From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Greying_Pilgrim

edinburgher said:

I can't quite wrap my head around people spending £200 or thereabouts on groceries!!! I think to myself "right, so that basically means being a vegetarian" but then canny folk like EH mention free range chicken and eggs 🤔

Hi ed - I'm not trying to answer 'for' EH - but I think she's away for the weekend, so just in case she doesn't see this, I wonder if part of the answer is that EH is not necessarily buying FR chicken every week of each month.  But I do know that like others (including yourself ed), EH uses all the chicken, so whether a whole chicken or whatever, it would make more than one meal - and EH is scrupulous about freezing/storing leftover portions/components for future meals - and indeed scrupulously meal plans each week too.   I'm not sure if she doesn't have a separate budget for Farmers Market purchases (apologies if you don't EH and it all comes out of your groceries budget), which is where she mentions her other meat purchases come from.  

I don't know what I would do if I were a meat-eater ed.  I certainly don't think that I would have a £200 a month ballpark grocery bill if I did!  Anyway, we're all different and have differing household set ups - I'm only feeding 3, ed - you have a family of 4.  And as I've been mentioning, I'm finding it a full on struggle to keep to £200, so I'm probably going to have to up my budget - even though our diet is primarily vegetarian.  If I couldn't access various offers across supermarkets etc, I think my grocery bill would instantly shoot up.  I do have the advantage of some time and available transport to get hold of some deals - which again, is a blessing, but does also help with costs. 

And if it is any help at.all - I don't think that i kept scrupulously to £200 for groceries when LG was smaller.  We have only just started to get balance with meals in the past 6 months or so.  My only 'win' regarding costs is that I never started buying exclusively 'kiddie' food items - yoghurt is a biggie, LG has only ever had plain, greek yoghurt spooned from a big pot, not in individual diddy portion size.  Any flavouring comes from a fruit accompaniment.  Cheese is predominantly from a large block - rarely individually wrapped portions (the only exception being the occasional net of babyb3l if found on significant discount), Biscuits and crisps are kept to a minimum, but are generic offerings, rarely branded.  Jelly never comes in a pouch........... 

Please don't think I'm doing something wonderful ed, because I'm not - and as mentioned, the wheels are beginning to come off my budget as it is..........

Greying X

rtandon27

I too was wowed by the mention of 200 for a weekly shop! For us that would be just over half a month of goods - for 2 - and we eat mostly at home, very little upf and are not vegetarian!

Greying_Pilgrim

rtandon27 said:

I too was wowed by the mention of 200 for a weekly shop! For us that would be just over half a month of goods - for 2 - and we eat mostly at home, very little upf and are not vegetarian!

Oh hun, i didn't see all that the couple in front of me bought - and who knows, perhaps they entertain alot, or perhaps they had stocked up on washing powder or dishwasher tablets this week, or perhaps they prefer a specific brand of coffee etc.  But of the stuff I saw, there was a higher proportion of 'ready made' food items - so that is going to cost more (although probably less than eating out).  But I feel that as long as they can afford it, and if that is what they want to spend their cash on, that's a choice open to them.  Perhaps they valued time doing other things over cooking from scratch, who knows.  Hearing the conversation (I wasn't wigging - they were loud and happily chattering about money), it was just interesting that they were conscious that their weekly shop was costing more these days.  

I get a bit of pleasure (some of the time), from cooking, so for me, I wouldn't prioritise (as highly), going around a supermarket popping 'nice' things to eat in my trolley - even if affordability wasn't an issue.  As much as anything, I am now too hard wired to look for VFM in everything - I just couldn't pay some of the prices that are expected these days.  But that's just me.  And I'm odd 😉

Greying X

Cheery_Daff

I don't think you're odd around here Greying 😁

greenbee

Cheery_Daff said:

I don't think you're odd around here Greying 😁

It's all relative isn't it

I think I probably spend more on cat food than on my own food. But it was my decision to get cats, and I'd worked out that I could afford to take on the financial responsibility. As they don't eat lentils and vegetables I now eat a bit more meat as I buy and cook reduced chicken for them - which I have small amounts of. It actually works out more cost effective than cat food as there's a lot less waste (and a lot less packaging). They do get cat food as well, as I don't want them to get too fussy and I have enough struggles cooking for myself some days. At least theirs is straightforward though - slow cooked poached chicken every single time!

themadvix

You’re not odd at all Greying! It’s definitely about what you value. And it makes me wonder if they have any taste buds… ready-cooked stuff tastes of a lot of salt and very little else to me. But as you say *if* they can afford it, then that’s up to them… (although I’m afraid there’s a definite caveat in my head, given we all pay the healthcare bills - sorry, a bit political there).

rtandon27

Odd? Look at the (virtual) company you keep! 🥰

Birds of a feather...

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Afternoon!

ha ha - Thank you for all your supportive comments.  I do realise that sometimes in werriting about VFM, I do tend to miss opportunities.  I am trying to get better about 'seizing the day' - Monday's swimming was a prime example.  But I still think in RL I haven't yet found my full-time tribe who budget to 'do'.  The school gate posse are a little more inclined to do -  'to heck with the cost' in order to fit in/keep up, whatever.  I can't bring myself to do that too often, as I know that I would be uncomfortable with the financial consequences.   

So shopping trip undertaken and swimwear purchased.  I thought we were going to have to order online, as the bricks and mortar store didn't have what we needed, but purely by chance we popped into the direct shop that sells sports stuff and managed to drop on what was required, for £1 less than I was going to pay.  We popped into Mn$ for a look and didn't purchase anything.  LG was totally perplexed why we went in there in the first place (for a LOOK!), and did actually ask - whilst I was looking at the YS'd pizza's 'why are you looking at them mum?  We make pizza' 🤣  So much for considering redo's 'thoughtful convenience'  - my walking, talking conscience prohibits the indulgence! 🤣  One thing I did notice, was that with their..... own brand?  rice (think raw grains-  basmati, sushi etc) M&$ have packaged it in paper - much like MrL own brand porridge oats.  I was quite taken with that, and know that excess packaging/plastic packaging is a concern, so I did actually think that quite spiffy.

The washing is out on the line and I don't know what it is about today - possibly better weather, but a) we noticed how light it was when DH went off to work - and he went off at his normal time.  Plus when i was putting the washing out, I was struck by how much more the sun was peeking over the garden fence, and ergo how much more of the morning (past midday) there has been sun hitting one part of the washing line - YAY!  Coupled with that, the breeze is just right today, so I should have dry washing to bring in this afternoon.  Also, as I was pegging out this morning, some crows started squawking and I looked up and they were seeing off some sort of (small) bird of prey, that had ventured too near to them.  I don't know if it was a kestrel - although thinking about it, the tail was wrong, so I will have to look up, maybe sparrowhawk (male) or hobby or merlin or something like that.  Adding to the birdlife tally summat wonderful tho 😁👍

I have whipped up a batch of tommie sauce (thanks redo) and having blitzed it, it is just finishing off 'cooking' in the PC.  I used up my 2 tins of plum tommies for this - as I blitzed it anyway, but it does alter the taste from chopped, but still nicer than bought pasta sauce (which I DO buy from time to time), imho.  Plus I have crow-barred extra veggies in there 😉 Just saying.....

Right, best get a shift on and start lunch as I want to get on and set everything going in the slow cooker after lunch for the bolognaise.  

Ta for popping in and keeping me company - appreciated.  

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

So a wash is on and hopefully will be out on the line around 8am-ish.  If the weather forecast is correct, we've only half a day to make hay.

Had some success with my cooking yesterday. 

The vegetable gnocchi bolognese - done in the slow cooker wasn't the best I have ever made.  But I did make it from scratch in the SC - something i have not done before.  I set the lentils to cook in water with a bayleaf, celery and carrots on high to begin with for an hour or so, then put in the tomato sauce in and turned it down to low for the rest of the afternoon.  I put the gnocchi (ambient product) in approximately an hour before we needed to eat.  Then I put about half the SC contents into a heatproof dish, sliced the YS'd mozarella on top and put it under the grill.  Everything in the bolognese was 'just' the right side of being cooked.  I have always found it difficult to get stuff 'properly' cooked in a SC.  I watch utoobers throw lentils or pasta into a SC, with about 20 minutes of cooking left, and have it come out looking like the pasta was cooked on a stove top 🙁As a meal, it didn't look very nice (how do you get it out of the dish and onto the plate - looking like a pic on the front of a ready meal!!), but the taste was OK.  LG wasn't enamoured with the mozarella, which quickly went 'solid'.  It's a fine line isn't it, between ooozy but molten, and cool but rubbery 🙁 I don't know if I would make it this way again - which wasn't the fault of the recipe inspiration (which didn't advocate cooking it in a SC), but the actual dish was ok, if we could sort out the cheese topping issue (for LG) too.

I also made 2 cakes (to fill the oven), for the tin, for pudding and for the freezer.  I made a spiced apple, thyme and hazelnut cake from Sabrina Ghayour's 'bazaar' book (sorry, can't find an online version of it).  I haven't tried it yet, but it cooked up wonderfully and certainly looks and smells nice...... Then I made a cake that piqued my interest, I made Spiced Swede cake 😁 We had some of this with a ball of icecream for pudding (I didn't/probably won't, bother with the cream cheese frosting).  Yum.  The swede doesn't punch you in the face, but does leave yellow flecks through the cake and DH reckoned (once he knew what the mystery ingredient was) it did add a faint flavour to the cake.  I would definitely make this cake again - and I suspect it would be a good cake to make if you were in a club, group, society that had 'guess the ingredient' cooking competitions 😁 In looking for the apple cake recipe online, I see someone had made it to enter a 'cooking with herbs' competition.  LG helped me with the cake making.  They grated the majority of the swede 😉 and didn't grate their fingers (YAY!) and they are now becoming a proficient cracker and adder of eggs to cooking 👍

I will keep both of these cake recipes - although I am definitely more excited about the swede one! 🤣

Today should be a nsd.

Can't think of anything overly MSE that I will achieve today 🙁  Right, I'm away to peg out.

Edited to add washing pegged out, and two Greater Spotted Woodpeckers seen in a silver birch in a nearby garden.  I managed to get to LG's bedroom window (with LG) to point them out and we were able to watch them for a couple of minutes.  One flew off, and the other was pecking at the tree, but no distinctive sound, as the tree is possibly too thin/not hollow.  But amazing to see 😁and be able to identify so clearly.

Greying X

Cheery_Daff

Fantastoc woodpecker spotting there, what a lovely thing to see! 

Jealous of you pegging your washing out. We have a heavy fog this morning and I can barely see past the garden gate 🙄 A nice excuse not to bother with any washing I say 😂

Mind you, we did accidentally leave the dehumidifier on in the study overnight with the last lot of washing which is now nicely dry.