Put away your purse & become debt-averse

Tescodealqueen

I know what you mean about the weeks. Thursday is my day for the supermarket and it seems to me the Thursdays are getting closer together week by week

Onebrokelady

The weeks are certainly speeding by when you look back on them but January seemed to be the longest month ever 😀mind you I think that's the same every year to be honest 

foxgloves

Hello Snowdrops,
And we're off the blocks! I sowed my first seeds of the new growing season this morning - two types of chilli 🌶:Jalapeño & Fuego. I used a couple of perfect little new seed trays. Have I been out spending? No, I haven't! They were the plastic packaging trays from a couple of blocks of tofu - the perfect size for starting off in my small heated propagator. Also washed all last years plant labels ready to re-use this year. I've been cutting a few extra ones over the last few months from empty spread tubs too.
Did meal plans & wrote shopping list. It's not a very big one, which suits me fine. A quick triage of the fridge revealed half a tub of yoghurt on its last day (now turned into garlic flat breads), a lone cooked beetroot (added to my lunchtime salad) & a ropey looking pink grapefruit, half of which was perfectly fine once I'd peeled it for a better look, so that provided my lunch fruit. I can't bear food waste, not just the morality/environmental issues, but also financial. It is literally throwing money in the bin. Those TV programmes about people's supermarket spending habits make my jaw drop. Can remember watching one ages ago which featured a couple who would roast a chicken, eat the breast meat only & throw the rest of it in the bin!! That would feed Mr F & I for 3 days of main meals, as well as a sandwich for packed lunch, some stock & sometimes soup too. I digress!! While I have always had the knowledge & skills to use leftovers creatively, I haven't always been angelic. Back in the Spendy Years, I well remember chucking a pack of expensive organic lamb chops in the bin because they went past their date while I was busy doing top-up shops to buy different food I fancied eating more! Of course, these days, any such item would be lobbed in the freezer quicker than you can say 'No food waste here!' Even just slicing veg for tonight's chicken jalfrezi (currently in slow cooker), the peppers were so massive, I chopped some for the freezer so I can shop from home next time I want to make a pizza or pasta bake. 
I do seem to have yakked on & on for someone who hadn't got anything to say tonight. If you've got this far, I'll wish you a peaceful evening.
Be safe, be cosy, 
F x

foxgloves

Hello m'dears,
Honestly, I don't know why I'm even checking in today.......I have had a very routine, unexciting day. I did my big Friday house clean, baked bread & froze a large leftover portion of the chicken jalfrezi I made yesterday. I've said before how I became a convert to freezing single portions. Of course I'd rather there were two, but since we discovered the concept of actually having a grocery budget (very shortly after the LBM, as you can imagine!), I have had no qualms about putting single portions of stuff in the freezer. Every now & again we write 'Jacket potato night' onto the weekly meal plan & we just do a freezer dive & find something we fancy having on our jackets. It works really well. I know there's a single portion of Quorn curry in there too, so that will be a welcome 'free' meal at some point. 
Mr F had a slightly later start at work today so I nobbled him to pop into town with me to give me a hand carrying three large parcels to the post office. It was good to get everything posted. We are spending a lot more on posting parcels to family & friends since Lockdown, but not nearly as much as we'd be spending on petrol, coffee shops & days out if we were living in normal times. So because of the postage, it wasn't a no-spend day, & I also bought a nice card for an elderly relative who is recovering (or not, she is very frail) from Covid. I can't visit (miles away), but hopefully she will like a pretty card to have on display in her room. 
Well, it's Mr F's cooking night, so I have nothing left to do except today's piano practice, so I shall go & do that while I'm in the mood. Actually, I love playing. I don't regret a single £ of the (rather a lot of) ££££s, I spent on that piano. It is bringing me lots of joy during lockdown. Oh, & more joy.......Weigh-Day today & was amazed to discover I have lost 1.2 kilos this week!! Must step it up now & not start baking!!
Cheers all,
F x

HairyHandofDartmoor

Well done on losing weight Foxgloves, it's not easy at this time of year and especially during lockdown. I've only managed to lose one of the four pounds I put on at Christmas so far. I'm hoping I'll be more incentiviced to shift the weight a bit faster when the long awaited spring finally arrives.

 I enjoy using up leftovers too and it must help a bit to save money on food. Having a big upright freezer is one of the best things I ever bought as we can freeze things to stop them going off and stock up on special offers too.

foxgloves

Thanks, HHoD. I know what you mean about needing incentive. My excuses were kind of based around not being able to do much exercise atm........completely untrue in my case, as while we are not able to visit & walk at some of our favourite places because of Lockdown or to venture further afield, my legs have not actually dropped off & I am thus perfectly able to go on daily walks. I've just lost the interest in doing it because it seems so rainy all the time & it's the same old walks. However, I read last month that weight loss is about 20% exercise-based & the other 80% is nutrition/diet, so I've pulled my finger out! I usually get my Spring/Summer clothes out of the ottoman at the end of March & my incentive now is that I will need things to fit me! I am feeling distinctly more chunky even than usual.
Agree so much re freezer. I think since the LBM, that our freezer has been one of our best money-saving tools. We use it to freeze the stuff we grow, but also for batch cooking, spare portions of this & that........anything which can be rolled forwards towards another meal.....it all helps to keep the supermarket spend down, doesn't it?
F x

Toni'sfriend

Emm. Himself has been known to freeze one Brussel sprout, Possibly a tad excessive but yes the freezer is your best friend. I too blush at the things I threw away in the spendy days. Horrifying waste of food. Thanks goodness I've learned my lesson and passed it on to my son now that he has a place of his own. The Boy who used to have takeaways three times a week (at least) now hasn't had one for over a year.

foxgloves

Hello Frugalistas,
Not much to report today. Not an NSD as Mr F drove over to the local (ish) windmill this morning to collect our flour order (also bought some of their lovely jumbo oats as they make really good porridge & flapjack...........not that either of the resident lard ars*s in our house are going to be eating flapjacks anytime soon!!) I've really stocked up on flour, as it's something I can store more easily since having the pantry conversion. The miller exchanged an ordinary bag of flour for a special variety for no extra cost as she said "I know your wife likes to bake" & also popped in two bags of their ground semolina for free, which was very kind of her. I've enjoyed researching semolina recipes today. I do use it to make a very simply jammy, almondy cake which is lovely warm with morning coffee. Actually, I've promised Mr F that I'll bake one of those on Valentine's Day, which is planned in as this months 'Cheat Day'. I can stick to a weight loss diet  much better if I know there is one day each month when I can eat absolutely anything I like! Why didn't I go on this click & collect excursion to the windmill? It would have been a change of scenery & a little drive, but no, I was at home with a bad headache, codiene & coffee, having managed to sleep most of last night with my head hanging off the edge of the bed like a total numpty! The resulting cricked neck caused a bad head, which thankfully did lift once Mr F had brought me healing breakfast in bed. I think the situation was not helped by sleeping very deeply. At one point, I was dreaming that someone walked into the bedroom & said accusingly 'There's no bread in the house' and I said in a very ascerbic manner 'Are you blind? There's some in the bread bin which I baked yesterday'. Why I would take issue with the location of the loaf, rather than challenge this strange man as to what exactly doing in our house in the middle of the night is beyond me......just one of those weird things about dreams, I suppose. 
So m'dears, a slow start & very little achieved, even once I felt better. Rain all day, so not a gardening day. Postie brought a package of 4 magazines from my sis, which was good post, & I watched Ep. 2 of the new Rebecka Martinsson mysteries while knitting another blanket square (47th of 144). It's not my cooking night, so I think I will basically continue doing b*gger all. It doesn't look like we should be too much in the snowfield tomorrow, but we shall have to wait & see, just in case the forecast moves,
Stay cosy all,
F x

foxgloves

Toni'sFriend - Oh that has made me laugh out loud about the single sprout! Mr F is a huge fan of sprouts - I can't stand the things - & never has any leftover for freezing. I freeze all sorts of funny little odds & ends.......half a glass of red wine I'm not bother about finishing (rare, but when it happens, it will be defrosted to go in a stew or bolognese), parmesan rinds (add a lot of savoury flavour to lentil soup.....so far I've remembered to fish them out before blitzing), surplus peppers ready for pizza-making......I find it easy to cut peppers into strips just using the straight bit, so ages ago, I began slicing off the tops & bottoms, chopping & freezing for next pizza topping, basil cubes if I have any left after making my annual pesto, anything really, which can be rolled forwards to another meal. I sometimes make double quantities of things like curry pastes too, & freeze in portions as I'd rather have the faff once & eat several times. And I love that even with a freezer contents list, I still sometimes find a surprise in there I didn't know I'd got!
F x

foxgloves

Oh.....& still on freezers.......someone on the DFW daily small things thread......I think it may have been DawnW, but can't remember, as it was ages ago, suggested freezing a chicken carcass if no time for making stock, so as not to waste a resource. I did that two or three times & then used a couple of carcasses in the slow cooker instead of one. As you'd expect, it made a richer tasting more concentrated stock, so that's worth doing too. We also freeze leftover gravy if there is a lot, as if we can add leftover meat slices at a later date & have a 'free' roast dinner.
F