From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Greying_Pilgrim

Oh gosh tmv - I feel on tenderhooks now - it is a bona-fide way of prepping beans for cooking - I promise.  Trouble is pulses are so variable in age/quality - but I'm so with you on the 'crunchy beans' 🫤☹️ being a pain.  They are one thing you don't want al dente!

So I am back from shopping.  I thought the MrL was going to be quiet - there weren't many cars in the carpark, but it was quite packed (plus it's a tiny shop, so it feels fuller, quicker I guess).  I got everything I needed, although I forgot to look at the eggs (but still have some, so it isn't an issue).  Teabags had gone up since the last time I bought some - £1.59 now.  There were some green boxes, but they were pretty full with tatties (which I'm not short of), and by the time i'd had a look and figured one might be just about worth it, the world & their spouse had descended on the tills.  I figured the universe was telling me to keep my £2 in my pocket.  

I then popped around the corner to fArmf00ds.  I get olive oil from there at the mo, as the quality is good enough and they are cheaper than MrL.  Spanish Abr1l brand is £4.99, with EVO being a £1 dearer.  I stocked up on some tinned RKB's (3 for £1), some tinned chickpeas (3 for £1), and was marvelling how good their prices for 100g bags of spices were - possibly not as cheap (although it's close), as an Asian supermarket, or World foods store, but cheaper than supermercados, and definitely cheaper than the little jars.  They had; chilli powder, garam masala, paprika and turmeric - all 79p a pack or 3 for £2.  I did also get a large 800g tin of fruit cocktail in juice for 99p and a punnet of black grapes for 99p.

I spent £26.86 in MrL, and £9.75 in FF.  All food or food like substances today, no non food, as I forgot to pick up the TV mag.  I won't make a habit of going to the little MrL, but it worked today because I needed OO from FF.  

Off to update my siggie figgie.  Greying X

themadvix

I'll report back! I'm sure they'll be fine (or it'll be user error if not - not an issue with the method!)

Greying_Pilgrim

I've done a tiny pivot on what we'll 'av for us tea.  I spotted 2 punnets of qu0rn cocktail sausages 50% YS'd in MrL, and I immediately thought of Sausage casserole, and maybe some sort of inclusion of 'something' in LG's lunchbox.  So I hesitated over whether to leave one punnet, but then bought both.  

Now I'm home, I've set a 'Cowgirl Casserole' up in the SC.  It isn't a written recipe, but given it has veggie sausages and black eye beans, in it, I figure it qualifies 🤣I've put onion, celery, garlic, HM tommie sauce, a tin of chopped tommies (MrL s1mply and so thick and chunky 👍 for once), a chopped up sweet potato and some herbs and spices, and a dash of H3ners0n's relish in and stirred it all up.  I've wacked it on High at the mo, and I'll turn it down later - hopefully it will be cooked, LG eats slightly earlier on a Thursday.  They can have theirs with pasta or rice - DH and I will eat later and have it over the baked tatties that I pre-cooked last night.  Love it when an impromptu plan comes together..... 🤣

The other punnet of cocktail sausages will be kept for a veggie sausage pizza, which I will make tomorrow, even if we don't eat it for tea tomorrow.  There's always room for HM pizza slices in the freezer, they are a saviour for our lunchboxes, or a CBA'd tea 😉

Greying X

themadvix

Ooh Cowgirl Casserole sounds delicious!

themadvix

(Ignore if you’re not bean/pressure cooker obsessed!) Reporting back: butter beans were well done (a touch fall-apart, but always better that than crunchy) after hot soak for 8 hours and 13 mins, with qpr after 14 mins - my instructions normally always say to npr, but I thought it would be ok and it was! Thank you!! Definitely a trick to remember. (I did check how long was recommended for cooking from soaked - it suggested 6 mins, but I always find IP’s suggestions very much on the short side, so went with your suggestion).

Greying_Pilgrim

Phew! Thank gawd it worked, kinda 😁I don't think I've ever cooked BB's from dried 🤔 But I have a similar result with cannelini/white kidney beans.  I bought some of the white beans MrL sell in their greek range, a couple of years ago.... I seem to recall very mixed results ☹️  Certainly they weren't the beautifully rounded, plump specimens you'd want to adorn with olive oil, in a salad, a la nigella!

So tea has been munched.  The casserole cooked fine - it probably would have been OK on Low all afternoon, but I didn't want to get caught out.  LG somewhat predictably plumped for pasta with their casserole.  But the plate was cleared, so no complaints from me.  DH and I had a warmed up baked potato each with our casserole - which worked well, and decluttered a couple of the Christmas tatties.  There is a portion of casserole left over.  It made tons, considering it was a 'bitsa' construction, and it used up some leftover black eyed beans, the last but one sweet potato, one onion, a stick of celery..... etc.  I only named it cowgirl casserole, coz I don't see why the boys should have all the fun, plus I did put some smoked paprika in it too, so it had a slight 'campfire' vibe.  Hand me a bed-roll and a Hudson Bay blanket, and I'm a happy camper! 🤣 yee-haw!

The new water bill has come through.  The key point is that going forward, our DD will be approximately one-quarter of what we were paying under the rateable value scheme 😱  So absolutely every incentive there to not.waste.water - although much like the leccy, it's all the 'add-ons' that actually bump up the bill.  But with changing the insurance providers for the house and car recently, and now this fairer utility bill, it's given us a little wiggle room - not that that wiggle won't be hoovered up by other expenses in time - but you know what I mean.  

I can't think of anything else MSE at the mo.  Thank you for reading.  

Greying X

rtandon27

😂 - I never pictured a Bay blanket in the great outdoors! They are so expensive that they were given as wedding presents and lived on the end of the bed except for super cold days!

themadvix

*Googles Hudson Bay blanket* - you learn something new everyday!

Greying_Pilgrim

rtandon27 said:

😂 - I never pictured a Bay blanket in the great outdoors! 

I've spent too much time on p1nt3rest, googling campsite and Wes Anderson aesthetic..... what can I say?  I have actually knit a version of the blanket for LG.  They still have it/use it, but it wasn't one of my finer craft items 🫤

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

I forgot to add yesterday that I ended up doing 5 hrs dehuing 😬  And I shall have to do more of the same today.  In the end the weather wasn't quite as bad as forecast, but there was rain off and on - drying anything outside would have been a goose-chase.  But the clothes are dry/aired now, so I will be putting them away.  It was all LG's stuff yesterday, so that they are all set up (uniform wise) for the start of next week.  I shall prioritise my clothes today, simply because there's alot of them now, as I always end up at the bottom of the pile in favour of more pressing uniform/workwear needs.  Then I shall do DH's remaining workwear tomorrow.  In any gaps, or when I've caught up, I shall start on towels and other fabrics.  

I think what I might do, is to add some money - I'm thinking £10 initially - to the leccy pot, so that the energy co might not get hysterical about forcing the DD up.  Thing is, I know I am using the additional power, it's how this winter is panning out.  It would be the same if we were having a prolonged cold snap and i was putting the heating on for longer.  I mean, the £10 goes to the leccy company, or it goes to the launderette, right?  Either way the money is needed/will get spent.  I don't suppose these big companies give credit to their customers for 'mindful' useage, they seem to think we're all out to dodge paying for what we've used.  And higher power useage in the winter months?  Groundbreaking........ 👋 to Miranda 😉

Pizza and wedges for tea.  

I haven't shopped in MrS this week, and I've just checked the re-set 'n*ctar prices'.  What a waste of time - there is more and more branded stuff appearing in "my" selected prices each week 😡  I mean sure, I buy baking powder, but generic, not the Dr's stuff.  I buy parsnips (last time at Christmas), but not the specially selected, tastier different parsnips..... they are still offering money off the slab of cake I only bought because it was a FB 'wanted' and we put it in our xmas donation 🙄  I've never bought it before or since.  How are MrS helping me on lowering the price of "things you buy regularly".  Bunkum.  If this is ai doing a scan of my receipts and seeing what I buy each week, it's doing a very, very poor job of analysing my spend.  Either that, or MrS really don't want some kind of customers.

Right, best shift-a-tail-feather.

Greying X