Family of 5 'shop from home'food storage challenge...

Yategirl

a beautiful day here... seeing the sun makes me smiley and cheerful!

jcr16 - don't forget your sense of smell is much more acute when pregnant and it is probably that that is making you feel the chicken has gone off. I hated cooking when I was pregnant cause of all the smells!! (and I could not go in the fridge at all without making a dash to the bathroom.................) lol! But what great cakes!!

I have yoghurt in the easiyo, turned another pot in to mango yoghurt (having pureed the mango's first), made pizza bases - 1 large one for me and dh and 3 small ones for ds's and ds1's friend - am going to let them "top their own" for tea. We are "celebrating" shrove tuesday tonight so I need to get the batter made AND make a jam sponge for dh and ds2... might make some hobnobs as well as we have finished the banana bread already.... :rolleyes: :laugh:

donnajt

I'm Donna and I discovered this thread two days ago - I am HOOKED!!! I've only got as far as page 40 and I've already got an armful of recipes and moneysaving tips - thank you all (can't wait to make an apple braid or delicous cherry bakewells).

I've even taken some pics of my kitchen as you seem to enjoy them - although my cupboards aren't as full as most of yours...I'd even planned my introductory email but I've just had some bad news so I thought I'd post as you all seem so friendly...

Husband has just been informed he might be made redundant on Friday, there's a 50/50 chance as it's between him and his colleague...1 months notice - neither of us have good jobs, we both work fulltime and earn about the same - I have a little bit of money tucked away which could cover our outgoings for approx 2 months but we do have debts - I feel so devastated I don't know how we will survive after that and our daughter's birthday is 1st April and we have promised her a party, don't know how I'll get through to Friday

Oh well, I'm going to engross myself in pages 41-60 to forget out it

Hope you don't mind me crashing in here like this, looking forward to getting to know you all, Donna x

jcr16

that does make sense yategirl.

i can't smell anythign on the chicken tho , there is no smell at all. but i'm just convinced it gone off. lol.when i know it hasn't.

i've been sorting out this morning and listing items on ebay and our local selling forum. need to have a big de-clutter and sort out. plus figured whatever i make from selling can go towards buyign new things for beanie. which is a big incentive.

welcome donnajt , your love this thread. and it is addictive.

purpleivy

DOnna, welcome here. I haven't been here for that long, just over a month I suppose.

WHen my dd was very young my dh was made redundant. Just went in one Friday morning and they said 'right, that's it boys'! No redundancy pay no nothing. Well it seemed terrible at the time, me still off work as we'd moved area, large new mortgage etc etc,

But we 'cut our coat according to our cloth' and got by. It was OK and not too long before he got another job.

Consequently, when the same happened about 3/4 years ago we knew that we could manage, it would be hard while it happened, but that we could recover.


There will be lots of help here for you to help save the pennies, especially with a project like dd's party. Why not post a thread asking for ideas?

If it all gets too much, absorb yourself in the rest of Dee's great thread!

Justamum

jcr16 - yummy looking cakes and biscuits. Just looking at them has made at least an inch go on my hips though!

ravylesley

Donnajt Like purpleivy we had the whole redundancy thing at Christmas 2006 luckily hubby got a job pretty quickly but it really taught me the need for a decent stockpile and careful budgeting.Hopefully the worst wont happen and he'll keep his job but if he doesnt there are a lot of good ideas on different threads to make ends meet and as for your daughters birthday party you could always have it at home like parties used to be when I was a child

Lesleyxx

minimooch

finally got round to posting one of my favourite end of the week "there's nothing in the fridge apart from eggs & cheese" meals. I always keep a bag of frozen spinach just so I can make this. Sorry for the vagueness of the amounts, I'm definitely bung-it type of cook


Spinach fritatta , or just "tata" as 2 yr old DS calls it

1 bag of spinach or 7/8 cubes frozen (can use anything green and leafy and doesn't matter if spinach a bit sad , good way to use it up when its past its best
about an inch, inch and a 1/2 of homemade bread without the crusts, or 3 slices ready-sliced (again past its best is fine, white , wholemeal, anything without bits) you want plenty of bread crumbs
3/4 cup ish grated chedder
6 or 7 eggs
grating of nutmeg

Nuke the spinach (fresh takes about 5 mins) .Process the bread into breadcrumbs. Process spinach till well chopped (or buy sainsburys frozen which is already chopped)

Beat eggs, stir in breadcrumbs, cheese, spinach and nutmeg, then cook in large frying pan for about 8 mins on fairly low heat (until you see a few bubbles in the surface) then put under hot grill for 5-8 mins.

Great served hot with salad (and sweet chilli sauce) for lunch or cut into cubes when cold and put in lunch boxes.

My veg - hating son loves this :rotfl:

donnajt

and sound advice - feel reassured now

The colleague who OH is up against has 6 children and only started working at the company at the end of Summer, he is expecting to go for this reason, and said that he was better off on benefits anyway - so Sod's law it will be OH that gets made redundant!! We have know idea what to do if worse comes to worse - do you go to Job Centre to sign on? and can you sign on straightaway?

Need to ring child tax credit as we haven't received a penny from them since Jun 2006 (long story!) seems they are incapable of posting new claims forms

Have read all of the thread now and I have 16 (yes 16 pages of recipes in a word document) am starting with the Beef & Bean Shepherds Pie as the condensed soup I used to use has been discontinued and need a new recipe (thanks to whoever posted it)

DD and I are gonig to have a massive baking day next week during half term she wants to make Twinks Hobnobs, sweet and savoury braids and cherry bakewells for Daddy. I have spoken to her re birthday party and she has asked for a sleepover (YIPPEE!) so homemade pizza all round, thankfully Mum is a cake decorator so we won't have to pay for cake. Partybags - I always get lucky, as DD's birthday is always near Easter, I buy the small easter eggs BOGOF and put them in a bag, I usually buy a Tesco cake mix as well - and some choccie

Am off to make a Tesco order - was supposed to do it this morning or I'll be drinking back tea (YUK!) for the rest of the week!

purpleivy

It sounds as if you have things under control at the moment. My DS would rather have home made pizza than the bought stuff any day. THey can all their own toppings, so you won't even have to do much! How old is dd? I once made gingerbread men for dd's party bags. In fact, if you made icing and got a few sprinkles etc, they could do it themselves. WIll get thinking cap on.

morwenna

donnajt wrote: »

and sound advice - feel reassured now

The colleague who OH is up against has 6 children and only started working at the company at the end of Summer, he is expecting to go for this reason, and said that he was better off on benefits anyway - so Sod's law it will be OH that gets made redundant!! We have know idea what to do if worse comes to worse - do you go to Job Centre to sign on? and can you sign on straightaway?

Need to ring child tax credit as we haven't received a penny from them since Jun 2006 (long story!) seems they are incapable of posting new claims forms

Have read all of the thread now and I have 16 (yes 16 pages of recipes in a word document) am starting with the Beef & Bean Shepherds Pie as the condensed soup I used to use has been discontinued and need a new recipe (thanks to whoever posted it)

DD and I are gonig to have a massive baking day next week during half term she wants to make Twinks Hobnobs, sweet and savoury braids and cherry bakewells for Daddy. I have spoken to her re birthday party and she has asked for a sleepover (YIPPEE!) so homemade pizza all round, thankfully Mum is a cake decorator so we won't have to pay for cake. Partybags - I always get lucky, as DD's birthday is always near Easter, I buy the small easter eggs BOGOF and put them in a bag, I usually buy a Tesco cake mix as well - and some choccie

Am off to make a Tesco order - was supposed to do it this morning or I'll be drinking back tea (YUK!) for the rest of the week!

Welcome donnajt! Good luck for Friday - I hope your OH keeps his job. Tax Credits will do claims over the phone - well they have done for the past three years for me - as they don't seem to be able to find the forms I send them??

If OH is unlucky enough to be made redundant, although surely it's last in first out? You have to wait six weeks before you can claim JS allowance AFAIK..

And finally - don't get a cake mix for the party - make Dee's Rainbow cakes!!