Frugaleering, cakes and baby talk

[Taytocrisps]

Just starting off a new thread as the other one was getting full.

That's brilliant news Bacon, why give it to the taxman?.

Party Life?

I don't get the fly jab. I'm too young and healthy. Dh gets it as a front line worker and just ds this year thought school.

Dd birthday party and sleepover.

Well done em

Awww.... did anyone else watch Strictly? I love movie night - that's put me in such a good mood! Off to make a cuppa and to read the Strictly thread.

Hi all. It’s been a while since I posted, I have been reading but never manage to make it to the end of the thread to post.

Interesting to hear thoughts on flu jabs. I have never had one, but I sometimes wonder if healthy people who can afford it should do so, for the herd immunity benefit. Or would too many people having the jab lead to more aggressive strains of flu developing, à la antibiotic resistance?

Today was expensive:
£30 on a massage
£5 on a small shop
£2 on tea after a race
£133 in IKEA - a new desk which is what I went for, a drying rack which I need and a dustpan and brush which I also need. I went an hour before closing time so had no time to browse which was probably for the best
£19 on a wall mounted vase thingy from Etsy. That one is a bit unfrugal but it looks pretty and my hall needs something pretty in it!

I also need to do a proper shop this weekend. Will try to get delivery tomorrow so I don’t have to make it to the supermarket.

Hope everyone is doing well and having a nice weekend

I don't think so holly it's a different strain every year anyway.

I've wondered about herd immunity Holly, you don't hear patients saying "I had the pneumonia jab & got pneumonia anyway".

Dh spent over £10 in sainsburys & got 200 nectar points. It's another £1 off the Christmas shop.

Grrr dh is off on one again

So I've got up to date with you guys sitting in my car outside hotel rather than in hotel room seething! We were at a wedding.

I could feel it brewing but tried to keep everything light & friendly

Grrrr

Super well done em
Lachatte welcome back
Need poor ds but it is a rite of passage for most.

Tayto I'm now singing "Sexy Vax" to the Justin Timberlake song!

Well done Em!

Strictly was great again. Enjoyed it with my slow cooker curry.

Still coughing here and been pretty with DS every hour since 3. Have given up now and got up. Will start making breakfast in a minute.

Mammy hope everything ok? Sometimes a bit of space is the most sensible option (I think I need to follow my own advice sometimes when it comes to rows with dh!)

Snuggly we had a fairly wakeful night too 😴 fingers crossed for some rest today.

£26 yesterday on drinks and sandwiches in the pub after a long afternoon walk.

£6 on foil trays. I need to get batch cooking again. Any other ideas than bolognaise and soup?!

thewaitresses my batch cooking tends to be pasta bakes and shepherds pie

mammy sorry to hear DH is being unreasonable and when you were meant to be having a good time

Mammy hope you're ok??

Waitress In addition to soup and bolognese I do lasagne, shepherds pie, chilli, casserole

I'm not going spinning this morning as my friend isn't well and I don't want to go on my own! Later dd has a party in a big town so we're going to go to Homebase as it's closing down and I need some bits from a supermarket that I couldn't get in Lidl yesterday.

Hope your night improved mammy.

Finally got all of the children asleep by 11 up at 730. Round 2 today with God parents.

Will watch strictly tonight on catch up, and extra slice.

Ds wants to go to the skate park which will be £6.
Need to get more food for the weeks pack ups.

Batch cooking. I've tried it all and I really can't get away with reheated food. I did the bases that were on last month's good food mag. They are then built upon to make more meals. The DC like Bolognese and mash so I tend to only have those in my freezer.

Thanks for the concern guys I'm ok.
Just wish he could pull together in marriage & parenting instead of everything being a battle.

Sorry to the guys who've been up during the night.

I was testing out not drinking at wedding yesterday, I had soda water & lime until after the meal & then had 3 bacardis & Diet Coke. I enjoyed the soda water & lime every bit as much.

Batch cooking doesn't work out here so much, as in freezing it. It just ends up being thrown out 6-12 months later but I make two dinners some evenings or a big piece of bacon which can be sliced with cabbage & mash one day then carbonara another day etc

Thanks for batch cooking ideas! I've never really got on with it before, and usually also just do two dinners! however since going back to work bolognaise has been brilliant as a Sunday night dinner when we've been away for the weekend (in fact we're away now so will be defrosting one later when we get back) and soup means that I can use up any random ingredients! I'm now seeing the benefits so will try out some of these ideas! One question about portion sizes though! Last time I bought small foil trays but have been having to add a tin of kidney beans to make chilli so that one tray feeds is all. I've now bought the larger trays - would casserole of shepherds pie in one of those feed two adults and 3 young children?

Sorry DH was a grumpy git mammy

I did the same thing with the sexy Vax snuggly :o

Very unfrugal weekend here. Friend mentioned she had found a few nits on her DC so I checked mine and yep, a few on DS. Bugger. So we ordered a Tesco delivery for this morning - paying extra as we only have the midweek saver thing - as DH is working later and it would give us all time to do it.

Aaaaand guess what item was unavailable (and no attempt made to substitute with any of the many alternative brands ) so DH is going to run to tesco for 10am anyway and then we can rush to get it done before he has to leave again (washing the Caglets' hair is difficult when I'm dizzy). Will hot wash bedding in the meantime. Aaaargh.

Still quite glad we got the shopping anyway I guess as I am now more stocked up with helpful stuff, just hope the convenience food I chose like soup etc (as I am still super wobbly and can't stand up long) doesn't mess up my sugars too much.

Not sure about the foil as I use the lake land stacking boxes which are 400 ml and that's enough for 1.

On the Christmas thread there is an aldi referrel link some one had put up. £10 off £45 on line and the referrer gets something. I don't know what aldi have online but I'm prepared to investigate if any frugaleers want to take part.

Cag. Round here if you take one to the chemist you get the treatment for that child free. I just stick it on some sellotape. The nitty gritty comb with loads of conditioner is good too

Sorry you’re having a hard time with dh mammy 💐 Good that you didn’t mind not drinking at the wedding though, useful to be able to go out and still give your liver a break sometimes!

Thanks wreck that’s interesting on the flu jab. Also fair point about pneumonia fluffy 😁

I freeze casseroles, mince (in any form), curry, veg lasagna/pasta bakes in foil trays mainly. Before I moved I tried to empty the freezer and learnt the hard way that everything looks the same when frozen so you really do have to label stuff. Had a freezer surprise meals (curry with baked potato anyone?)

Off for my last Sunday long run before the marathon. Gentle 10 miles as i’m tapering now. Suddenly feels very real!

Since I posted last night I got an Ocado shop (£50) and paid for a race entry (£16)

Thats called Freezer suprise round here Holly.

Portions look smaller in the trays than on a plate....try it. I have a 3 drawer freezer & I can't fit much in there at all plus I have enough time to cook because Dh isn't home until at least 6pm at the earliest.

You can batch cook Yorkshire puddings & stuffing balls too. I use mortgage free in threes Yorkshire pudding recipe with 50:50 milk & water with self raising flour. It works out comparable to SMARTPRICE yorkshires but tastes much nicer.

You could wrap chicken thighs/breasts with stuffing & streaky bacon for a midweek quick roast dinner or stuffing balls wrapped in stretched out streaky bacon. It jazzes it up a bit but doesn't cost much.

I'm trying a cheap breadcrumb sage & onion recipe today so I'll let you know if it's any good. It looks cheap as smart price but uses things you have in anyway & is palm oil free.

Jack monroes spicy red lentil & tomato soup is delicious & would freeze really well.

I hate cooking. I wish we had pouches like the cat.

Batch cooking wise I tend to go for sauces rather than full meals as we have very little freezer space, and it is easy to reheat and stir into pasta or whatever. Cheese sauce is my favourite as it takes a long time to make from scratch and is really versatile.

Clearly been too lax with the Caglets' hair lately, not making them use the vosene spray and not washing their hair with the shampoo enough (and letting them do it themselves so probably not very thorough). Literally the only times they've ever picked any nits up has been when we have stopped using vosene as much, other times they have avoided it even when best friends had them etc. Will be stricter again now.

Ooh thanks life will bear that in mind for the future

Dh is good at batch cooking. Currently in our freezer we have: three veggie bolognaises, a bag of courgette “meatballs” a couple of curries, two portions of leftover JO meat meatballs from last nights dinner. And I think about 4 different soups.

Our freezer is full of goodies. He bought reduced cheese the other day in coop (about a kilo of it grated it and shoved it in a bag for the freezer). We have a stash of reduced carrots (again washed sliced and frozen) and a ton of other frozen veggies.

Today we are doing a JO mothership roast from save with jamie. We have brisket. So need to work out how to cook it. Then will have with yorkies and roasted veggies. Mmm.