Five frugal things we've done this week.

I've read a few 'five frugal things this week' posts by cass at http://www.frugalfamily.co.uk. I always think these are inspiring and as I've seen a few bloggers join in I thought I would too.

1. On Monday we brought cooper first car harness. We waiting until he was in a size medium so we didn't have to buy three different sizes. We are hoping this will fit him for a while and we saved about £20.
2. We kept to our meal plan. Last night we didn't really fancy veggie pasta but it was on the menu so we had it. This has meant that we didn't go out of our way to buy more food.
3. Most of coopers walks have been near our house this week so we haven't used petrol to drive anywhere extra. We have also done our chores at the same time to save journeys. 
4. We recently had some loft insulation installed so we have turned our heating down. We have also booked for someone to come fit an energy reader so we can keep track of how much we are spending daily. 
5.  I've sorted out a small pile of clothes that I haven't worn in a while. This will be the start of our car boot pile. We did one last year just before they ended in September but I'm sure we have more than enough to do one when they start again. 

What frugal things have you done this week?

Claire 

Part time vegetarian?

To keep within our food budget and to buy good quality meat we often have a couple of meat free nights a week. We also try and stretch meat out in meals by bulking it with beans and veg. A whole chicken can now last use three/four meals, it used to last us two.

I went to a friends house for dinner on Wednesday and tried quorn mince for the first time. Her family have been using it as part of their slimming world meal plan. I must admit I wasn't looking forward to trying it as I've always have the mindset that I would rather go meatfree than to use a meat alternative. She cooked it in a spaghetti bolognese and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I don't think it had as much flavour as used beef mince but it got me thinking I could possibly use it again.

The price of quorn mince also makes it appealing. I noticed it in aldi yesterday and it was priced at £1.48 for 300grams. Have you tried meat alternatives before? Do you have a recipe it works well in?

Here are some meatless meal ideas if you need to stretch your budget this month:

• Omelettes
• Stuffed peppers
• Quinoa burgers
• Fried rice
• Veggie pasta
• Black beans and rice
• Sandwiches for dinner
• Muffins or bread with veggies/fruit such as courgette muffins 
• Veggie curry
• Dinner picnic style with chopped veggies, fruit, crackers and cheese
• Smoothie
• Cheese/beans/eggs on toast

Sainsburys top up shop.

After my meal plan I said that we had £135.79 left in our budget but that we needed a couple things for this week. Today I brought eggs, gluten free flour, chocolate, maple syrup and some crusty rolls for my husband.

This shop came to £7.01 so we have £128.78 left. How's your food budget going this month?
Claire

Coopers new car harness and a walk!

As my husband is american he had Monday off for Presidents' Day. Once I had come home from work and we had breakfast we decided to go out. Our first stop of the day was pets at home. We have been holding cooper on our laps in the car but now that's he's going for slightly longer walks we decided it was time to get him a car harness so I can travel to nice walking spots with him. As you can see from the pictures below he didn't mind it but needed bribing at first!!

Not far from out house is elveden estate. This is a courtyard with some nice shops and a cafe but our main reason for going was for their nature trail. It was a nice day and we all really enjoyed being out in the fresh air. The fresh air defiantly made us hungry so we treated ourselves to a warm drink and a sandwich in their cafe. It's more expensive than we like to pay for a casual meal but we haven't eaten out much lately so we thought it would be a nice treat.

Once we were home cooper slept for most of the afternoon and we got to enjoy our beef stew which had been cooking away in the slow cooker all day.

Meal plan 16th February - 8th March

So after meaning to do a new meal plan for about a week I finally ticked it off my list tonight. This time I've done a three week meal plan which takes us up until we go away. Our cupboards are still pretty full after our tesco shop and I'm hoping we have enough meat to last us the next three weeks. There is currently only one night I'm out so I have planned a meal for most nights.

16 beef stew with salad on the side
17 salad and stuffed peppers
18 I'm out. My husband will have fish
19 chicken quarters and veg
20 chicken or veggie pasta
21 gammon steaks with pineapple and homemade chips
22 I have some mince. I'm thinking of doing either lasagne or spaghetti bolognese.

23 whole chicken in the slow cooker with veg
24 egg fried rice with leftover chicken
25 pasta with leftover chicken
26 pork chops
27 omelettes
28 homemade quiche
1 leftovers


2 chicken quarters and veg
3 something with chicken breasts
4 quinoa burgers
5 chicken pasta with leftover chicken
6 omelettes and salad
7 veggie curry
8 leftovers


I've figured this week I will need to buy eggs and gluten free flour to make a batch of Yorkshire puddings with but hoping that I may be able to have a week spending very little. I'm planning on spending no more than £150 again this month and will take what we don't spend as spending money for our week away. Deducting £14.21 from our tesco shop we have £135.79. What's on your meal plan this week? Claire

Tesco food haul

After our  Last shop we had £27 left in our budget. Tesco send  an email with a £15 off a £60 voucher and I also had a voucher though the post for £5 off £25. I decided if these worked together and that we could save £20 we would use it before they expire and take the extra money out of next months budget. The total shop came too £41.81. Therefore we will take £14.21 out of next month. I didn't take any photos but I will list the items below and include some recent pictures of our puppy towards the end.

Fruit and vegetables:

• Organic potatoes
• Pears
• Bananas
• Organic lemons
• Grapes
• Organic pink lady apples
• Mixed peppers

Fridge

• Cheese
• Organic Greek yogurts
• Organic milk

Meat

• Chicken leg quarters
• Chicken breast packs x2
• Steak x2
• Streaky bacon
• Gammon steaks
• Diced beef
• Salmon fillets

Other

• Popadoms
• Curry sauce
• Passata x3
• Ice cream
• Granola
• Cleaning spray for pets

Meal prep Monday and a food haul.

At the beginning of the week I like to try and get as organised as possible. Yesterday morning I made some Slow cooker porridge with some frozen apples and raspberries. I also used a couple of blueberries that we had left in the fridge that were getting a little soft. I also went shopping today so I took some time to wash all my fruit and to clean out my fridge. The last thing I did was hard boil some eggs for snacks. Doing this now means we have 6 breakfasts and our snacks are ready to eat. I find the helpful to have something healthy to grab. I also peeled the garlic that I brought and put this in our garlic jar.

After our Pantry challenge update we had £64 left. At the weekend we used £9 on some potatoes, baking potatoes, chocolate, pears and apples. Today I spend £28 on what you see below. I also got some toilet rolls which didn't make it into the picture.

Doing this challenge I realise that we use a lot of fresh produce which is generally my main reason for going to the shops. We have mainly red meat in our freezer so I decided to buy the chicken breasts. We had some left over chicken in the fridge to use for tonight's meal but I wanted to add a little more. The majority of this pack went in the freezer. There were a few organic products on offer and I'm happy with the amount of organic in this shop. After these two shops we have £27 left. I'm hoping that by doing a produce shop at aldi next week we will come in on budget.

What's in my pantry.

After doing my What's in my fridge and freezer post I thought I would show you my pantry. We keep most of our food items in one tall cupboard this is an over view below.

One the top shelf we have a couple bags of pasta. I brought these as they were reduced to clear at 62p each. We have two boxes of quick cook white rice and one brown. A couple tomato passata  that we use instead of jarred red sauce. I won a competition not that long ago which is why we have so many naked products. Coconut water is used either in smoothies or mixed with orange juice as I don't like the taste of it by itself.

On the next shelf we have most of our tins. These contain fruit, vegetables, spare sauces that don't fit I. The fridge such as jam. Small pots of honey and jam are from varies gift sets. There is more rice, some lentils, beans, quinoa and seeds. The next couple of shelves normally look a lot more organised than they do right now. We have some cereal, rice cakes, noodles, flaxseed and some popadoms. The bottom shelf is generally our snack area which has fruit pouches, pineapple pots, some quick cook oats, cereal bars, nuts and some larger jars of honey. At the bottom of this cupboard we keep long life almond milk and juice. The container keeps my corn flour in to make tortillas with and there are some gluten free ice cream comes in the back. We keep our spices and cooking supplies in a separate cupboard which you can see below. We keep most of our herbs on a spice rack but store back ups in here. Once I've opened dry goods I like to store them in jars. On our work too we have rice, pasta, cereal, homemade granola, slow cooking oats and our garlic pot.