Puff Pastry Pizza

Reducing the food budget to £5.00 per person per week for all meals may seem challenging to some but for others, it's a bit of a game where we try to use up everything so we are wasting nothing. Puff pastry pizza seems like a great idea to me, but does it work?

I had half a block of puff pastry defrosted after making a pie at the start of the week - it is National Pie Week this week, did you know that? Anyhow, I had defrosted the pastry, therefore I couldn't refreeze it, so I decided to try making a flaky bake, puff pastry pizza. Rake out the rolling pin and let pastry flattening begin! I rolled it into a circle large enough to fit into my pizza tray.

I have a tube of double concentrate tomato paste with chilli, so I diluted a half cupful and spread that on as the tomato base. Next up, some of the bacon bits retrieved from making this week's pan of soup (bacon & lentil), as these all get removed from the stock before I add the vegetables and pulses.

The cooking bacon costs 80p per 500g pack from supermarkets, it makes a full pan of stock for soup and at least 2 meals for two of us after that, so it's a fabulous bargain to have as back-up in your freezer.

Meanwhile, I diced an onion, chopped a tomato and added a portion each of mixed peppers and sliced mushrooms with seasoning and herbs to quickly fry these for faster cooking.

A bit of added luxury for any frugal budget has to be some mozzarella cheese! At only 46p per pack from supermarkets, a half pack is sufficient for a large pizza. (This is a 30cm/12" diameter pizza tray.) You can pretty much add any leftovers to a pizza but I have never, until now, tried making one from leftover puff pastry. Wish me luck!

The quickly fried vegetables got poured over the top - onions, mixed peppers, mushrooms and tomatoes - but anything goes when it's pizza, especially if you are adding more cheese.

I used supermarket's own smart price cheddar to top my pizza tonight, so here's hoping the mini oven can cope with baking all this lot into something tasty!

I needn't have worried. The puff pastry pizza worked out a real treat when baked at 200C for about 25 minutes. However, I can't recommend this temperature or time, as my mini oven is now running on just the lower element, so keep an eye on your pizza if baking in a conventional oven. This one will do us for two meals, so guess what's for dinner tomorrow night? I'll probably follow that with more of the raspberries set in jelly, too, as I'm now trying to use up all the garden-grown berries I have stashed in my freezer.

Don't get me wrong, if you are one of these people fortunate enough to have access to coupons and live within walking distance of a supermarket, chances are you will be able to buy discounted pizzas cheaper than us rural dwelling frugalites can make them, but we know exactly what's in our pizzas, they are made to our specifications and appreciated for what they are - open top pies that can be adorned with all sorts of leftovers. No easy access to shops is one of the things that townies often overlook when trying to state the obvious about money-saving in the kitchen. From here, our nearest supermarket is 20+ miles away and we don't have a car, but recently, we have been blessed with a trial delivery service by Asda, so their vans have suddenly become a very familiar site on our back roads and farm lanes.

Join us in www.frugalforums.co.uk to keep up to date with the £5 per person per week for all meals challenge.

Puff Pastry Pizza

Frugal Grocery Shopping

Many of our UK readers may have seen the company 'Approved Food' pitch to potential investors on popular TV series, 'Dragon's Den' and, for many viewers, this could have been the first time they had ever been made aware of the existence of such a company. However...

For the money savvy shoppers who have followed our frugal living challenges since the beginning, you will have become familiar with such cheap food supplies, having seen the rise and fall of several over the past five or more years.

NYK Media and Frugaldom have been supporting Approved Foods since 2009, so it is easy to see how much money has been saved during that time. None of the items are past sell by or unfit for consumption but many have passed their 'best before' dates for quality control. However, it is safe to say that most dried, canned or pickled foods have indefinite shelf lives if kept properly and some things, like honey, can last a lifetime.

Read more here…

Approved Food on Dragons' Den! (Frugal Shop)

 

Looks like there could be a huge surge of interest in our old friends at Approved Food, as they take on the Dragons in the den tomorrow night.

The programme should make for very interesting viewing, but also makes me impatient to hear what millionaires think of the likes of us, who spend our money on past sell by foodstuffs. It also makes me wonder if the result, which would have been known some time ago, during original filming, is what drove up the prices on site, making much of what's available now more expensive than standard supermarkets! Still, it was an innovative business from the start and they deserve all the publicity they can get. I just hope they don't cash in on the already impoverished who may see a pile of cheap crisps as a better bonus than some reduced fruit, bread or vegetables in a regular store.

Perhaps I should have completed order last week, rather than see the items in my basket gradually disappear out of stock. I think the phrase, "A significant investment in a new 60,000sq ft site is the company’s fourth move in just six years," pretty much sums up how busy the company, now known as Approved Group, has become since we began shopping there.

Can you believe that was 6 years ago? Well done team AppFood!

Approved Food on Dragons' Den! (Frugal Shop)

Homemade Sliced Sausages

It is so easy to make sausages when you opt for what we Scottish frugal living folks term square sliced (also known as Lorne) sausages, that we'd be daft not to try making our own frugal versions. Better still, you can add almost anything savoury into them to make them as nutritious or luxurious as you like!

At this time of year, British gardens aren't particularly productive but the frugal kitchen cupboards, fridges and freezers are, invariably, filled to the brim with what's been leftover from last year's budget and a festive period that seems to last for weeks. I have often made sliced sausage in the past to use up leftover turkey, bacon, pork or beef with stuffing, but I don't normally go out of my way to make sausages. Today, however, I decided that it was time to use up the last of some soy mince that had been lurking in the cupboard since buying 6 sachets of the stuff for £1! You'll can guess that this was quite some time ago. It was well past 'Best Before' date, but this means nothing much to frugalers, as we all know it's the 'Use By' dates we need to watch. "Best Before" dates are usually on very long shelf-life foodstuffs that can literally last for years. (Apart from fresh eggs.)

INGREDIENTS

See how to make frugal homemade sausages here (Photos, ingredients and instructions included.)

www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk/blogs

Cheap and Nutritious Meals

More than halfway through January and we are already looking ahead to see how we can save extra and do more during February. Time flies when you are enjoying yourself, especially when juggling a fresh, new budget. Meanwhile, we still have meals fit for a King, priced for paupers and easy enough that even the kids can make them - what could be better?

The new regime for 2015 involves slashing the grocery budget to an average of just £5 per person per week for all meals, so it is taking come creative thinking. The above soup no longer will have just a carrot grated and an onion chopped into it. Instead, it will have a portion of mixed vegetables served with every bowl to make it up to 2 portions of our 5-a-day in one meal.

We do have the advantage of a well stocked kitchen and the additional benefit of home-grown and freely foraged foodstuffs in the freezer, plus a full cupboard of preserves, all made from free fruit, but in order to reduce the overall average, I now need to focus carefully on both the nutritional values and the costs. I guess that's why we Scots love our oats - we can eat them with practically anything! So, after a hearty breakfast of porridge, sometimes with a handful of sultanas or berries to boost the '5-a-day', it's onwards towards soup-making for lunch.

At the moment, you can buy cooking bacon for 80p per 500g pack, so I recommend this for making your stock. Along with a 500g pack of split peas or lentils, plus a grated carrot and chopped onion, this combination can cook you up 3.5 litres of soup without a problem and leave enough stock for flavouring the meals you make with the resulting cooked bacon. I made the most of the current Asda offer for half price lentils and now have 10 kilos of them in stock, as they worked out cheaper than their split peas!

After slow cooking the 500g of bacon to make stock, this left about 350g of what looked like streaky bacon, so it was all chopped up and separated - lean meat in one tub, streaky bits in another. I salted the water, as the bacon isn't smoked. This is how I intend using the meat:

7 Main Meal Suggestions: Continued…

Oat and Sultana Energy Cookies Recipe

Just because we are embarking on a super-duper new food budget regime does not mean that we need to cast out all our luxuries, so here’s how we are dealing with the £5 per person per week for all meals challenge.

Breakfast is nearly always porridge, as a 1kg bag, costing 75p, provides sufficient for 20 servings. But I prefer to think of it as 7 days for 2 people will use up 700g porridge oats, leaving 300g each week for baking or other recipes.

PORRIDGE
2 x 50g scoops of porridge oats
5 x 50g scoops of water
Sprinkle of salt
Cook in microwave on high for about 5 minutes (depending on wattage)
Serve with a little milk and 30g of sultanas
7 days for 2 people will use up 700g of a 1kg bag of porridge oats, leaving 300g for baking. Sultanas are one of our 5-a-day and a 30g serving per person per breakfast for two equates to just 420g sultanas, leaving 80g for baking. So here goes...

OAT & SULTANA ENERGY COOKIES
100g porridge oats
80g sultanas
200g SR flour
100g sugar
170g melted margarine

Mix all of the above into a soft dough.

Split into 24 pieces, roll into balls and flatten into round cookies,

Read more here …

2015 Frugal Living Challenge

A very belated welcome to the 2015 Frugal Living Challenge - along with my sincerest apologies for not having taken the time to blog for the past few weeks. what with floods, gale force winds and other circumstances beyond my control, I have fallen behind. It's been a time of battened hatches and mugs of hot chocolate.

Over the past month, life in Frugaldom has been a little chaotic, to say the least.

As you can see, the wet weather took its toll on the tin man and the log border of the new path when high tides combined with torrential rain resulted in the burn bursting its banks and flooding the orchard. The water didn't lie long and there was minimal damage, but the weather has done its best to wreak havoc without sending us any snow this winter, so far. The howling gales, however, ripped apart the polytunnel.

Onwards and upwards - we've a challenge to meet.

For yet another year I am going to attempt my £4,000 annual budget. I have no mortgage, no car, I house share and we both work from home, meaning minimal work expenses. I have managed to succeed in this challenge since first publishing it in 2007 and it gets easier every year, allowing more and more savings to be invested elsewhere.

For 2015, I am looking at the following budget for the entire household… continued

Frugal Living and Working • £1 per Person per Day Food Budget

Frugal Living and Working • View topic - £1 per Person per Day Food Budget

Having been working flat out to get everything ready for tomorrow’s big ‘first day’ of challenges on the brand new frugal forums, I thought I would try out the live blogging feature that so you can all see what the future holds for us here in Frugaldom.

I am far from finished overhauling the web site but steady progress is being made on the frugal front. That, to me, is the most important one, even if it is the one that doesn’t earn me my income.

Without further ado, please click through and find out how simple it is to become a part of one of the best little online communities for like-minded individuals I have ever had the pleasure of joining. And yes, we really do follow a £1 per person per day food budget and share how we do it…  Read more here

Day 20 of Extremely Frugal February - Coconut and Mango Ice Cream.

Day 20 of 28 - Past 'Best Before' Bargains!

Pitta Breads at 10p per pack of 8

Whew! Escaped another day without having cash prized from me by way of bills, bank or beguiling bargains. The food supplies are still plentiful and I was having a think about what others must think in lieu of what some have said! I am not poor and I am not proud - I simply hate waste!

Is it really so peculiar for frugalers to make the most of past 'best before' dates? I don't give a stuff what date or time a shop needs to clear its shelves and I don't give a stuff if my packets, tins or jars in my cupboards have dates from many months, or even years, ago, as long as it isn't fresh produce or past 'use by' dates. So, if you are offended by the prospect of eating meals created from such ingredients, look away now. :)

 

Pitta breads with chopped tomatoes and cheese

I know I keep harking back to Approved Food but I promise they aren't paying me to mention them, even if I do make a small bit of store credit when someone new signs up through my friend referral link and places an order. However, I need to mention them yet again after buying ten packs of pitta breads for £1.00 The packs are 6 + 2 free, so when I discovered that the first pack I opened contained 9 individual pittas, I was over the moon! I made H an extra mini frugal pizza!

Frugal pitta pizza with pickle

I used a full tin of chopped tomatoes (Co-op 33p) and half a small tin of 25p cheese along with a spoonful of pickle. It means that each pizza cost less than 20p.

Homemade ice cream from a packet (6 packs for 99p)

Did anyone make the most of the coconut milk powder offer? 300ml pack for 50p some time ago, so I got my 2 for £1.00 and this is what I used to make tonight's ice cream experiment. One tablespoonful into 150ml of cold water and then whipped up with the 17p ice cream mix. I added in a heaped tablespoon of desiccated coconut, so this is going to be fairly tropical.

850g of mango pulp at 25p per tin

 Now for the mango! 4 large tins of fruit pulp for £1 and I used about 100g, so a matter of pennies to add an extra tropical zing to my frugal ice cream. This is sweetened, so keep that in mind. Mango ice lollies could be on the go soon.

Homemade coconut and mango ice cream

 

And now for the final product - this was it before it went into the freezer after I stirred through the mango pulp. A sneaky taste tells me I'm going to like this!

Enjoy experimenting with fruits, nuts and all sorts of other flavours if you manage to get hold of some ice cream mix. I can confirm that coconut and mango tastes delicious. :)

Frugal Bytes - Historic Shopping Prices

Clearing Clutter is so Time Consuming!

Following on from my previous post about list-making, I managed to tick off a few items from the list:

• I made laundry liquid
• I baked biscuits
• I did the floor plan for the redesign of my kitchen space
• I picked and pickled some beetroot
• I began sorting out the next box of old paperwork

The trouble is, I need to read all the paperwork before I turn it into firelighters and this current box contains the receipts from my 2007 moneysaving challenge. Folder one turned out to be the year's grocery shopping receipts!

 

Now I don't know about you, but the changes in food prices over the years are something that greatly interest me, so I had to browse these receipts and find out which products were escalating in price, which were fairly constant and which, if any, had actually reduced.

 

Priority note - I bought cigarettes in 2007 and the cost, then, was £4.27 for 20 of the cheapest available. Not having bought any for some years, can anyone tell me how much 20 Richmond King Size now costs?

 

As you'll see by the receipts, I had the choice of two main stores - our local Co-op or the Somerfield store in town, which has, since, changed to Sainsbury's and had an Aldi store built next door to it. Still, it's a 20 mile round trip to Co-op and a 40+ mile round trip to town, so Co-op needs to suffice for most things.

 

The biggest price increases over the last 7 years, for me, have been in the following products:

• Chicken (£2.98)
• Bread (57p)
• Biscuits (HobNobs 42p)
• Firelighters (49p)
• Cheese (£1.67)
• Butter & margarine (99p for 2)
• Baked beans (18p)
• Sugar (76p)
• Washing up liquid (14p)
• Total for the above: £8.20

Based on current supermarket prices for the same items, the above items would now cost me £16.62 That is MORE THAN DOUBLE the price of 2007! Detergents seem to have escalated in price to beyond belief, while a decent, mature cheddar cheese is slowly creeping out of reach unless it's on offer.

 

You can see now why I now make all my own bread, biscuits, firelighters, laundry liquid and cleaning products! I do allow myself the luxury of washing-up liquid, but at FIVE TIMES the 2007 prices, it isn't used as liberally as it might otherwise have been, that's for sure!

 

NYK, Frugaldom

Food Prices Past, Present and Future

Food Prices Past, Present and Future

Having kept notes, I thought you might be interested in seeing my price comparisons. The average price increase in foodstuffs since 1999 to 2013, when comparing my 'shopping list' of cheapest available items, amounts to almost exactly 100% But of course this only holds true if you have easy, cost-free access to a modern, all singing, all dancing supermarket…

… But what does this mean in real terms to the supermarket shoppers of today? We keep on ploughing our energy, time and money into making ends meet, while feeding the household and saving what we can, in the hope that the sun shines and we don't have to afford too many rainy days. - Read more

Nile Mince and Scotch Pies for less than 25p

Nile Mince and Scotch Pies for less than 25p

An Essential for any (non-vegetarian/vegan) Frugal Food Challenge

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center / Foter.com / CC BY-NC

The River Nile is said to be the longest river on the face of our planet. It stretches some 6,853 km (4,258 miles) and flows through eleven different countries before eventually entering the Mediterranean Sea. Indeed, it can be seen from space! It is the main water source for at least two of these countries - Egypt and Sudan - so the Nile is of the utmost importance to all of these countries, communities and cultures. It is essential to the success of life, itself. Its true source remains a mystery to many, even to this day. The fact is, it stretches an unbelievably long way and there is no doubt about that.

So, frugal friends, how can I compare the mighty Nile to a pack of mince? That's easy - I simply show you how far I can make mine stretch and prove to you that it is a valuable source of food that can stretch across many days and feed many mouths. Quite simply, it is the Nile of meat produce if you don't want to eat offal.

MINCE

It comes in many forms - beef, pork, mutton, lamb, chicken, turkey and even soya. To me, it represents protein in the diet and is classed as one of the staples in a frugal household. Most importantly, mince is cheap! You can buy it from as little as £3 per kilo or pay up to nearer £10 per kilo, depending on source, how lean you want it and percentage fat it contains. Prices fluctuate and, at any given time, beef, pork, chicken, lamb and turkey prices can affect how much it will cost you in the shops. My suggestion is to look for the best quality you can afford and that way, once you have stretched it out as far as it can possibly go, you will still be producing nutritious meals.

 

Let's start with a standard 500g pack of mince. Under less frugal circumstances, this would simply be browned and then cooked with onions and gravy to produce a single family meal and, as we all know, few people consider portion sizes with any great care, so a pack of mince would be used to feed a family of four. Even using the cheapest mince and serving it with the traditional gravy, potatoes and veg, this family meal could cost around £6 when cooking costs are incorporated. That's a cheap meal for many, I admit, but at £1.50 per person for a single meal, it's a small fortune if you are budgeting £1 per person for all meals.

 

Here in Frugaldom, I tend to slow cook the mince and it's normally lean beef mince. We don't have any supermarkets within easy reach, so I need to rely on multi-buys on the odd occasion I can get to a mainstream store or else pay a premium to have it delivered. Either way, I'm paying top-end of the scale at almost £8 per kilo, which normally represents 10 x 100g servings (80p per person) so I like to bulk that out to get at least 10 servings from one 500g pack.

 

How far will 500g mince go?

 

Protein is of the utmost importance in our diet, we all need it in some way, shape or form and, for many of us, meat is the main source, along with the likes of eggs and dairy products. But did you know that a handful of mushrooms served with broccoli and corn can also make up a portion of protein while also representing part of our 5-a-day recommended vegetable portions? That's worth knowing when looking out for bargains in your local supermarket, especially as each of those items can be frozen. In the case of Scotch pies, we normally opt for serving them topped with baked beans or peas.

 

Foter.com / CC BY-SA

Today, I have had a quick rummage through the kitchen cupboard of stock-piled bargain buys and am now cooking up a batch of 'Nile' mince to see how far it will go in pie making. I have listed ingredients at current supermarket prices, although all were bought on offer when I stocked up with mine, so cost me less.

Ingredients for Frugaldom Scotch Pie Filling

 

500g lean beef mince - £3.50

100g diced onions - 10p

Beef stock - 15p

50g Granose soya mince - 50p

75g basic sage and onion stuffing - 15p

50g plain cous cous - 10p

Ground black pepper and salt - 5p

250g rolled oats - 19p

 

Total amount = £4.74

 

Once cooked and simmered down, this is enough to fill 24 Frugaldom-style Scotch pies but, of course, we aren't actually feeding 24 people, so I'll make quarter for lunches and freeze the remainder for future pie-making. (You can freeze the pie filling on its own or make and freeze the complete pies.)

Traditionally, Scotch pies were made from cheap cuts of mutton, but a mince meat pie is a mince meat pie... see what's available to you at the best price, as mutton is seldom a supermarket option.

 

Scotch Pie Pastry (per 6 pie cases)

 

250g plain flour - 10p

85g lard - 13p

115ml warm water - free

pinch of salt - negligible
Splash of milk for glazing when baking - negligible

Total amount = 23p (92p for 24 pastry cases)

 

The trick with this pastry is to work it warm, unlike short crust. Warm the bowl, melt the lard in hot water before adding the flour and salt. If possible, try not to allow the pastry to get cold while making the pie cases.


You want your cases to measure between 8 and 10cm in diameter and at least 3cm in depth. Roll out each circle of pastry individually and use a tin, ramekin dish or even the bottom of a wide jar to shape the pie case around it. Leave them to cool before filling them, this way they should retain their shape.

Cut a flat lid for the top of each case, remembering to cut a hole in the middle to allow steam to escape while cooking. If you are fortunate enough to have individual pie cases, it makes the job a whole lot easier, but these pies are for enjoying, they aren't for decorative use, so imperfections simply add to the home baked appeal of them. Improvise wherever possible.

Scoop a rounded tablespoon of the meat mix into each pie case, enough to make it about two thirds full. The filling should be almost thick enough to pick up and make into patties, which some people do, by adding breadcrumbs.  Add a top to each, pushing it down and pinching around the edge to allow about 1cm of a lip around the top of the pastry case - once cooked, this is where the mash, peas or beans sit. Give the tops a quick brush with milk or egg - again, this is optional - and then bake in a pre-heated oven as you would any other pie. I used my mini oven at 200C and baked for about 25 minutes.

Overall, it would cost £5.66 for ingredients to make 24 pies when using prime steak mince - less than 25p per pie/person. This could be greatly reduced by cooking with cheaper ingredients, so don't be scared to mix and match while pie-making.

In all honesty, a Scotch pie is seen by many as leftovers baked in pastry. Leftover mince or stew mixed with porridge (we cook ours with water and salt), plus the remains of the daily bread made into crumbs. Once mixed together, seasoned with pepper and baked in a pie case, it's anyone's guess what meal should be served (or has been included) when Scotch Pies are on the menu. I've even known people to eat them cold for breakfast!

I'll need to return to this post to add more photos because today's pie got scoffed under half a tin of baked beans before I remembered that I was supposed to take a photograph. Sorry 'bout that' :)

Some useful links from Wikipedia:

What is a Scotch pie?
Hot water crust pastry
Meat pies

Happy pie making, frugalers. They're a cheap, cheerful and nutritious way of using up leftovers and better still, they can be savoury or sweet.

NYK Media, Frugaldom
 

Moneysaving and Healthy Eating - The Food Budget

Can You Really Feed the Family a Healthy Diet on £1 per Person Per Day for all Meals?

Why do so many quake in their shoes when they suddenly realise that they are heading into debt or, worse still, sinking further into debt, and scratch their heads in disbelief at today's prices? This blog post came about after a recent (animated) discussion about the cost of living in today's modern British society. The other person failed to distinguish the difference between the cost of living and the cost of their personal lifestyle. (In my opinion, food, fuel and energy waste seem to play big parts in their lifestyle.)

Why do we see such ridiculous food waste in Britain when there are countries across Africa and Asia still susceptible to famine? On more than one occasion, I have been told that if it concerns me so much then I should go post the waste food to the starving people. This attitude makes my blood boil!

…

I set myself the challenge to spend no more than £1 per person per day for all meals and I have stuck with this for the past several years… What I have learned is…

Read more here and try out the free meal planner to ensure you get your 5-a-say even on a frugal budget.

Frugal Living and Working :: Frugal Food Forums

Frugal Living and Working :: View Forum - Frugal Food - Cooking, Baking, Winemaking on a Budget

This is just a short blog to remind all of our readers that as well as this frugal blog, we also have Frugal Food Forums where we regularly discuss topics such as home cooking, foraging, preserving, bread making and, of course, our grocery challenges.

Whether you are trying to cut costs, reduce waste or generally make a difference to your diet, there is bound to be a forum topic to suit your needs.

From edible flowers to hand made chocolates – food is a fantastic subject and we would love you to join us in the forums discussing how to get the most for your money when feeding a family on a small budget.

Now that we are into porridge, soup and hot puddings time of year, we can start experimenting with simple ingredients and cost out the ingredients while also looking at cooking costs. With the utilities companies already bumping up the prices of electricity and gas yet again, now is a great time to join us in the battle to beat the home budget, be it in energy, food or general household shopping.

How many meals can you make from a single chicken?

How many meals can you make from a pack of mince?

Could you feed your family on £1 per person per day for all meals and still afford the toiletries, laundry and cleaning products in that tight a budget?

Do you forage for fruit and berries to make your own jams and jellies?

Have you ever tried cooking with cucumbers?

Can you bake a loaf of bread for 25p?

Would you like some soup recipes?

Can you make your garden (or other growing space) produce basic ingredients that could become a meal?

Have you baked cakes from courgettes?

How do you make your pickle and/or relish?

This is your invite to join us free in the FRUGAL FOOD FORUMS

Tonight, I will be joining in the online discussion about food that’s being hosted on Twitter. If you would like to take part, simply sign in to your www.twitter.com account and search for/follow @Frugaldom We use what’s known as a hash tag (# this is a hash tag) word for following the discussions, so look for #dghour and you should be able to see all the comments made by those attending tonight’s Dumfries & Galloway based food discussion.

Mark your diaries – on 9th November, I will be hosting an hour-long discussion on the topic of moneysaving. Everyone is welcome, even if you have no other connection with Dumfries and Galloway than being a follower, reader or member of the Frugal Blog, Frugal Forums or Frugaldom websites.

See you there, don’t forget to share!

NYK Media, Frugaldom

The Cost of a Homemade Loaf – 25p

The Cost of a Homemade Loaf

After reading a report on the BBC website regarding the cost implications of baking your own bread I had to respond! By all means, cost it the way they did and you could soon be out of pocket but if, like me, you bake all your own bread for the purposes of moneysaving, then think on... we 'knead' to know how to do it on a budget. Here's how: read more

Cheap Coffee Beans

Cheap Coffee Beans

Seeking out the best bargains isn't always easy! Prices don't necessarily determine what is and what isn't a bargain, that's for sure, and all too often we can fall for those fluorescent stickers and stars that have us brainwashed into thinking they represent a cheap and cheerful buy. Lookalike names fool us into mistaking them for something better and, as a household of coffee drinkers, I have been caught out by this when searching for cheap instant coffee. Read more…

 

NYK in Frugaldom

What's a Girl to Do when it's Lean, Mean and Flaunting Itself at Me?

Dear Musclefood,

We aren't body builders, we're just muscling in on your bargains! :)

 

Please note that I am using my personal 'refer a friend' links in this post. This is simply too good to miss, so grab a friend or neighbour (or anyone you care to grab, for that matter) and combine your orders so you can benefit from superb overnight free delivery. Fresh produce straight to your door, ready for portioning up and then filling your freezer. Shortened link is http://bit.ly/1bDkSEK
 

Premium Chicken Breasts - 1-1.15kg
SPECIAL OFFER: Buy one get another FREE!

Simply add to basket and enter code JUST8 at checkout to claim.

 

It's a definite win/win situation here and I can honestly, with my hand on my heart, personally commend this company. I think we shocked them a little by shopping on their site as frugalers, rather than bodybuilders, but there's nothing wrong with muscling in on a lean, mean bargain when it's flaunting itself at you, is there?

Here's how to make the most of the deal: visit the website - this is where you can claim your four free chicken breasts - and then go to the link that says 'lean meats', scroll down and select 'chicken'. From here, look for "Premium Chicken Breasts - 1-1.15kg, Was: £9.75 Save: £1.75 From £8.00" - do not click to buy, instead, click to view the offer. Once you do this, you will see some additional information on left of the page that says "SPECIAL OFFER: Buy one get another FREE! Simply add to basket and enter code JUST8 at checkout to claim."

Good luck with this, the offers are all on limited timescales, so I hope you are quick enough to be able to make the most of them. On a gram per gram comparison, not even the cheapest supermarkets within a 50 mile radius of here can compete with these prices. Perhaps you could set up your own food co-operative for local friends and family - any excuse for a get together when the order arrives!

Chicken is one of the main sources of meat protein for many of us who follow a frugal lifestyle, owing to its versatility, availability and price. When we get the opportunity to stock up on chicken breast fillets, we take it! I thought my bargain was superb at £5 per kilo but this is even better.


For those who prefer cooking a whole chicken, there's another deal available, whole chickens for £4 each. In a frugal household, one single chicken breast can feed 2 to 4 people, depending on portion size and meal type, but one single chicken can feed many more.

 

Frugalers can make even a small chicken feed a dozen people no problem and still get a pot of soup out of the bones. (See forums for stretchy chicken recipes.) So, when I also spotted this offer, I almost fell off my seat!

 

Whole fresh chickens for £4 each - that's 5 chickens for £20 and enough there for 60 meals plus sufficient stock to make soup enough to last the entire winter. What's more, if it's delivered free then there's no added expense of driving to the supermarket or trying to balance 5 chickens on a bike! Call a friend now, make the most of free delivery or else fill your freezer... if you have any space in it.

 

By splitting an order with friends, all of these bargains are yours for the taking. My freezer is going to be over-flowing at this rate! It saddens me, somewhat, that I have almost no space to fit in any more bargains. I hope home of you can take advantage of this fantastic, lean, mean offer! In addition, there's usually a free sachet of seasoning and all that lovely packaging to be recycled! Also of importance to my fellow frugalers, your very own refer-a-friend link and bonus loyalty points when you become a customer of Musclefood.

 

Thanks to a couple of lovely fellow frugalers who have already signed up and ordered these bargains, my loyalty points credit has now increased to 1224. You can earn points by spending, referring friends and by writing short reviews of the products once you have tried them. It's like a frugal living dream come true!

Off in search of more money-saving opportunities now, catch you all later,

NYK in Frugaldom.

Unpredictable Weather is a Major Pain in the Neck!

CATCH-UP TIME!

We've had a horrible couple of days weatherwise but there have been a few gaps between the clouds, leaving it dry enough for long enough to get the washing out on the line.

 

Laundry is something few think about nowadays, when they have modern central heating, tumble dryers and so little time spent at home to do things the frugal way. (I don't iron anything that doesn't need ironed.) We have neither central heating nor a tumble dryer here - not yet, anyway - so it is very much a case of hoping for dry weather, pegging wet washing on the line and then getting it over the airers to finish drying if the sunshine and wind have been insufficient.

 

So...  today's washing is on the line, but I need to nip to the shop for a few essentials. Easier said than done, when 'nipping to the shop' entails almost 10 miles round trip on a bicycle while attempting to pedal in blustering winds - it's like hitting a wall sometimes! Hmm... there's always the option to sling on a backpack and walk, but that takes about 3 hours out of the day and runs even more of a risk of running out of dry weather. In fact, we just did and it's now raining!

 

Washing is now back in off the line, the bike's back in the shed before I even got the shopping basket attached and I dont know if I should trust the weather forecast, which said it would be raining all day, or trust looking out the window - we've had a couple of hours of sunshine, there's a hower just now, I can see a tiny bit of blue sky but there are still plenty of grey clouds looming.

 

Maybe I'd be as well doing something else, instead! Get some bread dough on the go, bake some rolls and biscuits, make a pot of soup, distribute some eggs to the neighbours, plant some potatoes, water the seedlings in the greenhouse and try to arrange to get a joiner out here soon, so there's at least one room done in the house. Life is so exasperating, sometimes!

Frugal Living, Inflation and Recycling

Can Frugal Living Beat Inflation?

 

As reported by the BBC (and many others) today, "The UK's inflation rate rose sharply last month following an increase in tuition fees and food prices."

 

The current rate of inflation is said to be 2.7%, with the Retail Prices Index (RPI) measure of inflation - which includes housing costs - rising to 3.2% But I am not even going to pretent that I understand these convoluted figures. Complicated calculations may be something I do occasionally enjoy but I can't equate certain items as being essential when working out my own basic cost of living. I did, however, take the time to ask if shrinking pack sizes were taken into consideration in the Government numbercrunching and, you'll be pleased to know, THEY ARE!

Of course, based on individual item costs versus diminishing quantities, the rate of inflation on some goods is many, many times that stated. I mean, look at the price of cheap minced beef. The pack sizes have not only reduced to 400g but the prices have increased by as much as 25% in some cases. Even tins of corned beef might be beyond the most frugal of grocery budgets nowadays!

Another thing that really bugs me about all these shrinking pack sizes is that we are being driven headlong into a waste not, want not spiral that's going the completely wrong way! Rather than companies reducing their packaging, which they do appear to be trying to do, they are now forcing us into buying twice as much, because one single pack no longer feeds the household! This matters not a jot if you are buying your fruit, veg and fresh produce loose, but onthe whole, disposal of packaging remains a major problem - unless we simply pass the problem on to the Government by binning everything and then wonder why services need cut to cope with the increased costs.

We now need to get even more creative with our grocery buying, batch cooking and recycling. What can we do with all these extra plastic cartons while, at the same time, trying to shop for bargains and buy sufficient quantities to feed the family?

Well, one thing I am now doing is keeping each carton I buy - why should I have to pay for something that's discarded straight into the bin?

As soon as the contents have been prepared, it's a simple case of refilling the original container for storing the food in the freezer. (Additional point of interest - keep mushrooms dry and wipe or brush them clean, rather than peel them or wash them. You get more out of the pack.)

These containers work well for most things except onions, as they aren't strong enough to seal and prevent the smell leaching through into your freezer.

A word of caution on storing food in recycled cartonss - always, always, always wash and sterilise the empty containers before refilling them and don't pour hot food into them, as most are so flimsy that they'd probably melt.

By reducing our food waste, reusing anything we can and recycling everything that can possibly be recyclyed, we can, in actual fact, get creative enough to beat our own household inflation.

www.frugaldom.com
www.frugaleur.com

February's Frugal Grocery Challenge

Cheap Meals for £1 or Less per Person per Day

With a grocery budget of £1 per person per day, it is getting more and more difficult to afford too much meat in the diets, but it isn't impossible, so long as you aren't expecting steak or roast beef too often.

I've been carrying out my own version of frugal grocery shopping for more years than I care to mention. Originally, during the 80's, it began with keeping hens for eggs, baking bread by hand and cooking whatever I could from scratch, making the most of a slow cooker.

Times have changed slightly, with the emergence of the huge supermarkets. By the late 90s, we had the bread wars, where it was possible to buy a cheap loaf for as little as 4p, rendering it a complete waste of time and energy even contemplating self-baking it. But again the times have changed and the cheapest loaf (of questionable quality) is now approaching 50p. So how does a household manage to survive on a tiny food budget?

From today, 1st February, I am going to cost up each of the meals we eat in a day. I'll try to do this for the full month - time permitting - and see how far off the £1 per person per day we really are.

Breakfast is usually porridge during the colder months and let's face it, that's most likely to be about seven months out of the twelve if you live in Scotland. (There's a section of the Frugaldom Forum dedicated to cheap meals and how to help keep the cost of grocery shopping within a tight budget.)

19p PORRIDGE FOR BREAKFAST

Porridge oats currently cost me £1 per kilo and one kilo makes approximately 20 to 22 portions.

• 1 x small cup (45-50g) of porridge oats
• 2.5 x small cups of water
• Good pinch of salt

I cook mine in the microwave, it takes about 6 to 8 minutes, depending on how powerful the microwave is. Don't forget to stir it halfway through and let it stand for a minute before serving. Serve with milk and a sprinkle of sugar (if prefered).

Allowing 8p for the salt, milk and sugar, this costs approximately 18p per serving in grocery costs. My microwave is 700w, so a 5 minute blast with this costs approx 1p, making the REAL cost of a bowl of porridge each morning 19p per serving.

If you have a handful of dried fruit with your porridge, you can easily add on another 10p, so maybe best save the fruit for mid-morning snacks. (The recommended amount of porridge oats per serving is 45g.)

24p PIZZAS FOR LUNCH

I very rarely buy pizzas, nor do I specially bake pizza bases. I find that using homemade bread works equally well and is a great way of using up the end slices. These taste more like French Bread Pizzas.

My breadmaker does 2 x 450g loaves at a time, so they cost around 35p for wholegrain by the time I factor in the electricity. Assuming each loaf slices into 8-10 slices, I allow 4p per slice.

Getting your minimum 5-a-day fruit and vegetable servings each and every day can sem expensive, so it's a case of making the most of what's available at the right price. Tinned tomatoes, whenever you can bulk buy them on offer, will always be your friend. They don't really go out of date or go off as long as the cans aren't dented, so no need to pay too much attention to the BBE dates stamped on the end.

Today's pizza lunch included 2 of our 5-a-day by way of chopped red pepper, onions and tomatoes. I keep bags of chopped peppers in the freezer after buying them whenever I see them cheap. At the moment, I am buying peppers with my ROSSPA orders, at a cost of 80p for 3.

Ingredients

80g diced onions (5p)

40g chopped peppers (7.5p)

Tin of tomatoes (33p)

Salt, pepper, pinch of mixed herbs (1p)

Bread - 12p

20g finely grated cheese (11.5p)

Total cost = 70p, that's less than 24p per pizza, plus leftovers for the freezer.

While the grill is heating, I give the veggies a couple of minutes cooking on full power in the microwave to soften them up, then I add the tin of tomatoes and seasoning. This all then gets microwaved on full power for a further couple of minutes to make sure it is all properly heated. This is your basic pizza sauce mix.

Lay your bread out on the grill tray and slightly toast one side before turning it over and covering each slice with the sauce, followed by a sprinkling of your grated cheese.



20g of mature cheddar



Grate the cheese as finely as you can, using the smallest side of the grater. This enables you to stretch the 20g cube of cheese much further. I use mature cheddar cheese, as we all prefer the flavour, but I'm sure there are cheaper options. To give you an idea of quantity, here is what 20g of cheddar looks like. It is a tiny amount, but that's the price of cheese nowadays, it's extortionate! We need to be economical in that department!

 

Freeze any extra sauce

 Surprisingly, the above sauce is enough for 4 pizzas. I made only 3, so the extra tomato, pepper and onion topping has gone into a margarine tub for freezing. If you don't use it for a quick pizza, it's fine for adding to bolognese or chilli con carne. Is also nice with a little chilli added and served with fajitas in place of shop bought salsa.

If all your ingredients are costed now, it's like having free ingredients when the time comes to use them in your next meal.

NYK Media
Frugaldom