To be honest it's not been a frugal few months here. Yes, I chose to go on holiday but I'm counting that as a health choice (physical and mental well being). And I loved it so I'm not going to beat myself up about the cost. This week Emma needed a small operation to remove a nasty cyst above her eye.
She's no longer insured (for a variety of reasons) so that was £336 on top of recent vet bills (£219) to get her itchy infected ears under control. Good job she's worth it! She is looking rather sorry for herself as she has to keep the collar on for another 5 days because she scratched her stitches. Bad dog!
Luckily I had enough money saved to cover my holiday and vet bills. But as the title says I need to tighten my belt and build up my savings again. So, to avoid going to the supermarket I made do with what was in my cupboard and freezer to make some meals for the coming week. I made vegetable chilli with dumplings in my new Crockpot. Truthfully it wasn't great (esp the dumplings!) but I've got 4 more meals of it to use up. I've also got a couple of frozen cod fillets in the freezer to use up so that's this week's dinners sorted.
The dumplings were a bit solid even for GF ones.
I made a big pot of soup so that's my lunches sorted. Breakfast will be porridge as the weather is too cold for overnight oats now. Every morning I make a big pot for me, Emma and the chickens!! 🐔
I get paid this week (it's been a long 5 week month!!) so I'll be able to do a big shop at the end of the week. I've been stuck in a rut of just doing stir fries for my evening meal so if anyone has any good cheap meal ideas I'm all ears.
We've decided, both for frugality and ease (less cooking for me), that once or twice a week we'll have a jacket spud with beans or tuna & cheese, or beans and an egg on toast.
ReplyDeleteYes! Spuds are cheap just now. Thanks :-)
DeleteWe love slow cooker meals, and always use the left overs for a soups.
ReplyDeleteLove my slowcooker! I had to replace my last one (it was a sear and stew one) as the non stick coating was flaking off! Did my research and found a Crockpot one on offer.
DeleteHmmm, I wonder if my not so great chilli could become a soup...
One of my favourite cheap and cheerful recipes is what we in the family call Bows! I'm not sure if you can eat pasta but I use farfalle, which is cooked as normal, while that is cooking I put a tin of chopped tomatoes in a fry pan with some garlic, salt pepper and some italian seasoning, I pour in about a cupful of white wine and stir. I leave it simmering while the pasta cooks stirring occasionaly. At the end I add a wee bit of cream but its fine without that. Then when the pasta is cooked, drain it and add the sauce to it and stir it through. There is enough sauce from this to make enough for two days for two of us. I serve it with a salad and we love it. Sometimes on day two we have some meatballs added to it. Your poor pup. Don't they just hate the cone of shame! Poor you having those bills to pay. One of our dogs a long time ago was getting to an age when we were considering cancelling the insurance and she got a bladder infection and would have cost us hundreds of pounds for an operation. We let the insurance run till she died after that and have continued to insure all our dogs since. I couldn't take the chance! It costs us over £50 just to walk into the vets these days and thats not covered by the insurance! Happy saving! Hope alls well back at work. x
ReplyDeleteI can eat GF pasta, it's just expensive. But that sauce sounds yummy!
DeleteWork was ok last week. I have a student and she's really good! Yeay!!!
Read back on your holiday post and yes def. worth the expense and you look great in your bathers! We of late have splashed out food wise and last week bought 3 pkt of prepared veg, it worked out 66.6p per pkt but we had all 3 as soups and it was so easy. We've decided that we do need to make our life just a bit easier after all we are well into our OAP ages!
ReplyDeleteYep, sometimes it's about ease. I use a lot of frozen veg for ease :-)
DeleteYum.
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