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

Nathalia

We always have a glut of tomatoes in the summer so I wash and halve the excess and open freeze them on a tray before transferring them to bags.  They are no good for eating fresh after that, but we use a lot of tomatoes in stews, chilllis etc, so we just pop a handful in.  They are very cold when you retrieve them!  With cherry tomatoes, or if we have an odd ones left after a meal, I just drop it whole into the freezer.  It resembles a snooker ball or marble when it's frozen and then that can be retrieved and bagged for cooking.

London_1

Last small food shop of December this morning, and I've now got no more shopping to do this year Only 4 more days until I'm away so this month has been quite a low cost one and I've had 3/18 NSDs which is good and I'm pleased about it

When I was out I thought i'd pick up some tiny buttons for my biscuits The chocolate buttons in Tescos were £1.50 a packet, so I looked at the baking aisle and the Dr Oetkers tiny ones are on the offer at £1.25, s a small saving there at least. so my final December shopping altogether came to £26.04
  A nice little pot of £33.96 to go into my Happy Cash Stash for treats, the food stocks are slowly going down. I've dug out some more chicken to slow cook tomorrow with some veg and herbs etc.
Tonight I just fancy a light tea and I think it will be soup and some crackers and some rice pudding and custard to follow. I've been decluttering with one of my DGS today and am now feeling its definitely feet up and hot chocolate time to recuperate. 

At least I haven't got to trail around the shops with all the crowds than goodness

Cheers chums 

  JackieOxx 

-taff

Stock cubes! that's another thing I freeze. I had some porcini ones, a multi pack and they would have gone out of date before I used them all, so they went in the freezer

MrsStepford

We freeze:

Meat from farms e.g. pork and lamb chops
Game e.g. rabbit, quail, partridge, pheasant, duck (Mallard), from farms, butchers or game dealers
Small joints which can be cooked from frozen but without sauces,glazes or additives, for cold cuts
Gluten free haggis from a Scottish butcher
Nitrate and nitrite free bacon cos they can be hard to find beyond Sainsbury's
Shellfish shells for HM stock
Hard cheeses (grate Parmesan from frozen)
Home-made stocks and soup
Butter bought on offer
Milk for emergencies
Lard
During November & December, wild and organic smoked salmon if YS or on offer as well as free from mince pies as they often go O/S
Ginger (grate from frozen)

Nothing really cheap like herbs or tomatoes from the garden, It makes sense to grab offers e.g. butter, grass-fed meat.

Floss

MrsStepford said:

...Game e.g. rabbit, quail, partridge, pheasant, duck (Mallard), from farms, butchers or game dealers...

That reminded me of an early autumn day out walking about 10 years ago with my 2nd ex-husband. We'd made our way to a very nice pub after a day out walking & as we arrived, the birds from that days shooting were being tallied up in the carpark. We went home on the bus £8 lighter with a still warm,  double-layered binbag containing 4 pheasant, 2 mallard and a wigeon. After 3 days hanging in our outside loo they were plucked, drawn, jointed & frozen 😁

Longwalker

I have just announced to my family - FREEZERS ARE FULL, dont be buying anything without asking me first

I have one drawer empty, thats for the veg that will be bought this week. Our lidl was doing discount on onions with their app  - 6 nets per customer - so I got three and they are now in the far garage in trays on paper so hopefully they will last. Spuds will also be stored the same way. its only "whites" on the offer but they are ok for mashing. I need the drawer for the parsnips, carrots, broccoli etc  And once the turkey is out ( I got one early this year ) Ill have another drawer for the left overs and hopefully ( fingers crossed ) Ill be getting some cheap legs of lamb after Christmas 

I do blow the budget this time of year but I claw it back right up till after Easter usually , hoping it will be the case this year 

@linz , I freeze meat and fish as a rule. I have a fridge freezer in the kitchen and an under counter freezer in the garage. I dont normally freeze bread products as they in the grand scheme of things are cheap and if like now, Im struggling to find space, any bits of bread that have made it in, I sacrifice 

The one in the kitchen is the frozen every day veg we use, plus left overs. Theres 3 of us,I usually cook enough for 4 or 5 so the extras get frozen , either as a ready meal in takeaway cartons for lunches or as single use, wait till I have enough to feed the three of us. 

For a good visual idea of what to freeze, walk down the freezer aisle , if its in there, you can freeze it 

nannygladys

I went to Tesco's today and bought quite a lot of their 15p veggies and will be freezing quite a lot of it. Some will be cooked and then frozen but the majority will be frozen separately for use later on. I'll have to see how much room I have left in the freezers but I may get some more to last me until the garden and Lottie are producing. I'm another one who freezes tomatoes and then uses them instead of tinned ones. I've been given a tomato press so I'll be having a go at that if I have a glut in the summer.

elsien

Yes, I agree you need to think about what worthwhile freezing.
I only have a limited space – small undercounter freezer - so if I see any meat bargains or I’m batch cooking for convenience, for me that takes priority over freezing cheap vegetables. 

I don’t like waste so I try to plan ahead, but I just don’t have the space for freezing things I can buy cheaply even if that does mean some stuff does get binned. 

-taff

I used my cousins tomato machine last year to do mine and what a difference it makes in the texture of the final sauce. Normally, I cook mine a bit then put through a mouli by hand and the sauce is runny and quite liquid. Last year, I put the tomatoes through the machine raw, then cooked them after that and the sauce is much thicker, even after boiling. I had very little waste too, I put the waste through another time and I ended up with very little compared ot most years.

London_1

I went to Dobbies this morning for my freebie hot drink (their luxury Hot Chocolate with marshmallows and whipped cream is gorgeous).I made a point of steering clear of their Waitrose outlet deli though as I know i'd be tempted.

But I wanted to go to the EE phone shop in Hempstead Valley precinct, as its coming to the end of my sim only contract next month and it seems to be gobbling the data. The young man didn't seem in the least interested so I said don't worry I'll sort it

I walked down to Vodaphone  about 6 shops away, spoke to a very helpful assistant manager who offered me twice the data for £2.05 a month less and only a 30 day contract so i'm not locked into it. So a win-win for me I think

Shame really as I had been with EE over 20 years, but even though I'm sim only and don't use much I still wish to be treated as a paying customer with a little respect and interest.

 Sadly he just saw an old lady who wasn't going to go for his IPhone Titanium model which would probably out live me  
Their loss and my extra £2.05 in my pocket every month win-win I think  

I was up fairly early this morning and put a casserole in the slow cooker with peppers, chicken thighs, herbs and tomatoes and my kitchen smells gorgeous at the moment.I'm just going to chuck a few mushrooms in from the freezer to add to it and by 5.00.p.m. it will be ready for dishing some up for eating tonight with mash and steamed veg, and the rest portioned up for the freezer.More meals for the cold january days when I don't feel like stirring from the warmth of the sitting room.
All in all a satisfactory day without spending any cash 

Dreadfully wet today its not stopped raining since 6.00 this morning

JackieO