August Frugaleers Part II

[PeoniesforMissAnnersley]

Thought I would start a new one since the old one is full!

Try switching it off overnight and letting it heat for the two hours in the day. That ways it's hot for the dc to have a bath and you should get a shower each out of it too if you shower in the evening.

The tank shouldn't let off alot of heat so you might need an extra tank jacket to save the heat.

I have finally made it out of the supermarket - ?219.95 in Aldi and 28.12 in Tesco. Sounds horrific, but it works out as ?55pw for 2 adults, 1 teen and a very hungry boy.

This morning I have made preserved lemons this morning - my mil gave me a 70's style kilner jar that I was too polite to say no to. I belatedly realised this morning that it has no metal parts. 80p for a big jar - I just have to remember to shake the jar every couple days.

Yesterday £62 in the petrol station, most of that was diesel which I can reclaim, but also a bottle of water and a pack of sugar free polos to help with the long drive to the wedding reception last night. I'm really glad I made the effort to go, the bride (my new boss) was really pleased to see me, even though it was 1.5 hour drive there and 2.25 hours drive back (they shut the Dartford Bridge, the diversion was via the Blackwall tunnel! Ending up just driving all the way through central London)

Today we are off to Cafe Rouge for lunch (using MN voucher) also need a few urgent bits of shopping and to do a Tesco shop.

Unescorted how can you spend £219 in Aldi? I thought I was bad spending £180 in Lidl, but that included a Vax

Spotty did you have problems with the approved foods website? I have registered, but it won't login. It is taking the login, but still says Login, and won't put anything in the basket.

Happy anniversary MissA

Creme hood the tooth is better today?

Nope no problems. My iPad keeps me logged in though. Try a different browser maybe?

We had run out of loads of things - and it is for a month. Because we make most things from basic ingredients we only need to get milk during the month.

I am thinking of doing hampers this christmas - if I start doing chutneys, flavoured oils and vinegars over the next few months we should save a huge amount. I am going to have to start looking out for supermarket gluts and get dd to make me some artwork for the labels. What would you most like to se in a hamper at Christmas?

Do you get weekly fresh fruit and veg as well Unescorted? Sorry being nosy, I try and do a large monthly shop but find I still have to go back every week for the fresh stuff

Still can't work out the cheapest way to do it except that shopping at Lidls at least twice a month def saves a lot. I have an £8 off £40 shop at Sainsburys to use up at the end of the month but I sometimes think those vouchers encourage you to spend money you wouldn't otherwise iyswim.

Aiming for NSD/LSD today, packing up for dds holiday tomos and getting organised for going back to work there is a local fun day on later but that should be mostly free (it was last year) and my mum has offered to make a roast dinner which is a bonus!!

Unescorted we did this several years ago, we even made cheese! Mine had a mix of sweet and savoury things including chilli jam (nigella recipe), Parmesan biscuits, fudge, chutney, truffles, flavoured oil, raspberry Jam.

I'm a bit confused about the water heating, mine is set to do 1 hour at 7am and 1 hour at 5.30pm, is there an over ride that kicks in if I use it all?

Yesterday I had to buy birthday and anniversary presents, the shocking bit was the cost of cards and gift bags! £70 spent altogether, but so much on the wrapping j felt really annoyed. I'm going to list all the cards I need for the next year and get to card factory, I cannot justify £4 on a card or £7 on a gift bag, it's robbery!

Today we might go to a farm this afternoon, I'm 36 weeks pregnant and slowing down a lot but my 2 year old still need some entertainment! He's off at gymnastics with daddy this morning burning off his energy and having fun, it's £3 a week I am very happy to spend!

Really want to change to shopping monthly but with aldi doing the €10 off €50 spend vouchers at the moment it doesn't make sense to as I wouldn't be able to guess what I'd spend either in order to buy enough papers with vouchers to cover it.

Spent €40.50 at festival yesterday. €20 of that was on a hoody with a tractor printed on it & ds name(dh bought one for dd) €10 on balloons that both blew away not due to kids lack of care but ours! €10.50 on street food in place of dinner.

Really must get my ass in gear with led bulbs we have loads of halogen spotlights. Switch gone in our bedroom so no light there currently use phone or bathroom light to find things!

Excited for spotty getting dishwasher.

unescorted what did you end up planning for meals?

My electricity is much cheaper this year than last despite children & au pair being home everyday dss was living her last year & had games consoles, laptops, phones streaming & charging all day every day plus lights on all day. I have a standing order set up weekly to budget for electricity bill(ours is billed on usage every two months) I worked out amount based on last years usage & rounded up, think we'll be able to take a break from this for a couple of months but will see later in the year if that's the case I will divert money to children's credit union accounts to repay money borrowed from them.

Heading into festival again today but it will not be as spendy as I don't have much left. Must tally up.
Will do grocery shop later too.

Very interested in the hamper ideas as I love food but not all I give gifts to are.

One I would include is taco fries spice mix & recipe. This is something I've been making this year & everyone's amazed how nice they are.

If I haven't had my hair cut for nearly two years spending over £100 having it done is acceptable, right? Going to ring and get a quote tomorrow...

I get frozen peas and spinich. At this time of the year we get the fruit & vege from our (and other people's) gardens. During the winter I do a top up shop for vege and milk.

We make the bread and similar (cakes, biscuits, crumpets, muffins, waffles, flat breads) as we need them - it makes meal planning easier. I don't need to think I have to buy naan bread for the curry on day 15... I just have to think that I need x amount of chickens, y lamb meals ect for the total number of meals in the month. The curry can then be chicken or lamb depending on what we feel like ... the side bits get made from the store cupboard. It gives us flexability so if we want a hot pot or kababs instead we don't need to do an extra shop. The flex is also useful for making use of bargains in store. It also helps that I have a very full spice cupboard.... I love my spices

lilac - we are going to be having a couple of pizza nights, chinese, I fancy doing a cheese & spud pie, Bengal curry, lamb kababs, chicken nuggets, toad in the hole, roast chicken, slow roast pork, might do a lamb with dumplings or lamb curry ( it is quite a large bit of lamb so we could do both....) roast beef, pasta bake, lasagne, chilli crab & parsley on spaghetti, filled pasta (haven't decided if it is going to be home made riccotta & spinich or ravioli), thai red curry, nachos, quiche - poss riccota and spinich if we have the ravioli ( or we could have spag bol and s&r filled pasta and the quiche could be mushroom & bacon), tortilla, rogan josh, pulled pork burgers, hamburgers and vege burgers, sausage caserole, chilli, rissoto, kababs, pork snitchels (sp?), a worthy salad with grilled chiscken, sausage egg & chips

I have a couple of other pork shoulders that will become more sausages or bacon or ham.

The exact meals depends on what people are eating and what we have been given from peoples gardens. I suspect caugettes and mange tout are going to play a part.....

Sounds good ooh pulled pork haven't had that in ages I make the BBQ sauce from a slimming world recipe ooh there's another jar to add to hampers if i decide to do them.

Collie I started with the basics for a type of cuisine (Chinese as it happens...) then the next time I have a spare ?20 I get another basic set. After a while you will find that a lot of the spices are the same, but used in different combinations. eg Cumin is used in N African, Mexican, Indian, bengali, some Chinese, middle eastern and more. In Chinese cookery you wouldn't see corriander seed and in Middle Eastern cookery it is only rarely seen without being paired with cumin. In Scandinavian cookery Cumin appears, but alongside carraway and dill.

creme did you get sorted? I have a lot of very strong painkillers left from surgery which you're welcome to if you're near me -PM me if you're struggling!

Anniversary was lovely but DH a bit grumpy as I drank too much and fell asleep when he was hoping for a rather more interesting end to the evening will have to remedy that later.

Today I am going for a run as have put on about 9-10 pounds since surgery and clothes are feeling very tight.

Also a lovely friend gave me a whole years worth of gardeners world magazines which I am now harvesting for ideas.

I just sold something for £75 . And I've given up on trying to find a window cleaner, so that's £15 saved too. I've only done 1/2 of the windows though .

Put £10 towards a fire pit and some logs (used a voucher that I was given as a leaving present). I can't wait to get out to toast some marshmallows later!

Food shopping was £85 at sainsburys but that included a nerf gun for s.
£22 in lidl, £41 in aldi,

just spent £27 in tesco on DVD but £12 of that was boost so only £15.
went to the fancy trainer shop for sizes and about to order some fitness shoes for £31.50 after discounts. DH wants some running shoes so will wait and see so don't have to pay delivery (unless i order two pairs for free delivery and send one back on free returns)

was just about to spend £150 on a new hoover as the hose on our is broken then though daft arse just get a new hose for a tenner - save £140