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

thara1996

Any tips on making jam wanted. This is what I’ve decided to have for my Christmas meal this year. 

Half of a roast turkey
Mini sausage rolls 
Yule Tide Christmas cake 
Festive crackers

mumtoomany

Hello again all. Sorry I've been missing for a while. September is always busy. The back field is used for hay for the sheep in winter. Our tractor is over sixty years old and rather temperamental. Add to that the tedder, (turns the hay to help it dry,) having a tyre with a split in the side, and the bailer having a breakdown, (the driver of which went into hospital a few days later for a hip replacement), and life became interesting! In the end we had to rake most of the hay into rows by hand. It is a two acre field. Also spent a lot of time harvesting veg and fruit, planting ready for winter and watering in the tunnel. Lots of visitors here in September, more due this month. We have spent a couple of weeks sorting the free that fell, half earlier this year the other half last year. It was around 350 years old, and probably weighed around 30 tons. The thicker branches are being cut into planks, for use in DD1's new house. The remainder for logs. So far we have cut and moved Then tons. Also all the twigs that came with them. Still got a fence to repair and a gate to replace. Then last week I got a bout of vertigo! Have suffered from it every few years, for a day or two, since I was in my twenties. This time was the worst I've ever had. Could not move at all without being sick for two days. Then two more days of not being able to move without being unsteady on my feet. Back to normal now, thankfully.

So food. I have around £350 left for the remainder of the year. This should be doable now we are mostly only feeding two. I still have lots of cabbages and kale growing. Raspberries still being picked and apples still on the trees. A few tomatoes still ripening in the tunnel, these don't normally get as far as the house, I eat them as i pick. I pulled out all the parties i had planted in the tunnel, for Christmas. They had the start of blight! I now have half a sack to use. 

I will try to post more regularly again, for the of the year.

Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx

KajiKita

Blimey! That sounds like an epic September!! 😳 Sorry to hear about the vertigo. MiL has had a bad dose of it recently so I have some idea how debilitating it is. 

I am guessing ‘parties’ from the tunnel are spuds? 🤔😂 Sorry to hear they got blighted but you are doing well on your spend challenge 😊 Nice to have you back ❤️

KK

mumtoomany

Hi, @KajiKita. Yes should have been potatoes. I really should check better, before I press post. This tablet seems to think I speak a different language to the rest of the world! The blight should have been expected really. I've had tomato bought in there a few times. None on the tomatoes this year, although most of the them were bought resistant varieties. The potatoes were just leftovers from the vegetable shop. I've researched blight free ones for next year. This area of South Wales is known for being wet!

Over the weekend DD1 and I have been clearing out the kitchen cupboards. We've thrown away everything where the BB date, as she says, is "older than my youngest child", so six years! Almost all of this was either left by DD3 when she moved out, or given to me by DD1's OH, because they wouldn't use it. I seem to have a whole family of people who don't throw things away. Mostly syrup for ice cream and different types of drinking chocolate/milkshake. 

Today I am going to try to meal plan to the end of October. Using things we already have in, other than milk, bread, fruit, etc. Try to clear the decks a bit. 

Off to find a pen and paper. I'll report back later, hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx

beckstar1975

Hello - welcome back! We're coming up your way for a week on Friday, trying to work out if I can persuade DH and DCs to go look at the greengrocer for some of your bargains. Not sure he'll agree.

Your budget is still v impressive, though as Sept proves you work v v hard to keep it that way, hope you get a chance to slow down

KajiKita

Don’t worry about the word autocorrect - made me smile! 😉

I have some kitchen cupboard clearing coming up too …. Yikes …. 

KK

mumtoomany

Just typed a long response, Then lost it! Ahhh!

@KajiKita, glad I made you smile.
@beckstar1975, I'll pm you. Maybe you could pop round for a cuppa, next week.

So the list of meals for the rest of the month. This may be in any order, or change.

Sausage plait.
Battered fish.
Chicken tinga.
Sausages.
Carbonara.
Liver and bacon.
Hunters chicken.
Stew.
Shepherds pie.
Chicken burgers.
Pizza.
Roast chicken.
Curry.
Lasagne.
Leftovers or things from the freezer with one portion left.

This morning I've minced some HG belly pork. Made the sausage plait, and 38 meatballs, these will go back in the freezer. Also put all the fat and rind on a tray in the oven, save the lard. While the oven is on I've made some twinks hobnobs. We are out of biscuits.

Normally Tuesday is shopping day, discount day at Iceland for "old ladies", and the veg shop normally have lots of boxes for £1. Last week we didn't go because I was ill. This week the tree man is back to finish the planks. We only need milk urgently, so will pick that up locally.

Last night we had mince and onions, mash, HG cabbage and frozen broccoli.
Tonight with the plait, we will have cauliflower cheese. I've some cauliflower in the freezer which, although it tastes fine, looks less than good. So it will be disguised.

Right, off to check on the biscuits, hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx.

mumtoomany

Sausage plait went down well. We ate half for tea, the other half will be today's lunch. There is a bit of cauliflower cheese left to go with it and two potato cakes, if they don't get eaten before then.

I have a tub of dried peas soaking. They will be for tonight with battered fish and HM chips, from our own potatoes. I think I'll get some fruit out of the freezer and make a crumble for desert. 

I'm going to plant some garlic today, some small cloves left from when I picked them earlier this year. I'm fed up of trying to peel these tiny ones. Need to buy milk at some point today too. 

Hugs to all,  mumtoomany.xxx

beckstar1975

Oh it all sounds delicious. I've got a chicken and some yellow sticker new potatoes roasting now I've finally got an oven after being without a fully functioning one for 18m. Had a teeny top oven/grill and a small hob top one but not big enough to cook for all 5 with everything in a pan - am so excited.

Hopefully can start cooking through the freezer - there's so much stashed in there and whacking it all in the oven is a good way to cook without too much faff (though the new smart is rather excited by the tumbe dryer and the cooker!)

mumtoomany

@beckstar1975, that must have been so difficult, being without a cooker for so long. We were without an oven, and only had three gas rings, for a few days a couple of years ago. I can't imagine being without for 18 months. Enjoy all the cooking your can do now.

We ended up going shopping yesterday after all. We were running out of chicken feed. So I picked up some grapes, two punnets for £1.50, iceberg lettuce, five in a box for £1, Then also (because OH came into the shop) three packs of dates and two packs of chocolate biscuits. Total of £6.50. Also picked up some bits in Aldi , salad cream, cheese, peanuts to make some more peanut butter, bread, bananas, carrots, yogurt, etc. Milk, reduced bread and reduced mushrooms from Iceland. Then in the cash and carry a two and a half milk bag of chicken breasts for £4. The outer packaging was missing. I'll add it all up later, along with the bits, like milk, that DD1 has picked up for me over the last couple of weeks.

Made the fish chips and peas for tea, very tasty. Batter left so pancakes for dinner.

Tonight I'm getting out the bag of chicken tinga. Another cash and carry bargain. I bought two in the summer, shredded, cooked, chicken, marinaded in spices. Each bag weighed a kilo. They were 50p each. I'll serve it with rice. 

Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx