Frugal, thrifty, make do, mend! Let this debt come to an end!

WinterWarrior

I also have the daily bookbub emails that point you to the kindle deals, but I have such a large to be read pile I can’t keep up….and then I have all the pre orders for authors and series I follow. I multitask with an audio book on the go for when I’m out with dog or doing boring house jobs and then a kindle book for when I get chance to sit still and last thing at night.
I hope you have a successful shopping trip. 

Elisheba

So I somehow ended up doing a full stock take! 

Freezer 

4 burgers

1 veggie pie - didn't like the other much

22? Sausages

1 mince

Small chicken pieces

5 fillets /escalopes 

1 lasagne (ready meal) 

2 1/2 garlic bread

1 bag cheese dumplings (4 meals?) 

1 quorn roast 

1 meatballs and spaghetti (ready meal) 

3/4 bag roast potatoes

1/4 sliced peppers

1 1/2 bags Savoy cabbage

1/2 bag carrots

1 bag leeks 

1 bag mixed fruit

1 bag rhubarb

1 portion smoothie mix

Small frozen brambles

Sweet short crust pastry

1 1/2 Bag frozen sweetcorn 

Almost full bag frozen peas 

1 bag broccoli 🥦 

1 1/2 garlic bread

3 rolls

1/2 bag Yorkshire puddings

1 frozen soup - veg

3 brown things - maybe frozen soup or risotto 

1 x 3 bean chilli - ready meal

2 portions lentil soup 

1 butternut squash soup

2 lentil stew

2 1/2 portions tomato sauce (glass) 

2 red sauce portions. 

1/2 portion mashed potato

Pantry

1 bag mixed fruit

1/2 bag sultanas

2 1/2 bags brown rice

1 bag white rice 

1 bag mixed colour quinoa 

1/2 bag white quinoa

9 1/2 bag strong white flour 

1/2 packet spaghetti 

1 3/4 bags noodles 

1/2 bag brown pasta 

3/4 bag white pasta 

1/2 jar green lentils

3/4 bag red lentils 

3/4 bag pearl barley 

1/2 bag bulgar wheat

Big jar cous cous

1/2 bag milled chia seeds

Baking powder - out of date

1 1/2 bags self raising flour - out of date

1/2 bag strong brown flour - out of date

1 plain flour - out of date

6 tins chickpeas 

7 tins chopped tomatoes 

2 baked beans 

4 cartons passata 

4 tins fruit

2 tins potatoes 

5 tins coconut milk

1 tin green lentils

1 tin kidney beans

6 mini naan breads

1/3  bag porridge 

Popcorn 

3 beers 

1 almost full bag White Sugar

Cocoa

Honey

Korma paste

Various herbs and spices

Tiny bit garlic puree (need more) 

Butter 

Lemon curd 

1 pot veg gravy granules (don't like) 

Tiny amount normal gravy granules (need more) 

1/2 tub tea leaves

3 stock cubes (need lots more) 

8 oatcakes - out of date 

1 bag pitted dates

1 gift bag beer bread mix - need to make soon

Ground arrowroot - 13 years out of date - bin

3 raw cashew bars - not very keen on them

Various sugars 

2 vege gels sachets - 8 years out of date - bin? 

Egg alternative powders 

Few boiled sweets

1 chow mein sachet
Soy sauce
Tiny amount cider vinegar
Home made plum jam
Rape seed oil 
Drinking Squash

1 bombay potatoes sachet - out of date but probably fine

Custard powder - so old the bbd has disappeared - bin 

Fridge and fresh

1 apple 

4 mixed peppers 

Tiny bit of floppy celery 

4 avocado's - not sure if the are still okay. Feel firm but never know. 

Small bit cheese

1/2 jar green olives

2 tomato puree tubes

4 small onions 

Open squeezy sour cream, salsa and guacamole cartons 

Salad creme

1 garlic bread - put in freezer 

Little bit cream

3/4 cherry pie

1/2 jar sun dried tomatoes 

1/2 green olive paste 

Tiny amount bread yeast (need more) 

Tomato relish 

Small amount vegan mayo

Whole grain mustard

English mustard

So that gives me quite a bit to work with doesn't it?

So meals this month - 
Various Curries 
Stirfrys - need more fresh veg
Various grain and veg meals with chopped sausages - need fresh veg but can use some frozen
Burgers in buns with salad and chips - need salad and chips and cheese
Ready meals for office days (3 there, and some hm made meals) 
Pasta salads - need fresh veg
Spag Bog - need mushrooms and garlic 
Escalope/fillets with new potatoes and veg
Crumbles for puddings - need custard

I'll need to make my own bread to use up all that bread flour as it goes out of date in a couple of months.

Right - I feel organised now, so I can get ready and do some shopping! 

jokono

You have garlic bread twice in your freezer list. Maybe you didn't want to merge them but I felt compelled to mention 😅 

I did a freezer and larder stock in January but didn't keep up with crossing things off and now the freezer is full again. 😑 

SuzeQStan

@Elisheba said: ’I've been reading a book by !!!!!! and Angel Strawbridge about them setting up their Chateau business. Although I love the TV programme, I'm not riveted by the book - and their recipes are fairly meat heavy…’

so funny how MSE bleeps out !!!!!! from !!!!!! & Angel with exclamation marks. Wonder if this is a new feature as I don’t remember it being so stringent previously

SuzeQStan

Hey Elisheba - be good to yourself don’t forget plenty of self care for you too as you are precious cargo 🥰

Elisheba

That's so funny @SuzeQStan! I had no idea it had done that until you said! Poor Mr Strawbridge! 

Elisheba

jokono said:

You have garlic bread twice in your freezer list. Maybe you didn't want to merge them but I felt compelled to mention 😅 

I did a freezer and larder stock in January but didn't keep up with crossing things off and now the freezer is full again. 😑 

So I do! I do know how much I have though thankfully - 1 1/2 in the freezer, and one in the fridge I need to put on the freezer today. 

Elisheba

Shopping done - phew! 

Popped into Waitrose for the tub of easy bake yeast I wanted, then took my dog a walk along an old railway line near me. It really was absolutely gorgeous today. I chose that route as it is quite wooded on either side for a lot of it, so thought it would be cooler for my dog, but he was still panting a lot and needed lots of water when we got back to the car.

Then popped into Aldi to get their budget UHT milk which is cheapest round here, then to Lidl for the big shop. Only things I wasn't able to get were cat litter, marmalade, olives, pickled onions, pitta, veggie sliced meat, and garlic puree. By this time it was almost 4pm when all the shops shut here on a Sunday, so will need to get the rest in Tesco during the week.

I realised as I was going out the door I hadn't eaten all day so took the last apple and a cashew bar with me, then when I was in Aldi I picked up a cheese and pasta salad bowl (I do hate single potion plastic but thought I should eat) then realised I had no forks with me so had to wait until I was back home anyway to eat it 😂.

So money wise, I've spent £92.66 on food today, and with my silly Waitrose spend earlier in the week I'm already over budget. Saying that with the cost of food having gone up I probably need to adjust my budget anyway. There was nothing particularly extravagant there except some crisps maybe, and that cheese salad. I know my toiletry budget has gone up as I'm buying shampoo and conditioner rather than shampoo bars now, as well as deodorant, toilet rolls and sanitary products. 

Pet food was £32.43 with cat litter still so go, which will be another £8 odd, so that's still on budget. 

When I got home and started putting it all away one of the pasta bags burst everywhere! Thank goodness my dog was still in the car or he would have been right in there, and half a bag of uncooked pasta would have done him no favours at all! 

Still, so glad it's all done now bar a few little things. I've had my pasta salad and a banana, so I'm going to clean the bathroom, empty the cat litter, hang up the towel wash I put on earlier, but on bread in the breadmaker, feed the monkeys and then I am done for the day. Mr and Angel Strawbridge await 😂

weenancyinAmerica

@Elisheba - I'm really interested in books (and museums) on the Home Front also. I am putting together a bibliography of the books I have already plus what I can find on other books on the Home Front in World War II. Over the years of visiting in England and Wales, I have over 1200 books in my collection just for the British Isles. I took a course on the Home Front Front in World War II at college and discovered there were hundreds of bibliographies on the war itself, but nothing on the Home Front. During a visit to to the Library of Congress, they let me know that they haven't even unpacked the books sent in to them during World War II. The books are still boxed up. I had been trying to order books on Interlibrary loan and they weren't showing up anywhere which is why I was checking. I used to work for Alex Haley on Roots II and Queen and he sent me to the Library of Congress many times. When I am in England, I really enjoy visiting the Imperial War Museum and Eden Camp. I was really lucky and was able to visit the War Cabinet Rooms the day it opened! I would like to go to the Museum of Brands in London to see the Robert Opie collection from World War II also. 

Love your diary.

Cheery_Daff

I love stuff about the Home Front too. I really enjoyed the BBC radio series that ran a few years back (first world war though, not second) - it was fictional but followed the actual events of the war over the whole period, really interesting. Still available to listen to (obviously there's loads of it!)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/b04dv1g4?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

Not sure if you can get it outside the UK though.

I've been trawling through the Mass Observation archives on and off for a work project, really interesting to peek into ordinary people's lives