2025 Frugal Living Challenge

mandy47

Been to local shopping centre with DH. We both had various vouchers for Xmas. We came back with a large perfume from next, a vinyl album and 2 books. Total outlay £1. My kind of shopping! 
Also collected my new laptop. Paid for with last year's survey earnings. It's quite basic but does what I need xx

Gem-gem

@Quantaqa, the blanket that you plan to crochet looks lovely. I have been enjoying looking at the sites that you mentioned. 

@zcrat41, we have a local farm that rears mainly lambs / hoggarts. Every year we buy half a lamb / hoggart from them. Occasionally they have some beef or pork. If I had my way we would buy all our meat straight from the farms. I do know of a pig farm that has a farm shop about 30 miles away, when I visit a friend I like to pop in and buy their sausages. I refuse to eat sausages from supermarkets or wholesalers. My parents use to have a large chest freezer and buy a quarter of a cow, some pig and a lamb.

In the slow cooker we have tomato and basil soup (Dehlia's recipe). The tomatoes we grew. Our neighbour lent us his greenhouse and we shared the produce. If it wasn't for this our tomato supplies would have been very limited. We still have more than a drawer of tomatoes left. We have a small chest freezer still filled with fruit - blackcurrants, raspberries, blackberries and apples.
@Glittering_M I also make pasta sauces, tomato ketchup and a tomato/chilli Chinese sauce from our tomatoes. I have tried bottling it the sweet chilli sauce and ketchup. They turned out okay.
I do prefer to freeze the pasta sauce. (We have four freezers that are rammed at this time of year!)
Cooked the last of our Christmas carrots and swede today - mashed it up and froze the left overs. Today's lunch was beef and mushroom stew with dumplings, potatoes and four veg. (yellow sticker beef and mushrooms).

Yesterday, we made a purchase - resources to make six Christmas presents. Plus 60 Christmas cards for 60p (for my nephew to use at school - at least two years worth). 

Today is a no spend day. NSD: 4 out of 5 days. 

maryb

comes bustling in. - did someone say canning?  I’m into that sort of preserving and do quite a lot of it
canning is the US term for preserving in glass jars.  When I started nearly all the information out there was American and they are absolutely paranoid about botulism.  There is a fantastic Facebook group called Preserving and Canning UK and someone summed it up by saying they have to work on the assumption you are working in an off grid log cabin with a dirt floor and using well water ie lowest common denominator safety assumptions.

its perfectly true that if you follow those guidelines you will be safe from botulism.  But it very much limits what you can do - not only do you need a pressure canner ( not a common or garden pressure cooker) to do low acid foods ie meat or vegetables, but they go so far as to say you should only ever use tested recipes and not vary them in any way

people in Europe have been canning/ bottling for many decades without using pressure canners just processing the jars in a big pot of boiling water (water bathing). The processing times are longer and you need to thoroughly reheat food when you open the jars.  The Le Parfait website has lots of recipes and videos and it is available in English though the translation can be hit and miss eg “Laurier” in the French recipe isn’t translated ( it’s a bay leaf by the way)

There are various different jars you can use.  Americans always use what they call mason jars which have a two part lid consisting of a flat disc ( which you are supposed to replace every time you reuse the jar.  you put that on top of the jar and use the screw band to hold it in place while the jar is processed in the canner.  When you take the jars out of the canner a vacuum forms as they cool and that keeps the food inside the jar from spoiling   After that you can take the screw band off and save it for next time

le Parfait, of course, recommend their clip top jars.  IKEA sell similar jars which are quite good.  They have a rubber ring which, again, you are supposed to replace each time.  I don’t like these as you can’t get so many in the canner and they are difficult to lift out of the very hot water even with a jar lifter ( You DEFINITELY Need a jar lifter)

The very knowledgeable people on the Facebook group often use what they call lug lid jars.  These are like the Dolmio pasta sauce jars or jam jars.  You can buy new jars or reuse Dolmio type jars though mayonnaise jars might not be sturdy enough.  You can often reuse the lids but there are places that sell replacement lids online

whatever you decide to use Hobbycraft is a very good source of cheap jars

I really recommend you ask to join the Facebook group.  They are very friendly and helpful and someone will always answer any questions you have.  And you won’t be excommunicated for the merest hint of wanting to deviate from the strictest of American rules.  If you decide to follow American rules then Rose Red Homestead on YouTube is the best source

Quantaqa

I'm very impressed with all the knowledge on canning/bottling. This is something I haven't the foggiest about. I thought I'd try doing some homemade pasta sauce as I've seen a few people mention that they do that. Does anyone have a recipe they'd ve willing ti share?  Do you store it in normal jam jars? In the freezer?

Cas

@Quantaqa I make a basic pasta tomato sauce based on an Antonio Carluccio recipe. I use whatever jars or tins of tomatoes or passata I have to hand, usually 2 tins or 2 small cartons or 1 large jar. Warm up 1-2tbsp of olive oil in a pot, add the toms plus 1tsp salt, 5-10g sugar (I use demerara) and a few grinds of black pepper. If you want to add a bit more depth of flavour add a tbsp of balsamic (one with grape must as the first ingredient rather than vinegar). Leave it to simmer away until it reduces down to the consistency you want and then add some basil. I then portion it up and stick in the freezer. I sometimes add some cooked pasta to the portions before I freeze which makes for an easy a simple lunch. You can add whatever you want to the basic sauce for a bit of variety like red chilli or sweated off soffritto (carrot/onion/celery).   

Quantaqa

Thank you @Cas, I'm going to give this a go next weekend. It would be so handy to have them ready to go, plus so much cheaper than shop bought 👍

Cas

You're very welcome @Quantaqa, I find it's so much tastier than shop bought!  My absolute favourite is frying some sliced onions and peppers in olive oil before adding the pasta sauce which is then served up with a small amount of cooked and sliced beef and either pasta, rice or potatoes. Our local Italian restaurant used to serve it with pasta plus beef fillet served whatever way you liked it cooked. 

dND

Thanks @maryb, you covered that far better than I did.  In France they canned/bottled just about everything and generally with no bother although there was the case of the cafe in Bordeaux a year or so ago who's sardines caused deaths. 😱

I keep wondering about a pressure canner - the website L0ve J4rs sells them - but can't justify the £350ish to buy one!  Currently my go to book is a 1980's book just called Preserving.  My copy is falling apart but I shall use it as long as possible.  I'm lucky that my DS2 bought me a hardback copy a few years ago but I'm guarding that in reserve 🤣 Dx

DawnW

My mum used to bottle fruit, but for some reason I have never tried. I make jam, jelly, pickles and chutney and freeze the rest. I think the Americans also make a big thing about pressure canning jam etc, but I find it keeps for years, and to be honest the high sugar content of jam / jelly, and the high vinegar content of chutney / pickles keep the nasties away.

dND

My latest TGTG box 😁 That's probably my lunches for the rest of the month.  There was lots being sorted into the boxes today, I guess sales were down yesterday and today with people staying away because of the weather warnings. 
I purposely chose a box with extra double cream in it as I've been wanting to make butter for a while.  Last time I did was in primary school back in the 60's. 🤣 That will also leave me with whey for soda bread or scones so zero waste.  I've lots of main meals in the freezer from greatly reduced food before Xmas along with some of the 8p veg so more than happy with my lunch assortment and really hoping for a minimum spend on groceries this month.

I also spotted today that one of my bralettes has a broken thread so I'm tracking down the sewing box to repair that.  A quick peruse of the internet and I think I'll be using herringbone stitch.  The bralette is lycra and stretchy and herringbone stitch should stretch along with the fabric. Dx