The thriftyish way to debt freedom

Baileys_Babe

I like cauliflower in a curry or we have cauliflower and pasta bake, a mix of cauliflower cheese and macaroni cheese. Other suggestions welcome.

Nonnadiluca

Roasted cauliflower is delicious! 
If you like dhal, there's a fantastic recipe on domestic gothess website which is served over roasted cauliflower and butternut squash. Hungry now!!!!

f0xh0les

Cauliflower buffalo wings, or popcorn cauliflower are crowd pleasers here.  You can make a nice cauliflower based pizza base for g/f visitors,  and I love a cauliflower curry and a cauliflower and broccoli cheese bake. Or just spiced and roasted.  Mind you, I eat it raw as well. Just love the stuff.

Bluegreen143

We love cauliflower roasted here and chucked into curries or pakora. If you use the thinner batter mix you normally coat chicken pakora in and use big florets of cauli it makes a lovely veggie alternative (or you can chop small to add to a veggie pakora mix). Once in Krakow I bought a whole breaded & deep fried cauli from a street food seller, it was gorgeous! I also put it in mac & cheese. Or just steam for the side of meals - I have a really nice roast garlic & red pepper spice grinder I grind all over buttered steamed veg and it’s especially nice with cauliflower. 

Bluegreen143

Almost forgot to say. My mum & stepdad make a bake for roast dinners with cauliflower covered with packet bread sauce & topped with breadcrumbs.

thriftyish

MagicCat said:

What do you tend to make with cauliflower? My DH isn't keen on it so I do cauliflower cheese but not much else.

That was a very good question! We don't tend to use too much at the moment as it can be quite expensive and the children aren't big fans. So I am looking for ideas too! I love cauliflower cheese, it was one of my pregnancy cravings. - I was really sick throughout my pregnancies with hyperemesis and found I had a better chance of keeping my food if I went with my cravings. DD2 is 80% cauliflower cheese. 

Thank you for sharing all the cauliflower ideas! I hate food waste, and my plot neighbour has lots of cauliflower that are almost ready to blow (or flower, which makes them inedible), he has said I am more than welcome as they will go to waste otherwise & he is away for two weeks. I will see if I can take a few to save them - he must have 50 huge caulis, and over 150 cabbages - all in neat lines!

What a day!
A broken lawnmower and faulty strimmer
Today I came back from hoe-hoe-hoeing and found DH with the lawnmower in pieces on the decking, trying to fix it. Fixing didn't work, you could hear and smell the motor dying, so I shall take it to lawnmower heaven next week. The petrol strimmer is also faulty, the primer bulb has busted so it takes a while to prime properly, and cant be left with fuel inside as it just empties straight out. We might have a go at replacing first the part first, if not there might be someone locally who repairs - a replacement strimmer would probably be a big expense so trying to avoid!

Unexpected debits
I have a few website domains and two have automatically (and unexpectedly) renewed today. At a cost of £55 for two years. They charged an extra £20 for domain protection which I have cancelled and they have refunded. I've decided that I need to give myself a stern talking to, and if I decide to keep on, I have to at least make enough to cover the cost of the domain and hosting.

Shopping
My tgtg box was cancelled today, but I did nip out for some essentials (biscuits for DH) and bought £5s worth of biscuits as a gift for the couple we borrowed the incubator from, so I can deliver them when we take the incubator back tomorrow.

Food
Cereal for breakfast, egg sandwiches for dinner, spag bol with hm garlic bread for tea. A plot friend gave me some runner beans and we don't really like them - but I didn't want to waste so I cooked them, whizzed up and added a handful to the bolognese sauce - it was delicious. I realised after we had eaten that we had nothing ready for dessert so quickly threw some raspberry and white chocolate muffins together with frozen raspberries. We have lots of eggs that are past their dates, so the plan is to make as many mini pancakes as possible to freeze for breakfasts over the next few weeks

Garden
DH wants to get on top of our garden, finish our chicken coop, and organise the sheds, so we have decided to spend all tomorrow, and an hour every evening this week cleaning/building/painting and sorting outside after tea. We shouldn't need to buy anything so its just a case of getting it done.
We had a bonfire tonight to clear some wood, and the children snuggled up under blankets next to the fire while I read some more famous five. DS who decided against listening initially, and often says 'can we just have one chapter tonight' - is always the one who askes repeatedly for extra chapters. It's nice that they all enjoy listening, it's getting harder to find things that they all want to do.

Shoes
I bid on two pairs of second-hand trainers on the bay of E. I won both. I've worn my trainers so much I have almost worn through the sole. They were both good brands and cost £17 altogether including postage so not awful, would have preferred to just win one pair  This always happens, either I win neither or both. It was Heelies last time, I won two pairs for DD and luckily DS is the same shoe size so I pretended one was for him. He was thrilled. I need to stop bidding on more than one thing at once!
I've also measured the two youngest DDs feet to see if I can find some trainers for them, and I am on the lookout for winter boots / coats at bargain prices too as it's out of season.

School shoes we usually buy from a Clarks outlet and get them fitted, just because they wear well and fit nicely, and they do wear them for most of the year! But they are usually cost around £100. I don't have that in my budget at the moment though - but I could 'lend' from another pot. 

Given the recent uptick in virus cases, I am reluctant to go school shoe shopping (as its usually manic) and I am not sure I want to spend money we if we end up doing more homeschooling or if uniform isn't needed. I also don't want to get to September and not have school shoes that fit if they are needed. I am not sure if I am overthinking this! 

Probably as its close to 1am! Night all, happy debt busting!

f0xh0les

Me too, I am putting off buying school uniform bits as ds4 has suddenly in the last week grown out of about 4 T Shirts he has been rolling around the house in all summer.  Ds3 has just announced this morning that all of his socks are too tight (??) and needs new ones.  So in my best Psychic Peg voice, I can see a visit to the shoe shop in my future.  The problem with mine is that they often skip a whole size when they grow. I remember taking DS1 in wearing a kiddie size 12  and coming out with size 3's.

Oh well, as long as they are growing and not shrinking I suppose I should not complain.

Cauliflower is a good way to meet the neighbours!

Mumoffourkids

I need to do a shoe shop soon. Five of mine will need new school shoes. However, DS1 is currently having a massive growth spurt, he has so far grown three shoe sizes in less than six months. I normally go to a Clark’s outlet shop as well as I have found Clark’s last all year and I don’t mind paying a bit more. However I think this year that DS1 will be in adult size shoes as had is now a size 7. Four of my kids actually have bigger feet than I do now. It’s only the two youngest ones whose feet are actually smaller than mine!

Baileys_Babe

Since dd was 9 I have had the smallest feet.

I can remember when ds was little each time we went to get him shoes he would have jumped a size. He has never once voluntarily told me his shoes are small or tight but when asked he will tell us.

I have no idea if any of his real shoes fit on his feet as he is usually barefooted or in crocs, he is 15 and capable of communication 😄

Mumoffourkids

My youngest two are currently 5 and almost 4. The youngest is tiny though so I am thinking I won’t ever have the smallest feet in my family. My oldest boy sounds like your son, in that I bought him some trainers in January, he never once said they were too small but I have just bought him some more trainers two sizes bigger. When asked if they were tight, he just said, well they are now. He is only 11, so I am assuming I have no hope for communication when he is actually a teenager!