2026 Frugal Living Challenge

lurkeralongtime

Re food. This is my lowest expense.l make bread from Aldi bread flour, wholemeal on offer 99p a bag. Since my children left I’ve used a bread machine. When I come across reasonably priced food I buy it.Last year I bought 12 tubs of flora for less than Aldis cheapest marg.Last week I bought two half price bottles of milk and made the most delicious, thick creamy yoghurt with it. Served daily with a banana, 19 p for 6. I will freeze a bit of the yoghurt today to use as a starter. Ihave about 8kg of potatoes left from Xmas when they were free or 5p a bag, also 3 swedes,2 crown prince pumpkins,a celeriac and some shallots. These all predate Xmas.Two swedes were 5p, the rest were gifted from food pantry as no one else wanted them. When I cook I usually make enough for several days.Last week I made baked potatoes in my Remoska. Smaller ones for that night, two bigger ones that continued cooking after the Remoska was switched off. At the same time As the potatoes I cooked a crown prince that was going downhill, and just before the potatoes were ready I threw in some frozen Brussels sprouts.(a thick slice of cabbage chucked into the Remoska is also good. Next day crown prince and potato soup.

Sadly food pantry unexpectedly closed in January.

Now if I could just curb my craft spending!

Cherryfudge

@lurkeralongtime , thanks for mentioning freezing live yogurt to use as a starter. I will do that with a small amount of the batch I made in my Instant Pot last night! I often end up making yogurt if there's milk about to go over, but sometimes I don't actually need it at that point. Does it lose any of its vitality with being frozen? In other words do I need a bit more than I would usually use?

lurkeralongtime

yes cherry fudge (what a gorgeous name) add a little bit extra yoghurt if frozen.

I have some blocks of frozen yeast, gifted from food pantry as no one else was interested, and I added 10% extra to the recipe as recommended somewhere. However this is supercharged yeast and I’m now back to using the recommended amount!

suzeesu2000

Hit the Coop at just the right time this afternoon. They had just done a big mark down. Got a ton of pastries, rolls and bread all reduced to 30p each. Then found, right on the bottom of the reduced shelving, 2 bags of Fairy dishwasher tablets reduced for £12.60 to £6.30! I only buy them when on offer and this will keep me going probably to the end of the year. Got a couple of bags of sweeties and a newspaper for DH. Should have come to £78 but actually paid £38. The new small chest freezer is full to the gunnels now. We won’t be needing bread or rolls for several months.

Gem-gem

Good evening, Money saving today: 1. Individual Nect@r prices bought. £4.71 saved. Extra Nectar points gained. 2. Shoe soles glued back. 3. Swapped leeks and mint with neighbour - he gave his labour and fixed one of our raised beds and the blind in our kitchen. He also took our broken tree stakes away and is going to make new sharp points on them - they will be used to keep the raspberries under control. 4. Continued to weed the garden - no paid gardeners here. 5. Dinner - serving seven and eight taken from the roast chicken cooked on Saturday night (at my DM - as her electric bill is part of her rent). 6. Defrosting second freezer. 7. Two loads of washing dried outside. 8. Washed and dried foil. It will be used time and time again. 9. DH picked up some YS deli wraps and whole milk.

PipneyJane

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81933604#Comment_81933604

I’m a knitter, @lurkeralongtime but I do crochet occasionally. I’ll keep an eye out for the Annie’s Attic book. Thank you for the recommendation. (I think I’ve only seen one crochet sock pattern in a magazine.)

If you have a L!dl near you, keep an eye out for when they sell sock yarn. It’s rather hard to predict if/when they will but, when they do, their sock yarn is really good value for money. Usually, they’ll sell it in 200g packs for £5. One skein will be plain, the other patterned, so I’ll buy 4 packs for £20, knit a jumper with the plain yarn and 6 or 7 pairs of socks with the patterned.

• Pip

MrsCD

Asd@ had the 1kg bags of red lentils for £2, the other evening if anyone's still looking for them. Strangely, their own brand ones were sold out...500g for £2! They were in the same aisle, just on opposite sides.

Today, lid! had spaghetti for 28p.

Quantaqa

Hello All, it's a grey and dull day here today. DH is busy in the kitchen making Stovies for tomorrows dinner and I'll shortly be making Pizza dough for today's HM pizza dinner.

My niece asked me last week if I would make a chocolate orange cheesecake for dessert on Easter Sunday. She requested it for Christmas as well. Does anyone know where to get a Terry's Chocolate Orange for around £1? I am hoping they discount them in the run up to Easter. I managed to get 'large' Easter eggs for my nieces for 45p each at Mr T by combining a clubcard offer with a clubcard voucher so I'm pleased with that.

mandy47

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81935479#Comment_81935479

Terry's chocolate orange bars are £1.25 in Iceland. Terry's mini eggs £1 in waitrose.

Quantaqa

Thank you mandy47, I've pop to Iceland tomorrow