I'm back! Trying to spend less on food!

Wildflowergarden

@mumtoomany have been reading along silently but just wanted to pop on your thread and say it is very inspiring.

I am on my own with my little human bean and currently on maternity so really having to watch the pennies. Would love to cook more from scratch and practice my puddings now that I have the time as not at work (worked v long hours before human bean came along) what you are achieving is my ideal. Am following with great interest! 

mumtoomany

Hi, @Wildflowergarden, love the name. Welcome.
 A few tips.
1. Always shop with a list, only deviate if something is particularly cheap and you will use it.
2. Buy ingredients, not "food". Anything you buy was made by someone, why not you.
3. Never throw things away unless they will make you ill. Thing of a way to re-purpose leftovers.
4. Limit shopping trips, go for a walk in the park instead.
5. Cook once eat twice.
6. Buy stuff in season, eat more vegetables than fruit.
This might all be easier for you than us. Your little one is not old enough to say "don't like it". Good luck.

Still not christened tea yet. I had thought about bolognese, but DD just made pasta and sauce for the littlies for lunch. OH and I had pork and beans. Watch this space. Hugs, mumtoomany.xxx

sammy_kaye18

mumtoomany said:

 A few tips.
1. Always shop with a list, only deviate if something is particularly cheap and you will use it.
2. Buy ingredients, not "food". Anything you buy was made by someone, why not you.
3. Never throw things away unless they will make you ill. Thing of a way to re-purpose leftovers.
4. Limit shopping trips, go for a walk in the park instead.
5. Cook once eat twice.
6. Buy stuff in season, eat more vegetables than fruit.
This might all be easier for you than us. Your little one is not old enough to say "don't like it". Good luck.

Great tips for anyone who is just starting the MSE Old Style lifestyle or looking to money save in general. 

I have done a small £50 shop today - mainly to put a few items back in the freezer since it was running very low! But it was planned with meals in mind so that's a win. 

Also looked through the fridge and have 10 small value apples in the bottom of the fridge and I'm not sure how long have been in there but they all look good so I am going to peel and chop them in a minute to make into a crumble for pudding tonight. 
We also have a cereal storage tub half full of rice crispie type cereal so my daughter is going to make some rice crispie chocolate cakes to use up a bar of chocolate no one seems to be eating too. 

Dinner tonight is going to be a mini roast type dinner. Ill have sausages and my husband and daughter will probably have some chicken thighs. I might cook a few extra sausages and then use the veg that's in the fridge and looking a bit iffy to make a casserole for tea tomorrow. 

@Mumtoomany can I ask what you grow at home for yourself or do you rely on your garden for all your veg?

mumtoomany

Hi, @sammy_kaye18. How are you doing?

I grow lots of stuff that people either don't like or get fed up of quickly. Courgettes seem to grow amazingly in the tunnel, NOBODY likes them, but they seem to sell well at the gate. They pay for their own seeds and many others. Squash also grows like crazy. We do eat these, usually when they don't know they are eating them. Carrots do ok, but being dirt cheap to buy, I tend to sell them in bunches at £1 a bunch, then but a sack of 10kg for £2.50. Tomatoes did well last year, I've at last found blight free varieties. Peppers did well too. Leeks are still plentiful in the ground; garlic, onions, shallots also grow. Runner beans, French and broad beans. Kale, cabbage, brocolli. Raspberries do really well. Apples, we've planted 14Apple trees, are starting to do better year on year. Other fruit trees, that will hopefully produce soon. And wild blackberries, we usually collect many kilos a year. We have eggs, when they lay! And keep sheep and occasionally pigs.

Hugs mumtoomany.xxx

beckstar1975

@mumtoomany - seeing as you've the space and are used to animals have you ever thought of a cow/goat for milk? Not joking

mumtoomany

Hi all,
@beckstar1975, when we moved here we had a goat left for us, along with three very old pigs and 3 geese. She was in milk and I milked her for quite a while. I then read that goats should not be kept alone, so we bought two kids. The man who sold them to us then asked if we would like two more as the present owner was trying to keep them in a back garden. So we then had four. They drove us insane! Goats escape! Almost every day neighbours would ring to say they had one or more of them. We put extra fencing up all around, six to seven feet high. They still escaped. Heidi, the original goat would not even look at them, so much for needing company, she preferred the geese. Then she died. We had no idea of her age, but she had been owned by at least three others before us. We sold the kids. Cows are too big, I'm only just over five feet tall and we are both in our sixties. Sheep are big enough. I would love to be able to have a goat again, but can't if they won't stay put. The picture is a kid, ten feet up a tree, in next doors garden. 
For tea in the end i did jacket potatoes. Tuna, pilchards, cheese, as each wanted with salad and HM coleslaw. Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxxhoise 

Siebrie

@mumtoomany That's so funny! And must have been such a surprise!

Whenever we grow courgettes (I try every year, but we don't manage to grow them to harvest every year) and I have a surplus, I grate and freeze them. I then throw a handful into any thick sauces I make, especially if I use the blender on the sauce. Grated courgette can even be used to make brownies, etc. My daughters and husband never notice

sammy_kaye18

Siebrie said:

@mumtoomany That's so funny! And must have been such a surprise!

Whenever we grow courgettes (I try every year, but we don't manage to grow them to harvest every year) and I have a surplus, I grate and freeze them. I then throw a handful into any thick sauces I make, especially if I use the blender on the sauce. Grated courgette can even be used to make brownies, etc. My daughters and husband never notice

Courgette and cucumber are the two things I seemed to have an abundance of last year. 
Im hoping this year to grow more now I have found some building materials to make some proper beds from and gotten quotes for soil etc. 
Just need a few nice days to get back in the garden and start rearranging and building things! 

Well I went for blood tests this morning to try and determine what type of PCOS I have - I was diagnosed before Christmas and have only just managed to get an appointment for bloods. Then came home, had lunch and husband decided we should take the dogs out so we have just had a nice 5k hike round the welsh mountains local to us. 

We didn't have the apple crumble last night so that's pudding for tonight sorted and then husband is going out riding at 5.30 so he wont want tea until he gets home. 

Katiehound

I love the 'kid's climbing frame' clearly not the sort provided by the local authority!

long ago I had friends who kept goats- I didn't realise that they can eat anything! Including the cord in an anorak! The self-appointed chief goat was an Anglo Nubian- she would bend her head and try to butt anyone and everyone who didn't tell her to stop. Great characters but also hard work.

beckstar1975

I saw some lovely goats on a regenerative farm in Herefordshire, but they had acres and trees etc to play with - I forgot what good climbers they are. There's a lovely insta account called the swiss shepherdess and they farm goats in the Swiss Alps, the goats are amazing - but yes, such amazing climbers, who seem to eat plants that are not visible to the naked eye and can travel miles upon miles a day