Anyone want to join me for no-spend Lent?

[TossedSaladsAndScrambledEggs]

Ok so I know we're a bit late starting but still...

Yesterday began with me getting my card declined in the supermarket - I came home and checked online and we had somehow managed to plough through our entire overdraft and the rent hadn't even come out yet! Luckily I transferred some from another account, but I have realised we are spending waaaayyy too much.

So I started today with no spend lent as we want to go to a wedding and visit friends up country just after Easter. We have food in the cupboards so I'm sure we can cope! Today I spoke to my brother and I am giving him our (good) speakers and subwoofer that we bought to go with our now redundant PC for his birthday instead of buying him a present and he is well happy with that as they are worth quite a bit.

Dp works at a place where he can procure free organic fruit and veg pretty much daily (slight seconds) so I am going to try and survive mostly on that. I am also planning to walk the 4 miles to work tomorrow instead of taking the car.

There will obviously be occasions where I'll have to spend money, but I'll keep it to a minimum. Like tomorrow I am going out for my brother's birthday but I am going to take the last bus home instead of a taxi - I will save from going home earlier and not drinking so much as well!

I am trying to enjoy the challenge rather than let it depress me - Thursday is usually wine night but I've refrained tonight

Anyone with me?!

very very good idea! kind of like a shock tactic detox!

Oh I'm (sort of) in. I have a night out pre-planned this weekend annd go on holidayy before lent ends. But definatly need a frugal month or 2!

Morning all!

Just used the last of the eggs for breakfast - might annoy dp a bit as it's his day off and he likes a cooked breakfast!

And I've just noticed some cheese has snuck into the fridge, that must have been dp! Tsk there is Nutella, peanut butter and marmite in the cupboard if he wants a sandwich!

Dp is on board with this apparently (he is a tight git), we even went without wine last night, and he even resorted to eating dark chocolate as that was all there was in the house...

Got a bowl of overripe bananas in the fruit bowl that I was going to make banana bread/cake with but now got no eggs! Anyone know of an egg-free recipe that uses fairly standard ingredients?

Welcome all by the way!

Tossedsalads have you thought of making bannana fritters? I don't think you need eggs and they are lovely. We had bannana pancakes this morning but that's no good to you as the batter had an egg in it

Just found this recipie it looks simple enough. I want to try it myself now

Banana and raisin flapjacks are good and the bananas help bind everything together so you need less fat. I also use less sugar as over ripe bananas are quite sweet.

Ahh raisin and banana flapjacks sound ideal - think we have ingredients for them!

Just spent our first 50p...

Needed some washing detegergent. Got some liquid from sainsburys that worked out 10p a wash. It was £3 but we used our nectar points and got £2.50 off!

Off out for my brother's birthday tonight, but staying at mum and dad's to save on the taxi.

Will have to accept a small spend on booze as i just can't bring myself to drink tap water - plus i will need a drink to put up with my brother!

Wondering what is the cheapest thing to do drink wise. Can't stomach beer!

Ok so spend about £12 last night so not bad!

Not bad, of course, but suggest it would be easier (and more economical in the long run) if you decided to buy whatever you need, but only if it's less than the usual price. People can';t actually live on old fruit & veg and walk eight miles a day while working full-time, or not for long, but car-sharing and eating reduced-price food is do-able (and might cost less than £12 next birthday).

Well i got a bike from my dad today to use to get into work! Will have to drive some days due to time constraints, but i do need to get fit as well, so time spent walking/cycling is time saved exercising.

The freezer and cupboards are full, so we have plenty of a variety of foods. The freezer really needs to be defrosted a d the cupboards cleaned etc so i really want to use everything up and start again. Of course i may need to buy the odd thing, but we have bread flour and powdered milk so i think we can manage for a while.

Have been reading the girl called jack blog and getting some good ideas. Made her macaroni cheese for me and dd tonight, and made some garlic toast and salad to go with it. Got some frozen veg today from my dad that he grew in his allotment.

Planted some herbs seeds last week, and they have started to germinate in the windowsill already. Was going to sow some lettuce and other bits in the garden today (already have a load of seeds that I've never got round to planting), but only got as far a sowing some sweet peas and impatiens before it got too cold and dark, so at least we'll have some pretty plants in the garden this year!

littlecottagecomforts.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/some-handy-hints-little-bit-of-thrift.html Have you tried making laundry gloop? I use it on coloureds & it works really well. No good on whites though. I don't use borax in it though, just soap grated in the food processor. You can use the cap off an aerosol can to dose it.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch/2008884-Tips-please-on-how-to-cut-the-monthly-groceries-bill There's a bread recipe on this thread, it's better than the recipes you'd usually make & it uses half smart price plain flour. I made it on a standard white bread program.

My herbs are coming along too, apart from the mint.

Thanks fluffy for those links! Bread recipe will defo come in handy because eventually we will run out of bread flour but have got a big bag of plain in.

Made jack Monroe's peanut butter and honey granola this morning, but replaced the honey with golden syrup as that's all we had in. It was yummy with Greek yogurt (had one of those buckets from lidl in the fridge). Think dp will be pleased as he often takes a bag of one of those granola/crunchy type cereals to work, and I think he is starting to miss his little treats a bit.

On the subject of treats, I plan to make these banana and cocoa flapjacks today, I will have to adapt slightly as don't have treacle etc. want to make the troops some kind of chocolatey treat but all we have in is cocoa powder!

My mum and dad are paying the bill for our car MOT for my birthday present so that is one less bill to worry about!

allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/6036/vegan-brownies.aspx You've probably got the ingredients for these in, I reduced the amount of oil like it said in the reviews.

The bread is lovely.

Just made some of the brownies - thank you! The recipe is very similar to one on cheap family recipes website but I believe that one used melted dark choc and an egg. Just waiting for them to cool, but they look/smell lovely!

Going to definitely try the bread later if I can find the recipe on the thread!

Had a good day yesterday, apart from having to put petrol in the car, which is unavoidable as I am working in a location 30 miles away yesterday and today!

Still doing well on the food front, had sweet mandarin Bircher for breakfast (minus the mandarin), essentially fridge porridge and chili soup with toast for dinner, both jack munroe recipes, plus a free lunch at work! Won't be so lucky today, so taking in some leftover soup...

Yes I'm in! Well for a stingy lent rather than a no spend one. Huge roof repair bill looming - due to be fixed late April/early May so we are saving like crazy for that. I am in charge of skinflintery in the food department. Been on our austerity drive for about 4 weeks now.

Like you we have a full freezer and lots of cupboard stuff so I am trying to really use that and NOT keep buying other bits "because I fancy making x" which I am v guilty of normally.

We looked back across our spending and realised we averaged £500 per month on food, so I was SO proud that in February I had it down to £181. That's mainly veg, milk , yogurt, eggs, cheese, fruit.

Tonight was kipper kegeree with some, oooh, 1 year old kippers out the freezer! And for lunch I had leftovers of a v frugal split pea soup I made on Sunday. We;d slow cooked a smoked gammon hock and I saved all the liquid that appeared in the slow cooker, and used that as a stock to cook my soup, which was 1 onion, 1 HUGE carrot, some ratty celery and the remnants of a bag of yellow split peas. Added some frozen peas at the end too. It made 4 servings and was really tasty. Today and yesterday I've had it with toasted staleish bread, rather than just breadcrumbing it and finding new stuff.

I've got a pot in the freezer where I am hoarding all trimmings like outer skins/end of leeks, ends of celery, carrot, potato peelings and I call it my "scrap pot soup" pot. It's full so I will be whizzing up some borderline free soup for lunch in the next couple of days. I woudl have composted this stuff previously.

I'm interested to see you're trying out Jack's recipes. The only one I've done so far is her carrot/kidney bean/cumin burgers (but only made 3 from the mix, not 4 as she suggests) and really enjoyed them. I still have one in the freezer for a lunch.

Tomorrow I will defrost a lentil & bean chilli and do some jacket spuds and salad with it.

Apart from needing a bag of peas (only acceptable veg to 2 year old), no other shopping tomorrow.

So it's my birthday!

Pretty much haven't spent anything since I last checked in apart from some petrol, a bag of dried milk and a bottle of wine last night as a treat for my birthday.

Having a get together tonight and have made a big pot of dhal (rick stein recipe), some biscuits, some brownies, some tear and share garlic bread, marinated some cheap jarred olives in oil, garlic and sundries tomatoes, and some hummus out of cannellini beans and peanut butter (lush!), all with stuff out of the cupboards. Tonight I will also chop up some carrot and celery for crudités, and make some guacamole with a glut of avocados dp brought home. Everyone is also going to bring a small contribution e.g chips etc. and a bottle.

Just a homemade card from dp but that's fine! But he and dd brought me tea and toast in bed! Has made me count my blessings really. Hoping I might get a tenner in a card from an aunt or something so I can buy some more booze, but if not I have nectar points to use up!!

Happy Birthday