2024 Frugal Living Challenge

dND

Viking_mfw said:

Started a regular Olio collection with Iceland yesterday and had a phenomenal amount of frozen goods. So much it wouldn't all fit into our freezer so the frozen fried onions I took as my share defrosted overnight and  are being turned into French onion soup for lunch. 

Also grabbed two lidl boxes this morning which were almost all fruit - keeping us in apples and bananas this week was worth the cost alone. A lot of cherry Toms as well which may need creative thinking as I'm really the only one  who eats raw tomatoes. 

Try them oven roasted with balsamic vinegar 😋
Tomatoes are also one of the safer things to home bottle - when I had a glut of the cherry tomatoes in France I would do a large batch with the olive oil and balsamic vinegar and bottle them and have a lovely taste of summer throughout the winter.

I got a great A1di box last week and I've also introduced my DS1 to TGTG. I find great delight in getting creative with "what can I make with this!"  I do also have a dehydrator so if I have enough to fill it, then I also dry stuff for later use.

Good luck with your O1io collection. 😁

Viking_mfw

Ooh thank you. Oven roasted will go down well - DH will eat them cooked. He's also planning to turn some of this 3 liters of soup into stew which could take a few toms!

Bluegreen143

You can use fresh tomatoes to make tomato pasta sauce instead of/as well as using tinned too, then freeze the sauce if you don’t need it this week. 

weenancyinAmerica

If you need to slice the cherry tomatoes in a hurry, you can hold a plate on top and slice across between the two plates with a large knife. 

London_1

I used to make portions of pasta sauce especially if there were a big glut of them in the supermarket.a large reduced net bag of tomatoes were a brilliant buy now and again ( I never usually paid more than around 40p for a big bagful ).
Put the whole lot into a bowl of boiling water to deskin them, then into the saucepan mashed with a spud masher add herbs and some diced onion or lazy garlic and some stock, and put them on a low light to reducedto a nice thick gloopy pasta sauce.I would then bag portions up in ziplock soup bags once cold and freeze into odd corners of the freezer as once in the bags they could be squashed into any old shape. its surprising how much you can make out of a couple of pounds of squashy toms that no one wants 

JackieO xx

Sweetlittledaydreams

I've been quiet on the board since the start of the year but I've been keeping it frugal and occasionally reading posts but not managing to keep up.
The successes are I paid the mortgage off late last year, my partner has moved in so bills are much less now - we worked out our outgoings are around £1k a month and we're managing to save around £1.5k a month between us. 
Things we could still work on is getting the food shop bill down, we already use olio a bit but it's not massively popular around here. We don't yellow sticker shop enough either. We could work on earning more, I was off work for 6 weeks with an injury and am back at work now but haven't done any overtime for months. 
Blackberry season is in swing here so lots of crumbles in the freezer and some gin infusing. Also some potatoes from the garden are parboiled and frozen ready for roast dinners. Our last bird died earlier this week so we will be taking on a new flock soon so they'll bring us eggs and joy.

Viking_mfw

Turns out while kids do not appreciate french onion soup they do like it whizzed up and thickened as gravy...

Glittering_M

Sorry I've not posted for a while but been keeping up to date.
I understand that white vinegar is useful for cleaning and generally good to have but where do you buy it? I couldn't see it in Sa1nsbury5. All I could find was distilled which is not right (made that mistake in the past!).


Also @Frugaldom, I finally want to have a go at making laundry 'goop'. From your recipe you posted via your blog a while ago, is washing soda the same as soda crystals? Have you (or anyone else on here) tried it in a standard, modern washing machine? Do you put the goop directly on or where you would normally put liquid? Also, for your edible hedge. What do you have in it and how simple did you find the process? I'm thinking about putting one in that would be likely mostly beech because we've got a lot of saplings from friends but other stuff like hawthorn, victoria plum (we think that's what we've got), maybe blackthorn but it depends if we can find any saplings at my friend's place. Their blackthorns have never had sloes on which is odd, but it definitely is a blackthorns I'm not sure how elder or hazel would work in a hedge but they are on my maybe list! Wild rose will go in when it's established. 

Particularly chilly here. Home office aka spare room is currently 13.7c . Hope you are all keeping warm. I used the residual water from the kettle for a hot water bottle this morning (yes I did let it cool slightly as I know boiling water can damage it). Unfortunately on calls so can't wear my massive oversized hoodie.

The washing didn't completely dry yesterday so I'm so working out whether to give it another go. I hate washing in the house but I'm not sure how well it will dry and there is rain forecast for later . *Edit - I risked it, hands are chilly now though!)

Hope you are all keeping well!

Thanks!

Frugaldom

Good luck as an Olio food hero @Viking_mfw

@Glittering_M I dilute the washing gloop to a pourable consistency then just pour into machine as you would a regular detergent. You can also use the white vinegar as a fabric softener replacement but for whatever reason, it seems to be more difficult to source nowadays. A friend brought me some from one of the places you take your own containers to fill up but I have forgotten name of the store. I know it's near the Re-build Site (fantastic place) in Carlisle. 

Edible hedging - I have hazel, hawthorn, blackthorn (sloe),  dog rose, blackcurrant, raspberry, blackberry, elderflower, crab apple and blueberry all growing along the edges of tracks and last year planted both red and white gooseberries, redcurrants, white currants and they are growing slowly in the orchard. Dogwood is a safe edible for the goats and ponies.

Latest news here is we are currently down to 6 ponies at the sanctuary but up to 3 goats, after finding company for our lonely Vincent Van Goat. Apples have started falling already so I'll need to start storing them, or else get pie making. Apple cider vinegar will be next.

Blogging not going well as too many other things taking up time. Social media and photo & video uploading for the project takes hours. Days getting shorter and solar insufficient. Still plotting & planning,though.

Nelliegrace

We have been using homemade laundry liquid for years. We have to use borax substitute, sodium sesquicarbonate, Sainsbury’s limescale preventer powder. I use grated pure soap, grating that is DH’s contribution, Sains £1.35 for four bars. We use DriPac soda crystals.

 https://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/2010/08/homemade-laundry-liquid-revisited.htm 

I store it in plastic milk bottles and it needs a good shake every time. I put it in with the laundry.
Aldi has usually got some small bottles of white vinegar 35p in with the malt. I use a little in the final rinse instead of fabric conditioner.

Stains need pre-treating, asap, usually just a good rub with soap and cold water, or a soak with oxiclean, or bleach as a last resort. DH’s collars need a quick scrub with soap. 

Our clothes seem to last forever, elastic doesn’t sag, and they don’t fade through washing.