July Frugal thread, Just chatting and saving.

[Fluffycloudland77]

Everyone welcome.

ipsos I will do, just nearly finished at work now though so it'll be later on.

spotty love the sound of your dinner! I've pork chops taken out which I hate so hoping dh will have cooked them up for him and kiddies cos I won't be home until later and I can have prawns, parmesan, and linguine instead (prawns need using honestly!!)

I make bolognese, taco mince, chilli, beef stew/goulash, roast beef, roast ham, soup in my slow cooker. Days I'm in could be creamy cajun chicken or finish something off that I started on the hob.

dinner reheated leftover chips from chipshop ham and eggs.

excuse is we are away for a few days tomorrow and want to clear fridge out.

2nd NSD in a row - yay!

Evil do you know the town that the flat is in at all? I live about 10 minutes away so I could give you some info if you need it.

Banana and chocolate muffins are in the oven to take to camp tomorrow.

Tea tonight is pasta. I have opened a tin of anchovies, added extra oil, chilli flakes, garlic and a touch of harissa paste. Will gently cook mushrooms and some chard and stir in, to be eaten with salad. Cheap and easy.

I am always tired as I am away most weekends. I just live with it these days. I will be VERY tired tomorrow as I am on camp duty and have to stay up all night being security, then work

collie same with the slow cooker, I need to find further slow cooker recipes for the summer months.

Able and Cole have refunded me £6.60 as I complained about a mouldy nectarine

I have been really tired today as well, definitely blaming it on the weather. We have got the lights and heater on and currently drinking hot choc its July ffs!!

Today has been quite pricey, had a row with the man at the cinema as its advertised at 'bargain Monday' £6.30 a ticket, when i got there its actually £7.30 a ticket, apparently bargain Monday excludes blockbusters so for me and dd that was £15. Saw Inside Out which I thought was really good though, quite thought provoking way of understanding how our brains work!!

Got a MacDs for tea that was £7.

Stopped in at B&Q and got 2 tins of paint for £20 plus a tray, roller and brushes at £8.

Today has been so spendy.

Tomos should be better, dd is off to a horse riding day which I've budgeted for and will need to pick up some milk but otherwise no other spends planned.

Oh no, collie. It has been stupidly windy for July. We seem to have gone from summer to winter overnight.

So sorry to hear about your garden collie
No bargains in the charity shop today but I did v well in Aldi and Asda. Spent just over £60 altogether including a box of 12 packs of baby wipes, 3 large bottles of Sanex shower gel, razors for DH and 2 pots of moisturizer. Plus all the weekly shop and lots of fruit.
Carrot hummus is an HFW recipe:
Peel 500g carrots, cut into 5cm pieces and roast for 35 mins with 3 tbsp olive oil, 3 garlic cloves & a tsp each of ground cumin & coriander.
Leave the carrots to cool then blitz in a food processor with juice from half a lemon, juice from a whole orange, 3 tbsp of smooth peanut butter (or tahini but I rarely buy any) and 3 more tbsp of olive oil. You could probably miss out the lemon juice but the orange juice makes the recipe imo it's delicious!
Aldi had some lovely craft paper v cheap if anyone is interested!

Sorry to hear that collie, we had lot of rain and wind today but luckily no significant damage.
I did cut part of the hedge on Saturday and dds helped me shred it and put it in the chicken run but after 2 days of heavy rain it's very muddy and quite slippery. Hope we finally see some sun tomorrow

Thanks for the recipe Pointless

We seem to have a glut of beetroot and not really being a fan (ghastly memories of pickled beetroot) I'm not sure what to do with it or store it.

What recipes are there using beetroot that can be frozen??

That carrot humus sounds gorgeous.

I have had frugal success with a bag of carrots. Usually I'd shove the bag in the cupboard and end up feeding half of them to the rabbits because they'd gone past the stage of eating. This month I've taken them out of the bag and stored them in the fridge with kitchen roll inside a tupperware box. They're still going strong for salad use.

peppa this looks weird but Madhur jaffreys beetroot curry recipe is really nice ( makes your rice go pink also!! heres another one from waitrose

And heres my recipe for Red cabbage and beet borscht

This makes a rather startling colour but filling and earthy tasting soup (and no pretensions towards being ‘the real thing’),

Serves 6 at 667 cals for the whole recipe so about 111 a portion
I like mine with a little crumbled feta on top and a splash of hot sauce (of course as it’s me!) ..though you could have half fat crème fraiche or sour cream

200g Potato
250 g Cooked Beetroot
2 Medium Onion -
1 Celery stalk, medium (7-1/2" - 8" long)
1 Carrot -
Half a Red Cabbage chopped
Smoked Pancetta 110g, 1 pack
400g can Tinned chopped Tomatoes
Caraway Seed I teaspoon
Dried Dill half teaspoon
Fresh - Dill, small packet
Smoked Pancetta 110g, 1 pack
Chicken (or veggie) Stock Cube, 1 cube
Splash of red wine or cider vinegar

Chop up celery onion carrot into small dice , Fry off with pancetta in large pans until soft and then drain off excess fat. (or if making veggie version use spray oil for this stage) .

Thinly slice potatoes (I leave the skins on) and add to the pot with caraway seeds and dried dill. Add made up stock add to cover and simmer until pots are tender.

Shred cabbage and chop beetroot and add to the pot with the tinned tomatoes .salt and pepper to taste and simmer until cabbage is tender.

Add chopped fresh dill and splash of vinegar to taste and liquidise.

.............................................

My beetroot is still not ready , but tomatoes and courgettes are doing well, and i picked the first few carrots this weekend , . we also have tons of garlic harvested and drying in garage (before the rain came) and pink fir potatoes ready to come out , spaghetti squash are coming also ( but they will be a while yet .. beans are a disaster (only three germinated!!)

The wind and rain has ruined my lettuces though, I had to pick most of them before they all turned into mush .. I ended up making courgette pea and lettuce soup with mint today.. its really nice , have some more lettuce coming up ,

Frugal win today got £41.50 back from Quidco from our Avis hire car from our holiday

Spent £1.25 in M&S. No spend over the weekend .. and still have £46.18 in budget to last until payday on Thursday.. fingers crossed!

Collie Sorry about your garden. I need to salvage too today. So much for summer....

Although, I have blueberries for the first time ever in three years which I can harvest today.

Having my nails done later to cover all the crap that chickens, ponies, dogs and gardening does to my hands but think that's it spending wise.

Just also need to catch up on the budget since pay day.

Listed some Karen Millen skirts on Ebay and some Next school trousers (3 pairs) hardly worn on FB selling sites.

I'm going to have to remember to check back on the beetroot when back home with better signal as we have a glut too. Beetroot always seems to do well for us.

collie sorry about your garden. This weather is rubbish at no

pointless were going to kielder, Northumbria way...first time ever camping and complete novice...any advice appreciated. Should be interesting with teenagers how often do you go?

Bit of a stupid question but when camping do things get nicked?? The idea of just leaving the tent with our bits and cooking stuff etc seems weird without locking a door

Ooo and pointless could I grab your recipe for chickpea curry pls

I've been reading back through the thread to catch up. Have got to were people saying...that this thread is a lovely corner of mumsnet....it really is isn't it. I enjoy frugaling with you all!!!

latest news with gas&lec, they've received the complaint but as far as they are concerned they've done everything as should. Despite not getting a bill for first 6months or informing me that I wasn't paying enough each month or that my fixed tariff ended.GITS. I take my responsibility in not being as vigilant and checking but theyre the first utility that hasn't e en sent a letter to say 'we need to increase your DD' as current sum not covering usage. Im off to ofgem.

Did someone mention something about an app that calculate cost of appliances and light bulbs that help to reduce lec cost?

Also thank you for the shorn and spoon of marmite tip!!!

I'll take a breath now and head off to work..busy day grhh with lots of traveling grhh and expecting a late finish grhh love job really just wishing it would quieten a bit for a reprieve.

Marking my place, then going to catch up.
I just put in a tesco delivery order for tomo eve - using my 3rd free delivery week of 4...saving myself €17.29 - using €10 aldi voucher, plus €7 free delivery although delivery only costs €4 and my price promise of 29c! Last aldi voucher was also €10 but mysteriously €10.15 was refunded to my card! I'm not sure if this is a top up shop or half of next weeks groceries though somewhere in the middle I think.

Also have another €10 off €50 aldi voucher & will use that at the weekend to stock up.

Just got a new hummus recipe last night & now this roasted carrot one sounds beautiful too - going to try that also.

wheely that was me. I'm in Ireland and its Electric Ireland Appliance Calculator app, but it's irish electricity prices and in Euro. Not sure if there's an equivalent. Worked out that the drier and the cooker are my big spends. 7 loads a week in my drier costs me €36 per bill.

Should be a bit if a speedy day for me, we are off out for the day with my mum and sister, to the Irish equivalent of Blackpool beach. On the plus side, I'm not driving, so saving a lot of petrol, it's about 3hrs round trip. Have €20 cash, going to try not spend much more than that! Hope the weather isn't too bad, it will be a bit grim otherwise.

lilac how do you use those vouchers with a delivery??? I didn't realize you could! I never bother with them because I didn't think you could use them on deliveries! Now I feel a bit silly...