Put away your purse & become debt-averse

EssexHebridean

Great Christmas planning there Foxgloves! We're also firmly in the free range turkey camp, although I guess now it'll be "barn range" instead which is a shame - still, I can feel confident that it should at least have still had a better life than a commercial mass-produced one, as it's coming from a local farm - we could pop there ahead of time and shout hello to it if we so wished! (we don't! ) Ours is the other end of the scale - the smallest available as there will only be three of us for christmas dinner this year. We'll carve off a little of the remaining breast meat for Mum to use, and will take the balance home ourselves to strip down - I'm already beginning to account for freezer space required! Dealing with that will have to be my Boxing Day task I think as we are away for a few days from the 28th. 

My Christmas baking is also considerably more thinned down than yours - again, due to the rather more limited numbers. It'll be a tray of mince pies and a tray of sausage rolls here and that will be about it.  I'll need to try to work out whether anyone still does chipolata sausages that it's possible to divide in two though - I've always made my Pigs In Blankets by buying regular size ones, and twisting them into two but last year was a nightmare as clearly the casings that particular supermarket use have been changed for far more flimsy ones - think "messy!  otherwise I will just have to buy the little cocktail-size sausages instead. 

You have also reminded me to factor in some additional breadcrumbs ready for bread sauce making. 

foxgloves

Yes, it's worth planning ahead @EssexHebridean. When I first started contributing to the MSE forums, it was on the daily 'Small Things' thread & I regularly used to say that keeping myself really organised, planning well, etc, always saved me money one way or another. It still does. We have been by ourselves for the last 3 Christmases - pandemic, obviously, plus being estranged from a significant chunk of the in-laws, & although I baked all the usual things, I didn't make as much. This year, I want to get it right. Much like Nigella, I'm "never knowingly under-catered" & am as keen that I don't waste resources by baking stupidly high amounts, as I am to ensure that everyone eats their fill (there will be 3 males with bottomless legs.....one of them being permanently resident here, lol!) & also some nice leftovers to gift at guest home-time.
I'm going to get onto the breadcrumbs sooner rather than later, as they're needed for bread sauce as well as stuffings, & as you say, can sit happily in the freezer until needed.
F x

foxgloves

Hello Wednesday Pence-Wranglers,
Today's money-positive activities, such as they are:
*Free fitness having a walk around the village - saw the most beautiful haws - the richest bright scarlet - wished I'd got my scissors in my handbag so I could have snipped off a spray for my flower bottle, but I'd only got a screwdriver.
*Cancelled a membership subscription which I am unlikely to use until at least March, thus saving my Personal Spends £60.
*Ordered a sheet of Christmas stamps online - all 2nd class - I know there will be people saying I could send e-cards, but they don't 'do it' for me, clever & pretty as some of them are. No discount codes that I could see.
*Ordered middle nephew's present - no discount code there either, but it's worth looking, I think.
*Wrote meal plans from this Friday right up to December 23rd. Food prices are still rising at an alarming rate - 15% food inflation quoted on TV News this morning - & we'd already decided to prioritise eating up freezer stocks to make room for festive stuff & later, for all the leftovers batch-cooking I always do. So I got my notebook & just hammered away until it was done. I've included a few 'Cook once, eat twice' recipes plus about 5 slow cooker ones. Although I've assigned meals to specific days, it doesn't matter if this changes. The key objective was to keep the everyday costs down to help assimilate the Christmas food shopping. I thought Mr F might want a take-away or to go out for a nice meal for his birthday which falls within this period, but he apparently wants to go out to a farm shop cafe in our nearest neighbouring county for breakfast, then later to make a lasagne & open a bottle of wine (which he says we already have in the back of the pantry behind the bottled tomatoes), so that sounds like a cheap date to me.
No effort for tonight's nosebag, as it's jacket potato night. Mr F is using chunked-up chicken leftovers to make Epic Man Stew & I will have tuna melt on mine.
That just leaves mitten-knitting. I had a useful session on this yesterday after a long delay & I found an error in the thumb gusset, so frogged a whole panel of pattern back to the cuff. Then it suddenly dawned on me that I'd been interpreting a tiny bit of the chart wrongly & compounding the error every 3 rows. Tried out the 'new' way & all now seems to be back on track. I will have to set aside afternoons to crack on with them until they are done. It's not a pattern that can be hurried - I'll pop a picture on when they're finished, if anyone is interested.
Right, I think I'd better go & fire up the coffee machine & get those needles clacking.
F x

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, your post sounds all lovely and cosy and homely 🥰🥰

Love all the talk of being prepared. I'm rarely prepared for Christmas, somehow it surprises me every year, and I finish work having not bought any presents or anything 🙄 I'd love that to be different this year! There's only ever two of us on the day so not much in the way of food prep, but I'd love to have presents sorted, and know roughly when we're visiting people, so I can have a proper relaxing break!

milann

I’d be interested seeing the mittens 👍 I wanted to crochet a Christmas wreath…..have started it yet 😏 I’ll see if I can get an ring to crochet around at weekend whilst in Wales. They have a lovely craft which is usually shut as I pass it.

QueenJess

Is anyone else wondering why @foxgloves is walking around with a screwdriver in her bag?!

BalanceBy50

QueenJess said:

Is anyone else wondering why @foxgloves is walking around with a screwdriver in her bag?!

Yes me! It was my first thought when I read her post 😂

Four_Seasons

Yes and me x

peb

A d me.

Bags for foraging yes, screwdriver ? Scratches head.

SusieT

QueenJess said:

Is anyone else wondering why @foxgloves is walking around with a screwdriver in her bag?!

Sadly no, I have a mini set of screwdrivers in my bag all the time, the ends are interchangeable and are stored inside the handle. Very useful thing to carry