How long can I make £187.15 last?

mumtoomany

Hi @GillyLucy, the ones i grew last year were, Lizzano, a cherry tomato, and Crimson Crush, a big tomato. Got the seeds, and all my seeds, from premier seeds. Other than these two, which are F1 so dearer. You get loads of seeds in each pack, try getting together with others and order between you. HTH, hugs, mumtoomany.xxx

GillyLucy

Many thanks for this info, will investigate these varieties .

London_1

MTM well done you are doing a great job on feeding all those mouths on so little. Its often surprising what a little lateral thinking can do when faced with less cash to use.
One becomes very inventive when cooking.


I do use a good few herbs and spices to put a bit of zip into my 'beige' food,even a tin of baked beans (I only need half at a time, as I live alone ) can be brightened up with a slosh of sweet chilli sauce or a tea spoon of curry powder.

I manage fairly well by having an essential shopping list by my chair which I scribble down what I think I may need, and every Sunday morning I go through it with a fine tooth comb to see what can be altered or crossed out, as I can use something already in the cupboard as an alternative.

I also do my menu plan for the forthcoming week, so I know within reason what I need to buy and when I do go to the shops I do stick to the plan .

 I make my own cakes and biscuit and soups (handy to use  battered about ,past its best veg in soup as it gets whizzed in the blender anyway )

I use half the amount suggested in my washing machine and top it up with washing soda crystals, and use white vinegar instead of conditioner .

If I need caster sugar I buy the best price granulated, and that also gets whizzed in my blender.

Mince gets a handful of lentils and a handful of oats plus maybe some diced mushrooms stalks from the freezer (I never waste anything edible ) and diced onion and carrot so I usually get almost twice the amount with a bit of bulking out for cottage pie or lasagne or chilli.
This big potful gets portioned into single portions for myself ,then frozen so when I need a meal ,at most I may have to steam a little veg.
My late Mum always had a soup pot on the go and as a child at dinner time we always had either a soup starter then the main meal or the main meal and a pudding of some sort.

I don't eat a great deal of bread, and a loaf in the freezer it fine for me as I take out a couple of slices at a time when I know I will be using it that day it doesnt take long to defrost. (I like to make a few cheese scones and any surplus go into my freezer as well for later. 

Cheese is always grated after I have bought a big block, and I buy the cheapest strongest cheese as you need less for flavouring. 

Small economies, but it means my food alone budget is £60 per month, and as a rule I have a little left which I stash into a seprerate account for a 'big shop ' every six months to top up meat, loo rolls, disinfectant,bleach etc.

I recycle the ends of soap to make new bars for handwashing, white vinegar is a excellent cleaner and I don't need or want all the daft advertised sprays of stuff on the market.

I exchange baked good with friends and neighbours for windfalls or surplus allotment veg which helps no end, most of the fruit is cooked,cooled and frozen for the bleak January/February months when fresh fruit is pricey 

I have a friend who is into making jam so when I have any jamjars I exchange them for some nice home made jams or chutneys.

I rarely drink and don't smoke and never buy take-aways as I can make twice as much for half the price and its a challenge to me, and keeping my cooking skills going  

I have zero waste in my house when it comes to food ,if its edible then it will be eaten and never thrown away. (comes from being brought up with wartime rationing and post war austerity I think)   

My way may not be to every ones taste ,but like yourself, if it works why change it.  

I do have cupboard and pantry envy as I would love a nice walk in pantry I had one back in the 1970s in our very old edwardian money pit of a house which I valued above everything in that house  

I do live fairly close to a small shopping precinct but when I come out of my house if I turn left its to the shops, but turn right and its the park and library.

As I only actually food shop twice a month I get to see a good bit of both the library and the park if I am in need of a walk.

I love watching the frugal YouTube videos and often find good ideas on there.

So thats how I can live reasonably healthily on a smaller budget. Admittedly I am long ago retired (1995) so have the time and inclination to cook, many busy Mums with children sadly don't. I can no longer physically garden due to age and clapped out joints but love to see how folk do growing stuff  
I do have a small pot of chilli's growing in my conservatory though, which I have grown from seed and I use in cooking

JackieO xxx

YORKSHIRELASS

Morning all

I had a bit of a moment yesterday.  I mentioned on another thread that we swapped some veg plants for some potatoes from one of DHs friends.  This friend lives next to a big commercial potato growing farm and when the potatoes are harvested there are loads of small ones left that get ploughed in, so he goes out and gathers some up.  

We were very excited to get free potatoes, which are perfectly usable, but really small.  As I stood patiently peeling them yesterday I realised that in my younger days I would have turned my nose up at them and grumbled about having to peel them.  A lot of my change in attitude has come from being on here and learning about how other people live their lives, so please keep spreading the frugal word!

Jackie we often have a "soup and pudding" night, especially at this time of year when we seem to acquire lots of free apples and there are bits of veg from the garden to use up.  Even the kids used to love this idea back when we had them living at home.

London_1

YORKSHIRELASS said:

Morning all

I had a bit of a moment yesterday.  I mentioned on another thread that we swapped some veg plants for some potatoes from one of DHs friends.  This friend lives next to a big commercial potato growing farm and when the potatoes are harvested there are loads of small ones left that get ploughed in, so he goes out and gathers some up.  

We were very excited to get free potatoes, which are perfectly usable, but really small.  As I stood patiently peeling them yesterday I realised that in my younger days I would have turned my nose up at them and grumbled about having to peel them.  A lot of my change in attitude has come from being on here and learning about how other people live their lives, so please keep spreading the frugal word!

Jackie we often have a "soup and pudding" night, especially at this time of year when we seem to acquire lots of free apples and there are bits of veg from the garden to use up.  Even the kids used to love this idea back when we had them living at home.

YorksLass I peel my spuds for the week on a Sunday morning after I have done my menus for the week, and sorted the lists out. I sit down in my sitting room with a bowl on my lap and while listening to The Archers omnibus I am peeling away.
I have a long green tupperware container which I fill with enough water to cover the spuds and put then in the fridge I do a weeks worth at a time for myself, and then I don't have to stand nightly doing it
Every two days I change the water and  the old water helps to flush the loo or water the garden in the summer.Nowt goes to waste in my house  Sometimes I will also peel some carrots to go in with the spuds, another job saved and no backache from standing. Then during the week I have what I need ready to cook. I have done this like this for 60 odd years and it works for me. Even my grown up DDs know what and where Mum is on a Sunday between 10-11.00 am.

JackieO xx

YoungBlueEyes

I much prefer smaller potatoes. When it was new tatty season I'd get dispatched to the veg shop with a carrier bag and some money, and the clear instructions "get all the ones that are big egg sized, leave the rest for the heathens".  

Elisheba

London_1 said:

Cheese is always grated after I have bought a big block, and I buy the cheapest strongest cheese as you need less for flavouring. 

Small economies, but it means my food alone budget is £60 per month, and as a rule I have a little left which I stash into a separate account for a 'big shop ' every six months to top up meat, loo rolls, disinfectant,bleach etc.

London_1 said:

YorksLass I peel my spuds for the week on a Sunday morning after I have done my menus for the week, and sorted the lists out. I sit down in my sitting room with a bowl on my lap and while listening to The Archers omnibus I am peeling away.I have a long green tupperware container which I fill with enough water to cover the spuds and put then in the fridge I do a weeks worth at a time for myself, and then I don't have to stand nightly doing it

Great ideas there, Jackie, and I know my £100 a month budget is more than I need.  Pre pandemic I was able to get down to £40 a month for food if I tried - although with the cost of living crisis that might be closer to £60 now.  

mumtoomany

Hi all, lovely to see so many people dropping by. 

Great ideas as always @London_1. Thank you.

Well probably be going into town this morning, need milk again! DD3 is starting for the weekend, going out tonight with a friend for Halloween. We'll take her to friends house, in her car, then bring it home. She won't drive again until Monday. She'll be drinking tonight. Very sensible girl. 

Plasterer was here yesterday, several walls upstairs needed doing. So the front door was open all day. He was using rain water to mix the plaster, collected in the water butt. So mixing outside too. Saves money on the water bill. Glad it wasn't too cold. 

Tea yesterday, for eight of us. Chicken in lemon and herb breadcrumbs. Two packets bought ages ago, and around 600 grams of chicken, sliced and dipped. Served with baked beans, tinned tomatoes and potato cakes. Made from left over mash and flour. Some from last week, that i made and froze, the others from Thursday night's mash. All eaten! finished off the crumble.

Just fed all the little ones. Yogurt, porridge with blackberries, egg and toast. Had a meltdown from DGS1. I had cut his toast wrong! I did the horizontal cuts before the vertical one! Child on the autism spectrum!

Will go shopping on Monday too probably. Use DD3's staff discount while she's here. Not much space in the freezers yet though, so shouldn't be a lot.

Speak soon, hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx

London_1

Good Morning all, glad the tips might help someone .
I drew some cash from my Happy Stash Cash out yesterday and took my DGS Henry out to lunch.We were celebrating him landing the job he was after in the city working for a Merchant Bank.
He went for the interview convinced he wouldn't get it (he's not got a great deal of confindece in himself) on Wednesday and came home saying the interview went well and he felt a bit more hopeful but he may not hear for a couple of weeks.
So was looking to find something temporary to tide him over Christmas. Then on Thursday morning they rang him and said he would be ideal and offered him the job he was absolutely buzzing

He finished Uni in June with a 2.2 in business and finance, and had been temporarily woking labouring on a building site, as everything he applied for wanted experience which he hadn't got. So I took him out for a well earned lunch, and all covered by my Happy Cash Stash .Money well spent I think and I had one beaming grandson sitting opposite me telling all his plans for the future. He's always been a worker even at Uni he had a part time job to help him get through and not rely on his parents (they have four boys to get through Uni and he was number three ) So I am a very happy Grandma this morning. 

Frugally I have not been shopping at all this week as I have more than enough stuff in store I will be looking next week to find some reasonably priced granulated sugar as I use that, whizzed up in my blender to make caster sugar for cakes and cake season and mince pies are on the forthcoming baking things on my to-do list  

Bought caster sugar is virtually twice the price of granulated so a couple of kilos in store will come in handy.
 I have around four jars of fancy mincemeat from last January in store which I paid around 20p a jar for when reduced after Christmas. Best time to buy it is January for the following Chistmas as unopened it will more than keep.

 I seem to have a bit of a surfeit of chipolata sausages in the freezer so may dig them out and remove the casings and use the meat to make sausage rolls I add a few herbs  to the meat, and its a darn sight less expensive than the blocks of sausage meat sold at Christmas in the shops .
All some economies but every penny you save can be used elswhere and helps to streetch the budget
Hope you all have a good and frugal weekend 

JackieO xx

C_J

I don’t mind small potatoes - I have a potato rumbler which I bought donkey’s years ago, which rubs the skins off beautifully so it’s no effort at all.