From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

kayannie

Tried (unsuccessfully)to quote just the part of your post re not knowing what to cook.

Lentil Cottage pie here! A tin of brown lentils, an onion, garlic, few tomatoes (L!dl box ones chopped & frozen a few wks ago), teasp gravy granules + water.Topped with mash, & sprinkled with cheese if I'm feeling generous! Only 2 of us, so this makes 2 pies.

Recipe from Miguel Barclay's 'Vegan one pound meals'.

KA x

Watty1

oh that sounds nice … I might try than thank you. Am on a use up /costs down month

Greying_Pilgrim

I LOVE how we all help and inspire each other on here 🥰

Lunch - much to LG's dismay was hoummus, cream cheese and cucumber sandwiches. "But I don't like hummous mum" went up the plaintive cry 🙄 DH caved and scraped the hummous off 🙄 Sandwiches were eaten 🙄

Tea I'm not sure about, as LG has popped around to a friend's house for a natter about a gadget, said friend has. They might be out of the house for 5 minutes or 5 hours. If they come home for tea, I'm thinking veggie burgers and wedges. If they have tea out of the house, I'll probably freezer dive asparagus pizza and make some wedges.

I've just been watching FQ en France, and the episode was talking about grocery budgets in the face of food inflation, and would they alter their…… 400 (?) Euro budget. Jane did make the point that I find myself making all the time, 'no, where is the extra money supposed to come from?". I've always said this - if you're on a (relatively) fixed income, from whatever source, where is the money supposed to come from? If other bills are rising - especially one's you're bound by law to pay - you can't magic more money out of the allocating pot. I mean sometimes - not every year - DH has had a pay rise, but how is a 1% or - more likely - 'X' £000 (taxable) 'goodwill' payment, supposed to cover a 10% CT rise, or an accumulation of rises for all the bills you have to pay? And don't get me started on the organisations that think you can just 'suck up' their price rises, because 'it's only 1% and average pay rises are 3%' or whatever. They're only interested in you paying their bill. What about all the other organisations with their hands out for extra cash, citing rising operating costs, rising raw material and labour costs…….

Anyway, we'll muddle along, benefitting from the support and advice of chums here - Thank you everyone for your contributions, whether they help me and/or others - it's always super appreciated. Thank you.

Greying X

kayannie

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81992233#Comment_81992233

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81992589#Comment_81992589

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81992446#Comment_81992446

If you do decide to make it, start by cooking onion & garlic in frying pan, then add tomatoes ( I sometimes add red pepper too if one needs using up). Then add drained lentils, gravy granules and water. Simmer till thickens, 20 mins or so. Give a stir a few times, might need to add more water. Top with mash, either normal potatoes or sweet ones.

Served with a couple of veg, it makes a filling meal.

KAx

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Afternoon MFW'rs

Phew! I'm bushed already and the day's only half done.

Inspired by many of the DIY/home improvement/decluttering activities of dear MFW'rs, I bit the bullet and dug the trench for a sort of land drain in the back garden. The back garden is currently pretty un-useable, and resembles 'Telly Tubby Land' - I kid you not, I'm pretty sure the writers must have looked over the fence into our garden, and though, "Ah ha! A lumpy-bumpy landscape where cute little beings could live….." 🙄 The one bit of the garden becomes slightly more water-logged in the winter due to the undulating nature of the rest of the garden, or it might be because of our rock hard clay soil, or…… I dunno. Anyway, we need to level the whole garden - and I'm trying to gird my loins to do it, but whilst I'm about it, I'll put in a little drainage channel, that may, or may not make a bit of difference. It's going to be difficult to tell if its the drain, or the overall levelling, if the patch dries up. But anyway, this morning i set to and dug a trench. DH and LG took garden waste (mostly weeds) to the municipal tip, and then when they came back, they helped me clearing out the trench of soil.

We'll partially fill with stones (from the garden), and then crack on with backfilling whilst levelling the rest of the garden. This is the second time I've done this in a garden, but I was a lot younger last time I did it, even though the garden was larger. But there's no point in having an outside space that is unuseable. But I'm not looking forward to digging it by hand, but it would be virtually impossible to get any type of mechanical digger in the space, so a spade and woman of a certain age it is……

If my theory works, it will transform the garden, for using it to relax/eat in, or even simply for pegging out the washing in. But I can't say I haven't been put off by the thought of the hard work. Although this morning's efforts have shown that sometimes you just have to take the first step. I had been worried about pipework, but with DH's help, we worked out that we could go down a certain depth without encountering any pipes - so armed with this knowledge, I took the leap this morning.

I now ache….. everywhere.

A wash is out - pretty much all my clothes. We were supposed to have rain again, but we've had more sunshine and a breeze, so I've grasped the opportunity. Yesterday's wash dried lovely, and I've put it away.

Lunch was sandwiches. Red pepper hummous and tomato for the grown ups, cheese and cucumber for the smalls.

I'm not too sure about what's for tea. I'm currently slowly seizing up…… 🤣 But despite the lovely weather, I'm thinking along the lines of curry, dhal and rice.

I haven't spent any money today.

Ta for popping in. Greying X

greenbee

I was put off doing some gardening due to the digging GP, and went out today to discover than the cardboard/woodchip mulch has been doing it's thing and while it looks dry and unchanged on top, digging down the soil is damp, and much of the grass has started to rot (and the worms have moved in). So plants that might otherwise have died are actually going into the ground about a year after I bought them (not all of them made it, but at least some of them have!).

Sometimes the anticipation is worse than the job itself, particularly if you break the job down into manageable chunks that mean it does eventually get done.

rtandon27

Well done on your gardening exploits GP - it's always good to have a project on the go - it is windy and cold with us today so indoors with a heating pad overruled the desire to garden!

beanielou

Thought of you when I had a most delicious sweet potato curry. 🤤

Greying_Pilgrim

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81993655#Comment_81993655

Aw, thanks hun! Delicious sweet potato curry - Well done! 😁

We had Mushroom, potato & chickpea tikka masala - which used HM tikka masala paste. I can't remember where I got the recipe - although it's most likely JO's made into a paste, whereas I normally just make the spice mix. Anyhoo, I had obviously made some and then froze portions - as I used the frozen portions today. I made lentil dhal and boiled up some rice. I have started the new 10kg bag of basmati tonight. We all had good bowlfuls, and there was curry, dhal and rice leftover to put in the freezer - which will contribute to future 'curry plates'. The mushrooms were the PoTW chesnut mushrooms from MrL, last week? We all had yoghurt and banana for pud.

No money spent today.

Ta for popping in. Greying X

Sun_Addict

Just popping in to say hello and say I’ve recently been following your diary for the food p0rn 😆 Your meals always sound delicious. I also make my meals from scratch and enjoy trying new recipes. I haven’t eaten meat for around 37 years and am mainly plant based. Mr SA is a die hard carnivore so it’s not the easiest task making one thing for him and another for me. I can recommend subscribing to Tinned Tomatoes for daily vegan recipes if this isn’t already on your radar.