Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

ladyholly

Oh I wish Mr LH would cook occasionally. It doesnt have to be complicated sausge and mash would do. After over 50 years of cooking most nights I am fed up with it and have never enjoyed it especially as Mr LH is very fussy and has periods when he eats very little but I rarely get warning of this. 

Baileys_Babe

I'm pleased to say that my OH does the majority of the cooking despite working full time and being chronically ill. He says he finds it relaxing, I find it stressful. I did cook today and that is a rare occasion. I often help him, but he is chef. So I have done well there. Shame that after 25 years he struggles to find the laundry basket 😄

Tescodealqueen

My OH cooks better roast dinner than me. I do the “fussy” stuff and batch cooking and baking. Works for us. Having stayed up all night in 1997 couldn’t do it this year just catching up with all the news now

joedenise

I don't do frying so anything which needs frying DH will do as he's brilliant with that part of cooking so he always does any fry ups with have which is most weekends and occasionally a lunch or evening meal.

Makingabobor2

Morning FG.... 😉😄  What a GOOD morning it is....that's all I'm saying. X

foxgloves

Thanks for your comments which I have just been reading.
@badmemory - Yes, it may have been from foreign service, that's certainly where my Dad learned a few lifeskills as his Mum had done most things for him until he went into the RAF. Coincidentally, the whole Indian spiced chicken which Mr F loves to cook is a recipe from an Indian family in Durban. It's in Madhur Jaffrey's 'Curry Bible' & is very tasty, including the leftovers! He is making it tomorrow as it happens, so that will be nice leftovers to use in Sunday & Monday's meals, as well as at least one packed lunch.

@Makingabobor2 - My Mum also hated cooking. Nan was an excellent cook, but she either didn't teach Mum or Mum simply wasn't interested & I suspect a combination of both. Mum could cook a nice roast dinner, fab Christmas dinner with homemade chestnut stuffing, etc, & a few other basic meals. She sometimes baked when we were children, but always from packet mixes. This had the opposite effect on me. I started learning to cook in first year at secondary school & regularly practised at home, where I enjoyed trying out new recipes & eating a more varied diet. Once my sis & I had both left home, Mum & Dad would cook salmon with new potatoes & peas, but apart from that pretty much lived on ready meals from (the 2 most expensive) supermarkets. 

@PennysIntoPounds - Yes, I agree. Jacket potatoes, simple stews, cottage pie, sausages & mash, etc, also easy to do, so no excuses really on this simple stuff. I think blokes can still get far too used to 'not doing something' by defaulting the cooking & other tedious domestic chores to partners. Sometimes it is women who make a rod for their own back with this. I remember an ex-colleague (graduated around the same time as me) was sighing over the fact that she'd done a full day's work plus the late shift & now she was going home to the ironing. I said surely she could leave it to another day but she said he husband would need some ironed shirts. I mean, they BOTH worked full time, so I asked if the problem was him not knowing where the iron was kept. She asked me if I ironed Mr F's shirts & I said I most defintely didn't, as we (back then) both worked full time & had 40+ round-trip commutes. Apparently, she had done the ironing when she was at home with small children, but when she returned to work, it continued. That was the mistake in my book....would have been the ideal time to talk about the transition back to work & how the domestic chores would now need to be shared. Ah well, none of my business at the end of the day, was it, but it just surprised me that these gender divides are still going on.

@sunshine_girl12 - Hope you survived the counting & didn't require a re-count!

F x

foxgloves

Hello Diary Readers,
What a glorious day! Couldn't quite manage the planned all-nighter, so went to bed at 1am & got up again at 4.30 for some jolly viewing. Started feeling tired after about 4 hours, but Mr F brought me some toast, scrambled eggs & half a pint of coffee & I rallied. Had planned to do absolutely nothing today, except read, smell the flowers, smile, that kind of thing, so have managed only minimal budget-helping things. I like to post them though, as it does help me keep the money-saving faith:
*Baked a cake - semolina cake - one of Mr F's favourites. Very simple & lovely warm with a snowy dredge of icing sugar. Filled it with some of my friend's home made blackcurrant jam as am making sure I use up supplies in date  order so as to make room for this year's jams in the pantry.
*Sorted out a huge pile of magazines given to me by a friend. Nice gardening ones. Decided to put them in month order starting with this month so that I can read them during the relevant month & feel as though I have bought new ones. There are 2 year's worth, so I will have 2 to enjoy every month & have already spotted a project I fancy doing on the front cover of a December issue - a heart shaped wreath made from bright cheery rosehips.
*Checked for surveys but nothing doing today. Will step up my efforts next week.
*Entered a competition.
*Trimmed the garlic crop which Mr F lifted last weekend. It has started drying well, but I always find it dries better with the stem cut back to halfway to get rid of the foliage & allow the air to start drying out the inside of the stems. When they are properly dry, I'll string & hang them. Always worth drying alliums properly so that they will store well without losses to rots & mould.
*This doesn't involve me, but Mr F appears to be putting together a Z*ff*t trade, so that will also count as money saving action at Foxgloves Manor. 
*Dinner tonight will be jerk chicken pieces (leftover from the bargainaceous BBQ deal Mr F managed to buy last month) with home made jacket wedges & salad.
And that's it from me today. I shall be taking my book off to the reading bench shortly, carrying on knitting BIL's present bag socks & will sit down for the News later as it will be nice to re-watch a couple walking through a door & to feel a level of hope that has been missing for a very long time.
Oh & I need to do cat treats before Soot remembers he hasn't had any this afternoon!
Cheers,
F :-)   xx

Blackcats

Semolina cake sounds delicious.  

I've found that P A surveys have been very spasmodic so far this month.  A few low payers but not many others.  Just keeping plugging away as it's early in the month and I had a few £'s carry forward from last month's earnings.
I knew you would be happier than usual this morning.

KajiKita

Mr KK always cooks on Sunday night - not sure why but he seems to enjoy it 🤷‍♀️😊
He sometimes cooks in the week but generally I do. He rarely preps lunch but these days we each do our own mostly. It would be nice if he did a bit more cooking but I am grateful that he’s taken on making his freezer batch prepping after he found me crying and almost retching over the raw meat that needed prepping for one such batch after I went vegan. 

KK

Makingabobor2

Glad you were feeling happy yesterday, thought you would. And didn't " said" couple look so happy walking through that door. 
Semolina cake sounds lovely.