I Did Do the Maths ... and Carried on Cooking

 

You knew I'd do the maths after yesterdays post didn't you, yes I just had to ... the meal came to approximately £1.20 including using half a bag of the fresh mixed leaves from Aldi as the lovely green garnish.  I rounded upwards each time so I guess it's actually a couple of pennies cheaper.  It would have been even more cost effective to use a portion of ready cooked spaghetti instead of the noodles that I had to hand as I currently have some of the 20p a pack spaghetti in the jar.  This would have brought the cost down to just 85p even being very generous with the spaghetti.

The two trays of food above that went in the oven yesterday, contain most of the fresh veggies from the fridge drawer, I want to see how many meals I can make from them.  The one at the back contains an orange pepper, some red onions and some large very soft salad tomatoes quartered.  The front one is very similar but with red and yellow peppers, red onions and one white onion, cherry tomatoes and one large salad tomato.  The orange pepper should have gone into this tray and the red one in the tray at the back as I was making a red pasta sauce ... but I got confused  😕

They are both seasoned very similarly with onion and garlic flakes, lots of black pepper and some mixed herbs and then tossed in some olive oil.  The smell as they cooked was amazing and drew Alan into the Lodge to see what was cooking.

My first meal using some of the sauce and some of the vegetables plus a little bit of dairy free Greek Style cheese was a simple pasta dish ... and a cheeky midweek glass of wine.

And the leftovers all went into the fridge and I left the whizzed up sauce in the Nutribullet cup to save creating more washing up.

Sue xx

Do the Maths!!

 

My Low Spend Challenge is still going on in many ways, and although I decided not to push myself to post every day or even show every single shopping trip (I've had a bad couple of weeks with my back), I am still keeping the spending much lower than I ever have before.  And it's not just in the food department that I want to limit my spending this year.

The moisturiser in the purple tube ran out two weeks ago and I rummaged through the bathroom baskets knowing I had at least two of the one that I use in Summer with the SPF20 protection factor.  I found that I had four!!  It will be interesting to see how long these last.  

I should have realised that I would have more than two as I do watch out for these being on offer in Sainsbugs which it regularly is.  In fact I've just popped over and checked on the website and it's £5 off at the moment.  So buying four ready for future use saves an impressive £20 ... which is obviously what I did last time!!

I'm trying to keep my meals as simple but as healthy as I can both for my health and because the warmer weather of the last few days meant that I didn't want to be spending ages cooking over a hot stove, so something like this has been my current go to.  

Just simple sautéed onion, peppers and tomatoes with lots of seasoning and 'ready to wok' noodles or ready cooked pasta thrown in for the last three or so minutes.  With a handful of mixed leaves for a green hit of goodness it's a nice light evening meal or a very filling lunch.  And it's a very economical meal too with the noodles being just 79p for a double pack in Aldi (£1 in Sainsbugs) and only a quarter of a pepper, half a dozen cherry tomatoes and half an onion.  I haven't actually done the maths ... maybe I should ... but it's going to be around a pound for the whole meal.

See now my brain is screaming 'DO THE MATHS' ... I bet I have done before the day is out!!

Sue xx

Shopping for 54p ... and Donating via Nectar

I thought I went out in a 'stock up the cupboards' mood, but it seems as though I find it hard to buy more than I actually need at the moment.  I did manage to get two each of almond milk, tinned potatoes and the various purees that I use, some vegetable stock pots and a bag of penne pasta, all of which have long dates on them.

I also needed a couple of birthday cards for my Mum.

At the checkout I remembered my Nectar points and decided to pay for the shopping with some of them, making this a 54p spend.

I picked up a selection of the free magazines on the way out, I don't usually bother  but there were stacks and stacks of them.

On the way home I called to Booths to pick up this weeks cardholder free gift, a tiny little chocolate bar.  It usually retails at £1.30 which at first I thought was ridiculous ... but it is gorgeous chocolate and I actually think I would buy this again as a very special treat.

When I got home my phone pinged and I had an email from Nectar saying that you can now donate your Nectar points to Ukraine via the Comic Relief charity, so I checked how many I had left and sent as many of them as I could ... you can only use them in multiples of £2.50 ... off straight away.

I am still thinking about the future of this Challenge but as you can see from my purchases I do think it's over and my blog will revert to day to day life, with budgeting, food and growing here at Lavender Lodge.  Thank you so much for all the comments yesterday, reading each and every one got me thinking so they were really helpful.  Thank you.

Sue xx

Do I Go On?

 

With fuel prices of every description soaring over recent weeks, and things only set to get worse as the vehicle fuel prices start to affect the prices of everything in the shops I am seriously wondering if I should even go on with my Challenge.

Just over two months into the Challenge I feel de-railed and unsure of what I'm doing.  My total No Spend Year failed miserably and now my Low Spend Challenge may go the same way.  Am I just down because of world events or what ... I really don't know.

Alan needed to top up his tank yesterday to get to work and for half a tank of diesel it was over £70, luckily for us fuel for the vehicles is a business expense so it doesn't hit us too hard in our personal pockets, but it's still shocking.

The food prices in all the supermarkets are creeping up and not slowly, they leap up in 10p or 20p increments which must be absolutely terrifying for those people truly living on a tight budget.   I feel wrong in so many ways to be playing at having a tight budget just for budgeting's sake.

Anyway I'm thinking long and hard about it all at the moment, I thought it only fair to warn you.

Sue xx

Smiling ... and Helping in Small Ways

 

I smile every time I open the fridge at the moment, so much colour and freshness ... I really am spoilt for choice.  My meals all this week are going to be based around this beautiful splash of colour.

I am also smiling a the good folk who are booking Airbnb rooms in Kyiv and all over Ukraine, with the sole purpose of getting the money to the people who would normally be renting their spare rooms to visitors to their country.  Instead the people left in the city with those spare rooms or hotels are helping their newly homeless neighbours, but the money received from their Airbnb accounts can really help them out in a very direct way.

 Some people are just good, they will basically find anyway possible to help the other the good people no matter where they are in the world.

Edited to add:

 After reading Jayne's comment below, I went over to the Etsy website and made a few purchases (the Challenge was momentarily cancelled).  One actual thing from a lady in the UK raising money for her family back in Ukraine and two pdfs, the one above that I have printed out.

There are ways to help.

Sue xx

An Extra £5 ... and A Good Store

 

Yesterday I got my latest Booths voucher through the post, now it's only for £5 but when you're doing a ten pounds a week housekeeping Challenge, suddenly £5 seems a lot of extra money.  

As any vouchers or coupons that arrive after the start of the Challenge are outside the Challenge total funds this can be used for anything I want.  I have one £2.50 Tesco voucher still to use up within Challenge funds and of course there are the Sainsbury's Nectar points still included for now.

 It didn't take me long to figure out that this particular voucher would mean I could buy myself a little treat for my birthday, which is next month ... something to look forward to.

What would you buy yourself for your birthday with a £5 supermarket voucher bearing in mind that this particular one is a slightly more upmarket supermarket.  If you don't know Booths, it's along the same sort of lines ... and prices ... as Waitrose but is a family owned supermarket that specialises in local produced products and supporting the local area that each branch is in.  They are a good store.

They have already removed all foods that have any connection with Russia from their shelves and have started a cash collection point for the people of Ukraine in every branch, which they are going match pound for pound up to the value of £15,000. 👍👏💖

As I said they are a good store!!

Sue xx

Two Sausages - Four Sausage Rolls

 

I thought I would try to use the last two Linda McCartney sausages from one of the boxes in the freezer and make myself four sausage rolls.  Now I love sage and onion stuffing so I thought that a mostly stuffing filling with just a hint of sausage would be really good.

 I let them thaw for a while and made up a small bowl of stuffing, mashed the two together and cooked them in the sausage roll maker.

Now they were nice and made for a very satisfactory lunch, but they were just a little bit too bland as they were.  Next time I will perhaps add some very well seasoned and 'chilli-flaked' mashed potatoes to the mix and perhaps some cooked onions too.  If I do I'll report back.

As you can see I am still having great fun experimenting with my sausage roll maker.

Sue xx

The Last Tomato

Yesterday I made a slight inroads into the No Fish Fillets from Aldi ... I had one on a bun for my tea as I just wasn't that hungry.  They make a nice quick snack as they cook in the Remoska in around 20 minutes and on a bun with some mayo are delicious.  I usually add some lettuce but I have run out of all salad stuff now.

 I had used the last of the salad stuff ... which was a single tomato ... the day that I photographed the contents of the fridge as it just looked so lonely.  It's surprising how even just adding a tomato to a slice of toast makes for a more filling breakfast.  I always cook fresh tomatoes in olive oil with a sprinkle of garlic powder ... yummy 😋 

I hadn't realised that there were four boxes of the No Fish Fillets in the freezer ... that's what happens when you keep putting things in and putting things in without eating through the older contents.  It's oh so easy to buy something you fancy or make something and freeze the excess and then just dip into the top of the drawers and eat those things within a week or two, leaving the older stuff to languish forgotten and unloved.

Now I have it in my head what I have I will build next weeks meals around some of it adding the salad stuff that I have just put onto my shopping list for the weekend.  I do like to have some fresh stuff in, even if the shelves of my fridge look a little bare there's usually food to be had in the drawers.

Sue xx