2021 Frugal Living Challenge

willow_loulou

Hoping for a quick recovery @roblou27 xx

willow_loulou

My last trip past the fare share table brought a bag of mixed sized spuds, a loaf of hovis white and some satsuma like things. 

I never buy Hovis as it’s expensive but it was really lovely for sandwiches, I was surprised. 

Spuds will be roasted and the orange I will marmalade as they’re a little past fresh now, though I may segment and soak in juice for a pudding. 

Have had to go to my other half’s as he isn’t doing well, thankfully we are bubbled and I have enough of everything in at home for ds and dd to be self sufficient for a while. I have a few needs, I’m prioritising for my next pay date, but I’m hopeful for a good £50 in The emergency fund and towards house improvements. Not having a social life or using the car much is making a good budget difference and is definitely the bonus from this current lockdown. 

Frugaldom

Hughesfamily said:

Cold but bright and sunny here today so afternoon walk planned to get us out of the house - been in for 5 days solid and need some fresh air. LO has requested "diner tea"  which is basically all the odds and ends of chips bags, chicken nuggets, chicken strips etc that have been in the freezer for a while - not enough on their own but as a sharing platter it looks more than enough and I can also use the one corn on the cob and 1/4 box of coleslaw that are languishing in the fridge. 
If the weather holds we will up in the green house getting it ready for the spring planting. LO is planting seeds to start off in the windowsills and we have spent an enjoyable hour planning the plot out as we want to use it a lot more this year.
Just seen a one orange marmalade recipe on YT. One orange to a quarter cup of sugar, wash orange to remove wax, blitz up (skin included) put into saucepan with sugar and heat on medium / low heat for about 10-15 minutes and then you get marmalade. Could easily use grapefruit or lime I imagine.....might be useful if anyone has some left in the fruit bowl. I had an apple that was bruised on the one side so grated that in with my yogurt this morning and chucked the core into a bag in the freezer in case I get the urge to go jam making with our usual glut of blackberries later in the year. 
Fridge gravel soup for lunch and home bake rolls - determined to use up what we have before shopping. Off to meal plan the weekend food from what we need to use up next.

I think I'll use the last of my Olio lemons to make some marmalade as the couple of jars I made before New Year are now gone, I'll try this recipe but with 2 lemons instead of 1 orange and I'll let you know how it goes. Thank you for sharing.
Likewise to everyone else sharing recipes for using up leftovers - thank you. They all help as reminders, even for us diehard, extreme frugalers.

We have 'Olio weekend' here but I fell asleep and had missed most of tonight's listings. We still managed to claim a prime brand 50/50 loaf, some sandwich filler and 2 litres of goats milk. Hopefully I'll stay awake for the Saturday & Sunday listings.

I second the Farmf00ds mature cheddar - it's great value. So, too, is their milk, butter and sugar, which are the 4 items I request if neighbours ask if I need anything while they are shopping there. It's great having even just a couple of like-minded individuals in the area as it helps keep the grocery budget as low as possible. 

Hope those of you who aren't well are soon on the mend. Keep on keeping safe, fellow frugalers.

DawnW

Frugaldom said:

MingVase said:

Nice to see you back after such a long time Frugaldom!

Not sure what you mean as I haven't been away anywhere.

Maybe MingVase means that the thread has been away from the Old Style board for a while? It was on the DFW board last year, wasn't it?

MazzieD

Hope everyone is coping with whatever life is throwing at us.

Only a week to go for January budget, I did succumb to a L*dl shop, but it was all YS and even some green stickers.  For those who don't shop there they reduce to 30% the day before 'use by' and then if it goes to 'use by' date it becomes a green sticker chiller promotion.  Items are either 70p or £2 depending on value of goods.  Got 1kg mince and 1kg pork mince at £2 each amongst other bargains.  So have actually bought all meat requirements for February in my January budget if that makes sense.  Didn't need one of their fruit and veg boxes but they seem to have them whenever I pop in so will buy instead of Olio.

I hate food waste and would love to use Olio, but with approaching 3.5k users in 1.4 mile radius of me chasing not much of anything from T*sco or anywhere else it's a bit hopeless!.  Same with 'Too Good to Go' but that is mainly because it's just Costa due to Lockdown.

February will be a good financial month, with all meat already bought my groceries should be minimal and with no Council Tax either I'll have a think about what to do with the spare money.

Apart from that, just planning what I can do in February garden wise.  Still haven't managed to get out there due to either rain or freezing conditions.

Stay safe everyone.

MazzieD

Ooops, typo there L*dl reduce by 30% not to 30%!!

Living_proof

My local Lidl reduces salads, pizzas, etc. to 20p if they originally cost less than £1, and 70p for items which were over and above £1. I never look at the meat counters as I don't eat it, but I regularly buy bags of salads, hummus, sauces etc for myself at 20p each and for my friend I buy the curries and rice/cottage pie, pizzas etc. at 70p each. I have also started using Olio and here it is a Saturday night posting and Sunday am pickup so we try and decide what to eat on the Sunday according to what is received from there before we break into freezer supplies. It's quite interesting to try items we wouldn't normally buy and almost certainly wouldn't at the full Tesco price! This week I have spent £2.65 so Frugal is definitely the word! 

MazzieD

Living_proof said:

My local Lidl reduces salads, pizzas, etc. to 20p if they originally cost less than £1, and 70p for items which were over and above £1. I never look at the meat counters as I don't eat it, but I regularly buy bags of salads, hummus, sauces etc for myself at 20p each and for my friend I buy the curries and rice/cottage pie, pizzas etc. at 70p each. 

I must have a look for that, I'm still getting used to the layout of a new purpose built larger store.  Everything seems to be in a different place.

Oldstylethriftylady

Oh how I wish we had a Li*l here

tryingtodobetter

Good afternoon frugal folk! It's been a strange week, I have been redeployed to ICU so work has been very full on and very tiring, I'm glad of the weekend for recovery.

Frugal news this week:
> £23.95 - In surveys this week
> £5 - From sale on Gumtree
> No use of car (except for commute)
> Packed Lunch every work day

That lemon curd recipe looks delish and easy so I might give that a go this weekend

I hope everyone is enjoys the weekend