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Agreed - I bought a fairly small chicken the other day on sale & at 40% off it was almost 5 pounds (4.95) - we rubberized the heck out of it - will be three meals for two and carcass added to the freezer bag of bones for making bone broth.
4 YEARS 10 MONTHS DEBT FREE!!! (24 OCT 2016)(With heartfelt thanks to those who have gone before us & their indubitable generosity.)...and now I have a mortgage! (23 AUG 2021)Original End Date - Sept 2041 New projection - Dec 2039 (reduced by 21 months)5 -
Yep - we only buy free range and realistically for a sensibly sized one for multiple meals you're lucky to get anything below £10 now. That will do us a roast and several more meals plus stock, but still it's a big lump of the budget. Meat always has cycled through pricepoints depending on what is popular at the time, but on this occasion we don't seem to be seeing anything else dropping in price to balance things out!
Meals all planned for this week although there might need to be some changes as I shopped on the way back from our weekend away yesterday and didn't have access to the plan, which made things a bit sketchy! Starting this evening with salmon (freezer) potatoes (Christmas, 5p) and veg (most likely home grown beans from the freezer). Tomorrow will be couscous with assorted veg plus a pack of the reduced price falafels we grabbed the other week.
🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00. Balance as at 31/12/25 = £ 91,100.00
SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her4 -
Our chook bounced along to two chicken pies, padded out by a tin of sweetcorn. We had one last night.
Save £12k in 2026 #2 I have banked £2870.61 so far, against a £10k target The 2026 Save £12k in 2026 thread is here
OS Grocery Challenge in 2026 I am sticking with a £3000 annual budget for 2026 - currently £568.34 and most of my March purchasing made
I also Reverse Meal Plan on that thread and grow much of our own premium price fruit and veg, joining in on the grow your own in 2026 discussion thread
My keep within our budget diary is here5 -
I must remember that I have a roll of puff pastry in the freezer which would offer itself rather nicely to make some pasties at some stage…just need to work on the type now! (Chicken, bacon & mushroom, almost certainly!)
🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00. Balance as at 31/12/25 = £ 91,100.00
SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her3 -
A very simple Jacket potato with baked beans and cheese for supper, with egg on toast for brunch. Soup for lunch today and the rest of the curry reheated as I am out later
Save £12k in 2026 #2 I have banked £2870.61 so far, against a £10k target The 2026 Save £12k in 2026 thread is here
OS Grocery Challenge in 2026 I am sticking with a £3000 annual budget for 2026 - currently £568.34 and most of my March purchasing made
I also Reverse Meal Plan on that thread and grow much of our own premium price fruit and veg, joining in on the grow your own in 2026 discussion thread
My keep within our budget diary is here7 -
Tonight in our house will be two of the sausage tarts I made with leftover sausage roll meat and pastry at christmas - having discovered the other night that some of the 5p potatoes are large enough to do as jackets I think it will be jackets and beans with those! Also took the chance which I was in the freezer to get tomorrow night's offering out as well - venison ragu, which I think is the last one of those so I'll need to sort making more at some stage.
🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00. Balance as at 31/12/25 = £ 91,100.00
SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her5 -
woops - wrong post originally
this week we have restocked the fridge with fresh ingredients but also have freezer meals that will be worked into the week - not a lot of reverse planning as last week we managed to use up most of what was lurking!4 YEARS 10 MONTHS DEBT FREE!!! (24 OCT 2016)(With heartfelt thanks to those who have gone before us & their indubitable generosity.)...and now I have a mortgage! (23 AUG 2021)Original End Date - Sept 2041 New projection - Dec 2039 (reduced by 21 months)4 -
I've got a sourdough loaf proving so we will have sandwiches for lunch. I'm mid-way through painting some bee equipment in the kitchen and I want to get it finished today so no soup-making this morning. This evening we should eat the other chicken and sweetcorn pie I made with the rubber chicken.
Tomorrow we are at the community lunch (I am doing dessert - plum crumble with custard and a blackberry sauce the sauce is because there is one no-dairy person - so need to get the fruit out of the freezer for that. I'm also providing the green veg, so at least one cabbage will be liberated from the veg box.
I may yet make soup, just to have some ready for tomorrow evening. That will leave us with the rest of the chicken pickings that will go in a stir-fry on Saturday, completing a week of meals from our rubber girl
Save £12k in 2026 #2 I have banked £2870.61 so far, against a £10k target The 2026 Save £12k in 2026 thread is here
OS Grocery Challenge in 2026 I am sticking with a £3000 annual budget for 2026 - currently £568.34 and most of my March purchasing made
I also Reverse Meal Plan on that thread and grow much of our own premium price fruit and veg, joining in on the grow your own in 2026 discussion thread
My keep within our budget diary is here5 -
It is rewarding to do that with a chicken isn't it. Similarly I'm planning to get one of the pieces of ham that I cooked at christmas out of the freezer in the next couple of weeks, and that too will fill out our meals for the remainder of the week. It's the way I dealt with the turkey too - taking off slices first to freeze with gravy, then the meat that would suit to cut into chunks, and then the remaining "gribbly bits" that will work for risotto and similar. The carcass itself was cut up and frozen for future stock making too - we had no space for lots of stock at the time, and that will likely wait until I have a chicken carcass to add too.
I have soup making on my list for the weekend as well - those 5p parsnips really must be used, and I'll probably throw the remaining shallots in there too.
🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25
Balance as at 31/08/25 = £ 95,450.00. Balance as at 31/12/25 = £ 91,100.00
SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her5 -
Another week - another chicken to rubberize…
This week, the chicken I ordered on sale was out of stock - they sent me another one (posher than I normally buy) with the same discount but ended up costing 2 pounds more so a 7 pound chicken rather than 5 pounds. that being said, it is one of the tastiest chickens we've had in a long time. This week the most we are doing with it is getting off every scrap of meat and forgoing the bones, as I've stocked our freezer with all things Asiansoup dumplings, gyoza, mandu, wonton wrappers, gyoza skins & ready to steam stuffed bao buns. At some point when these get munched, we'll have room again for more chicken carcasses but at the moment we decided to focus on lunar new year bargains which are our Saturday mainstay.4 YEARS 10 MONTHS DEBT FREE!!! (24 OCT 2016)(With heartfelt thanks to those who have gone before us & their indubitable generosity.)...and now I have a mortgage! (23 AUG 2021)Original End Date - Sept 2041 New projection - Dec 2039 (reduced by 21 months)4
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