2021 Frugal Living Challenge

Frugaldom

the_cross_rabbit said:

Tea was supplied by the basil and nasturtiums we grew this summer and we made into pesto. Tasted of summer. Low cost tea, have several more frozen blocks of summer to look forward to.
CRx

Basil and nasturtium pesto sounds very interesting and is something I had never heard of before now. I grow both most years so must try this once things start coming back to life in the Frugaldom herbery.

Frugaldom

Sorry for all the updates one after the other but this time of day (or night) is the only chance I have of catching up by the time I finish everything else that needs done every day during this dreaded pandemic. My thoughts are with all of you dealing with Covid-19, hospitals, hospices, end of life visits and funerals. Don't forget to take care of yourselves during all of this as we have the aftermath of it all still to deal with and who knows what that might be like.

Tonight I received some free curly kale to add to my weighty collection of Olio-related claims. I have enough bits and bobs for a vegetable stir fry and I stewed all my fresh fruit with some sugar and got a big jar filled, now in the fridge and handy for having with porridge or plain yoghurt. 

A friend has given me a stick blender kit as she ended up with 2 so I'm going to try whizzing up all the spare bread and using it in a 50:50 mix with flour for baking cookies. I also have plenty of potatoes so my plan for those will be to cook them and make some into potato salad, potato croquette, potato cakes, potato scones and, as I have a box of icing sugar, macaroon bars. These things are all planned - I just haven't worked out how to make the time to actually do any of them, yet!

Spending - £139.98 / £4000 - includes petrol, gas, mobile and food; the food part is less than £15 owing to living off stocks, Olio food rescues and our hens are laying.

Keep up the good work, frugal folks. Together we can all help beat the budget and hopefully survive a global pandemic. Stockpiling and strategic shopping has prepared us well for keeping out of shops and busy places.

Hughesfamily

@the_cross_rabbit - how do you make your pesto please? Sounds lovely and I have both the necessary seeds so will have a bash at it this year. As I am still working from home, I am making a concerted effort to use up what we have without buying more. I do find being frugal so much easier when I am working from home and can regularly check the stores and meal plan from them - I'm playing ready steady cook with whatever ingredients we have to use up. Retrieved some cocktail sausages from Christmas freezer stash so will give small one a picnic style lunch - I'll have homemade soup, and dinner will be pasta with homemade sauce. Had 3 NSD so far this week and I don't intend to spend anything until after payday which is Monday. We have no bread but we do have flour to make wraps, a bread mix which we'll make some crusty bread with for the weekend (fresh bread bacon sandwich - Yum!) and some homebake rolls, again from Christmas stocks, so will use them for hot dogs as a treat tea tomorrow or Saturday. 
I am loving this thread - reading everyone's comments really keeps me motivated to stretch the pennies. I need some  new jeans - my chub rub destroyed my skinny ones but I have a pair from the charity shop last year that are too flared, but I can take them in and make them straight leg.

MandM90

Last night we decided to celebrate mortgage offer coming through on new house. Was a toss up between a bottle of fizz and a takeaway, and takeaway won out so kids could enjoy too. But takeaways are always such a disappointment! Pizzas were nice and hot, no particular complaints, just hate waiting for it to come, and never quite as good as either a restaurant or home cooked food. Won't be doing that again for a while! At least it was only £25 taken from fun money budget so not an overspend, and no washing up last night, so won't beat myself up over it. I hope my failure helps keep others on the frugal wagon

Oldstylethriftylady

@Frugaldom sadly that website doesn’t work here I’ll just need to get the other half on the lookout as I’d take any fruit at this moment, I do remember a cherry tree from a couple of years ago where no one took the fruit so might investigate that this year.

@AskYouWillGet ooo I’ve not heard of that method before, will have a google as it looks interesting. Sadly I don’t have the space for that method, everything this year is going to have to be in containers and even then space is a premium.

Hope everyone is doing well, nothing here to discuss on the frugal side as just ticking along happily not spending money at the moment.

DawnW

You can make pesto out of all kinds of things - I haven't tried nasturtium (sadly they always get covered in horrible cabbage white caterpillars here ) but I do use rocket, which for some reason doesn't, and things like parsley also work, alongside the basil that I grow in my lean to mini greenhouse. I have several blocks in the freezer too, and and also roasted tomato sauce from  the cherry tomatoes I grow in big pots each year. Both very handy with pasta and grated cheese when we want an easy meal. There are lots of pesto recipes online, I use, or rather adapt this one https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/pesto-sauce. @the_cross_rabbit may use a different one?  It is easy to make and there is no cooking involved. It is much easier with a food processor or blender than with the pestle and mortar that is sometimes recommended. I would also say that some of the recipes can be quite expensive, with extra virgin olive oil and pine nuts. I always use half olive oil for the flavour and half a cheaper oil such as rapeseed or sunflower - and you can use any nuts, or none at all if you are allergic. The supermarket own brand 'hard Italian cheese' substitutes well for parmesan.

@MandM90 we always find takeaways disappointing too, so hardly ever have them. We rarely eat out either (not that anyone can at the moment) because we usually end up concluding that we could have eaten better, and certainly cheaper at home.

patentgirl

@DawnW and @MandM90 totally agree about takeaways we have very few now over last year or two but verdict always same could have made it at home and cheaper. I am going into hospital for small procedure tomorrow and was nearly tempted to order a takeaway  Saturday as need to fast from 3 today but read I have to be careful what I eat for next couple of days after too so will have something from fridge/freezer. Going back to keeping supplies topped up glad I normally buy replacement as open something worked well for us this week when had to isolate since last Friday with no warning so no worries about getting hold off food already had it in. Pesto sauces sound yummy will add nasturtisms to my seed list.

zafiro1984

Has anyone got a recipe for a fruit type cake using oil not butter. I'm low on butter but have have enough oil.
I really don't want to go shopping if I can avoid it until I'm vaccinated but need to make some cake/biscuit for DH.
Thanks

MandM90

@zafiro1984 this looks good: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/castle-drogo/recipes/castle-drogos-fruit-cake-
Not tried it (we don't eat eggs!) but did a google for you as a procrastination exercise and looks good!

fionaandphil

the_cross_rabbit said:

Tea was supplied by the basil and nasturtiums we grew this summer and we made into pesto. Tasted of summer. Low cost tea, have several more frozen blocks of summer to look forward to.
CRx

That reminds me of one recommended by Thrifty Lesley that we tried.  We had a glut of basil leaves and a glut of lemon balm so we made two types with all the stray nuts and seeds in the cupboard.  They were both good but I never thought about freezing them so will give it a go when we have a glut again this year.  Thanks!