1. Making one meal go further.
Alan was feeling exhausted after working with at the bungalow all last week, so we splurged and had a chip shop tea to round the week off. It was just too much for me, so I saved half of my fish and chip meal for the next night. It warmed up beautifully in the Remoska, but it's always a shock to see how much fat comes out of fish and chips when it's reheated. 😮
Enough to put you off getting it again? No not really, once in a while it's perfectly okay to have a little treat, especially when it actually lasts over two meals.
2. Using up sad looking vegetables.
I've been using up the contents of my fridge this week, so the tail end of carrots, celery and onion were roasted together, to make us a sort of carrot wellington. It's on the menu every week at Mum's care home and we have always said that we should give it a go.
Once cooked it was all wrapped in some homemade pastry and cooked until beautifully golden brown.
Unfortunately, my camera has been playing silly b*ggers recently and deleting random photos, especially the last one in each series I take ... so my gorgeous pastry extravaganza has now vanished into our stomachs and the ether.
I thought I had gone mad so I did test it out, and yes out of a set of three photos, the last one vanished!!
I am now double checking and taking duplicate where needed ... another money saving thing as I really don't want to have to buy another camera.
3. Making good use of free food.
I had half a sachet of a 'freebie' tomato ketchup, so I found a burger in the freezer and made sure I used it all up. It might have been free, but even so I wasn't going to waste half of it.
4. Using what I already had open.
I wanted a bit of sweetcorn to add to my tuna salad sandwich mix, so rather than open a full can I stood at the worktop and picked some out of the frozen mixed vegetables.
5. Shopping Lists
A letter came for me with a blank A4 sheet of paper added for some reason. As I was just about to write out my shopping list, I turned it into six shopping list sized pieces of paper and used one straight away.
6. Replacement for breadcrumbs.
There were a lot of Weetabix crumbs left in the tin last time I refilled it, so I tipped them all into a jar ready to add to banana and walnut muffins ... I forgot to do that. So instead I thought I would try them as breadcrumbs to coat two mashed potato and tuna fishcakes.
It worked a treat, and surprisingly didn't taste too much of Weetabix.
7. Free guilt-laden napkins.
On Sunday when we were getting our motorway services lunch on the way back from seeing Mum, I headed back to the table before Alan, telling him that I would get the napkins. I had forgotten that he is a bit deaf in one ear at the moment and he didn't hear me ... so he too picked up some napkins. I felt guilty but there's no way to push them back into the dispenser, so instead I will make good use of them at home.
Just seven of the ways I can think of that I have saved us a little bit of money this week. Of course there are probably many more, but so many things are done without even noticing yourself do them after a lifetime of watching the pennies.
What have you done recently that helped out your budget in some way?
Sue xx
Reheating leftover chips ✔️ making a shopping list ✔️ cooking leftover veg into a ratatouille ✔️ saving café napkins ✔️ and café ketchup sachet ✔️ PLUS combining dregs in the bottles of mayo, sweet chili sauce, yogurt pot and vinegar to make a tasty salad dressing. 🥗
ReplyDeleteA fun post. I remember a bean or lentil cottage pie recipe which had weetabix topped with grated cheese.
ReplyDeleteI am trying to save money keeping cool in this heatwave. Shutting windows and curtains against the hot sun. Lots of tap water to drink, a jug of water with a squeeze of lemon in the fridge. Cool damp flannels, a bit of cold water in a bucket to splash and soak swelling feet. I dried washing on the airer in the hope it would cool the air, it was too hot outside for me to peg it out.
Bircher muesli instead of porridge for breakfast. Salads for dinner. A few strawberries and cherries from the garden ripened indoors so the birds didn’t get them.
We are not going anywhere, I have plenty of books to read.
Elly Pear on Instagram had a great post some time ago about how big chip shop chip portions are. She said to tray freeze leftovers and then bag them. Reheat from frozen on medium high heat for about 15 mins and said they taste like triple cooked chips. I was bit dubious but gosh she was right. Also, there seemed to be a lot less fat in them after the freezing/cooking process.
ReplyDeleteRe your mysterious disappearing photos I had that couple yrs ago. Techy friend said on many phones it was sign that cache needed cleaning. Go to Settings, Apps, Gallery, and then Clear Cache. Fixed it on mine. I try and do cache clear on all my apps now, something yo do while waiting on school run! Really makes a difference to phone speed.
ReplyDeleteA good tip, but these photos were on my camera not my phone. The camera is cleared each time I download the photos to the computer. So I am still baffled. 😄
DeleteSome impressive money saving ways! I watered some plants with water collected while waiting for the shower water to warm up. Ate leftovers.
ReplyDeleteWe have what we call 'bottom of the fridge soup,' but that's it really, I am thinking you would use the napkins like we use bought kitchen paper on a roll?
ReplyDeleteYes, that's what I do. It means my bought kitchen paper lasts for a long time, well over a year for the last roll. 😀
DeleteMy kids & grandkids have been visiting these past two weeks & I've used the clothes dryer several times. I rarely use the clothes dryer when it's just hubby & me. Being frugal for most of my life, I can do something out of the norm when it's necessary. But sure wasn't comfortable! - Nancy KY
ReplyDeleteLike Bless we ‘save’ the ‘cold’ water in a jug before the hot water is hot enough - saves having to run the cold to fill the kettle. Better that than having it going down the kitchen sink plug hole!
ReplyDeleteThe backs of envelopes (not many these days) are still used for shopping lists. Use your phone my friends say……no way says I, I’m an old fogie who likes to draw a line through the item when it goes in my trolley 😊
Well done. I have had money going out as I am making a housewarming quilt (Kingsize) for my son and his girlfriend. Had to buy fabric for that as no white in my stash and no pinks. Not a colour I often use. Saved a chunk on groceries anyway, so that's something. But then spent a much bigger chunk for diesel and spending money at Malvern! That's an investment though.
ReplyDelete