Tales from the kitchen.

Dear reader,

 A frosty Sunday morning here but a warm and sunny welcome to my new followers,
Foster mummy and Tasmanian Minimalist. Thank you for peeping into my life. Do say hi when you are passing by.

As you know, I don't like parting with my money to the gas company. Now I love the heating, I am a warm person, don't like the cold at all. However, what I don't like is the continual reports that the fat cats are getting mega money and bonuses while we, the little people are getting the urine extracted from us. (Posh version!)
That is why the heating is off, our house doesn't get much past 14-15. We have the log burner on at night and this heats the bottom of the house and drys the clothes. We both have fleecy PJ's and a hot water bottle for bed. It was all worth it when I looked at our online gas account and they have had to reduce our monthly direct debit again. Ha ha ha. They have estimated £44 a month for us. They will be lucky. I am determined to not pay them anything like that.

I have got off to a good start with the cooking from what we have in stock. Yesterday I cooked the pork belly strips in a Maggi so juicy BBQ bag that I got from AF. I had two, sad, sprouty spuds left in the bottom of the sack. I scraped the sprouty bits of and scrubbed them a bit. Cut them into wedges, 3 mins in the microwave, sprayed with fry light, a sprinkle of a bit of Nacho spice i had left over and put them in the oven with the BBQ pork. I delved into the freezer for the frozen veg I always have and under it I found, one organic steak and some braising beef. Result!
I decided I would do a bit of spicy rice as well so I put plain rice and the veg on to boil. Once boiled I always remove the rice and just leave the lid on tight. It cooks beautifully and much less energy use.

I still had some of the Nacho packet left so when the rice and veg was cooked I added it with a squirt of tomato ketchup. Lovely, spicy rice. The pork was cooked but I just browned and crisped it up under a hot grill. It was a very tasty and cheap dinner, with a dollop of garlic mayo for the wedges.

Sadly, my bread making has not gone so well. I had a bread mix packet for sunflower seed bread. Nothing to do except add warm water. No chance of messing that up. Or so I thought.............
I put the packet in first and then added the water. WRONG way round. Oh well, what could go wrong, it all gets mixed up. Three hours layer a marvellous smell permeated our kitchen. I rushed to the machine and pulled out what I can only describe as a paving slab.
I let it cool hoping that taste would compensate for ugliness and cut into it. It was damp and very solid. I wonder if it is because my kitchen is really cold as well?

I have cut it up to show you. There is still all the flour on the outside where it didn't mix in properly.

I was determined not to waste it so I put a slice in the toaster. I had to toast it three times to get it to crisp. It was quite nice though. 

I will keep trying and I know some of you have kindly sent me your recipes so I will try them too.

We had a no spend day yesterday so that's great. I may have to go out for fruit and veg today to,last the week. The weather is rubbish and really cold. We are off on a mission to collect some free wood we have been offered but we have to chop it up to get it in the car first so that will warm us up.

You may recall, the poll I ran last week on the top of my blog? It asked the best way to save money with choices of , turn off the heating, go vegetarian, cook from scratch or make do and mend.

The outright winner with 60% of votes was............

COOKING FROM SCRATCH.  Thank you for your votes.

Bread is obviously not my forte in the kitchen. I am good at other things though.

What's your signature dish? What do you make that's easy?

Have a peaceful Sunday. X

Meal plan from stock

Dear reader,


Lisa May Walters and Counting Pennies are my new followers. Hi there and welcome to my blog.

We travelled back from rainy, cold Kent yesterday afternoon and are back in snowy Buckinghamshire. We woke to a blanket of white this morning and it is still coming down heavily. I can't believe it is April in a few days!

I decided to have a stock take of my big larder, cupboards and fridge freezer this morning and create a meal plan and shopping list around that.

I have an extensive collection of packet sauces, stir fry sauces, Thai curry pastes, bolognaise and beef  stew mix. Also several Maggi so simple BBQ sauce roasting bags, cookie and muffin mixes, onion bhaji mix, a lot of dried noodles and a lot of cous cous. This is my Approved Food stash and a large sack of onions.

I also have the usual dried pulses and pasta. Red lentils, casserole mix and rice. Lots of tins of tuna, tinned tomatoes and some mandarins. Porridge oats, bread flour, plain and self raising. Some part cooked bread rolls, mini naans and a hoisin wrap kit.

The fridge is pretty bare, eggs x 5, cheese- cheddar and mozzarella, milk and condiments and lurking at the bottom a pack of beet root.
The freezer, however, is packed after a large shop at Lidl the week before we went away.
Chicken breasts x 15, the same of portions-thighs and drumsticks. A joint of ham, a joint of gammon, veggie sausages x2 packs, meat sausages, fish in a light sauce, River Cobbler fish, minced beef, a homemade lasagne, chicken Kiev, homemade faggots, a portion of M&S mash (50p) some frozen veg and frozen raspberries.

I am going back to making our own bread, so dusted off the machine today, ready to go tonight.

My menu plan is as follows. Breakfasts will be porridge and/or toast. Lunches will either be the extra from the precious night that I will cook or sandwiches with some fruit and chocolate biscuit bar.

23/3 leftover pizza-BBQ pork belly, potato wedges and veg.
24/3 sausage, egg and toast-Gammon joint, veg and mash.
25/3 ham sandwich-Fish in sauce and veg.
26/3 ham sandwich-Chicken stir fry and special rice
27/3 Leftover stir fry-Spaghetti bolognaise
28/3 Leftover bolognaise-something on toast
29/3 River Cobbler fish in a light batter or breadcrumbs and h/m chips
30/3 BBQ chicken, wedges and veg
31/3 H/M pizza-roast chicken, Yorkshire pud, veg, roasties
1/4 cooked breakfast, eggs, sausage, tomatoes-chicken curry, bhaji a, rice and naans.

I should just have to buy fruit, vegetables and potatoes this week. We have loads of milk and hopefully the bread making will go ok. We have enough to eat, I just need to be organised.

Do you menu plan or just see what you fancy?

Thank you

Dear reader,
Before I start I'd like to thank you all for your kind comments supporting us as we continue to be non smokers. I'm sure it's boring for those of you who never have smoked and we know it is our fault for starting.
It's difficult but we are determined. It's given me some compassion when I see others with addictions and I feel for them.
Never judge a man until you've walked in his shoes.

It is our last day in Kent. My parents returned yesterday evening from their holiday.
I cooked for us all making our favourite faggots, boiled potatoes, carrots and peas with a thick gravy.

Aldi had 4 pork loin steaks for £3.29. I had to go elsewhere for the liver as they don't seem to sell it in either Aldi or Lidl. I got 2 packs for £1.75. I had tried to just buy organic meat for ethical reasons mainly but we just can't afford it. The supermarkets are charging £11 for an organic chicken and trying to work 12 hours a day and still find time to get to a local butcher was just not happening.

The faggots were so quick to make and I made 18 so I froze some for my mum and dad to have another night.

Mum and dad had been on a European cruise around the Med. The recession was very evident in Spain with lots of shops boarded up, which was a shame. I think some of the countries are worse off than us although our high streets are looking pretty dismal too.

Having been out to America a few time, where they have malls, I wonder if we will eventually go,this way too. It's so easy to just drive to a huge car parking area and get out to various shops all in one place. I suppose we have been voting with our feet for some years now.
I look at our High Streets and see, fast food shops, betting shops, pound shops and the occasional charity shop but even these are closing down. We live in a tiny village where there is a supermarket of sorts. I use it in emergencies as the produce isn't great, there is also a farm that sells eggs and milk that I try to use when I can. It's difficult working full time as I tend to go for the easy option and sadly the easy, supermarket option tend to be the cheapest too.

We will be travelling home to Buckinghamshire today. I've missed our house and our bed. That surely must be a sign of getting old? I'm looking forward to planning our food and using the envelopes for shopping. £50 in each one, we will be a few days short at the end but we will manage.
I think I may be ok the first week as we have a freezer full of bargains I found in Lidl before we went away.
I am looking forward to making our own bread again. Lots of you have given me recipes to try out.
We won't have the heating on at all from now on. British Gas have done a reading while we have been away. They make their bills very difficult to read don't they? We pay them £50 a month for our heating and hot water and we don't really scrimp on baths or showers. They are reducing our direct debit to £44 a month now, I suppose this is to allow for the summer months. I'd like to get this down further, the less I give to them the better. There are some things I don't mind paying for, where I don't feel the company is robbing me. I don't mind the water bill, the Sky bill, the mobile phone bill even but the gas annoys me. It annoys me to think there are old people out there too scared to put it on, freezing to death and they really are.

On a happier note, we have two more days off before we go back to work then it's a short week with the long weekend off for me anyway.
What are your plans for Easter? Will you be cooking something special?

Have a happy weekend.

S. x

Money up in smoke

Good morning dear reader,

My welcomes first to two new followers, Stretching the pennies to save the pounds and pretty vintage roses. May our journeys together be interesting, supportive and fun.

As you know, because I mention it a lot, Big Man and I were both, until recently smokers. Actually, 20 a day each, smokers. I guess that's classed as heavy smokers?

I have been smoking since I was about 16. It started at school with copying the other, naughty but therefore cooler, (or so i thought) kids in my year. My parents had had a very nasty divorce and I am an only child. I suppose it was my way of fitting in, showing I was one of them.
It was still unusual to be a child of a "broken family" as they called it then.
My father had been a domineering bully all my life and hated smoking (despite being one himself when younger) I think this was my way of putting two fingers up to him.

I continued, trying to be cool behind the bike sheds until it had taken a grip. I remember when they were a pound a packet. I used to go to the local school disco, lipgloss and my 10 Silk Cut. I was in the "in crowd" and it felt great.

My life continued, getting a job, socialising, boyfriends, holidays abroad. All the time my little friends came with me. A messy marriage and divorce of my own, they were always there, comforting me, giving me something to do when I was very low.
I knew it was bad for me, I coughed, I wheezed, I found it difficult to run. I tried the patches, hypnosis at £300 a go, twice! Sprays, fake cigarettes-they were good but too close to the real thing.
My mum begged me to stop, still I continued.

As you know, I read a lot of blogs and value what you say. I have learnt a lot from you and I started changing my life when I found these frugal bloggers. It began with SFT, saving for travel who has paid off her mortgage while still travelling to wonderful places. I then found the two Queens, Mean and Frugal.  These three ladies really got me thinking about what I do with my money. I work hard to get it, as we all do and these blogs really made me watch where it was going.

I started to begrudge spending the money on smoking, on something that was killing us. There was no point, saving, scrimping and trying to,pay off our mortgage because we probably wouldn't be around long enough to enjoy it. We knew we wanted to stop but it was always tomorrow.
£400 a month we were smoking! I used the mortgage overpayment calculator and if we paid this off our mortgage it saves us about 8 years.

About 2 days later, Mean Queen did a whole post on not smoking. I read it and watched some clips she had added. I showed it to the Big Man who did the same.
I'm not sure if it was seeing it printed or the clips or that is was within my precious blogging community but we have stopped. Cold Turkey!

I want to say a huge thank you to Ilona at Mean Queen and also to SFT who always makes time to send me supportive comments and ideas and to all of you who drop in, leave a comment or follow this blog. It keeps me strong and committed.

We save this £100 each week.

Wow.

My frugal clothes.

Dear reader,

Thank you to my new followers, Jo, Nim Scutt, Scarlet and Finn. It's lovely to have you visit my blog. I have only been blogging for a  few months and its all new to me. To get people actually following the frugal living of my life and debts repayment is extremely motivating.

I can thank the blogging community for the following.

Seriously sorting out our debts-sitting down and listing the exact amounts
Arranging repayments that are manageable yet effective
Finding Approved Foods
Building up a store cupboard with a small stockpile
Knowing the price of items I buy and shopping for the best deals
Budgeting for things we know will happen- gifts, car maintenance, insurances
Growing our own vegetables
Making do and mending what we already have instead of throw and buy again
Cooking all our meals from scratch
Taking packed lunches and drinks to work
Cutting down our energy bill by using log burner
Realising that we have enough
STOPPING SMOKING- big letters as we are so pleased and this has the biggest benefits to us.

Back to realising that we have enough has made me look all through our house as the things we have.
We have an awful lot of books. Big man has a huge collection of DVD's and I have an awful lot of clothes and shoes. The trouble is we don't like getting rid of them. There is only the two of us and we have plenty of storage so that's not an issue. Big man watches the DVD's and we both love to read, we lend our things out too so they get lots of use.
The major thing I have done is not buying any clothes or shoes. I have two huge bags of clothes that just don't fit as I've gained weight. So at the moment I have a very frugal, basic wardrobe. It consists of
1 black jeans
3 blue jeans (one slim fit, one smart, one just plain ugly-good for dog walks)
Various tops-smart and casual

I have several pairs of flat shoes, highs, walking shoes and boots. Luckily I have not "grown" out of these. I refuse to buy clothes and I'm hoping this will spur me into losing weight. I've done it before and I've kicked the smoking so I'm hoping the fat is next.

It's payday for us both today. We both put a set amount into our joint account to pay all the bills, food shopping and car fuel. After that there is nothing left to play with. No treats, no days out, no clothes. Anything we want has to come out of our own accounts and we have set aside a frugal amount this month for treats.
We decided this was just a bills account. I also started my car account which I will put £100 into every payday as I had big bills in the last few months for car tax, insurance, and servicing.
I also put £100 into another account for gifts and general emergencies. Other than that we have no other savings. If anything goes wrong with the house or cars we will just have to find it.
I have a credit card which I have had to put an unexpected bill of £3,000 on. I never have anything on it, if I do, I pay it off straight away. This time, we won't be able to do that so I got onto Money Saving Expert and found the best interest free cards. I have now swapped this onto my new card so we can pay if off with no interest.

We have eaten all the food in my parents house so will have to go shopping today so they have full cupboards when they return from holiday.
This month I am going to try the envelope system, which some of you use with great success. I will have 4 envelopes each with £50 in. This will be our shopping money and I will take each one out with me and it will have to be enough. This does all our food and packed lunches and household cleaning items.
We have also decided that each of us will have £40 for the month for us to spend on what we like.
Treat money-yippee!

We have saved £225 now by not smoking for 15 days now.

Do you store clothes you are waiting to fit into? How frugal is your wardrobe?

Where did our money go?

Dear reader,

I would like to welcome two new followers, Trudie and J Stevens. Thank you so much for following.
I can't promise you a fantastically exciting life or wonderful pictures of exotic places but I can show you our hopes and dreams, our journey to debt and eventually mortgage freedom. I will be sharing with you our day to day life, the things we do to save money, the food we cook, the reduction of our debts and the path we travel on to do all this.

The debts we have are from renovations to our house. We moved in a year and one month ago and set about improving and decorating. We did a lot, from new windows, new walls, removing the 70's crazy paved fireplace and installing a woodburner. Peeling off 4 layers of wallpaper, ripping up old carpet, replacing the whole central heating system. I could go on but you get the picture.

There are still things we need to do but for now, for my sanity and purse and just for a break to enjoy our house as it is we have stopped. There is nothing drastic that needs doing. Yes, it could do with a new kitchen, I'd like some long curtains in the lounge, the porch needs replacing, as does the fascia and guttering, the chimney stacks a bit wonky and the garden needs a bit of a rethink. But we have no more money and I need a break from house stuff.
I have gone through every part of our lives to see where we can cut down.
Food shopping-old ways £100 pw.  New ways £50 pw
Eating out-takeaways at work £30 pw (for both of us) New ways £0
Meals out at restaurants £100 New ways £0 (we have had treats over the past 2 weeks holiday)
Hairdresser for me £80 every other month =£480 a year. New ways £0
I wanted my hair to grow anyway and have just used the occasional home dye kit.
The gas bill remains to be seen as we have really cut back on heating. We use our log burner whenever we can and turn the gas off. It does heat the water so we try to shower instead of baths.

I used to holiday upto 3-4 times a year. We haven't been since 2012 and we won't go until at least 2014, if we can afford it. I do miss a proper bit of sunshine and heat.

When I get a bit down with having no money I look back at old photos of the house and they cheer me up.

Before we moved in

This was the crazy paved fireplace that we photographed on a viewing. We were pleased to find a real fireplace behind that electric fire.

After

I feel happy knowing we are in debt for our home and not for a depreciating car on the drive or a holiday or clothes that are no longer in fashion. Some people don't mind getting into debt for those things and hey, they were VERY important to me when I was younger.

We will pay these debts off, it will be hard sometimes, We will feel frustrated and cross, hard up, poor and cheesed off but we WILL get there we WIlL be debt free and hopefully you will watch our
journey as we travel it.

Drop in, say hi and let me know how you are doing.

Much love
S. x

A one dish dinner.

Dear reader,

Good morning and welcome to a new week. It is a brighter day here on the Kent coast where I am temporarily staying with my other half, Big Man. So called as he is very tall and well, big but in a muscular way! We are here to look after my parents four dogs. They are more like babies so we don't put them in kennels. Sadly, this means we don't get to go away together.
We find it quite demanding as we are only used to the two of us and doing as we please, not having to get up and let them out or go for walkies at a certain time and the hair!!!

My blog has seen an increase of readers and followers and it really means a lot to me. I love to read your comments and hear your views. I would like to say a big welcome to my new followers,
Bernard, Justine, Kittykittyweaselfish, Morgansmother, Nevertooold, JulieAndres04.

Yesterday we wanted to have another no spend day. As you know we are down to our last £20 until payday on Wednesday. We will have a bit extra as the council tax gives us a break in Feb and March and also the smoking money. We will still have debts to pay off so we won't be going mad.

We went off in the car to a place called Samphire Hoe. It's 86.5 acres of land created from the land dug to create the channel tunnel. Samphire because of the plant that grew on neighbouring cliffs and how meaning a spur of land.

For dinner I had a couple of chicken breasts which I had defrosted. They can be a bit dry and boring so I did an old favourite which I call all in one tray chicken. First, get a large oven proof dish, something that you might use for a lasagne. I have used a large roasting dish previously. Spray some oil or a light drizzle in the base. Slice some potatoes, not too thin and layer the bottom of the dish. Layer sliced tomatoes and onion on the potatoes. You can add any vegetables you have. I used a red pepper and some carrots yesterday. Put the chicken in last, any joints are nice, thigh, drumsticks or breasts. Lastly, make up some stock, chicken, veg or whatever you have. A little thin gravy will do, just something for the vegetables to cook in. Pour into the dish, it should come up to touch the veg.i add some dried herbs and spices, then cover with foil and leave it at about 180-200 for an hour and a half. It comes out very tender and moist. I served with cauliflower cheese and roasted parsnips. 

Today is 2 whole weeks since we stopped smoking. We are saving £98 per week between us. 

We took our £20 and went to the morning cinema and watched Red Dawn. We were the only people in the cinema and it was like a private viewing. 

That was our treat. The cinema is not cheap, about the same price as a DVD for 2 adults £15.

The same price as us both killing ourselves for a day.

Have you got any one pot meals that you cook? I would love to know.

S.