2022 Frugal Living Challenge

Floss

Ellie, I'm with you on re-heats, but can you batch cook something as a base, which can be adapted into different dishes? For example I will make a large bolognese sauce (1st dish) then use some for lasagne (2nd dish), then it could become curry or chlli depending what is added next...

Ellie79

Floss said:

Ellie, I'm with you on re-heats, but can you batch cook something as a base, which can be adapted into different dishes? For example I will make a large bolognese sauce (1st dish) then use some for lasagne (2nd dish), then it could become curry or chlli depending what is added next...

Thanks, @Floss. Probably but I only really can think of tomato-based sauces and I have a ninja foodi so it takes hardly any time to make a sauce. I don't like reheated things such as cottage pie (even without the mash for freezing). Not a fan of reheated soups mostly either which is the thing I would probably batch the most. Fine if it is butternut squash or the like but I tend towards chunky root veg soups as a way to get some extra veg in. I didn't think I was particularly awkward but this is probably the thing that makes me so! Just put a beef goulash in the SC (normally would do pork but the beef was actually cheaper this week). That will do us tonight when we get back from the football and lunch for OH and I tomorrow. I might eke out another couple of portions for the freezer, weirdly, this, bolognese and chilli are the things I don't mind reheated but again, normally would cook them in the foodi so they take hardly any time! 

I also know that I need to empty the freezer again, a lot of meat in there that can be used up, just finding the time!

zafiro1984

Thanks Nannygladys and CW18. I think I'll have another 'discussion' with the council tomorrow.
We're not in Scotland, I'm from the north and emotionally still attached to that part of the country but now we live in Hampshire due to DH's job before he retired.

spudsmum

Hi all!

Reasonably Frugal weekend by my standards - we took the kids out for a run in the car and for some lunch - but managed to keep it relatively cheap this week.

I needed a few other bits from B@M. I was tempted by lots of things but I'm trying really hard to train my brain into frugality so I walked away and managed to be fairly restrained.

This means I still have £39 in my budget to last until Friday. Monday and Thursday should be NSD so hopefully I will have some left at the end of the week. 

Food shopping was a very minimalistic £23.04 so £51.96 under budget. 

I am now £138.84 under food budget for the month which is fab. Currently also have £40 left in my car budget and £35.41 left in my housewares budget so pretty happy with that - even if personal spends budget is taking a bit more getting in top of. Not used my Cc this month though so.. I'll call that a win. 

Husband gets paid on 21st so next months budget will be interesting - we're going on holiday for a week (was booked for 2021 but cancelled and moved due to covid) All accommodation is paid already and we have half board - breakfast and evening meal already paid for so will be interested to see how Frugal we can make it. All suggestions for money saving ideas great fully received!! 

fionaandphil

@zafiro1984 have you checked with your water company? We are in NW England and there is a rebate on the bills if you don't feed into the drains. We have soakaways too.

@nannygladys I'm sure you'll have checked, but are you entitled to any pension credit?

@spudsmum we bring our water bottles and top up with cheap supermarket water for when we are out. I also think through each bit of the journey at where we might spend. On our recent flight we brought some *ldi pringles and just picked up drinks at the airport using B00ts points.

Great to hear from you all, lots of great ideas, you all inspire and make me glad to be part of such a supportive community

Wraithlady

Spies said:

What meals do people have towards the end of the month before payday when you haven't got much left? Beans on toast is always a good go to but it's not very balanced and I'm veggy so need protein from other sources.

Ideas welcome! 

As a student, I discovered that by caramelising grated carrots I could get a fairly convincing mince substitute in things like chilli and keema curry - long, low and slow was the way to achieve this so I used to make up a batch and add them to meals during the week.

zafiro1984

Ellie79 said:

OH is not quite as on board as I would like, and probably need. He is likely to go to the shop to buy something if he thinks we don't have it or if he just fancies something different. 

I know exactly what you mean, I have the same problem with my DH but it's not food it's 'tools' Seriously - who needs 3 chain saws. If he can't find the tool he needs in the workshop he used to order an other one. (I blame next day delivery - it's too easy)

What I do now is keep a very close eye on the bank statements and credit cards. Every morning before he disappears outside I check all statements, if there is something I don't recognise I say 'Any idea what £££.££ is' Gradually, he has reigned in his spending - it took months. However, I do recognise his need/compulsion to buy tools so now I'm at he stage where I give him a monthly amount to spend as he wishes. On the whole it works quite well.

spudsmum

fionaandphil said:

@spudsmum we bring our water bottles and top up with cheap supermarket water for when we are out. I also think through each bit of the journey at where we might spend. On our recent flight we brought some *ldi pringles and just picked up drinks at the airport using B00ts points.

That's a great idea @fionaandphil

My youngest has ASD and won't touch water but I could get some of those little squeezy squash concentrates to have in my bag. Would save me £3 a go when they both start asking for fruit shoots every 5 minutes.

Food is definitely our biggest outlay when out  - it's hard to cut back though as again youngest will only eat certain things and won't share. It makes everything hard work. I will get some of his Crisps etc to have in my bag though as the multipack works out a lot cheaper than buying single packets in shops

Ellie79

Not so frugal trip to the match. Was freezing cold (not like me!), tired and very aware that I have a busy week coming up. So I did buy us a coffee as I was running so late I had no time to heat our flasks. I'm normally very rigid about that but cold is not nice. 

Have made and kept enough goulash to turn into enchiladas with a tin of mixed beans for tomorrow night's tea. Happy about that. 

spudsmum

zafiro1984 said:

Ellie79 said:

OH is not quite as on board as I would like, and probably need. He is likely to go to the shop to buy something if he thinks we don't have it or if he just fancies something different. 

I know exactly what you mean, I have the same problem with my DH but it's not food it's 'tools' Seriously - who needs 3 chain saws. If he can't find the tool he needs in the workshop he used to order an other one. (I blame next day delivery - it's too easy)

What I do now is keep a very close eye on the bank statements and credit cards. Every morning before he disappears outside I check all statements, if there is something I don't recognise I say 'Any idea what £££.££ is' Gradually, he has reigned in his spending - it took months. However, I do recognise his need/compulsion to buy tools so now I'm at he stage where I give him a monthly amount to spend as he wishes. On the whole it works quite well.

Wow my husband is exactly the same.... Well he used to be. 

His was dvds and music mostly. He'd go to hmv every weekend and buy loads and they mostly never got watched or listened too. He wasn't in massive debt per se but he spent all of his wages then used his credit card every single month so it was only a matter of time. 

We talked about it and he agreed that we would never have anything we wanted while he was blowing all our money on "stuff" 

We solved it by giving him an allowance every month - he spends it on whatever he wants but when it's gone it's gone. His cc is paid off fully and he no longer uses it. Strangely since he's not been able to whip his card out every 5 minutes he's become much more careful and actually has quite a decent savings pot now.