Saturday 31 August 2013

ox tongue,in gravy with spuds, carrots and cabbage

Hi guys this was the kids dinner last night.


to make this I used

Ox tongue i found in the freezer reduced to 18p
spring greens reduced to 54p used about 1/6 of this so 9p
carrots 20p
gravy 10p
value potatoes 40p

total cost 97p or 32p per portion.


These are the came carrots from the chilli so i cooked them all up and will freeze the rest.

Spring greens are great I tell my kids it's cabbage because well it is more or less, i can usually get this reduced and if not you still get alot more for your money than a cabbage most of the time. I also cooked all this up and will freeze some.

I just boiled the spuds nothing special there. (bring to the boil and then turn the ring off and keep a lid on the pan to save electric or gas, i did this with everything)

I ripped the ox tongue into small pieces threw into a casserole dish covered with gravy and popped it into the oven for 15mins.

All plates were cleared after having extra cabbage and extra carrots :)

Friday 30 August 2013

Healthy turkey chilli

Hi everyone sorry i haven't posted in awhile I've been so busy spending money i shouldn't have and getting the kids ready for going back to school. However I'm jumping aboard the frugal wagon once again.

So first up turkey chilli you will need

800g Turkey mince £3.50
3 large carrots 20p
onion 10p (I forgot this in the picture)
kidney beans 27p (mine were 19p as I've had them awhile)
2 cartons of passata 29px2= 58p (mine are tesco finest which are half price normally i use basic/value i only have 1 1/2)
optional- peppers or cherry tomatoes (i got these reduced so threw a few in-i like to add different textures but this is fine without it)
spices 25p

Total cost £4.90 this makes 8 good sized portions so 61p per portion.


First dice you onion and grate you carrot.

I used to have a pampered chef chopped that meant i could do all this in seconds but the blades warped and since i have 2 working hands i can't justify a new one.

My carrots were abit past there best but i peeled them and they were fine (it's perfectly fine to just wash and not peel carrots, if there oraginic even better)


Add to pan.
Add mince- as a general rule i do the same amount of veg to meat.
Brown mince
Add well rinsed kidney beans.
Add passata
Add spices.


All my spices are very cheap, I usually get chilli powder from lidl but these ones were 2 for £2 not long ago.
I use so little garam masala that that pots over a year out of date!
Salt and pepper gringers came from home bargains they are 89p each. fresh ground pepper makes everything taste nice, and this garlic and sea salt one is lovely ground over chips!

Add a pinch of everything and a teaspoon of chilli powder for a milk taste. Adjust to your own tastes.

Then simmer away for around 40min.



This recipe is perfect for the slowcooker, but as it's going to be my lunch i did it in the pan. To slowcooker you can just throw it all in adding some extra water, 6hrs on low should do it(don't worry if your away longer it will be fine), some people brown there mince for the slowcooker I don't bother.


Thats it for me today. See you all tomorrow where i will show you all the frugal dinner the kids are having tonight :)

Saturday 10 August 2013

20 portions of cabbage for 15p !!!

When I was shopping last week i got 3 bags of pre-prepared cabbage and leeks for 5p, this stuff is really nice but £1 normally it's abit dear. however 5p is a steal. But i forgot about them so I parboiled all 3 bags of Friday and frozen them. When I say parboiled I got them up to a boil and turned the ring off leaving the lid on, this saved electric aswell :)

I don't recommend freezing raw cabbage or leeks it goes abit slimy when you defrost it, but if you pre-cook it it's grand.

So i portioned these into 4 bags each will do a dinner for us, I rarely do cabbage on it's own I usually go with some carrots of broccoli aswell.



Thats it for me today, hope you all have a lovely frugal day.

Friday 9 August 2013

free dishcloths and buttons


Just a quick post from me today.

The free clothes I got last week were fab, but there was a few wee holes in this shirt so I took the buttons off and cut it up into rags.

This was a belly top....I'm abit old for that so it got cut up as well


I will use these to clean spills off the floors or the bathroom and benches and hubby will use them for the car.

Some people might think this is abit over the top and just go buy dish clothes, but for the amount i got her i would need 2 packets so this has saved me £1.50 and these will actually wash better than normal ones that go out of shape or j-cloths that rip easy. I had this stuff anyway and 2 mins cutting it up didn't kill me. Thats £1.50 more I can save towards my house.


I will keep the buttons in a jar, before you throw anything away cut the buttons off as it could save you buying some at some point and they take up very little room in a jar.

No shopping today as I don't need anything yet, hoping to last until Monday or Tuesday.

Thats it for me today, hope you all have a lovely frugal day.

Thursday 8 August 2013

Home made bread and soup



This is the kids lunch today, It's home made soup and home made bread.

Bread recipe is pinched from a girl called jacks blog. It has a wheaten bready feel to it and tastes nothing like soda bread in my opinion, that doesn't mean it isn't nice.

http://agirlcalledjack.com/2013/07/02/airy-fairy-easy-peasy-soda-bread/

The soup well...i made butternut squash soup a few weeks ago and froze it, turns out my kids don't like it.

To make the butternut squash soup

I sweated 2 onions and some garlic powder, added in the squash (which i micoowaved to make it easier to peel from the skin) covered in stock and simmered for 20mins.

To make today's soup I heated it up and threw in a jar of finest passata that i got on offer and that's it. and much healthier than a tin of soup :)

Also stolen from a girl called jack are these


There like mini scones with raisins and pineapple in them and very yummy.Jack puts carrots in hers.

http://agirlcalledjack.com/2013/03/25/breakfast-sunshine-buns-6p-each/

I made 12 and with no carrots these worked out at just, 4p each, probably less since i got my flour on 3 for 2 :)


Thats it for me today, hope you all have a lovely frugal day.

Wednesday 7 August 2013

Slow cooker mince.


I'm sure you've guessed by now but i love my slowcooker. It also really comes into it's own when I forget to lift meat out for dinner. This is what happened on monday.


I added 2 blocks of frozen mince and a large onion half covered with water and switched it on to high. (this mince is around 350g each so 700g here as I had extra to feed and wanted some cooked stuff for the freezer) At around lunchtime I turned it down to low and got out my trusty stick blender I blended it all up, this makes cheap mince seem much much nicer, it's better to do it cooked so it doesn't stick round the stick. at 4pm I added 1/4 bag of value frozen veg mix, and added some extra frozen peas and sweetcorn. at 6 I added gravy and that was it done.

onion 10p
mince-£2.85
frozen veg-25p
gravy-20p
spices 10p

total cost- £3.50

Kids and my brother had it on monday night with some mash. Kids had it yesterday with some some reduced baby new potatoes. and I froze 2 dinners worth for the kids meaning this mince did a massive 13 portions at just 26p each (mondays tea was value potatoes, so meals cost 44p per portion, yesterdays was 34p per portion)

I've stopped buying value mince now I'm dieting but my freezer is still full of it and I don't want to waste it.

Went for spuds last night and found these bargains


I bought loads and they will be the base of tonights dinner, stolen from frugal queens blog here

http://frugalincornwall.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/frugal-tartiflette.html

This will be pretty cheap as I have approved foods cheese sauce mixes. my bacon cost £1.80 tho and is from the freezer so that will bump the cost up abit still as I'm using things up I'm pretty happy about it not costing me anything from my bank or savings.


Hope you all had a lovely frugal day. See you tomorrow.

Tuesday 6 August 2013

Cheats fairy cakes.


Hello everyone. yesterday when i had the oven on I threw in some buns. I've had this packet mix for ages and I'm making a  push to use things up so thats what i did :)

So simple and cheap

These are cheaper than buying sugar to be honest but there actually not sweet enough for me, I got these on 3 for 2 and i think i also used a minimum spend voucher aswell .

Packet mix- 15p
egg- 9p

24p for 12, just 2p each

You just combine it all in a bowl with 50ml of cold water.

Then pop it in greased oven tray.


Kids had a few of these yesterday, I will be doing some custard from a jar I found and some milk powder for pudding.

I have a few more packets of this to use up. Along with lots of other things.

I have an extra mouth to feed all week as i hadn't planned for this I'm completely out of potatoes so i will be going and getting a sack at £1.40 and some tins of value ones aswell. Loads of blogger rave about tinned potatoes. The first time I tried them was cooked straight from the tin and not great, however my kids love them rinsed cooked them cooked for a minute in a knob of butter and there grand in stews and sauces just make sure to wash them first. spuds are so expensive at the moment and every little helps, value instant mash is ok made with milk and a nice big knob of butter aswell but wouldn't be my first choice. I also need some milk and I'm hoping once I get those I won't need much till next week.

Hope you all have a lovely frugal day, I will be back tomorrow with another recipe.

Monday 5 August 2013

Happy monday! Crustless quiche

Well first off i very stupidly ordered Chinese last night!! i just got lazy and ordered it without think, Realised after I'd ordered it but by then it was too late! So £5.50 spent and no more being lazy here!

I've been busy in the kitchen. I will show you the recipes over a few days.

First up today's lunch, crustless quiche. Now as you know I'm dieting so pastry and cheese are a no go, so i made this


So simple spray the pan with fry light and add any veggies you have. I had frozen fine green beans, frozen broccoli


Frozen peppers that i lifted out to make freezer space and 2 mushrooms, lightly fried


Trip it all into your dish.


These were dated today so i used them all, you could use 6 and more milk if you like.


Cover all the veg and sprinkle with pepper.

Cover with tin foil and cook in the oven for 15 mins at 180 then make the tin foil off and just keep cooking till its' firm. in this case it took another 15 mins (don't worry i had other stuff in the oven as well)


It was a very nice very healthy lunch and cost very little

7 eggs- 63p
frozen veg-20p
frozen peppers-50p
mushrooms-20p
milk 10p

Total cost- £1.63 this did 4 of us lunch plus a large portion left over for my lunch tomorrow. 33p per portion.

I'm not an awesome cook but this really couldn't be any easier, so to anyone who's reading who doesn't really cook what have you got to lose by trying? £1.63 will hardly buy you a decent ready meal for 1 never mind feed 5 so give it a try.

This freezes really well if wrapped in cling film.

Hope you all have a lovely day i will be back tomorrow to tell you about my baking :)

Sunday 4 August 2013

Few spends but nothing too bad.

Hi all few spends today.

£6 at a BBQ £3 on coke to bring to said BBQ and £1.58 on some kfc icecream= total spends £10.58

Total spends so far this month £44.14

Don't need anything else til friday now except desil.

Hope you all had a lovely frugal day. I'll be back tomorrow with a proper post :)

Saturday 3 August 2013

No spend saturday :)

Hi all just a quick wee post to say I made it threw saturday without any spends. Even put £120 into my savings :)

Tomorrow I will have spends as I forgot we said we'd go to a fundraising BBQ it will either be £6 or £15 depending on if we decide to bring the kids.

Got myself some free clothes today off a local facebook page it's always worth checking these out pages out, but remeber only take what you need as there are plenty of other people who need things.

These sites are great aswell

http://uk.freecycle.org/

http://www.ilovefreegle.org/

Hope you all had a lovely frugal day.

Friday 2 August 2013

Shopping done!


Do you like my lovely roses? they cost 20p down from £10.

Ok so shopping went slightly over my goal of £32 but only because i made a few changes for reduced items. My shopping is below


I couldn't get it all into 1 picture so heres more


And heres a list of what i got 

2 boxes of dishwasher tablets
2 rolls of bin bags
3 tins of rice pudding
4 tins of custard
7 jars of finest passata
2 tins of sardines
5 tins of spagetti
1 tin of pineapple *they only had 1 i had 3 on my list so i got peaches instead)
2 tins of peaches
5 tins of oranges
2 pots of gravy
4 boxes of cornflakes
5 bottles of squash
1 bag of frozen fine cut green beans
frozen waffles
2 frozen brocolli
2 frozen peppers
1 bag of grated cheese
15 eggs
1 bag of sweet potatoes
1 bag of apples
2 bags of bananas
1 punnet of mushrooms
1 net of tomatoes
4 litres of milk 
1 bar of soap

Then i got reduced 

7 little pots of fruit for 5p each some we're £1.50 some where £1
3 bags of cabbage and leek

Because I got so much cabbage i decided not to get any salad stuff and instead got 5 bags of dried witworth fruit for £2 i really like these and it helps that they are portion controlled.

I got my flowers aswell.

My Total spend after vouchers was £33.56. Oh and i got 88p off my new shop!

Thats it for me today, see you at the other side of the weekend. Hope you have a thrity one.



You wouldn't throw money away so why throw food away?


We had some bananas lurking in our fruit bowl, now my family are fussy they don't like overripe bananas and I was getting fruit flies so it was time to do something with them. years ago i would have binned these but not now!

*really black ones were in the fridge, the one cut up was a really black one and as you can see it's completely fine inside.

So i chopped these all up and bagged them.


Bag went into the freezer and next week i will be making banana muffins with them. 

If you went to Tesco and they short changed you by £1 you'd be livid yet if i threw these in the bin i might as well have thrown £1 away. every little helps and plenty of people couldn't even afford a bunch of bananas so we shouldn't waste them.

This goes for anything cup up leftover roast for a stew as it makes it go further you need very little. Make shepherds pie from leftover mince add frozen mixed veg and a bit more gravy to stretch it. Add, chilli powder rinsed baked beans and kidney beans to left over bolognaise to make chilli. Use leftover mash to make fish cakes with some tuna and a heel of bread. 

Off shopping tonight with my vouchers hopefully, armed with a list will update you all on that tomorrow.

Put £90 into the savings yesterday. I'm determined now even if august which is going to be hard going to put something in the savings every week. Even if it's only £10. Wish me luck I'm going to need it to save something and clear my creditcard.

I nearly have the kids uniforms sorted I will do a seperate post about that when i get the last of it.

Foodwise i'm just using things from the fridge up today ready for my new shopping.

Hope you all have a lovely frugal day.




Thursday 1 August 2013

Just popping in to say Hi.

Hello everyone.

Been a busy few days as my brother is moving house so trying to get him sorted and my sister was down for a visit so I've been playing taxi.

Spends wise I spent £3.80 in asda on milk, bread and onions. And £12 odd (will need to check the creditcard) in Mcd's on 3 happymeals for the kids and a bigmac meal for my brother...i had a diet coke :)

Savings also took a hit as said brother doesn't acually have any money he's waiting on his jobseekers coming threw. So £190 given to him to he acually has a roof over his head. I say given because lets face it on jobseekers he'll barely keep his head above water so i don't want him to even try pay it back as it will mean he does without.

I have a shopping list done for Tesco to use my vouchers up. The bananas i bought last week didn't last too well now my house stinks of overripe bananas and i have fruit flies which i don't usually have :(

Payday tomorrow need to keep it for my first car payment of £322 on the 10th so no more spending here other than shopping.


Food wise today

Me
Breakfast- poached egg on toast
lunch- chicken breast with leftover veggies and brown rice
afternoon- protein shake
dinner- turkey bolognaise served with mixed veg (i'm running low on veg)
before bed-protein shake

Kids
breakfast- cornflakes and toast, followed by bananas
lunch-10p reduced salmon fishcakes with a tin of beans and an apple
dinner-turkey bolognaise with spagetti.


Hope you all have a great day. I plan to spend the weekend catching up with washing and sorting my kitchen cupboards out.