It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?

annieb64

The mushroom lasagne from "Thrifty Lesley" is nice.I made it last week.

Toonie

Today we're having a Monday night roast. It was supposed to be yesterday but some numpty (me) forgot to get the meat out of the freezer! It's second bit of beef from the reduced large joint we got a while back and cut up. I've slow cooked it in stock and tomato (to be used to make soup tomorrow) and we'll be having it with previously cooked Yorkshire pudding and roast spuds (warmed in the air fryer) and fresh veggies. There will be meat leftover which tomorrow will be used for stir fry and for a sandwich for DP for work.

We finally did a big top up shop, so the cupboards and freezer have the basics for around 40 meals. Between now and January it will be just fresh bits (dairy, veg, fruit) and anything specific for Christmas. We've already got a few bits, but as we are limited on space (tiny freezer) I end up playing Tetris with the bits quite often.

I definitely seem to be feeling the cold more this year and I've noticed that the knee problems are worse in cold weather, so we had the heating on for an hour last night. The timer is set with slightly lower temperatures than last year (17.5 instead of 18.5) but if we feel we need it on, we will put it on for a boost as I'm not willing to make my chronic issues even worse.

Slinky

Just had a good old catch up read.

Just a word of warning for anybody storing their food stash in a garage/shed, we've had an invasion of rodents in our garage since the weather turned. I was hunting for lightbulbs for the builders, and spotted mice poo all over the shelves in the garage. Then noticed that the very thick plastic box containing the bird food appeared to have been broken into as there was gnawed packaging inside. When OH pulled it off the shelf, there's a six inch high 1.5 inch wide hole been gnawed in the back of it, and rat poo on the shelf behind.  Traps have been acquired and set; there's a lot of them given the amount of poo. Unfortunately we had to take the back wall of the garage out so the builders could get their equipment through and it's not secure. There's a hole for a basin waste pipe through to the house, I made sure that got filled in. We need to get the builders to clear their junk so thre are slightly fewer places for them to hide. There's a large roll of insulation, bet that's made a nice home for them. We don't keep human food in the garage, glad we don't!

We've moved the bird food box out of the garage, will need to find a metal bin for it to go into for future.

zcrat41

Thank you for all the mushroom suggestions. 4 portions of stroganoff, 3 huge lasagnes (bbc recipe) and some of @Frugalista mushroom roast and I'm done. The roast was so delicious there's none left🫢

Slinky

I have a mushroom, broccoli and sweetcorn soup I can post if you're interested

ladyholly

I make my own mince pies which keep well in a plastic tub.  Mincemeat is £2.40 for 822g which will make a fair number plus some shortcrust pastry which is easy to make and doesnt cost too much. If I remember correctly I get about 4 dozen out of a pound and a half of flour and just under a jar of mincemeat.  I have never tried freezing them but i give them as gifts and people seem to like them and always ask for more.

Florenceem

Feels cold here today with a strong wind - put the heating up to 20 - I turned it on at 10.30 this morning. My arthritis can't take the cold.

London_1

Florenceem I know how you feel,I have been afflicted with arthritis since the age of 28, and the older I get the more painful it becomes I too cannot cope very well with cold or damp, yesterday was particularly uncomfortable and although i did venture out and even went to Gravesend via our local couple of buses I was more than glad to get home and on went to heating for me to thaw and dry out.

This winter so far hadn't been too bad but it seems now the cold and wet weather is here at last so luckily I have built up a decent amount of credit in my energy account so its definitely heatin on no matter what. I also layer up and have throws and hot water bottles for my feet. I love those long thin hot water bottles that you can buy which wrap around ones waist like a warm belt. Around £12 I think but lovely when sitting watching tv.

Oh the joys of growing old eh but it beats the alternative I guess. i'm a good deal more mobile when the weather is around 22c and I certainly didn't grow old to be cold, its so miserable and to be cold and wet is even worse. My late Husband always used to say on cold,wet windy nights "pity the poor souls sleeping in this on the streets " Sadly today far too many are, so I should be grateful for the roof over my head and the option to keep warm and dry

JackieO xx

Pollycat

We were in all day yesterday and it felt really cold.
I've dug out OH's old thermals and I have a stock of Primark thermal tops (some long-sleeved, some vests) and 2 pairs of thermal leggings that I bought reduced some years ago.
I also have some fleece-lined leggings from Primark (I think they are around £6.00).
We wear t-shirts and jumpers/sweatshirts at home and I have a pair of UGG boots that I wear as slippers in the evening.
We have blankeys on our leather sofas that we can throw over us when we're watching TV and I have a fab Yak wool blanket gifted to me by a Tibetan lady.
At the moment, our heating comes on for 1 hour twice a day but we don't want to let the house get too cold.
We are OK at night with a 4.5 tog duvet but have a 10.5 tog one for when it gets colder.

annieb64

I had an all day meeting yesterday and the room was cold. At one point we even joked about moving the meeting into the ladies toilets as they were warm! 
The caretaker found us a fan heater which took the chill off but then I had to walk home in the rain so was freezing when I got home and didn't feel warm all evening. 

At least it's not raining today so will go out.

I read yesterday about a campaign to persuade us to turn our heating down by two degrees. DH misheard me and thought I said "to two degrees".