Waste not! & Stoptober.

Today is the 1st of October and the start of a new monthly challenge, quite a few bloggers are doing the Stoptober Challenge, where you stop spending for the whole of October.  After my Low/No Spend September I will find it impossible to not spend at all so my challenge is to continue with the low spend and to stop buying excessive amounts and just buy what we need.  The storecupboard has plenty in and the freezers are full, on closer inspection I do need to buy a couple of meaty products.  Aldi have just things I need on the Super Six Meat Offer, so thats that will be sorted on Friday.

Waste is something I absolutely hate and looking in my fridge this morning I had a few things that were getting a bit past there sell by date, it was time to jump into action.

There were a few salady bits to use, about a third of a homemade loaf

Some rather tired looking veggies and a swede with 29th August on the wrapper!

Nearly a full head of brocolli just starting to get yellow bits in, and a couple of sprouting spuds, no picture if those as I had already chipped them.

After about an hour in the kitchen this is what I had.

1 pan of chips to make oven chips, par boil chips for a couple of minutes, drain, sprinkle with oil and salt and pepper and tip onto a hot baking tray, oven cook on high until golden brown and soft.

They will be served with the half bag of Scampi and the chopped salad. 

1 bag of chopped peppers, these will be frozen and used in bolognaise or chilli or as bulk for a curry.

2 bags of Stew mix from the soft veggies, these will also be frozen for a later date, I have stewmeat in the freezer already and some dumpling mix from AF. I could have made a soup with this but I have soup already in the freezer.

1 bag of chopped Swede this will be used along with the Brocolli tomorrow night with the last pack of sausages and some instant potato (no fresh ones left) with gravy.

The bread was whizzed up into breadcrumbs and made into stuffing balls, I softened a chopped onion covered with water and microwaved until soft, added the breadcrumbs to the onion and water stirred in some dried sage from my garden, salt and pepper to taste and then bind it all together with a couple of fresh eggs, mold into balls and place on a non stick baking sheet. I will cook these tonight while the oven is on for the chips and scampi. Once cooled they will be open frozen then bagged for later in the month.

This is whats left, just the peelings, which are going on the compost heap.

With this hour of preparation I already feel well into the swing of my version of the Stoptober Challenge.

Do you have times like this, when fresh stuff doesn't get used as quick as you think it will, and how do you cope with it?  It's over to you :-)

Have a lovely day

Karen xxx

Ps. Something weird is happening, I posted this at 2pm Wednesday and Blogger is saying it was posted 20hours ago and is halfway down my list of posts!!  Spoooooky.....:-)

The coffee morning and Apple Day events went really well and on refreshments we raised £141.25. It was a long day but it was a lovely atmosphere and everyone commented on how nice things were set up.  Thank you all for your lovely comments on my baking :-)  recipe  below for the Alice Cake for you Pam, it was in the side bar labels but not in the recipes above...sorry x

Alices Fruit Cake

Makes 1 x 8” round or 2 x 1lb loaf tin line

Oven 160*c   11/4hours ish depending on your own oven

350gm dried mixed fruit include some cherries

½ pint milk

225gm Marg

175gm sugar

2 teasp mixed spice

1 teasp bicarb

Place in a pan and bring to the boil gently stirring so it does not stick. Take off the heat and leave to cool.

Then add 2 beaten eggs and 350gm Self Raising flour stir well and pour mixture into tins.

 Bake in normal way, test to make sure centre is cooked. Leave to cool.  Better if you can leave them a few days before cutting.

I usually make double the amount and it makes 2 x 6” rounds and 2 loaf tins

Have a good day

Back later

Coffee morning bakes.

Tomorrow is the restart of our Coffee Mornings at Austerfield Study Centre so as per usual I am doing the baking for the refreshments. Here's what i have made, any leftovers will be used for the Apple Day celebrations in the afternoon. 

2 large Victoria Sandwich 1 large Chocolate, 3 Coconut and 3 Alice Fruit Loaves, 2 of the fruit loaves are for us :-)

Plus one of these which is in the freezer at the moment.

We have been over to the coldstore at Polybell Organics this morning to pick up 5 large trays of vegetables for our sale table. Let's hope the weather us kind to us and we have 2 brilliant events :-)

I will be serving refreshments all day, so it looks like another busy Saturday.

Nothing else to report today, the sun is shining and its a nice day.....off to potter...

Take Care

Karen xxxx

Last September Shop and Specs Saga.

This is the last of the shopping for my Low/No Spend September, I honestly can't think i need to buy anything else this week.  We went to Aldi and Morrisons and this is what we bought.

Lots of lovely fresh veggies and a couple of packs of seed, fruit and nut mix for my grandaughter, she loves to nibble on these and they are more healthy than sugary sweets £1:10 for2packs

Mints for hubby and paracetamol for me! ....dont ask :-)

Lamb Chump Chops 500gm £2:85 from ALDI we haven't tried these before but I saw some similar on Froogs blog and they looked ok, will let you know at a later date what we think. 

Saturday sees the return of our Study Centre Coffee Morning and the above ingredients have been bought to make cakes for that and for the Apple Day event that is running along side the Coffee Morning. The Choccy biscutes  are for the guy's at Polybell Organics for helping to load my car with the veggies for the centre.

The total cost of today's shopping came to £35:94 of which £11:32 was connected to the study centre.  In addition to this my hubby picked up a dozen eggs from the farm gate £2:50. 

Final chapter of the Specs Saga

Yesterday I had yet another trip to collect the new prescription Specs and to my utter amazement they are fab! Why on earth didn't they get it right from the start? I will pop back next week to arrange my second pair with Laura the varifocal lady,  which will be exactly the same as these, so hopefully in 2 weeks I will be done :-) At least they have put right all the issues I had with the first pair. I may go back to my independent opticians next time and give  the High Street ones a wide berth,:-)

Better go and update all my totals

Take care

Karen xxx

 

Walking Tall.

Its been another lovely washing day today and while I was busy with the laundry and housework hubby was busy in the garage.

Willow rang last week and asked if grandad could make her some stilts! She had been looking for some on Amaz* n and they were £35!!! So on discount day we went to B&Q and bought the stuff for just over £6.  We had to collect her from school today and she had a lovely surprise waiting for her

She was absolutely thrilled, even though they need varnishing she couldn't resist a wobble round the garden.

Excuse the shadow of me and hubbys socks lol.

We had one happy little grandaughter tonight, and then it was homework time...........!! 

Back tomorrow

Karen xxx

Busy Sunday and Low Spend September

Today we saw a change in the weather, it has been a lovely sunny day with a slight breeze, perfect for getting the washing dry so I took the opportunity to wash all the big towels. I'm hoping that tomorrow will be nice so I can get the bedding washed. I have also had a bit of a baking session, i wanted to stretch the last pack of minced steak into a couple of meals as part of my Low Spend September and as we hadn't had a pie for a while set to and made some pastry.

2x7" pies and a small individual one, I still had pastry leftover so found the last of the grated cheese in the freezer to make a deep quiche, meanwhile the breadmaker was busy making us a nice fresh loaf.

I added onion and diced carrots to the mince to give flavour and a bit of bulk. My son took one home and we had half of one for tea with carrots cauliflower and cabbage, we will have the same tomorrow night.

I was given some eating apples and conference pears on Friday so I made another huge Apple tray bake and them made the same mixture to use with the sliced and lightly poached pears, while it was still warm from the oven I spread the top with runny honey, it tastes delicious, we had some today with greek yogurt, the rest is in the freezer for another time.  The freezers are still groaning and apart from buying a few packs of meat we are good for October too, just lately we seem to be taking one thing out and putting five back in lol.  I am still doing well with no spend days, it helps to stay home and keep busy! 

Hubby has been busy too, repairing and painting the garden shelter.

Its been stripped down and some new bits made to replace any dodgy timber and the roof has had new felt, it should last another few years now.

The new series of Downtown Abbey starts tonight so after a quick read of the blogs I will be settling down to the tv.

Enjoy your evening 

Karen xxxx

Shopping Day.

Shopping day today and as well as the fresh stuff we needed a few basics, there is still masses of food in stock both storecupboard and freezer and I can see this will be the case for a while yet.  We were at the hospital this afternoon with my Mum so on the way home we called at Lidl and Home bargains, as they are virtually next door to each other :-)

The tea bags and ginger biscuits were from my Mum :-) the vinyl gloves for food prep at a study centre event.

As you can see we purchased a few costly items, the total spend was £29:73 bringing my spends so far to £91:15.  Apart from a few veggies and milk next week we should have enough to see us to October.

Its gone six so I best get a wiggle on and make tea......pasta bolognese and salad.

Enjoy your evening

Karen xxx

Batiks and Spec's

A couple of weeks ago we had a day out with the Thimbles group to the Harrogate Quilt Show, I had forgotten to take my camera and it was heaving with folk anyway, you needed sharp elbows to get near the stalls! However, I managed to spend a fair bit and one of my purchases were these fabulous Batiks.

I have already chopped them up into 9.5 inch squares for a quilt, 4 yellow ones for the centres and 32 mixed colours. I have decided to make a Disappearing Nine Patch Raggy Quilt, sort of hippy style for my grandaughter as a Christmas Present.

Hubby has been out all day so knowing there wouldn't be any interuptions I made a start. I haven't done anything like this before but  I did have some sound advice from Liz our chief quilter :-)

Here are all my pieces cut and laid out ready to pick up and sew, this took me ages to sort. Next I stitched together 4 blocks of nine squares then each block had to be cut into 4 pieces giving me a total of 16 squares.  Again I laid them out on the carpet and tried to put them into some sort of layout I was happy with. Then it was back to the machine and stitch them all together with the seam showing on the right side.

The back of the quilt actually looks like the right side but when making a Raggy Quilt you need your seems on the outside as you snip the seam allowance to create the raggy look. 

I think it looks bright and cheerful don't you, I will get some nice soft purple fleece to make a warm snuggly backing for it and bind the edges with more fabric.  Once its finished I will take a photo to show you.

The scraps on the table are just the bits of rough trimmings from the fat quarters and I did'nt want to waste them so I stitched them together in a 'rustic way' my excuse for them not being straight :-) i layered it with some wadding and backing then quilted 'in the ditch' to hold it all together and I am going to back it with the same purple fleece and buy a big fat cushion to go inside

10 fat Quarters cost me £14 and its a 100% cotton it will probably cost me another £10 to finish the quilt and cushion.  Better get my little scissors sharpened for all that snipping!

Spec Saga

I had my appointment yesterday for the re test, the Opthalmic Director was the one doing it and he did a much more in depth test than the first one, at the end he said my prescription did need tweeking but the major problem was with the varifocal, apparantly I had been given one that was totally unsuitable for me and didn't stand a chance of ever seeing clearly with it!  After chatting with the varifocal expert :-) she agreed to fit the same one as I had in my current glasses, it comes from a different source to their normal suppliers but this has been done with no extra cost.  They were very helpful and I came away feeling more confident, my new spec's will be ready on the 24th and I am hoping and praying  they will be ok! 

On the Low Spend front, I spent £19:96 at Morrisons and another £2:50 on farm eggs so I have updated my totals.  Tomorrow its meal planning from the freezer :-)

Enjoy your weekend

Karen xxx

Death by Poison!

Remember this from the other week

Poisoning the Pink Valerian up the side of the drive, well its died....shame...lol

Hubby decided to drag it all out this afternoon, i dont think he can stand the trailor to be empty, we had another skip trip this morning.

It was blooming hard work, the roots were like concrete he had to use a crowbar to get underneath and try to prize them up!

Separating the pebbles from the chaff.

Thats better all tidy, it might need another spraying in the spring when any surviving seeds germinate.

While he was taking a breather he brought one of the free ( given to us) garden chairs to the drive to sit on

Oops! He ended up on the floor! This is the second one to break so the third is going to the skip as well before someone get hurt!

We seem to have spent quite a lot of time doing this this year

I dont know how we would cope without this trailer, its only small but boy does it earn its keep!

A nice hearty shepherds pie followed by apple crumble for tea, I think he deserves it :-)

Enjoy your evening

Karen xxx

Charity shop find and a fruity surprise

Thank you to everyone who commented on my new specs problem, I really appreciate you taking the time to tell me about your own experiences. Thank you and welcome to my new followers too, its good to have you on board xx

This morning we set of to the Opticians to see what they were going to do about "the specs"  the outcome was to have a re test which is on Friday morning, I have requested a different person to do the test just incase something has been missed....I will let you know the outcome.

We arrived early for my appointment so had a quick walk round the block, we passed the Air Ambulance Charity Shop and I spied this tureen in the window

It was a bit dusty but only £2, and it matches the set I already have, this is the second time I have found some of it in the charity shops, last time it was a tea set.  Its been in the dishwasher and is sparkling like new :-)

The fruity surprise is this little blackberry hubby uncovered in the back garden, it must have been set by the birds because we haven't planted it, I asked him if it could be moved down to the veggie plot but its rooted itself in the middle of a buddlia.

Now what shall I make? Will it be a crumble....a pie...or jam :-)

Enjoy your evening,  its part two of The Zoo tonight!

Karen xxx

Warm and sunny. Day 8.

A huge Chelmarsh welcome to my new followers, thank you for popping by xx

Well, its Day 8 thats the first week of September gone! Its been a lovely warm and sunny day today, just the right weather for working in the garden making a start on the end of summer cutting back and general tidying. While hubby made a start on the shrub pruning I got cracking with the greenhouse.  The cucumbers have finished and the tomatoes have been rubbish this year, all the plants but 2 tomato plants have been chopped ip and the spent compost bagged up ready to go onto the raised beds later. I will keep the last 2 tomato plants another couple of weeks as the last few very small tomatoes are very slowly ripening.  I had to call a halt to the sweeping up in the greenhouse as I managed to catch a pane of glass with the brush and broke it. Oops! We had a few spare ones so hubby managed to fix it quickly...good man xx. We had both had enough by 1 pm so we loaded the trailer with all the rubbish and took it to the skip, now the big bags and the trailer are empty they are ready for tomorrows job....the dreaded hedge cutting.....again! It should be much much easier this time as it only needs a trim, keeping on top of it is the way to make it easier, so I keep telling my hubby :-)

Low/no spend September

I have updated my spends as we called at Lidl for some coffee pods, i stocked up with enough to last into next month, I also bought a bucket of Greek yogurt, I love Lidl yogurt, its so thick and creamy and you only need a small blob, its lovely on stewed apple lol. Yes, we are still picking the drated things! We started this weeks Menu plan yesterday with a roast chicken dinner  for 5 and then tonight we had ding cuisine for 2. The rest of the week is as follows

Garden salad with something eggy and cheesy I have grated mozzarella to use up. 

Pasta Bolognese 

Shepherds pie and veggies

Hm breaded fish, chips, peas and tartare sauce

Tuna Jackets and garden salad.

Nothing wildly exciting but cheap, cheerful and filling.

I have just got up to close the curtains as its dark outside....8:30 ... They nights are starting to draw in now aren't they but lets hope its a nice sunny day again tomorrow.

Whatever your plans

Take care

Karen xxx

Wet and dreary day 6.

Its been a horrible dark and damp day today which hasn't done anything to inspire me to get the jobs done in the house or garden! So, I have been mainly sat on my duff doing nothing! I have just started reading this book

It lovely and gentle, you will know Amanda from the Ade Edmondson series about the Yorkshire Dales, she is married to a farmer and lives in a remote part of the dales, they have 7 children....so far! She runs a campsite and makes Cream Teas for any visitors as well as working very hard on the farm. I think I will really enjoy reading it, its on my Kindle and cost £3:49 but maybe its available in the libraries.

News on the new specs front.....dreadful! Its like looking through mist, I can see so much better with my old ones and they make me feel sick, probably because I cant focus properly....they have to go back! They cost me £307 for 2 pairs, the second pair wont be made up until I'm happy with these so I am hoping to either have these put right or get a refund....what do you think my chances are of getting my money back? ..They are useless as they are :-(

We were hoping to go away to the dales for a few days in the caravan but I think this rainy weather has put a stop to that, instead we are having my son and Willow over for a roast dinner as her mum has gone visiting her mum down in Malvern. It will be good to find out how school has gone this week.

Better get a chicken out of the depths of the freezer then make a cuppa, I think there are some After 8 s lurking in the cupboard too :-)

Enjoy your evening

Karen xxx

Day 5. A Spendy Day.

As above...day 5 and a spendy day...Morrisons £27:31

Lots of lovely fruit and veggies, Bread flour which will get eeked out with the wholemeal, the cooked meats, ham and beef, will be taken with us and used for picnic lunches in the caravan, cake crusty bread and cheese were because hubby has a friend over for lunch and it was cheaper than going to the pub, then they had a long walk after and finally a yellow sticker curry meal for 2 for £2:75 :-). So thats food for the week and a friday night takeaway for under £28

I have been testing the new specs tonight and have a banging headache....not impressed!! So I think it will be an early night for me.

Until tomorrow

Take care

Karen xxx

Day 4. A mixed Bag!

Yesyerday it was back to school day for my grandaughter Willow, not only that she was starting at the Comp, I just cant believe where the time goes.  I text her in the morning to wish her good luck and told her to enjoy her day then last night spoke to her about it all, she said she was very nervous and gave the day 5/10 hoping today would be better.  Its a huge change for her, going from a tiny village school with only 12 pupils in her class to a huge comprehensive with over 1200 pupils and more than 30 in her class!  I am so proud of her, she sent me this photo of her in new uniform.

Very smart Willow :-) xx

Day 4 of Low Spend September and all is well,  actually its better than well,  I made bread by using half bread flour and half wholemeal plain flour that I bought from our mill shop at 3 bags for a pound a few weeks ago, and it worked!!

I dont normally buy this flour but it seemed a bargain, its what I used in my Apple Cake, it gave the bread a really nice texture and crust so I will continue to use it in my bread.  I havent worked out the cost of the loaf but it must be cheap!

Mum rang me to say she had made me a fresh fruit salad and some tubs of roasted veg,so this morning we nipped through to get them and make sure they were both ok, while we were there I gave the double oven and cooker top a really good clean. Last week I cleaned the bathroom for them after hubby had fitted them a new electric shower.  They are both in their 80s and its only recently they have started asking for our help and I dont mind one little bit, Im happy to help in any way I can.

Tonight tea was a tasty cheapy, bacon chops from the Sainsburys cooking bacon pack, jacket spud, mums roasted veg and baked beans followed by fruit salad....lovely :-)

Tomorrow I am collecting my new specs, thank goodness they were paid for last month! We will pop into the supermarket tomorrow and pick up only whats needed, Im in the middle of my menu plan for next week so I know what to buy.

I think I will have an hour in blogland before settling down to watch Who do you think you are, tonight its Sheridan Smith, she is from Epworth which is just down the road from me so it should be interesting.

Enjoy your evening,

Karen xxx

Day 3 Garden Produce and quilting project.

Day 3 and its going to be another no spend day. I popped down the garden this morning to have a look what there was to pick and came back with this lovely lot :-)

As always a very welcome addition to the larder especially when having a low spend month.  The beans ...french dwarf, have been very prolific, everytime I think it will be the last colander full more appear a few days later, however this time I think it will only be the stragglers to pick, they were a great bargain...a pot full of plantlets for £1:99!!  Like the beans most things are coming to an end but its been another productive summer to say we only have a small veg garden and greenhouse. The apples keep on coming.......and theres more.....

Hubby is outside spraying these pink Valerian plants with poison...eek!... They are getting too invasive, they stretch all the way down the drive, they are quite pretty when they flower but if they seed they are everywhere! We made the decision to get rid and this is the only way...unfortunately ..i hate using poison on the garden but these are well away from any grass and plants. When they have died back we intend to replace them with some fresh stone chippings.

Quilting

A quick peek at the quilt on my table, I am just hand quilting it to a nice snuggly fleece, it looks a bit scrunched up but Im hoping once its finished it will look ok, its my first so be gentle with me :-)

Today it will be Salad for lunch with something eggy, and tea will be Fish Fingers, homemade oven chips, green beans and tartatre sauce. Desserts......apples!!!

Have a lovely day whatever you are doing. Thank you for all your comments on my last post and good luck to everyone doing the Low Spend September, its good practice for Stoptober :-)

Take care

Karen xxx

Low Spend/No Spend September

1st of September! How did that happen....where has this year gone, summer is almost over and we are heading into autumn, the nights are drawing in and the mornings can be chilly.  August has been quite expensive for us with a couple of birthdays, holidays and a contribution to grandaughters school uniform, time to pull the budget belt back in and make the most of the food stocks we already have. So this month will be just like last September with a Low Spend / No Spend challenge. I will record all my housekeeping spends in my sidebar along with the number of No spend days. I have started today with my menu plan for the week, using everything from stock...F ..freezer, G ..garden..

This week we will be having

Roast Pork( F) Potatoes, carrots, broccoli, green beans (G) gravy. 2 days

Tuna, jacket potatoes, salad (G)

Pasta, Bolognaise Sauce (F) salad (G)

Fish Fingers, wedges, peas

Bacon chops from a pack of cooking bacon, jacket potatoes, baked beans.

Shepherds Pie, cabbage, carrots, green beans (G)

Breakfasts will be cereals, porridge or toast from homemade bread

Lunches are usually soup or sandwich and a piece of fruit.

We have plenty sweet stuff in the freezer which will be used sparingly and there are still apples on the tree.

Thank you for all your Appley comments and recipes they are much appreciated xx

I am off to a good start with a no spend day today, we have been into town this afternoon to get hubbys bus pass sorted, I cant believe hes old enough for one..lol. I told him he can have a shopping trolley for going to the market on the bus.....I wont repeat his reply..... Tomorrow I plan on staying in and doing housework, the dinner is just ding cuisine ( pinched that from Froogs :-) ) so that should be a free day too.

Is anyone else trying to have a low spend month or make the most of what you already have in stock? 

Enjoy your evening

Karen xxx