Would I July to you August Frugaleers

[Unescorted]

Follow on from the last one

Minestrone soup was invented to use up handfuls of odd pasta. No need to mix and match,

Ok good prices are blowing my mind. I've just added ingredients for what, on paper, looks like it should be a cheap meal for two. Over £10. Ridiculous

Food not good. Bloody autocorrect

They are rocketing up. I spent £80 in Aldi for 8 days food for 3 and I was looking for cheap meals. It was a food only shop and there was nothing extravagant in there.

The only silver lining is that I don't need to be in work so can do things like cakes, bread, long slow cooked meals where there is a lot of waiting around.

I bought a book for a £1 called Economy Gastronomy from the local book sale which looks to have some interesting bits in it.... I will report back.

Spends today

£23 zoo cafe. It looked like it might rain while we were there so instead of packing up snacks we said we’d buy. Mum and dad came too so the cost was for 4x coffees 2 x apple juice 2x crisps a sandwich and cake.

Then £21 burgers at burger place. Yum. Three cheeseburgers two ribenas and two cokes. The burgers are huge and the dc shared.

I almost spent loads at jojo but TopCashback and jojos website defeated me today. Will try again later.

I had that unescorted. Gave it to charity. My take was that you needed to have the ready cash to invest in things like big joints and whole salmon at the start and then per portion it did work out cheaper but it wouldn't pass the foodbank or bootstrap cook test

@lifelongfrugaleer

The Kellogg’s offer doesn’t save money unfortunately as they up the add on prices for skate and lights. Just gonna have to suck up the £168

That's bad luck Life Unescorted l can't help thinking that many are making a fortune on these increased prices and it isn't all because of Brexit , they are using it as an excuse l reckon. Em sounds like a lovely day NSD FOR ME stayed at home on the sofa , l needed a day off tbh. Watched one of my very favourite films 39 Steps with Robert Donut in it

I also have economy gastronomy but because I'm mostly feeding myself or fussy Ish dc i didn't take much heed of it!

Did last of the back to school shopping this evening
Mr price approx €20
First Dunnes €15
Second Dunnes approx €20 searching for polo shirts for dd for tomo, I was successful! She had ones that she hadn't worn much if I didn't get sorted.

€50 repayment yesterday from family member & dm donated €50 to back to school shopping and gave dc €10 each also, it's handy getting cash like that saves me going to cash machine

wolf sorry to hear that, it is horrible when you don’t feel comfortable about going out. I hope better times are coming for you, it sounds like you work so hard at home and work.
Went to Roundhay Park in Leeds today with DS1 and two of his friends from football - all the mums went as we were all feeling that the boys haven’t been out much this summer. They are 15 but don’t quite seem confident about making their own social arrangements yet - it was reassuring to feel we’re all in the same boat as we’ve all been worrying separately about them not being sociable. They were all a bit grumpy about going but disappeared with a football as soon as we got there. Maccy’s on the way back, £16.
Work tomorrow after 2 weeks off and it’s full on for the rest of the year. Need to do some saving now after a spendy few weeks!

mrs yep. Lovely day. I love love love our zoo. It’s ace. They had an arrival of two baby gentle lemurs this week. I love the lemurs but love these ones specifically. They look just like little bears. But apparently they’re not gently at all.

A butterfly landed on dds head - she didn’t like it much.

Some pics of the butterflies

@lifelongfrugaleer just saw you are heading to Cov. It's not far from there to Stratford where there will more than likely be some festive things going on. Are you in the NT? If so I can suggest a few more places that usually do xmas stuff.

I have a very stiff neck/shoulder. I think I've slept awkwardly. It's driving me mad.

Went out for lunch today and ate too much so didn't want any dinner and now I'm hungry so picking at brie and crisps.

Yes I’m in NT

Having had a look I think it might be going back to the charity shop.

I am having the is it Friday yet feeling. Already. This is going to be a long week I think.

Have been away being folky at a festival for a few days so haven't kept up, but have just read back 2 days.
life I was going to suggest Stratford. Bil is from Cov and they go to Stratford when visiting.
wolf being on your own is hard work, sending hugs.
Food prices are going to keep going up. The govt are not prepared to put short term measures in place for food distribution so the supply chain will really suffer until thousands of new hgv drivers are trained up. This is undoubtedly due to Brexit, not pandemic according to dh who has been on a related project.
Folk festival was fab, until dh had another horse fly bite & so is back on antibiotics. It's scary how badly he reacts to them and how quickly he deteriorates.
Dd starts college today & I start MSc tomorrow so big week here. Need to do some serious meal planning & batch cooking. After today the rest of my week is online uni so I will be at home & have time for some cooking in between.

That's exciting you are doing an MSc North.
My dh reacts badly to bites too. He got bitten by a horse fly a few years ago. I saw it bite him, it was huge!

Life NT usually send their "What's On" guide for autumn/winter in Sept and it is focussed on the Midlands so when we get it I'll have a look for you.

Sorry posted too soon. Warwick Arts Centre (based at University of Warwick which is v close to Cov) probably have a Christmas play of some sort. I know there's a panto at Birmingham Hippodrome and also the CBSO are doing their big xmas concert in Symphony Hall but you might not want to travel into Brum.

Thanks all

Good Morning everyone! Raining here again today, and quite cold too. One more week until the kids are back at school and the uniform ironing begins again!

Spent more than intended yesterday, I wasn't actually planning on going out but dh was 'bored' so we went to a farm shop £11 and a garden centre £9, then dd2 and I stopped in cancer research and I picked up 8 paperbacks £2 and she chose a Topshop shirt £2.

I'm still very much sucked into the Christmas Bargains thread, yesterday it was a JellyCat bunny and a Naked marshmallow s'mores kit - both we're items I was actually planning to buy so it doesn't seem too bad.

Life - I just took a look at Warwick castle, looks amazing, priced up 2 night in the on site accommodation and it was £774 eek.

Does anyone have any tips on making a number cake? I have two 13 x 9 inch cake pans and need to cut two numbers, my plan was to make a template and use a sharpe knife but that's as far as I've got, I'm going to stick a load of chocolates on top and include Nutella somewhere in the recipe.

Dh and I are on a diet of sorts, he ordered a load of new clothes - mostly T-shirts and hoodies - in a size M and L thinking the L could be too big, and hardly any of it fits it was quite funny because he really wasn't expecting it. So takeaways and processed foods are no longer on the menu, which makes life a bit harder for me but I'm happy to try and get back to cooking as much as possible, hopefully to save money as well as calories.

Camden there is a frugaleer no 2 cake pan being passed round. I can’t actually remember who has it last though.
Other wise have you considered hiring one from a cake shop?

Yes Warwick is expensive but I don’t see my bro often and we have a travel lodge near theirs

School shoes today, bye bye pay

Catface is at the vet. She’s cross.

She looks livid Em!

Frugally had leftover lamb chilli for lunch.
£23 on eyebrow thread and tint + upper lip and chin thread 😬
Off to Lidl for supplies.
Meals:
Leek, potato and celery gratin with German sausages
Celery and green pea pilau rice with prawns
Jamie Oliver traybake with chicken, peppers, tomatoes and new potatoes
Fake chicken burgers, sweet pot fries, homemade slaw and salad

Gen your meals sound delish!
Em Beautiful pics of the butterflies , that is brilliant you enjoy the zoo it looks excellent value for you as a family too, poor catface
Excellent well done doing your MSc North
Camden I was sucked into the Frixienet offer too
Martha that sounded a great idea for the youngsters yesterday
Humbug Your poor Dh l was bitten by a horsefly once and l had cellulitis from it, awful things !
Happier fab to have the money given back to you
NSD TODAY unless l succumb to the Christmas bargain thread again

Moi has the 2 I think. Camden what number are you trying to make?