Join the Fantastic Frugaleers for a February full of frugality

[northender]

Shiny new thread ready for Sunday. Newbies very welcome. This is a wonderful thread full of encouragement and support

PS cut them into squares while it's still warm in the tin. Then let it cool in the tin.

Ememem we're aiming for "Good life-lite" no room for livestock in our little garden, but we have fruit and herbs in the garden and an allotment for veg. For us, moving out of the city, it was far cheaper to buy in a village (no train station which probably helps!) than to stay in the city. This will be our forever home I hope if we get planning permission to extend into the roof (too low for a regular conversion).

Wow this thread is moving superfast!! We're either super dedicated, have too much time on our hands or there's loads more of us I personally think it makes us more responsible for our actions and spends if we've to post it here.

spotty thanks for the risotto recipe, looks fab. I love risotto but it is time consuming and you reminded me I used to make chorizo and cherry tomato risotto in oven before, why did I stop?

Leftovers are a big thing in our house - dh often puts lasagne into his sandwiches for work, yes you read that right! I have access to a microwave, toaster, sandwich toaster and grill in our little kitchen at work so most options are available to me for lunch. I bring leftovers/soup/sandwiches etc, I have planned beans on toast also for a lunch this week and I have porridge for my evening snack if I'm working late. I think I've had a frugal fail this week though because made a ham & chicken leftovers pie on Sat but the last couple of pieces got hidden behind something in fridge so that will end up going to the dogs for their dinner tonight.

I love the fact that you can make a tasty nourishing soup so cheaply, and normally have some in the fridge.

off to google a recipe for salmon teriyaki noodles, as we were going to be having soy glazed salmon with stirfry veg and noodles later.

Something I have found a big help with including extra veg in our diet cheaply lately is a bag of frozen sweetcorn, bag of frozen peas and carrots, can be added last minute and cook in no time, there's no waste etc. Must hunt out finely chopped frozen carrots and my life will be much easier.

I haven't made an official meal plan yet this week so here it goes - tonight salmon & noodles with stirfry veg
beef goulash with rice/mashed potato
chicken and chorizo oven baked risotto
quiche,chips & salad
Sat - myself and kiddos are away dh & au pair will have leftovers from freezer aka freezer surprise or marinated pork chops or if I'm up early sat morning I might put something in slow cooker
Sun - Roast beef dinner in slow cooker for when we arrive home on Sun pm

Paternity leave doesn't exist in Ireland!

pass I'd love those notes, I'm happy in my job but dh isn't!
This course might help too www.futurelearn.com/courses/writing-applications
I'm doing the managing my money one with future learn, we're on week 5 of an 8 week course, but I'm only dipping in and out really because haven't time at home and no sound card at work so only reading articles not watching podcasts. I'm downloading all articles though to my google drive for future reference.

mymysticfalls is the orange oil essential?

I never mentioned our animals in my intro!

9 hens, 2 dogs, 3 cats!! Love my hens - so easy to look after put their feed out in the morning, collect it and the eggs in the evening. It costs less for their feed than we were spending on eggs and there's no comparison in flavour. The cats are essential in the country for vermin but I do detest them and them mewing at the back door each morning to be fed while I'm trying to eat my own breakfast All in all I guess all the animals cost about €70 per month, when we were really struggling financially the dogs were costly but they didn't ask to come live with us so they were our responsibility.

I'm going to try for another NSD today - cutting the dishwasher tablet in half really worked, I never noticed the difference when I took the stuff out this morning - so I'll be doing that from now on and saving myself some pennies.

I agree with decluttering - because people know my circumstances are difficult they are very kind and give me things and I don't like to say no. Hence, I now have three portable TVs taking up room in my bedroom. We don't watch TV in bed and barely watch the TV in the living room, so I've offered to swap them for a bottle of wine today. Hopefully people will take me up on my offer or else it's off to the tip I go on Saturday.

Should be NSD today plus I just received my first £10 from Quidco. I made stir fried veg with noodles last night. Had some left over so I found a few bits of filo lurking in the freezer and made spring rolls for today's lunch.
The washing machine which has just gone out of warranty had started to make a funny noise. It's had a battering this year - who knew a baby could generate so much laundry?! I hope it's not about to go wrong. Is there a good way to clean it? I seem to remember being told something about white vinegar and a really hot wash??

Morning all!

mymysticfalls those bars sound yummy!

Popped into Morrisons this morning to get some pants for DS and some bread. Spent £9.19 on that and some fruit and then got £10 cash back to put in youngest DS savings account. That should be it for today.

Am trying to avoid going to the supermarket for top up shops but as I am a veggie I often need to get more fruit and veg every couple of days. Just need to focus on getting what I need and nothing else !

pointless clean out the filter, a hot wash (95' here) with a good glug of white vinegar and make sure you clean inside the rubber seal at the front (that's the worst culprit imo)

Doing an application form and getting side tracked....

sounds like a fab frugal recipe too Oven Bake Rosti Cake

Washing soda crystals in the machine, put on to a hot wash, when bubbles form turn off machine at wall and leave overnight, restart in the morning and finish the wash. This is what my service engineer advised. The door seals get manky and create a smell, luckily my machine lives in the shed.

Hi lila
This was the salmon teriyaki noodle recipe I based mine on but I made a few changes.
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/crispy-asian-salmon-stir-fried-noodles-pak-choi-sugar-snap-peas

Basically marinade the salmon with some soy sauce, garlic, mirin (or vinegar as suggested) and some sugar. Leave it till you want to cook it.

Meantime get the noodles sorted.

Fry the fish skin down first, then flip it. Remove it when it's cooked. Put the noodles in the same pan and fry it. Add leftover marinade...

Voila.

Enjoy. I love it.

Just popped to Tescos for the half price pork joint a pp mentioned upthread. Now waiting for dp to come home and butcher it into portions (I don't do flesh!), lots of offers in there atm, it's about time they finally started raising their game!

Spends day yesterday, went to Sainsburies for small top up shop and spent over thirty pounds! The trouble is, It is very handy for the library. Must plan better, the key to frugaleering is being organised.

Thank you for recipie Miss Mystic, will try that for DP's lunches, he likes traybake bars.

Re introductions, I am Opals, 39 years old living with DP who is 42. I am full time employed, Dp moved in a few months back. Unfortunately the job he was offered fell through and he is reliant on agency work at the moment which has just started to come through, fingers crossed it continues.
We are frugaleering because of this, I have an overdraft and a mortgage reserve account to clear as well as the need to keep a car/get another and several things needed for the house too.

Have been thinking about things since joining this thread. Frugaleering is really not that bad, can be quite fun and it does make you feel in control.the fear of not having enough in the account or worrying that I will not be able to do something for lack of money is going because we are planning and budgeting. And that feels good.

Em - hope the new job went well yesterday. Re Copify - it says on the site you need to be a copywriter, but I think that's for the benefit of their clients. I sent my project management cv over and they accepted it. Re Laska's comment - yes, there's a lot of bad press about it paying peanuts. If it takes you too long to write the articles it's not worth your time for the money. If you can bash them out quickly without too much hassle it's not bad. Good for me to keep that part of my brain ticking over while on mat leave as well, otherwise just watch Real Housewives of Cheshire.

Also rudely haven't introduced self - have a DH and a 6 mo dd. Saving for house deposit.

Yesterday

2/2
£2 DD pocket money - although I actually found that exact amount in another purse so just used that!
£2 bus to work
£2.79 blu tak needed for reward chart (support worker made the chart - laminated tokens of their favourite anime characters, it's amazing!)
£1 work retirement contribution

£1.75 on a cup of tea in town, £8 in Wilkos on toothbrushes, metal glue (to fix dds metal detector ) razors and high strength evening primrose oil which I am hoping will help with pmt!! Another £8 in Primark on a top for me and some bits for dds bday.

Might take dd to the cinema later as has been a rubbish few weeks for both of us, will see how I feel.

nk5bm3 didn't think it was fair to send that list of instructions home so I just said marinade in soy sauce garlic and honey and prep stirfry veg for later. Will do that next time though.

Was in fishmongers sat and got 8 salmon tails for €20 and they're big ones, really looking forward to dinner tonight.

hi, I'm a long time lurker, who has read and followed for quite a while.
I've been inspired to post as I went to the Co-op this morning and noticed they also have half price pork joints. Normally, I wouldn't buy a large joint as theres too much meat, but thanks to you guys, I now have pork for at least three meals (I hacked it in half, and bunged half in the freezer, and then diced the rest and divided it in two and now, thanks to NK5 I am marinading a load for pork noodles tonight
Quick intro from me; I am late forties, mum of two lovely cats and two fast growing, continually eating teens. Dh loves his food and gets panicky if he doesn't go shopping every day...
We both chucked in stressful jobs last summer, and now have a 'portfolio of jobs' aka a collection of part time, low paying jobs. Stress levels are down, and happiness is increased, but we now have to cut our cloth...

Nsd. Running out of bread.

Thanks for the washing machine tips. I'm going to clear all the washing first (today hopefully) and then give it a good clean. I suspect some of DD's Weetabix (sorry, I mean cheaper Asda version of course!) might have made its way into the machine via her clothes!
Still NSD so far but I need to buy some fabric labels to label DD's clothes before she starts nursery.

It's a wonder my washing machine keeps going, given 2 teen DC's, two dogs and a pony.

Welcome gosh, don't teens eat and eat and eat? The male variety especially. I have frightened lots of folk on here with DS's eating habits. Saturday, he went out for the day with his mates, had a MacDonald's for lunch, pizza for tea then came home, noticed we were having a takeaway and had another full size pizza, then cereal. He is like a skinny rake too.

mystic, thanks for the recipe, I shall try, sounds easy and healthy.

I SO want hens, DH is worried about rats, we have a huge garden and the bottom part is all wood chipped so they could scratch around. Are rats an issue does anyone know?

Frugal win. NSD. Also my M&S vouchers came through for having their credit card, £67 worth.

Frugal fail - DH's tax renewal is due for his car but at least I started a 'pot' last month for this, which it can come out of.

brittany at your TV hoard!!

Oh and MSE Cheap Energy Club are having a mass switch, which you can join before 5th February. I have a £50 charge for leaving my provider early but I think it's still worth looking into.

Lastly, and late to comment on this, but I watch Eat Well for Less and agreed with your general comments. Not sure they did eat all that well either, with burgers and sausages etc. I really don't mean this to sound bitchy, and I am sure that it will, but both adults needed to lose weight, so would have been better getting a pile of fruit and veg from the local market, stocking up on pulses etc, not drinking 4 litres of orange per week etc.

Sorry, probably sounds awful.

Hi, I'm a long time lurker,
I'm 27, a SAHM of four little monsters, two girls ( 5&4) and two boys(2&10months). My dh is armed forces and is away alot and at a moments notice. We live in married quaters in a small village, I don't drive so it's slightly difficult when he's away (thank god for internet shopping) We are trying to save for an intensive driving course for me and a house deposit. We also have two dogs, two cats and two guinea pigs.

I use leftovers quite a lot, thankfully only dd1 and dh are fussy eaters. Dh won't eat pasta, noodles or spicy food, the only veg dd1 will eat is sweetcorn, sprouts and cabbage. I have an allergy to tomatoes, which is really annoying as most frugal recipes have them in. Anyone got any suggestions?

I've just spent quite a lot on thermal curtains, but I'm hoping I'll see the difference in the heating bill. Our house takes a lot of heating as its two 2 bed houses made into one 4 bed house.

Was having a nsd until I realised that I've got to do an internet shop forgot dh isn't back until Friday and we are nearly out of milk, we go through about 16 pints a week!