Managing Money Mindfully in March with the Friendly Frugaleers

[Happierwithouthim]

Last Thread

All welcome on this thread, we're a friendly bunch who like to get bang for our buck, and manage our money as well as we can.

Pet pics very welcome too

Thank you for the recipe Life
😋😋😋

That food all looks lush.
I may get wholemeal flour when it's back in stock. Start my own bread.

I should be in Spain

Random tea tonight. Pie chips and mushy peas for lunch.

The wind has now warmed up as it was cold earlier.

Finished my c&c slot for tomorrow. Sending DH and your collect round the back of Sainsbury's so no need to Q.
I don't think I will get it all

€10 on takeaway

Those look lovely Life and Happier. Snuggly I'm definitely interested in cheese scone pizza if you have time to share the recipe.

I'm making aloo gobi for the first time. Mixing two recipes and hoping ds will eat it. I had planned to make paneer curry but I couldn't cope with the moaning about paneer

I've finished one book today and started another. Focusing on thrillers at the moment as a distraction/easy read

Washing is beautifully dry. Yay. Thank god for the garden space however tiny

Curry was amazing. That is definitely going in our regular curry rotation

Who else is looking in the back of their cupboard for Golden Syrup?

Happier YaY!!!! Just keep doing the four & water thing for another couple of days and then you are good to go. Make sure you keep a bit to seed the next one... I feed, put 100g in the fridge and let the rest of the starter stand overnight. Start the bread in the morning, if doing no knead - and you should get bread in the evening or the morning if you leave it to prove in the fridge. I am so excited for you.

I love thrillers - pure escapism.

Me and Boy have been doing the garden - we were joined later by DH and DD... we may have had a garden party with our neighbours in their gardens, with beer and music (I am dreading going onto FB to see if we have been tarred & feathered).

Wolf it's my mum's recipe that she scribbled down for me so it's a bit vague...
200g SR Flour with a pinch of salt and a pinch of cayenne added
25g butter
75g grated cheese
Quarter of a pint of milk.

I put all the ingredients in the food processor and gradually add the milk until it makes a soft dough but if you don't have a good processor you could rub in the fat and flour and stir in the cheese then milk.

Roll out on a floured surface into a pizza shape. It's a bit thicker than normal pizza dough. Stab all over with a fork and bake in hot oven on a baking sheet (mine was 220c I think) for 15 mins then add toppings and put back in the oven for another 10 mins or until it's cooked.
Being short of fresh stuff I topped it with a mixture of tomato puree, a quarter of a chopped, softened onion and frozen basil mixed to make a sauce then added frozen peppers and sweetcorn and grated cheese. It went down well with everyone.

Sounds lovely Snuggly. I will be making that and Life's biscuits

Scone pizza sounds lovely

Hi all, my dcs did some baking today too, thay made a banana and choc chip cake, it was very yummy!

Hope you are all doing ok.

*they!

Oh my goodness so much delicious food!! Being in the house so much definitely makes me want to eat more.

We had a healthy dinner tonight, dd had a lentil Dahl with salad and pita bread, I had the same but with chicken not lentils and homemade coleslaw.

Then ruined it by eating crisps and a bounty tonight 🤦‍♀️

But if a sleep last night Interspresed with awake times and snuffly nose. Ffs.

Luckily staying home today....!!

Need to pay for our veg box delivery today.

Dh did a great job on the garden yesterday. She’d is gone. Trees gone. Sleepers are up so we can hopefully reuse for more raised beds. Today/this evening some of the paving slabs are coming up.

Yummy baking everyone 😋! I think we'll attempt dairy cakes this week - that's about as far as my repertoire stretches!

Finally free from quarantine and went to Tesco's yesterday. Oh my, how things have changed in two weeks 😥. I didn't have to queue, thankfully, and got everything I needed, but just so strange to see so many people really scared and to feel worried every time I nearly got to close to someone that I was invading their personal space. I was also hyper-aware if just how much I touch things when shopping 😨, picking up packages to check dates or to look for the best bunch of bananas. I had a shower when I got home and we wiped down as we put away.

I thought quarantine was saving us money but spent £135 😱! That is for food until after the Easter weekend, plus wine and Easter eggs. I think it's probably not far off what we usually spend in a week anyway on say £50 weekly shop + £30 topping up + £30 work lunches/snacks/school dinners + £25 takeaway. It's just that it feels so much more £££ when spent in one go!

I need to think of a plan for the kids this week that keeps structure and the grey matter ticking over but is still fun and Easter holiday-ish. It's the first week of quarantine that we can incorporate a daily walk outside which will be just lovely (and hopefully won't be back restricted in tonight's address 😞)

Happy Monday all xx

Madden I know what you mean about food spend. I seem to be spending a fortune (when I can get a delivery) partly because I'm worried about not being able to get another delivery, partly because we're at home seven days a week not five (work) and are both home for three meals a day (no school or work food) but also because I don't want to run the stocks in cupboard or freezer down too much just in case. We've definitely used a fair bit of it because there's room that wasn't there before but I really don't want to get to the point of their being no back up plan.

I have slight sunburn from our walk yesterday. Doesn't take much. Day off today, should be on a nice warm seafront sipping cappuccino, so thought I'd have two four day weekends on the bounce as I could do with a mental break.

Morning!

Glad Bob was a bit better Mrs. And I love all the baking - you were all very productive! I didn’t make cinnamon rolls in the end because we are still eating Lonely’s flapjacks that I made on Friday (I still really miss her). But I have a glut of eggs and apples due to poor planning (and being locked out of the Ocado site last week and not remembering what I’d ordered) so I’m going to have to make apple cake in the next couple of days. Shame.

Rather a nice day yesterday with the family. Often I am busy cooking / cleaning while Dh and kids are in the garden, but I stopped ‘doing stuff’ and joined them. It was lovely. 21C here, sunny and breezy. Just gorgeous. DD took herself off for a nap on the picnic blanket after lunch, it was very cute. We had a picnic lunch in the garden and chicken and Mediterranean veg tray bake for dinner - nice and easy.

I still haven’t bought trainers. Found some ASICS that are reduced though so am thinking about it. I bet if I buy them they will tighten the lockdown!

No work this week unless my AL gets cancelled. I still have a couple of quite chunky bits of work to do that can’t wait (because I wasn’t very productive in the last two weeks with kids home) so I have some time to make up, which is a shame as it will probably have to be evenings. It’s mostly going to be a lovely week though so maybe I’ll scarify the lawn and even re-seed the bald bits in a week or two! I’ve killed my tomato seedlings with frost so must be more careful and wait a bit before planting...

Have a good day everyone

We'd a nice evening last night. It was windy and rainy so we lit the fire and curled up on the sofa with goodies and watched 'Bridget Jones's Diary'. It's years since I saw it and DD had never seen it. It was really funny - pure escapism. I couldn't believe it when Moaning Myrtle from Harry Potter popped up - the actress Shirley Henderson.

madden and Wolf I know exactly what you mean about grocery spending. There are only two of us and I've spent a small fortune since the CV started. DD doesn't get school meals (only DEIS schools get them here) - the pupils bring a packed lunch every day. So in theory our food consumption hasn't increased at all with her being off school. It's partly because we've more time to cook. Also, we've been using food as an activity as well as for consumption. So we've been making things like pancakes and smoothies and baking cakes etc. And I don't have to get up early and drive anywhere so I've been having a glass of wine here and there. Or a Baileys coffee. So I guess alcohol is also pushing up my spending. Not to mention snacks and chocolate. I'm going to try for a very frugal week next week when DD is with Ex. I've some (home made) dinners in the freezer and also some quiche - DD doesn't like eggs so I've been saving it for that week.

A lovely sunny morning here so we'll head out for a walk when DD gets up and has her breakfast.

Oh and I may need to buy a hairdresser's scissors from Amazon. I don't mind looking like a badger but if my fringe starts to fall into my eyes, that's going to get really annoying.

I miss lonely too :( Although I suppose she wouldn’t know my current username!

Oops. Lockdown boredom is affecting me - put on weight for the first time this year! I’d lost 20lb so far since January 6th. Although some of that was the week I was really ill (no D&V just couldn’t eat lol). Only a few ounces gained but still. Back to the food diary it is then, and upping the home exercise (with the added bonus of lockdown dick points)

And less asking DH to pick up chocolate when he goes shopping 😳😳😳

Yes I also miss Lonely and Quite and Jam and our queen of frugality

£9 window cleaner has a quick chat with him across the garden, things are quite tough for small businesses

£12 on some manga books for ds. Lane do you have any recommendations?

Lawn mowed

Washing done and put out, pointless as it's now soaked from being rained on

Went for a walk. Started out with suncream and shirt sleeves. Ended up drenched.

And Wreck too. If any of you are reading, please do say hi!

I am also Spending much more on food. DH bought lunch out every day, I did sometimes, ds had universal FSM in Y2, DD had some meals at nursery (she doesn’t eat much but is responsible for a good bit of food waste 🙄). And we are also using food as entertainment, baking etc. And DH and I are eating some naice things like steak because we can’t go out. Not that we do much in normal times but still! And booze, I normally rarely drink but am having the odd G&T more often at the moment. And I’ve stocked up with a bit more food than normal each week in case we have to stay in for 14 days and I can’t get a supermarket delivery - so trying to make sure we have enough to stretch to a couple of weeks’ supplies at any time if we need to. It all adds up! Not to mention paper, craft supplies, bits for gardening... but I’m glad we bought those, it does help to pass the time.

Not an nsd as I bought yarn today. Chunky stuff to knit a chunky rainbow to go in the window (pattern link below, though I bought cheaper yarn than she used). While I wait for it to arrive I’m knitting a smaller rainbow out of DK yarn I already have for DD. She was very keen this morning but now I’ve started she’s decided she’d rather have a penguin. Grrr. She’s having a chuffing rainbow!

www.sincerelylouise.co.uk/blogs/sl-blog/giant-rainbow-knitting-pattern

Frugal cheese and mango chutney quesadillas for lunch with last nights left over roti.

I'm making Unescorted's cinnamon buns.

Also toad in the hole for tea

That's funny I was thinking about them all earlier, I miss them all too. I sometimes see Fluffy on other threads.
Been shopping. It didn't take long to queue and they had almost everything on my list.

wolf you will thank me. They are sooooo ooooooooo good. If I could get flour I would make some myself. I am also saving my icing sugar for when my icing kit arrives..... dd is already eying it up

We are saving money in lockdown. About £400 this month so far. Mainly because I am using the Brexit stash and freezer fossicking. It helps that adventures are on hold and the pubs are closed. DH has been quite surprised by how much he has been spending on going to work ( bought out lunches & petrol).