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

KajiKita

Sounds like you need a bigger whisking bowl! 😊

KK

mumtoomany

Ha ha, @KajiKita, I think I do. I'd forgotten how much cream expands as you whisk air into it. So by the time I'd finished it was at the rim. I whisked it 2 litres at a time. I have got two bigger bowls, just didn't bother looking for them. Laziness on my part. DD's family are going away for the weekend straight from school. So only two of us eating till monday. I'll have to see what needs using up.

Going to spend most of the morning in the polytunnel. Some seeds are starting to appear. Free food for summer.

Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx

mumtoomany

Hello all. Had our quiet weekend. Used up leftovers for meals, so very little cooking or prep to do. Last night i made chicken, (cockerel) in white sauce, with lots of cream in it, also onions, mushrooms, peas and corn. Served with rice. Tonight OH and i had the remains of that, with a tin of chicken curry added. Found the tin in the cupboard, while looking for beans and sausages. Don't know where it's come from. The kids had fish fingers, chips and beans. DD and S-i-L both at work. 

While there was only us on Sunday, I managed to inventory the freezer in the kitchen. This is the one where we keep mostly meat and fish. There is enough meat and fish for around ninety meals for the seven of us. Unfortunately around half of them are pork. So not as much variety as I'd like. Don't need pigs this year.

No money spent in a week, but we'll need milk in a few days.

Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx

Elisheba

I suppose if you don't have the same meal twice in a row, but put it in the fridge for 3 days later it'll work out okay. So pork day, other meat day, veggie day, and repeat. 

mumtoomany

Hi all, @Elisheba, thanks. We hardly ever have the same meal two nights in a row, but will often have the same thing under a different guise. So bolognese one night can be chilli the next, or lasagne. A roast one day is often a pie or casserole the next. When we first moved here nearly ten years ago, we were left three very old pigs. Two sows and a boar. One was so old she had arthritis and struggled to walk. We had almost no money, so the two sows were dispatched to the abattoir, the boar refused to get into the van! He had big tusks and a bad temperament, so he was later sold for dog meat. These two old sows were very big! The meat was very tough! It needed cooking slowly for many, many hours to be edible. We ate pork almost every day for over a year! (there were only four of us here then, OH, DD3, S-i-L and I. DD was back some weekends.) 

I've made brawn this week, from half a pigs head and some trotters. That's being used for lunches. I also whisked up the remaining cream from the fridge, it was just starting to be past it's best, and made butter. This i made into shortbread biscuits. I also made a Manchester tart and a lemon meringue pie yesterday, (requested by DGD1). DGD2 wanted a "rermange" pie. 

We went into town on Wednesday for bacon and rolls. Spent £28.87 This morning we had an Ash tree taken down, so this was to feed the men. Also picked up lots of fruit and veg boxes in the veg shop, reduced yeast at the cash and carry and milk. Might just survive now till April. Tea tonight will be bacon, (it was a big pack), eggs, beans, mushrooms, fried bread. 

Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx

mumtoomany

The tree is down! Now we just need to cut it into logs. Apparently ash splits best while still wet. So OH and I have been outside splitting, sawing and stacking logs every day since Friday. We have only done maybe half the tree. It was a big old tree. counting the rings probably approaching 200 years. Sorry to see it down, but looking at it there were already several large cracks inside the trunk. Only a matter of time before it came down on it's own. Not a good idea when it was right on the edge of the road on a blind bend! 

Last night i used left over bolognese to make lasagne. I made too much white sauce, so recycled the remainder of that into custard, by adding sugar, yellow food colouring and vanilla. This we had after with plum crumble.

More milk bought, so total send for the year so far is £591.52/£2640. If i could keep going at this rate, I might finish the year over £200 under budget. Watch this space, hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx 

Nelliegrace

Brawn, delicious @mumtoomany

I sorted through the stored apples and made a large apple crumble yesterday. Lovely cold with cream. 

We  stocked up on Marvel dried milk last year, half price at £1 for 350g, which I use for cooking. Last week Sainsbury’s had it at £5 for 250g, which makes 2.5Lt at £2 a litre! There were a few odd prices to catch the unwary. (Surely 100g packs of pumpkin seeds at £44 a kilo was a mistake? I gave the pith and seeds to the chickens!)

Ash was said to be the best wood for fires, “Fit for a queen.”

mumtoomany

Hi, @Nelliegrace, if there are any queens out there they can get their own ash logs. I'm not slaving away at these for someone else! HaHa. My chickens get the pith and seeds too. Wow, that's a high price for dried milk. I'm sure it used to be cheaper than fresh. Although I don't like dried, too many memories of holidays, in cottages and caravans without electric, when we were children.

Steak and kidney puddings tonight, easy tea, with mash, carrots and cauliflower. Finished off the crumble. Tomorrow will be meat loaf, if i remember to get some pork out to thaw.

Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx

mumtoomany

Hello all, still going here. 

Meals have been the same as previously. The same ones come around every three or four weeks. Made an inserting desert this week. When i used the last of the cream to make butter, i then used this, as i told you, to make shortbread. I only used about half of this for biscuits, there was quite a lot! The rest has now been used up. OH requested Jammie dodgers. So i made "dodgy jammers". I rolled out about half of the remaining dough and put it in a baking tray. This i covered in plum jam. The remaining dough i crumbled up with a few handfuls of oats. I pressed this crumble down, a bit, on the top. Then baked it all. Divided it into pieces. It's very nice. 

Roast pork tonight, with purple sprouting broccoli, if i can pick it before the grandchildren see it and beat me to it.

I have not spent any money in the last couple of days, but DS-i-L is picking up milk while he's out today. I will still be under £600 so far this year.

Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx

mumtoomany

Hello all, DS-i-L picked up two milk, £3.30, and OH picked up a multi pack of crisps £1.25, as they were necessary, apparently!

I went shopping on Tuesday. Fruit, salad, frozen vegetables all needed. Got some bargains at the cash and carry. Two bags of chicken nuggets for 20p each. 2kg bag of breaded chicken and a 2kg bag of chicken kebabs, £2 and £4. Also two more Christmas cakes, 50p each, these one are defiantly being frozen, before they get eaten! Total spend across six shops, £55.50. Added to the above makes £60.05. Total for the year to date now at, £651.57. Won't need to shop till after easter.

I also bought a new set of cushion pads, to go in the cushion covers on the sofas. When I washed they covers on monday, one of the cushion lads disintegrated! They were bought with the sofas, in 1999! Hope these ones last as long.

Tea yesterday was HM soup and HM bread rolls. The little ones had been eating at an Easter activity in the afternoon, so weren't very hungry. Followed it up with plum and pear crumble, and custard.

Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx