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Use what I already have in store in my cupboards and never shop until I have at least ten items on my list.Cook from scratch and streetch meals with extra veg.I cook as my late Mum did during rationing There is only me to feed indoors and at least twice a week I am out for a meal
This is my menu for the coming week
Sunday B: cereal /porridge, tea/coffee
L: HM soup (I make a big vat of soup usually on a Saturday morning from Y/S bendy veg thats past its best and it will do for a good four or five days in the fridge) and cheese and crackers (I don't eat bread so a couple of crackers with some grated cheese or soft cream cheese is fine (I find that the value cheese is excellent as I can add any flavouring I want to my self i.e. herbs ,chilli powder, a diced up spring onion etc)
at my DD's every Sunday ,but I usually make and take the pudding ,either a crumble or perhaps a milk pud for us all.
Monday B; cereal/ porridge. in the cereal if I have any, I dice up a banana and half will go on the cereal and the other half will go on crackers at lunchtime mashed up.If its porridge I sometimes add a few frozen berries or a bit of cinnamon and a few sultana's
L: soup and crackers with the mashed rest of the banana
D. tomorrow I will have a cottage pie from the freezer. I batch make them and freeze for a meal during the week as I look after my DGS after school and don't get home until around 6.30 pm.
Tuesday B. cereal/porridge tea /coffee
L. an omelette with some diced up sweet pepper added and a bit of grated cheese and apple for pud
D. out at my U3A pub quiz that I help run. I get a meal whilst there which is included in the £2.00 entrance price.So a night off from cooking
Wednesday B : cereal or porridge again. I don't mind either as its really only fuel to start the day. tea/coffee
L: Probably soup, and crackers with soft cheese or pate topped with a sliced tomato and perhaps some diced cucumber an orange for pud
D. I have some chicken thighs which I will cook with sweet chilli sauce and mashed spud and green veg.
Thursday B:Maybe a boiled egg with crackers to dip in for a change, tea/coffee
L probably the last of the soup with crackers and cheese and an apple Veggie curry from the freezer with rice and maybe some diced up apple and orange for pud
Friday B: cereal/porridge with maybe some honey swirled into the porridge, tea/coffee
L : some mashed up pilchards spread on a few crackers apple for pud perhaps the rest of the small tin of pilchards mashed up on a bed of lettuce ,tomato ,cucumber with some diced beetroot and grated cheese on top fresh fruit for pud
Saturday B:scrambled egg with crackers tea/coffee
L Jacket potato with cheese and beans an apple maybe a chilli from the freezer with rice and fresh fruit
This will be roughly my menu for this coming week. I menu plan on a Sunday morning, and it varies with what I have in stock at the time.
I am reasonably healthy and apart from a few aches and pains (down to old age ) its more than sufficient for me .I gave up eating bread about two years ago and dropped a stone in weight
I rarely eat butter and only use block butter in shortbread .Elevenses and mid afternoon I will have tea or coffee but as its lent I have given up biscuits until easter I do miss my ginger nuts and rich tea biscuits at the moment I do eat quite a bit of fruit and veg though and a sweetheart cabbage wrapped in foil in the fridge lasts for at least a week.I rarely by tinned food ,apart from the small tins of pilchards which I really like or perhaps tuna which I will mix up with mayo and sweetcorn to use in a salad as a base.
I enjoy meat, although again I don't eat a great deal of it as I really like veg. A veg lasagne or chilli or curry can be just as filling as a meat one with the addition of herbs and spices.
I do enjoy cheese and its in my diet daily. I use UHT milk in tea or coffee or cereal and it suits me as I have no waste with it
I do quite a bit of HM stuff and don't eat take-aways and very little food fried at all (my treat now and again is on a tuesday night at the pub when its bangers and chips night as its the only time I will eat chips
This is only one of the menus I eat. I do vary it depending on the fruit and veg that's in season
In the autumn my DGS and I will forage for blackberries which will go into the freezer for winter crunmbles and go into cereals or porridge.I bake quite a bit forty DGS and its so easy to knock up a few odds and ends for the boys
I try to eat as little processed food as possible but I am not averse if I see a bargain of a tin with a dent in it to get it and use when needed. Baked beans make a good and quick snack in a bowl with grated cheese swirled around in them.I am luckythat I have good neighbours who will in exchange for a cake or two donate a bag of apples from their tree:):) .
By shopping only for essentials and sticking more or less to the list I will buy what's needed to build around what I already have got in store. This year I amdefinitely wanting to reduce some of the amount of food I have at the moment indoors especially in the freezer(its in need of a defrost )
I live about half an hour fromWhitstable sonow and again I will drive there and buy up some fish ,so fresh its almost jumping off the plate.This will go intomy freezer. I only buy really good sausages glocester old spot ones and would rather have one of those on my plate with veg and onion gravy than four cheap ones(they are 88% meat ) Aldi's and Lidls are excellent for fruit and veg and lots of other bits as well and I rarely use Mr T's anymore. White vinegar is fine in the washing machine as a conditioner and I use half and half, soda crystals and washing detergent in the machine as well. I will use anything I find useful forceaning and try not to use proprietry branded good for cleaning. elbow grease helps no end
Hope this has helped a little, I do believe in menu planning though, and only using hard cash from my food budget purse .I have a set amount in there on the 1st of every month and it will last for the month and anything left over gets swept into my holiday savings account at the end of the month. When shopping think before you buy anything.
'will I use it and what will I eat it with /or will it be frozen for later' stops you filling your basket with stuff you may well throw away, if you throw food away then you just as well open your purse and throw the cntents away
JackieO xx0 -
Hi Suki1964
Is the chicken processing plant just local to you?
Also does the factory shop have a particular name? We have a 'The Original Factory Shop' in Redruth but we have never been in.
I work for a lady for whom I shop twice a week so it is unlikely that I will ever run out or have an expensive shop but I like your idea of having one in use, one in stock :T
My trouble is when I see a bargain I tend to hit it hard! For example, even though I am on a fiscal fast, I bought 8 (yes 8) packs of long spaghetti as it was 60% cheaper than I usually pay. So you see, I have a long way to go yet :rotfl:
Eek I was supposed to have typed the factory shop AT the chicken processing factory
Its May Park, they process chicken for the rest of the uk and they sell off over stocks and wrong weight , short date products to the public. its a bit hit and miss as to what you get, but sometimes you hit it just right and come out with a freezer full for very little
This little lot for example was £15
I too used to be like you, buying so much because it was so cheap, but then I wised up to the fact my money was better being used elsewhere so stopped it and now stick to the one in use, one spare
The other thing is, the special offers come around and around. Ive never paid full price for shampoo, toothpaste, loo roll, beans etc, but I don't stock pile either0 -
Use what I already have in store in my cupboards and never shop until I have at least ten items on my list.Cook from scratch and streetch meals with extra veg.I cook as my late Mum did during rationing There is only me to feed indoors and at least twice a week I am out for a meal
This is my menu for the coming week
Sunday B: cereal /porridge, tea/coffee
L: HM soup (I make a big vat of soup usually on a Saturday morning from Y/S soup or bendy veg thats past its best and it will do for a good four or five days in the fridge) and cheese and crackers (I don't eat bread so a couple of crackers with some grated cheese or soft cream cheese is fine (I find that the value cheese is excellent as I can add any flavouring I want to my self i.e. herbs ,chilli powder, a diced up spring onion etc) at my DD's every Sunday ,but I usually make and take the pudding ,either a crumble or perhaps a milk pud for us all.
Monday B; cereal/ porridge. in the cereal if I have any, I dice up a banana and half will go on the cereal and the other half will go on crackers at lunchtime mashed up.If its porridge I sometimes add a few frozen berries or a bit of cinnamon and a few sultana's
L: soup and crackers with the mashed rest of the banana
D. tomorrow I will have a cottage pie from the freezer. I batch make them and freeze for a meal during the week as I look after my DGS after school and don't get home until around 6.30 pm.
Tuesday B. cereal/porridge tea /coffee
L. an omelette with some diced up sweet pepper added and a bit of grated cheese and apple for pud
D. out at my U3A pub quiz that I help run. I get a meal whilst there which is included in the £2.00 entrance price.So a night off from cooking
Wednesday B : cereal or porridge again. I don't mind either as its really only fuel to start the day. tea/coffee
L: Probably soup, and crackers with soft cheese or pate topped with a sliced tomato and perhaps some diced cucumber an orange for pud
D. I have some chicken thighs which I will cook with sweet chilli sauce and mashed spud and green veg.
Thursday B:Maybe a boiled egg with crackers to dip in for a change, tea/coffee
L probably the last of the soup with crackers and cheese and an apple Veggie curry from the freezer with rice and maybe some diced up apple and orange for pud
Friday B: cereal/porridge with maybe some honey swirled into the porridge, tea/coffee
L : some mashed up pilchards spread on a few crackers apple for pud perhaps the rest of the small tin of pilchards mashed up on a bed of lettuce ,tomato ,cucumber with some diced beetroot and grated cheese on top fresh fruit for pud
Saturday B:scrambled egg with crackers tea/coffee
L Jacket potato with cheese and beans an apple maybe a chilli from the freezer with rice and fresh fruit
This will be roughly my menu for this coming week. I menu plan on a Sunday morning, and it varies with what I have in stock at the time.
I am reasonably healthy and apart from a few aches and pains (down to old age ) its more than sufficient for me .I gave up eating bread about two years ago and dropped a stone in weight
I rarely eat butter and only use block butter in shortbread .Elevenses and mid afternoon I will have tea or coffee but as its lent I have given up biscuits until easter I do miss my ginger nuts and rich tea biscuits at the moment I do eat quite a bit of fruit and veg though and a sweetheart cabbage wrapped in foil in the fridge lasts for at least a week.I rarely by tinned food ,apart from the small tins of pilchards which I really like or perhaps tuna which I will mix up with mayo and sweetcorn to use in a salad as a base.
I enjoy meat, although again I don't eat a great deal of it as I really like veg. A veg lasagne or chilli or curry can be just as filling as a meat one with the addition of herbs and spices.
I do enjoy cheese and its in my diet daily. I use UHT milk in tea or coffee or cereal and it suits me as I have no waste with it
I do quite a bit of HM stuff and don't eat take-aways and very little food fried at all (my treat now and again is on a tuesday night at the pub when its bangers and chips night as its the only time I will eat chips
This is only one of the menus I eat. I do vary it depending on the fruit and veg that's in season
In the autumn my DGS and I will forage for blackberries which will go into the freezer for winter crunmbles and go into cereals or porridge.I bake quite a bit forty DGS and its so easy to knock up a few odds and ends for the boys
I try to eat as little processed food as possible but I am not averse if I see a bargain of a tin with a dent in it to get it and use when needed. Baked beans make a good and quick snack in a bowl with grated cheese swirled around in them.I am luckythat I have good neighbours who will in exchange for a cake or two donate a bag of apples from their tree:):) .
By shopping only for essentials and sticking more or less to the list I will buy what's needed to build around what I already have got in store. This year I amdefinitely wanting to reduce some of the amount of food I have at the moment indoors especially in the freezer(its in need of a defrost )
I live about half an hour fromWhitstable sonow and again I will drive there and buy up some fish ,so fresh its almost jumping off the plate.This will go intomy freezer. I only buy really good sausages glocester old spot ones and would rather have one of those on my plate with veg and onion gravy than four cheap ones(they are 88% meat ) Aldi's and Lidls are excellent for fruit and veg and lots of other bits as well and I rarely use Mr T's anymore. White vinegar is fine in the washing machine as a conditioner and I use half and half, soda crystals and washing detergent in the machine as well. I will use anything I find useful forceaning and try not to use proprietry branded good for cleaning. elbow grease helps no end
Hope this has helped a little, I do believe in menu planning though, and only using hard cash from my food budget purse .I have a set amount in there on the 1st of every month and it will last for the month and anything left over gets swept into my holiday savings account at the end of the month. When shopping think before you buy anything.
'will I use it and what will I eat it with /or will it be frozen for later' stops you filling your basket with stuff you may well throw away, if you throw food away then you just as well open your purse and throw the cntents away
JackieO xx
What AWESOME advice JackieO - thank you so very much :T
We always cook from scratch too and the only tins we buy are beans of all varieties.
At the start of your post you mentioned Y/S soup,what is this please?"One hundred years from now, it will not matter what kind of car I drove, what kind of house I lived in, how much was in my bank account, nor what my clothes looked like but the world may be a little bit better because I was important in the life of a child."0 -
Eek I was supposed to have typed the factory shop AT the chicken processing factory
Its May Park, they process chicken for the rest of the uk and they sell off over stocks and wrong weight , short date products to the public. its a bit hit and miss as to what you get, but sometimes you hit it just right and come out with a freezer full for very little
This little lot for example was £15
I too used to be like you, buying so much because it was so cheap, but then I wised up to the fact my money was better being used elsewhere so stopped it and now stick to the one in use, one spare
The other thing is, the special offers come around and around. Ive never paid full price for shampoo, toothpaste, loo roll, beans etc, but I don't stock pile either
Wow, what a bargain Suzi :j"One hundred years from now, it will not matter what kind of car I drove, what kind of house I lived in, how much was in my bank account, nor what my clothes looked like but the world may be a little bit better because I was important in the life of a child."0 -
Fiscal Fast Day 37
In the previous few weeks, prior to our major stock inventory owe have been to all our local discount shops and I think we have the measure of which one is the cheapest for which.
We have visited
B&M
Poundland
Poundstretcher
Home Bargains
Have we missed any national ones?
When we need to top up we will go to these stores apart from my beloved Bookers. I shall TRY to keep out of the major supermarkets but I do have to shop at Tesco twice a week for the lady whom I care for.
Today was a visit to Poundstretchers where we got some amazing bargains. I am teetotal so a 7 up light is a treat for me and they were 5 full cans for a £1 - very pleased.
We also visited a Table Top Sale and craft fayre and I reigned in my spending to items for resale on ebay along with the most beautiful hand made cards that I have ever seen.
I'm still incredibly happy with my progress :cool:"One hundred years from now, it will not matter what kind of car I drove, what kind of house I lived in, how much was in my bank account, nor what my clothes looked like but the world may be a little bit better because I was important in the life of a child."0 -
Fiscal Fast Day 38
:j Another NSD :j
That makes a total of 10 since I first started this challenge, 25% are No Spend Days.
Now the challenge is to increase this percentage :rotfl:
With us living in a rural location, fuel eats up a lot of our budget (our nearest bus stop is 1.5 miles away so buses are not an alternative sadly)
So NSD are like gold dust as we multi-task when we use the car. All our discount shops are not in the same location / direction of travel so we must call into them when we are passing.
Hopefully though now that we have a better understanding of where and how we shop, we will be able to chip away at that percentage
"One hundred years from now, it will not matter what kind of car I drove, what kind of house I lived in, how much was in my bank account, nor what my clothes looked like but the world may be a little bit better because I was important in the life of a child."0 -
What AWESOME advice JackieO - thank you so very much :T
At the start of your post you mentioned Y/S soup,what is this please?
Should read Y/S (yellow stickered i.e. reduced ) veg, was typing with my MacAir laptop and it writes what it wants at times. My old clunky desktop is much better for posting on
Today I spent a whopping £18.05 in total making my total for February £30.49p. So I am quite pleased with that as I now have more than enough to last me for at least 10-12 days.
I bought extra fruit and veg and splurged out on two large reduced priced sirloin steaks for £5.60 which have been cut in half and will do for four meals easily (I pound the livng daylights out of steak)
This will be four weekend treat meals for me on a Saturday night with salad or jacket spud so I shall be feasting like the 'toffs' for the next four Saturday nights:):) A treat now and again is nice to look forward to during the week
JackieO xx0 -
Should read Y/S (yellow stickered i.e. reduced ) veg, was typing with my MacAir laptop and it writes what it wants at times. My old clunky desktop is much better for posting on
Today I spent a whopping £18.05 in total making my total for February £30.49p. So I am quite pleased with that as I now have more than enough to last me for at least 10-12 days.
I bought extra fruit and veg and splurged out on two large reduced priced sirloin steaks for £5.60 which have been cut in half and will do for four meals easily (I pound the livng daylights out of steak)
This will be four weekend treat meals for me on a Saturday night with salad or jacket spud so I shall be feasting like the 'toffs' for the next four Saturday nights:):) A treat now and again is nice to look forward to during the week
JackieO xx
Mmm steak! I find it very hit and miss as to how steak freezes with regards to taste. Do you find it tastes as nice as fresh steak?"One hundred years from now, it will not matter what kind of car I drove, what kind of house I lived in, how much was in my bank account, nor what my clothes looked like but the world may be a little bit better because I was important in the life of a child."0 -
Fiscal Fast Day 39
Another NSD making it 11 in total :j
How is everyone else doing towards their goals?"One hundred years from now, it will not matter what kind of car I drove, what kind of house I lived in, how much was in my bank account, nor what my clothes looked like but the world may be a little bit better because I was important in the life of a child."0 -
Yes steak is fine if you buy a decent quality one My local Dobbies uses Brogdale meat which is supplied from its place in Kent so few food miles to travel (about 10) plus most of its stuff is organic and being local meat its keeping a local business going.. It was half price as on special offer so 488gm which is just over a pound of steak cost me £5.60. It is sirloin which is a good cut as well and had just a small rim of fat.I am particular when it comes to meat as I would rather have less of better quality than more of the cheaper stuff
with a salad and a small jacket potato my steak will be a nice meal for a Saturday night treat, cut into four, the steaks are about the size of the palm of my hand and more than enough for me, and a steak dinner will cost me including the spud and salad about £2.00 pretty good value for a treat meal I think
Last night I cooked a small gammon joint that cost me £2.45 from aldi's I put it in the sc overnight with some cola and wiped some runny honey over it and this morning I have a delicious ham which once cold will be sliced up and portioned for the freezerI should get at least 6-7 portions out of it as I have an electric knife and it slices better cold .800 gm of honey roast ham for £2.45, nicer than the plastic ham from the sm and a darned sight cheaper as well.and odd end bits will be diced and frozen to use in pasta. Should get around 8 meals out of it with additions of salad,pasta etc. the meat content for a meal is fine if you think of it as only a small part of the meal and bulk it out with veg etc.0
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