Time to set myself a goal I believe for this month. I started thinking about it as I was driving to work and thought about all the other blogs I follow.
I am pretty jealous of most who write about thrift as they seem to be stay at home moms or retired. I am far from either. I get up at 6.30am to get to work at 8.30am, I finish at 6pm and get home at 7pm. It is an awfully long day. I find it dificult to keep motivated on thrift and economy, especially as it is dark so early.
One of the reasons I am so envious is the time they have to save money, by baking bread and ensuring them and their families eat healthily. Up until recently once a week I would swing by for a double cheese burger on the way home with fries, as I was quite frankly shattered.
So, it started me thinking about how they always cooked from scratch.I love cooking and baking. So perhaps it is time to review what goes into this frugal miss.
As soon as I got home, out came the cookery books and I made short crust pastry by hand - so proud.
Here is the book I got the recipe from
So I used the vegetable filling I made at the weekend to make this
It should do for 4 meals. But making it is so time consuming. I started at 7pm with the pastry and by the time that had been chilled, the base baked and then it all cooked. I ate at 9.30PM.
Going into the freezer, made me look at how much food I have here at W Towers. Look at all of this.
This coming month, I am giving myself a budget of £40 only to cover milk, bread, veg etc.
If I need anymore than that, well it is a bit poor isn't it?
I need to start making use of all these ingredients. I will take another picture at the end of February and keep you all updated on how I do.
Nice to have a goal. What are yours for this month?
No heating on again this evening. Gosh, it is cold.
Frugally (Shivering)
yours
Abigail
x
It is easy to believe we are all stay at home mums but most of us haven't always been so. I was training to be a nurse with a young child to cater for as well as a husband who worked shifts in the RAF. I still made meals from scratch but didn't always make bread - those days it was a treat, now it is normal. Once you get into the swing of making things, make something in bulk then freeze it. This applies to pastry, curry, spag bol, stew, pies, puddings, shepherds pie, roast dinners, pizza's from bread dough etc. Always make as much as you can with what you have then divide into portions and freeze. That really is the secret. My weekends were free so choosing 1/2 a day from either Saturday or Sunday I set to work. Doing this each weekend, or an afternoon if free from shift work, goodies soon mounted up in the freezer. Once they are there, you use them but also continue to make them. Take a meal out at night or in the morning, it will be ready to cook when you get in. Simples!!
ReplyDeleteYes, when I do cook I always cook in bulk and freeze the rest and do remember to take it out of a morning. BUt,as you can see the freezer it getting a little too fully stocked. So time to eat some it and make the raw ingredients in there into something delicious. The slow cooker will be making an appearance soon!.
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