It's Official: "Expired Food" Will be Sold in Greek Supermarkets

It's Official: "Expired Food" Will be Sold in Greek Supermarkets

Oh dear!  Even the Greeks are unsure as to the difference between Best before dates and Use by dates!  Best before means just that, in it's best condition but not poisionous after!  Use by dates are the all important ones, although there is nothing wrong with using your sense of smell and sight (if you have them) just as our Mums and Grandmothers had to do.

We use a firm called Approved Foods here in the Uk, there are a few others including market stalls that sell food near or after its Best before date, all perfectly edible.  I stock up on pulses, dried pasta, tinned tomatoes, beans, jams etc and it saves a fortune on food costs.  You have to watch with runny honey as it does sugar up but this can be resolved by popping the container into a bowl of hot water, or the microwave.

Yes what is happening in Greece is sad and worrying, we found such lovely friendly hard working people in Greece, but it makes sense to sell this sort of food just as our supermarkets have now consented to selling imperfectly shaped fruits and vegetables. Wasting such food is criminal in my opinion!  Common sense at last!  Yay!

Patchwork progress!

My first go at machine patchwork! I shall never again underestimate the pleasure of achieving something! All the fabric is recycled, even the cushion inner! The old cover is on it's way to the charity shop. The ribbon ties are made with the leftover ribbon from my daughters wedding. I was lucky in that the course was discounted and I hope to carry on now and get on with some more projects, maybe even gifts, so earning back the cost of the course!

The above shall be my mantra from now on!

Stocktake and "using it up" for stoptober challenge

I'm back and here are the results of the stocktake:-

From 3rd (and surplus) freezer:-
6 Chicken drumsticks
1lb Pork strips
3 chicken breasts
Sausage meat
Blackberries
Apricot pie filling (hm)
Apple cinnamon pie filling (hm)
Breadcrumbs
Pack sliced mushrooms (lge)
Cranberry sauce
2 frozen bananas
8oz butter

Chest freezer:-
Fish fingers
1 salmon steak (large so enough for 2)
Bag of value white fish
Bag of smoked haddock pieces (small)
Frozen peas
frozen Broccoli
frozen carrots
runner beans (from garden)
various 1 portions of hm soups
3 chicken pieces

Fridge freezer:-
8 x 1 portion boxes hm soups
quorn mince
hm vege burgers
beef burgers
hm stock

Organic box this week:-
Butternut squash
Spuds
Onions
Carrots
Mushrooms
4 pears
6 satsuma’s
4 bananas

Leftover from last box & other shopping:-
2 courgettes
Pointed cabbage centre
6 onions
5 satsumas

Left in fridge:-
2 blocks cheese (bought on bogof)
1 pack ham slices
½ tub greek yogurt
1 pack seedless grapes
Leftover curry sauce
2 scoops mash potato (from yesterday)
1 spoon peas
½ cucumber
Mint sauce
Chutneys
Jams
Milk
margarine

Cupboards:-

Various flours, sugars, oils, dried fruits, pastas, noodles and rice. Plenty of tinned beans, tomatoes and fruit. Goodly supply of herbs and spices.

Now to menu plan! Back later with this weeks plan............

Unexpected spends and craft heaven

We have had some unexpected spends this week, dental charges (toothache), giving help to our family and a chance of a brilliant course on patchwork! It is Stoptober so I guess offically I have failed but I really do feel that this is why we scrimp and save, to cover those one offs, whether they be medical, family or even unexpected (will pay back dividends in savings later) courses! After the dentist I also popped into our local Barnardos charity shop and picked up a much needed 1 pint pudding bowl for 49p (I have been desperately needing one since I broke my other one)and a lovely lap tray for £1.99 so a spend of £2.48 but well worth it!

This weekend I was introduced to a wonderful place called make do and mend, a place to go and knit and chat, sew and chat, draw and chat, attend wonderful, amazing workshops on crochet, patchwork, jewellery making, knitting, making facinators for weddings, making shoes, rag dolls and cushion covers!

I had gone along to the knit and chat session, knitted, chatted and then found out that there was a discounted place available on that afternoons patchwork for beginners course! I couldn't really turn that down as I had promised someone dear to me that I would learn how and then make a memory quilt for her after the sudden death of her Mum! It was fun to do and I now have the confidence to get going on such a special project!

Very basic but a beginning at least! :-)


In the meantime we are still eating from the freezer, indeed one freezer is going, so silly having more than one and expensive on the electric! I would rather have some storage space and the freezer might be of help to someone else! This weeks menu will be planned on whatever I find in this surplus freezer! Wish me luck! I am going in........................

Free Lunch! Well almost!

After walking the dog this morning I was so cold and needed something warming for lunch. Had to stick to the rules of the Stoptober challenge and use what I had in though!

Out came a bag of sprouting potatoes, I took the biggest one and cut out all the bad bits, then a half onion left from last nights meal, a small handful of frozen carrots and some frozen peas, boiling water over the top with a chicken oxo from the bargainous bundle I got from App foods, a generous grinding of black pepper and on it went to simmer. I was going to blend it all but the potatoes cooked into a lovely smashy type of mix and the soup was just fab the way it was. Managed to save the best of the potato peels and popped them into the remoska with some olive oil and a sprinkling of some of the course welsh smoked salt I found in my last lucky box (everything for £1) from app foods. Free chips! :-)

Stoptober Challenge!

I've joined in with Frugal Queens Stoptober challenge to stop spending money this month! Well other that the necessary spends!

First disappointment was having to turn down the chance of tickets to see Andy Fairweather Low! (sob) but at £35 each we have saved £70 into our pay down the mortgage account! Yay! Might have to get "Wide eyed and legless" on home brew to get over it though!

Living out of the store cupboards and freezer so far and not starving. Not gone shopping yet either but will need milk, cheese, butter and fresh veg and fruit this weekend! I am making soups daily and freezing the leftovers for another day! I have some more dentistry to get through soon so the soup will be welcomed!

I have plenty of knitting projects and the wool to do them, so still going to chat and knit club, only twice a month and £3 covers tea, biscuits and overheads. I can also ask for some much needed help with my knitting!

Anyone else doing this challenge?

Recovering from a wonderful weekend with our family. My eldest, his wife and our little grandaughter came to stay. The sun shone, despite a reaction to her MMR vaccination, our little grandaughter smiled, chattered, walked, ran and played to her hearts content. Her Daddy bought her a little £3.99 paddling pool and set it up in the garden so that we could cool her down. My peg basket and a few pegs and second hand mega blocks were enough toys to make it fun, they built boats and splashed. This kind of entertainment costs next to nothing.

We did go out, to a wonderful little zoo called tropical wings, complete with a butterfly house, meercats and giant rabbits - though not all in the same enclosure! :)

We had ice creams and came home to eat, saving ourselves (over the weekend) at least £100. The cost of eating out is soaring, at home we can have what we want, when we want it and then enjoy the leftovers!

Today I have a poorly little dog, she has been to the vets and is now on a chicken and rice diet for a few days. Luckily we had chicken at the weekend so I have enough chicken for now. Somewhere at the bottom of the freezer I have more chicken pieces and must now go and "freezer dive" to find them! Don't you just love chest freezers?

I love leftovers! Especially planned leftovers. Today we have leftover chicken from one of the costco chickens I bought last week. I cook a chicken and we have a roast chicken meal from 1 breast, with vegetables etc., next day I take all the meat off and put to one side, everything else is in the slowcooker for some lovely stock and soup. Chicken sandwiches, chicken curry and a Nasi goreng (fried rice) are all planned, either to eat this week or for the freezer for later.

According to a recent yahoo news story we can all eat gourmet food quite cheaply! Worth reading the article as everything is priced up in large quantities, not taking into account that there would be plenty of ingredients left over! Leftovers that would make another meal or 2 in some cases, bringing the price of the portions right down! Half price in some cases (see first recipe) I wonder what suggestions we could all come up with for the leftovers in this article?

We spend far too much money on sandwich fillings so today I cooked a ham (3 for £10) so £3.33 which produced 472g of lovely ham slices! So much nicer than the 180g packet of ham slices I had bought last week for £1.50 but which normally costs £3. I have frozen some of the slices so it should do 2 weeks of sarnies and meals. We add chopped ham to quiches, fried rice and Nasi Goreng - a malaysian fried rice meal which is delicious!

Last night we braved the rain and went to see Shakespeare in the park - Macbeth performed by the brilliant Lord Chamberlain's men! The poor actors were also braving the elements and by the interval were coping with thoroughly rainwater sodden costumes as well. We enjoyed a home packed picnic, a glass of wine each and some hot chocolate to drink at the end, this warmed us up a treat! We had the shelter of our umbrellas, groundsheets and waterproofs! The moral of the story is if you want to enjoy outdoor life in Britain at the moment, be prepared and pack for rainy weather!

Sadly during the interval, many people decided enough was enough (surely not true brits then) and packed up and left for home. This was good news for us though as we suddenly were the front row! The folks at the side of us also stayed declaring that they were making memories! We agreed!

Today we received a letter from Santander letting us know that the new total for the mortgage is £64,425.00 Yay! The letter then informs us that our monthly payments will now go down by the princely amount of......wait for it, drumrole...... £1.80 .... Awww!

At first we felt quite let down but on reviewing it, over a year that comes to £21.60 saved against a paltry £5 over a year if we left it sitting in our savings account! Personally I would rather be bringing down that total anyway! This way we are heading slowly but surely to our target of becoming mortgage free with another £16.60 saved!

Today I visited our local Barnados charity shop with a bag bulging with de-cluttered articles! Great feeling! Unfortunately I came out of the shop with another 2 bags of bargains! :) For £10 (everything is 99p) I got 4 t shirts, 1 shortsleeved jumper, 1 beautiful teal varigated wool shawl, a Cath Kidson magnetic board with a shopping list and notebook attached and 3 toys for when my little grandaughter visits! Very pleased with this, my first visit to a charity shop since I hurt my foot!

Cooking up a storm today, 2 packs of half price steak and kidney in the slowcooker, half of which are now 2 steak and kidney puddings (using up some of the approved foods suet mix) the other half is bubbling away as a stew with yummy dumplings in! If I have any spare energy I shall go make some apple cinnamon muffins, need to use up some apples for the box delivery!

I've been taking a leaf out of Frugal Queens book and spent some time bulk cooking for the freezer! I now have more than a dozen home made "ready meals" available! That should help us resist temptation to order a takeaway!

I have 2 portions of soya bolognaise, 4 portions of chilli con carne (minced beef and soya mix to stretch it) and 8 portions of italian pasta soup (I doubled the recipe), which is more like a spicy vege stew, it is so filling! Here's how to make the soup:-

Italian Pasta Soup

1 large onion (finely chopped)
1 lg clove garlic (crushed)
2 sticks of celery (finely chopped)
1 tablespoon olive oil
15oz tin of tomatoes or 1lb fresh tomatoes
1 + 1/2 pints of stock
4 oz wholemeal macaroni
1 handful of chopped parsley
2 carrots (grated)
sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Saute the onion, garlic and celery in the oil for 5 minutes, without browning. Roughly chop the tomatoes (skin if using fresh)and add to the pan. Stir in the stock and bring mixture to the boil. Reduce the heat and add the pasta/macaroni. simmer for 15 minutes until just soft. Chop the parsley and add with the grated carrots. Stir and season to taste! Serve with chunks of wholemeal bread. My cookbook says this amount will serve 4, has 163 calories a portion and is high in fibre and vitamins, it is also very yummy!

Now that we have all been reminded of just how dangerous a police officers job can be, perhaps the government can leave their pensions alone! Tereasa May are you listening?

It's too hot outside today, so after pegging my washing out on the line, to take advantage of this free heat, I did a stocktake indoors.

We shopped at Costco at the weekend, we do this every 3 to 4 months, and spent £150 on food, so £50 or less a month. This ensures enough meat and fish to keep us going until the next visit. We have a good supply of pulses and we bulk buy tinned tuna, tomatoes, sardines etc.

For this we got:-
5lb minced beef,
2 large chickens,
11 large chicken breasts, (1 enough for 2-3 portions)
4 huge gammon steaks, (thinking quiches etc)
18 thick sausages,
big bag of cod loin fillets,
big bag of salmon fillets,
big bag of fish fingers,
Large tub of hommous (it freezes)
Mozzarella,
Cheese spreads,
Babybels,
huge block of mature cheddar,
so lots of protein, also:-
6 large mixed peppers,
large bunch bananas,
lg bag of salad potatoes,
Butternut squash wedges,
lg bag of sliced mushrooms,
18 fr eggs,
1 kg yogurt,
2 x 500g bags of gnocci,
very large jar of tiptree marmalade,
3 large bottles pissata,
2 large bottles black olives,
6 pkts wm pittas,
2 seeded batch loaves,
18 bags of tyrrells crisps (a naughty treat)
1 big bag of sweet potatoes (costco ones are larger and nicer than the ones in the supermarkets)

Most of this has been packed into portion size packs and frozen down for later use. I can feel the wolf running far away from the door!

We have 2 organic fruit and veg boxes delivered a month @ £14 each and shop only for essentials to a max of £30 a week. This should total £198 for the month and includes dog food and treats. I am going to try to cut the weekly shop down to £20 if I can to make some more savings. Time to use up all the old stores!

Hello again! After a long break, due to illness and the demands of 2 weddings in the family, I am going to give blogging a go again. We still want to do everything we can to pay down the mortgage, preferably before we hit the big 60 and I would like to record our journey. This week we managed to pay another £1,000 off the balance, slowly but surely we will get there! Today I have been using up some of the huge supply of frozen bananas we have in the chest freezer. I found this fab recipe on MSE Old Style, it is fatless yet makes a really lovely tasty fruit loaf. Thank you to the original poster whoever she/he is!


Fat Free Banana Loaf

5 large bananas,

6oz soft brown sugar,

8oz SR flour (I use wholemeal)

2 eggs,

6oz sultanas (I use a mix of sultanas and chopped dates).

Mash the bananas and mix in everything but flour. I make this in my Mum's old kenwood chef! Add flour, the consistency is quite wet, so don't worry. Use a 2lb loaf tin and cook for 1 hour at 170c. I add cinnamon as well. Makes a lovely moist loaf. Although fat free I do sometimes slice and spread with a tiny bit of butter - yummy!

Recovering from lofty perils!

Well I seem to be back in "recovery" this week, this time recovering from clearing out the loft! 10 days of hard work and each day we managed to get 2-3 bags of "stuff" to our local Age Concern charity shop, recycling as much as we could! My husband is certain that the house has now raised itself up by a couple of inches! :)

Letting go was always a problem for me, letting go of the memories, of links to the past and the people we have lost. I really used to tie myself up in knots over this! Now after some thought and prayer I choose something small for the memories and hand the rest over to be of use to others. I seem to be a changed person! yikes!

We found some great treasures as well! My wedding veil, the box was crushed but the veil has been washed very carefully and is as good as new and my daughter is going to see if it will do for her wedding next year.

We are also sticking to the new rule - for everything coming into the house something must go. I found a lovely "like new" fluffy dressing gown, much nicer and longer than the one I had. That one was a charity shop buy as well, soft and fluffy but very pink and too short to be really warm, in fact I used to resemble a large pink marshmallow when I wore it! Now it is washed and packed and ready for the charity shop and the new longer burgundy one is washed and in regular use, and very cosy it is.

I found a super little rectangle shaped pyrex - perfect for small lasagnes, so a little blue patterned sweetie dish has left the building!

Lets hope I can keep this up because I never want to have to go back to sorting out that mess again!

Charity shops - be considerate when you donate

Recently we have spent a lot of time visiting our local Help the Aged Charity Shop! The "stuff" in our loft is shrinking down and the space available is growing at last!

All this has taken time, effort and energy. Not just the heaving bags of "stuff" down the stairs to sort out, but the washing/ironing of clothing, washing up of glassware and crockery, cleaning up of toys before giving them away to donate.

We have all by now perhaps heard the tiresome joke about what to do if your suit needs dry cleaning "take it to the charity shop - let them do it and buy it back"!
I worked in a charity shop (Cancer Research) as one of the many volunteers and they work very hard for no pay! These are wonderful, caring people wanting to give something back to the charity that has perhaps helped them or a relative with the illness. They are most definately not our servants!

The task of sorting out the donations can be a mixed blessing, some of the donations are a superb gift to the charity and help to bring in much needed funds, for which the charities are very, very grateful, but some items show a distinct lack of respect for the volunteers. Opening a black sack one day I found in amongst someones dirty laundry a filled nappy!!!!!! The whole lot had to be thrown away!

The charity shop I worked in did not have laundry facilities, if something needed to be washed and was worth doing, the manager took it home to launder at her own cost. We did steam iron some of the donations but that took up a lot of our time where we could have been sorting or helping in the shop. Some ironing is expected as often clothing is held in sacks for a while before sorting and the upright steam iron contraption was quite popular to use! :)

Now when I spend my pennies in the charity shops I think about all the work that has gone into the presentation as well as the bargains I find!

Clearing out the old!

Now this is something I have had great difficulties with! I wonder if others have found the same? We have spent today making a start on clearing out our loft space. We moved into this house in 1983 and within a year had a new addition to the family in the shape of our daughter. Anything remaining unpacked was quickly added to the growing pile in the loft. As each year passed by more was added and less taken out. I found it difficult to part with reminders of the past! Result - chaos!!!!!

Recently a friend was telling me that a major leak had ocurred in their loft space and totally ruined all that was stored up there! Enough!I cried, and decided that this week with husband off work, we should start clearing the loft. Today was the first day and we have already cleared about 1/4 of the loft space. 2 trips to our local Help the Aged charity shop ensued followed by another 2 trips to the dump (I have recycled everything else to within an inch of it's life I promise you!) Apart from pulled and aching muscles we both already feel so much better and all the keener to tackle the rest of the loft space! Hoping to find enough to inspire me to start selling on ebay and amazon so that we can put some pennies aside for the next wedding in the family!

By the end of next week I could be crying out for mercy and over-dosing on ralgex but it must be done! Tomorrow I have a few hours off though, as I am on a youth leaders course, run by our Church. Ah! bliss!

Apricot jamming!

Hello again! I'm back to blogging as and when the energy allows, a lot of changes have been made here but they are all for the better! For one thing I am determined to get the mortgage paid off within the next 3-5 years, so frugaling is now being taken up a level. Wish me luck.

To start with I have been making some jam, the jam maker was my birthday present last summer and is brilliant! So far this year I have made 12 jars of marmalade, 8 jars of blackberry jelly and now 6 jars of apricot preserve.






At long last I've got myself organised and opened one of the tins of approved foods apricot pulp. Really pleased for the outlay of around £3 for the pulp and sugar I managed to get 6 jars of apricot preserve and 5 freezer boxes of apricot pie filling. I worked out that would have cost me £17.54 to buy! I have another tin to open and use as well! :)

Yes there is such a thing as a free lunch!

Today Mr C decided to come home for his lunch and requested soup. Luckily the "freezer fairy" (as in tightwad Gazette) was full to brimful with all sorts of odds and ends (celery ends, cooked potatoes, half a tin of tomatoes, runner beans, half an onion, half a fresh tomato), so I tipped it all into a saucepan, adding some chopped spring onions that needed using up and a tub of stock from the freezer (yipee more space) simmered until soft, seasoned and then blitzed in the food processor.

Please excuse the state of my cooker, but it has been in almost constant use now it is chutney season! It has since been cleaned:)



Further exploration of the freezer resulted in some lovely tomato and herb bread, left from our last visit to the farmers market, which went down very well with the soup. We had ice cream for afters (left and rescued from the family barbecue a week ago) all items I, sadly, would have thrown away years ago, so a free and tasty lunch. What a blessing!

Needless to say the freezer fairy (an old tupperware lidded jug) is clean and ready for use again!

Breakfast- hm muesli and soya yogurt, tea

mid morning snack - a lovely orange from last weeks organic box

Lunch - as above hm soup, tomato and herb bread, ice cream

Afternoon snack - 2 little kit kat eggs (from apoproved foods - naughty but nice) tea

Dinner - hm veggie lasagne and salad - from garden and bottom of the fridge, hm fruit salad

5 a day - dried fruit, orange, various veg in hm soup, courgettes and tomatoes in lasagne, garden salad, hm fruit salad (mango, blackberries, apple, pears)

The approved food order has just turned up so I now have curry paste to last a good long time, organic carrots, dog toys (for Christmas gifts for friends pooches) cake mixes, sweeties for cake decorating, Christmas cake frills, fruit teas and coffees for Mr C! This was paid for on Wednesday last week!

Other than going out briefly to walk Penny on her first walk after the op (round the block) I have not been anywhere to spend any money! So no spend day