Little by little, and with love

RosaBernicia

kerri_gt said:

Rosa, i use this risotto recipe as a base which only takes 30mins (i do not faff with soaking posh mushrooms). I reduce the rice to about 180g (i do not reduce the wine lol) and add in odd veg hanging about like half a courgette, some peas, last of the frozen spinach in the freezer. Oh and most recent one had half a pack of goats cheese added in. Delicious.  

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/mushroom-risotto

I really appreciate the thought Kerri, unfortunately I'm not keen on mushrooms!

I also tend to throw in bits from the freezer but I quite often skip the wine.  I know that horrifies some people but I am not at all convinced you can taste it after cooking - or I can't, and nobody else has ever commented - and it's a rather expensive ingredient. 

RosaBernicia

So I am running low on nice small moneysaving things... have made a start on things for the tax return, but need to chase up some receipts tomorrow so can't actually fill it in tonight. 

Still need to chase a refund but that will be business hours phone calls, so hopefully tomorrow. 

Lots of other things to do that ultimately save money, but require decluttering to happen first!

kerri_gt

RosaBernicia said:

kerri_gt said:

Rosa, i use this risotto recipe as a base which only takes 30mins (i do not faff with soaking posh mushrooms). I reduce the rice to about 180g (i do not reduce the wine lol) and add in odd veg hanging about like half a courgette, some peas, last of the frozen spinach in the freezer. Oh and most recent one had half a pack of goats cheese added in. Delicious.  

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/mushroom-risotto

I really appreciate the thought Kerri, unfortunately I'm not keen on mushrooms!

I also tend to throw in bits from the freezer but I quite often skip the wine.  I know that horrifies some people but I am not at all convinced you can taste it after cooking - or I can't, and nobody else has ever commented - and it's a rather expensive ingredient. 

Oh I've made it without mushrooms too - just follow the basic risotto rice recipe and then chuck in veg according to what I have to hand. We've had broccoli, pea and goats cheese, broccoli, pea and salmon, latest one was courgette, pea, spinach, goats cheese (and I'm afraid some mushrooms) but basically anything that would 'go' in a risotto. 

I used this white wine most recently - so far got two pots of risotto out of it (and I usually end up with 3-5 portions in a pot depending on how much I add veg wise. Based on that, it works out pretty inexpensive. 

https://groceries.aldi.co.uk/en-GB/p-grapevine-sauvignon-blanc-75cl/4088600371771

RosaBernicia

Slow progress...

Tax return awaiting P60 info

Letter re pay query drafted and ready to tweak and send on Tuesday (since nobody was going to read it before then, by the time I'd finished editing out the swear words yesterday)

Organisation fail yesterday so had takeaway - but it is still within budget, just annoyed I could have got a prepped meal cheaper.  Need to start stocking the freezer again. 

Major progress on decluttering as I tackled the loft today.  Spent a while shifting light things than can turn into extra insulation in the eaves, and even got all the moving boxes folded and sorted so the different sizes are together.  (I feel oddly guilty about keeping these every time somebody asks for them on the local fb page, but I may well have to move in a couple of years myself and I really don't want to pay out for them all over again.)  Another couple of hours up there reshuffling things should really help and that will mean the guest room is clear for decorating. 

Still also want to do some work on the garden but that can hang on for Monday/ longer evenings. 

kerri_gt

I feel exactly the same Rosa about moving boxes. 
We have some flat packed in the loft from moving (6yrs ago) and general storage / shipping boxses I've kept because they're a good size. Plus some larger flat packed ones in the garage.
However there are times some boxes that are used for storage / car boots get worn out from general use so i keep spares for those, and the larger ones are good for when I'm sanding or painting furniture outside or in the garage. 
I gave what i could away when we moved, have given a friend some when they've moved (more than once) so don't stress tooooo much about keeping some too.

EssexHebridean

Anyone else concerned about the slow cooker/leaving unattended situation, you can solve that cheaply by plugging it into a manual timer switch so it automatically switches off at a certain time. We do that to run ours overnight - and the ones without integrated timers nearly always seem to be cheaper than those with. 

I never bother with wine in risotto either unless I happen to have a bottle open, which I rarely do. Mine does always get a nice lump of cold butter beaten in 5 minutes from the end though. 

RosaBernicia

EssexHebridean said:

Anyone else concerned about the slow cooker/leaving unattended situation, you can solve that cheaply by plugging it into a manual timer switch so it automatically switches off at a certain time. We do that to run ours overnight - and the ones without integrated timers nearly always seem to be cheaper than those with. 

I never bother with wine in risotto either unless I happen to have a bottle open, which I rarely do. Mine does always get a nice lump of cold butter beaten in 5 minutes from the end though. 

Oh that is a good plan.  I'm currently trying not to buy the one I wanted from the rainforest shop as it went up and then has gone back on offer again!

And I'm glad it's not just me who skips the wine in food!

RosaBernicia

I'm getting quite into the decluttering and now have a weird case of the spendy itches wanting storage boxes in all sorts of forms   Trying not to buy any until I've sorted stuff enough to know what goes where, but I did give in and get a small outdoor box for car stuff that doesn't really need to be indoors.  Eying another for DIY bits that are currently migrating around the house, but they might be able to go in the loft after all, so we'll see. 

RosaBernicia

Car stuff box now successfully sorted... it's not terribly elegant, but it looks ok.  I also managed to reshuffle some other things in the bigger garden storage so that I may not need another box after all.  Do need a couple of combi padlocks- not that there's a lot worth anybody taking, it just hopefully discourages anyone messing about.  And I might have to break up the DIY stuff into smaller plastic crates, but those are a lot cheaper than decent quality garden storage so still pretty happy about it. 

MuffinTops

Hello Rosa,
Well done on the decluttering.  I also need to start on that and arrange some boot sales too.  I also hadn't thought of having a little car box in the shed for things that I occasionally need in there, but not all the time.

I had a slow cooker years ago and I must admit it was very nice having a decent meal ready for me when I got home.  I only really used it in the winter as I only made comfort style foods in there.

I'm sorry you've had issues with your fridge freezer.  How frustrating to not only need to get that sorted but the loss of food that spoiled.

Anyway, most things sound like they're going well, which is nice to read.

MTx