Frugal February

[MinkyDinky]

I'm a tester when it comes to lettuce. Fab idea about preparing all the veg in advance. Tesco do cheap bags of carrots which we go through so quickly due to the OH loving carrot soup so much. They are £1.15 for a kilo and a 5 kilo bag of potatoes are only £1.69. Great for green days.

Minks

 

[Shirleen]

I'm a tester when it comes to lettuce. Fab idea about preparing all the veg in advance. Tesco do cheap bags of carrots which we go through so quickly due to the OH loving carrot soup so much. They are £1.15 for a kilo and a 5 kilo bag of potatoes are only £1.69. Great for green days.

Minks

You test lettuce?

 

[MinkyDinky]

You test lettuce?

Ha ha was meant to say tearer but stupid auto correct! Xx

Minks

 

[*Emsie*]

Thanks for the tip about cutting the lettuce
Will have to give the grated carrot a try but to me it sounds like a waste of carrot

 

[MinkyDinky]

Thanks for the tip about cutting the lettuce
Will have to give the grated carrot a try but to me it sounds like a waste of carrot

Also lentils put in mince. Red split ones are perfect because you barely notice they are there. With all 3 (courgette, carrot and lentil) you can bulk out the mince so much that you can get double the size of your mince portions so have lots of leftovers. Always depending on your portion sizes of course. Plus it's a hidden superfree veg in there, winner. Xx

Minks

 

[piX128]

Ha ha was meant to say tearer but stupid auto correct! Xx

Minks

grin...I was wondering what a lettuce tester was. Never seen that advertised at the job centre

 

[Tracy831]

Poundshops sell the plastic lettuce knives

 

[sarah5298a1]

just made some cakes out of ingredients i had in:

toffee choc chip butterfly cakes with choc/nut filling 3.5 syns each:

75g lurpak lighest
100g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
6 tbsp sweetner
25g mini rolos chopped

for the filling
250g quark
1 tbsp sweetner
1 tbsp peanut butter
1 sachet of options - i used belg choc

mix together butter and sweetner, when smooth mix in the eggs with a little flour, then fold in the rest of the flour and baking powder add vanilla and rolos, mix well. i used silicone cases put them in oven on gas mark 4 for about 15-20 mins

filling:
mix together all ingredients for the filling, mix well to make sure peanut butter is mixed in well, i also used peanut butter flavour, which is syn free, you can get this from the cake decorating company, cut out hole in cakes and fill with the filling when cakes and cool and make into butterflies


i have made lots of diff variations of this recipe ranging from 2 - 4 sys per cake

 

[Tracy831]

These are just what I've been looking for,something sweet for the kids that are also ok for me
Thanks.

 

[Surzy]

opted to try Iceland for my shop this week .... jolly good too

Big bag of apples £1
Big bag of frozen broccoli £1
5 muller lights for £1.50
Big bag of frozen casserole veg mix (not what i'd usually do but thought i'd give it a try £1

 

[Surzy]

Have packed the slow cooker with the frozen casserole veg, some pearled barley and red lentils (to thicken it) bit of stock. Picked up a whoopsies packet of stewing beef this morning at my local coop for £!.28!!!

So the whole stew will have cost less than £3 and because i've not put spuds in it will make at least 6 portions as i'll serve it with mash and SF veggies

 

[ColJack]

Must dig out my slow cooker. Or maybe I might just buy another since mine is a small one.
Our tesco has the 3.5L ones for £9 (£3 off).
Think you could do a shepherds pie straight in one if you fry off the mince and make the mash first ?

Sent from my iPod touch using MiniMins

 

[Surzy]

i guess you could - but the top wouldn't crisp - too humid

 

[*Emsie*]

Bought 5kg bag of spuds from aldi as they weren't much more than the 2.5kg bag.
Am now going to try and make sure I use them up! Am thinking cottage pie for tomos,a leek and potato soup and some bombay potatoes at some point
Really going to try and only buy what need this week as haven't done too well at it so far!
The freezer is still full and has got lots of main meal stuff so should just need some fruit n veg and a couple of other basics this week!

 

[Applekath]

I'm keeping all my food receipts for this month to see what I'm spending and where I can cut back.

 

[MinkyDinky]

After having my food delivered on Monday I haven't actually sent a penny, nor have I felt the need to 'nip' into Tesco on my way home from work. And it's been bloody lovely! Only top up we need is another 6 pinter of ss milk, 7 bananas, loaf of White bread and packet of wafer thin ham. Both bread n ham is for OH so that's max of a fiver? I love being frugal! Xx

Minks

 

[parfittaroles]

Whoops. Blew half of my budget on a leg of lamb *doh*

 

[Applekath]

I was just thinking about the meat side of things. I only buy 'happy' meat, poultry and eggs now. It is partly to do with the moral side of it but also because it just tastes sooooooooooo much better.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not flush at all, if I can't afford a free range chicken, I don't have any chicken. Equally I'm not so hung up on it that I won't eat at others homes or check packaging etc. When I do buy a happy chicken, by god I use every last scrap of it down to boiling the bones for stock, something I never did before with say a £3.99 whole chicken.

I'd be interested to see if anyone else is the same as me on that and what their budget would be. I'm on my own at the moment as my other half is in the Navy and away until August.

Please note though, I don't buy organic fruit or veg, their quality of life doesn't bother me lol and I don't taste any diff in them really.

I have discovered my local butcher, who does 'free' sausages is very reasonable. I got 6 of the longest chipolatas I've ever seen, 4 fat pork sausages and 4 faggots for less than £6!

 

[Surzy]

Applekath - i'm like you, I have been scouring the whoops section at my local supermarkets - as due to it being more expensive the free range chicken is often discounted late on at night. I pop it in the freezer and use it when i need it

Or i'll buy a full free range chicken, and i can get 3 meals out of for 2 of us

No need to compromise your values just because you're on a budget!

 

[parfittaroles]

I was just thinking about the meat side of things. I only buy 'happy' meat, poultry and eggs now. It is partly to do with the moral side of it but also because it just tastes sooooooooooo much better.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not flush at all, if I can't afford a free range chicken, I don't have any chicken. Equally I'm not so hung up on it that I won't eat at others homes or check packaging etc. When I do buy a happy chicken, by god I use every last scrap of it down to boiling the bones for stock, something I never did before with say a £3.99 whole chicken.

I'm with you there. I have to get free range eggs & chicken after seeing a programme on battery hens. As i do the green plan I very rarely eat meat, probably one a month if that so I don't mind 'splashing' out a proper chicken... Or a tesco finest leg of lamb in this case lol