoclock wrote: »

I tried marmite marinated tofu for the first time 2 weekends ago, it was so delicious I'm already thinking about having that for tomorrow's dinner with some silken tofu I found lurking in the back of a cupboard!

sauceoclock - I like the new MrL's they are really nice to shop in Did you marinate the tofu yourself? Or do you buy it marinated? If DIY, is it just mArm1te, or with other things? I can see how the salty seasoning would work - do you just then fry, or eat as is?

Greying X

Silver_Queen

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

:rotfl::rotfl: I just found that so funny SilverQueen, thank you for making me larf - appreciated


Greying X

Glad to be of service

System

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

sauceoclock - I like the new MrL's they are really nice to shop in Did you marinate the tofu yourself? Or do you buy it marinated? If DIY, is it just mArm1te, or with other things? I can see how the salty seasoning would work - do you just then fry, or eat as is?

Greying X

The new mrL looks very fancy from the road, they've got all the electrics in and are fitting the shopfront now and I'm looking forward to shopping there.

So the tofu I had was from a friend who is a chef and luckily very generous to share his recipes and food with me frequently! I'm giving it a go myself tomorrow, the way he did it was have quite generous 'slabs' of the tofu, marinate them overnight in a mixture of marmite diluted in to an oil of your choice (I use sesame) and whatever herbs and spices you wish to add (I am adding chinese spice mix as I'm allergic to chillis so can't add paprika or chilli flakes). Breadcrumb the slabs and fry (or just grill as they are if you're looking for a healthier way to have them) and serve with a mix of your choice - I'm having mine with sushi rice and torn up seaweed sheets in a bowl for a sort of 'deconstructed sushi' but I can imagine they'd be good with rice and beansprouts/soy sauce.

redofromstart

Hi GP, I find those ' I feed my gazillion children on tuppence hap-penny a week' articles infuriating. If you read the small print it usually only covers dinners, or its heavily reliant on YS items which I just don't shop at the right times for. I have to confess to being disproportionately excited to find a kilo of bananas for 20p the other day, but mostly its 10 or 20% off something that was overpriced in the first place so my money stays firmly in my purse. I also get cross about them referencing approved foods as a source of savings - hasn't been a bargain on there for years for me.

If I split my spends down, and take out the pets/household stuff then actually I don't spend that much but those articles make me feel that I am failing on the frugal front.

Dues your H&B have 1kg of light brown sugar for 79p? I thought that was an excellent price. I'll still be cutting it 50/50 with cheap white in recipes but a little extra flavour is often useful.