Using up stuff - minimal spends

[torthecatlady]

So we're making a conscious effort to spend less, particularly on our food shopping.

Our pantry is bursting at the seams and our freezer is well stocked so we'll be using those up along with a top up shop (hopefully once a week).

The last time we went shopping was last Tuesday. Today we did a top up shop at Lidl (£14) mostly fresh fruit, veg and sandwich stuff for dh's work lunches.

We shouldn't need to go again for another week.

If anyone fancies joining in, please do

Good idea taking in backup food to work for emergencies. I used to always carry a cereal bar or 2 in my handbag, I only stopped doing that because they'd be flat by the time I got around to eating them.

I haven't eaten yet today, but I'm going to have some mango in a bit. Feeling sick today and my period is all over the place, so appetite is not great.

Tonight we've having baked potatoes for dinner. Beans and cheese for me, Tuna for DH.

Keeping busy today but having one one of those kids size cheese and tomato pizzas for lunch today.

I've also got a few cake mixes in the back of the cupboard which are due to expire soon so I'll make some of those today too. I was going to bake from scratch today but I might as well use the packets up first, plus the oven is already on.

Dinner for one tonight as Dh is working, so it'll be one of the following...

pasta with a cheese sauce or tomato sauce or stir fried vegetables with rice or wholegrain noodles

Although I really fancy an Indian takeaway but I'll be good.

Oh dear, evaporated milk! Have found more tins in the cupboard. Pancakes for breakfast tomorow.
Had a bit of a rollercoaster day yesterday, beginning with a course at work and culminating with a visit to the Vee Eee Tee for Puss, to check her ears as she’s been shaking her head and scratching. The vet could find nothing the matter, thankfully and only £40 to pay. She suggested using a washout solution but we have some already, unopened. So dinner was another cheat but I bought ready roast chicken breasts and new potatoes for dinner. Also wine, chocolate and doughnuts, which is not to my credit. I will eke these out, at least over the weekend.
@torthecatlady, I wonder if you have come across these sauces? We found them in the farm shop, we like the Thai green curry but they do quite a range. They are not the cheapest, £3-4 if memory serves, but I find if I have one in the house, I don’t ever need to consider takeaway, as they are delicious. In fact, that will be our dinner tonight, with the leftover chicken, with some rice and flatbread I have in the freezer.

@Munchkin08 For carrots, top and tail them, and store them in a Tupperware container in the fridge, they last for weeks and weeks

@Chillichutney1 Do you need to peel them or add any water or kitchen roll to the Tupperware box? Sounds like it's worth trying out.

@TheDuchessofDukeStreet I don't think I've ever used evaporated milk for anything! Good luck with the doughnuts, they wouldn't last 5 seconds here. My old dc used to scratch her head, the vee eee tee couldn't find a reason why and put it down to old age. I've never seen those curry sauces before but I'll definitely keep an eye out for them.

Haven't spent anything in the last couple of days as I haven't been anywhere. Still don't need to go shopping either. For lunch on Sunday we're having veggie sausages (freezer), roast potatoes, veg (freezer) and gravy tomorrow. That should use up quite a few things especially from the freezer and bonus points as it's a hot, filling and healthy meal.

Have had an early cup of tea and made my meal plan for the next two weeks. I’ve tried to marry it with the shifts I’m working so I’m not cooking much on busy days. Then I won’t be tempted to cut corners. I’ve only planned dinners. I will need some fresh ingredients such as salad and potatoes. I shall be at home for some weekdays so I shall plan a baking afternoon, and get the bread machine going.
I’ve taken mince out of the freezer for shepherds pie and a little tub of beef stock. Apple also for a crumble and I’ve a packet of instant custard to use. I planned pancakes this morning but I’ve four slices of bacon to use, so eggs and bacon it is.

Stuck to meal plan so far and have been making DP salads to take to work myself rather than buying ready made. Left over shepherds pie for him today and I had soup at work as I’m on night shift. Tuesday night will be leftover sausages, tinned potatoes (which he doesn’t appear to mind) and beans. I will have a jacket potato, cheese and salad. There’s apple crumble to finish too.
I’m using other things up too. Am going to make my own surface spray with Milton tablets I have in the drawer and an empty spray bottle. I’ve opened my last hand wash pump and when that’s empty I will refill with
unscented bubble bath and add lavender oil or tea tree. Refrained from buying face wipes, have other neutral wipes to use up.
The cat has been helpful or so she maintains, in using up a great deal of tuna.

Well done for sticking to your meal plan! We haven't stuck to it exactly, we swapped a few days around - but nothing has gone to waste iyswim. Mmm jacket potato, cheese and salad is one of my faves.

Dh was off work today so we used my loyalty points from subway to get us both a free sub for lunch. It was really good, I normally stick to a salad bowl if I go there.

Tonight's been a lazy evening consisting of me wrapped in a blanket on the sofa refusing to move (feeling a bit achy and worn out)! For dinner I had a bowl of cereal, followed by some tinned rice pudding. It really took me back to student days... there's even a big pile of dirty dishes next to the sink.

I've got about 4 or 5 bottles of hand wash in the cupboard, it'll probably take us until next year to get through it all! Good idea about refilling them.

Glad to hear dcat is helping out! Our two have eaten so much recently... I think I'll give them some tuna when I go back to work next week. Still furloughed, just doing 10 hours a week over two days.

I’ve swapped yesterday and today, Tor. I’ve just come off nights and tired so I took a supermarket cheese pizza from the freezer which I augmented with frozen mushrooms and a slice or two of packed lunch ham for DP, and did him some pudding and custard to fill up on. I had crumpets! I’ve done a small top up at Aldi for packed lunches and popped into the Coop on the way home for cash where I secumbed to two yellow sticker yogs and a nice loaf of crusty bread for 50p total, the latter of which I froze in halves. Tonight will be eggs or omelettes and chips. One thing I’m noticing is less waste, I don’t seem to have things languishing in the fridge. I’m seeing the back of my cupboards too. I found a bag of preserving sugar which i shall present to a lady at work who is making a lot of jam at present. I’ve been promised a jar in return!
Hope you feel better soon. I’ve never eaten in a Subway, they seem to use a lot of fresh ingredients?

True, the added bonus of using stuff up is the reduction of food waste. Our caddy is only ever filled with egg shells, peelings and tea bags. I want to grow vegetables and make my own compost, but i don't even have one green finger.

Our fridge is looking pretty sparse at the moment, but the freezer is surprisingly full considering we haven't done a big shop in a while!

I spent £3 in Lidl earlier and was in there less than 5 minutes which has to be a record! I got bananas, bread, lunchbox size maltloafs, 2 doughnuts and some bath foam. They didn't have any of the really cheap squash so I'm going to go to Aldi tomorrow to get that.

Lunch was soup and a mini malt loaf. Dinner this evening was a couple of slices of toast and a bit of chocolate (Hotel Chocolat) which had been living in the back of the fridge for a while

I'm going to do a veggie stirfry for dinner tomorrow with noodles and rice. Dh hates it so will have to find something for him in the freezer!

I love Subway... the salad always seems to be super fresh and crispy, but also for lazy days when I want the convenience of a ready made salad.

@TheDuchessofDukeStreet Also, thank you! I feel much better today

@torthecatlady, how does the inexpensive Aldi/Lidl squash compare to others? I’m getting to the end of my last bottle of Robinson’s . I have two little pods of the concentrated stuff but I’m saving those for work.

Re gardening, could you start with something easy? I’m in a flat but have done tomatoes on the windowsill. Get some plants, herbs? Ooh, might get a basil plant myself! DP grows special grass for the cat which she appears to enjoy. Or potatoes? Once, when I was in my teens I inadvertently sowed these by putting a load of potato peel on Dad’s compost heap. In due course my grandfather was taking a turn about the garden and smoking his pipe. He stopped by the compost bin and investigated, result, my bemused Mum being presented with a small harvest! She was used to Grandy however, and cooked them for dinner.

RE: Squash... Haven't had Robinson's in about a decade But to be honest the really cheap stuff from Lidl is actually quite nice. It's quite strong (which I like).

I've nursed a tomato plant back to life, which was on the brink of death and I potted some flowers in my front garden over lockdown, but that's about as far as it goes. I kind of panic when it comes to the flower bed. Any keen gardeners who come over always say how great the garden would be for growing and that the soil is really good 🤷‍♀️ I find it hard to keep on top of the weeds too. I wish I could rent my garden out to keen gardener, does such a thing exist?!

I dare say they do, Tor. If you have a local Nextdoor group, it might be worth asking. Perhaps someone in a flat or who wants an allotment and can’t get one?

Sorry for disappearing for a few days! Trying to mentally prepare for my return to work on Monday!

I joined the next door neighbour page a few months ago but it's not as good as I'd hoped (area dependant I guess)!

We still have plenty of food here. I had tortellini for dinner this evening and have another 2 portions for tomorrow and Monday's work lunch.

I’ve had to redo my meal plan for next week as my Mum and sister are coming over to visit. I’m excited as I haven’t seen Mum since before lockdown. My sister is vegetarian and Mum doesn’t eat much meat. I’ll do fish and chips one night with an omelette for my sister, and jacket potatoes with various fillings for the next. I have a deep fryer at home for the chips and will get some fish from Marks.I noticed Aldi have meringue nests so I’ll serve those with cream and some raspberries I have in the freezer, and I’ll bake Mum a birthday cake as she had to have hers in lockdown. So I’ll have to do a moderate extra shop at Aldi. We’ll be back on the waggon later in the week. I don’t want to stop, as we are benefitting from the big use up in terms of saving money and wasting less. Am resolved to keep going to Aldi. The only other confession is that DP came home the other day with three packs of sausages from the farm shop! His favourite. So on Friday some of these were tea instead of the lasagne I’d planned and I’ve two packs for the freezer.
Hope our return to work goes smoothly, @torthecatlady. Are you looking forward to it?

Your.

My visitors have gone home, they didn’t stay for tea. I fed them bacon, eggs and homemade chips for tea last night and my sister brought meringues which we had with rasps and cream. I made her an omelette. DP came home very hungry so we did a quick run to Marks and I got him a pizza which I served with garlic bread from the freezer. I went out with my family to a National Trust place and we took a picnic, so I’ll eat something later.
I hope to cook something with cupboard items tomorow. I have two tins of beef bolognaise so they could become a lasagne. I’m not terribly keen but I eat lasagne as a ready meal happily enough and there’s probably not much difference. I’m quite looking forward to getting to the end of my tinned stuff and planning a new but more modest stock of the things we’ve really enjoyed.

Just used your costa code - thank you! Hope you get points too x

@wasgoingmadinthecountry Thanks! What a nice surprise! Hope you enjoyed the coffee!

How's everyone doing on minimal spends? We took a "personal day" over the weekend and spent £17 on snacks... it was well needed though! Other than that we've been really good!

with doing 2 week shops I found I was losing track of expiry dates, I now make a note of them(the day before) on my phone calender so I can use them or freeze if possible. I find that I am throwing a lot less out.

I also have a list which I laminated of all the things I buy on a regular basis but always seem to run out of and when I do my shopping list I run through it, check what I've got in and add it to the list if I think I need more, this has saved me many trips to the shops(where you rarely buy just what you went in for!)

I’ve got to the end of the meat and chicken in the freezer, have just taken the last pack of chicken to defrost. I have bulk purchases of the same from Costco to split and freeze today.
@torthecatlady, the Aldi squash is very nice. I’m going to try it with my snow cone maker if we get this hot weather we are promised.
Dinner tonight will be chicken and pasta and tomato sauce for DP and pasta tomato and mozzarella for myself. I found some buffalo mozzarella like treasures in the freezer. I had forgotten about it so I’m very happy. I had baked some cake but it’s all foiled up in the freezer for packed lunches so I might make another for general consumption.
I’ve also learned to use lemons three ways. Zest for a lemon cake, juice for lemonade, and the skins infused in boiling water and pour that down the sink to freshen it up.

Hi all, mind if I join?
I really need a month where I finish in the black, normally only into my overdraft by £100 but it all adds up and want to try to knock it on the head so this might help motivate me!
My plan is to spend £100 p/w on food shop and nothing else. Family of 4.
Have shop coming tomorrow and down to the last knockings so today and tomorrow need breakfast, lunch and dinner then breakfast and lunch tomorrow out of what we have in.
Have some Pitta breads in the freezer so will get them out for lunch with tuna mayo and veggie sticks. Dinner, have eggs, peas, onions, rice and some leftover gammon so will do a special fried rice type thing tonight.

Also, in desperate need of some face stuff but want to wait until next month so going to try to use up other bits. Have some Dove soap to use in place of face wash, and a sun protector oil which I think should double up as day cream.

I have ordered a big cheap bubble bath to fill up the hand wash dispensers...none of the hand washes come with pumps now anyway so hoping this will be just as good and per 100ml is less than a quarter of the price.

Thanks for letting me jump on, I really need the motivation to stop the top up shops and constant Amazon ordering

@SandysMam Welcome! £100 a week sounds very manageable, I'm sure you could do even less if you wanted (and have a lidl or aldi nearby? There's loads of good threads which here with low cost recipes too. Our shopping usually comes in at approx £35 a week but that is with meticulous meal planning and there's only 2 of us (plus dss on weekends) and 2 starving dcats of course

Yesterday we went to Tesco for a top up of fruit and spent £8!! It will only last us until the weekend. DH is dieting so we're spending more on fresh fruit now. Already have some apples in the fridge.

£4 - punnet of green grapes + punnet of black grapes
£3 - punnet of strawberries + punnet of raspberries
£1 - bunch of bananas

My dinner this evening was some wholewheat pasta, tomato sauce and some tiger bread. There's leftovers for tomorrow too. Dh had some reduced price turkey from the freezer and tiger bread. We had fresh fruit for dessert.