A new royal start

QueenJess

Work was actually ok this week. I worked absolutely reasonable hours, took the evening off and refused to be stressed. Irritatingly my work was done on time, although it was by the skin of our teeth at the last possible minute. Hopefully that still made a point. Not sure how long my post holiday frame of mind will last, but I am enjoying it whilst I can!

Planning on getting some seeds planted later, but need to have a look at what I actually have available (I pick up veg seeds for free from my local zero waste shop). I also want to go to the garden centre for compost and a browse. Not sure if it's too early for chives, but I want to buy a few for the front North facing tiny patch of sun section. I've tried them from seed in the past, but I am never very successful, so will buy them.

Trying to recover from holiday money wise by only buying essentials at the moment, helped on by my determination to eat through the small chest freezer to get it defrosted. We easily survived this week with only buying the odd food item and actually we need so little this week I decided it wasn't worth the 20min each way trip to the zero waste shop and sm, so I ditched those and just bought what I needed in the local Lidl instead. Total food spend this week was £47! £20 Lidl, £19 Riverford and the rest in M&S on the way back from holiday to get milk etc that we needed urgently. Gosh, how rich would I be if I only spent £50 a week rather than my current budget of £170?!

I'm not sure what's happened here, but I mentioned going to Legoland in Denmark (the kids are so obsessed with Lego I actually tried to ban the L word for an evening meal as I was sick of hearing it!) inspired by @themadvix and a long desire to go to Denmark and now it has everyone's vote and we are looking into prices! To afford it, it's going to have to be a very frugal next few months to get the joint account kicked into shape as I don't want to top it up with savings. Not sure how possible it'll be, but it'll be a good challenge.

Quite randomly DD's friends parents have given me some sourdough starter. If you've been on this diary a long time you'll know it's been on my wish list forever to do and I never get round to it. Well my hand was forced and yesterday I made my first sourdough bread and DH gave it the thumbs up (perks of being the chief cutter of bread that he has the first taste!). So looks like sourdough is firmly on the menu from now on. Related to that, I am considering ordering a big sack of flour online as I have to buy far too many small bags of flour from the shop and it will be cheaper this way. I'm just trying to decide how I would store it and what I use most of that would make it worthwhile (generally white and brown bread flour and self raising flour). I do use lots of self raising flour, but I know it doesn't last as long, so I am not so sure about that one - maybe I should just get the bread flour and see how that goes? Any tips?

Yesterday I was very organised. I needed so little for the food shop (and it's down the road) that I popped out and did it at lunch time. Meant I could have a nice lie in this morning. I also made granola, oat milk, the sourdough bread, roasted a butternut squash for salads in the week (based on the very salady contents of my Riverford box) and also made a huge batch of vegetable soup from peeling scraps I couldn't bear to compost and froze (still got one more bag left in there to use up). I am toying with making an orange cake today as I have the juice leftover in the freezer from candying orange peel (again didn't want to waste it), but we honestly have so much leftover from our holiday that I'm not sure if it's needed.

DD is out today at a party, so lunch will be bitty. On a Saturday I usually have breakfast at almost lunchtime (the fun of that time of life means a slower digestive system and I like to have some days of larger non-eating periods), DH will probably have some leftover party food plus some bits and pieces here and I will make DS a sandwich and fruit. Dinner is spicy (for the adults) chicken with chips (we have a lot of potatoes for some reason!) and frozen mixed veg. Dessert is more Easter egg for the kids (or yogurt and jam/honey) and the adults will indulge in a French biscuit or macaron later.

I think I will be enjoying some quiet time now as DD is at her party and DS is going to be building Lego for the next few hours. Feels odd not to be rushing around with chores, but I don't have enough for a load of washing and no food shop this morning. It's lovely!

QueenJess

A jam packed work day today, but I made time to make a loaf of bread (not sourdough as I have lots of yeast to use up as well), an orange sandwich cake and more oat milk.

Lunch was a large salad with roasted butternut squash (in the fridge from last week), purple broccoli, lettuce, tomato, onion, pumpkin seeds, chives (from the garden) and feta cheese with an olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing and a slice of hm sourdough bread.

Dinner was pesto pasta (still using up pesto from wild garlic and carrot tops from last year in the freezer) with courgette and peas. My veg drawer is pretty much bare already and Riverford doesn’t deliver until Friday (still lots in the freezer though). DD had yogurt with freeze dried strawberries for dessert and DS is stuffing himself with a free doughnut I had from Lidl. I’m too stuffed for anything, but packed myself some cake for work tomorrow (and the leftover pesto pasta).

Still using up as much as I can from freezer stocks and it is slowly declining in there. The fridge is looking very bare, but the cupboards are still very full. I have ordered myself two sacks of bread flour in the end although I’ve not quite worked out where to put them yet…

Sunday I started work on the garden and discovered a portion of my lawn is now self seeded parsley! I’ve done a lot of tidying up out there and also sown lots of seeds indoors using up whatever I already had - cucumbers, tomatoes, chillis, sweet peas, sunflowers and coriander. I also ordered some very cheap strawberry plants with an offer. Hoping to fill all the available space left only with free things, so should be an eclectic mix! It’s just the large patio planters that need to be filled up.

Better go as I have some mending to so, so plan to do that in front of the TV.

TallGirl

I'm not sure what's happened here, but I mentioned going to Legoland in Denmark (the kids are so obsessed with Lego I actually tried to ban the L word for an evening meal as I was sick of hearing it!) inspired by @themadvix and a long desire to go to Denmark and now it has everyone's vote and we are looking into prices ! To afford it, it's going to have to be a very frugal next few months to get the joint account kicked into shape as I don't want to top it up with savings. Not sure how possible it'll be, but it'll be a good challenge.

Yeah cool re Legoland I have not been since I was a kid but I do want to go again. Denmark is quite pricey so I would try and get at least breakfast included which you can then make sandwiches for lunch. Or if you fancy self catering food is ok in the supermarkets of course not like Norway plus here you can buy alcohol in normal shops unlike our Nordic neighbours. There are a lot of Summerhouses for rent in that areas plus camping huts (cheaper). It is super expensive to hire a car here so do watch out for that but Billund is a great airport and Legoland is so close. About 1 km from the park is a normal supermarket, a couple of chain restaurants and most importantly a proper Danish Sausage(man). You have to try one unless you are a veggie of course. Very handly place to kill time if you arrive too early for the airport we have found. If I can help with anything do let me know. I need to plan my own trip at some point.

Another tip the Danish kids break up in mid June and go back to school first week of august which might be helpful to know.

edinburgher

A Danish sausage man?

QueenJess

I am also intrigued re: the Danish sausage man!

A frugal week thus far and I am now just doing a short a food shopping list as I think I can get away with for tomorrow. As usual my frugalness gets offset with kids stuff - today is a demand for a school trip money, although "only" £20 needed as a deposit upfront. There's always something… On the plus side, I am finally getting through the freezer backlog and some things that have hung around in the cupboards for too long.

Whilst working today I made a loaf of sourdough and a chocolate chip brioche that DS is munching right now. Both will probably go in the freezer, but I doubt they will last long around here. Dinner tonight was frozen pizza for the kids and for the adults I made the pizza dough and added cheese, courgette, tomato, the rest of the roasted butternut squash, onion and mushrooms. For afternoon tea I had orange sandwich cake that I made a few days ago (only one piece left now).

Most of the holiday was on the credit card and most has fallen to payment mid May, so I have more time to be frugal before then (currently the credit card is higher than the amount in the joint account - oops). Today I cancelled some after school clubs as DH is starting to work fewer hours in his seasonal wind down. That comes off the May bill, although we have built up enough childcare vouchers to offset that one. I also cashed out our credit card points and so have £30 of vouchers to use tomorrow :)

Better go as I need to switch off my brain after a very stressful work week. Happy weekend everyone :)

beanielou

Enjoy your weekend.

QueenJess

I'm not sure how I spent so much on buying so little at the sm… anyway, at least it was cheap after my £30 off voucher was used. After the voucher I spent £136 this week: £39 on 32kg of organic bread flour (I make at least two loaves a week plus often rolls or something else), £35 wr, £24 Riverford veg & fruit box combined (cheaper this way), £14 zero waste shop, £6 Lidl top ups, £17 M&S for DH's nut & raisin obsession and stocking up on our favoured baked beans.

After trying all the nuts and raisin mixes, DH still says WR is the best.. £11 per 750g could be worse I guess and they always give me a £2 voucher off it per fortnight. I have now filled my zero waste loyalty card so next time I get 5% off my shop - it's not loads but I shall be stocking up everything next time (including my expensive night cream that is almost finished).

On the plus side it was the zero waste shops birthday today so I picked up a free slice of cake for later :) Lunch today looks like it'll be omlettes. Dinner is spag bol which I took out of the freezer from a prior batch cooking effort. The freezer is definitely going down… I think it might be half full now. For desserts I have free cake, there is one slice of my orange cake left, chocolate chip brioche or yogurt and strawberries. We are spoilt for choice!

DH is off out for the weekend next week, so as an extra challenge to use things up and not spend, I'm not going food shopping next weekend and will pick up anything I can't do without in Lidl as it's by the kids schools. I might possibly be learning that we get through things slower than I think which is why we have so much stock to use up!

I think the problem with spending too much on food is a combination of getting slightly more in case we run out (we don't and if we did we can pop to a shop easily to pick it up) and extras going into the trolley. We had a habit of buying a few extra fruit and veg items in the sm each week, but that starts to add up and I end up with slightly too much each week. I've tried instead to pick the absolute best fruit/veg box from Riverford for our needs each week, which has taken longer to decide, but we have a better amount and are saving money.

I will restock once we have run down our stores, but to a more sensible amount. I do want things on hand just in case and it has saved us a few times when circumstances mean we can't get to the shops etc.

I am on track for a massive saving on food this month (skewed obviously by being on holiday) and it is spurring me on to just get rid of the remainder of this deficit and have a proper functioning budget going forwards.

QueenJess

I just took a look at my spending for the first three months of this year and I spent an average of £146 a week on groceries (no eating out or takeaways). I don't think that's too bad for a family of four eating mostly organic. I still think there is improvement to be made though.

Today is just me and DD at home. We had porridge for breakfast (DD has raisins and honey, I had half a banana deemed too black for anyone else but actually is totally fine with a blob of hm blackberry jam that no one else likes). Lunch will be leftover pizza and carrot sticks for DD and I will have more of the never ending freezer soup (made with leftover peelings I refused to throw away) with hm garlic and cheese scones I just found at the bottom of the freezer. Dinner is easy jacket potato with cheese and beans and DD will have strawberries and yogurt for dessert and I may try some of the chocolate chip brioche.

Jessy103

Garlic And cheese scones sound amazing! Is there a particular recipe you use for those, please? I'd love to give them a go, otherwise I may just have to turn up at your house one day 🤣

South_coast

I'll pick you up on my way, Jessy 😅!