Where to go from here? - Frugality and Budgeting Diary

Slinky

With this lovely weather, how about a beer BBQ'd chicken?

joedenise

I do a store cupboard/freezer biryani.  

Start off with the normal garlic, onion, chilli & ginger you'd make for any curry, add some cooked frozen mixed veg (enough for however many people you're cooking for, don't drain all the spiced cooking liquid as you'll need some when you assemble the biryani.  Cook enough  rice for each person.

Add some rice to a small bowl (I use a deepish cereal bowl) and press around the base and sides.  Add the spiced veg in the middle and cover with more rice.  Put a plate across the top of the bowl and upend on to the plate.  Do the same for each person.

Looks quite professional and you can spice the veg to your own tastes.   

CJRyder

Portioned and froze most of the meat. Cut the 1.2kg pork joint into three similar sized pieces. Also acquired 6x lamb kofte kebabs for 42p. So those are now in the freezer in two batches of three. Mince still needs division though.

Thanks for your recipes everyone! I am grateful for any inspiration.

CJRyder

Used up some older beef sausages today. Tomorrow's dish will most likely be accompanied by home grown rainbow chard!

Acquired a yellow sticker roast in the bag "Extra Tasty" chicken for £1.80 at Morrisons. Rather than scoffing the whole thing as a family I am aiming to save and stretch out at least half of the meat. Also going to pressure cook some dried kidney beans rather than opening new tins.

MovingForwards

@CJRyder I've just sent you several recipes via messaging, that will keep you going for a few days!

JIL

If I get reduced chickens in the past, I joint them before freezing, pop them in roasting bags with spices and ready to cook, chinese, nando's etc. Just sides required. 

CJRyder

Today was a productive day. Restocked a few basic supplies (pastry at 95p for 375g x2 (pre-rolled and, before a 10p price rise (thanks Aldi!), was the cheapest in town per 100g), lemon juice at 39p, spread at 85p and bread at 65p) and picked up some tupperware from Wilko for £5.50. I now have 8 portions of mince freezing away coupled with some spicy beef fajita mix. I can now also start the chopped veg tupperware box.

Tonight's dinner was fairly reasonably priced. Braising steak at £1.83 (mentioned earlier in the thread), two small onions from an old veg box, the remnants of a bag of chopped peppers, a dribble of passata, paprika and a little chili powder slow cooked for an hour and a half to make beef fajita mix. Half eaten and half frozen. Instead of buying tortillas I made a paprika flatbread and greenery was provided with home grown rainbow chard. The carbon footprint from ground to plate was approximately 12 paces!

CJRyder

Monday was a successful NSD. Dinner was chili and a homemade salsa verde accompanied by tortilla chips.

The chili was made with one of the portions of frozen mince from a reduced pack, the kidney beans were pre-cooked but straight from the fridge, onions were old but still good, seasoning was store cupboard or garden herbs and the tortilla chips had been on the dining table for longer than I would like to admit. The salsa verde was from an almost frozen bag of salad, seasoning, mayo, lemon juice and home grown rainbow chard. Leftover salsa verde portioned out before serving.

I feel slightly accomplished despite the fact I didn't proactively make this.

bit_by_bit

A few thoughts not food related.

Unplug devices and anything that has a light as the amount of electricity you use is increased by items on standby.

I can tell all that booze is bothering you. Is it possible to use nice unopened bottles for gifts at birthdays and Cristmas, putting the savings in the bank for winter?

Meal planning and a shopping list is a massive save although looking at your food bill its not bad for the number of people in the house.

Insead of putting savings from your fun fund into the main account have a separate account for this and tidy ups, excess money coming in e.g. if you sell something or you make a saving as above or tidy up your accounts.This can be for yourself for clothes or for family treats.

Get your DW and DD on board. Getting DD into doing the shopping has been a great thing to do for us. DD is as frugal as we are but eats differntly. She has introduced us to lots of flavours  due o her interest in Korean and Japanese cultures. I have no worries about her budgeting and coping with life when she leaves home permanenetly next month.

CJRyder

bit_by_bit said:

A few thoughts not food related.

Unplug devices and anything that has a light as the amount of electricity you use is increased by items on standby.

I can tell all that booze is bothering you. Is it possible to use nice unopened bottles for gifts at birthdays and Cristmas, putting the savings in the bank for winter?

Meal planning and a shopping list is a massive save although looking at your food bill its not bad for the number of people in the house.

Insead of putting savings from your fun fund into the main account have a separate account for this and tidy ups, excess money coming in e.g. if you sell something or you make a saving as above or tidy up your accounts.This can be for yourself for clothes or for family treats.

Get your DW and DD on board. Getting DD into doing the shopping has been a great thing to do for us. DD is as frugal as we are but eats differntly. She has introduced us to lots of flavours  due o her interest in Korean and Japanese cultures. I have no worries about her budgeting and coping with life when she leaves home permanenetly next month.

With regards to regifting we already do that where possible. Unfortunately my mother is the only drinker (FIL doesn't drink, MIL only drinks socially and father doesn't drink a lot) so it's not really going to deplete quickly on that front. However I have been polishing off things at a respectable pace.

DD is only three so is being raised with frugality in mind. Unfortunately DW is going to have to be dragged kicking and screaming...