Festive Frugaleers gather round the (best value and carefully researched) Christmas Tree for support, advice and chat. All welcome.

[needastrongone]

New thread.

So have I Em. I'm a bit too excited. Like you say - free nappies!

em what a lot of hassle you're having - is that neighbour still giving your grief? Great news about the nappies!! I found lidl great with dd until 6 months before she finished with nappies they changed!

Em Does this woman have a superior you can speak to? It's completely unprofessional to behave like that. Do you put your law degree letters after your name? Show her your not a lay person?.

£30 work supplies. Paid for the cheaper delivery option so fuck knows when that's going to turn up.

Media cell have sent me £20 Amazon vouchers. Result.

Nappy testers here too! We are using Tesco as get it delivered (that reminds me I must add some to the next delivery instead of the fifty quid of vodka reserving the slot, we don't even drink vodka in case we run out over Xmas) but there is a lidl near two different clubs the Caglets do so would happily buy there if worthwhile.

DH has had his shift changed tomorrow which means he can't come to the Caglets' pediatrician appts :(

Good news on the Lidl nappy tests, they're really good. Ds wore them as night time pants from age 3 (he was a size 4+ then, little bum) and still use their pull ups now, he's a whopping size 5! I know some 1yr olds in size 5 nappies.

em It's totally annoying that you can't get hold of stuff the rest of the uk takes for granted. I take it you effectivley pay for this buildings woman? She sounds very petty and a bit stupud to me.

cag that's going to be a big trek for you with all the caglets. Make sure you treat yourselves.

We just used the jammy dodger cutters I bought in lidl that I did not need mixed results, the gas oven is hit and miss. But the cookie sheets don't fit in the electic one. Will fill them with chocolate ganache and peanut butter.

Hi, not been around for ages, sorry.

Christmas presents all bought and wrapped. Did my main food shop yesterday. It’s just the four of us this year, so I was determined that I wasn’t going to go mad on treat type stuff. However a packet of stollen bites and Ballycastle Irish cream did somehow find their way into my trolley...

Couple of unplanned spends this week. DS1 came to me with 2 pairs of trackie bottoms with massive holes in the crotch! He’s at a non uniform school so wears them every day. And DS2 has grown again, how annoying, so just been shopping with him for a couple of new tops. Just ordered them both some more trackie bottoms as well. They’ve both got clothes as Christmas presents too so hopefully that will see them sufficiently kitted out for a bit.

Just been doing the online banking money shuffle to sort lol my finances out. I save for Christmas all year round and have just been using the joint account to pay for everything. So it needed a serious cash injection from my savings! I’ve left it till now because of course I don’t want to put in more than I have to. Hopefully I’ll have head start on saving for next Christmas if I’ve worked everything out right...

Cag Will you manage with the baby?

Ah it's OK, not a bad journey or anything it's only in the local hospital. Just annoying really as prefer to have both of us especially in case we have to separate them (both have appts with the same doctor) but they are old enough to sit in waiting room alone if necessary I guess. I'm not really sure what to expect from this appt, it's a follow up I think but I'm hoping they'll discuss next steps for other assessment (Dr seemed to hint about adhd and dyspraxia).

Does mean DH will be home in the evening though which is nice - mum was supposed to be staying but she's got a tummy bug.

Man down! Ds has a fever which won't go down with calpol. Have just been next door to borrow ibuprofen in the hope that that brings it down. So typical as it's now school holidays.

I worked all day, just can't bring myself to be off!

I've had a bit of a frugal cock-up. I booked a waitrose delivery for tomorrow and put a goose on it to reach the delivery charge and apparently I'm not allowed to cancel that now. Ooops. Bit early really.

Dh says he will take one for the team and eat two geese in one week. What a star he is.

I should have remembered this really, because two years ago Waitrose closed the editing really early before I had updated the basket, and I got 8 bottles of persil delivered instead of the Christmas lunch. At least I had the wit to put something edible in my pre-order this year.

fluffy no. She is a Co-resident so not part of a company. She does the management as it saves £3000 a year. It’s a long standing arrangement. It makes sense in that she knows the building etc. But in times like this is a right pita.

£63 at Waitrose. Mostly wine junk food and lebkuchen and pfeffernuuse. Mmm. Oh and cheese.

Sunny just send it back as a mistake? surely they will refund..
but do you have a shed or garage ? A cool out building? it will be ok in there.. wrapped up

Another Idea (and this is what I'd do) ..Joint it .breasts in the freezer (leave the skin on) .. Roast the legs now really, really slowly on low heat in lots of goose fat and herbs like sage or bay ( look up confit of duck but dont add the lots of salt because you'll be using it soon. )

Once cooked these will be fine left in a tupperware container covered in goose fat in a cool place (bottom of fridge if you have room or else in shed or garage ) until yo need them. when you do take out the legs scrape off fat and put in hot oven for about 20 mins .. use fat for roasties..

Cook goose breasts in oven on the day you want to use them.. serve with the confit legs on the day ..

The rest of the carcass doesn't have much meat so break it up now and simmer it with some veg for stock or soup (take off the skin as v fatty) cool soup/stock skim off fat ( use for roasties again..)

I have a recipe by Mark Hix suggesting this is what to s do with goose as it means you dont burn the breast waiting for the legs to cook.. ill see if i can find it on net and post it.

Ah here it is.. this is how I have always cooked goose since reading it Mark Hix Goose

Just remember the cooked cooled legs can be stored in a cool place until you are ready to use it , AS LONG as they are entirely covered in the fat ..now until christmas day will be fine ..

Laska If you know how to make stock I'd be really interested. I've always wondered that. I did it once and it turned into a sort of epic sea of fat. I have no idea what I was meant to do with that so I binned it.

Roasting the goose, jointing it and freezing the bits sounds like a brilliant idea. I used to do that all the time with chicken. Thanks for that idea. I had totally forgotten that.

Boden seems to be having a sale.

I think you can refuse orders, I couldn't cancel my order for the 22nd so I emailed customer services. I'd happily eat goose all week too. They won't pick it until tm anyway.

Em Poisened chalice there. It'll all work out. You're both way smarter than her. Who wants to pay £30k every time a neighbour gets knocked up?.

Sainsburys free from choc is not nice. The smart price stuff was better

Sunny you dont need to roast the whole goose now.. just the legs.. freeze the breasts raw and use them on the day ..

stock : put all the rest of the carcass raw or cooked ) in big pot, add one onion halved , stick of celery ( and celery tops if you have them) a carrot ( dont need to peel it. about 10 peppercorns, and a sprig of thyme if you have it.

Cover with water ...bring to boil , turn down to a slow 'plip' ...lid on so water doesn't boil away .. Plip for a hour or so....

if there is a lot of fat - which there will be with a goose - just carefully spoon off as much as you can into a jug after about an hour of cooking ( dont throw this away its great for spuds!!) . Don't worry too much if you cant get much out ..but it is easier if you can a bit..
Once its cooked for about 90mins turn off heat , leave over night covered ... ( if yo have a cold place like a conservatory or garage at this time of year even better because the fat will solidify .
In the morning carefully remove as much fat as poss ( keep this also - I put it into a jar in the fridge for roasties).

Heat it all up again a very little just to make stock liquid again , strain through colander into a bowl. Discard bones ( but if there is any meat left on carcass strip it off and either save for soup ,give to dog (or eat!)

If you have a fat strainer jug now is the time to use that (really good to get one of you are making stock) .. strain off fat pour back de-fatted stock into cleaned pan , and boil vigorously to reduce and concentrate..
I then pour it into ice cube trays and put n freezer..

Yes it s a faff, but . I only buy one local chicken (quite £) once a month maybe and that's how I Mumsnet the hell out of it!

IVE never eaten goose.

Currently having a nice cold glass of Sauvignon blank and some lebkuchen. Just eaten some pizza. Dh has never had lebkuchen.

Ds has cried at lebkuchen. I offered him one. He smiled at it. I ate it he made the saddest face in the world ever.

While I'm at it with recipes ( see in ems post above ill just re-post the Lebkuchen recipe I make,..

These are really easy and good (and quite frugal if you dont count the butter which seems to have rocketed in price recently ) .I now always swap the mixed peel for chopped apricot ( as i didn't have any mixed peel once and i think it turned out better wit apricot ) . In Germany they often put apricot jam in anyway ..

Today was pretty good on spend . just £20 on my hair cut ,

I am looking at all the presents needing wrapping.. I have finished in the office for the week.. (although I am really supposed to be working at home for the next two days .. ) so tomorrow it looks like ill be doing that..(with work pc on of course! JIC anyone is in to email me ..) ! should start now but I know I wont...

Dh won't countenance goose. Someone said its greasy & that's it. Same with haddock. He's eaten haddock every time I've gone in the chippy & been told cod is a 20min wait. He's never noticed.

A burger & chips off a van isn't greasy though

I was eating fruit cake & crackers with pate on my first Christmas, I wasn't actually given either. I was proactive with food.

Sunny I think I remember that Persik incident! I always put gin in my ‘holding’ basket because if push comes to shove there’s a silver lining right there; however —unfortunately— I remembered to cancel my unnecessary slot this year. So I suppose I saved £100 on gin?

Lots spent on a top-up shop to last till we go to PILS on Sunday. I bought £16 of lovely fish and prawns in our naice butchers to make a super posh fish pie for me and DH. It’s our traditional Christmas Eve special dinner but we’re having it early because of going away. I am excited already... I had to try to buy everything I need till the weekend because DS is off school from now on and he’s a nightmare to shop with. It’s been a very hard week with him, I am so glad term is now over!

I’ve got just a couple of cards to write with letters and photos (to relatives) and a bit of wrapping, but almost done with the prep. Like Snuggly I like to catch up with the cleaning and laundry but hope to have some time to relax over the next few days too.

Hope you are all feeling reasonably ready!

Good luck with the paediatrician tomorrow Cag. Is this a follow-up from the diagnosis? You are lucky if so, that doesn’t happen here. I am really struggling to get more input for my DS, who needs some psych support ime as his anxiety is ramping up and he is showing signs of ocd. And he’s only 5

It’s o’clock but I am not sure it works as we are having brown food for dinner as soon as bedtimes are over (chicken Kiev and oven chips). First world problems again

sunny Boden Is ALWAYS having a sale

I hope Lolly's person who didn't think we were frugal isn't reading .....
Goose, Sauvignon blanc , Lebkuchen with real butter.. ..

Not frugal at all!!..... .

I'm on the Chilean Merlot..

Haddock isn’t more greasy than cod anyway is it?