Day 11 of Extremely Frugal February - Roast Beef

Day 11 of 28 - Bullying the Beef!

Leave me to sleep!

The de-clutter continues here in Frugaldom with each box being painstakingly emptied, each leaf of paper skim read and then binned or burned in a final effort to get rid of all the rubbish I have accrued over the years. The cat loves it, as she adopts each and every box I empty! Today must have been a cold one because she slept in this box for most of the afternoon. Naturally, it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that it was sitting by the log burner!

Yesterday, I mentioned the 600g of roast beef that was defrosting, so I want to continue with that, to help prove that good eating isn't impossible when on a tiny budget of £1 per person per day for meals. With the beef joint costing £6 and an average portion size being 100g, this easily takes up all of my budget... or does it?

Beef - £6.00

1kg potatoes - 50p

1 medium swede - 40p

Half a large cabbage - 16.5p (3 for 99p from Approved Food*)

1 large onion - 10p

Sprouts - NIL

Nut roast - 16.5p (3 x Granose double packs for 99p clearance)

Total - £7.33

I diced the onion, sprinkled it over the base of the slow cooker, placed the beef on top of it, rubbed salt into the beef then sprinkled mixed herbs over it. Added a mug of water to the crock pot and left that slow cooking for about 4 hours, adding another mug of water along the way. By the time it was done, the meat was literally coming apart, so I split it all up, leaving it stewing in the juices while I baked the nut roast and steamed all the vegetables. 

As I already know that porridge costs us 6p per serving, soup and homemade bread costs about 9p per person and we get through around 18p per person in incidentals like sugar, milk, tea and coffee, it means that main meals need to come in at around the 67p mark. 

The list of ingredients above needs to stretch really, really far. In fact, it would need to be sufficient for 11 meals in order for it to come within the frugal budget! We've already had 2, so I'll do my best with what's left. 

Eating roast beef isn't really something that can be done very often on such a tight budget unless you can offset the price against free produce from your own garden or barter for goods. But this is how tonight's meal looked with just a ladle of the meat stew backed up with a slice of nut roast for the extra protein. There's also a serving of homemade piccalilli in there, the first of the lot I made in September. (I blogged the recipe for my frugalilli.) Everything tasted delicious, but we probably blew the budget by having a bowl of butterscotch whip afterwards, albeit a 6p pack made with powdered milk.

Mini fridge

Living room work is progressing - the second coat of gloss is dry and I can start moving books onto shelves tomorrow. H managed to find the mini fridge, so it has been cleaned and is now sitting on the frugal bar. This will do as an ice bucket - I can simply pop the cubes into a cut-down milk carton and store the whole lot in the mini fridge when we are entertaining guests. I got this tiny cooler free some years ago courtesy of a well known office supplies company. It has both mains and car-lighter plug attachments and can be used for either keeping things cold or for keeping them warm! I have never used it in all the years I have had it, so I hope it still works.

That wraps it up for today - no actual cash spent on anything and I'm now off to check out the new £1 or less section of Approved Foods.*  I see they have the ice cream mix back in stock and we love it!

NYK, Frugaldom

* My friend referral links.

16.5p per Person for Frugal Breakfast

Breakfast for 6 and Change from £1

It's Scotland, it's September, it's a PORRIDGE BREAKFAST DAY!

Porridge oats currently cost around 75p per kilo for the cheapest supermarket saver variety and one kilo will make you 20 portions. (We use 50g per serving). The recommended serving on many of the bags is 45g, so be ever vigilant regarding sudden, unannounced pack size changes, as 990g would be the obvious choice. I AM WATCHING FOR THAT!

 

This is the Scottish way of making porridge, so I was rather horrified when I discovered, at the age of almost 40, I might add, that others elsewhere make this like milk pudding.

Per person

1 x small cup (~50g) of porridge oats
2.5 x small cups of water (or as required)
Good pinch of salt

I cook mine in the microwave, it takes only about 6 minutes maximum, but this timing will depend on how powerful your microwave is. Don't forget to stir the porridge halfway through and let it stand for a minute before serving.

Serve with a little milk and a sprinkle of sugar, drizzle of honey, handful of fruit... whatever you prefer.

Allowing 7.5p for the oats and 8p for the salt, milk and sugar, the food costs are minimal.

My microwave is 700w. A 6-minute blast with this costs almost 1p, so the REAL cost of a bowl of wholesome, homemade porridge is only 16.5p per person

If you have a handful of dried fruit with this, rather than sugar, you can easily add on another 10p, so maybe best save the fruit for a mid-morning snack if your budget is tight.

So there you have it: you can feed 6 people a warm and filling breakfast for less than £1.

Would you pay £1 for a bowl of freshly made porridge? Or perhaps you already have, if you've paid 99p for one of those boil the kettle and 'just add boiling water' concoctions that the supermarkets now sell. (And they're only 48g including whatever additives they may use.)

 

In the land of frugal living, healthy eating isn't about labels and packaging, it is about health, nutrition and basic home cooking.

 

How much did your breakfast cost this morning?

 

Have fun taking part in the 'Septimus Frugalus' moneysaving challenge this month - find out all about it here or by going to http://frugaldom.myfreeforum.org/about1347.html