Austere April - Frugaleers continue to the next quarter!

[Leilandri]

Come and join us for another frugal/thrifty/down-right stingy month!

Oooh thanks for the Fluffy. The Sharwoods jars are on offer atm, so will probably get that today. But will def look into the pastes, as I like to use the slow cooker :)

Pretty

Do you do a big shop either once a week or monthly or do you just pop in to get what you need daily.

Usually a big shop weekly, DH picks up milk/bread as required. Have been swithering about getting a massive monthly shop, but don't have a clue what I would buy, as no freezer space :(

ohhelp, I get a tub of Aldi natural yoghurt which lasts 5 days usually. So possibly £4-£6 a month on yoghurt depending on if I'm just using it for breakfast or adding it to meals. Looking at my shopping list it is very heavy on the fruit and vegetables but light on pre-made products. I think the key for us was to avoid waste. Meal planning, cooking from scratch, buying only what we need for those meals and being inventive with recipes to use up leftovers. This is very time consuming though so its not for everyone. Oddly, we eat so much better since we started being careful. Today's shop will be a big test of my impulse control though, even harder as the children are coming with me.
fluffycloud we are using the pastes too. They work out much cheaper and we can use them for lots of things. On Saturday we are adding it to a curry and then adding some to somosas.
prettyplease its hard to say how much you need each week as we are all so different. I think by keeping a record of your outgoings that will help you to figure out a budget. Meal planning can help stop all of the top-up shops too.

If you want to be really lentil weaver frugal buy a yogurt making machine, not easy-yo because you're tied into one brand then but one that just needs milk.

You can make yogurt in a flask too.

This is moving faster than the March thread. Keep up the good work everyone. adorabell is in Chile iirc.

i've done a meal plan to last until payday hope we can stick to it

Ohelp we're in Chile

I'm not spending anything today, apart from tolls for the school run later.

Afternoon all!

Wondering if we have a farm food near us..off to google, we go through yoghurt like there is no tomorrow.

Another NSD here today as the potty training continues. Just enjoying a veg moussaka I forgot we had & found in the freezer.

I am planning to make meatballs for tea tomorrow but there will be too much & I will need to freeze. Any advice on whether it is best to freeze them cooked or raw?

I do both.

If I have tomato sauce left then I freeze say portion of 6 meatballs and sauce (enough for dc dinner) together.

Or freeze in open trays then into bags once frozen.

lizard - I mostly cook a whole lot in tomato sauce and then freeze the cooked meatballs and sauce together. Makes it a very quick and easy meal when it comes out!

fluffy - when you use a paste, what liquid do you add? Stock or just water? I've always thought the same as you, that they seemed very expensive.

I have just spent £36 in Sainsbury's. £10 was totally unnecessary on Mary Berry's cookbook - it has some lovely looking recipes in it and promises to use simple ingredients, and I'm so in need of some inspiration in the kitchen.

Also bought a new extension lead for our bedroom because my hairdryer blew up earlier and scorched the carpet, and I'm nervous about the extension lead it was plugged into.

So I now need a new hairdryer. Great.

Those of you that get through loads of yoghurt - can you buy the big pots when they are on offer and dole it out in bowls? I find that loads cheaper than buying lots of small ones, plus it tends to be better quality yoghurt with less sugar etc.

Ali, I just add either passata or tinned chopped tomatoes or fresh tomatoes. You can add cream to the korma ones or coconut milk.

It usually tells you on the jar what goes with what tbh.

Coconut in blocks works out cheaper than tins of coconut milk because you just chop bits off it and put the rest in the fridge.

Again, who knew eh?

I also use Patak's pastes, I get 16 individual meals out of a jar so it's worth the mark up here, I was shocked at how much cheaper it is in Sainsbo's than here though. They tend to require a can of toms and the same again of water, depends which style of paste tho as I think I have one that doesn't work with toms.

Another thing I do is big pots of natural yoghurt, like Ali and mix in either fruit or a spoon full of jam, sometimes both. I like it with chopped nuts and seeds, DDs think I'm weird

Hope you enjoy your new book Ali

X post with Fluffy

Aldi have Pataks tikka masala paste at £1.25 a jar (dated until 2016). I bought 5 jars last time I was there

If he does just say no it's not leftovers. It's made with precooked food.

You know what's nice in plain yoghurt? Vanilla extract and sugar/table top sweetener. Lush.

Hi all, i had a nsd yesterday as i had some free passes for the softplay and sneaked in our own juice and i had a nsd today as we met up with family at the local park then visited my sister so 2/12.

I didn't spend anything today but DH spent £70 doing the Tesco run - he is much better than me at being frugal, I could easily have spent £100. That food shop will keep us going until next Tuesday...DH is taking DCs away to DGPs at the weekend until Mon eve and there will be enough leftovers for me I think. DH also spent £12 in B&Q - we are doing the garden on a budget. I did a meal plan and dug out some coupons so saved a few pennies that way I think.

Tomorrow is a family trip to the dentist. NHS so in theory shouldn't be too painful (on the wallet that is!).

It is very hard to achieve NSDs in the hols.DH and I are both teachers. Mon - Thurs when we are both at work are often NSDs but the weekends and hols hit us hard.

went to PILs and had dinner there

Didn't get my bits.from Tesco but.did spend 99p on book for DD1
So todays total spend - 99p

Hi all, hope everyone is having a good time off with the kiddiwinkles. We went to our local country park to meet with some other mummies and children and luckily this morning I managed to sell some of dd's old clothes (unfortunately she's outgrown last year's summer clothes grr!-have put in a large order to Next but planning to return most of it as not needed really) so used the money from that to pay for the parking. So only spent out £1.20 towards a coffee.Managed to pay my last £40 towards the hol so only £210 left for dh to pay to clear it then we can close the cc account. Unbelievably I've also managed to start saving (aiming to save £2000 by Christmas-although £1000 of that is to replace savings that I had stupidly dipped into last year) and have saved £60/3% but better than nothing! Spending going ok for this month so far as long as I don't go stupid over the next couple of weeks.

Already counting down until payday (not til the end of the month) so I can hopefully save some more.Perhaps I'm being optimistic though as I still have £550 balance to pay in July for something so hoping to pay some more off that next month, got car service/mot, and need a bit of holiday spending money.
Also debating whether I should pay for Legoland break for son's birthday in July now on their website rather than using Kellog's vouchers and hotel booking site. It is roughly the same price through the website for 2 day/1 night LL as 1 day/1 night doing it the other way but would need to pay in advance now and what if the weather's rubbish on the day or we can't go for some reason!