How long can I make £187.15 last?

mumtoomany

Forgot to say that as well as no kitchen, there was no hot water, the pipes had been removed! No heating, other than one woodburner, in a seven bedroom house. A badly fitting front door, and a huge cat/dog flap in the back door. No loft insulation and no curtains. We moved in November! After suffering that, even only having the heating on twice a day is bliss.
 Mumtoomany.xx

beckstar1975

Blimey - how cold was it when your house was like that? Sounds amazing now, I'd love to have a big farmhouse style kitchen like that. But as we here are so lucky with our heating on twice a day it never drops below 17 as we are in a city terrace with houses either side and double glazing, I know friends just a couple of roads away in detached or even semi detached houses who have trouble keeping warm, so it must be so hard for you. Sensible layers of clothing though, if you can move!

mumtoomany

Hi, @beckstar1975. Just added another jumper! The thermostat is at 14.5. The house is slowly getting there. Still needs more carpets, most rooms need decorating. The layout is odd too. A bedroom 2 inches too narrow for a bed, (we have cut one down), leading onto a landing that is two meters across! Utility room off the lounge. Hall so big it houses a chest freezer. Bedroom with a diagonal wall. All a bit odd, but a work in progress.

Chicken is cooked, going to look for some veg and peel potatoes.

Speak soon, hugs, mumtoomany.xxx

Elisheba

beckstar1975 said:

I know you’ve gone over but what amazing value from your sis (other than Aldi!). 

The cash and carry sounds amazing, I can only imagine where you keep it all?! Our teeny galley kitchen means we have to store tins under DS13s bed (we’ve turned the dining room into his bedroom pending extension). And I think I may have only 6 or so, I works swoon if able to store 100!!!

 How are you prepped there for the cold? 

I'm presuming its a typo, but laughing imaging cooking for 13 children in a small galley kitchen!

flipflopflo

Elisheba said:

beckstar1975 said:

I know you’ve gone over but what amazing value from your sis (other than Aldi!). 

The cash and carry sounds amazing, I can only imagine where you keep it all?! Our teeny galley kitchen means we have to store tins under DS13s bed (we’ve turned the dining room into his bedroom pending extension). And I think I may have only 6 or so, I works swoon if able to store 100!!!

 How are you prepped there for the cold? 

I'm presuming it’s a typo, but laughing imaging cooking for 13 children in a small galley kitchen!

I think they mean that their dear son who is 13s bed. 

jacko220

I take my hat off to you mumtoomany you certainly know how to run a house and I bet the food tastes delicious. I am a 70 year old living alone since my wife died seven years ago. My food bill these days is about £60 per week mainly to Ocado. I simply use the BBC website for Recipes, I have a soup maker which I make too last three days. The main meal is usually made to last two days, I like cooking but not that much and the pudding is made to last three/four days. I am not boasting because my dead wife required £700 per month for food. I am not trying to be boastful but I am in awe about some of the things I have looked at on here. Best wishes for Christmas, I have just been to see my grandson play Joseph in the nativity play travelling over 100 miles on the train. At certain times during this Autumn, I have felt sorry for myself but this site has given me reassurance about how people survive and glow. Happy Christmas.

mumtoomany

Morning all. I hope you are all well and surviving this cold weather. 

Welcome on board, @jacko220. £60 per week is good, especially at Ocado. You don't have the advantage of buying in bulk, or I'm guessing growing your own meat. I hope you too have a very good Christmas. 
 
I served, some of, the chicken on Wednesday, with roast potatoes, cauliflower, HG kale stuffing and gravy. I made Flapjacks for after. I stripped all the meat from the chicken, used around a third for tea. Then I boiled the carcass in the water the veg had been cooked in. The rest of the meat was pulled off. These scraps and the remaining two thirds of the chicken have been put aside for a curry, and a pie.

Last night I got some ready made steak and kidney puddings from the freezer, served with potatoes, carrots and peas. I cooked the whole bag of peas as i found they had been left out of the freezer, when i was searching for something. The remainder will now be frozen cooked. I also made a big pan of soup yesterday. Defiantly soup weather! I cooked half a HG butternut squash with a pack of passage and all the veg that had been collected in the soup pot in the freezer. Stick blended it and added diced carrots, onions, potatoes and a bit of cooking bacon. Warming and tasty.

Today I think will be enchiladas, sort of. I have wraps in the freezer, they were 5p or 10p for twenty. I'll make a mixture of strips of chicken, sliced peppers, sliced onions, and passata or chopped tomatoes, with some spices. Roll the filling in the wraps. Cover with a mixture of plain yogurt, garlic and chives. Top with cheese and cook. I serve this with tortilla chips that I warm through in the oven with cheese on top to melt. The grandchildren love being able to have "crisps" with their tea.

Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx

mumtoomany

Last night didn't quite go to plan. Somewhere in the freezer in the kitchen, I have a box of shredded chicken. Problem is I tend to put lots of old margarine tubs in the freezer, with various things in. There is also still a sea of pork in there. So I used some of the chicken still in the fridge, that was going to be curry. Couldn't find the chives, that are somewhere in the freezer, either. The ones outside have died back. So instead of chives I chopped up some of the green tops of the onions I planted a few weeks ago. All tasted fine, lots left for lunch today. Also found a box of crumble and a box of sliced apples in the freezer. Crumble was pudding.

I've looked in the cupboard and don't have enough lasagne sheets. So tonight's lasagne has now been repurposed. Chilli and rice for tea. Opened a giant tin of kidney beans. Half of those are now in the freezer, in margarine tubs.

The car is now taxed! We bought it in the middle of October and have been trying to tax it since then! We can now use it for shopping, if the snow doesn't stick!

Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx

mumtoomany

The snow has stuck, and been followed by more snow! Might become a bleak midwinter! 

I have minced some belly pork, rolled out the last of the pastry from the fridge, and made a giant sausage roll style thing. We'll have that for tea with chips and beans. Found a tetra pack of egg yolk in the freezer. 1kg! Why did you buy that? i hear you all shout. Because it was 10p. Can't turn down a bargain. I'll make a load of cakes, i think. there is a little bit of space in the freezers now so may well freeze some. Not made cake for a while, the chickens are hardly laying at the moment.

DD1 and the family are in town, have asked them to pick up some milk, if they remember.

Hugs, mumtoomant.xxx

mumf

what a cracker this thread is ! I am just getting into this ultra - save attitude,as unfortunately I am going to be unable to work for some time. However,I have time,if that makes sense? My wife still has work, but mine was the big wage. Anyhow, when I get better ,I shall run the house,cooking etc. and let’s be straight; dinner is important! I am finding so many good,cheap recipes that we will like. 

Fortunately we live in what I can only describe as semi rural village. It used to be proper rural! Anyhow, we have a vegetable garden I have always grown. As I have gotten older,I have put in a lot of perennial plants. This is currently giving us Jerusalem Artichokes, perennial cabbage and Welsh Onions,as well as Egyptian. We have stored apples too. I stored our dried Borlotti and runner beans recently ( day before hospital!!!) which my daughters have joked about - they call me Tom Good 😊 We have egg laying hens too,which I adore. Mrs mumf has told me she has had to learn whilst I am not here how to look after them! Bless her. 

Sorry to go on. Looking for to the positives in money saving.