2025 Frugal Living Challenge

joedenise

I bought a pork loin this week.  Like you I cut it into smaller joints before freezing.  I also bought a chicken and cut it in half before freezing.  Half is plenty for 2 meals for 2 of us and a sandwich each.

Gem-gem

joedenise said:

Gem-gem said:

Good afternoon, 
Heads up... Sainsbury's are selling their medium chickens for £2.67 with a Nectar card. 50% discount. 

It's £2.67 per kilo not per chicken; so not quite as good as the headline figure of £2.67!

My receipt shows £2.67 per chicken. 

3 x chickens @ £5.35 = £16.05
£16.05-£8.04=£8.01
£8.04 / 3 = £2.67

Thanks fur the heads up with the pork loin. I didn't spot it. I want to gave another go at making sausages. Anyone know a good tried and tested recipe? 

Nelliegrace

I have found River Cottage ingredients here. I was thinking of making enough for sausage rolls from scratch because of the price and UPF ingredients in supermarket sausagemeat.

https://letters.cookingisfun.ie/2005/11/05/hugh-fearnley-whittingstall-at-ballymaloe/#Sausages

suzeesu2000

Gem-gem said:

joedenise said:

Gem-gem said:

Good afternoon, 
Heads up... Sainsbury's are selling their medium chickens for £2.67 with a Nectar card. 50% discount. 

It's £2.67 per kilo not per chicken; so not quite as good as the headline figure of £2.67!

My receipt shows £2.67 per chicken. 

3 x chickens @ £5.35 = £16.05
£16.05-£8.04=£8.01
£8.04 / 3 = £2.67

Thanks fur the heads up with the pork loin. I didn't spot it. I want to gave another go at making sausages. Anyone know a good tried and tested recipe? 

I JUST missed the offer. That’ll teach me not to come on forum until late. Was a very good offer too. 

Gem-gem

Nelliegrace said:

I have found River Cottage ingredients here. I was thinking of making enough for sausage rolls from scratch because of the price and UPF ingredients in supermarket sausagemeat.

https://letters.cookingisfun.ie/2005/11/05/hugh-fearnley-whittingstall-at-ballymaloe/#Sausages

The recipe says 5kg of minced pork. I was hoping for a breakdown of the pork meat. I have a mincer and a sausage maker attachment. 

Gem-gem

Finished my BIL's Christmas present. 

All the yarn except the red was free. My DM gave it to me when we were emptying her bungalow. I'm pleased with the result and also that I have learnt lots of new stitches. 

Dinner tonight: ys chicken turned into curry. 

Yesterday, DH and I booked a holiday. It is my Christmas present from him. Today, I paused one of my gym memberships for the month that we are away as I would not be able to make full use of both in the days that I have left in the month. I have to pay £10 but that is better than £55. Used the price comparison for the holiday insurance. 

Gem-gem

Good evening, 
Hope everyone had a good Saturday. 

A not so frugal day for us as I went shopping and bought some clothes for DH and myself. My DH has dropped a clothes size and most of his trousers are falling down! When he puts a belt on it looks like a sac drawn in. Managed to get 20% off on one pair. These he will have as an early Christmas present. Another pair will be an early present from my Dad. 

I bought a new swimming costume as I've had mine for years and I don't think it will be long before it goes. All but one of my items were discounted. In one shop they gave me a discount on items that were not even discounted! 

Skipped breakfast today, lunch was ys fruit. Dinner was ys rump steak with free butternut squash and ys cabbage along with a jacket potato. 

Caught up on All Creature Great and Small tonight. That programme does make you smile (and cry! I only watch them when I am by myself as I don't want my DH see me cry over the sad or happy bits 🤣😂).

Prudent

I should have checked in sooner and found the chicken deal. OH collected me from a coach journey and we popped into the nearby Sainsburys. OH doesn't eat meat so I buy a chicken occasionally, roast it and portion in up to go in the freezer. I love a Sunday roast so I have some of the chicken and OH has a veggie pie and I make roast veggies for us to share. 

I have been up to Inverness this week to visit my DD which was lovely. I am now trying to catch up on cleaning and cooking. I saw a recipe on Facebook for raspberry ruffle traybake and just made some for OH. I think raspberry ruffles were a rare childhood treat for him and he mentions them nostalgically. He thoroughly enjoyed it, and I have put some aside to take to his siblings. I am noticing just how much it costs to do a small traybake now, though. Even with buying Lidl basic chocolate, it cost just over £6 for condensed milk, the desiccated coconut, a twin pack of raspberry jelly crystals and three bars of chocolate. I popped into the local Co-op today and was astounded to see that Options hot chocolate powder was £6. At least this will be good for my waistline, and thankfully, OH is happy with treats like scones, homemade cookies, sponges, etc. Hopefully I can drop a size like @Gem-gem's hubby!

I am enjoying the beautiful autumn colours just now. I hope we get some dry days this week to enjoy some walks. I think the woodland just smells beautiful at this time of year too. I feel so revived a walk with OH and a flask of tea.

Frugaldom

DiscountDuck said:

Hi, I’m joining very late in the year - or perhaps diligently early for next year depending on how you see it. 

Welcome on board. I think I like the diligently early analysis. Hope you have fun being part of the challenge. 

Thank you for the heads up on Sainsbobs... I so seldom escape to any shops that I'm paying full price and over the odds on home deliveries. I've now resorted to buying several packs of chicken drumsticks, mince and cooking bacon, they seem to be the basis for most things here nowadays. 

I can't believe another month has passed and we are now heading into winter. I'm spending so much time at the project that we've had to devise a way to keep milk and foodstuff cool while there without having to keep it outside, where it's still not particularly cold. So... Ingenious misses here decided to drag the old, no longer working, larder fridge into the cabin. I cleaned out said fridge, cut off the cable (no electricity in cabins) and we now keep it cool by having 2 big containers of frozen water that we bring from home. It's worked really well, meaning that when the log burner is lit, I can cook on the top of it and keep what's made cool overnight while here. It will be great for next summer and I'm kicking myself for not having thought of it a year ago, when we first replaced the fridge at the rental cottage.

My luck has definitely held on the Premium Bonds - won £100! It's gone back into more bonds and I'm still chasing the dream of reaching the magical maxed out figure but it's taking a very long time and there's still a long way to go.

Olio has been mainly baked goods and bananas for us lately, so ponies and goats have been snacking on the bananas, along with the apples, the wildlife seems happy with the bready stuff but I don't put out too much at any one time. It all helps.

boultdj

If any of you like silverside beef, it's on offer at Tesco till the end of the month, £11 a kilo instead of £17. hth.