My frugal tips - share yours

[lucamom]

Long thread, so pick & choose what might be useful to you,

At the risk of repeating other frugal threads, I wanted to share some of the ways I've been saving lately, in the hope it's of some use (partly an effort to save money, but also to help get over the easter excesses!). I've lurked and picked up many tips in the past so it's my turn to give back! Please share any great savings you have:

• Cooked a ham joint in the slow cooker (currently half price in Tesco, but relatively cheap even at full price). 4 hours on high (splash of water in the bottom), or 8 hours on low. Initial meal of ham & eggs, then ham/pots/cabbage, plus joint still in fridge for slicing off for sarnies. Even more frugal if you half fill slow cooker with water & use the cooking liquid with split peas/lentils for soup.

• Cooked a batch of banana muffins (great recipe at allrecipes.com-google it) using past it bananas ready for throwing away. Froze some for lunchboxes (used half white/half wholemeal flour & rapeseed oil instead of butter to make a bit healthier). My eldest won't eat fruit but will eat these.
  
  Alternatively, chuck over-ripe bananas in the freezer and use in cakes/muffins.

• Spiced red lentils - cheap as chips & better for you! 400g red lentils in pan, add cold water to cover, bring to boil, drain and rinse. Set aside.
  Tsp oil in pan, add 3 tsp cumin seeds, add onion & sweat for 3-4 mins. Add grated ginger, 2 x garlic cloves, chilli flakes/red chilli to taste, 2 tsp ground cumin & 1 tsp turmeric (make sure you buy spices from the ethnic/world foods aisle - large bags much cheaper than farty little spice jars!). Stir in 3 tbsp tom puree, cook for 1 min, add lentils, 500ml veg/chick stock, bring to boil and simmer for 15-20 mins.

• When you buy carrots, chop off both ends, store in airtight lock & lock/tupperware type container in fridge. Will last forever (haven't thrown away a bendy carrot in months - may sound strange, but trust me, it works)

• Keep milk in freezer to save unnecessary & expensive trips to shops. As long as it's homogenised (and most is), you can freeze it (unopened), takes about 24 hrs to defrost.

• About to start BLW. Most common tip is to use a plastic sheet to minimise mess, so I've got hold of a couple of kids party tablecloths from poundland. Large enough, wipe clean and cheaper than a shower curtain or specific mess mat.

• For Mother's Day recently, we bought artist's canvasses from pound shop (about A4 size), and made a work of art using our 3 children's hand prints, each in a different colour, making a flower/sun design (controlled & supervised, to minimise mess and ensure the quality of the product - hands held & placed on, then washed immediately), made unique & thoughtful pressies for the grandma's.

i make my own playdoh when the grandkids come over..cheap easy and make it when necessary

when making soups/ casseroles/chow mein curries etc i do very large batches of them and freeze family sized portions for a quick meal

instead of going out for a kfc for example have learned to make my own for a fraction of the cost and also i know exactly what ingredients i have put in and tastes nicer than the kfc

using a teapot instead of using individual teabags/ it wasnt being frugal it was because i ran out of them lol and i need my morning cup of tea x

I put all leftovers into individual little pastry cases and bake them, like samosas. The DCs will eat anything if it comes in an individual little pastry case with grated cheese added.

For weaning to solids (years ago now) I used to freeze appropriately chopped up family dinners in ice cube trays and then remove the cubes to airtight containers. For teethers, frozen peas always went down well. I used to freeze fruit and yogurt smoothies for them all when they were small instead of having ice cream.

I buy a large chicken each month, roast in on the first Sunday and then strip the rest for meat. With the stripped chicken I reserve a handful for soup and then the rest is used in 2 x curries using curry paste which keeps for ages and makes many curries (which I freeze in silver trays), 2 x chicken casserole and anything left usually goes into fajitas, enchiladas, pies or chicken salad. For the soup I boil up the carcas with onion, carrot, celery & bay to make stock. Then I add to the stock some more water, 2 x stock cubes, the chicken, 1 x potato, handful of rice, 2 x carrots, 2 sticks celery, 1 x leek, peas and sweetcorn and s&p. Yum! The soup makes about 5 portions. All in all I get approx 8 days worth of food if not more out of 1 chicken.

How many people are you feeding lizzywig? I'm always facinated by the amount of meals people can get from one chicken. It's hard to find large chickens here (Oz) but when I do it will just about provide a roast dinner for us (me, DH, 18 and 13yo boys and 8yoDD) then I make stock or soup with the carcass but that's as far as it will go AND relies on plenty of veggies and potatoes with the roast.

I have become much more frugal since we moved here as food is expensive. I make breadcrumbs which I freeze with stale bread, soup out of soft or leftover veggies, my own biscuits, cakes, bread and ice cream. It is cheaper to buy a half rump and cut steaks from it than buying them pre-cut and there's usually enough scrappy bits for a few thai curries or stir frys too. I will buy the same cut to roast on a Sunday then get plenty of lovely rare cold roast beef for sandwiches during the week.

Yes I was going to say the same to Lizzywig , Sunnydelight , they must be the most enormous chickens ...!
A roast chicken will just about feed us with one lunch and maybe some leftover cold meat plus i will use the carcass for stock and i'm just a small family - husband and a 10 yr old son !

We get more from a chicken by chopping it raw.

One chicken. Take off breasts and freeze. 1 breast between 2 for curry, stir fry etc.
Legs and wings are roasted. Feed 4 (our children are small, obviously with teens this wouldn't work)
Carcass goes into stock pot. When stock is done strain it and strip carcass. This meat is used either for lunches (sandwich, jacket potato), pizza toppings or with the stock for what my dcs call chicken pasta soup.

If we roasted a whole chicken we would eat much more meat in one sitting.

I've started to do 'use everything in the cupboard/fridge/freezer' instead of going shopping. Trying to eek out anothe few days without doing a food shop is saving me loads.

ALWAYS take a pack lunch/drinks/snacks when going out. It's amazing how £20 can disappear.

Making bread in the breadmaker.

Making bread by hand. Very easy. I do four loaves about once a week and bake with jacket spuds and a batch of scones. The bread takes about half an hour to make, the scones about ten min.

I did the buying a whole chicken thing this week, just a smallish one - made chicken cacciatore with one breast and the legs, stock with the carcass. The cacciatore made a meal with rice for me, dh and ds then I had what was left as a sauce for pasta the next night. The stock got made into chicken noodle soup with the rest of the meat and some sweet corn, noodles and an egg which was a meal for all three of us again. Dh cooked the wings for a wee snack. So 7 main meals and a snack for dh from one chicken which was 5 and a half quid rather than 2 breasts for the same price. Will definitely be doing it again this week.

Instead of using the wings as a snack you can freeze them and build up a wing collection so you can have spicy wings or something as a meal one night.

Bikerunski do you freeze any of your loaves or if not how do you keep them so they stay fresh when you bake several at once?

I've found that by using my local butcher I've cut our meat bill down by almost half compared to using supermarket. Nicer meat so don't tend to need to use as much of it, and it's cheaper anyway!

Bulking meals out with lentils, adding a tin of baked beans to chilli, and value tinned sweetcorn from tesco.

I also try and do a stew at the end of the week, and throw in all the leftover veg from the week so it doesn't go to waste.

Oh, risotto also fab way to use up leftovers, as it feels like a more special meal, but can throw anything in!

Oh, I bake 4 loaves and freeze three. I leave them to rise in oiled supermarket carriers and then freeze them in these. This seems to keep them a bit moister and stops the greasy bags hanging around the kitchen!