An Avalanche of Austerity for April - Mumsnet frugaleers continue!

[MissAnnersleyismyhero]

Thought I'd start a new thread for April

I've got a bolognese in the slow cooker at the moment. The big packs of mince are £4 in tesco atm so it'll do us for 3 meals. I keep going to 'test' it though

Absolutely essential NSD for me!

spotty one of the main reasons I love cooking is the tasting

fluffy you are such a frugal guru! I'm sure a little slip here and there won't impact on your goals at all

Frugal things: ran out of apples so have been chopping carrots for crunchy lunch-box treat; first £1 towards the summer hols in my savings pot; have been invited to family party in August and we've asked if we can set up our tent in the garden rather than B&B.

Hi all, will catch up later, nsd yesterday, 3.60 in nero today.

I made stewed apple (apples, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves) from 3 massive cooking apples yesterday in the slow cooker, it is sooo nice with greek yoghurt for breakfast or stirred into porridge.

Also made braised red cabbage with 1 of the apples and a red cabbage that had been in the fridge a while, it made 4 or 5 decent sized side dish portions which we'll have with a few Sunday dinners (froze them in individual portions).

I often do overnight porridge in mine, or rice pudding, paella etc... paella is super easy if you fry off the onion, peppers and garlic, then throw it all in the slow cooker with rice, stock, saffron you can ignore it all day and add spinach/peas/sweetcorn at last minute for about 15 mins. I usually make a huge batch and freeze it, I know MN tends to think re-heated rice is the death sentence but we've never had any probs.

oh, and, NSD

I am moving in with MissAnnersley

My biologist friend will eat most stuff if it is piping hot. His rationale is 'we all have bowels to clear out any dodgy stuff'.

NSD so far today. Got a diet coke at lunchtime but my colleague paid for it.

Am going out for dinner, expect DH will pay, but my bus fare will be on my Oyster card and I may need to pay for a taxi home (last time we both fell asleep on the bus )

Quick update to the Chicken and Tarragon recipe:

Falls off the bone after a few hours and then turns a bit mushy. I added 100g of pearl barley and if I had a bit more energy I would have used it as a pie filling and put a puff pastry top on it to pimp it up a bit. But if you only have it in the slow cooker for a couple of hours it may retain its chicken portion chic.

PS Once I have washed out the dish I am going to make overnight rice pudding with risotto rice I got from Approved Food, plus some vanilla sugar, inspired by MissA.

aldi voucher in the mirror/record tomorrow

Don't forget, they sell out early.

I love rice pudding! I made a huge chilli tonight on the stove but I think it would lend itself to the slow cooker - I cook it for about an hour on the stove. It only takes about 10 minutes to prepare and is lovely. I serve it with rice to bulk it out and there was plenty for the 3 of us plus enough to freeze for another meal so 6 meals altogether

1 pack mince beef
1 chopped onion
1 chopped pepper
2 tins value chopped tomatoes
1 tin kidney beans, drained
1 tin tomato puree
mild chilli powder

Brown the mince and then add the onion and pepper and cook for a few minutes. Then add the puree and stir round. Then add the tomatoes, kidney beans and chilli powder and bring to a low boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for an hour or so

Sainsbury's have sent me a £5 gift voucher to 'help you enjoy Easter with family' or something like that. Anywayit's obviously late arriving, I went in yesterday for 2 blocks of paneer and spent nearly £17. I had promised myself I wouldn't go in for a while but it expires on Friday. I will just buy some cheese and milk. I will just buy some cheese and milk. I WILL JUST BUY SOME CHEESE AND MILK.

I love my slow cooker. I resisted getting one for ages as I was always told they were great for meat but no good for vegetarians. It was all lies! I do soup, stews, chili, curry and rice pudding. I've tried doing porridge overnight once and it was awful. What did I do wrong?

Sorry, you're buying what in sainsburys?

Maybe just take the voucher?

I really fancy a rice pudding but I fear DH would leave me. He still hasn't recovered from a set meal we had on holiday. Corn soup with rice in it followed by undercooked risotto and rice pudding to finish off.

Went out to get the broom head I needed. Also bought 2 packs of sausages and a tub of ice-cream, spent about £10.

iamnot those 2 blocks of paneer were expensive

Don't forget the cheese and milk, btw. double

Am feeling slightly delirious as DS banged his head really badly while playing rough and tumble and a huge, I mean HUGE, lump came up and it was a bit traumatic because he was in shock (so was I when I saw the lump). Luckily, he bounced back eventually and he seems fine now. And I finally managed to find time to grab something to eat (he was very clingy).

16,54 euros on groceries, which will last us rest of the week. I have phone meetings tomorrow and Friday at dinnertime, so will just make a sandwish and salad for dinner instead.
Quick tip re kidney beans. I always buy them dry in Asian/Arabic stores, so much cheaper and so much better than the tins. Drop the amount in a bowl of water the night before and they are ready to use the next day. A bag of 500 gr. usually cost the same as 2 tins and last us at least 6 seperate portions of beans, and we love them, so always add a lot :)

£6.60 for lunch with colleagues. One of them came in from London so fair enough, my turn to go to London in end June. But will claim that off my allowance.

Doubt tomorrow will be an NSD . Will probably buy a bunch of flowers to thank friend for feeding us twice this week. Sigh. On a brighter note, we have cabinets!! And a new window!!

If anybody knows of any discounts/promo for YNAB please let me know, I like the program, but not so much to be willing to pay full price for it.

When my parents were visiting we found some Lacoste shoes for me with 70 % discount, felt so good only paying 30 euros for a pair instead of 100 euros and will last me ages :) I have written the name of the store down because it was in a sidestreet of the main street and dont wanna forget about the store for next time when I need shoes.

NSD today.

Im slightly freaking out though as have just downloaded the British gas app and my energy consumption in jan to march this year is nearly double what it was same time last year. I have no idea why!! I've barely had my heating on and haven't changed anything I'm doing or use. Waaaaaaaah! Why???

How does the app work? Could it be basing on estimated? Surely this can't be right as I'm sure we've all benefitted from the mild winter. Hope it works itself out

No ones knocked the thermostat up to 70c on the hot water have they?

coolcadbury hope your DS is ok now.

nsd today (apart from £2.30 park and ride).

italianwiking how long do you cook your kidney beans for after soaking? Is it a slow cooker recipe? I had really bad food poisoning from kidney beans when I was a teenager - a new boyfriend was cooking me a vegetarian meal to impress me and tipped in a load of dried beans. I KNEW I shouldn't eat them, but I didn't want to embarrass him stupid 18 year old that I was. Lord, have never been so ill in all my life!

I never cook kidney beans in the slow cooker. I think you can but first you have to boil it vigorously for 10 minutes first. Tbh, it's always easier and faster to cook pulses in a pressure cooker.

But I know people are wary of pressure cookers. Very efficient though.