We are Resolutely Frugal! Frugaleers continuing their new frugal year. All welcome!

[fuzzpig]

Hello! I hope nobody minds me starting the new thread :o

I'm in Costa. I'm so cross one ranted on my local councils fb page I've come into a city, my nearest, and purposefully went to the most expensive car park because it takes cards and I never have change except they're not working. I had £1.20 change on me so went to the cheaper carpark but that only got me an hour so I had to walk into town and buy something to get more change

I've just been thinking about how to replace the nice sliced ham that has been discontinued in tesco and I was wondering if I could just cook a big pork loin joint like this and keep it in the fridge for people to cut slices off? That must be what was done in the past mustn't it? I suppose pork wasn't always bough pre-stuffed with nitrites.

www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=267460282

It would probably be better for us and would costs half as much by weight (assuming that there is no weight change during cooking.)

I'm not sure how long it will last in the fridge, 3-4 days? I'm trying to cut down on how much processed meat we eat so not buying ham at the moment. I do poach chicken in breasts and then use those slices in sandwiches sometimes.

Just checked our current account and the amount available is much much lower than the balance. I'm hoping it's just the cheque that was paid in at the weekend and that appeared instantly and was moved out instantly is messing things up. We are not expecting hundreds and hundreds to suddenly go out.

Sainsbury shop coming today £60 for £73 of food, they gave me a £13 voucher after last weeks disaster. I'm trying some of the slimming world meals to try and get s bit healthier so some odd stuff in there and cleaning products. I will try for £40 next week. The fridge is very empty at the moment, it's brilliant! I'm supposed to be cleaning it today and need to do that now. Being bothered is an issue though!

Ipsos you can but I would slice it then freeze it.

I buy a ham joint in aldi every few weeks and cook in slow cooker, we slice it for sandwiches or for quiches/risottos etc. It would last about 5 days due to being salted. Pork wouldn't last as long.

We buy a 10kg gammon usually turns up 11-12kg from Costco online don't need to be a member think its around £30 n dh cuts it into joints to freeze and we have for dinner and use for sandwiches.

Also if we roast a chicken on a sun or Mon we have for that dinner p!plus another dinner 2days later either with mash or chips n veg and meat left either gets used for sandwiches or mixed with BBQ n chopped bacon onions n mushrooms or peppers added popped in oven with some part baked bagueetes and we have those filled for dinner.

Ds1 now eats at childminders 3days after school but usually wants a snack when we eat dinner so will have garlic bread or crackers or dairylea dunker and ds2 eats at nursery on 4days but always wants more so has some dinner with us or a crumpet with some veg. I actually rarely get my dinner to myself these days such a greedy baby!

Dinners this week

Mon -BBQ chicken thighs with mash n veg (making enough mash to reheat on wed)

Tue- chicken balti leftovers with fresh rice n poppadoms

Wed- beef stew out freezer with mash

Thurs- prawn bagueetes n chips

Fri- sausages baked in oven with paprika veg (tinned new potato, sliced peppers, onions, mushrooms and carrots) - a dinner that cooks itself in 45mins

Weekend will decide when it gets here sat is usually something can be mace in bulk so a dinner can go in freezer and sun a roast with meat left over for another meal on Tue.

I've never understood the difference between a pork joint and a gammon joint!

I got a bargain coat for ds to grow into. £60 down to £25. Also got some other bits and gifts. Probably spent another £50.

This is the main route south out of my village....

Silvertap pork is unsalted pig meat, ham/gammon is salted pig meat
I don't think there's any difference between a ham joint and gammon joint except perhaps the age/location of person who's talking about it

Wow spotty that's awful, we're not so bad anymore with water levels the flooding has subsided.

east I like your menu plan looks good.
Sat - bacon & cabbage with baby potatoes
Sun - stuffed turkey joint with roasted carrots & sweet potato, gravy using leftover chicken gravy and some leftover baby potatoes from Sat
Mon - spaghetti bolognese
Tues - bacon/turkey leftovers with mash & veg if dh hasn't taken the meat in his sandwiches for work or eaten them for lunch today
Wed - pork chops something or other
Thurs - roast beef done in slow cooker
Fri - fish & chips

Hi folks, glad to see the new thread is 3 pages in, less than 24hrs after it was started. :o

Can't do yesterday's spends yet as I think DH forgot one of the receipts from the nature centre

Slipped up today, we were in the library much longer than planned and were hungry so we went to Greggs before getting the bus I did get bread though so won't need to get from Coop.

Re: batch cooking as it was mentioned on page 1 (haven't RTFT yet), my favourite thing to freeze is tomato pasta sauce. I do a massive vat of it - red onion, peppers, courgette, garlic and tinned toms, then blitz it (as DS would pick every bit of veg out otherwise). I often flake steamed salmon (I get the frozen fillets and steam it with the veg) into it when I serve it, to sneak some omega 3 into the I-only-eat-fish-in-finger-form DCs. Also I love to freeze spag bol sauce, and I did try a chili which turned out ok. The curry was a bit meh but I'll keep trying, I'm not used to my slow cooker yet. I also make big batches of pesto, and twist foil round dollops of it, as it defrosts super quick for an emergency meal.

I've got 6 400ml freezable/microwavable pots on order, and will get more if I can potentially fit more in the freezer (not sure how big they are). My problem with batch cooking is that I'm very all-or-nothing - I do a massive marathon cooking session over a few days (which completely saps my energy) and then end up barely using any of it. I need to find a happy medium that means I consistently have some usable food in the freezer.

Our freezer is 3 shelves, thinking 1/1.5 for batch cooked stuff, 1 for frozen veg which we use loads of, and 1 for other necessary stuff like bread products (as DH is coeliac we don't get through it so fast) and meat.

Oh I see you're posting meal plans... no I still haven't done ours! FFS

But DH is home in an hour so when we go through the whiteboard for this week (forgot to do it last night ) we can discuss it then. Still got a few bits in the freezer to use up, hoping not to do a Tesco order til next weekend.

Laska very sorry to hear of the funeral. :(

Welcome to newbies, sorry I've forgotten names already

I see tinned potatoes mentioned. Wondering if that'd be useful for me - could I just slice and shallow fry? I don't usually do much with spuds myself, because I find them very hard to chop (get a lot of pain in my hands/arms so harder veg is difficult for me).

Also - anyone know a cheap but reputable source of ink cartridges please? We were going to sell our printer, because I can get printing cheap (or often free, depending who serves me! :o) at the library, but we need so much more printed now and I'm not often well enough to go out to get it anyway.

Thanks for the tips on roast pork! I'll give it a go. It's probably healthier without all the nitrates as you say. I'll try Spotty's scheme of roasting, slicing and freezing. :-)

Nsd. Nice long walk with dad. Lunch (he paid) and now home snuggled up with cup of tea and tv.

Sounds like a lovely day em aside from the start with your dh! Has he made contact at all during the day?
Any plans for tomorrow?

Nope lilac no contact but he's been in client meetings all day.

Was a nice day although it rained a lot during our walk....!

£62 on food delivery, no other spends. We are having left over pork for dinner, I'm turning it into pulled pork to have in baguettes.

I am trying to be more organised with my household things, this will make me more frugal as I'll know what we actually have in the kitchen cupboards! I did the fridge and washed it all out. It looks lovely and now has all the food for The week ahead in it. Second week I've had my shopping delivered without bags, it's fine, I put all my reusable bags and an IKEA bag by the front door ready. Ds1 adores the ssinsbury delivery so it's free activity for him too! The man let him press the buttons on his scanner today :-)

Just sold something on fb selling site for £25

Excellent spotty that's great

nsd.

Only 8 minutes until I allow myself to put the heating on.

Fuzz yes to slicing n frying tinned potatoes we use aldi 15p tin I do t like them just heated but fine done with roasted veggies in oven or bunged in a casserole or fried I use them for quickness really on work days discovered by chance but now use 1-2tins a week.

Ha ha fluffy ours comes on at 4.30 and thermostat is set at 15 so it will come on when out at work so not freezing when walk in we turn it up to 17/18 at 6 before bathtime and back down to 15 at 8 n it goes off at 9.30 I then turn it down to 13 overnight it comes back on at 6am I am up for 6.15 downstairs and turn back to 17 n it goes off at 7 on weekday and 8 at weekends. (Gosh sound like heating control freak!!)

Sorry to hear about the funeral.
Hello newbies.
I'm a heating freak east mid. I think the button is breaking due to too much pressing

I'm the opposite then - I think ours is timed to come on for an hour in the mornings and an hour in the evenings and has been like that since the first cold day in August or September with some period of time with the morning one being off. Our pellets were delivered on 10th July 15 and there seems to be more than half left, normally we get about 8 months out of them so this is great.

Laska thinking of you today.

Sorry to hear so many of you have had frustrating days one way or another.
Just £1 parking today. Parked a long way from hospital to combine frugality with being more active!
Making bubble and squeak with leftovers but doing it as patties baked in oven, usually do it in frying pan. There is loads so hoping it will do for a couple of lunches too and I'll freeze a few if I can find any space in the freezer. Need to use some things up!