2021 Frugal Living Challenge

MandM90

Finally got round to asking Eurocamp why I didn't get a loyalty discount on one of my park bookings - £60 credited, yay! Also just topped up my work Tesco card. Costs 99.84 and tops up £104 worth. Not going to make me rich but we spend £350 a month on groceries so that's £14 worth of free food!

fiwen30

My divorce is being finalised on the 26th, and I thought I still had about £1.5k of costs to pay to the solicitors. When I last spoke to them, it sounded like I’d pay the full cost and then claim half the money back from my ex after the fact. Turns out, he’d been paying his half at the same time as I was paying mine, so that £1.5k can go straight into savings! It felt pretty good, since I’d mentally written off that money. Also got a cheque for £68 of overpayment, which I’ll not sniff at!

It’s the last amount from the inheritance from my mum in July, she couldn’t wait for me to get legally divorced! My partner and I have agreed that I’ll keep some of the money and buy myself a ‘happy divorce’ present (likely a tribute tattoo to my mum, once it’s safe to visit my tattoo artist again), and the remainder will top up our emergency fund, and then go towards a new garden fence. Very pleased.

Frugaldom

Good evening to all.
Busy day here again and the weekend was really good for Olio free food. It's ridiculous how much bread and salad leaves get left unsold in Tesco but great that they give it all away rather than bin it. If we could live on lettuce and cucumber sandwiches, I think I'd have enough here to last a month. Can't wait to be able to invite our student volunteers back to stay as they would happily eat salad sandwiches any time of the day. If anyone hasn't yet joined the site, I would beg you to do so just to help save food from waste. I joined about 2 years ago and never had a thing available anywhere near me until just a few months ago and since then, I have had to buy things like milk, butter, cheese, porridge oats, sugar and sultanas.

Like most others, I try to eat from stores as often as possible, which is quite easy for me. As soon as I cook something, it always turns into a batch of various other things that then need to be preserved or frozen, hence increasing my stores without buying anything else. A pack of mince (I call it 'Nile' mince on accounts of how far it stretches) can become Bolognese, cottage pie, chilli or even homemade burgers when bulked out with oats or lentils or extra vegetables. Tomatoes and fridge foraged veg become sauces or pizza bases, the outside slices of bread become pizza bases and now, with Olio, I am becoming more creative. Chipped and bashed fruit becomes compote, jam, jelly or sauce for adding to plain yoghurt. What I need to do right now, however, is work out what to do with several leftover cartons of garlic and chive dips! Anyone got any ideas?

willow_loulou

Cooled pasta sauce maybe? Or perhaps chop cucumber and make a kind of tsatziki ? Or even just in salad sandwiches rather than butter. Or on mash or jacket spuds. 

Frugaldom

This is for the benefit of anyone who has never experienced the Ration Challenge, a sponsored fundraising event that is run annually. Since successfully completing this as part of a team, I have been able to slash my grocery budget further than ever before and fully appreciate every item of food that comes our way to prevent it from being wasted. Binning perfectly edible food is criminal in my opinion, especially when we see how many others in this world are going hungry. The following are the basic rations per person for a week but I was unable to use all of the rice and oil.  We all worked extra hard to earn some salt and pooled our resources to gain some spices, milk and a portion each of meat and dried fruit. Water was the only drink available unless we worked to raise enough funds for a teabag, so you can see the appeal of growing things like herbs, fruit, veg and berries, even in limited quantities. You need to be fairly fit and healthy to attempt this challenge but this is said to be the basic ration pack offered to refugees. Having successfully completed this challenge - and it was tough - I now keep all of these things in store knowing that if anything happens, I can live on these items alone for as long as I have salt and a few pots of edible stuff in the garden. It really highlights what you miss most and makes you appreciate everything much more. Just thought I'd repost this for the benefit of the newcomers who may have missed all these mini challenges in the past

Viking_mfw

I second the suggestion of using the dip on baked potatoes - or even more decadently to make filled potato skins. I absolutely love the stuff!

Viking_mfw

I picked up some lean beef chunks half price and have casseroled them this evening to make a beef and stilton pie tomorrow with leftover Christmas cheese. I will also defrost some Olio sprouts to roast with the pie and add some beans and roast parsnips, also from Olio. It really does make you creative. I am looking with longing towards the garden - down to our last pak choi and last few leaves of spinach from last year's crops - and hoping we do well this year. 

Frugaldom

willow_loulou said:

Cooled pasta sauce maybe? Or perhaps chop cucumber and make a kind of tsatziki ? Or even just in salad sandwiches rather than butter. Or on mash or jacket spuds. 

Tonight I had some with potato, which was nice, and already had some with salad sandwich. I sometimes wish there were more people about who could help use it all up but lockdown has kind of scuppered that. It's past  use-by so I can't give it away but it still tastes and smells fine. I may need to admit defeat on this as I have about 6 cartons of it and can't feed it to any of the animals or add it to the compost bin. The little round tubs are quite handy for stacking!

Frugaldom

Viking_mfw said:

I second the suggestion of using the dip on baked potatoes - or even more decadently to make filled potato skins. I absolutely love the stuff!

If only you lived closer to Frugaldom!

Viking_mfw

Frugaldom said:

Viking_mfw said:

I second the suggestion of using the dip on baked potatoes - or even more decadently to make filled potato skins. I absolutely love the stuff!

If only you lived closer to Frugaldom!

I always wish that!