Time to slash the shopping budget and use up the store cupboard

threepenny_bit

It has been so cold here the past few days that I haven't even ventured outside; minus 50 with windchill yesterday and currently minus 44 with windchill today. It gave me time to tidy the pantry shelves and put earlier expire date items at the front. I found a very large bag of quinoa and realize that hubby and I don't really like it so started a bag of things to take to the food rescue shed or the food bank collection boxes. No point just storing food and not eating it. 
I changed the food plan a little as neither of us fancied salad the past few days lol! Had curry and bolognese from the freezer instead. 
This week I want to sort the smaller freezer drawers out and try to put veg tin one, meat in the next, premade lunches in the next etc and this way I can see what we have built up and where I need to focus restocking. 
Haven't spent anything on groceries since January 4th but will need a couple of bits later this week - just bananas, milk and maybe eggs. I will look for the filtered longer lasting milk that was suggested by @spendless . 
Stay warm and dry everyone 
x

Sun_Addict

I am just shocked at that minus 50 temperature - minus 50 😱 It’s plus 7 degrees here at the moment and people are moaning about how cold it is! How on earth do you cope? 

By coincidence I’ve just finished reading a book set in Alaska where it was minus 50, made me feel cold just thinking about it. 

badmemory

If you have crab apples you could try apple batter pudding.  Like toad in the hole but apples.  It is very comforting.  We have rhubarb batter pudding more often but it depend what is available.

threepenny_bit

Sun_Addict said:

I am just shocked at that minus 50 temperature - minus 50 😱 It’s plus 7 degrees here at the moment and people are moaning about how cold it is! How on earth do you cope? 

By coincidence I’ve just finished reading a book set in Alaska where it was minus 50, made me feel cold just thinking about it. 

@Sun_Addict It is usually only in January when we get such cold temperatures from the polar vertex , if the temperature with windchill here is below minus 40 the school busses stop running and schools may be closed. Your eyelashes and nose hair will freeze as soon as you go outside which is an unusual feeling lol! Frostbite can take only minutes and frost nip is even faster. Our temperature was minus 44 this morning and the added windchill is what made it minus 50. People joke and say they sat in the freezer to warm up as freezers work at minus 15. Throw a cup of boiling water in the air and you make snow instantly. 

Further north things don’t stop at all for the extreme temperatures but here in lower Alberta we are a bit softer I  think 😂 I try to stay in and not drive as the roads become very icy even though we use winter tires or studded tires , the sand/salt/brine mixes stop working around minus 20 so roads will become slippery. Even though it is so cold the sky is blue today, steam is rising off the river to create fog and a lovely hoar frost so it is really pretty.  The air is very dry and any snow is champagne powder right now which makes it easy to snow blow or brush away with a yard brush; we get wet snow in Spring and that is when we can build snowmen .  In the UK I always feel much colder as the air is moist and the damp makes you cold all the way through; I grew up in Yorkshire and remember those cold, dark and damp mornings walking to school brrr. 

Not sure I could manage Alaskan winters though. 

threepenny_bit

badmemory said:

If you have crab apples you could try apple batter pudding.  Like toad in the hole but apples.  It is very comforting.  We have rhubarb batter pudding more often but it depend what is available.

@badmemory I have never heard of batter pudding, toad in the hole was always a favourite at home but I just never tried or thought of a sweet version. Will give that a try - thankyou 

Spendless

As a child at a church bazaar I recall buying a jar of crab apple jelly. Possibly because I liked the name, I'd no idea what it was. I don't think my Mum did either or  knew what to do with it as I think she threw it out unopened a few years later when we moved house.

Today I'm aware crab apple jelly can be used as a condiment for meats, like a chutney for cheese and crackers or as a filling in cakes. If that's what you fancy turning your crab apples into.

I too shuddered when I read your temps. I live in Yorkshire and you're right it's  moist and damp and last night I was getting excited because it was still light at 4pm!  A few years ago on another board on here someone said to check the garden path for dryness to tell if clothes would dry on an outside line in winter, and I was forever thinking - not mine today.  I suspect that  if you're in more rural/less built up Yorkshire like where my D-i-L is from near the York Moors you'll feel the dampness more as more exposed to the elements. We have family in Toronto and for several years when DS was young we considered visiting when they had snow because it was ambition to build a snowman and we'd had  several years of mild winters since he was born. Affordability at the time put us off and eventually DS got his wish at home shortly before his 9th birthday. 

joedenise

@threepenny_bit - are your temperatures Centigrade or Fahrenheit?  It makes a big difference if your saying Minus 40 degrees F while we're talking about 7 degrees C!  It's extremely cold whether your talking F or C!!!

threepenny_bit

joedenise said:

@threepenny_bit - are your temperatures Centigrade or Fahrenheit?  It makes a big difference if you're saying Minus 40 degrees F while we're talking about 7 degrees C!  It's extremely cold whether you're talking F or C!!!

Hi @joedenise we measure in Fahrenheit here. but once it its minus 40 that is exactly the same for Fahrenheit  or Celsius as they both meet at that temperature lol! It is jolly cold and last night we had a critical power warning for the entire province. Every was asked to turn off any unnecessary power (not heating of course) and we had rolling power outages in Town. We were lucky enough to borrow power from Saskatchewan which meant no rolling power outage overnight. Today is slightly warmer at minus 43 F with windchill lol! 
I have lived here 20 years and this is the first time I have experienced this.

threepenny_bit

Spendless said:

I too shuddered when I read your temps. I live in Yorkshire and you're right it's  moist and damp and last night I was getting excited because it was still light at 4pm!  A few years ago on another board on here someone said to check the garden path for dryness to tell if clothes would dry on an outside line in winter, and I was forever thinking - not mine today.  I suspect that  if you're in more rural/less built up Yorkshire like where my D-i-L is from near the York Moors you'll feel the dampness more as more exposed to the elements. We have family in Toronto and for several years when DS was young we considered visiting when they had snow because it was ambition to build a snowman and we'd had  several years of mild winters since he was born. Affordability at the time put us off and eventually DS got his wish at home shortly before his 9th birthday. 

@spendless I had never seen crabapple jelly but this year I will be giving it a try, like the idea of it on cheese and crackers as a change from Branston (yes I still buy a lot of UK foods and Branston is top of the list!).
I grew up in East Yorkshire with coal fires, it was a long time until we had central heating, the smell of coal is something I love and have such good memories of the older generation all standing in front of the fire, chilblains and ice on the windows in a morning haha!
I am in Alberta but my daughter now lives in the Toronto area - they had wet snow over Christmas but not enough for a snow man but this week may be snow man time for them. 
If you need snow sending let me know lol!

Four_Seasons

I love Alberta my daughter lived at Rolston just outside Medicine Hat for 4 years when her girls were little we visited again 8 years ago and are busy trying to save for a future visit, stay warm xx