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I'm back! Trying to spend less on food!
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Thanks, @kayannie, that sounds like a great idea. There are around 2kgs of them, too many for cranberry sauce really.
Breakfast was toast and eggs, from our hens. Lunch beans on toast for me, still eating through a 2kg tin opened the other day. OH had a meat pie, donated by S-i-L, and a tin of soup. Tea is going to be hunters chicken. Use a bit more of the mozzarella. Pudding stewed plums, with either cream, frozen, or custard.
Hugs, mumtoomany.xxxFrugal Living Challenge 2025.6 -
@mumtoomany, IIRC when we were in Oklahoma, cranberry jam was one of the options with "biscuits" (I.e. scone-like bakes) at the breakfast table. Tart but very tasty, a similar tangy effect to good marmalade! I think they're fairly high in pectin so could be used in combination with another, sweeter fruit to make an interesting mixed jam, too, and I've certainly used them in chutney before.
Angie - GC Jul 25: £225.85/£500 : 2025 Fashion on the Ration Challenge: 26/68: (Money's just a substitute for time & talent...)6 -
@mumtoomany - there are some nice sounding cranberry recipes on the BBC site, here https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/cranberry-recipes6
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Thank you, @thriftwizard and @C_J. Lots of great ideas, I'm being to think I should have bought more, there were at least three more boxes of them.
Lunch, I finished up the cauliflower cheese, OH had sandwiches with salad on them. Tea, the bolognese leftovers reappeared, with the addition of kidney beans, a double sized 10p tin, and chilli powder. Served with rice. Pudding we both had a mock cornettos, farmfoods own. Found four in the freezer, been there a while, cornets were a bit soft. More m and m's eaten!
The roofing man has been to look at the barn roof. He'll start in the next two weeks. Cost will be around £4000!!!! Good job I'm saving money on the food bill.
Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xx
Frugal Living Challenge 2025.5 -
I love a cranberry sauce & cheese toasted sandwich.
KA6 -
Sorry to hear about your bill for the barn roof @mumtoomany. That’s a big chunk to find. I really tried to pare down our shopping this week. Only buying things we really needed against our meal plan. Afraid I spent £71.30 at @ldi. Mind you that included dishwasher tabs and a bottle of olive oil at £7.29!!!! We were down to our last dribble so couldn’t avoid it. We don’t use much, it’s just to add into the bread, but I’m sure last time I bought it it was £5 something. Hey ho blundering on😃 Trying to use up some bits from the freezer. Last night we had the last of the veggie soup and for pud a sticky toffee pud from freezer dated Nov 23 and some custard to go with it dated Jan 23. Both still here this morning, no ill effects, so same for pud today. Told you I needed to use up stuff from freezer !!! Have a good day folks6
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Hi, @Duchess2. Yes the barn roof is expensive. Unfortunately buildings insurance doesn't cover metal clad buildings like barns, so it's down to us. The barn in question is a huge building, the roof is in three sections. We lost a lot of it during storms a few years ago, so OH replaced two thirds of it. Unfortunately he was on the lowest part, around 10 feet high, when several joists/rafters gave way. He broke his collar bone and damaged two teeth. He wanted to fix this other third himself. This end is around 20 feet above ground level. I got him to phone the man instead! He is fixing the smaller tin barn himself. With help from me.
Lunch OH had salad sandwiches again. I finished last night's chilli, on toast. Tea was omlete with bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes in it. Served with salad and HM coleslaw.
I've fetched the last of the leeks, a cabbage and some kale out of the tunnel. The chickens are going in there this week. The roof man needs the chicken run to fix the roof. They will stay there for a few weeks, till he's finished. They can eat anything still growing. And hopefully fertilise it too.
Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xx
Frugal Living Challenge 2025.7 -
Hi all. Still around, still saving money, or trying too!
January was a month of ladders, claiming them, holding them while dadtoomany climbed them, moving them around. The sides of the barns are now all fixed. The roof of the tractor barn, the lowest one, is almost fixed. One smallish hole left for the builders to fix. OH doesn't trust the joists on that part. The main barn roof is due to be fixed next week.
The chickens are all in the polytunnel. They have been put in there away from the builders. They seem to be very happy. Nothing is still growing, including weeds. The newly emerging asparagus is also disappearing, unfortunately. It will sprout through again after the birds move back. They are at least laying well, might be the warmer environment.
We have eaten a lot of lamb last month. I thawed a huge leg as we were feeding the grandchildren for the weekend. Roasted it, then we had three days of hot pot, lamb bolognese, then lamb chilli, roast again, lamb soup. Some was frozen and the dog ate well for a few days. Chilli again tonight, from the freezer. Still have the other leg and two larger legs of mutton, also shoulders. I see this will be a year of lamb/mutton.
The food shopping for January came to £64.60 cash plus £20 of Tesco vouchers. Not too bad. This month so far I've spent £45.98 on food. Will only need milk, bread and fruit I think for the next few weeks.
Hope everyone is well, hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxFrugal Living Challenge 2025.8 -
Glad to hear your repairs are almost complete @mumtoomany. Trouble is it seems once one lot is finished another one appears. Your shopping bill is excellent. Mine has gone a bit awry after the good start at the beginning of Jan. Took my eye off the ball. Nevertheless I’m still mindful when food shopping, so some progress. Currently emptying all my cupboards and shelves in lounge so that we can decorate during half-term week. At least it’s making me sort through the absolute trash. Why on earth do I keep such dross. Keep up the good work5
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Hi, @Duchess2. How are you?
Yes, the repairs are never ending. The next job to tackle will be the brick barn roof, at least the first third of it. Due to many, many, years of neglect, it is sagging very badly. We have managed to prop it up, with a combination of metal frames and pieces of wood, as a temporary fix. Waiting for a quote from a local guy. We had a quote from a company a few months ago. They wanted to replace the whole thing, for only £40,000!!!! Would need to save a lot of grocery money for that! The rest of the barn is I a bad state too. Most of the windows are missing.
Chilli was good. Followed it up with tinned pears. I opened a huge 40p tin yesterday. Eaten with squirty cream, 50p because the lid was missing. Will be eating a lot of pears in the next few days. 24 pear halves in the tin.
Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxFrugal Living Challenge 2025.7
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