Monday 29 July 2013

Welcome to the other side of the weekend.

Weekends are our worst time for spending so making it out the otherside with low spends is always good for us :)

I usually love mondays because i get to see my savings to up, but not this week :( my tax credits, child benefit and the little bit of leftover pay went straight to the creditcard leaving me with just 40p in one account 87p in another and £4.84 in my purse. I don't need any food until the weekend except for bread which will cost me £1.70 and some milk at £1 so i'm ok.I will get some more money on friday.

Lazy day today, with some cleaning and not alot else, have to nip to town to collect a presciption later but thats about it.

Foodwise today

Me and hubby
breakfast- we slept in he had nothing and i have rice crackers with peanut butter.
morning snack-protein shake and a banana
lunch-baked sweet potatoe with half a chicken breast and some leftover green beans
afternoon snack-protein shake
dinner-chicken breast with whatever veg i can find in the freezer and some bbq sauce
before bed-protein shake

Kids
breakfast-cornflakes
lunch- cheese sandwichs, banana/apple
dinner-meatballs and spagetti, rice and oranges
Snacks will be the usual fruit or maybe even a kitkat (homebargains do 10 kitkats for £1)


So thats me for today not much happening infact theres unlikely to be much happening all week.

Hope you all have a lovely frugal day.

Saturday 27 July 2013

Easy Peasy beef casarole. Meat, Meat and more Meat!

I'm a lazy cook! I buy preperpared veg if it's reduced, I don't peel carrots and I love my slowcooker because it means i can throw stuff in and walk away.



Doesn't this look yummy?

It was made using

Tesco value frying steak which was dated yesterday so needed used £2.30
Reduced spring onions, 2 bags at 10p each- 20p
1/3 bag of carrots from lidl 30p
season all, pakrika and garlic salt 10p

Total cost £2.90

The kids had this for dinner with a few value potatoes mashed, there is enough left to freeze 2 sets of dinner for them so 9 kids meals in total  making it 32p per portion.



I have no issues using tesco value meat for things like this, it's a nice cut of meat with just enough fat to make it tender in the slowcooker. I tried acually frying it once, it was so tough the dogs got it.

I don't use all value meat tho, I get my mince in a meatpack from the asda meat counter it's 3% fat and yummy, I posted about it in another post. I bought some turket mince in tesco's yesterday to make turkey meatloaf during the week aswell.

I buy bags of tesco frozen chicken portions, these are just chicken and water, the value chicken breasts have nasties added so i avoid these.

All the rest of my meat is bulk bought from a local meat supplier. Today we took the kids to a toy shop so the youngest could spend his birthday money. The meat place is on the way back so we stopped. We couldn't really afford this and it went on the creditcard but i would have wanted to go in a weeks time so this way saves on desil.



These chicken breasts are fantastic, i've been using asda ones for a few weeks now and have really been missing these, they have no added water so don't shrink they are massive 2 can feed all 5 of us in a casarole or stew and 3 feeds us as a roast. There is usually 24 in these packs and it cost me £19 i will freeze them in bags of 3.


We love gammon, it rarely gets a chance to cool as we nibble as it's cooling. Tesco value gammon is £3.78 per kg, this gammon is £2.78 thats a whole £1 cheaper! this roast would have cost me nearly £3 more in tesco, and tesco's gammon is 87% pork! I will cut this gammon into 3 and freeze it as like i said we love gammon abit too much, if i cooked this as it is i wouldn't even get 2 meals from it!

We like our meat, as we are on high protein diets we need alot of meat but shopping around really does help. As a general rule i try to spend no more than £3 for a dinners worth of meat no matter where i buy it, all this meat fits into that. Sometimes i buy 3 for £10 meats as we like the meatballs, however teamed with cheap passata and spagetti as a meal it comes under £4...can't complian at 80 per head.


The casaroles cooling, i will freeze it tomorrow. I will also be cooking and freezing 2 packets or preprepared reduced swede i got for 10p each which i will serve with the casarole in place of mash.

Hope you all have a great weekend and try to to spend too much.

Friday 26 July 2013

Stocking up shopping.

Tesco sent me 3 money off vouchers, one had expired before i got it so for the next 2 weeks i have £3 off £30 spend at tesco! Now I don't usually spend £30 in tesco's i havent for along time but i will be stocking up on tins and dry goods with these vouchers. I bought

2 turkey mince
2 bags of apples
3 bags of bananas
a bag of spuds
2x 4 packs of value yogurts
2x 2litres of whole milk
2x 1litre foam bath (for filling soap dispensers)
value razors
value bar of soap
3 tins ravioli
2 tins sardines
5 tins of pineapple
5 tins of tomatoe soup
3 tins of oranges
3 tins of spag bol
3 tins of custard
2 tins of rice pudding
4 tins of spagetti
1 box of cornflakes
5 jars of finest passata (half price at 64p)
2 packs of 10 kitchen sponges
value pine cleaner
2 bottles of bleach
1 loaf of brown bread

I also got
4 packets of rolls/baps reduced to 10p
humous reduced to 15p
petit filous reduced to 15p
buttery spread reduced to 16p
2 sausage rolls reduced to 10p each
1kg of flora which i got free with a voucher

And then half way round i remebered i was out of dishwasher tablets which then threw my counting all out! so dishwasher tablets at £1.60. they also didn't have any of the bread i wanted and i need some for the morning so it cost nearly double what i had planned to spend.

Total spends £28.64


Now I am aware this does seem that healthy but we aren't going to eat this all in one week or even 2 of 3, my freezer is full of meat and veggies so we didn't need much fresh food so it made sense to stock up on things we use. I have another voucher for next week and i will post a list then aswell, it will be much healthier as we run low of healthy foods.I would only recommend this type of shopping if it's thing you will acually use before they go off.

I got a £5 off £40 spend from the till and i have a £3 off £30 spend so i will use both next week :)

Oh other spend fronts, asda have some uniform at save £1 if you buy 2 online (not sure if this is instore or not) so i bought the little person 2 sweatshirts for £3.

Food wise today

Me and hubby
breakfast-porridge and protein shake
morning snack-protein shake
lunch-brown rice with mushrooms, peppers, sun dried tomatoes and tesco lighter choices ham cooked in nandos peri peri sauce
afternoon snack-protein shake
dinner-brocolli and chicken breast with bbq sauce
before bed-protein shake maybe a banana

kids
breakfast-cornflakes and apples
lunch-baby new potatoes, sweetcorn and leftover sausages
dinner-spagetti and meatballs

Hope you all had a great day and didn't spend too much.

Thursday 25 July 2013

Jumping back on the frugal wagon!

I've had a very spendy few months with trips away, birthdays, weddings and my latest big spend...a new car!!!

Not only have my savings not went up they have acually went down :( i'm unlikely to save much before the end of september as i need to pay my creditcard and get the kids new uniform.My outgoings have also went up now i've started seeing a personal trainer and i now have to pay finance on my car.

So My plan is to spend as little as possible from now on. If you see me spending alot feel free to come tell me off.

Today will be a No Spend Day.

Foodwise for me and hubby

Breakfast-porridge and a protein shake
11am-proten shake
lunch-leftover boiled potatoes with leftover pork chops, mushrooms and peppers
4am-proten shake
dinner-leftover pork chops and brocolli
before bed-protein shake

Kids
breakfast-cornflakes and bananas
lunch-beans on toast and tinned oranges
dinner-baby new potatoes with brocolli and sausages
snacks- will be fruit or ice lollys

All drinks will be water.

Little note about my protein shakes i buy these online in bulk, I make them with water they have 22g of protein and cost just 24p a shake, my pork chop only has 13g of protein.

Now i'm off to clean my old car out to take it over as a trade in.

It was my youngests birthday yesterday so the kids will spend most of teh day playing on his new trampoline.

I hope everyone have a nice and frugal day.