Judicious January - Long may the credit crunching continue

[roguepixie]

So, the credit crunching team are into Year 2013. Happy New Year everyone.

Let's continue our cost-cutting, , money saving,penny and pound pinching, NSD ways.

Spent a bit today, been to football so had to pay parking and drink, then had a pasty on way home.

I have no main bit for tea, I have potatoes and beans but not the rest, I asked DH to take me Asda, I guess he forgot so I'm going to leave it to him to sort I think!

Roar DP/H spends definitely do not count (in my book )

Welcome Stormforce

Just popping on here quickly in break from gloss-painting the stairwell & upstairs to within an inch of its life (DC at my parents).

Spent £2 in Card Factory today - 10 birthday cards for £1 & 6 x 3m rolls of Xmas wrapping paper for £1. DH spent £30.80 in Wilkos on tubs, but I'm not counting that in my totals!

Pie & chips tonight as a reward for working hard on decorating, probably about £6 as we share a large chips between us, cheaper than a regular chips each.

Putting out another plea for ideas for hob/slow cooker meals, please, as no oven for best part of a week. Help

Jen, my slow cooker/hob go-to dishes are:

• soups (carrot & lentil, butternut squash, apple & parsnip, mixed veg)
• stews (veggie sausage & bean a favourite)
• currys
• bolognese
• tagines
• omelettes (obv not in slow cooker)
• quesadillas
• flatbreads with salady fillings

I don't cook with meat, but I hear good things about ham/gammon in brown sugar or coke, cooked in a slow cooker. There seem to have been loads of threads about that.

Today I spent £36 at the hairdressers. She's obviously got more qualified as it was £25 last time! I'm going back to home haircuts from now, think it'll be easier, not to mention cheaper.

You can roast whole chickens in the slow cooker, they are fabulous. I'll be doing my duck in one tomorrow, just with a bit of orange I think. You can also do baked potatoes, not as crunchy as in an oven but still pretty good and handy if you just want something a bit smaller.

Hi All and Happy New Year to everyone. I can't believe how quick this thread is moving :).

I haven't been on Mumsnet since Boxing Day, as I was visiting family in the Republic of Ireland from the 27th until yesterday and I had my data switched off over there, as it's so expensive (well, I sneaked on to Facebook a few times for 5 minutes, but apart from that...). I came back with ?80 from the ?220 I took and I also received some cash gifts from relatives, so very pleased with that :o.

£14.50 in the Co-op today, on basic provisions until early next week. I need to investigate my cupboards and freezer before I meal plan. Glad to spy some of your slow cooker ideas, economy, as my brother gave me one for Christmas and I'd always thought they were probably more useful for meat eaters than veggies previously.

Hope you all have a nice weekend :).

Wrt slow cookers...do you have to brown any meat you out in it?
I ain't bear the idea of browning meat early in the morning...bluergh...

I had to go to a shop today to buy bread. This was a bad idea. The good news is I managed to resist DD's pester power regarding chocolates, comics etc. etc. I ended up spending £6.84. I got 6 mullerlight yogurts, a loaf of bread, 4 pints of milk, a bag of carrots and a bag of potatos. I hate our local co-op its so expensive but the only one in walking distence.

We also got the £84 bus termly pass - sigh.

Expensive day :(

I have been through some of my cupboards and I'm horrified by what I found. I have about 8 jars of chutney, 6 jars of salsa (I hate salsa ), 5 jars of curry saurces, 7 small packets of stir fry sauce, 5 packs of flavored cous cous,7 packs of microwavable rice, 18 pots of various jams, 6 cans of tuna, 4 cans of baked beans and a 5 year out of date can of tikka masalla sauce which I think has moved house with us at least twice . Those are the least of my cupboard contents. I am a real hoarder and I haven't even started on the 2 big boxes of cans and jars in the cellar yet

My new years resolution is therefore only to buy fresh food until the tins, jars and packets have been used up

I never bother browning meat for the slow cooker, except sausages. I'm way too lazy :)

(that was a hit to the wallet), asked Dh to pick up some 'pre cooked chicken slices' for DS (we only have frozen bits atm, and he needed some today), £4(!) for a tiny packet of the one up from basic in Tesco, same price as 1kg of chicken wings in the butchers opposite!

Spent £25 on a Book People order, in my defence I'm trying to do as much reading before DC2 arrives & we never have time/energy to read again.

18 pots of jame storm?!

Sorry to hear the White Company are crap, was tempted to buy some stuff from the 'little white company' sales, now I cba!

DH still not contacted Sky yet, gah! (account is in his name).

NSD for me today

Rogue thanks, I know it was all needed but still struggle with going over budget IYSWIM.

Storm I am also a bit of a food hoarder and currently using things up as we plan to sell up and move countries, so I can't take food with me.

And no, I never include my OH's spending. Speaking of which, he got paid, it's all earmarked, but it makes a change to have something come in. I should have another NSD tomorrow, then on Tuesday I need to pay £40 for a month's worth of volley ball for DDs, that's 4 weeks of 4 morning's per week for both of them, so not too bad.

Storm sounds like jam tarts for tea. Very cheap and easy!!

Hi everyone. I was on here late last year but fell away in December. Still been watching spending but we've decided we really need to tighten our belts as every month there is just too much month left at the end of the money

Have so far had 3 nsd this year and am aiming for 3 every week. If I manage that I Will increase it to 4 next month.

Also had a £10 Facebook sale yesterday and have another £15 sale being collected today.

I have a quick question though. Does anyone know if you can freeze curry sauce from the Chinese takeaway?? Mil sent us home with leftovers yesterday

Thanks in advance

You can definitely freeze curry sauce. I am the queen of freezing. I freeze pret much everything and we are all still alive!

Thanks virgil. I was pretty sure I'd read it on here before but dh gave me the look as if I wad trying to poison him

Yesterday was a NSD.

Today so far is £40 for DS's after school clubs for the 1/2 term. Going to use Childcare Vouchers, so we won't lose the money for a bit.

Just checked DS's uniform. His PE shorts are too small, but luckily found a pair of bigger navy shorts in his drawer, so they will do for a while.

I'm planning for us to eat our way through the freezer and cupboards for the next few weeks, so hopefully my grocery bills will be low. I need to defrost the freezers anyway, so its a good oppportunity to save money as well, and find out what I've got in there. I know there are some of DH's "bargains" to eat, and as these tend to be more expensive things, I don't think they will notice my lack of spending, eg he bought a duck last month, as it was a bargain (but still more than I would have spent on meat), but instead of waiting for a special occasion, I will put it into the meal planning.

Will sign up for online milk ordering this week, gets me a £10 voucher to spend with the milkman. I can order up to 9pm the night before delivery, so might save on some costs for emergencies, eg bread might be more expensive than from the supermarket, but going there just to buy bread costs a fair bit in petrol or bus fare. There aren't any shops on my way to work, so its always a special trip for groceries.

Please can someone post the recipie for tea bread? I have also found some fairly elderly dried fruit that I was about to throw away until I saw the tea bread post.

I've just done my meal plan for the week

Porridge and toast for breakfast. DP working away until Thursday evening, DD ant school so only me (and breastfed DS) for lunch which wil mainly be cheese, biscuits and / or sandwiches and soup

Monday Left over stew (lamb stock, potatos, carrots, parsnips, gravy and a few other bits) with garlic bread

Tuesday ham omlettes, salad, new potatos

Wednesday baked potatoes, tuna mayonnaise and sweetcorn

Thursday beef stew and rice

Friday pasta with salami and tomato sauce, parmesan and salad

Saturday fish fingers, chips and beans

Here's a recipe for Earl Grey Tea Bread:

9oz/255g mixed dried fruit
5oz/142g currants
7fl oz/198ml Earl Grey Tea ... this is what the recipe says but I double it as otherwise it comes out dry. Use 2 tea bags
1 level tbsp treacle
1 egg
10oz/283g SR flour
1/2 oz/14g sugar (can use sugar substitute ... eg Stevia, Canderel)
1 tsp mixed spice

1. Place all dried fruit in a large bowl and pour over the tea and treacle. Cover and leave to soak (overnight if poss, otherwise a few hours)
2. Lightly beat the egg and stir into fruit mixture. Sift the flour and add to the mixture with the sugar and mixed spice. Stir to combine.
3. Spoon into lined loaf tin (13cm x 22cm) and bake at 160c/325f/ Gas 3 for 1 hour or until a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean.

This is a tried and tested recipe and is really lovely.

I'll post my teabread recipe when I get home stormforce. Well worth doing.
Good day today, just ds's football match fees £2.50. Yesterday was bad thoigh as dh and ds went to football.
I'm keeping track of spending with expense manager app on my phone. Its good but not making happy reading so far . Food, groceries etc is low but lots of one offs this week. Need 2 good weeks now to be back on track for the month. Dc and I have dentist this week, to partly compensate I need to get on and claim my eye test fee back through work. Keep going everyone

£33 Aldi

£1 Iceland

£3.99 Homebargins.

Need to see if I can get the cost of my contact lenses down. £15 a month incl solutions.

I've spent £11.60 on one of those push along activity walker thingys and a musical cube toy on eBay for dd and £30 on dp's bday present. His birthday isn't until march but I saw it cheap so thought I might as well get it now and hide it somewhere.

I just tried making tea bread in the slow cooker but have realised I forgot to add the flour! So I think it is going to turn out a bit of a gooey mess. I blame sleep deprivation. Maybe I can save it somehow...

Sold a few more items on Ebay - approx. £25/30. Not massive but at least it's an 'in' rather than an 'out'. I also try to regularly transfer the majority of my Paypal balance into my bank account ... it stops me spending it . Ebay is becoming harder and harder to sell on though - it's so loaded in favour of the buyer that that, combined with thw %'s they take from you here, there and everywhere - that it has become a pretty crappy experience.

NSD here again (2nd day after the Costco/Sewing machine splurge).

Thought we may have had to factor in a large expenditure when the fridge/freezer started to malfunction with the fridge temperature. However, DH and I pulled it out and he fiddled around with it (a highly technical thing apparently and it's working again. Joking apart, I don't know what I'd do if DH wasn't as technically savvy as he is ... saves a fortune in call outs etc.

Am cooking two lots of meat today - some for tonight's dinner and the other for cold cuts during the week - am thinking it makes sense to heat the oven once rather than twice. Good idea or false economy???

You ladies with slow cookers ... are they the wonder that people say they are?

HearMy - can you take it out now and stir in flour? Or just stir it in whilst in the machine?

Mum23, another defo on the freezing curry sauce. It's completely safe.

I've taken it out the slow cooker, put in some flour and then bunged it in the oven. We'll see if it survives.

I love slow cookers, I have 2. One small one and one large one with a timer function. Use the small one most days for porridge and the big one at least a couple of times a week.

I've got the Asda cheap slow cooker, I use it for stews and cooking ham hocks.

That teabread sounds yummy. (Un)fortunately, we still have 7 tins of biscuits, 6 tins/boxes of chocs, half a pack of mini Christmas cakes and a Christmas pud to get through before I need to think about making snacks!

Rogue I think it is worth doing ,2 lots of meat at once as you can always slice & freeze some, if nothing else. As for slow cookers, I like mine as I can spend just 10 mins in the morning dicing meat & veg, bung it all in & not worry about dinner all day. And I can just dish it when people are ready & it can keep warm.

Finished our decorating spree, got loads done without DC there. Bedroom looks fantastic & only cost £30, 18 of which was on a curtain pole! We were lucky to fed some end of line wallpaper at b&q for £1/roll instead of £20/roll, and brand new dunelm curtains in charity shop for £5!

Nsd today, too shattered to spend anything!

Thanks for the teabread recipe, rogue, especially as Earl Grey is my tea of choice!

NSD here.