Festive frugaleering - Merry Christmas, and a happy 2019 to you all.

[AutumnLeaves12]

Welcome to the new thread!

Thank you for your lovely comments about the dress. One of the benefits of endurance sport is the calories it burns! We had a lovely evening too but I'm tired now, I had three drinks in the evening and I drank a pint of water between each one so I'm tired rather than hungover but weddings are loooonnnnggg days.

I know em, being pregnant with your first is very different to being pregnant and having a toddler! Use his nap time to your advantage, he's in a good routine which is a benefit.

Definitely jump into the chat lurkers.

That cough hasn't shifted for a while Born I've noticed?

Look after you first cag. Think the DC are up to making wraps with a ready bought kit? Or at least doing all the chopping and slicing and prepping? It's an easy one to have in if you still want semi healthy. No worries if not. X

It got paid sneaky, that's the thing.

A couple of tips I remembered re being frugal.

• no reason why you can't split gift packs bought in the sale. Useful for presents or raffle prizes.
• wait a couple of weeks until the sales are just the dregs, wrapping paper and cards can be pennies then.

One thing I listened to today about Brexit that might be an unintentional consequence is that folk may choose local produce and seasonal food rather than buying air-freighted strawberries that have doubled in price and are tasteless. Which means we may cook more and be generally healthier. This ties in a bit with environmental concerns for me too. Take quites suggestion of a tray bake yesterday - classic example, most veg for that is exactly the sort in the shops now that might have been farmed in the uk.

So my menu plan for the week will reflect this - which I'm just about to plan now!

Less frugal plans in the next few weeks will be the general New Year clearing out of some of my drawers and kitchen cupboards. I'm sure it will liberate some items I can either sell or have anyway that I might have bought.

Jam I like the idea of cooking seasonal and local

1.20 for parking for our course this morning. We’ve come home with lots of nice things to eat
Dm and df have invited us to go to the seaside with them tomorrow so I have cancelled the cinema so lost 1.40 booking fee but worth it for a day at the seaside especially when I don’t have to spend petrol money

Dinner out tonight at lovely veggie AA rosette place. Jam may know where I mean. Will be spendy

I'm getting more interested in a brexit stockpile if it could include liquorice allsorts born.

Decorations are down and just helping DP get it all back in the loft. We need to plan some diy jobs but with all the Christmas clutter about it seems too hard to plan it

DP has returned my alarm clock Christmas presents that doesn't work. Replaced it for one of those alarm clocks that gradually turn on a brighter light. I am not a morning person, struggled during the winter and thought it might help. Has anyone tried one?

We may or may not see midnight. Last few years we have gone to bed at 10pm

NSD so far...

So - using what's in.

• Quitetraybake
• Shepherds pie and veggies (vegan).
• veggie broth in the Instant Pot.
• sweet potato dhal.
• lentil and squash chilli.
• aloo Gobi
• mish mash pasta as per lonely
• Mediterranean stew (not local ingredients but they are in the fridge.

LOL! Born

I see what you mean actually as it's helping me so much to have more storage space used for groceries. Our kitchen is small and I have to manage food storage very very carefully, while not really being well enough to get out to the shops most of the time if I screw up and run out of things.

I'm starting to think that Quite's plan of buying three months of dry stuff at a time might be very good for us too.

Cag I'm sorry to hear you're having a flare up. I think winter can be hard for long term health stuff. I was out today for the first time since the 1st December, not counting ds's nativity play, and it's really isolating to be limited like that. I hope things improve soon for you.

Town was nice. I spent £13 in M&S on meat and fish.

I also was very bad and looked at clarinets in the music shop.

Have you thought about writing a blog Autumn.....? That could be done from the house and would allow you to reach out to folk more? I follow a few to do with training and running and they are useful.

I don't have the funds for three months of dry stuff

I did used to write one Jam but I've recently stepped up to having actual voluntary work running mailing lists and website stuff for a local organisation. I love that because I can do it from home and see the real actual people once a week.

I only started that in November, wore myself right out in the first week, and promptly got gastroenteritis twice in a row, which is why I've been stuck in the house on MN so much during December.

I've probably been irritating people by talking too much. Sorry. You have no idea how much I appreciate all your company when I'm stuck at home like that.

I try to say positive things so as not to totally bum everybody out, but I can see how being too positive could also be irritating. It's a tricky balance.

Would it be better if I said things like

---> Fish £8.50

and then just button it?

Sorry Sneaky, I know that there are very different financial means on this thread, and your situation is clearly very hard. I do really feel for you in that.

It is ok ... I can come back. Another thread has been started about the same subject and they will forget about me. I can never type that without singing the simple minds song. Sneaky it was too full to even get worked up about. Must not have wine and MN. I may miss you guys too.... If necessary I can be reborn.

Jam your frock is amazing. I am inspired to get out more.... I may have signed up for the local fell championship because of your frock.

Sea you are so dignified and have held everything together this year. Your family sound as if they are really close and supportive.

Em I am thinking of doing a dry Jan too. I won't be going to your lengths to ensure it happens.

sneaky it is the people with the least who get shafted in these circumstances.

Oh my goodness. Adsa was in panic mode. I have never seen it so busy. Being the first one this side of the Scottish border, we get a lot coming down to buy cheap booze, but this was crazy. Think empty aisles.

I did a full shop, plus mop and bucket and extra cleaning stuff. I got 3x 12% british mince 500g for £1.62 each, and 2 packs of the sausages we have all the time for £2.36 instead of £4. The only other total bargains were malteser reindeers at 25p a pack.

It was £103, but with 6 boxes of cereal and 2 weeks of pet food...I think it will last us for a while.

sneaky if you have, say an extra £1 a shop, could you buy things like the cheapest pack of spaghetti (20p ish) a tin of chopped tomatoes (24p) or passatta (35p) a bag of onions (46p), for a pile of cheap dinners? All would keep really well. Or each shop add a bag of flour or sugar, spend under 50p but put away for later? I bought the cheapest cornflakes and branflakes today, under 50p per box.

We can all help so much with super easy sauces and meals.

My best tomato sauce for pasta...(we have it with spaghetti, cooked and then an egg and some parmesan stirred through it, with some cooked up ham/bacon/sausages/whatever)

Fry off a chopped onion, until soft.
Add a desert spoon of plain flour, a chicken oxo cube and a teaspoon of sugar, stir to coat the onion.
Add a can of tomatoes (or passata) and fill the can with water, add in.
Stir and bring to the boil. It needs about 10 mins to cook the flour out, but this will thicken it up.
Cheap, cheerful and about 6 portions.

sneaky would it help if we worked out the cheapest way to get dry goods that you could store just as part of your normal shopping scheme?

I buy rice in 5kg bags which can be had for as little as £7.45. That would last me 50 days if I have 100g (a big pile) once a day. I like that.

Autumn that kind of saving isn’t usually available to those with little money. Being able to buy in bulk does allow you to save but for someone paying all their bills on less than £60 a week 7.95 is a hell of a lot of money. As unescorted says it’s usually those with least who suffer most.

Sneaky could you afford one extra tin or packet a week or to save a little bit to put buy for something bigger. Not all on this thread are stockpiling for brexit so please don’t let the talk stress you out

Sneaky I'm not stockpiling.

Here's a brilliant blog. Everything costed. Jack had to live for a while on £10 a week, so each recipe is written with this as a central theme, she gets that genuinely the extra £1 a recipe in a book might cost for that one ingredient makes it unaffordable for some.

She has other views that I don't always agree with, but her recipes hit the spot.

cookingonabootstrap.com/

Yes I see what you mean Wolf. The tightest I've ever been was £50 a month after bills, tesco shop, and rent, and that was tight.

I didn't mean to suggest that everybody should stockpile btw. I'm only doing it because I have an incredibly difficult restricted diet. I can't even drink tapwater.

sneaky I'm sure you'll be fine.

I have 4kg of basmati rice in my asda basket, it is £5.97. The chespest asda do 5kg rice for is £3.50. So there is better value out there. We prefer basmati to long grain though.

I recommend the app "my supermarket" it makes comparing stores for the very best current prices very easy.

Oh the extra £1 on some tins or rice or pasta is great advice, I'll start doing that

It doesn't help living in an area where multiculturalism is having 2 breeds of sheep. I say that with love btw, living just up the way. We have herb aisles... Jars of spices are handed down from generation to generation. Particularly prized are homeopathic curries where if you imagine hard enough you might taste the spice. It make cheap and tasty a challenge.

at two breeds of sheep

Unescorted That's funny. I must be at the other end of the world as I live round the corner from an asian supermarket. I have no idea what half the stuff in there is for, but they do have huge bags of rice. That's the only reason I know that they exist.

I like going to the Chinese corner shops in Manchester for herbs and spices.

I'm not stock piling. Wish I still had my allotment though.

£135 on work boots for dh but he used some Christmas money. £12.50 in Aldi as cinema was sold out so movie treats for home.

Fundamentally do not stress or go into debt for Brexit. Jack Monroe recipe are good. Do you have a freezer sneaky?