2025 Frugal Living Challenge

Katiehound

Stilton?

I have 2 large blocks due to expire in the next couple of days

I plan to keep it in the fridge and eat my way through. It's not suddenly going to go off, it's blue cheese after all which has already got some mould in its make up. I hope there might be some left in February!

fionaandphil

We chop it up into smaller slabs, freeze and use for topping pizza or for brocolli and stilton soup

Catlady2025

I almost bought a TGTG bag last night but ended up deciding against it. Glad I didn't because I really didn't want to go out today. I DID defrost some chicken last night and it's currently in the slow cooker with some carrots and potatoes. Still not spent any money this year, and I have £30 in coop 'cashback' so hoping to use that when I do need groceries. 

Sausageroll14

@Katiehound Stilton does freeze surprisingly well. 

I had a large chunk and it's not something I eat on its own. I prefer it in sauces and such. 

I think freezing may slightly impact the texture as a cheeseboard addition but otherwise it's perfect. 

Katiehound

Even if I wanted to I couldn't freeze it! The freezer is... stuffed!

Frugalontoast

Thank you for setting this up. I need inspiration to get back to being more frugal again- have got into a bad habit of selling online and declutterring, but then buying way too much secondhand  stuff online too..looking forward to being motivated by other people’s efforts!

zcrat41

thanks for the Stilton ideas. The package said not to freeze but sounds like it’ll be ok for soups etc. I don’t want to leave it in the fridge as it won’t last till Feb - I will eat it looong before then and there is a lot. No self control! 

Cas

I love Stilton! I find it keeps well wrapped in the fridge for weeks..

Cooked a Sa1nsbury's YL gammon ham in the airfryer so that's tomorrow's evening meal sorted along with some of the 8p brussels plus some of last year's potato crop that's stored on the garage. LEftover gammon will be shredded and frozen ready to add to stirfries. There's 2 heads of broccoli in the fridge so I'll make soup during the week - oh for some of that Stilton! Tonight's evening meal is lasagne from the freezer. 
 
Surprise windfall from one the shopping surveys I do. For this one you need to scan your receipt and scan the barcodes of everything on that receipt. It's fine for us as we shop little and often so there's not many items on each receipt. I've just managed to access the rewards area having been locked out for about a year and found I've accumulated enough points which I can cash in for about £150 gift cards! Have also accumulated enough points doing Y0uG0v surveys to cash in for £50. Those will both come in very handy!

DH, whose job is dealing with complaints, is so fed up with the shocking service we've received recently from some big name firms that he's declared 2025 as the year of complaints. So far, by being nice but firm, we've managed to obtain a refund of a next day delivery charge because the item was delivered late, a partial refund from Amaz0n for a box of dog treats which were supposed to be an equal mix of 3 types but instead 90% of them were the same and £40 from O2 because they somehow managed to block our sim cards. There's also £25 from Nationwide because we didn't receive notification of interest rates on a saving account being reduced.

Tonight's task is sewing up some of the soft toys our pooch has chewed holes in rather than buying replacements.

Gem-gem

Quantaqa said:

No spends in the New Year so far fo me except a stock up of bits from my local butcher.  OH and I will head out this afternoon to stock up on Laudry bits (on offer in Lidl) and bits for a pantry stock up like Sharwoods curry sauces (on offer in Asda).  Happily no takeaways so far this year!!  Dinner tonight is Beef Stroganoff which OH makes from a Joe Wicks recipe. 

Only other spend for me today will be an order of Yarn.  It's my Mum's 80th in July and I am going to make her a crochet blanket.  I need to get cracking with it soon.

Re: your Mum's blanket - what colours and design? 

I crocheted a cream blanket with 10 heather and cream flowers that went across in a band. 

Gem-gem

Zcrat14, as Mama67 said chop it up in smaller chunks and freeze. My DH bought some reduced to quarter price last week. I have frozen 3/4 of it into 1/4 size chunks. Today I had Stilton and biscuits with carrot. The biscuits were free and the carrots were part of the Christmas veg. Tonight I had 30% off piece of steak. Towards the end of the cooking process I crumbled Stilton over it and let it melt. It made a sort of cheese sauce. Steak and Stilton - yum, yum 😀
Has anyone made Stilton scones? I make cheddar ones with a little mustard.