2024 Frugal Living Challenge

London_1

joedenise said:

Things seem to be moving on with your move to the Isle of Wight.  Have you managed to sell your house yet?

Yes its sold, went in two weeks, just the paperwork going through now. First time buyer as well so no chain which is good. Off loading as much stuff as I can to save shifting it down with me when I move

My dear  little next door neighbour is coming round later, as she has two brothers who are moving in together who are in need of odds and ends so a good bit of kitchenalia hopefully will go.

 No point taking double the stuff as I am moving in with DD and son-in-law so we are sorting out that we only need one set of bits.
 Don't really need two percolators or mini choppers, plus I have far too many pots and pans so they are all finding a good home .
She said they would be happy to buy some stuff but I said no if it helps them get started then they are welcome to it and it saves me taking to the CS or tipping in landfills .

The house we are buying at Ryde has no chain either so fingers crossed the move will get along OK

DD has already got a job over there as she applied online when we were there a couple of weeks ago and she then did a zoom interview when we came home and heard yesterday that she had got the job.Its in her field of property management so she's really pleased and hopefully if we get moved by late may early June she will start  in July and so she will have a couple of weeks to settle in first.

My son-in-law said he wants to get the house sorted first as we are going to turn the downstairs double length garage into a sitting room for me its 18ft x 12 so a decent size.My bedroom upstairs is the same size and it stretches across the back of the house. 10 minutes walk from Appley beach, so nicely situated as well. I'm really looking forward to moving and it will be nice to be there by the summer fingers crossed 

NSD Number 4 today, still lots of stuff to eat down before buying anything else.

 Tonight I am having some of the salmon I bought before Easter with broccoli and new potatoes (another tin will be opened ) trying to reduce food stash. Lunch will be HM mushroom soup with cheese and crackers and probably banana custard afterwards as I have some bananas to be used up.

  JackieO xx

AnimalTribe

London_1 congratulations on selling your house.

Today I'm trying to use up some of the old veg so I will be making potato and sweet potato wedges, then the rest of the rubbery veg (bulb fennel, basil, garlic, tomato and onion) will all get chopped up for a hearty vegetable stew - just the thing to go with some crusty bread, and it will keep in the fridge for dinner tomorrow.

London_1

I did a bit pot of peeled spuds yesterday and cooked them and mashed with cheese and ended up with 9 portions once cooled in the freezer . A container with the rest in water in the fridge to be used this week. Later I will peel diced and freeze the extra onions I bought on the offer last week

Day 6 of NSD and stuck to my guns and bought absolutely nothing I'm using up as much as I can indoors and my purse is firmly closed    plenty of bread in the freezer and at least 4 cartons of UHT milk in the cupboard plus lots of frozen fruit and veg and meat and fish in the freezer to use up first 

JackieO xx

dND

At last something frugal going on here – starting up again here in the UK is rather un-frugal. 🤣

My DS1 has to drive to Swansea to catch a train for work on Sundays as the first departure from his local station doesn’t leave in time for him.  This is for a 20 min train trip to get him to Swansea for a 9:30 connection not some silly hour of the morning. However, his car has stopped working, so I took him into Swansea.

As I was out and about I decided to get my shopping done at L!dl and being one of the first through the tills I found I had a choice of their £1.50 veg boxes.

I’m pleased with what I got.

I had of course already bought 2 packs of mushrooms but that was the only duplicate.  The mushrooms have been sorted into a few good enough to last the week in the fridge.  The 3 most tired ones, which were also the 3 biggest ones, along with the potato, I’ve turned into 6 portions of soup.  The rest I’ve sliced and am dehydrating, although my dehydrator has just stopped. 😱😱

The bananas were too ripe for me but they’ve been peeled and frozen ready for banana ice cream, or banana cake.

The best pepper has been saved for the fresh during the week and the remainder diced and frozen.

The aubergine I’m going to add to a lamb, (reduced price) and lentil bolognaise planned for tomorrow, along with mushrooms, peppers and some other veg I have around.

As for the rest, I'll see what I feel like during the week.😁

I’m probably overrun with the salad food as I still have some from last week but that will go into another soup with whatever veg is left at the end of the week.

Definitely worth the trip out and the time to deal with the food which is of course short/end of shelf life and has to be sorted through asap to see what is overripe or damaged. 

Oh and it seems it was the adapter I'm using for my French plugged dehydrator that gave up so it's working again. 😮‍💨 😁

AnimalTribe

dND that's a great box. I've occasionally been able to get a L!dl box and it's always been good. 

cbsexec

I managed my first Lidl box today - lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, celery, cauliflower, plums, blueberries, apples and pears and 2 packs large mushrooms.   Most in good condition so brilliant value.  Very pleased

dND

@cbsexec Ooh, I'm jealous about the blueberries 😁😋

cbsexec

dND said:

@cbsexec Ooh, I'm jealous about the blueberries 😁😋

It wasn’t a small pack either 

2Scratters

@dND do you use the app Too Good To Go? (TGTG) Morrisons is on there and they frequently have the blue berries in a bag. I have many frozen trays from them, now sat in the freezer slowly making their way out and into food. 

Our water bill is definitely £200 (half price) cheaper than it would be without our water butts and that is using it primarily for the loo, obviously plants and garden in the summer. I don't expect others to live like us - we are in a bungalow and that is a definite plus. We save the water from the combi boiler into an old fashioned large 4 pint jug when running hot water till it starts to come through. It then goes into the Brita filter in the fridge to use for anything drinking, cooking with.  I would love to set up a water collection off the roof but I would want that water to be stored perhaps underground or would certainly need a lot larger tank. 

2 Scratters xx

London_1

Day 10 of NSD today everything being eaten from existing food stocks and fridge or freezer. My purse is certainly feeling the benefit at the moment.

May need to buy some fresh fruit on Friday as I will run out by then, so only a small shop hopefully plenty of veg to get through still one cabbage ,one red pepper, some onions and half a head of broccoli.

JackieO xx