Right Place/Right Time

Not the clearest of photos, but great bargains nonetheless.

Found these yesterday - carrot and  coriander soup; reduced from £1.80 each to 36p each!

Ideal for lunches at school.  I have popped them both in the freezer.

[Wrote 30 writing and 30 'speaking and listening' comments yesterday.  Plus listed 2 pairs of shoes on ebay]  

Fantastic Bank Holiday Monday/Whitson Half-Term

When I woke up this morning, an email was waiting for me offering a composter, through Freecycle.  I was delighted. It was very timely.  Only yesterday, I had found a composter on Ebay; collection only.  The current bid was £1.75, with 24 hours to go.

I set up a snipe bid; max. £3.00

I had previously ordered one from a supplier offer a concession to my local council. However, I had received an email to say that there had a problem with the check out on their website and my order had not gone through; would I like to re-order? NO!

Then the Freecycle offer came.

Superscout and I went to collect it at 4:00PM, from a lovely lady.

On the way home, we stopped at a Marks and Spencer 'Simply Food' store.  We planned to buy a £10 'Dine In For 2' offer, because it was Bank Holiday.

WELL WE ARRIVED AT THE RIGHT TIME ....................... JUST LOOK AT WHAT WE BAGGED!

ALL 10P!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All in all it has been a great Bank Holiday.

Plus, I wrote 30 ICT comments and 30 Art and DT comments.

Added to which, we re-arranged Superscout's bedroom and did a major spring clean in it.

The Ebay composter finally went for £19.

I also have a chicken carcas in the slow cooker. #stock

Ridiculous Price Increase

At this time of year, I am partial to coucous, occassionally.  

The last time I bought some, it was approx 35p.  This time it cost 62p!  At first I thought it was a mistake.  Sadly not.

On the other hand, following on from a post and comment by Frugal Mum, instead of buying these:

£2.00/kg

I have bought these:

£0.63/kg

£1.37/kg saving.  

I plan to grated/slice them and freeze them ready for use.

Grating And Slicing

 

 I love the way I am pushed on/gently encouraged and inspired by other bloggers.

Today, I mentioned that I have being buying grated cheese and carrots.  Frugal Mum then kindly left a comment, which inspired me to look carefully at 3 food processor blades I have had in my cupboards for years.  They turned out to be: a finer slicer/grater; a thick slicer/grater and a chipper. [I Googled them - how else would I have found out?!]  Indeed, if I wished to buy them separatley, they appear to be selling on ebay for approx the £10 each mark.

So, I had a little go, using a carrot and a courgette.  I AM SO PLEASED WITH THE OUTCOME.

I love my blogging friends.
x

Food budget

First and foremost; a very warm welcome to Scarlett, my new follower. Wow - I now have the grand total of 6.  Sign up, if read but don't follow.  It is so exciting when I get a new follower.  I realy like knowing you are out there!


Before, I get started about my food budget, I will just let out a little frustration - GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR- for about 5 days now I have being trying to upload a photo.  It is just not happening - hence a lack of posts.

I made myself an ace spinach and chickpea curry, but I don't want to blog about it without a photo.

#frustration.

Moving on; I am pleased to say that I have significantly reduced my food/supermarket expenditure over the past month.  I have a budget of £70 for the three of us [2 adults; one almost adult; including a certain teenage  boy who tends to think it is not a proper meal unless containing meat.]

The last 3 weekly shops have cost: £35; £35 and £40.  The first 2 were reduced to that figure because I had £5 off when you spend £40 vouchers.

Notable successes: I used to buy 5 'eat me' bananas for £1.  Now buy 5 loose ones for about 60p.  I also used to buy 250g grated carrot for 50p/£2 per kg.  Now buy loose ones for 80p per kg.

Why did/do I buy grated carrot or grated cheese?  I have been using the grated carrot to make lentil burgers,  which create a very cheap meal.  So although within that , the carrot is not the cheapest, the eventual lentil burgers are a heck of a lot cheaper than my previous bad habit of nipping into the COOP on the way home, when tired, and blowing around £10 on ready meals - if you follow my logic.

I also buy frozen chopped onions, for £1.  They enable me to make quick meals from scratch.  It is all about being smart and saving money in ways that work for you.

Oxtail Stew And No Spend Days

Tonight I have put an oxtail stew into my slow cooker.  I was going to follow the Hairy Bikers recipe, but did not have red wine.  So, instead have used Tesco Everyday Value mixed vegetables, frozen onion and frozen garlic, with a Tesco packet mix.

38p

Should do the job.  Have never used oxtail before.  Intrigued about how it will turn out.  Will post a picture of finished result.

Also used up some potatoes.  Have peeled them ready.  Will use my ricer to mash.  A very effective gadget.

Plus Monday and Tuesday have been NSDs - no spend days.

Tesco Everyday Value

Yesterday, I went shopping with superscout.  During our trip, we had a discusssion about the amount of Tesco Everyday Value products I buy.

Since the re-branding from Value to Everyday Value, I seem to buying a lot more.  Superscout says it is because of the re-branding.  I am not sure.  I feel that the quality has improved.

In a way, does it matter?  If I am happy, as the customer/consumer, surely that is a good thing.

Here is a selection of products we currently have in our cupboards:

 

What do you buy of a similar nature?  Any top tips?

x

Merrange and lemon[ish] loaf.

Yesterday. the teenager and superscout returned.  So far, so good. No arguments to  report!

Once they were settled back in, and I had got their laundry going, I made:

• Some merranges, with left-over egg whites. [I shall freeze them and get them out for a treat, when I see some super reduced cream.

• A lemon[ish] drizzle loaf.  As I did not a fresh lemon, I used lemon juice and added some of my super economical mixed fruit, with peel.

 

I also made a homemade cauliflower cheese, which I have not photographed yet.  I used an Aldi packet mix  [36p] approx and a cauliflower which had been reduced to 45p in the Co-Op.

Today is going to be quite expensive, because both the teenager and superscout need new school shoes. However, we are going to explore the possibility of getting them re-soled.  We shall see.

x

OUTRAGEOUS

Yesterday, I saw 2 courgettes on sale in the Co-Op for £2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was genuinely shocked.

Good job I have some seeds planted in little pots on my bathroom window sill,  Come on my beauties.