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

[fuzzpig]

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

Welcome Slightly! (although you're very welcome, not just slightly :o) IKWYM about the head in the sand approach (shall we just make it a new acronym? HITS?) - I am really trying to stop this now.

Laska there must be other things to do with peel. I have no idea what, mind. Marmalade cake sounds good though!

Welcome SlightlyTired. Looking forward to hearing about your discoveries.

Well now I'm sulking. Lamb mince was substituted with beef mince. So I now have a pack of fresh mint that I'm not using. Shall I chop it and freeze it?

So.. We didn't buy the fireplace (yet) but we probably will in the next month or so. McDonald's for lunch on Saturday £15?

£79 at Sainsburys (!!) - we need to go back to aldi.

Today, £80 in boots for dh's shaver (half price) and some sponges. £39 at white stuff for a dress (I've given up going back to size 8...) and we bought an extendable dining table. For £240. Original price nearly £1000. Fenwicks had a sale with an additional 20% off.

I got dh to deep clean the bathroom and got rid of a shopping bag of old bath toys and rubbish. It feels great. no more mould. Might have ruined one of dd's leggings though (bleach). Doh.

Fuzz I always have a tub of chopped mint in the freezer

Welcome Slightly.

Kebabs a success, made fajita seasoning and chopped 3 chicken breasts into it and wrapped it up for tomorrow nights dinner. I suppose you could freeze it like that too.

That tables a bargain Nk

Bargainous table! Got to be worth it for that discount! Not at all consumed with jealousy, oh no :o

I'll cut up the mint then, I don't really know what to use it for other than lamb burgers. I did try a creamy minty pasta once like I had in a restaurant, but it didn't turn out how I hoped.

For no apparent reason I am really craving tuna pasta. I'm so pleased we have frozen onion as it means it's much less effort to make myself some.

Welcome Slightly

NSD again today. DS and DD1 had their swimming lessons this morning, then rushed home, prepped the roast, left mum to put in the oven whilst I rushed both girls to 2 parties, one 40 minute drive away (DD2's friend from dancing). Home for lovely dinner.

DH has gone away, DC's are booking slots to share the bed with me.

Rehearsal tomorrow for DS and DD1 is local, London Tuesday and Thursday.

Need to buy salad for this week, mainly for my lunches; plus more packed lunch things as DS and DD1 need packed tea Tuesday and Thursday. As I'll be playing catch up with work (due to DH being away I need to cover pick ups) I need easy ideas to feed the kids.

Pasta Wednesday, jackets Monday for girls, DS will eat with me, but not sure what.

Fuzz you need this for the pasta and mint dish. Or use it in a bacon, pea and mint risotto. Yum.

NK dont throw the leggings away , google 'bleach art leggings' and see what can be done! , My workmate did the same on her new purple ones and just randomly sprayed more bleach on then washed them in the machine.. , They look fab, now pink and purple in a splatter design! whatry it what can you lose , 9except a bit more spray bleach>)

Ok so i now have 17 jars of home made marmalade! .. so we are sorted for citrus based condiments.. on toast , cake , gammon in marmalade glaze ? any more ideas?

Er - fuzz - what on earth are you doing freezing mint when you could make mojitos!

DH gave me the last of my Christmas presents yesterday! ( he just forgot it) . Its Madhur Jaffrey Vegetarian Curry Easy, has some fab ( and frugal ) recipes in.. I love spicy food , so will be experimenting and posting reviews (and recipes if you like)

fuzz or make pea mint and feta cheese toasts, ( or use avocado instead or peas) Yum yum yum.. (though I agree Mojitos definately first!)

and yes welcome slightly .. lost of good help and encouragement here , this is a lovely friendly and supportive corner of MN,

Hi slightly

Freeze the mint.
Marmalade mmmm. It will keep.

Welcome Slightly this thread is very good for focussing the mind!

blue i like your thinking! Its a bit early in the year but mint is divine in Pimms as well!

Is anybody else thinking about frugal garden-fixing? I would like to improve our garden because it's a shambles, but every time I look into it I realise that gardening costs a ton of money.

it doesnt need to be expensive Ipsos what are you thinking of doing? And what is your plot like now?

I was thinking about the garden yesterday. I've had success with aldi plants & they are very cheap.

You have to go early to get them though.

What do you need to do?.

It's a bit complicated Laska. We had a lot of lawn but it caused epic hayfever for ds and myself so we had to dig up the whole lawn and get rid of it. It was after we put down new grass seed and switched to a mulching mower so it's possible that either the grass was very vigorous (which is clearly was) or the mulching mower made it grow faster.

I'm letting a small patch grow back with the idea of treating it much more harshly to see if it might grow slower, but now I have about the area of a tennis court that is just bare soil or black weed supressing membrane and looks very ugly. I'd like to improve it, but hard landscaping is expensive and growing nice things like pumpkins to cover the ground stops the children from being able to run around. I'm a bit stumped tbh, in spite of having previously been a paid consultant to a garden designer. Stumped.

Would you tolerate a chamomile lawn better?.

Not really, no. It's the lush smell that causes the trouble so anything that smells is no good.

We had a really rubbish lawn before that was quite yellow and barely ever grew at all. We need that back really.