Book Review and A Frugal Menu Plan

I have had the afternoon off work and it has been bliss, well apart from the dentist - 2 fillings and I cried like a baby throughout. Pathetic, I know. But behind me and the £30 spent. But another appointment booked for 6months time. I hate going, but I always turn up as not going could lead to worse problems.

I have recently finished reading "And The Band Played On" By Christopher Ward for Book Club on Monday. What an excellent read. It is a true story written by the grandson of one of the band members who died when the Titanic sunk. It starts with the sinking and gives a vivid account of the sinking and the effects of the cold water on those unlucky souls who did not find refuge in a lifecraft.

It documents the personal disaster of his family, and what happened to his body. It also shows the effects of class on the rescue attempt and retrieval of bodies. But, what makes this book so powerful (apart from the photographs) is the longterm effects this led to as his grandmother was pregnant but unmarried and documents the dark side of this maritime tragedy. The greed that was apparent. If I could recommend one book this month, this would definitely be it. I read it over 2 nights and was engrossed.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Band-Played-Titanic-violinist-betrayal/dp/1444707949

I mentioned yesterday I have a friend coming down with her 2 yo on Friday for the weekend and since I get paid at the end of the week I have been finalising my shopping list ready for pay day. I wanted to be able to serve food that would be both plentiful, frugal and tasty. However, I also wanted to ensure that what I cooked, the left overs could then be frozen and used as a meal later in the month. This is the finished plan

Menu Plan
Friday Night - Homemade pizza with easy crust from all recipes - ham onion and mushroom. Excess dough can then be frozen.
Saturday Morning - Homemade thyme and honey buns
Saturday Lunchtime -We are out, so ham s/w with lemon / banana cake currently sitting frozen in the freezer
Saturday Evening - Homemade beef and ale pie. I already have the Guinness so only need to purchase some stewing steak. This can then be put into the slow cooker whilst we are out ready to serve with a pastry top after the boy has gone to bed. Fish fingers for him.
Sunday Breakfast - Pancakes - TBC
Sunday Lunch - A chicken dinner which then should serve me for about 3 / 4 nights after.

Hopefully this will keep the expenditure down on food, but also provide me with at least 6 - 8 additional meals later on in March.

Frugally Yours
Abigail
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Menu Plan and a 6 Week Challenge

I would love the world to believe I am one of life's natural Chefs / Bakers with a bottle of white truffe oil in my staples cupboard. I would be able to whisk up a culinary delight consisting of pine nuts, lemon grass and organic venison aged for 30 days in wood chips.

This is far from the truth.

I can cook but it takes effort and concentration, I do not glide along in the kitchen with a dainty laugh and an artistic flour smudge on my cheek. I hump stuff around searching for counter space and have to throw every 4 th leek medallion into the bin as it has richocheted off the knife before spinning to a stop in the middle of the kitchen floor.

Comedy aside, I am not a disaster however neither am I the natural of my Mother.

So a challenge I believe is in order. For the next 6 weeks until the end of March I will not purchase any bread but make it / bake it all myself. Bit nervous about this, however lets face it, my bread making skills need to improve and unless forced I will carry on keeping Hovis in 1940s style bikes the foreseeable future.

Menu Plan
Breakfasts will be cereal this week and I have tomatoes and toast for lunch.
Monday - Left over cottage pie from the freezer with frozen peas
Tuesday - Spending the evening with The Chap so TBC
Wednesday - Last box of frozen Faggotts with Cabbage and mash
Thursday - Left Overs from Wednesday
Friday - something quick with eggs
Saturday - The Chap's turn to cook at his.
Sunday - Beef in Mushroom sauce slow cooked this should last a few days after being made.

So the freezer is slowly getting eaten up. Just shows how much food I have bought.

Another No Spend Day today. I went yesterday and filled up the car with petrol £50, then made sure I had £5 to last me until Friday for a bit of pocket money. Did not go out at lunchtime from work. So quite pleased today.

The Bank balance is looking a little low, but I am hoping that I can make it last until 1st when I next get paid.

The only concern I have is running out of The Chaps' favourite tipple before then.

I am dreading tonight. Monday is my weekly no heating evening, and I hate it!!

So does anyone have any good bread recipes? As currently just using flour yeast, water and salt. I seem to recall my Grandfather used to put butter in his loaves.

Frugally Yours
Abigail
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Menu Plan and £5 Challenge

Sunday again.....?
I have had my first ever No Spend Weekend! What a result. I bought a few things I documented yesterday on Friday on the way home and then avoided all shops for 48 hours. So proud of myself. In actual fact the snow was the reason. I did not want to get caught out, so I got everything I needed (not wanted, just needed) then avoided shops. Besides which, it has been to cold and snowy to venture too far from home.

The snow came down for a few hours on Saturday afternoon and evening and gave us about 3inches here in Staffordshire. The roads look pretty clear now, so hopefully getting to work tomorrow should not be too difficult. Though the forecast is prediciting snow for later this week. Gosh, I hope they are wrong.

I have spent the afternoon cleaning W Towers, doing the ironing and generally returning everything which had migrated to it's rightful place.

I went to grab the cleaning stuff and noticed how bad the cupboard was..

So I got everthing out an gave it a clean..



Menu Plan

Sunday - Sausage Casserole made yeserday in the slow cooker

Monday - left over sausage casserole

Tuesday - something quick, probably spaghetti on toast

Wednesday - Burger and veg

Thursday - Baked potato with Spicy Mackerel

Friday - Roast chicken dinner

This week is going to be really tight for money and I am going to try and exist on £5 until Friday. I have lunches already set, so hopefully the £5 should cover me for drinks etc this week whilst at work. I need to put petrol in the car tomorrow, but that has been budgeted for.

Fingers crossed!

If you do have more snow round by you or if everyone gets blanketed again, then take care driving folks. And whilst it is a good idea to try and turn your heating down, don't freeze will you?

Right off for a bath to warm up then going to watch Top Gear whilst hugging a hot water bottle.

Frugally yours

Abigail

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Late to the Party – or how I do my best

I have had such a lovely and productive weekend.

Sunday evening quickly arrives again though doesn’t it?

I have really tried to curb my spending since the new year and the only sale items I bought was a new slow cooker as my last one was made back in the early 90s and I was getting pretty worried about leaving it on when I was not home.   I had been eyeing up the Tesco model but at nearly £30 could really justify it since I had one that worked well. However when I went in the other day it was reduced to £12 so I grabbed it and the old one went on freecycle and was picked up a day later.

This week I did had a wander around a House of Fraser sale and discovered some tins half price for baking and since the Great British Bake off has a lot to answer for I grabbed them both which came in at £7 for the two – they are really good quality too. So that means I have a proper bread loaf tin for the next foray into bread making. Plus a square tin will come in useful for the brownies I like to make.

I also grabbed some Christmas cards for next year, which meant I got all my cards sorted for under £4. Not to bad considering I am sending about 40 or so currently.

So under £20 for a bit of sale shopping I hope is acceptable and will not break the bank for this month.

Slow cooking really is the most delicious way of making your food and tenderisers meat like no other. Cheap cuts after sitting in the slow cooker for a good few hours just melt in your mouth.

Remember those drumsticks I bought the other day? Well here are four of them. I defrosted them about 12 o’clock today and them browned them for a a minute or two on each side in a pan before putting them inside the slow cooker with a real hotpotch of ingredients. I rarely follow a recipe unless looking to impress visitors and generally just chuck in store cupboard contents.

Today I added an onion, and the rest of some large mushrooms I had intended to stuff, a tin of chopped tomatoes, some sweetcorn then a teaspoon of chilli powder half a packet of barbeque seasoning I had open, some garlic and a stock cube. It looked a little watery later, so some thickening granules were added. Not rocket science but it really tasted delicious for dinner and should do me for at least three meals.

So these two photos ultimately turned into this...

Which nicely leads me on to a menu plan – to budget most wisely it seems to me that organising what I am going to eat for the week  makes me get the most out of my money and what I have in stock without buying anything unneccesary.

For breakfast I have sultana bran this week which should last me until at least Friday morning, though I will have to buy extra milk.

Sunday

Dinner – Chicken Drumstick casserole with rice (I got this rice free with a Sun token from their Friday freebie)

Monday

Lunch – ratatouille on toast (ratatouille home made and currently frozen in the freezer)

Dinner – Chicken Drumstick casserole with either the left over rice or some of the potatoes left from the cheap bag bought on the 27^th Dec – they still look fine

Tuesday

Lunch – ratatouille on toast

Dinner – The frozen tuna fishcakes I made last week – this will finish them off . Plus I will not be getting home until later and I they will be ready in jiffy once I walk through the door

Wednesday

Lunch – Cheese on Toast I still have some babybel in the fridge.

Dinner – 2 findus crispy pancakes I found hiding in the freezer yesterday along peas and probably a jacket potato

Thursday        

Lunch – cheese on toast

Dinner – mackerel with peas and mashed potatoes

Friday

Lunch - cheese on toast

Dinner - eating with sister

Saturday

Eating with sister.

I have got so much done over this weekend, I finally tackled the ironing mountain that has been building up since Christmas, since it was getting pretty irritating having all these weekend walkers turning up to my door wanting to scale it as part of the 6 peaks challenge. And turned this….

Into this in an hour and a half.

I also cleaned out the fridge and looked through the kitchen supplies, I only needed to throw an old banana that was nearly walking its way to the kitchen bin.

I cleaned W Towers too, so really the only jobs left are to turn these Christmas Cards

 into tags for next year and sort out the paper work for the last 2 months that needs to be either shredded or filed. It is a job I really loathe so I cannot see it being tackled until next weekend as I am out every night this week.

All in all apart from buying The Chap and I a takeout at the weekend and filling up the car, I really feel that I have not done too badly this weekend spending unnecessary cash.

As an aside, giving away my old slow cooker on Freecycle was a new experience for me. I only joined about a month ago and already was gifted a grow your mushroom kit which I am really looking forward to getting started on. It was nice too, to give something away. I had so many responses and I am so glad that it has been gifted to a person who will use it . It is not thrown away or given to a charity shop as I do wonder whether those establishments would have wanted it.

Freecycle around where I live seems to be very successful, and it is lovely to receive the messages, now I feel a bit more confident about using the process I am hoping to clear out some clutter from my home.

Everyone out there has probably been using it for years, but I am always late to the party and only joined Facebook in the summer after vowing never to join its ranks. It is fun, though I never want to get to the point of using Facebook to stay in contact. I am a bit old fashioned and like to speak to my friends pretty regularly or at least personally email them.

The Chap and I went to the cinema last night too using some vouchers he got for Christmas which also pretty much covered the popcorn and drinks there. Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol. It was really good fun and with some very amusing moments courtesy of Simon Pegg. However there were one or two scenes which made me feel sick as I am not one for heights. Great Saturday night date movie. We both enjoyed it, though the conversation home did centre on Ethan Hunt’s car…

Frugally yours

Abigail

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