I Quit!!

Whooo Hooo!!  I quit my job today....yippee..... I'm free!!

What a brilliant way to end the month. Tomorrow is 1st February and a complete new start, I'm so looking forward to doing lots of things I haven't had time for recently starting with a long lie in in the morning and then tea and toast in bed... ahhh heaven...

Martin Lewis is on tv now :-)


                                                 Thank you for popping by

Karen xxxx

This weeks menu

This week our menu plan consists mainly of meals ready prepared from the freezer.

Tonight we had homemade Leek and Potato Soup with homemade bread followed by a mixed fruit crumble and custard.

Shepherds Pie, cauli, carrots and green beans

Fish Chips and peas

Spicy beef and bean stew with dumplings

Homemade Quiche & salad with homemade coleslaw

Pork Steaks with mash & veggies

Gammon, Jacket potatoes & salad

Breakfasts are usually toast or a banana, Lunches are simple- a sandwich- soup or crackers & cheese.  We always have plenty of fresh fruit in the bowl for snacking and I made cakes at the weekend.

I made 5 loaf cakes, 1 went to a friend 1 in the tin and 3 in the freezer for next month.

 Tonights fruit crumble using some frozen apples and blueberries with the remains of a tin of fruit cocktail.

Served with some 6p custard...yum.... plenty left for tomorrow too.

Have you planned your menu for this week, I find it makes things so much easier and helps with the shopping too.

Thank you for popping by

Karen xxx

2012 Sealed Pot Sunday Lunch

Today we spent some of the money from our 2012 Sealed Pot on a late Christmas treat of a family Sunday Lunch at our favourite eatery The Mayflower in Austerfield

I had planned on spending £100 on this meal  for 7 of us which was safely tucked away in our safe until we could all get together  when the rush of Christmas and New Year was over and to give us something to look forward to during January.  I had spent £50 on my grandaughter some leather boots, I also bought a couple of bottles of nice wine and the rest is to be used for stockpiling, at the moment we have £30 left.

Dopey me forgot to take the camera but these pictures are just about identical to the ones I would have taken today, we sat in the same spot in the same order!! we probably all ate the same meal too lol

 We have my lovely frugalista daughter in law Loubi, son Dave, Willow, my Mum, me and my Dad.

 Same photo but with hubby Phil and Willows best ever teddy Spencer.

We all had a delicious meal of Sunday Roast and a yummy dessert plus drinks and the total bill with a generous tip came in at £87.20, that leaves £12.80 which has been added to this years Sealed Pot.  Hopefully we will be doing the same next year with this years savings.

It certainly was worth every penny and tasted so much sweeter as it was paid for with  just oddments of change saved throughout the year.

It's still not too late for you to join in the 2013 Sealed Pot Challenge, just pop over to SFT's Blog to sign up.  It really is such a wonderful way to "pay" for special treats.

Thank you for popping by and I hope you had a special Sunday too.

Karen xxx

Misson Mill

Misson Mill is about 5 miles from here and its an old crop drying mill that has been converted into various small businesses one being a cash & carry warehouse for foods which are just within or just out of their best before dates.  They also sell goods which are well in date but the companies have changed the packaging or its the end of a line.  As with all outlets you have to be careful of the "bargains" some really aren't any cheaper than the special offers you can get in the supermarkets and its a bit hit and miss. This is my little haul from this morning.

 3x 1kg tubs of Flora Buttery just in date, will be frozen and used for baking a bargain at 49p each.
5 large pots of Rice Pudding for £2 a quick pudding and plenty for two each pot.
Crisps these will last well into next month 12 bags walkers 1 large McCoys and 7 bags M&S curls £2.96. 5x Snickers £1.00 hubby's treat. Thorntons chocolates 6months date but Christmas packaging £1.49 my treat and squirrelled away to share with friends over a coffee.
3x paks of Popadoms £1.00 10x packs of 4 mini Peshwari Naan's £1.00 ( I feel a curry night coming on) Bisto gravy 49p dated until 2014  Espresso coffee pods 18 =99p and last of all the Cathederal City Extra Mature 400gm £1.69 dated until March but has Christmas packaging. Total amount £17.38, all this will last well into next month and some beyond that.

 I immediately grated all the cheese and bagged it up for the freezer, it will be used for Pizza, Quiche and anything that requires grated cheese, can even be used for a quick sandwich or cheese on toast.

While we were passing the farm gate I picked up another dozen eggs, all different sizes but tastes gorgeous.

I paid for all these goodies from my bags of coins from last years sealed pot, I know, some of its still sitting there bagged up, there is £100 put aside for a family meal next Sunday my Christmas treat to them all (saves me cooking) and I spent £50 on a pair of boots for my grandaughter for Christmas. That leaves £30 and a few pence, which I will put aside for any more stock piling bargains.  At this rate my Use Up Challenge will go on into infinity and beyond.................

Thank you for popping by

Karen xxxx

Shopping Day -wk 3

It was shopping day for us today, blimey these weeks soon pass by, it doesn't seem 2 minutes since we last shopped.  After looking at my meal plan and knowing whats in stock I really didn't want much, mainly fresh fruit and veggies.  When we arrived at Lidl  neither of us had the trolley token or had a pound coin in change  so instead of rummaging through the car and my handbag we decided not to have one of these humongus trollies....... 

 and opt for the more simple shopping basket with the view that if we had to carry it round the shop we would only get what we needed and get it quickly.  We actually had one each and because the 4pints of milk were only a pound we bought 4.

 It didn't take us long at all to shop today and our bill came to £27,15 well under the £50 allowed so another good saving this week.

Just look at the state of my receipt, I took it out of my purse and it was a bit crumpled so as the iron was out and still a bit warm I ironed it and it went black..ooops..  So ladies todays tip is never iron your shopping receipts LOL   as if....  Just incase you are interested in what I bought and can't read this here is my list

Apples  £1.75

Cauliflower 89p

Cucumber 79p

Bananas 99p

Red Apples £1.49

Oranges 1.5kg £1.00 huge bag- bargain

Cherry Tomatoes 75p

Oven Chips 1kg 67p  Cheaper than using potatoes

4x4pt Semi Skimmed Milk £4.00

Parmigiano  £2.85

Low Fat Greek Yogurt (bucket full) £1.58  these are great little buckets for upcycling ie Sealed Pot!

Back Bacon £1.39

Mature Cheddar 2x400gm  £4.58 might be cheaper elsewhere but didn't want any temptation

Utterly Buttery 89p on half price offer

Special Muesli  £1.69

Kinder Chocolate £1.05  grandaughters

6 Lidl Mars bars 79p hubby's treat

I also spent £1 on 6 free range eggs from the farm gate.

We had a steaming bowl of Leek and Potato soup for lunch and tea will be homemade steak pie, chips and peas.  Just the job for a horrible cold and snowy day, its coming down quite heavy at the moment.

Hope you manage to keep in your budget this week but more important that you stay safe and warm.

Karen xxxx

Use it up again

I don't know about you but when I see these kind of images it makes my blood boil, such a dreadful waste when people are actually starving, most of this food would have been useable just before it went into the skip.

 As you can see from this picture I bought this savoy cabbage a week before Christmas, 17th December is the date on the bag, it has been kept in a cold place and when I brought it into the kitchen and opened the bag it was in near perfect condition. Its almost a month after the best before date.

 Just a couple of the outer leaves needed taking off, these will go into the compost bin.

 Inside it was still crisp and fresh smelling, and cooked it was delicious.

 How many people would have thrown this away just by looking at the date on the bag? Too much emphasis it put on dates these days, use your common sense and use things up instead of sending to landfill.  Buy what you need and use it, you wouldn't dream of opening the bin and throwing actual cash in so why throw away perfectly good food thats cost you your hard earned cash. We ate this cabbage steamed and served with Beef Stifado which I had batch cooked and frozen, it was delicious.

Cobweb Bunting anyone :-)

 This was my dustbin this morning, how lovely is that!

A couple more on the caravan hitch

 It looks so cold this morning down the garden -5 brrrrrr.......

Something has been hopping about in the snow.

I have been keeping warm and being crafty, making some more Birthday cards using up some of my crafty stash and my die cutting machine

Thats a few more £ saved and I'm well on the way to having my birthday cards made for the next 6 months :-)

Keep warm and thank you for popping by,

Karen xxx

Use it up

Its been a bit of a use it up day here in the Chelmarsh house, this pile of fruit has been lingering in the fruit bowl far too long and the apples have gone soft and wrinkly and the pears really ripe, time for action....

 Peeled chopped and part cooked along with some foraged blackberries from the freezer and tipped into a baking dish

A generous topping of crumble mix added, it takes seconds to do a large batch in the processor, I have another tub in the fridge for later this week. This is one of my hubby's favourite puddings served with lashings of lovely custard, well the 6p a packet instant stuff  lol







While the oven was going on I made a quiche with a  frozen pre cooked pastry case using half a chopped onion, sauted in a bit of olive oil, added to that was some bits of ham, you know the sort its the bits that crumble when you are slicing the joint, I pop them in a bag in the freezer for quiche or pizza, I used a handful of grated cheese and two beaten eggs with a drop of milk. This makes 4 portions one each with salad tomorrow and then the other half with jacket potato and beans on Tuesday.

 In the casserole dish I have sliced potatoes and onions cooked in chicken stock until soft, we will have this for dinner this evening with cold Roast Pork and savoy cabbage, quick and tasty.

  Lastly the 2 lonely eggs left in the dish were used to make a tray of scones, the mixture was a bit sticky so instead of rising  they spread! never mind they still taste good and far superior than the horrible baking powder flavour ones you get from the shops.

So not a bad day for using up, and some delicious makes to start the week.

Hope you had a good weekend

Karen xxx

Grocery Shop

Thursday is our normal shopping day and we usually shop in a little town called Retford about 14 miles away, however,  after checking the menu plan for next week, we needed so little and thought it wasn't worth the petrol for the 28mile round trip when we could get it all at the local Asd@  So off we went armed with the list...... could I stick to it and not be tempted by the bargains or special offers....

 First of all I didn't take in one of those huge trollies, no need, I don't want much

Get everything and go straight to the checkout, forget that hubby is still looking round

 Yes, I have everything we need for the week, the receipt is correct, no hidden extras..

 Whoo Hoo!!!!  £23.20 and a lot of it will last more than the week.... result!! =  1 shocked hubby

and Lots of lovely dosh saved for the piggy bank!

How is your budget going, are you being good and sticking to your list?

ETA. £2.15 for a dozen eggs = total £25.35

Have fun

Karen xxxx

Coleslaw?

Coleslaw... well kind of....just using up odds and ends of stuff from the fridge, a bit of red cabbage and green cabbage a bendy carrot and a bit of onion then from the salad drawer a cheek of yellow pepper stump of cucumber and a stick of celery.

 Grated  and chopped then mixed together in a bowl, it looks really colourful, bet it goes pink when I add the Mayo.

 Mmm not too bad.

 Tastes great!!

A bit of a mish mash tea tonight with some Christmas Gammon from the freezer, jacket potato, we had 2 little ones each as thats all that was left, some baked beans and the coleslaw, it was lovely and very tasty. We finished off with a cup of tea and a piece of flapjack.Tomorrows job is to clean out the fridge and restock the salad and veggies.  No cooking tomorrow either as we have vouchers for our favourite eatery from Christmas, a present from our son and daughter in law.

What did you use up today?

Thank you for popping by

Karen xxx

Bad start!

Well talk about a bad start to the day, in my fridge I had 2 Butternut squash which have been there since November, they were still in perfect condition so I thought I had better make some soup for lunch. I chopped 2 onions and added them to my big pan with a drizzle of oil and then forgot about them until I smelt burning...  Oh dear the bottom of this pan was black to start with and after much scrubbing this is how it looked,  I soaked it for a while with boiling soapy water and eventually it came clean....phew!!

 I did manage to salvage the onions and they didn't taste burnt, just nicely caramelized :-)

 So back in the cleaned pan I added the onions 2 butternut squash a couple of carrots 2 small parsnips and 2 sticks celery,I had some ham stock in the freezer so that went in along with 2 cartons of chopped tomatoes and some black pepper, I left the salt out as the ham stock was quite salty enough.

 Cover the veggies with water and simmer until soft.

 When cooked blitz until smoothish, check the seasoning and serve, I had some with a buttered roll for my lunch and it was delish...  There is loads left for the freezer too.

 After lunch the next job was to do the ironing..... I hate ironing!! not too much today though.

 All done and time for a nice cup of strong black coffee in my fave spotty mug....ahhhhh....

 Thought I would share with you a couple of birthday cards I put together yesterday, the die cuts were done on my electronic die cutting machine, simple but effective.

Just 2 more to make and then thats Januarys cards done.

I hope you didn't have a bad start to your day today.
Thank you for popping by

Karen xxx